Callie's Dedication

This past weekend was very busy around our house. We dedicated Callie on Sunday at church which also happened to be Mother's Day(sorry Mom's your cards and gifts are late this year) Friday night the preperation began with Carl and I going grocery shopping for all the food. My parents watched the kiddos so we also got to go out to eat at the new El Azteca location in Sommerset, with graduation in town for ISU it was quite busy but worth the wait, it was wonderful and their new location is great! We got all our stuff and then Saturday began the flurry of activity. I decided I wanted to try and bake and decorate my own cakes now(Andrea had done them for me in the past but I decorated some cupcakes a while back and had lots of fun so I decided I wanted to give it a try) wow was that a lot of work(thanks Andrea:) I picked out a square pan for Callie's cake and then decided I wanted to cover it with pink and brown polka dots, then I realized that the look I was going for was not going to work unless I made it a double layer square cake. I tried my hand at fondant for the first time with the polka dots and it was kind of fun to use. I made a marshamallow fondant and then divided it into 3 parts and colored each part a different color, then rolled it out and used different size circle cutters. I used buttercream icing for the white base and then used the paper towel method to smooth out the frosting(take a viva paper towel once the frosting has crusted, lay in gently on top of the area you want smoothed and gently rub your hand over the top, it worked great!) My wonderful husband helped me transfer cakes from pan to rack and then to cake board and he also helped me frost the darn thing, man did it take a lot of frosting! Gabe loved to help cut out the polka dots as well. I then had my very neat handwriting husband write the verse on the cake and do the polka dot placement for me(he is the designer) I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt:) Callie did great for the dedication there were 12 other kids being dedicated at the service we were at and unfortunately we forgot to take our camera to church. We had some family down as well and we all went back to my mom and dads for lunch, Carl smoked pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches and it was a good day. Callie was a little off schedule with all the festivities but did a great job overall. The boys loved all the people around and that cake was a really big temptation!
but it did manage to survive till after lunch. We tried to keep it small for her dedication since it was Mother's Day and we didn't want our extended families to feel obligated to come over to Ames for the day instead of spending it with their immediate families but we appreciate all the prayers and love for our family as we strive to teach Callie about God and pray that she will one day know and love him and follow him and his teachings. She and the boys are truly a gift from God and often I look at them in amazement at how much they have grown already and the things that they, on a daily basis, teach me. We love you Callaghan Grayce and pray that you will see Christ's love in us and see an example putting God first in our family. You have brought us so much joy, so many smiles and even a few tears already and I pray that God will watch over you and your heart and help you grow to be a woman, wife, and mommy striving to serve Him.