Sesame Street Birthday Party

I started planning our two year old's birthday months in advance.  I knew I wanted a Sesame Street birthday party for him because he *loves* Elmo.  I figured, two months should be plenty of time to get my stuff together and have the bakery bake the perfect cake etc.  So this might not be the best example of Why It Makes a Difference but I am so tired of the character cakes with little thought and imagination at the bakery that I went forth with a vision in mind.  I was looking for a Sesame Street cake that was truly unique.

And then it turns out, I was going to have to just keep looking.  Not only were there no interesting Sesame Street cakes, there were no Sesame Street cakes (or even Elmo cakes for that matter).  So, 18 eggs, 6 boxes of cake, 5 containers of frosting, 30 straws, 2 cardboard cake tiers, 1 container of marzipan, 3 packages of gel pen frosting and a lot of red dye later this is what I created for my son.  It's a three tiered Elmo cake with marzipan eyes, mouth and nose.  (As a side note, I'm allergic to almonds and yes, after an hour of perfecting the perfect marzipan face my hands broke out into angry hives.)  

Hey, it make not be the most beautiful Elmo cake ever attempted but my son immediately recognized him as Elmo and absolutely loved it.  My only concern was that he and his friend who shares a birthday with him, would look at the cake and run away crying.  They identified it as Elmo, giggled at it and ate it.  Mission accomplished.

One word of caution though, the cake ended up to be about 30 pounds and hefting it through the park wasn't exactly what I would call "fun".  Some nutter thought it would be funny to ask for a quarter while I waddled through the park with Elmo parading precariously on the cutting board turned cake plate.  

I also made banners for our two birthday kids and a banner for a table with cookies, we called that cookie monster's table.  I then put up a plastic swimming pool and filled it with plastic balls and small duckies for the kids to toss around.  This was called Big Bird's Nest.

While this may not make a whole lot of difference in anybody elses' life.  Watching my baby have such a good time made my week a whole lot better.  This is the only reason to do it.

Cheers to all of those moms out there who are celebrating Mother's Day!

The Crime of Battery in the 1st Degree

As I write this, I'm preparing myself mentally for turning my husband in for the crime of battery.  That's right, he committed a battery crime.  He took the batteries out of the silent toy and THREW THEM IN THE GARBAGE.  I just about choked I couldn't believe what was happening.

I dug them out of the trash and I pointed to the bag in the utility closet RIGHT NEXT to the new batteries with the label  "USED BATTERIES TO BE RECYCLED" written on it.  His excuse was, "well that's where I have always thrown them."  Yeah, we'll let the jury decide your fate on that flimsy excuse.

The problem is that alkaline batteries contain toxic chemicals, including mercury.  They have a sturdy casing for rough and tumble usage, but they are no match for the crushers and heavy equipment used at landfills.  The result is the casings are damaged and mercury leaks into the environment.  Remember the last couple of years those families who have been evacuated from their homes because of mercury contamination?  It's a serious threat and batteries should be handled as a hazardous material.

If you live in the city of Boise, collect your batteries and then take them to one of the eight mobile drop off sites for hazardous materials.  Above is my current collection of batteries that needs to be dropped off with hazardous materials.  My last collection was truly a sight to behold and I managed to get my neighbor to take it on a trip out to HazMat with her stuff.

To circumvent a trip to the hazardous waste people, consider using rechargeable batteries, particularly those that can charge on a solar current.  Properly disposing of hazardous materials such as batteries, spent nuclear materials, really smelly diapers etc. makes a difference in our environment by cutting down on the number of toxic substances we dump into the landfill and henceforth ALLOW into our air and water.