Caking It

LIFT OFF: Last Thursday we delivered another Birthday Dreams project. This time, it was a "galaxy" themed cake for a teen the same age as Annabelle.

The cake topper/shuttle was made from a giant 3D sugar cookie held together with copious amounts of candy melt.

There were some casualties along the way, as evidenced by this spaceship wrecking yard.

The rocket 'exhaust' was whipped marshmallow icing kissed with a little bit of red and gold Colormist.

The cake was four layers of vanilla with some celestial sprinkles in the filling.

Annabelle airbrushed the buttercream, and did a great job, as always.

CJ helped place sprinkles and Sixlets just so.

The birthday boy's name is altered in the photos to protect privacy. We hope he loved it.

SEMI NORMALCY: Yesterday afternoon we went over to the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle to help a friend who is moving cross country. She is a former teacher of the kids and basically the first friend we made when the kids started attending Cascade several years ago.

We helped organize and clean her garage, moved a couple of bookcases, and took a bunch of screws out of walls so it can be repainted. It was nice to see her as well as other friends from their former school.

Since we were in that neighborhood, we stopped by a former favorite restaurant, La Palma. It was the last place we ate indoors before everything was shut down due to the pandemic. While we were there during that visit, a woman a few booths away sneezed 23 times. That was enough to scare us off dining in for about 15 months/until we were all fully vaccinated!

While the food seemed the same, and the decor hasn't changed, it looks like the restaurant has new management. We didn't recognize a single employee there.

Annabelle's all appetizer dinner was overwhelming!

And check out this tortilla chip!

SPACE FORCE: A few days back we started our morning by watching a Space Force launch. It was a pretty morning on the Space Coast, and the SpaceX rocket performed as planned. 

We hope to get back down there some day to see a launch in person. It has been too long.

PAPERWORK: The kids have both been filling out apps for summer jobs. Happy to report they've each been offered positions. CJ has been offered a guest services job for the Mariners, and Annabelle has been offered a position as an arts and crafts teacher for a King County summer program. Pretty cool!

Now, they have to worry about things like filling out their first W-9 forms. I had them watch this video.