Jacob's Big Day

Jacob had an extremely busy birthday last Saturday. The day started with the acquisition of a "used" 16 inch bicycle. His first real two wheel bike (with training wheels, of course). Then onto a lunch celebration of the Minnesota Fishing Opener at the home of good family friends, the Nichols. Their backyard is on White Bear Lake which was this year's chosen lake for the Governor of MN to kick off the fishing season. The Nichols were kind enough to give Jacob his very first fishing pole that he quickly learned how to cast and reel. It was absolutely freezing all morning and Jacob refused to wear a coat, but he did not let that stop him from "fishing." He was really casting a plastic weight and only caught some weeds a few times, but he was having a blast and rarely took breaks to come warm up by the campfire. He was having such a good time in fact that he had a hard time leaving to go home for the younger kids' naps and so Grandma and Grandpa York kindly agreed to let him stay and bring him to his party later that afternoon.

For the party, we met at our YMCA indoor pool to let the kids swim and play for an hour or so before heading back to our house for pizza, presents, and cake. The party theme was Jacob's favorite movie Wall - E. From the beginning of party plans, Jacob only wanted one thing: a Wall E cake. How hard could that be, right? Well, after calling all the local bakeries, we found out many of the licensed character designs were being cut and if they had done a Wall E cake, they didn't anymore. Enter the internet for the Wall E cake pan and icing supplies and the do it yourself Mom and Dad team of Brian and Kim. The process started earlier in the day on Friday, when Jacob and I made the cake in the Wall - E mold pan. Then, the decorating process started at 9pm and (after only one trip to the grocery store to get black icing), was finished through a completely collaborative effort at 3 am (where, not suprisingly as per his nightly trips into our room, Jacob was up with us when we finished). We're only just now recovering from the lost sleep and busy weekend, but it was definitely worth it to see how excited Jacob was about his cake. We would do it again in a heartbeat. Enjoy the slideshow of pictures below!