Flashback: Epic 5 year-old birthday cake

For Grace's 5th birthday, almost a year ago, she wanted a my little pony cake for months before. She wanted Twilight Sparkle. How on earth do you make a pony cake? Should I just do a square cake and frost a picture of Twilight on the top? Should I do a little figurine of Twilight, like I did with Hello Kitty? I pondered this for months. I know that sounds a little ridiculous.

At Grace's preschool, the birthday child was invited to bring cupcakes for snack time. This gave me two opportunities to do a fun twilight confection for Grace, so I took two approaches. In my mind, one was an epic win and the other was an epic fail. Either way, it was EPIC! I needed it to be epic, because I had just been hired at my new job and would start four days after her birthday. I needed this cake to count for at least two birthdays, since I knew I wouldn't be able to put as much time into her cakes in the future.

First, epic win: cupcakes!

I purchased edible black ink markers just for the occasion. They were adorable.

Now, the epic fail: the cake. Ok, maybe not so much epic fail, but I definitely bit of more than I could chew. I decided to sculpt Twilight Sparkle into a cake! The process was thrilling and terrifying. I don't even remember how much time it took. It was a labor of love, and I didn't care.

Now, before you see the picture, I need to warn you, the head fell off and smacked face first on the counter before I got a picture. For the picture's sake, and for the birthday song, I carefully balanced the head back on the cake and tried to quickly finish the mane to cover up some damage. I wasn't quite done with the mane, but compromised structural integrity forced me to make concessions. But, the face and ear did get squished, and I couldn't cover that up so well...

Grace didn't seem to mind. Look at that tongue, hungrily licking her lips.

As the situation has it, I'm not planning on making a cake for Grace this year. We have bigger plans in the works, which I no doubt will post about eventually. Just over two weeks until her 6th birthday!

Piano Duet

Egg Hunts

I'm not sure when Easter became all about plastic egg hunts, but somewhere between my childhood and the childhood of my children. With almost no planning at all, we lucked out with two Easter egg hunts in one day!

The first one was in the park across the street from our house. It was put on as a service project by the Middle School Student Council.

Our friend who lives nearby stopped by our house to tell us about it. Here is her daughter with my kids. I took 7 pictures of these three standing there. All 7 have my friend's daughter standing nicely in the middle and smiling. All 7 have my kids holding a different pose and/or face expression in each.

By the way, Grace was super proud of her outfit in the above picture. What you can't see is that she's wearing a sweater that matches her legwarmers almost perfectly.

Later in the afternoon, we were lucky enough to have an egg hunt with cousins at my sister's house. For this one the eggs were actually kind of hiding, which makes it way more fun.

Portraits by Grace

In January Grace drew portraits of each of us that characterized our dreams, then she taped the pictures on our bedroom doors. It was really sweet.

For herself, she dreams of fairies night and day, so of course, she is a fairy.

At the time, Henry was slightly obsessed with Batman, so Grace drew Henry as batman.

Scott is currently chasing his dream of being a doctor.

Then I got to mine and I just stared.

Mom, the martian? It took me about three minutes to realize that she had drawn me as Fiona from Shrek the musical which I was in a year and a half before. I guess that is a dream I chase--being on stage. More and more as Grace gets older, she surprises me with her thoughtfulness and insight.

The last couple days

Grace made sweet conversation with a pair of worms as they explored their way across the pavement.

Henry confidently pumped his legs on the peddles of his hand-me-down bike with glee. Every so often his momentum would stop or he'd get stuck on an uphill slope, so he informed me, "when I ring my bell, that means I need you to push me." I heard the delicate jingle of the bell every other minute while we were outside. I think he rang the bell more to make sure I was still giving him my attention than when he actually needed help.

Henry and Grace both leaned against me for nearly an hour as we read book after book on the beanbags in the library. It has been almost a year since I've taken them to the library, which makes me a little sad. When we got home, all they wanted to do was read their library books over and over again. Grace picked out two Halloween books from the library. She still loves Halloween.

 On a car ride Henry said, "Someday I want to be a bird."
Grace followed with, "Someday I want to be a flying cat mermaid. Actually, a flying cat mermaid ...princess ...fairy."

Wow.

I couldn't resist:

Ch-ch-ch-changes

There have been some major changes around here in the past few months. The most notable is I have gone back to work full-time, which partly explains my lack of posting. A family vacation is fast approaching and I hope to make some time then for blogging. I have a lot to share!

Poetically Ominous

As we were eating breakfast this morning, Scott caught a glimpse of an eerie sight.We live right next to an old derelict Episcopal church. It's no longer used, and in the evening you can occasionally see bats flying in and out of the old bell tower vents. This morning perched on the top of the weather-beaten wooden cross sat a vulture, still as a statue, wings held out like the cross he had mounted.

Isn't that strange? Scott was speculating that in a different era, that would be a bad omen that meant some sort of evil was approaching. I felt Edgar Allen Poe-ish, or maybe more accurate with the religious undertones, Nathaniel Hawthorne-esque. It was kind of surreal and exciting to see such a sight.

We ended the day with a poetic setting, too. Our children danced in the circle of a rainbow! It has been a beautiful day. Hooray for a holiday weekend! Can't wait to play again tomorrow.

Tiny Dancer

Grace had her dance recital last week. Her costume was the epitome of cute, little girl, dream ballerina dress. It had a huge, poofy skirt, ruffles, sparkles, flowers, and it was pink. What more could you ask for?

We got  a couple dozen pictures of her dancing on stage with her class that only a parent can really love. As expected, in most of them none of the dancers are doing quite the same action. It was cute. Scott and I particularly liked the two times we caught Grace spontaneously giving a thumbs up.

She seemed to really love being on stage. She was beaming in her class dance. By the end, her happy face was gone, however. You can see her little pouty face as she's holding her teacher's hand. She told me later she had hurt herself and was sad.

But I wouldn't blame her if she was just so tired and crabby from the length of the recital. In my opinion, dance recitals definitely shouldn't be more than three hours long. And if they're during nap time, you can expect me to do this:

We happened to sit next to a friend who caught this picture of me and Henry near the end of the recital. Grace said next year she wants to do karate instead of dance. We'll see. I'm guessing the karate recitals aren't as long, which makes it tempting.

Snow Day #13

I'm not really sure why today was a snow day, but I hope it's the last one this year.

Last night, as I anticipated the cancellation of school again today, the song "Someday" by John Legend was going through my head. As I was falling asleep it became a love song between me and summer...

Someday we'll be together...


)


:)

Snow Day #12

We decided to make a show out of watching the snow fall. They say it was falling at 1-2 inches per hour through the morning. Sometimes it was falling sideways! Fun stuff to watch.

We saw lots of cars, trucks and snowplows, too. Then we had our own bedhead goofball photo shoot. These two kids are the cutest goofballs in Jonesville.

Rare Night

My sister, Kali, had the brilliant idea to invite Grandpa Steve to her house for a vacation away from Minnesota. He was really happy about the idea of traveling since he hadn't traveled in a long time. He joined me and my kids as we drove back from Minnesota, then continued on to Kali's house.

My aunt Sara lives in Pennsylvania and doesn't get to MN very often to visit her dad. Kali told her about his visit, and Sara and Wayne decided to make the trip to Kali's house, too. I couldn't pass up a chance to visit with everyone there, either. It was a really great night.

Sara and Wayne are totally cute. I felt uplifted and edified by the evening. There was a lot of good conversation, good food, laughter, contentment, and bonding. Sara taught me how to speak egg talk, a secret language she used to speak with her sister. I need to write the rules down somewhere secret so I can work on it for our next visit.

The kids were mostly happy to play with each other. I really liked this moment, where Henry crawled into the chair next to Josh to read some Harry Potter.

All the adults are pictured above. Grace's face expression is pretty awesome. She's such a goofy ham!

Another thing that made the night rare is that I got this adorable photo of Josh. In my years of taking pictures at family events, all my pictures of Josh have him either with eyes closed or he's not smiling. Hooray for fun nights with family!

Winter of Arctic Blasts

Near the beginning of the month, I needed to make a quick stop at Walmart. It was right before nap time which meant I was juggling a ticking bomb of cranky children, and probably rushing unnecessarily to get the five or so items on my list. As we entered the store, I pulled out a cart and started the process of inserting the children into said cart. My gaze was down, so the first thing I noticed of the man who passed me was his legs. He had knee length cut-off jeans and the temperature was below freezing. He had what looked like several layers of socks, all pulled up, but they only reached to the middle of his calf. From the top of the socks to his knee the skin on his legs was scaly, calloused, and clearly weather damaged. It looked like he had been wearing the socks so long that there was a ridge of calloused skin growing out over the top of them. I was slapped with the realization that this man was homeless in this brutal winter! I glanced up at his face and my heart hurt as I saw that his nose was a blackened scab and the tip of it had fallen off from frostbite.

He walked with firm determination, not looking at anyone, and went straight to the customer service desk. I robotically walked toward the grocery aisles, but couldn't help myself from watching his progress. When I saw him stand at the end of the long line at the customer service desk, I absently turned my cart and walked towards the men clothing section. I glanced around to see if there were any denim pants with flannel lining, glancing up to see if the man was still waiting in line. How would I know what size to get? Then I glanced at my children and was reminded of the ticking bomb as we approached nap-time. I felt torn.

Over the course of the minute since I saw him, I had gone through dozens of scenarios on how to approach this man and offer whatever service I could. I was also going over everything I knew of this small town community and realizing I didn't know of a single shelter or homeless service.

I decided to collect my short list of groceries first, then try to catch him in the customer service area and ask him if I could gift him a new pair of pants. I didn't know what else to do. Unfortunately when I returned to the front of the store he was no where in sight.

Later that week, a woman in my church was presenting a talk about relying on the Lord through trials. She shared with the congregation that during the economic crash of 2008 she had been evicted from her home and lived for a year in a tent by a river. I was completely transfixed by her story. I had talked with her and spent time with her daughter, but I didn't know they had gone through such a rough year. My thoughts returned to the man I saw in Walmart and I wondered how long he had been without a home. I wondered about his family and his history, and my heart ached. Maybe this was his one rough year in transition, but it had cost him dearly.

Since moving to Jonesville, I have complained a lot about my house, and the blogosphere hasn't even heard the half of it. This winter has been so brutal that I have felt imprisoned in this house many days. But my feelings have softened toward it. From the depths of my heart I am so grateful for this house. I am so grateful to have a functioning heater and enough space for my kids to run. I'm so grateful for the faucets with warm and cold water any time of day. I'm so grateful for protection from the bitter, bitter cold winds that bite at my skin and the piles and piles of snow. I'm so grateful for electricity, and lights, and big windows! In spite of it's partly dilapidated state, there's beautiful old house charm in the craft of this house. I'd rather be imprisoned in this paradise compared to the confines of a tent during windchills well below zero.

Many of our doorknobs are beautiful glass antiques.

Today we are in the midst of another arctic blast. The windchill when I woke up was -20, the temperature -8. I can't help but think of that homeless man. I've thought of him often since I saw him. I wish I had just followed my gut and bought the pants and given them to him before I hesitated. I wish I could've bought him much more. I hope some day when presented with a similar scenario I'm given a chance to try again.

Eating Curiousity

Most kids have their own food issues at one point or another, and my kids are no exception. That's not the point of this post. For at least a year, there has been a different dining quirk at our house.

I always serve the same food on a plate to each kid per meal. Without discussing it or planning it out, they tend to eat the opposite food as the other. On this morning, they got eggs and toast. Grace ate her toast and didn't touch her eggs. Henry devoured his eggs and took one tiny bite of toast after my coaxing. One dinner this week was ham, rice and broccoli. Both kids ate broccoli (thankfully) but Grace refused to eat more than three bites of rice, and Henry gagged on his one bite of ham. Otherwise they cleaned their plates.

A favorite lunch at our house includes cheese, crackers and fruit. They both eat the fruit. Henry always eats all the cheese, and normally leaves a cracker or two. Grace is the opposite, leaving some cheese.

This happens at maybe 50% of meals. It's so weird. They don't always have the same food preferences from meal to meal, either, but they still eat the opposite food as the other. They're served the same food, but eat completely different diets.

More Snow... I can't seem to stop myself

I know, I know, I keep posting about this winter, but it really is an amazing winter! I came to Minnesota to get away from my lonely tiny house while my husband is enjoying summer temperatures in TX for the month. I thought I had a lot of snow at my house...until I got here.

The snow is almost to the height of the base of the window. The pile is so high we can't see the cul-de-sac.

I grew up in this house with many a snowy winter, but I have never seen this much snow here.

I don't feel like photos accurately convey the magnitude of this pile of snow, so I took a few different angles.

That is my parents second story bedroom window behind the pile of snow.

Photo taken standing at the other end of the cul-de-sac. You could hide a small house in that pile of snow!

The sky is blue and lovely.

Walking through the yard, the snow is deeper than my knee. In some places where there's drifting I sink all the way to my crotch. It's pretty amazing.

p.s. back at home, today is snow day #11.

Snow Day #9

This is out of control.

I just looked at tomorrow's forecast and if it is as predicted, tomorrow will most likely be snow day #10. Windchills at -25 will do that.

Snow Day #8: Epic Fort

Outside: 4 large blankets, at least 3 small blankets, a towel, table, chairs, benches, a radiator...

Inside: lots of blankets and pillows, separate rooms, even a secret hiding room, and heat from the radiator :)

And cake. Because we wanted to. Happy February.

I'm so done with winter this year.

Can't get enough

Mother Nature must've gotten a memo that we needed more snow, so she kindly obliged.

I don't think I've lived through such a snowy winter as an adult. Despite growing up in Minnesota, I was never the one who had to drive or shovel... or encapsulate two wiggly children in layers and layers of clothing. It's exhausting!

This is our driveway. The pile Grace is on is just snow. It is taller than me.

We couldn't play in the backyard because it's so deep Henry couldn't move and Grace fell over every couple steps as she tried to wrestle through it. But they both loved playing in the front. And so did I. It was SO NICE to get out of the house after being shut in for January, including 7 days of cancelled school because of cold weather. Having temperatures hover around 30 felt like a heat wave!

So what did we do after playing in the snow in this heat wave? Went out for ice cream, of course! I've been really bad about too many sweets in the last couple days. We've also had Swiss Cake Rolls, marshmallows, fruit snacks, and this:

This is not peanut butter. It looks exactly like it, but it is not a nut butter at all. It is made out of crushed cookies. Really good crushed cookies.

It is right in the middle of the peanut butter selection, which is deceiving. I would never have seen it if it wasn't for a sample table a couple months ago at the grocery store. It is dangerous. Buy it only if you want to get sick from eating too much of it at once, because you can't stop yourself. But it might be worth it.