I am not a baker, but my kids love me anyway.

 I can not bake, it's just not one of my talents, as evidenced by the picture below.  It was the day of Mr. Boy's 8th Birthday party and two hours prior to the guests arrival, this was "cake wreck" I was dealing with.  I made the cake myself, can you tell? 

Mr. Boy wanted a "Harry Potter" birthday complete with a broomstick cake.  We've spent the lazy summer twilight hours watching Cake Boss, Cupcake Wars, and Ace of Cakes.  I had the genius idea to make a broomstick out of a Twix bar and some melted Starburst. In my head it looked like one of those cakes you see on TV.  Once I actually executed my broomstick,  I started to panic. The cake was falling apart and I just added my "pièce de résistance" and it looked rather phallic, if you know what I mean. *wink*

 Mr. Man came in and tried to rescue it, but nothing could save it except for a trip to the bakery for a replacement. 

 We bought a replacement, but decided we should go ahead and put a Harry Potter Spin on the disaster, so we called it Dobby's Cake Creation.   

 We also served Pumpkin Juice, which all the kids tried and loved.  It was really peach lemonade.

 Mr. Boy really wanted a Harry Potter Party, but we just had spent a trillion dollars on the pool, so we had a Harry Potter Pool Party.  I even hired a lifeguard for peace of mind, which was genius.  Lucky for us, one of the many hats Aunt Cinnamon wears, happens to be "Lifeguard", plus she only requires cake as payment.

 I learned a valuable lesson, kids will eat cake, no matter how it looks.  They all preferred Dobby's cake over the pretty bakery cake.

 All the kids were smitten with Sandy,  she conned them into all the leftovers. 

 On the day of his actual birthday, we took  Mr. Birthday Boy to Whimsic Alley to be fitted for a wand. The wandmaker insisted he also needed glasses.  We mortgaged the house and succumbed to the pressure to outfit our Jr. Harry Potter. 

 

At 9:01pm, the exact moment he turned eight, we had cake and opened presents.

 

And what did Mr. Birthday Boy get?  Harry Potter Legos of course!