Someday So Straight and True

A few days after Easter, Ezekiel turned seven. What a delight he is! First round of birthday breakfast was easy--  sausage and fried eggs on toast.

I'm sure you're dying to know what the second round of birthday breakfast was.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE.

This boy knows how to start a morning off right.

I wasn't sure I'd have time to make the cake he wanted, but at least a castle cake was easier to attempt than last year's request(s), which I cut and paste here from the blog archives because it remains one of my favorite exchanges with Ezekiel.

When I asked him what kind of dessert he wanted, his requests were as follows: 

Z: I want a cake, you know, a cake that is a surprise, and it's shaped like a knight's head, and then when you cut into it, CARAMELS spill out! Little caramel knight's HEADS with eyes and mouths! 

I thought about that one but didn't have the time to pull it off, so then... 

Z: Well, I want a surprise cake that when you cut into it (here his eyes got bigger and bulgier with excitement as he hit upon an astounding surprise filling) JUICE comes out! 

I nixed that as, well, juice and cake aren't the best pairing. 

Next up... Z. Well, I want a cake that when you cut into it (clearly second-rate to the juice, but still okay, judging by the size of his eyes) WATERMELON comes out! 

I am mean. Nixed this one, too. Finally, I asked if he'd want any pie, instead. 

Z: Yes! TWO pies! (Children are sometimes easily led astray from original intent. But then after a second's thought, he continued...) TWO pies that are stacked on top of each other! Oh, wait! No, wait! I want a pie INSIDE of a cake so when you cut into the cake, there's a PIE! No, TWO pies stacked on top of each other inside of a cake!

So after all that, this year a castle cake seemed possible.

I set up a few Playmobil under his direction for the pictures, but as you can see in the pictures to follow, he improvised with some improvements.

Dagger! Intrigue!

Moving closer!

Attempted assassination by a trusted servant!

Then, per his request, I set him loose on the thing.

He played with his cake for the next hour, making improvements until no more improvements would fit on it.


First up-- a princess scaling the tower using only the strength of her sticky fists.

Animals helping out on either side, working together to push the side towers down on the besieging enemies.

More excitement on the ground below!

To avoid litigation, let me just say here that leaping from a tree onto one's enemies, sword in hand, is a skill that you should not try without supervision.  Also, you probably should not let your dog operate the cannon.

The enemy horde advances!
The wicked queen wields the Parasol of Darkness!!!!

Zeke took a zillion pictures of his handiwork. This one is my favorite because it shows his toes as he stands on the table.

Animals pushing down the tower on the other side...

The princess with her fists trapped in the tower at last receives succor.

Happy birthday, Ezekiel!
A triumphant seven!

And that's all I've got, except for this one last picture of Ezekiel in bed. I went to brush my teeth and saw a strange nightlight glowing. There he was, with his new circuitry set from Grandma J. all wired up for a makeshift nightlight.

But tonight, my darling Big Boy Blue, close your eyes.
Close your eyes.