I'm A Barbie Mom

I have a Bree complex.

My buddy Jude and I were lunching and she said "There's this quiz where you get to find out which Desperate Housewife you are most like."

I'm most like Linette but I have a Bree complex.

For my daughter's 4th birthday party tomorrow I am crafting a Barbie doll cake (where Barbie's gown is the cake). Coffee Bean offers a similar version with a fake Barbie that costs $80. I'm sorry, $80 is too much to pay for a fake Barbie.

I get great satisfaction doing stuff like this for my kids. When my business(es) have finally taken flight one day I will be writing children's books and painting nurseries for fun, in between my activist work! The only things missing are Bree's scarily perfect hair, her awesome body and her whitened smile.

So back to the cake. I bought a cheapie Barbie (your standard issue $12 one) and measured her for her "gown". Do you know that if Barbie really had legs that long and thin she would not be able to walk? That's why you only ever see her standing around, usually leaning on something.

Anyway her legs are so long that the bowl I'm using to make the gown is not deep enough (and if I use the bigger bowl the cake would be 13kg, nearly the weight of my daughter.

So,since the Sicilian act of breaking one's legs is out of the question (but not left unconsidered, mind you) I decided, let's hide her feet in styrofoam.

So last night at 11.37pm, I was cutting up foam boards glueing them together, and stabbing one (1) standard issue Barbie doll into the foam. She stands, I score, I go to bed.

Tomorrow, my daughter will get a chocolate and ice-cream cake with vanilla icing and hundreds-and-thousands, with a real Barbie wearing it. In 20 minutes, the cake would be demolished and chunks left uneaten (how much cake can a bunch of 4, 5, 6 year olds eat?), and Barbie will have been yanked out of the cake, nekkid and left in the sink with a plastic bag over her head to keep her hair from getting wet.

Is it a lot of work for 20 minutes of display and a photo? YES.
Is it worth the fun? YES.
Is it worth seeing my daughter's face when her cake has a real Barbie in it? ABSOLUTELY.

So I think here I am putting in so much time effort and a bit of money into one cake for my 4-year-old girl.
Just an hour away in Indonesia, a 14 year old girl is giving her body, her shame, her dignity to feed her family.

It shouldn't be this way. I will work hard just to make sure it doesn't stay like this. And the best birthday gift I can give to my little girl is a deep faith in Jesus and my protection and comfort at all times.