Michael's Baptism - The Prep

With Michael's baptism, I had consulted him about the program.
One thing that he had wanted, which has been popular, was a slide show of him and his life thus far. I wasn't terribly thrilled with the work that I would have to put into this, but he did request it over a year ago, so there was no getting out of it. I ended making it, and it turned out pretty cute. We played it on the television for when people were coming to the baptism, before it began.
I had asked him who he wanted to speak at his baptism. We needed two people, one to give a talk about baptism and one to talk about the Holy Ghost. Well, the first choice was a no-brainer, his primary teacher of course. He loves his teacher, Sister Hook, so much. He has good reason to for she really is an awesome woman. She has the right enthusiasm, patience, and temperance to handle his class - plus she was a 1st grade teacher, and still is at heart.
Michael came up with the second speaker quite easily as well, but I couldn't approve it, nor would Michael change his mind. You see, he had wanted Roger to speak. Though I am quite sure that Roger would do an awesome job for a six-year-old....he's still six-years old!! I did think it was sweet that he wanted him to do it so badly, and someone pointed out that that is the true mark of friendship that he wanted to hear from no one else but his brother.
I couldn't get Michael to pick another speaker, no one. I mentioned almost anyone/everyone he knows. It wasn't until we found out that Lana was going to be coming out for the baptism that Michael finally agreed to have her give the talk.
Both Todd's parents and my parents didn't come to town until the day of Michael's baptism. This really wasn't much of a problem, but it did mean that I was literally in charge of everything, and since we were going to be having desserts afterwards, it meant even more prep work for me.
I had done all my shopping and only had a few things I was going to be making the next day when I came home from Costco. I had gotten lots of fruit (totally craving tons of fruit this pregnancy), veggies (got to be somewhat healthy, right), and a wonderful Costco cake (aren't they delicious). I was happy to be mostly done as I was putting the cake into the refrigerator, happy until I dropped the cake. It got all smeared inside the box. I was very frustrated with myself. I was pretty much done, but oh no, I had to go spill the cake.
The next day I questioned if I should run over to Costco and buy another cake. I was nervous that by time I got there, all of the cakes I wanted would be gone and I would be out an extra hour and half for all the time and effort - plus dealing with a Costco Saturday crowd! (Homeschooling ruins you in this aspect, crowds are not something you have to deal with a lot, so when you do, you really hate it) I decided to just stay home and make miniature cupcakes, similar to these. It did take awhile, but they turned out great (besides the fact that I cannot decorate cupcakes, but who cares how cute they are?).
At a friend's baptism, they had served Cake Pops. My boys thought these were the best things ever. As I looked at my smeared Costco cake, I realized that I could salvage it by making it into cake pops, which I did. I discarded a lot of the frosting, for there was a lot more than needed, then I molded them and put chocolate on them. Turned out to be Michael's favorite treat at the baptism.
Before the baptism, I was relieved to have Eve, my MIL, helping me. In order to help with the freshness, I had reserved cutting any of the fruit and veggies until the day of. Boy did we do a lot of cutting.