Several weeks ago, Jack and Owen were discussing what kind of face they would use to decorate their mother's birthday cake.  The two of them have done this routine of making and decorating birthday cakes for each other and for their parents since they started toddling around.  After much discussion between the two of them, they came to the conclusion that they would design their favorite Star Wars character, Chewbacca.

Now, to be honest with my readers, I wondered whether Chewbacca was their mother's favorite character in Star Wars or in her own personal life.  I was even bold enough to suggest that Jack should ask his mother.  Nonetheless, he assured me that Chewbacca would be the correct choice.  Additionally, Jack also suggested that he would like Chewbacca on his birthday cake this coming July.

After making the cake, the near Herculean task was to decorate the top of the birthday cake to look like Chewbacca.  The task began with Owen inserting peanut butter pretzel cubes for eyes.  Even Dr. Menon, who did my cataract operation on my eyes, would have been proud of Owen's eye surgery talents.

As soon as Chewbacca's right eye transplant was completed, Jack had the left eye waiting for immediate insertion.  My cataracts procedures required a two-week waiting time.  Dr. Menon would have dissed Jack's rushing his immediate surgical insertion.

Owen now worked on reconstruction of Chewbacca's nose.  I had my nose reconstructed after a dragon and I got into a fight.  I hoped that Chewbacca's nose didn't hurt him as did mine.

Now, it is Jack's opportunity to do some dental capping of Chewbacca's teeth as Owen looked on.  Jack asked me whether I knew the nickname of Chewbacca, which I didn't.  He told me that his nickname was Chewie.

I asked Owen and Jack if they knew how Chewbacca, aka Chewie, got the name Chewbacca in the first place.  They hadn't read-up on this historical item.  The story is that George Lucas was driving along the highway with his dog sitting on the passenger-side of the car with the window down.  The result was the dog's hair was blowing in the breeze.  As for the actual name, it came from the Russian name for dog (собака).

Then the hair transplant procedure began.  I asked whether Chewbacca was hurting at all due to the surgery.  Both Owen and Jack were too interested in their patient to consider my inquiry.

First, Chewbacca's sideburns then his beard were transplanted.

As the final touches were put to their masterpiece, I mentioned to them what Picasso said about children and art.  Picasso said, "Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."  They both recalled the quote since they both are taking an art history class from me.  Jack and Owen started when each of them turned three years of age.  They know dozens of the names of the artists and their paintings.

I congratulated the two boys' artistic masterpiece of Chewbacca of Indy. 

Then I told them that we needed to clean up the mess before their mommy came down to see their artistic expression for her birthday.  So, they cleaned up the mess quickly.

It was just in time.  Their mother arrived, and they sang Happy Birthday to her.  Both their mother and Picasso were proud of Jack and Owen.

"Campbell's Cooking Class"

Visit the "Campbell's Cooking Class" page to read more about this topic.

03/16/16