Kaitlyn’s Snowman Cake

This birthday cake has a little story behind it to explain.  I let each of my children choose their birthday cake for their own special day.  My children are each very special and each one unique.  This is sort of my way of giving my children special treatment which doesn’t happen very often… an excuse to spoil them without spoiling them.  This means the birthday child gets to pick the flavor, the frosting and what they want the cake to look like as well as what kind of ice cream they want.  Thus I get my assignment.  Sometimes the assignment is more challenging than others and this time I had a bit of a challenge on my hands, so I felt.  For months Kaitlyn has been talking about having carrot cake for her birthday just like the one her little brother had for his first birthday that she still remembered.  That was the easy part.  Four of my five children have had carrot cake for their first birthday, the old family recipe from my Mom and it’s made with a delicious cream cheese frosting.  But Kaitlyn didn’t know what she wanted this cake to look like.  As the time grew closer some decisions had to be made.  Here was my assignment… the cakes had to be circle cakes layered on top of each other, the cake had to be blue, it shouldn’t have a boat but it should have a… SNOWMAN!    I tried gently persuading her to let me bake it in a snowman cake pan that I have or maybe having the circular cakes next to each other to make a snowman that way.  I requested that we just leave the frosting white, maybe, if this was to be a snowman.  No!   A circular layered blue frosted snowman carrot cake was my assignment!!!  I sort of came up with this as I went.

I frosted the layer cakes with blue cream cheese frosting first.  Then I put three large marshmallows on a chopstick with a little frosting in between each to help them stack.  I found some left over Halloween candy and used laffy taffy and a starburst for the hat, nerds for coal eyes and mouth, a portion of an orange starburst for the nose; all stuck on with tiny dabs of frosting.  Sweet tarts made up the buttons.  I sprinkled powdered sugar lightly over the top for “snow” and colored sprinkles for fun… maybe tiny snowballs.  A cool colored blue icing accented the cake, candles were put in and lit.  We were ready to sing to our birthday girl and present her with her cake.

She blew out all of her candles and was very pleased with her cake.  The snowman was so cute standing at its center!!!

Homemade vanilla ice cream was Kaitlyn’s choice and a very good one for carrot cake.

We wait patiently and politely for everyone to be served.  The birthday person always gets to take the first bite.  Dee-licious!

Kaitlyn was delighted with her snowman cake and my challenge was a success.  And while we had plenty left for another night we carefully placed the “last” piece on a covered dish for the birthday girl to save for her later enjoyment. 

Kaitlyn poses in one of her new outfits with the birthday balloon her Dad bought for her on his way home from work Thursday.  Kaitlyn had a happy, happy day and we wish her a very happy year.

Kaitlyn Turns 5!

Kaitlyn turned 5 years old on January 5th.  I cannot believe it has already been five whole years since her arrival to our family.  She is a very special girl and I just love her so much.  I already know that I’m going to miss her tremendously when she goes to Kindergarten in the fall.  This is how we celebrated Kaitlyn’s special day.

Kaitlyn was excited to make her carrot cake which she has been talking about for months.  She can practically bake this herself these days.  She cracked the eggs by herself, poured in oil and added her dry ingredients.

I greased and floured pans and got the cakes into the oven.  Scruffles showed up to check out the curiosity of balloons.  You should have seen her surprise when she got the balloon off the wall herself.

After an afternoon with a nice sunny walk, playing games, reading stories and watching a short movie for quiet time everyone began coming home from school for the celebration.   The kitchen was decorated for the occasion and we gathered at the table for Kaitlyn’s dinner.  She chose the menu herself of hot dogs, cheese puffs, applesauce and pickles which we all enjoyed with her.

Then came presents and a package to open which arrived in the late afternoon with Kaitlyn’s name on it.

Kaitlyn and her brothers had been playing with balloons while I decorated the cake.

Kaitlyn opened her cards and hung them up on the door for display.  She’s getting taller for sure.

Nathan turns anything he can into a boat and amuses himself since the gifts are not for him unfortunately.  Kaitlyn was excited to unwrap her five year old girl and place her carefully on the shelf and then she found clothes!  Wonderful clothes!

A pretty dress with leggings that everyone loved the colors of and jewelry from her big sister.

A “Fancy Nancy” game and then disappointment that there aren’t more clothes!!!  Then she was excited because the gift ended up being a really cool interactive set of books with a “magic” pen which helps teach reading and writing skills.  Tristan was even interested in this package.

Haley gave Kaitlyn a book and materials to make a purse… Haley didn’t get the reaction she was expecting!!!  Silly silly kisses!

And Kaitlyn got four craft books which she is very excited about.

One more gift was found in a brown box with a huge beautiful bright pink bow.  The boys attacked the bubble wrap while Kaitlyn found some “Fancy Nancy” pajamas and a Fancy Nancy picture book inside the box from her Grammy & Pops. 

Kaitlyn also got another long sleeve dress with leggings.  And a little time was spent with the new TAG books and her Dad while I put the cake together.

Here is Kaitlyn’s cake as I was putting it together… I will include its story in my next post.  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

New Years Eve

Every year on New Year’s Eve we have “fun food” for dinner and play games before the early count down for the younger children.  Our older children stay up for more games until the ball drops at midnight.

This year we had homemade salsa w/ chips, crackers with cheese, shrimp w/ cocktail sauce, meatballs, cheese fondue, grapes, broccoli, and for dipping in chocolate we had strawberries, pretzels, marshmallows and Oreos.

We had a fine time trying new food combinations and snacking for dinner.  The strawberries were by far the most popular item on the menu.

Tristan and Kaitlyn dined together.       And I made the chocolate raspberry cake that Rick had wanted for his birthday. 

At midnight we toasted to the new year with a bottle of grape juice and three of our kids, one of whom “dropped a ball” and thankfully made us all laugh, including himself!

Here’s to 2012!

Christmas Kitties

Four Good Little Kitties got Catnip Bubbles in their stockings… a year supply of fun ahead of us.

Sandy and Spooky like to attack bubbles with a pounce.  Spooky tries to eat them before they disappear by giving them a quick nip.

Spooky, Sandy and Scruffles all came out to play at once.

Each kitty got a tissue wrapped jingle mouse, which they opened themselves one by one.  Scruffles carried her package out to the kitchen up on the bench under the table.  Sandy kept vigil directly underneath while enjoying the heating vent.

And this is what Sandy thought of us taking down her tree…

Whenever you reached into the tree to get an ornament you got the claw attack of your life… someone was in there.

And there she stayed for the entire process.  She “ran” around on her side in the branches of the tree face to face with us as we put things away.  She was really, really sad that her tree was being destructed.  Sandy loved having this tree in her living room for the month of December.

Top 10 Thoughts on the Happy New Year!

A few thoughts went through my head last night about life...

1.)  New Years Eve is better when the last time you're outside for the year is NOT for dumpster diving purposes.
2.)  Maybe Justin Bieber should be on TV EVERY night... you never saw a couple of girls move through our one and only bathroom more quickly.
3.)  Between semesters there should be NO homework assigned in high school, jr. high school OR grade school... just like in college.  Parents definitely should not be assigned homework over Christmas.  This much homework only encourages "burn-out" for all involved and children still need a childhood.  Let ME give that to my children.
4.)  Keep it simple!  Crackers and Cheese with strawberries for dessert should be eaten as a meal more often!  Never a better meal in my two year old's opinion and never easier to prepare in my opinion.
5.)  Long distance phone calls... still amazing and wonderful technology in my book, living so far away from my parents and all of my scattered siblings.
6.)  Appreciate creative humor in others!  Humor is healthy... let someone drop an actual ball on the floor at midnight and shout "Happy New Year" with them.  Then laugh with them a little.
7.)  To Fix or Not to Fix?  That is the question... Either choice scares me!  I had a sudden dread fear that all the things that need "fixing" in life (you know, goals) might not actually get improved upon in 2012 if I don't really exercise some discipline.  Darn those impossible perfectionist yet fear of failure traits.
8.) Don't forget to toast (whether with sparkly juice or actual crispy, buttered toast) the really important yet simple things in life... like health and family.  You never know when unexpected changes will arise and change everything.  Appreciate what you have and feel that what you have is enough.
9.)  Yes!  Time goes by seemingly faster with each passing year... too fast for some reasons and not fast enough for other reasons.
10.)  And Finally, my cat climbed, child undecorated tree a dozen times a day for the past month is looking... tired.  It IS time for a fresh, clean start!