Garry & Patrick........

Whoops - I thought these went out months ago!! These were the cutest ever cupcakes (in my opinion). The day that I did these I had 2 extra children......and they did so so so so so well with The Line that it made things easier for me to get them done.

What is The Line? Haven't I talked about that before? Oh. Well The Line is very well known in my house. Generally The Line was invented to help children from getting into trouble. Although if you asked the children they might say that The Line was invented to keep them away from the fun.

See early on - when making cakes wasn't happening as often - the kids had kinda free reign in the kitchen. I mean anything I was baking was for my family. So I wasn't really worried about germs. Well...........I was worried about germs if the bakery good was going out of the house or being used for a party. But in the first few years of living here in Central Illinois we weren't having many parties - so baking was mostly for us. If the kids stuck a finger in the batter I wasn't too worried. I mean batter fingers and licking spatulas is the best part of baking for a kid anyway right? Who wants to take that away?

Then when I began to make cakes for others as favors the kids still had the same mindset of where the comfort zone was for touching things. In my mind the understanding was pretty clear cut - If The Cake Is For Someone Else...........WE DON'T TOUCH. They didn't seem to get that. In fact I remember one day where I had just mixed a batter.......Ben came in and literally STUCK his face into the bowl and sniffed in REALLY REALLY DEEP and complimented me by saying, "That smells great". All I could think was GROSS!! Dave was there with us and explained to Ben how gross that was and how he just spread germs all over the batter. Ben pointed out how he didn't touch the batter or sneeze on it (yes, this has happened in the past). So we explained how little things can still drop from a persons closely placed face in bowl. Ben apologized and left. I turned around and Kid You Not! Dave has his face in the bowl breathing in really deeply and says, "That does smell great."

Seriously? Batter thrown out. The Line invented. In our kitchen we have an island. Our kitchen is kind of an L shape. The island starts at the long stretch of the L. Inside the L there is the island (duh), sink, fridge (not the British rock band) and stove - and all cabinets. When I am baking or decorating a cake The Line goes up. This means basically that they can enter the kitchen and exit the kitchen onto the porch.......but they can not walk through the portion of the kitchen that has anything useful or interesting to them. Which can be hard.

At first.........during The Line training.......I would have to repeat "There is a line here" and physically swoop my arm from the wall - across the floor and end of the island - to the wall. Over and over we did this. About 5 cakes in the kids began to come into the kitchen and would see ingredients on the island and ask, "Is The Line up?" Thus The Line became its own "thing"

When I was making these fun cupcakes the Grey boys were here. These weren't the first kiddo's to visit when I was baking.......but they were the best at responding to The Line. Good job Pennie! When Andersen told the oldest Grey that there was A Line.....he looked for it - pretended to see it - push against it - made fun of it - but he NEVER crossed it! And that is all that counted........because honestly and invisible line is kinda funny - necessary - but funny.

Patrick was my favorite cupcake of them all. At first - when I cut his body out with a star - all it looked like was A STAR. Then as I added more items and moved his arms and legs about he began to really look like Patrick!

With The Line up - the kids paying due respect of The Line and Dave bringing home lunch - these were pretty quick to be made!

The cupcakes were Chocolate Chocolate chip and White cake - all with a Vanilla Buttercream icing and Vanilla Fondant.