Christie Brinkley had another day on the stand in her divorce trial yesterday. She testified how hard she works to have an ideal family life, saying she loves baking birthday cakes, planning holidays and activities with the children. She claimed that family is “the only thing I’ve ever wanted” and “the most important thing – to have a big, happy family.”

Brinkley has daughter Alexa, 20, with ex Billy Joel, and son Jack, 13, with her husband before Cook, Richard Taubman, and daughter Sailor Lee, 10, with Cook. Cook adopted Jack in 1996 after he married Brinkley. She has plenty of help at home, and has had a nanny, cook, gardener, and a woman to do the laundry. She still spends a lot of time with her children, and testified that she always puts them first before her career.

Her lawyer entered into evidence a dinosaur diorama she built with Jack for his science class “complete with a volcano and flying raptors.” [Details from AP]

She also said she routinely snowboards with son Jack and loves preparing for Christmas. Cook’s lawyer shot back at her, saying she wasn’t the supermom she portrayed and that she accomplishes it all with a lot of paid help:

For Christmas, her $30 million Bridgehampton mansion was transformed into a “wonderland.” She made her own birthday cakes, jumped on a snowboard with son Jack, 12, stocked her home with disaster relief kits and always penciled Jack and daughter Sailor, 10, into her calendar before modeling shoots, she said in Central Islip.

But just as Brinkley was making the case for being the better parent for her two children on her second day on the witness stand, her estranged husband’s attorney dismissed her mothering skills as those of a superboss who relied on the help of a sizable staff.

“Are you trying to tell us that during this period, you were kind of a one-man band, doing everything?” asked Peter Cook’s lawyer, Norman Sherseky of Manhattan.

“I would say that I put in a very busy day,” Brinkley, 54, shot back, conceding that Cook doted on his kids in the marriage’s early years. She told her lawyer during direct examination: “Every nanny that I have knows that it’s a household where the mother is present, that they are more like a mother’s helper.”

[From Newsday]

There’s a revealing editorial in the NY Daily News that question’s Brinkley’s portrayal of herself as a marytred power mom, betrayed by her husband as she sacrificed everything for her kids. Author Jo Piazza says you can see how their marriage unraveled. Cook must have actively worked to pull down the perfection his wife tried so hard to build:

Brinkley detailed just what a domestic goddess she truly is. How she is a stay-at-home mom, completely devoted to her children and her family.

She is so devoted that since her split from Cook, her fourth husband, she has sworn off men. For the kids’ sake, of course.

Devoted isn’t even a strong enough word. Brinkley might actually be Supermom.

After seeing a story on the news about how a child had died of heart failure because there was no defibrillator in the house, she bought one for the family home and a spare one for the house of Peter Cook’s parents … just in case.

After 9/11, she bought all manner of protective gear, including enough gas masks for every member of their household – and even some of the neighbors…

Yes, it may seem over the top, but a good parent does anything he or she can to try to protect the kids. And Brinkley had the means to do that.

She swam and surfed and skied and sailed with them. When daughter Sailor Lee took up tap-dancing, she bought herself and son Jack pairs of tap shoes so they could all tap together.

And, oh, the Christmas parties! Each year, Brinkley put her all into throwing a Christmas carol singfest.

She would meticulously type up the lyrics to all the songs and pass them out as her ex-husband Billy Joel played the piano and everyone had a gay old time.

Well, everyone except for probably Cook.

Brinkley says he scowled his way through the last Christmas the pair spent together before “the betrayal.” That’s how she refers to Cook’s infidelity with teen lover Diana Bianchi and his love of Internet pornography.

Peter Cook is obviously a flawed man. The novelty of having a beautiful wife must wear off when she is the one wearing the perfectly tailored pants all the time.

Having to deal with Brinkley’s perfection and the gleaming life she built for them must have been difficult. He got destructive and to make himself feel better about playing second fiddle, had to destroy her idyllic world.

[From NY Daily News]

There’s no excuse for what he did. If there were problems in their relationship he could have tried to work on them with his wife instead of escaping into porn and carrying on an affair with a teenager. She’s painting a rosy picture of her life with the kids, and considering what her husband did she certainly seems like the parent who should get primary custody. She admits that her life revolves around her children, however and it’s easy to see that there was little or no room for Cook. That in no way justifies his abhorrent behavior.

Brinkley said she hasn’t dated since her marriage dissolved, and that “I’ve just been completely focused getting the kids over this painful event. I think it would inappropriate because I think the kids have been though a lot of changes.”

As for her husband’s motivations, she finds it baffling and cites their children together as motivation for staying faithful: “I mean, sneaking out of the house when you’ve got beautiful, loving children there, to go choose instead to masturbate on the World Wide Web, just makes me worry about his judgment.” [Quotes from the NY Post]

Cook’s lawyer notes the many times Brinkley publicly praised her estranged husband as a good father, and say that she’s working to cut him out of his children’s lives.

It is thought that an alleged girlfriend of Cook’s, interior designer Bridget Nisivoccia, 36, might be called to testify in the divorce. She maintains her relationship with Cook is only professional, although there is speculation that they had a relationship after he and Brinkley were separated.

Photo credit: Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook are shown outside of court yesterday, thanks to Lisa Wagner at Splash News