It's nearly that time again

Cake baking time that is. I've got one month until Itai's 6th birthday, which means it's time to take the cake books down from the shelf and let him at it. We have a few ground rules -- basically he's not allowed to pick any of the really cool superhard ones that I'd never be able to do - but other than that he can go to town. It looks like I may need to do three separate cakes again this year - one for his party, one for his afternoon program, and if his party doesn't fall on his actual birthday then a third one for that. Actually, that's a pretty good reason to make sure his party is in fact on his birthday! In truth, though I gripe a bit about having to do all these cakes, and I did manage to set the bar stupidly ludicrously ridiculously very high for myself when he was much too young to care, deep down I actually really enjoy it. It's pretty much the only really crafty thing I do, and I love the idea that I'm creating memories to last a lifetime. I still remember some of the terrific cakes my mother made for me and I really want to do that for my children too. (Of course, my mother now says that she never put in this kind of effort, that hers were much more amateurish, but it's too late, this has become a tradition in MY family now.)

I think I'll dig out some pictures of previous years' cakes one day and do a retrospective, just to get myself in the mood.

Hmm... Looks like the only recent cake pics on this computer are Maya's. We were in the middle of renovations during Itai's birthday last year, living in a crappy rental apartment with a disgusting kitchen, and I had to buy a cake for him. Anyway, here are some of Maya's. And yes, she's had a lot of cakes for someone who's just three, but each year she too needed one for preschool, one for her playgroup party, one for her actual birthday... I'll have to find the ones from Itai's 4th birthday, too. I kicked ass that year, if I do say so myself. I realize that this probably isn't particularly interesting to anyone else out there, but what the heck, it's my blog ;-).