InstaFriday: My new 8 year old + A First in 20 Years

 Last Saturday we celebrated Caleb's 8th birthday! What a blessing to celebrate his life and these past 8 years.  Hard to believe that he once was only 1lb. 15oz!  (If you haven't already read it, here's part 1 and part 2 of his amazing story.)

Every year for my kids birthday, I let them pick what kind of cake they want.  Now, I am NOT a cake decorator.  At all.  So it's always quite a challenge for me! Caleb wanted a pistol cake and this is what I came up with.  The "cowboy hat" cake is covered in marshmallow fondant. I had never made fondant before, but it definitely wasn't as terrible as I imagined! =)  My husband, Mr. uber-talented, who can literally do anything, molded this pistol out of candy clay and  then spray painted it with wilton food coloring spray paint.  It looked SO cool.  

{Banana cake with Vanilla Banana Buttercream Frosting was what the birthday boy ordered!}

 Birthday boy also wanted to go camping for his birthday.  So what a blessing it was to find this tent for $30 at a yard sale two weeks earlier!!  It is such a nice tent and is HUGE.  It has two big rooms with a tunnel in between.  

Our attempt at camping will have to be another post....oh my, it was a bit crazy.  You have no idea how thankful I was that we were just camping in our backyard and when things got hairy we could just go inside!

Thank you Goodwill for these lovely red shoes...they are becoming a summer staple.  Now I just need some red lipstick to go with them. =D  

These strawberry muffins were amazing.  I even blogged the recipe for you here! 

On Sunday afternoon I was a little desperate for some crafting time. So, I had myself a little crafting therapy session on my bedroom floor and made some cards. Seriously, you don't have to have a fancy set up to get some crafting in...just grab a cookie sheet, sit in the floor and have some fun! 

Our neighbors brought over this tiny tortoise for our kiddos.  Isn't it adorable? I've never seen one this small before!  He/she has been named "Shelly" and is quite loved.  Shelly likes strawberries and hiding in the corner of his/her box. =)

Alert the media...I RODE A BIKE.  Yes ma'am I did.  For the first time in 20 years!!  Sad, but true.  And I was nervous.  Really nervous.  I didn't want to wipe out in front of my kids and scare them to death!  But I did fine. I only ever had one bike growing up and it didn't have brakes or gears or anything like that and you had to pedal backwards to stop. It's crazy how your brain remembers those things because when it was time to stop, without even thinking I began to pedal backwards instead of using the handbrakes!  But I got it eventually and it was really fun.  =) 

And this is what's happening today!  The playhouse is finally, FINALLY being repaired and set back up.  The playhouse has such a neat story to it so I'm going to save that for another time. =)

Hope you have a great weekend, friends!  Thanks for reading!