Six years ago we moved to Chicago. Home for my husband–and a much longer “Cub” season. His love of this team has been passed on to my boys, and well…even his stingy D-back lovin’ wife has found a team to get behind. There are a few factors that make the Cubs fun to watch. From the bleachers, to the roof tops of the building surrounding the park to historic Wrigley Field, there just isn’t a bad place to watch the game. The “Chicago rooftop” has a far different meaning here. The game, the food…it’s like sitting in your own private box–the world at your feet.

Across the street from the ballpark is the Sheffield Baseball Club, and you have got to head to their website at sheffieldbaseballclub.com and take a look at the amazing views they have from their business! My husband has an old family friend that handles food for most of the other roof tops at Wrigley, but heck—I want to sit in their air conditioned portion with the window looking right out onto the field! Now that’s MY kind of baseball! The cousin that worked for the G.M. retired at the end of last season, so her ticket possibilities are limited these days. Instead of paying for the nosebleed section at Wrigley as well as the normal “ballpark” food fare…I’m thinking this is where I would much rather spend my money! Now I just have to talk the boss into holding a company party there…and I’m all set!

Trying to figure out if it’s possible to recreate these cakes on my own gets my creative blood pumping!

I’m amazed at the time the creator puts into each one.  I usually start a cake with grand ideas, and I’m usually happy with the results.  But let’s be honest…they never quite live up to what I had in my head!

All of these photo’s can be found at familyfun.go.com!

There is something timeless about grandfather clocks. You can find one for any taste, whether you love the new, yet antique looking clocks, or the totally avant guard ones. There is a spot online where you can find a huge selection of clocks. 1-800-4clocks.com has a clock for every taste. Whether it’s the little glass domed coffee table clocks I grew up loving, or this amazing full size Grandfather clock.

I was amazed to read about teaching children to love Grandfather clocks on the clockblog, and it truly matched my own thoughts. Like I said, I grew up with clocks–so slowly collecting my favorites over the years feeds ‘the child within’!!

Tonight is the Monster Truck race and since the 3 year old would love to go with the big boys come February, we thought this would be a cheaper way to introduce him.

I wonder if there’s a cake decorating contest too!  Now that would be fun!

This is our house. We’ve lived in it almost a year. The first thing I ever wanted to change on it were the light peachy exterior shutters. They are just so bland, they blend into the background. There are two other problems with them. First, do you see that big window next to the garage? It’s missing a shutter. The second problem…they aren’t real shutters. I want the thick, beautiful wooden ones, but these are cheap and hollow and can be broken in half by me and that isn’t saying much!

I would love to find the wooden ones online, but until then I would love to paint the existing ones red. Just something to make them really pop against the beige background of the upper story.  I’ve showed my husband what I dream of, it’s not exactly red–more of a deep berry.  My only concern is that there are mostly peaches, browns and cream colored bricks in the house.  I’m not sure just how great the red will look with it.  Honestly, I’m not too picky about the color.  As long as the shutters become a beautiful accent to all of the amazing windows…I’m good with any color!

Early on in my pregnancy with Blakelynn we lived in Phoenix and I LIVED on Safeway’s bakery cheesecake. It was basic, I’m sure frozen at one point, and had the cherry pie filling topping. I’ve never liked cheesecake and I never liked cherry pie filling, but it was amazing the draw that stuff had on me. We visited Phoenix last year and I had to stop at Safeway to see if they still satisfied something within. I still loved it, and have some how taken a liking to cherry pie filling. Here in Chicago, Dominicks is the same as Safeway and they have the same cheesecake as in Arizona. But without fail they slather it up in that horrid strawberry goop that I will never find an affinity for!

It won’t work for my husband’s birthday, but this cute cheesecake may just hit the spot!! And with cute little gum paste mice…how fun!

I had to move on to his second great love. Work comes first…then comes…his truck. Yeah, you all thought it was me and the kids—nope, we are somewhere farther down the line. But his big black truck is his baby! Since I won’t let him get a Harley, it will do! He practically wipes that thing down nightly with a diaper. When we went house hunting the only thing he cared about was a garage to protect his truck in. See, he’s proud! So this year I’m giving everyone the same idea, Lane’s Professional Car Products.

When it comes to automotive car care, I’m not good. I mean when I fill my tank with gas, I just purchase the car wash to get the cheaper gas. Not him. He takes it wash it himself. He vacuums the interior and spends hours waxing the truck and getting the dash dust free. It’s a sickness I tell you!

To make the castle cake I needed two round cakes and two different kinds of ice cream cones.  Since I was sick and didn’t frost the cakes–I was left with everything to make the castle, but no castle.  So my sweet Barrett comes up to me today with his new treat.  He’s stolen an ice cream cone and grabbed a fistful of cake from one of my rounds and stuffed it into the cone.

We’ve all seen the cute cupcake ice cream cones—but to actually have him make his own version…priceless!

With the economy seeming to spiral, an occupation in construction is ‘recession’ proof. That’s got to make his parents happy (and less worried)! According to their blog there are 240,000 job openings a year. That is amazing!

I don’t know what his plans are for the future…but until then, I have a graduation cake to make! I’m just trying to decide if I should make a 3D Crane/Tractor cake, or if I should just do a sheet cake with the picture of a crane on it. Let me know what you think

Ok, so it’s not quite the cute castle cake I had planned!  In fact…it is NOTHING I had planned!  But due to the fact that I woke up with a terrible case of Pink Eye…I decided people would appreciate a store bought cake instead of the cute, girlie, disease ridden one I would have brought!  Of all days to get sick!!

I had already baked the round cakes, but hadn’t frosted them yet.  So they will be made into the cute castle cake another day, and I’ll post the pictures when I get it done!!