Rainbow Cake

Our little guy Orson turned 1 on the 8th ~ can you believe it's been a year already? We weren't sure if we were going to just get together with my parents or have a huge birthday bash for him, but I knew either way that I wanted to make him an awesome cake!

He does love Yo Gabba Gabba, and I considered making a Brobee cake (just his face, but with light & dark green stripes inside), but thought a Gabba themed party would be a little over the top unless he actually requested such a thing! So I went with the cake I couldn't get off my mind ~ a bright & colorful rainbow cake!

I made the layers the day before & kept them sealed up for frosting the day of the party. So pretty!



Here my rubbery blue cake pan is doing its best Earth impression after removing the green cake layer ~



I mostly followed the directions from the wonderful Idea Room, including her Cool Whip icing recipe, but I only used 1 cup of batter for each layer. I was planning on making mine about 3/4 the height of hers, and I really should have used 1 1/4 cup per layer instead, but it turned out lovely either way!



I decorated the cake with Fruit Loops instead of candy to keep it colorful & baby friendly. And it's a good thing that I did! Orson had his share of hot dog & picnic sides at dinner....



... and didn't realize he was supposed to save room for cake too! He was not interested in the least and only nibbled on a few of the frosting coated Fruit Loops.



Oh well! At least he'll know that I *tried*, and the other guests thoroughly enjoyed the colorful surprise. I should have taken some better pictures of the cut slices, but we did end up having a big bash after all and I was a little preoccupied.



Not too bad for my first cake, ey?

Sparkle Motion

I almost forgot to post these shots! After shooting off the fireworks we pulled out the sparklers, and I think I enjoyed taking photos of those even more. It's amazing how you can capture so many movements, frozen in one image.











Our best attempt at "Chelsea" ~


And a fitting tribute on the 4th ~


Even though I looked up what settings to change on my camera beforehand, I must have marked it down wrong because they were not working. I switched it over to Av mode and bumped up the number, which gave me the slow shutter speed I was looking for, but with no real control over the timing. Some pictures would snap quickly, while I sat rigidly still during others, waiting forever for the 'click'. One day I'll figure out the settings for real, and in the meantime I'm considering buying a pack of sparklers to experiment with rather than waiting another whole year for the chance!

Ambigram Drop

"Sheene" & "Sydnee" Ambigram	"Gabby" & "Donny" Ambigram
"Trust" & "Believe" Ambigram	"John" & "Mike" Ambigram
"Daphne" & "Wilson" Ambigram	"Blessed" & "God's Gift" Ambigram
"Javian" & "Jerran" Ambigram	"Bente" & "Trine" Ambigram
"Teleō" Ambigram	"Martinez" & "Williams" Ambigram

Fireworks

It's been a busy few weeks of fireworks, visiting, and birthday celebrations. I've got lots of pictures to share, and I'll start with some fun shots of the fireworks! We didn't get to see a real fireworks show this year, but we did set off some fountains in the backyard (not many fireworks are legal in Georgia).

















Orson goes to bed before it gets dark enough outside, so we woke him back up when it was time to shoot them off. He was entranced, and probably thought it was all some crazy dream.