eight

Julian turned eight on Friday, and we had his party on Saturday. He got to pick a handful of friends to have over, and decided on a Harry Potter theme. Every single kid came dressed up, and it was so great. Also, Julian asked his friends to bring canned goods this year instead of presents, to be donated to a local food bank. I am so proud of him for this. At eight, I don't think I would have been mature enough to forgo all presents from friends. Of course, we still got him stuff and he wasn't totally hosed.

This is the only picture I really want to post from his party, because most of the others have kids in them, and I don't want to be some weirdo who posts pictures of other people's kids without permission, you know? So here's my own kid:

Julian requested a (gluten-free) chocolate cake with fresh strawberry filling, and a white chocolate buttercream icing. I have to say, it was the most delicious cake I have ever made and Wade and I have decided that it needs to be made at least once a month just because. I need that cake in my facehole.

On top of the cake were Lego Harry Potter characters that I made out of marshmallow fondant. I worked on them all week in the evenings, making a section at a time. Like, one night was dedicated to building torsos with little shirts and ties. It was pretty fun to do, and it seemed to all come together until the very last night, when it was time to piece all the body parts together. And then stuff started falling apart and cracking, along with my sanity. It was so frustrating to see everything I worked so hard on fall apart, and there was much swearing. At one point, I even kicked a folding chair and felt like a pro-wrestler. I eventually resorted to glueing things together because my tears were going to start making the colors run if I didn't stop crying. The glue did the job, although it made the characters inedible.

Some pictures of the cake: (I have mentioned the unacceptable sponge painting from the previous owners in my house before, yes? Well, here it is. Barf.)

Those little bitches made me cry, yo.

Perhaps the coolest Harry Potter element of all is this little banner quilt, made by my super talented friend Crystal from Sonnet of the Moon. I have been crapping my pants freaking out hard over this thing. It's crazy beautiful and was so kind of her to make, and Julian is super excited to hang it on his wall.