Birthday Cake

So my sweet baby boy turned seven yesterday and we enjoyed a full day of celebrating including special treats at school, a scavenger hunt for some birthday presents and dinner with family. (We have a few extremely close friends that we consider family and naturally they were included in the festivities.)

Since we moved to CA we started a tradition for Tim's birthday where we have special cakes made for him. One of the great things about being in the SF Bay area is that you can truly find anything here and there are some folks that just do amazing things. One woman we discovered three years ago is Debbie Goard of Debbie Does Cakes. I don't know how to describe her other than to say she is an artist who bakes an incredible cake.

She's come to know Tim over the last three years because she's made cakes based upon all his favorite things. Our first year here she made airplane cupcakes for his birthday. Last year we were in a Super Mario craze and she made an outrageous Toad cake with Toad driving a car from Mario Kart. (You would simply not believe her cakes!)

This year I was stumped and asked her to come up with something. I completely trust her judgment and her creativity so I gave her permission to just go for it.

Look what she came up with:

Can you believe this? This has to be the cutest cake I've ever seen! And the detail is simply amazing. Check out Charlie with his ears flapping in the "wind."

Debbie took all the things that Tim loves (Charlie, airplanes, and Super Mario - those of you familiar with Super Mario will recognize the Toad character on the plane's tail fin), and made them into a cake that could not be more perfect for Tim. (It may be hard to believe but this adorable cake also tastes amazing! I'm actually blogging between bites of the leftovers!)

I have to admit, Chuck was a bit frightened by the cake ... perhaps he was uncomfortable with the thought of that cute little golden retriever being consumed! But Tim LOVED it. In fact, as we were tucking him in to bed that night Andy asked him, "what was your favorite part of your birthday?"

Without hesitation he replied, "airplane cake."

Happy Birthday Charlie!

One year ago today Charlie was just a warm little bundle of puppy loveliness and now ... he's a strapping 60+ pound loving companion to my kid.   I don't have any of his actual "baby" pictures but check out this one from the day he was delivered to Judy the Puppy Raiser Extraordinaire.   I think this was taken in early February.  (I think that the woman holding him is Sharon, another North Star Super Hero.)

We try to use every moment as a teaching moment so we've spent the last few days talking to Tim about Charlie's upcoming birthday.  Tim immediately mentioned "party" and "presents" (his two favorite things) so we decided to indulge Charlie a bit with a little family party.  We made three stops yesterday in the hunt for a doggie party hat and finally found one at Murphy's Paw. (Seems like a potential business opportunity here ... there are loads of costumes, holiday hats, sweaters, and other adornments for dogs but very few birthday hats.)

After scoring the perfect hat, we took a trip to our favorite Pet Food Express store where Tim selected a few new toys for his loyal servant.  Apparently, Tim knows his dog well as Charlie seems quite pleased with Tim's selections.  Tonight he'll be served a special treat of canned food (he'll go absolutely bonkers for this, literally walking around in circles in the kitchen until I put the bowl down on his place.)  After dinner we'll take a walk and then settle in all together and watch Tim's favorite golden retriever movie, "Snow Buddies."  Tonight, Charlie gets a spot up on the bed.  Happy Birthday buddy!