A Fishy Birthday Dream

 Leon is ten!  He had asked for sushi and mushroom replicas for his birthday and he got them!  

I made cupcakes the night before but didn't frost them until late yesterday.  Leon wanted them to look like mushrooms.  I had picked up little gummy frogs for him and he wanted to put them on the mushroom cupcakes to give them a real-ish vibe.  Did it work?

The frosting is chocolate frosting mixed with about 1/2 cup of purple food coloring.  The top part is a dollop of white frosting mixed with a titch of the purple frosting.  I've got lots leftover of each. mmmmm

When Meri was still shopping yesterday, Leon called her to ask that she buy caviar. ???  I guess he wants to brag that he had sushi AND caviar on his birthday.  Who wouldn't?!  She found a $5 jar of plant based caviar.  Leon would never know the difference.

Matthew had made 2 different types of sushi balls with salmon and spicy chicken. SO good! I think we can honestly convert Taco Tuesday to Sushi Tuesday.  Well maybe...

I had canned 5 pints of white rice (3/4 cup rinsed rice, bit of salt and water - pressure canned 15 minutes) and they were all used up as well as another Instant Pot of more rice.  Meri was busy!

Meri made about 5 different types of sushi logs, slicing them up on platters.  She was at my house making them from 4pm until the dinner started at 7.  Ryan (bf) helped her.  They made a good team!

Leon was pretty excited about everything and bouncing off walls, so Ryan (bf) took him outside in the bitter cold and they played down by the creek, also playing ball on the front yard.  They got sticky weeds stuck all over themselves.

When Maddy and Matthew arrived, they helped clear the table of the sushi stuff and set it with the china.  Since Leon is ten now, he gets a regular sized water goblet instead of the smaller one that we always used for him.

There was soy sauce, yum yum sauce and wasabi for dipping.

I'm just kicking myself for no pictures of any of the food!  Well, here are a few leftovers.

And yes, that is my fancy fakerware made of an old whipped topping container.  It works and I can scribble what's inside with marker on the lid.  Or not, if I want to hide it...

And since not everyone likes fish, Robb would have hated the entire meal because he can't stand the smell of fish..., I sautéed up some strips of marinated steak and made seasoned chunk potatoes and sweet potatoes for sides.  Not too many people dug into either of the potatoes, so I canned them this morning before work.  40 minutes of pressure canning for quarts of chunked up potato and 90 minutes of pressure canning for quarts of chunked up sweet potato.  Since they were already pre-cooked, they'll probably turn into mashed and that's ok.  They'll be ready for whatever I want them to be later.

The leftovers were divvied up after dessert and scattered to the far winds. and probably eaten as a midnight snack.

Leon got lots of nice presents and items pertaining to mushrooms, drawing, modeling clay, candy and Legos.  Of course I had misheard, and he had wanted a Tie Fighter set... :) But was happy with the X Wing Fighter set I got him.  sigh.  I need to start writing things down!

All in all, he was spoiled rotten on his birthday and at dinner, we all decided that his birthday tide should end when it's Robb's birthday next month.  He's ok with that!