Birthday Bliss...9 Year Old Style!

We all know there is no handbook to raising your kids; it's definitely a listen-to-all-the-advice-use-some-and-make-up-the-rest kind of thing. One thing I have learned...and this is still a hard one for me....don't ask your children something unless you are willing to accept the answer completely. When we celebrated Bethany's birthday with just a small family gathering, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. I was flattered when she said she wanted me to make her cake....and before you get all "See, you do so cook!"...by "make", she means buy the Duncan Hines cake mix and supervise her while she adds all the ingredients to the mixer. Anyway, before I realized what had happened, I had agreed to let her decorate the cake! I do have control issues so I could feel the anxiety from sloppy flowers already creeping in. As a parent, I had to take a deep breath....then quickly think how to make both of us comfortable with this. She agreed to let me frost the cake, put on trim.....and do the lettering (the last one only because I told her if she messed up I couldn't fix it....I know, I know, that was playing dirty b/c you and I both know I could have fixed it, but I didn't think she would go for it!). So here is the result:
After all was said and done, what's a few globs of frosting going to hurt, right? It's OK that she got some on my lettering, right? So last night was her birthday party with 3 of her friends. Again she wanted me to make the cake....then she said, "Actually, I'm kind of sick of cake"....wh- wh- what? My brain does not compute. But before the look of terror completely takes over b/c I realize she must have been switched with an alien child, she removes all doubt and says, "How about we make cupcakes instead?"....I stare blankly....do I tell her cupcakes are just a big cake made into smaller cakes? I decide to keep quiet (no small feat for me) and go with the flow. I decided I wanted to try something I had seen in a magazine or two, but never had a chance. A flower cake made out of cupcakes. Here are the cupcakes with just the middle frosted:

Again, yellow cake mix and a can of white frosting can do wonders! Here is the finished product:

She chose the colors and didn't ask to help decorate this one...and I know it's my own fault they were up until 1am - with all the sugary goodness in these babies!