Our Chocolate Wasted Cake

My middle child is having a birthday and this year he wanted a chocolate cake. On Pinterest I came across this Chocolate Wasted Cake and I knew he would love it! (minus the alcohol, of course, as he's only 9). My pictures (below) do not do full justice to her cake and you should check out the original. Also, hers has a tasty twist if you are making it for adults only.



For the chocolate drizzle on mine I melted chocolate chips in a double boiler and used some Torani Almond (Orgeat) syrup to thin it enough for drizzling. If you do it the same way, be careful not to use to much drizzle, as the Almond syrup has a really strong flavor. I was thinking that using peanut butter could be really tasty, too, and would be a little more subtle.



Can't wait to try it!

Baking Fail

Day 27/31:

I swear, sometimes the only way I get through the day is because of this corner of the kitchen. Sometimes I think my dear coffee will get me through anything.



Tomorrow the kids have their Halloween parties so today we were making sure costumes are ready and cookies and cupcakes are done. Well, they are now done but it's also 1am. I thought I would make cupcakes in ice cream cones for Erin's classroom as it's a classic dessert that's a little fun. But as I took the last batch of the boys' cookies from the oven I apparently turned the oven OFF without noticing. So the tops of the cupcakes cooked but not the middle. I noticed this and turned the oven on hoping that it would still be okay. But the middle of the cupcakes collapsed like a souffle and settled into a chewy mess at the bottom. When I tried to frost the cupcakes (thinking that maybe I could salvage them somehow?) the tops collapsed into the vacant hole and it all just looks like crap.



Think they look vaguely okay from the distance? Well how about a close up. Yeah, not so appetizing. On the other hand, a bunch of 2nd graders are usually not picky about sugar so for a brief moment I considered giving it to them anyway. So I decided to try one and see if they tasted edible, given that they already had a big strike against them in the looks department. WOW, that was gross. Chewy, nasty, nasty. Aaaand... Garbage. So at about 10:30 I headed to the store and got some more cones. I almost gave up here and bought the cupcakes pre-made from the store but I had already sold Erin on the idea of ice cream cone cupcakes and I didn't want to disappoint her.



This time (REALLY important tip here) I made sure that the oven was ON. I know, who would have thought? Anyway, this worked out much better than last time. The kids might even eat these.



Now with some fake dirt (Oreos) and some worms they are disgusting in a good Halloween-ish way instead of a OMFSM-what-is-this-disgusting-thing-get-it-out-of-my-mouth-before-I-puke-ish way. So yeah, the kids will be thrilled and I am finally going to bed. Yay!

The Best Laid Plans

Day 12/31:

All the best planning in the world does not account for a 60 pound 1 year old puppy. I made these curtains this weekend, even stayed up a little late, and then yesterday Luna decided to get chewy before I got a chance to hang them. So today I am being realistic about handcrafting in a home with pets and children. There are definitely projects that go wrong, even when you're getting all the steps done right. Lucky for me I think I have enough extra fabric to correct this and lucky for her I like her so much.

Halloweens Costumes - Kids

Day 7/31:

As part of my Handmade Home series I thought I would show you some of the kids' Halloween costumes from the past. Not all of these are handmade but many of them are so I'll point them out as we go.

Joe as a Cow. This is one of my favorite handmade costumes. Well, technically only partly handmade. I purchased the hat and made the shirt. Anyway, it was a plain white shirt and I used puffy paint on it. Add in the hat and the pants and I made the very first costume for one of my kids.



Joe as a Pumpkin, this one I did not make. Yup, he had two costumes that year. We went to two different parties and this was too cute to pass up using for the home party but the cow costume was good for leaving the house and staying warm (and easily buckling into a car seat).



Erin as a bumblebee (purchased), Joe as Spiderman (purchased), and Glenn as a teddy bear (handmade). Erin was a stinkin' cute bumblebee so I went ahead and bought it and Joe had his heart set on Spiderman so we just went with it. But Glenn didn't have a preference yet and I got to have some fun making that costume.



Ok, one more shot of the Teddy Bear costume just because.



Joe as a lion (purchased). I loved his roar, he was so enthusiastic about it. I giggled my butt off quite a bit that year just watching him.



The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy, the lion, and the tinman costumes (all 3 are handmade). I ran out of time and didn't get the tinman's hat painted but it was still fun as it was. Unfortunately the sun was in their eyes so I had a hard time getting them to look at me.



Here's one more shot from the party where you can see Erin's Dorothy costume a little better.



There were more costumes of course but I don't have photographs of them all (whoops!). All of the others were store bought except the year that they all 3 went as pirates. The pirate pictures I'll keep looking for as I'm sure I have them somewhere...

Anyway, come back tomorrow and I'll have two of my adult costumes to show you!

First Day

It's the first day of school again! This morning I delivered 3 balls of nerves to school. We went through and checked out their classrooms and met teachers. I think it helped the kids when the teachers told them that they are nervous, too. :)



And of course we had to let the silly get out too.



Hope you're having a good Monday!

Foolproof way to make a kid smile for the camera

Have you tried saying "Cheese" and it doesn't work? They stare at you grumpily or give you that fake smile that looks like a grimace? Let me share with you a trick I learned from my mother. Tell them to NOT smile. Really.



It goes something like this (speak like you are serious but be smiling a little yourself):

Non-smiling child
"DON'T you smile!"
The child looks surprised
"I mean it!"
Small smile starts
"I see that! Wipe that smile off your face RIGHT NOW!!"
Big open grins and belly laughs
Keep talking as long as you are taking pictures, with variations on the theme. "Don't you dare" does wonders, too.





Since daddy has been doing a lot of business in Seattle he needed to demonstrate how far it is from Reno to Seattle.

Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary

I have lived in Reno for 8 years-ish. When I first moved here I heard that there was a zoo and I took my kids out there. It was, um, well it was bad. The poor animals looked sad in little dinky squares with not much natural shade, plants etc. The kids didn't like it and we never went back. Not long after that I heard that there is also a wildlife sanctuary here but after my zoo experience I never went out there to have a look around. That was a mistake! We took all of the kids out to Animal Ark on Saturday and it was wonderful.

The viewing areas had a nice view of most of the animals and this big boy came right close up to see us.



The animals have nice big spaces to move around in, the big ones are rotated often so they aren't out all day and there is a lot of natural shade and interest in their homes.



We were there around the time that they were changing the bears around and the kids really enjoyed watching it. They placed fruits all around for Yogi (yes, the bear) to find and we were able to have the pleasure of watching it.





I tried to get a bears-eye view but Glenn caught me.



But after the bear was done I did round them all up for a silly face shot. Everyone tried something except I think K2 thought I told him to pick his nose...



And then they all ran away from me, haha. If you live in the Reno area and have thought about going to the Animal Ark I would certainly recommend it. We'll take the kids there again.



On Sunday we took the kids to my mom's house and just played around.









What did you do over the weekend?

If you can't say something nice...

I wanted a centerpiece for a spring mantle. My kids need a lesson for being nicer to each other. I figured, why not combine them?

I grabbed a piece of MDF that was hanging out in the garage and used some turquoise paint left over from the bookcase I built last year. I traced Thumper in the corner with a pencil and then drew over it with a blue Sharpie marker. Then I explained to my kids who Thumper is because I have apparently never bought that movie and introduced my kids to Bambie (which I will remedy this weekend).



Then I used my Silhouette machine (really love that thing!) and added a few nice words to my board.



Now we have some lovely spring color and I can point to it when the kids' words to each other aren't very nice (which is working already. yay!).

Reye's and Confidence in your doctor

I started seeing a new doctor this morning and I have to say that I am not impressed. Actually, I'm a little appalled. On my chart, under medical allergies, I list Aspirin. I do not take it for any reason. Why? Well, as a child I was hospitalized with Reye's Syndrome. It's a condition for which they don't exactly know the full cause but basically after a child (possibly older but usually kids) has a flu/fever and takes aspirin/salicylates for relief they have a very serious reaction requiring hospitalization that typically affects most bodily organs (especially liver/brain) and can be fatal. I had a trip to the hospital for this when I was around 3.

Today, this new doctor says to me "Really? You had Reye's? I thought that was just theoretical?". Um, no. It's not just theoretical and it's very serious. It's why you aren't supposed to give a child aspirin/salicylates. So either she has it confused with another condition or she honestly thinks it's not proven. In either case she should NOT be a family practice doctor. I understand that the general public doesn't always know about this condition but a family doctor who treats kids? Not acceptable. If there is a family of products that you aren't supposed to prescribe or give to children a family practice doctor should know why. Otherwise, it is too likely that they'll start to think "well, a little can't hurt". Because YES, it can.

If you are a parent or care for other people's children, please know that Reye's Syndrome can be extremely serious or fatal and you should NOT give your children an aspirin/salicylates product.

Camouflage/Army Theme Birthday Party

Still catching up on my backlog. Here are some shots I took of my oldest son's birthday party last month. He is very much into all things military (games, toys, etc) so I thought that an army party would go over well.

I made sure all of the little soldiers were set up with helmets, binoculars and dog tags. Since the girls were revolting a little (not so into army stuff) I added little pink bows to their helmets/party hats and that seemed to make everyone happy.



To keep the kids occupied I gave them a scavenger hunt, disguised as military "missions". As they completed each mission a clue for a new mission was waiting for them. They had to:
~ Rescue their comrade (I tied up a teddy bear and put him in the laundry room)
~ Observe and report (Tell me about some objects in a particular room)
~ Cooperate to help our allies retreat (Get 5 army men and bring them back)
~ Traverse a mine field (Obstacle course in the living room)
~ Sneak through enemy territory (Get to the kitchen without being seen by the adults)



At the end the little soldiers were victorious (of course) and located their prize bags.

The cake I *thought* would be really easy. I looked up a few camouflage cakes on the internet and tried to duplicate them but as soon as I started frosting I quickly had misgivings and thought I'd made a mistake instead. I pushed on, however, and am glad that I did. All in all I think it actually turned out pretty nice. I just used some army toys (well washed) that he had received at Christmas time to top it off. The frosting is a homemade powder sugar/butter mix with half colored brown by the vanilla and half colored green. I just poured the brown mix over the whole thing and then put the green in spots. Since the frosting is pretty runny when first made this was very easy and then I refrigerated it for about 10 minutes to set up the frosting before I added the toys.



Joe had a little help blowing out his birthday candles.



Luckily, he seemed to think that it was a great joke and all was well.



9 years old already. Wow.

Seussless

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday. I don't really read many of his books to my kids (we only have a couple) because I never forgave him for being mean to me when I was a kid. I was in the 2nd grade and he had come to our school. He was signing books in the library if you bought one but if you didn't (and I had no money) he wouldn't even say hello, much less give you an autograph. As an adult I'm guessing it was because he didn't have a lot of time but I was very disappointed and didn't understand. And I realized yesterday that under the right circumstances I can hold a grudge for a very long time. Here it is, more than 20 years later, and I still remember that every single year.

I was talking to Eric about it last night and today he wrote this for me:

"Buy my books!" said the strange man.
"I'd love to, but I have no money!" I began.
"But someday I'll have a job, and kids too!"
"You have no money today?" he said. "Boo to you!"

I've not forgiven him, not even now.
It's been over twenty years, and yet I still avow:
While I enjoy reading about green eggs and ham,
Still pissed at old Dr. Seuss, I am, I am.

I love it!