It was a rainy day, too wet to go outside.

Mommy said, "A perfect day to make cupcakes! What color do you want?"

"Pink!" I exclaimed.

I put in a whole bottle of pink dye while we made them. After baking, we frosted them with pink frosting, too.

I gobbled them up by the handful. They were so delicious - they were PINKALICIOUS!

The cupcake's journey was only beginning through the alimentary canal.

The mouth is the first stop. It starts breaking down food through mechanical digestion. This means that the cupcake is being broken down into tinier pieces.

Later on, Joey the cupcake, who was broken down into tinnier pieces, will be broken into molecules. The tinniest form of nutrients that get absorbed. This is only through chemical digestion.

Both mechanical and chemical digestion break down food into smaller pieces. The difference between them is that chemical digestion breaks food down into molecules.

While passing through the mouth, Joey activates salivary glands. These glands make saliva. There is always saliva being made, but while eating food, they are stimulated more.

What are these gland gang's names that take place in saliva production? Their names are Parotid, Sublingual, and Submandibular.

Joey is covered in a slimy liquid hug by Saliva. Saliva has the important functions of dissolving food like Joey, moistening it for easier swallowing, and also beginning the chemical digestion process.

Saliva has a special quality to him that breaks down carbs into disaccharides. This quality is a special enzyme called amylase. He starts chemical digestion with the enzyme.

After being chomped in the mouth, Joey the cupcake passes through the pharynx. Crossing guards, Uvula and Epiglottis, direct him into the Esophagus tube.

Uvula stops Joey from entering the not-so-fun-zone, the nasal cavity. Epiglottis is a flap of muscle that blocks the trachea when Joey passes through so that way he does not end up in the air compressor.

Joey only has one way to go now, through the esophagus. As he starts the roller coaster of the esophagus, Peristalisis forces him down and down and down, moving him through. He keeps going until he reaches the security guard, Lower Esophageal Sphincter.

Sphincter lets him continue his journey, but once Joey passes through the gate, he is not supposed to come back. That would cause regurgitation in the line.

Joey has come to the midpoint of his journey - Carl the stomach.

Carl's job is to churn Joey and his fellow friends in order to help mix them in with the gastric juices. These gastric juices are the cool kids that help begin breaking down protein.

The cool kids, the Gastric Juices, are a gang. Their names are Mucous, Digestive Enzymes, and Hydrochloric acid. They absorb any weaklings, small amounts of Water, Salts, Alcohol, and Drugs.

The Digestive Enzymes start with Pepsinogen. He is their leader. It starts with the baby, Pepsinogen, which was born from its parent cells in the stomach. It turns into Pepsin, the adult, when it hangs out with HCL.

Mucous is what coats the stomach. It is the guard that protects the stomach from the acidic solution that is within it.

After being squished and squeezed in the stomach, chyme moves through the pyloric sphincter. Chyme is the digested and squished food that moves from the stomach to the small intestine.

The next security gate is from the stomach to the small intestine is Mr. Pyloric sphincter. His job is to prevent regurgitation just like the first security gate.

Most digestion of Joey the cupcake and his fellow friends start and end in town of Small Intestine. It has three counties, Duodenum, Jejunum, and Ileum.

It is a bustling town with a lot happening. One shop of Small Intestine absorbs nutrients of broken down Joey into the Bloodstream River.

Across the street, another shop neutralizes acid that flows in to contaminate the town. This means that Enzyme Workers can function in these conditions.