I don’t like missing out on things. “Things” is a broad spectrum.  I don’t like it when I’m out of town and miss Book Club. I barely slept in the hospital when Oscar was born because I didn’t want to miss him being awake (why this happened on baby #2 is beyond me. They are awake basically the rest of their lives!) I don’t like missing a text message! I like to be on top of it all!

I REALLY don’t like missing moments in the kids’ lives because I’m working, but this is definitely a choice I made.  A choice, I might add, I am very happy with and want to continue to pursue.  I’m a better mommy when I’m working. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be the CMO or work 60 hour work weeks. No siree. I have boundaries.  Which is why missing things is terrible for me.  But, since this is my personal choice, I also have the choice to create alternate moments! Which is exactly what I did this weekend.

I was out of town all week and missed Walt’s Valentine’s dance (but, my mom was his stand-in date and it couldn’t have been more perfect. They both had a lovely time and my mom walked away with a custom bookmark). They had a school party on Friday, but it’s not the type that parents come to. Still, I ordered the Valentine’s on Amazon and did not have custom printed tags or homemade anything to hand out. I refused to label myself a failure. Walt was so happy to assemble his AirHead Valentine’s with me when I got back into town on Thursday night.  Moment made!

I decided that we would have our own Valentine’s party at home, complete with a homemade cake!  I’m still on a baking adventure when it comes to making things egg-free, so this was risky. I had made cake balls with applesauce substitute and they weren’t exactly the same. I was hoping a cake would be a different story.

I don’t have pics of the actual cake making because Chris was there and I needed all of my hands. Imagine little hands in a stand mixer and a bit of taste-testing along the way (huge bonus when you’re cooking without raw eggs!)

First we started with some icing.

Then they spread the icing!

Then we try the icing 🙂

Mommy touched up the work a bit

Adding a bit of Valentine’s flare

Just waiting for the Food Network to call my cell phone…

And, you must top it off with sprinkles!

Finished product! Walt insisted we needed blue sprinkles in addition to red. Perhaps he had the poem “Roses are red, violets are blue” in his head?

And then we eat!

The boys were so excited to try their own creation and I was proud that the cake didn’t fall apart in the pan.  I think we made a pretty awesome Valentine’s memory!