No-Sew Banner, birthday cakes and shirts

I decided to make birthday shirts for the kids. We got their pictures taken professionally in them too. I can't wait to pick them up. I am very please with how the shirts came out considering this is my first attempt this sort of thing. I got the plain shirt on clearance at Walmart for only about $2 each. I did buy some of the fabric, other fabric I had. For the number 2 I printed out a huge 2 in a font I liked using Word. I cut out the 2, pinned it to the fabric and cut it out. I then back stiched it by hand since I don't know how to use my sewing machine (YET). The edges have frayed which was intentional with every washing.
This banner was so much fun to make. I made a cardboard template to cut out the squares with my rotary cutter. It went so much quicker that way. I then printed out the letters in Word and cut out. I did tape the letters to the felt b/c it was easier for me. The tape removed easily once done. The most time consuming part was cutting out the letters. Then I used stitch witchery to fuse all the pieces together. I did sew on the little loops, just 3 stitches so that I could hang it on the ribbon. I didn't want to permanently attach the letters to the ribbon in case I want to change out a fabric in years to come but keep others. I love how it came out.
This was supposed to be an Elmo cake, but Sesame Street won and hey, Elmo is on there.
This train cake idea I think I found on Family Fun's website.

We made it through

Everyone told me that he would bounce back quickly and for the most part he did. I have to say it was one of the most difficult experiences in my life. Seeing him in so much pain was like a knife in my heart. In short, he spent the first night in ICU b/c he had trouble breathing and they could not keep his pain level in check. So the poor thing had an epidural, pain meds every 4 hours and then when that wasn't enough, the epidural was removed and a morphine drip was started with additional meds as needed. Once that chest tube was removed he was a different person. He was like a little drunken sailor his first time out. He looked so adorable staggering down the hospital hallways with his little diaper peeking out from his hospital gown. He charmed the nurses by waiving Bye-Bye and blowing kisses. :o) On the 4th day after he was feeling better, I was sitting in a chair next to his crib and he reached over to hold my hand and gave me this sweet smile. I smiled back, took his hand and said, "We did it buddy. We made it through and it didn't break us afterall."

Unfortunately, a few days later he came down with bronchitis of all things. Grrrrr...but as of now, he is doing better and is almost done with meds. Alleluia!