Spring 2012

I really enjoy being outside and sunny weather.  We have working on our outdoor seating on a budget.  We got our table and chairs for free last year.  Although it is to large for the space, it was free.  This year so far I have painted the table yellow and left the chairs as they were.  To spruce them up would have cost too much.  I may make pillow eventually too.  I salvaged the pansies from last fall and have them in the pots on the deck.  We got an old-school push lawn mower (no motor-powered by me).  I have mowed, reseeded, weeded and transplanted some hastas so far.   I love spring!

Hydrangeas

girls helping out

my left-over fall pansies

chair and stool I painted a while back

painted table

Mr. Snail

We have added a member to the family.  A snail.  The fish that we got my oldest daughter for her third birthday has a new roommate.  It was very annoyed at first but now we find him “cuddling” with the snail often.  It was a typical run to the pet store to get food for Foxy that turned into and an adventure.  My youngest little girl got the privilege of carrying the snail for the car ride home and my eldest little girl got to catch he snail with a net and transfer it to it’s new home. 

First bike ride as a family for the season was great.  Although I had anxiety about the girls tipping, all went well and the Burley stayed steady.  We biked just around the corner to eh Potomac to watch the sailboats.  The girls really enjoy this little trip and watching the water crafts move about.  I foresee this happening many more times this year!

Ballet and Soccer equals Fun Fridays

Ballet and Soccer have been added to our agenda  this spring.  We call it “Fun Friday’s”.  Soccer in the morning with the UK Elite Team and British accented coaches and ballet in the afternoon for my eldest little girl.   The girls have really enjoyed doing soccer together and learning the skills through fun games and drills.  Friday evenings consist of my oldest teaching my youngest how to “Run, run, run, leap!!!”-some dance skills from her class.  She absolutely adores the senior dancers at the studio.  We get there early just to watch them practice.

To celebrate my little girl turning four we had a mini party at school, a Build-a-Bear Party with friends, and a small weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge with the four of us.  She had a blast!!!!  The best of all and the most talked about was her pirate themed party’s and the endless swimming and “diving” she did at GWL.  She LOVED the water-as we expected.  She and her daddy went on all the slides, the wave pool, and the most time was spent in the “kiddie” area.  She felt that she could conquer the slides and waterfalls there without any help.  My youngest hesitated a bit more when it came to the water.  After about two hours she felt more comfortable with putting her face gently in the water.  We have heard about GWL almost daily since the trip.  The girls had such a great time with the celebrations that they have already begun to plan my youngest turning three this July.  So far it will be in Michigan and the cake will be green according to the conversations the two of them have been having.

Pre-school party

Bed time story and GWL

My littlest did not like the character at all

My new four year old diving in the falls

We got her pink snorkel gear (as seen above) and a pink guitar-she loved them both

The Fondant Pirate Cake

The journey of learning how to make rolled fondant frosting was a bumpy one.  So it all started with that post a few weeks back with pirate birthday cake inspirations.  My birthday girl saw the images and was ecstatic about a pirate birthday cake.  She enjoyed "the green one".  The image with the pirate cake with a green hat.  And so the journey began.  Researching the internet for recipes for rolled fondant and watching those oh-so-helpful YouTube demonstrations took much of my time this past week in preparation for "The Pirate Cake".  When I suggested cupcakes, or cake-pops my little girl turned her nose and exclaimed "No mommy...a BIG cake, a big, big green Pirate cake!!!!!!!!"  The research continued.  Grocery list-check. Several hours allotted to pick up groceries, "just in-case"-check.  Then it happened...the great search of Northern Virginia for the cute little ingredient-Glycerin.  It's spoken of in the videos as if you can just pick it up nearly anywhere.  You know, glycerin.  Well, the only glycerin stocked in our grocery store was the suppository form.  Lovely.  The craft store was all out.  The only trace was the bar code on the shelf with no bottles behind it.  After 7 interactions with stores via phone or in person I found it.  Glycerin.  Oh, by the way, the recipe only called for a tablespoon of this stuff-Really??? Really??  Hours of scouring the city for a tablespoon. Yes.
I proceed to make the fondant meticulously just as the video showed.  I ended up with a sticky mess and still 6 out of 8 more cups of powdered sugar to add.  I recruited "muscle" to help to kneed this impossible mess.  45 minutes to an hour later the mixture was ready thanks to my husband and his strength-I surely could not have done it alone. 
The assembling of the cake.  Rolling the fondant wasn't too difficult after letting it warm up from being in the fridge for about an hour, and kneading in small portions for another 20 minutes.  Let's just say it is NOT as straight forward as the videos show.  The smoothing process was a joke.  Cutting around the edge at the bottom after you drape it over the cake was a joke.  The fun part was turning it into the pirate.
When my little girl woke this morning (and me barely being able to crack an eye open since we were up into the wee hours of the night creating the cake) she loved it! 

I made these cupcakes in addition to the cake.  It took about 20 minutes to frost and decorate all the cupcakes.  Sounds like a nice quick idea for next year :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

My little girl had a Valentine's Day party at school.  She had to bring a Valentine for each classmate, which we spent the evening before coloring and addressing.  My youngest and I went and helped out at the party with a couple other mommies.  My oldest was so excited to have us join her in class that morning.  They made a Valentine's Day craft and a Valentine's Day card with bright red glitter that fell off of the card and all over the car, the house, etc.  Oh joy.  For dinner that night we made the girls pink heart shaped, chocolate chip pancakes!  They were a big hit.  Towards the end of the meal, my oldest daughter was rummaging for the chocolate chips within the pancakes and casting the chocolate free pancake aside asking for seconds.  Daddy and I had a quiet "ordered in" thai dinner and a Netflix movie.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Pirate Cake Inspirations

Trying to decide on how to make a kid appropriate Pirate cake for my soon to be 4 year old daughter.  She saw a pirate Veggie Tales show at my friends house and has not stopped talking about them.  Her library book also had "Ladybug Girl" dressed as a pirate too-which she studied intently.  I am trying to put together a costume for her as well...she keeps talking like she is getting one.  "I need an eye thing, and the pants...we need to get one!!!"  Here are some inspirational photos (Not interested in skull and cross bones and would want it to be a "girlie" pirate-could alter that for our cake):

Love the fondant!

The pink is fun.

I think I could do this?

I like the idea of a small cake and then many cupcakes

My feet bring me much sadness and pain.  Seriously when I think about them and the extreme limitations they have brought me this last year I cry.  New orthotics, oral steroids, and many podiatry appointments.  All I am left with is “you have 6 HUGE neuromas”, and a new crippled lifestyle.   Sad. 

Nothing special. Just January.

What have we done this past week? 1) We went with a group of neighborhood moms and little ones to the Natural History Museum last Friday.  I think it totaled 8 moms and 14 kids? Or something like that.  Believe it or not it went incredibly well.  Not bad for children nearly all under the age of 4! 2) Celebrated "Burns Night" with some friends and even experienced a live bagpipe session!  I love bagpipes/bagpipers.  3) Took my little ones out to roller-skate with some friends in our drive.  My eldest kept saying to the other little boy..."It's ok, you don't have to hold your mom's hand.  Let's race!!!!"  She said this at least ten times.  She is getting better and my regret for letting her get them is slowly dissipating.  And now back to Monday.

the little ones on the right took their skates off for snack time

We traveled back to the Midwest to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday.  We promised my daughters snow, and snow there was!  We made snow angels, a snowman, and went ice-skating and sledded every day.  We had a  "winter wonderland" photo session too.  Here are some of the images shot from Jennifer Marie Photography.