Owen's Turning 5

If anyone had told me five years ago that I'd wish I had a football cake mold EVERY year for five years running, I'd have laughed. But football, soccer balls, basketballs, golf balls ... these balls just go hand-in-hand with our sports-enthusiast: Owie.
Owen is a true goofball! He loves to laugh and to do things to make others laugh!
But, strangely, he's also quiet and shy - the most shy of my four kids (at least at this stage). He is most comfortable in small groups of close friends.

Which he confirmed yet again when this year, when we asked Owen what kind of party he wanted to celebrate the Big 5, he voted for an intimate gathering with the Schillingers ... doing the same thing we've done almost every Sunday this past fall: watching football and hanging out! We kept the guest list limited but amped it up a tad and split it over two days to make it a bit more "birthday special": a round of bowling this afternoon and a breakfast brunch watching the Seahawks in the Playoffs tomorrow morning. *It was originally going to be his first slumber party, but everyone's been too sick - us and them.

We had a great day, and I am pumped for tomorrow's football festivities! Happy Birthday, O, and Go Seahawks!!!

**Those who know me know that this cake is a big feat for me! Don't worry - I tried to make it hard and do a round cake and a square cake and cut and carve and puzzle them together. But then my friend Jen brought me back to my own kitchen (in other words, she reminded me that I am not Martha - in a very nice way), and I realized that it was really an easy project that did not NEED to be hard! Duh - carve out a football shape from a rectangle. Ha! I think it turned out great! Owen thought it was "AWESOME!!!" (And he and Kate helped by eating plenty of the frosting and licking the utensils along the way!)