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| Superman: a self-portrait, or Why Mommy shouldn't leave the camera sitting on the couch unattended while she takes a potty break! |
For a child like Superman, who is autistic, a group setting such as a classroom can be sheer torture if not handled in a certain way by someone who has experience working with children who share his unique medical concerns. Luckily, all the teachers at his school are incredibly well-trained and have years of experience in special-needs education and childcare.
Last Tuesday Superman's class had a small End-of-the-Year Party to celebrate all the hard work and progress that the kids have made during the past year. I love baking and coming up with fun ways to decorate cupcakes and cakes, and since it was my turn to be a "party mom" we decided to bake cupcakes as our contribution.
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| We cut into an extra cupcake before icing and decorating the rest to make sure the rainbow effect worked. Of course, we had to taste test as well! |
I had made these rainbow cupcakes using a tutorial found here for Superman's class when we celebrated his third birthday back in January. His teacher, Ms. K, told me how much the kids had enjoyed them, so I decided it was a good place to start!
Inspired by a cake I had seen on the same site as the cupcake tutorial, I spent some time brainstorming and came up with an idea I thought would be pretty neat. The Mister even said how cute it was and if you know us, you know that is effusive praise indeed!
Before we had kids, The Mister was really not into things like this and it always took a certain amount of pushing on my part to get him excited about parties, cakes and the like. Now that Superman, Dynamo and Miss Bug have arrived and are getting older, though, he is really starting to get actively involved and excited about planning holidays and birthdays.
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| The Mister getting the stroller ready during a trip to the aquarium last year. |
But back to the cupcakes! I used vanilla icing (dyed blue) for the water and sprinkled the tops with blue sanding sugar. Two colorful goldfish crackers and a teddy graham cookie inside a gummi lifesaver "inner tube" later and this is what we had:
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| The finished product! |
These took no time to put together - honestly, the most time-consuming aspect was layering the different colored batters in the cupcake liners! The kids LOVED them and the adults did too. It was a great way to end an exciting year!
I wish I had gotten some pictures of the kids eating the cupcakes, icing-covered cheeks, blue tongues and all but the batteries in my camera died right after I took the pictures of the cupcakes the night before the party. Oh well - maybe next time!
