Cake Baking

I really dislike baking. But I love her. So we bake. (Oh the things we do for our kids.) Just the other day I/we created this masterpiece...

Ha! That thing was a falling apart disaster! But by some miracle the final product turned out beautifully! Seriously it is a MASTERPIECE. (Not in that picture though. That was pre-masterpiece.) After I have a baby I find myself for hours...days...weeks....staring at him/her in awe. Amazed that I made something so perfect. And (as cheesy as it sounds) that is exactly how I feel about my cake. I keep sneaking peaks at it because I can't believe I actually created it! Just ask my poor unsuspecting friends and family. They have been bombarded with (unsolicited) pictures of my masterpiece....errr...I mean cake. My children want to eat it but I keep telling them "not yet". It's my fifth baby. We can't eat my baby!

Don't worry. We will eat it. Tonight! I promise. I'm not completely bonkers. It's only the practice cake for Joe's grad party.  I'm hoping I get lucky and can recreate it and maybe even make a few improvements in a few weeks. Time will tell. 

Ok. Enough about me and my creations. And back to this girl. 

She wrote the names of our family members. More or less. 

She's a writing machine these days. She just loves practicing her letters (the fact that her daddy gives her a penny per letter might help:). No scrap of paper is safe in this house. She fills them with (mostly random) letters faster than I can "file" them away. As much as I don't like to admit it, she is ready for kindergarten!

Speaking of our family, Charlotte and Isaiah are convinced we need 6 more babies! And they are working hard to convince me of this as well. According to them I can have all six babies at one time (oh my!) or one-by-one. They only care that we have 10 kids total. Because apparently that is our perfect family size. 

The other day I tried to reason with them. Telling them that I couldn't handle six more babies physically or mentally. That I wouldn't have enough time for TEN children. Isaiah was undeterred and immediately responded with "that's okay I like being by myself."  And then they offered their assistance in running the household. Isaiah said he would do the laundry. Charlotte offered to set the table. And they volunteered Hannah to change all the babies' diapers. And Levi (once he is older) will play with the babies. So all I have to do is cook and wash the dishes. 

While their offer is tempting...I think I'm going to stick to cake making! I'd like to keep my remaining shred of sanity intact a little bit longer. Although the help does sound nice...