Happy Birthday BooBear!

BooBear had a great birthday, and he's finally old enough to notice! He opened his big present after dinner on his actual birthday - a bubble mower. He has been pining for one since early April when he played with a few of them at the store while I was buying a car seat for Little Miss. When I went back to the store to purchase one, they were sold out. And then his cousin received one for his birthday soon after that, and his cousin didn't want anyone else to play with his...so, yeah. I think the mower is the biggest hit we have ever had with him. He loves it so much that he didn't want to let go of the handle to go to bed that night. It makes a satisfying engine-like whirring sound, much better than the first one he played with at the store. He ran it around the house all evening. Then in the morning he insisted that Werty needed to cut the grass with him. So, Werty and BooBear cut the grass together, and when the grass was done, BooBear kept going. "Do you want to come in and have some lunch, honey?" "No, (sigh) I have much work to do. I have to mow grass." By the afternoon, Werty had to take it apart and clean out grains of sand that were gunking it up because he has taken the mower EVERYWHERE in the front and back yard, including 'mowing' the sandbox.

Saturday evening we had a family BBQ to celebrate BooBear's birthday. Because of being sick, he hadn't been to play group for two weeks, so he was excited to see his cousins. The weather held just long enough (a microburst wind took out one of our front tree branches while I was cutting the cake inside...no, really.) and we had a blast. Thanks to everyone who came.

I had been planning his cake for the last two months. Given that we spent the summer watching the construction project across the street, and BooBear can name all the trucks, a construction themed cake seemed a perfect choice. I did some internet research for ideas and fondant tutorials. It's always nice when the result turns out how you wanted it to. When BooBear said, "Wow" about three times, and "Cake's beautiful, mommy," I decided it was worth it. The top layer is a chocolate ganache with toffee candies. The bottom layer is marshmallow fondant. Now he is having fun playing with the trucks from the cake along with his other new toys.