Wesley wanted a pirate ship cake with real cannons to launch for his 6th birthday.
Joshua’s cannon design was great and really launched his hand carved cannon balls. Wesley and Jillian both loved playing with it before it went into the cake.
Then I needed to put it in the cake…
Wesley wanted blueberry cake, so I found a blueberry bunt cake recipe and made it in 9×13 pans.
Here is how I created it:
Joshua thought to reuse this blue basket for the base. He then cut a piece of thin wood to fit in the basket for a strong base for the cake.
Here is the sculpted cake with a blueberry cream cheese filling between the layers.
I had to use a lot of skewers in the cake to keep the layers together.
I put on a thin crumb coating, then Joshua and I put in the cannons. The green thing is the launching pad taken from a game we have called FroggO.
The stern of the cake ship.
The bow of the cake ship.
The "front" of the cake with the cannons facing out.
Then I used brown gel coloring to make the cream cheese frosting brown. Blue water was added then ocean animals were glued onto the basket to make it look like it is really in the sea.
The front of the cake.
The sails are made out of chopsticks and fancy paper.
The stern of the ship. The rigging, wheel and ladder are made with melted chocolate.
"W"'s and upside down "w"'s and the #6
The back side of the cake.
There is even a plank...with shark infested waters.
The bow of the ship.
Close up of the bow.
Hours spent:
Building the cannon & carving the balls – 2 hours
Baking the cake and making the frosting – 3 hours
Carving & decorating the ship – 5 hours
Total hours spent: 10. 
Tags: Amber, Cake, Cannon, Joshua, Pirate Ship Cake, Wesley, Wesley's 6th Birthday
Happy birthday sweet boy!
Today Wesley was awarded Eagle of the month at school!
What are they? Eagle of the Month awards are given to students who have demonstrated growth in one or more of the Lifelong Learning Skills or achievement of a remarkable academic goal. *
What are Lifelong Learning Skills? Lifelong Learning Skills are skills that help us navigate the social world and help us to be successful at home, at school and in the workplace. Edmonds school District has identified six Lifelong Learning Skills essential to healthy social/emotional development. They are Respect, Responsibility, Cooperation, Problem-Solving/Decision Making, Reflection/Self Awareness and Independent Work Habits. Teachers not only evaluate student’s skills in these areas but they also explicitly teach and continue to provide opportunities for growth & practice of these skills. Each student’s progress in these areas is reflected on their report card.*
How are students nominated for Eagle of the Month Awards? Eagle of the Month awards will be awarded to those students who have shown outstanding effort and growth in these areas. Please encourage discussions with your children at home about the meaning of these skills.*
Does every student get an EOM award by the end of the school year? Not necessarily. Students are recognized for making a concerted effort and for demonstrating marked improvement. “Self-esteem is most likely to be fostered when children are esteemed and receive meaningful feedback in the form of appreciation rather than empty praise and flattery”*. Therefore, teachers take great care to describe the specific ways in which students have progressed. It is important to remember that classroom teachers also recognize students for positive feats in other ways. Many are rewarded with trips to the classroom treasure box, are given Kool Kid awards, are reinforced for reaching personal goals as outlined on positive behavior charts, or are recognized and celebrated within their own classrooms.*
(*Quoted from the school counselor’s monthly newsletter)
Respect is defined as: “demonstrates empathy and kindness toward others; appreciates diversity; follows classroom and school rules; takes care of classroom and school environment.”
Responsibility is defined as: “demonstrates self-control and self-management, handling frustration appropriately. Reflects on and evaluates learning and behavior for the purpose improvement; sets goals”.
Here he is getting his award from the principal. (The awards are normally given out during the school assembly... which will be Thursday afternoon, but since he goes to am kindergarten, the principal came into his class.)
With his principal
With his teacher and the other nominated student from his class.
We are super proud of you Wesley!!! Keep up the good work.
Tags: Eagle of the Month, Kindergarten, Wesley
Saturday started out okay for Jillian. She spent Friday night with Wesley at Yaya and Papa’s house. Friday night while they were gone Amber and I went to the SAM (no special exhibit so it was nice and quiet) and had gelato at Bottega Italiano (their pear is wonderful). So nothing really hinted that Saturday was going to be a really lousy day for her (or us).
It all started with bowling. Bowling as you may know is extremely dangerous. Right up there with car racing, bull fighting and playing chubby bunny. You don’t believe me that bowling is dangerous? Well hang in there. It started innocently enough as a fun game of bumper bowling with her brother and grandparents.
Here is Jillian bowling. Pay attention to the center of gravity.
And now for Wesley. See how much more stable he looks?
It turns out having a good center of gravity is important in bowling. Because somehow shortly after this video was made she fell onto her ball and split her chin open.
Yes, that is a 1 inch wide, down to the fatty tissue cut on her chin. And yes, that is her in the ER (our doctor was closed and the urgent care place doesn’t like to give kids stitches). On the way home from bowling she ate far more lunch than she normally does. She seemed perfectly happy to have the gash. In the ER she had fun working on her sticker book and we were teasing her that she needed to work on her sad face. She looked like she was having too much fun!
She wasn’t too thrilled with getting stitches, though. She cried and screamed, but mostly held still. She ended up with three stitches and it looks like she’ll have only a tiny scar (and she seems a little excited that I have an under-chin scar, too). That red dot above the stitches is where she got poked by the needle when we weren’t quite holding tightly enough. Sorry J!
You might be thinking, that sure, a 4 year old gets hurt bowling, but that hardly makes bowling a dangerous activity. I mean 4 year olds get hurt walking across the living room. True, but our nurse told us that she was the 3rd bowling related injury she had personally seen in the ER that week. I’m telling you the bowling lobby in this country is too strong. Its time that someone takes a stand for bowling-related safety!
Wesley is always a sweet brother, but especially when Jillian gets hurt. Here he is taking good care of her while Amber is getting ready to put on a clean bandage.
You’d think that stitches would be enough to qualify for a bad day. Oh, but you would be wrong. This poor little girl spent 10p-12p puking her guts out. All over her bed and then again and again and again. Luckily she has the best mom in the world to take care of her. Of course she woke up at 7 am as if nothing had happened. I think she’ll be fine.
As a side note, for those keeping track at home:
Number of trips to urgent care/ER for stitches/staples: Wesley: 2 Jillian: 2 Total number of stitches/staples: Wesley: 7 Jillian: 7Yes, we are all tied up. It is getting to be quite the nail biter. Who will end up with the most? Stay tuned!
Tags: Jillian