Diaper Cakes and Updates...

How do people manage to update their blog every single day? It seems like just yesterday I posted about my bike ride and in looking at it now, I realize that was four days ago. What has been going on you ask? Well... tennis and swimming. No surprise there. I did head out to track night yesterday to work on my speed. I was unable to locate my group (there was a Lacrosse game going on at the high school) so I missed the work out. Oh well, next time! Tonight, if the weather holds out, I am going on a group bike ride.

In other news, I added a triathlon to the schedule. It is not quite an olympic tri but a little bit longer than a sprint with a 1000 yard swim, 18 mile bike and 4.8 mile trail run. The triathlon is in 2 weeks so obviously it was a last minute decision. It isn't a huge event so am expecting it will be low key which is perfect at this early stage in my training season. I am really looking forward to it!

We have a baby shower at work tomorrow. I have a feeling it will be the last one unless someone adopts as we are all getting past that age. Most everyone at my company has been there 10+ years so we have kind of gone through the weddings, milestone birthdays and baby showers together. Somehow, I always get nominated to decorate. I am quite certain it is my ability to blow up ridiculous numbers of balloons without passing out. Well, either that or no one else wants the job. For years, when we had a budget for Christmas parties, I was in charge of the planning and I think it just carried over.

This time, I decided to make my gift for the Mom-to-be part of the decoration and made a diaper cake. Yes, a cake made out of diapers. No oven required, just A LOT of diapers.



I have seen diaper cakes before but I never thought about making one. Once I decided I would try it, I just googled the directions and off we went. Incredibly easy. If you want to give a useful and cute gift sure to garner oohs and ahs, you should give it a try.

You will need:

- a box of diapers (75 or so)
- small rubber bands (about 75)
- large rubber bands (3)
- ribbon (about 15 feet)
- small decorations for accents
- posterboard cut into a cake circle for the bottom (about 2 feet in diameter)
- two bottles (one 8 oz, one 4 oz)



The first step is to get to rolling the diapers. Start with the folded end, roll up and secure with a rubber band. Repeat, repeat, repeat until they you are sick of doing it or have 75 rolled diapers.

Place 9 diapers around the 8 oz bottle and secure with a rubber band. This can be tricky unless you have three hands. I do not have extra hands so I put the rubber band around the bottle and two of the rolled diapers then put the other seven diapers in the rubber band.

Arrange a second circle of diapers around the first using about 15 diapers. Secure with a rubber band. Repeat the process for a third ring using 22 diapers. This is your bottom "cake" layer. Tie approximately 5.5 feet of ribbon around this tier.

For your middle tier, place 8 diapers around the bottle, secure with a rubber band. Place 14 diapers to create a second ring and and secure with a rubber band. Tie a 5 foot piece of ribbon around this layer.



For the top tier, insert the 4 oz baby bottle in the center and arrange about 7 diapers around it. Secure with a rubber band and tie ribbon around this layer. Place a few accents to personalize and you are done!