A Very Personal Cake-Wreck

It's all how you spin it.

Doesn't matter what it is in life — you can change how people view something, if you can slap a nice title on it and market well.

Case in point:
Me to the kids: "Let's walk the dogs!"
Kids: Groaning, moaning, general grumbling and displeasure.

Let's try it again, putting a better spin on the request.
Me, using a dramatic announcer voice: "Time for an Adventure Walk!"
Kids: "Huh? What's that? Let's go!"

So, when the first month of summer at a camp with really cool activities was ending and staying at home with Mom beginning, I dubbed it Camp Mommy. One of the more popular activities was Kitchen Crafts, which involved baking because it's cheap and easy, if quite messy.

Some things were an instant hit, like the cake lollipops (crumble a cake, add some canned frosting; roll into balls and freeze and then cover the whole shebang in melted chocolate). After a trip to the pet store for guinea pig food turned sour ("Mom, we want goldfish! Plllllease! They're only a dollar! We'll take care of them!!!!" Me: "Oooh, but I'm allergic to goldfish."), we came home and made blue Jell-O in a plastic goldfish bowl and stuck Swedish fish in it. Goldfish forgotten.

Things, however, did not go as well with this cute 3-D bear.

Oh, I knew it wouldn't look like that Santa Bear on the box, but I didn't think the heads would snap off as they were being unmolded. It was all downhill from there. Despite our efforts to "glue" the bead onto the body, it kept falling off. At least the kids took the mishap in stride and laughed at the goofiness of it all.

In the end, my daughter turned the bear into a butterfly. And, it tasted just fine.