Big Birthday Cake

It's AKD's birthday today. He's 15.  Fifteen!  I blinked and now...look at him!  Practically grown.

He loves it when I post pictures of him chewing.
Even more than he loves me shoving a cake at him and insisting that he smile for the camera minutes after he wakes.

He said he wanted to give me a break from elaborate cake-making, so AKD requested a simple funfetti cake for his birthday.  Simple, but huge. That sucker is 12 inches top to bottom.  Six layers.

I have to say, this is a nice change from the usual waterfall cake, but I do enjoy making elaborate cakes for my kids, so he needn't have worried. And this one was challenging in its own way.

He said he wanted to give me a break, but I think he really just wanted a lot of cake.  Happy to oblige, son :)

By the way, it is really fun to throw sprinkles at the side of a cake. Fun, but messy.

Due to various factors, we decided to make the cake a week early.  Good thing, too, 'cause a week later, we still have some of this cake hanging around.

I told my sis that we were making and eating the cake early, and she mentioned that I could just wait and post a picture on Facebook on his actual birthday and no one would even know we hadn't eaten the cake on his actual birthday.  And that's true.  I could have, and no one would have.

But I didn't.  First, I really don't care whether or not y'all know we ate the cake early.  Really, who cares?  And if it offends or bothers you that AKD didn't get to eat his cake on his actual birthday, let me assure you that he will eat cake today.  You don't need to worry about that.

And second, it makes me wonder if my sis has done something similar in the past.  Not that I care.  I'm sure she had a good reason.  Or not. Does not matter to me either way.

But the exchange was such a good reminder to me that what we see on Facebook or Instagram, or even on this blog, is not necessarily the truth.  In fact, it is never the whole truth.  We share what we choose to share, and most of us choose to share the good stuff.  

It is a sure recipe for discontentment to compare the nitty-gritty every day of our own lives to the shining moments we see on social media.

I love this bit of wisdom from Steven Furtick:

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My girl Lysa says it like this in her book Made to Crave: 

How dangerous it is to hold up the intimate knowledge of our imperfections against the outside packaging of others.

Dangerous, indeed.

Also dangerous?  A 12 inch high cake.  Happy birthday, AKD!