After watching a birthday episode of Dinosaur Dan on TVO, NB announced back in July or August that he wanted a Velociraptor birthday cake.  I believe Dinosaur Dan had a stegosaurus cake but not having watched the episode or seen the cake I don't know.
I thought in a week or a month his mind might change on what he wanted in a cake.  However, after the mention of different people's birthdays he kept mentioning that he wanted a velociraptor cake.  Time to brain storm. I knew my artistic skills weren't going to allow me to draw a facsimile that was more than the a blob with legs (it could be a therapod if you squint right). Maybe fondant, more of the same.
Time to hint pinterest.
Surprisingly there weren't many velociraptor cakes pinned there. There was this fossil one that I loved (but figured this isn't what NB had in mind). I then found this cake which seemed much more doable. I should probably mention in here, that the cake would be served in Toronto so it needed to be somewhat portable.

So I first made a flat chocolate cake (cause what soon to be 4 yo doesn't want chocolate cake for his birthday)

For the volcano (didn't I mention the Volcano), I bake Red Velvet cake into a mason jar, and a couple of ramekins. The rest I made into cupcakes.

When the cakes had cooled I made some icing, I left the crumb coat white, and tinted the rest. I then sketched a scene.

Added some colour. (I put graham crackers over the path). At this point the cake travelled to Toronto

I leveled one of the red velvet ramekins, iced with chocolate and added to the cake.  I repeated with the mason jar red velvet cupcake.  If I do this again I will put in a wooden skewer to secure the cake layers. The geological landscape was unstable and the volcano collapsed before the cake was served.

Lava was added to the volcano, the velociraptor, and some candied chocolate rocks.

It was a big hit and the little boy loved his cake, and couldn't wait to eat it.

I should mention that the only time NB had wavered on the Velociraptor cake theme was after seeing Aunt Emily's cake which he thought had a spider on it.  So he thought a spider fighting a scorpion would be a good birthday cake.  I disagreed.

A short video of some ball hockey going on in the kitchen.

 

Opened stocking full of toy dinosaurs.


Played flashlights with Grandma M.

Cousin cuddles!

Making funny faces at Cornwell Christmas.


Wearing the Pollyanna top hat.

Playing Wii with the Big Kids.


Falling asleep on the way home.

Ninja Boy is a great help in the kitchen.

Well this statement needs a little qualification.  He likes to help bake items, he likes to remind me that things need to be baked.  So as the Cookie season is approaching, I decided to branch out from the muffins that we normally make and bake some cookies.

Adding butter

We can't be done

My fingers are green

A little if this, a lot of that

The final masterpieces

More cookies will be made, just did a small amount today to see how it goes (there is dough left in the fridge).

For Ninja Boy October Fun is all about:

Apple picking!

Leaf jumping!


Papa playing!

Birthday caking!


And chocolate chomping!

I just love this. The off-beat clapping makes me giggle.

Wow, the past year just flew by. My little boy went from

Sitting in leaves

to

Sitting in pile of leaves

Running through the leaves

MMM chocolate

With Aunt Sia

I just want to eat it,

Playing in the corn

Too cool

"I ride on Daddy's shoulders, I can almost touch the sky"

Hmm, looking at our blog posts you wouldn't know that we made it home from California a couple of weeks ago before this most recent earthquake (in Southern Cali).
Today though we did what in my mind marks the beginning of summer...

Was it swimming in Lake Erie

Nope - we actually did that in May (which I find just amazing that the water was warm enough).
It involved some key phrases:

1) You can't climb on Mommy right now

2) If you take a bite - you have to eat the rest of it

3) The straw is not to eat

4) Another clue... okay

Did you guess - Strawberry picking - cause if you did you got it right.

On this day, we drove the 17 Mile Drive around Monterey Peninsula, which includes Carmel and Pebble Beach. We also down to the California coast to Big Sur. I don't have the words to express the beauty of the scenery. All I have to offer are these pictures, will have to speak for themselves:










Quote of the Day: "To My Wife Alma, who hates golf but let's me pursue my passion. Love, Steve." Inscription on a commemorative plaque at the Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, CA.

Meal of the Day: Pulled pork with horseradish coleslaw and sweet potato fries at Rio Grill in Carmel, CA. Southwest cuisine at its finest.

At first, Monterey was kind of underwhelming. Most of it looks like any other bland suburban sprawl area. But then we took a walk downtown in the historic district. It wasn't too hard to find because the sidewalks were engraved with the following:


They've done a great job of preserving certain key buildings, like the San Carlos Cathedral:


And the house that Robert Louis Stevenson lived in:


Even the children's playgrounds have a preserved Pacific Rail train engine:


Isaac and I enjoyed hanging out at the marina:


Mom and Isaac also chilled out at the pier:



I was trying to teach Isaac about etiquette. His response was unequivocal:


The cannery district at Monterey was the inspiration for John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row". They love to show their appreciation:


Quote of the Day: No real quote, but Isaac made the signs for "more" and "food" in consecutive order, thus officially counting as his first sentence.

Meal of the Day: For Teresa it was Huevos Rancheros for lunch at "El Palomar". For me it was Prawn Scampi for dinner at "Louie Linguine".