7 Years of Malachi

Countdown is ON!!! 

6

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Meant to post this on the actual birthday DAY. Ha ha ha.  Well.  what a surprise. And now only two more birthdays and the 4th of July have happened. . . but I will STILL tell you about Malachi's birthday. I must.

SO-- two days before Malachi's birthday (so on a Sunday) Malachi informed me that he wanted a Clifford cake.  He told me like this, "Mom, and on my birthday I'm going to have a Clifford cake, remember With Emily Elizabeth and it's going to have Clifford on it and he's going to be red.!"
Me: Oh? (thinking, "oops!") Oh? What does a Clifford cake look like? Can you draw me a picture?  I had been planning on making his traditional "donut" cake (see above) a tradition that I was very reluctant to let go.  Doughnut cakes are fast! And Easy! And Fast! And Easy to decorate. . . anyway. I started to try to find some way to make a Clifford cake without going shopping, and without using red food coloring. I get terrible headaches from Red 40 (ever since the red fire truck cake back in 2003 on which we feasted and then used the leftover red frosting for the next several months until I realized it was giving me headaches. . but I digress)
So I found this one online, it looked promising:

Cute right? But I couldn't find a plastic Clifford anywhere--called the neighbors, posted online, checked at the D.I., the bakery, Ebay was too slow. Here's what I found at the D.I. Nice, but not quite what I was looking for. 

So Samuel suggested fondant, but I refused. And then Malachi suggested that I use raspberries instead of red food coloring! Isn't he brilliant? So I made plans to do that.  And I was going to still use a doughnut shaped cake. Somehow. So I baked one. Malachi wanted strawberry cake, so I put some pureed strawberries into the batter. And I ran out of flour upstairs (downstairs is SO far) so I put in some oat flour too. And then I had to go to an appointment and left Samuel baking the cake.  Well, the combination of those factors resulted in this: 

But never fear! When all else fails, make trifle! So I did. I broke it up into little pieces, made a cream cheese filling, and filled my biggest glass bowl with trifle.  Now all that was left was to decorate it.  And I used all my decorating skills from all the past years to make my biggest masterpiece ever: 

BEHOLD!!!! A CLIFFORD CAKE. Best one I've ever made.

And the fun didn't stop there. Oh no! We called all of Malachi's friends from church and cousins until we found some that could come over last minute. And we threw a killer birthday party! We even had a couple people stop by at just the right time. Oh and I almost forgot. Malachi decided about halfway through birthday plans that he wanted it to be a POWER RANGER and Clifford party. And of course we accommodated. That's how we roll. 

Everyone is jumping for joy at Malachi's Power Ranger Clifford Party

Clifford the Big Red Dog awaits the Treasure Hunter's Arrival

Malachi loved "Clifford" so much.

Even Grandma Carol is amused by my cake decorating skills .;) No really, she's just happy to be here

We had a GREAT party We played a skittles game where everyone got a bag of skittles and then they had to "earn" them. For every skittle they had to complete the following:

Red: Jumping Jack

Yellow: Turn around in a circle

Green: Smile at Grandma

Purple: Push-up

Orange: Run to the tree and back

Blue: They can earn other people's skittles if they finish first.

It went great! Then they all dressed up and made a movie about the Power Rangers and Clifford. And a treasure hunt arranged by Samuel (he did AMAZING!!) led to the prizes at the end. It was a great party. I made the kids stay outside most of the time because Aaron wasn't feeling the best and I didn't want to share germs.  Seriously the best friend party ever.  And now I can start documenting the rest of the birthdays.  

But before I go, I have to say 7 things I love about my Malachi: 

• His Hugs.
• We both love purple.
• Sandwich requests: Mayo and Cheese, Jam and Butter, Mayo and Cucumber, Mayo and Pepperoni.
• Watching him ride his scooter around. He's speedy.
• Listening to him sing. He likes the songs from "Frozen"
• This boy has had more quotable quotes than all the others. Perhaps because there are so many boys to hear them. ;) Yesterday he told me that he had sharpened his fingernails so I didn't need to worry any more. (he meant he trimmed them.)
• When he says "That's AWESOME!"
• (okay, so maybe 8 things) He's never afraid to try new things. Well, usually he says he can't. But then he does it anyway. I love my Malachi SOOOOOO much.  Happy Birthday Mac Attack!!