Please feel to download, print, color, share, display, and join the picket line with these 11X17 CTU solidarity posters.

See you on the picket line! – xoxo Maya

It’s become a tradition that every year I make a garish 4th of July cake. This year the kids and I decided to make our most important cake thus far.

This year we made a close the camps cake.⁣

The cake has since been consumed, but the conversations remain strong!

Last month I got to attend Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, the largest U.S. exhibition of Frida’s work in the last ten years.

And just yesterday… for the first time ever I got to hear Frida’s voice.

El Gobierno mexicano ha mostrado el hallazgo con cautela asegurando que los estudios apuntan a que se trata de la voz de Kahlo, pero reconociendo que no han logrado confirmarlo totalmente. “Es un hallazgo que tiene muchos elementos que pueden identificarse como la probable voz de Frida Kahlo, sin darlo como cierto al 100%”, ha explicado la secretaria de Cultura, Alejandra Frausto. – El País

Cray… wonder if it’s really her voice. But as always, I’m obsessed with the obsession.

Party prep: Elías Sesame Street Crayons and Dorthy royal icing cookies

The birthday boy and his abuelito

The birthday table

Rainbow pound cake with Italian buttercream frosting

Birthday brother eating cake

The Sesame Street birthday family

Chocolate Elmo lollipops

Royal icing Elmo cookies

Diecut Sesame Street Banners

Sesame Street Fruit and Vegetable trays

Watermelon cake for the birthday boy

Party prep: Chocolate covered crayons pretzels

Awesome El Mundo de Elías birthday sign made by Nico

Party prep: Sesame Street diecut bunting flags

Party prep: Sesame Street diecuts

Party prep: Cakestands

Truth be told, after last year’s massive flag cake I wasn’t planning on making anything too crazy. But my family seemed so disappointed and I ended up caving. I’m happy though that I went for it. I had a lot of fun playing with my my new Russian Icing tips for the first time. Many lessons learned here so next time I think they’ll come out much better.

And I want to give a BIG thanks to my mother-in-law for all of her help watching the kids and killing it with the clean up!

View of the cake from above. Flowers created with Russian piping tips.

Here is the cake after we cut it open. I had my husband cut it open so that I could record a little video, but he ruined it when he decided to eat a piece of cake mid-recording

These are the ombré layers. I use Americolor gels to get super vibrant colors.

And here is my little man He and I also made American flag chocolate covered pretzels But we will debut those later today…

I started by making a 5 layer red test-cake with buttercream filling.  But I wasn’t happy enough with the height ratio of the red to white, so I ended up with this monstrosity pictured below.

Really this cake didn’t reach it’s full height potential. But that is only because I reached the max height of our freezer, where I was storing the layers, and I literally couldn’t stand on my feet any longer. That being said, it still irks me when I look at the picture above and wish, wish, wish that there was a the very least another top red layer.

The most delicious part of the cake was actually the lemon curd filling, which you can’t see here. I chose it because it wouldn’t detract from the colored layers.

These are the royal icing cookies I made with toddler. This was the first time I let him roll out his own cookies and decorate them. He was DELIGHTED!

Here is my happy boy with his abuelito.

Here he is again with his abuelito and grandma.

Since my second son’s birthday is coming up next month my plan was to hold off from making a cake this year. But my family seemed so disappointed that it looks like I’ll be baking a cake after all. And I am actually really excited to use my new Russian icing tips. So I think the plan will be to make a red white and blue pinata cake with my toddler.

I’ll keep you guys posted…

My little man is absolutely crazy about soccer and of course Lionel Messi. He runs through our home yelling “Mama soy Messi y mi hermano es Neymar Jr.”  When we asked him what theme he wanted for his birthday he had many ideas. But in the end he narrowed it down to FC Barcelona and Frida Kahlo.  While we didn’t end up with the Frida theme this year, he did insist on leaving the Frida Kahlo painting up in the kitchen so that everyone the party would see it.

Some of the highlights of the party included: a chocolate fondant soccer ball cake, royal icing soccer jersey and soccer ball cookies, chocolate soccer ball lollipops, lots of FCB diecuts (made on the Cricut Explore), chocolate covered Oreos with soccer toppers, a FCB fruit platter, and of course FCB gear for the whole family.

My little boy delighted that we FINALLY allowed him to eat a royal icing cookie.

The desert table.

The chocolate fondant soccer ball cake.

Chocolate soccer ball lollipops.

Royal icing cookies.

Our family in full FC Barcelona gear.

The epic FCB fruit platter made by my dear friend Lamia.

Custom plates for the birthday boy.

Our awesome photographer also wore FCB gear.

Chocolate soccer balls.

I wish I had more time to decorate the porch, but with two small children I had to pick my “battles” and decided to focus my energy on the inside. However my wonderful papi made the impossible happen and somehow magically jerry rigged this flag into place. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the DELICIOUS tacos from Cafe Catedral– hands down the best party food ever.

And of course my little Messi periodically stopped partying and got in some serious kicks.

Stay tuned for photos of my second son’s first birthday coming in August. This will be our second Elmo themed birthday, as my first son also celebrated his first birthday in Elmo style.

Photos by Nick Cartwright

I went way overboard on all the little details and decorations but I was so busy chasing around my toddler and making sure everyone was having a good time that I didn’t get any photos of the actual event itself.  But at least I had some photos pre-party of some of my prep work.

*An entire year has passed and I just realized I never published this post. My son (pictured here) turned three two weeks ago and the other one is almost a year old.

Daniel Tiger Royal Icing Cookies

O the Owl Royal Icing Cookies

Daniel Tiger Cake

Tiger Cake Inside

Prince Wednesday, Katerina Kitty Cat, Miss Elaina and Daniel Tiger Diecuts

Playing with the diecuts

Daniel Tiger Crayons

I know I am 4 months behind, but here are some photos of his big day. My only regret is that I don’t have better images of the party, as I was running around like a crazy lady making sure everything was in order. Lesson learned… hire a photographer (aka barter with a photographer friend) to take pics of the next one.