The birthday season - the cake drama part I

It's birthday season at our house - starting February, one of us has a birthday every month. Tom's 2nd birthday has snuck up on me - I've been much more focussed on Isabelle's Valentine's and planning her birthday. He doesn't really have any independent friends and let's be honest, when you're two, more kids is really just more competition for toys and treats. So, we'll be doing something pretty low-key with some friends and family... which suits me fine.
The only trick is that when our godsons were born, oh, 7 years ago (!), I started a bit of tradition of making cool cakes for their first couple birthdays. The bear cakes have been very popular (see pics) as have some of the variation on bears. The complication, of course, is that when I started this, I didn't have my own kids to work around. Cake-making is a time-sensitive and detail-heavy task. Funny thing about kids, they are also very time-sensitive: "Mama, water!" is not a request, but an urgent, desperate plea (or so it seems). They are also very detail-oriented in some ways: "No, not that yogurt, that one!" They are the same yogurt, but on one package the picture is not facing out. Yet, precision is not a skill they've yet acquired, so offers to help are really offers to make a big mess and then get offended when it is cleaned up.
Sigh.
So back to my cake dilemma... My dear husband, ever the pragmatist and with none of the maternal guilt that weighs me down, kindly suggests that we buy a cake. This would be logical - the kids would be happy, I would be better rested and not sick from licking a pound of icing off my fingers. But what does he know? Instead, I've come up with a plan to build the best bear variation to date - Barney the Dinosaur!
This is foolish - it involves purple and green fondant. It also involves affixing cupcakes to a bear with toothpicks. Given that, I think you can likely expect that it will also include swearing and some tears. I'll keep you posted.