Cupcake Alligator

O's preschool class picnic was this afternoon, and since I'm the one who signed us up for the food list last week, I picked dessert (you gotta play to your strengths). The very next day, I saw my mom, and she gave me some pages from a recent Ladies Home Journal, which included instructions to make an alligator from cupcakes.

I was so all over that!

First, you gotta bake cupcakes. Normally, I eschew commercial cake mixes, but when baking with the assistance of a three year old and a six month old, sometimes you just have to cut a corner or two. Don't tell my pastry instructor, but I even used the Betty Crocker frosting in a can! The kids are food heathens like it better, anyway. Here are the cupcakes, baked and awaiting decoration:

O asked a million questions, wandered around, and occasionally did something useful helped, and Felix whinged around in his high chair, generally stressing me out, but in the end, I got it done:

I practically had to bend time to get myself, and Felix, and the alligator, and the big kids to the party, but in the end we all got there unscathed. Fortuna even smiled upon me and gave a resident parking spot right across from school. Some days, this job is the best job I could ever imagine.

With the cake installed at the party, we got down to the serious business of having some fun. Felix might be too little for cupcakes, but he still knows how to have a good time.