Aunts+Cousins+Cakes+Lambs=Crazy Fun!

In preparation for Bizzie and her cousins entering their lambs in the Benjamin Livestock Show Aunt Heidi and I got together the night before to create a cake, with Bizzie’s and Ashlynn’s help, to enter in the kids Cake Auction! Heidi was the mastermind and had developed a terrific plan of a barn cake with sheep cupcakes surrounding it. So while sweet Don watched sick Liberty at home Autumn, Bizzie and I made our way to American Fork to decorate! After a scrumptious meal of Papa Murphy Pizzas, we began mixing the various colors of icing we needed, and here is where our only glitch occurred…we were going for a “true red” barn, but our food coloring refused to cooperate! Half-way through mixing the colors into the icing Heidi asked Bizzie and Ashlynn how the red icing was coming along – Bizzie looked up at me concerned and said quietly, “Mom. It’s pink.” Hmmm. Over the next 45 minutes we got bright pink, salmon, rust, brown, everything but – red. So we let it go and went for a rustic, weathered brownish-red color – I thought it looked great! (Heidi, I could tell, was bucking-up and making do, but she was making me laugh with her disgruntled look every time she looked at the barn!)

Here it is from the top getting it’s shingles put on…

My job, after some experimentation and brainstorming with Heidi, was to assemble the sheep. At one point I emailed a picture of them to Don and he texted back, “Wallace and Gromit.” They did look like the sheep off that show! I, again, thought they looked pretty cute!

As the night wore on the girls found entertainment watching Charlotte’s Web (SUPER appropriate for the livestock show the next day I thought). Aunt Heidi is such a good mom and aunt - she is very patient and makes it super easy for kids to want to be around her as she gently helps them accomplish even the most challenging tasks. Here is a video of her and Bizzie putting grass around the sheep…

The finished product!

The next day at the Stock Show they had the Cake Auction in-between the showing of the pigs and the steer. Each child brought out their cake and the auctioneer started the bidding process with farmers and grandparents, uncles and neighbors trying to outbid each other and help the kids feel supported. “$25? Do I hear $30? $30? $30 to the man in the Dickies. Going once… going twice…SOLD! Give that man a hand!” And on it goes. Well every year the Olsen Clan pools their resources and drives the bid up until it reaches the amount they’ve collectively decided on – which means where a cake might normally go for $30-$40, the Olsen Cake’s end up going for… well, a little more…

Here is Kelly, Ashlynn, Bizzie and Autumn holding the cake up for the bidders…

And here’s the bidding… poor Kelly was holding that heavy cake all by herself, but she kept smiling and was grateful when one of the auctioneers helped her out at the end!

Yep. $200. Maybe it’s the hormones going through pregnant me, but I tear up in gratitude for family, who above all else, are doing their best to make the kids memories so wonderful! FYI: It was  the highest bid that day… So - Go Rustic, Weathered Brownish-Red Barn Cake!!! Keep watching the blog and I’ll post the rest of the events at the Livestock Show soon!