I have this thing about making my kids' birthday cakes. I don't want to order one from a bakery, because not only is that expensive, but I feel like it's more of a gift to make one myself. Even if it does look a little bit hoopty!
I've been wanting to post the pictures of the construction of the two birthday cakes my mom and I worked on. I had asked Mom to help me out with Aaron's cake, because I knew it would be hard on me, being only a few days after delivery, and I knew she had enough cake decorating experience to be a good helper. She was very excited to help, and I was excited to have her over and let someone else experience the cake making process with me. I've always gone at it solo.
The dump truck cake was quite amusing. I had baked three 13x9 cakes prior to Mom coming over--two chocolate and one yellow (Aaron wanted both!). We put one full cake on a cake board cut to size. We raised that bottom layer's cake board up a little using folded pieces of cardboard (redneck engineering at its finest!) on top of a larger cake board wrapped in foil. The second layer was another 13x9 cake cut to look like the dumper and cab of the truck. We used slices of the 3rd cake to make the sides of the dumper and added some extra pieces here and there to get the detail right. Mom had bought chocolate covered donuts for the wheels, but they were a little small for the scale. We made due! Aaron's favorite part (and the reason he wanted a dump truck cake to begin with) was the crushed Oreos with gummy worms. We let him put those in the morning of his party...he got straight out of bed and wanted to do it before he even ate breakfast! His cake was a big hit and most of it was actually eaten!
Claire's cake was another adventure. After the fun time Mom had with us making Aaron's cake, she was excited to help with Claire's. I tried a technique I had been wanting to try since I read about it a few years ago. I blew up a coloring page of Dora and traced it on wax paper with a pencil. Then I piped the design onto the wax paper with black icing (my icing should have been wetter as it dried too quickly but it still worked). Then I flipped the wax paper onto the flat cake (11x15 strawberry cake, iced in green as the base coat), and ideally all of the black would have stuck to the cake but since it had dried while I was still piping the design it didn't quite all stick, but it did make an impression in the icing that we were able to follow. Then we started star-tipping details. One of our favorite parts was using black Twizzlers for Dora's hair! It looked a bit like dredlocks but we really liked the effect! All the little girls at Claire's party just adored Dora!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hannah is 2 months old!
Where has the time gone? I certainly didn't sleep it away, but it's been a blur!
Hannah has changed so much in just two short months. She's so much chubbier (but still a little baby!), and she is developing her own little routine. She's alot more predictable these days, so it's easier to know what is wrong with her when she cries. She also sleeps so much better these days. She goes to bed sometime between 9 and 10:30, and wakes up anywhere from 3:30 to 5, eats, and goes right back to sleep until 7 or 8. It's great! I vaguely remember Claire doing this, and it all kinda fell apart when she was 4 months old and started waking up during the night again...but I'm hoping Hannah does better. She still sleeps alot during the day.
People always tell us how much she looks like Chris. I definitely see it in some of her expressions--in the first part of this video you'll see one of them--raising one eyebrow! It is so funny! I also captured a couple of quick smiles, and the first time she grabbed something--the cord to my video camera!
Hannah has changed so much in just two short months. She's so much chubbier (but still a little baby!), and she is developing her own little routine. She's alot more predictable these days, so it's easier to know what is wrong with her when she cries. She also sleeps so much better these days. She goes to bed sometime between 9 and 10:30, and wakes up anywhere from 3:30 to 5, eats, and goes right back to sleep until 7 or 8. It's great! I vaguely remember Claire doing this, and it all kinda fell apart when she was 4 months old and started waking up during the night again...but I'm hoping Hannah does better. She still sleeps alot during the day.
People always tell us how much she looks like Chris. I definitely see it in some of her expressions--in the first part of this video you'll see one of them--raising one eyebrow! It is so funny! I also captured a couple of quick smiles, and the first time she grabbed something--the cord to my video camera!
Aaron's drawings
Aaron has started doing his first representative drawings--drawings that are actually supposed to BE something. I'm so proud! His favorite thing to draw? You guessed it--garbage trucks!
It started a few weeks ago, around Father's Day, when he would ask me to draw the body of a truck, and he would add the claws or sweepers or forks or whatever he wanted. Daddy got lots of truck drawings for Father's Day.
Then when we were on vacation, the kids had arts and crafts time thanks to Jen and Beth who had brought tons of paper and markers for them to use. When Aaron brought me the drawing he did all by himself, I nearly fell out! It was so good, for him, and he was so proud!
It started simple...
Then he added more claws and brought it to me again...
I even took a video of him explaining it.
It started a few weeks ago, around Father's Day, when he would ask me to draw the body of a truck, and he would add the claws or sweepers or forks or whatever he wanted. Daddy got lots of truck drawings for Father's Day.
Then when we were on vacation, the kids had arts and crafts time thanks to Jen and Beth who had brought tons of paper and markers for them to use. When Aaron brought me the drawing he did all by himself, I nearly fell out! It was so good, for him, and he was so proud!
It started simple...
Then he added more claws and brought it to me again...
I even took a video of him explaining it.
Now he draws garbage trucks on everything. He came home Sunday with tons of papers from Sunday school and Kid's Time, and all of them had garbage trucks on them. One day he was practicing writing letters during our afternoon quiet time, and when I wanted to put a reward sticker at the top of his page, he said, "I will just draw a garbage truck instead." On another page he attempted to draw a digger! Sometimes he draws garbage truck boats--they look the same but don't have wheels. Once he drew a garbage truck submarine, by scribbling some water above the truck.
I'm so proud!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Doing the Worm!
A couple of weeks ago we went to the children's museum--the kids' favorite place on earth! There is a dancing room that is always playing dance music, but my kids never really go in it. So when they did on this visit, I whipped out the video camera--and got a video that cracks me up! I have never seen Aaron move quite like this!
Some sweet Hannah pictures
A good smile!
This is a big smile!
One day last week I had made Hannah a bottle to leave her with a sitter. She didn't end up needing it while I was gone, so when we got home I told the kids they could help me give her the bottle. It only worked for a couple of minutes, then she got MAD and didn't want anything to do with it! I got some sweet pictures though!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Claire's 3rd Birthday
Every day when Claire says her prayers, she said, "Deaw God, thank you for...Maylee, annnnnd Allie Rae, annnnnnd Emma Kate." These are her three little best friends. Allie Rae goes to church with us and has been in her Mother's Day Out class for two years. She met Maylee this past year in Mother's Day Out, and Emma Kate goes to church with us as well. So when it came time to plan a birthday party for Claire, I knew it would be just perfect if we invited her three best friends, plus family.
She requested a Dora cake, which my mom and I had fun making together. The little girls were thrilled with all the Dora!
We did pedicures on the little girls!
Almost all of the girls chose sparkly pink!
Happy Birthday!
Claire with her 3 best friends--Emma Kate, Maylee, and Allie Rae!
The boys had fun too!
Present time was fun--one of Claire's favorite things was a Dora birthday card from Ed and Ginger--when you open it, Dora sings Happy Birthday in English and Spanish!
And all of the pictures are in this slideshow!
I can hardly believe it's been 3 years since our sweet Claire Bear joined our family. Happy Birthday baby girl!!
She requested a Dora cake, which my mom and I had fun making together. The little girls were thrilled with all the Dora!
We did pedicures on the little girls!
Almost all of the girls chose sparkly pink!
Happy Birthday!
Claire with her 3 best friends--Emma Kate, Maylee, and Allie Rae!
The boys had fun too!
Present time was fun--one of Claire's favorite things was a Dora birthday card from Ed and Ginger--when you open it, Dora sings Happy Birthday in English and Spanish!
And all of the pictures are in this slideshow!
I can hardly believe it's been 3 years since our sweet Claire Bear joined our family. Happy Birthday baby girl!!
Hannah - 7 weeks old already!
Hannah is growing so fast! I can hardly believe how much different she looks now that she's put on some "chub". I'm not sure how much she weighs now, but I'd have to guess close to 9 lbs.
We went on vacation with her last week and it went pretty well. She did well being held by all the family members, but for some reason she wanted to stay up until midnight every night. At home she's doing much better sleeping, doing some long stretches at night. I'm so thankful to be getting more sleep.
Just before she turned 6 weeks old she started smiling at us! She did it for a couple of days pretty much only for Daddy. I was really bummed she wouldn't smile at me! But now she smiles several times a day and is so precious!
A big smile!!
Part of the reason we're getting more sleep--I finally realized she is a tummy sleeper. I know they say "back to sleep" these days, but she is so much happier on her tummy, and she can lift her head enough to turn from side to side, so I'm not worried at all about it! What do "they" know, anyway???
I'm still debating about whether she has tummy troubles. She tends to be fussier at night, but is usually okay during the day. She is a fabulous nurser and will not take a bottle from me, which is fine with me because I'm too lazy to do bottles. She has taken a few bottles from other people, so she'll probably do fine once I start leaving her more. She's going to the church nursery this Sunday for the first time, and I'm really looking forward to being able to concentrate on the worship service without bouncing a baby! Chris also got me a "spa day" for my birthday, so I will be using that soon!!
Sweet Hannah Rose, growing up too fast!
We went on vacation with her last week and it went pretty well. She did well being held by all the family members, but for some reason she wanted to stay up until midnight every night. At home she's doing much better sleeping, doing some long stretches at night. I'm so thankful to be getting more sleep.
Just before she turned 6 weeks old she started smiling at us! She did it for a couple of days pretty much only for Daddy. I was really bummed she wouldn't smile at me! But now she smiles several times a day and is so precious!
A big smile!!
Part of the reason we're getting more sleep--I finally realized she is a tummy sleeper. I know they say "back to sleep" these days, but she is so much happier on her tummy, and she can lift her head enough to turn from side to side, so I'm not worried at all about it! What do "they" know, anyway???
I'm still debating about whether she has tummy troubles. She tends to be fussier at night, but is usually okay during the day. She is a fabulous nurser and will not take a bottle from me, which is fine with me because I'm too lazy to do bottles. She has taken a few bottles from other people, so she'll probably do fine once I start leaving her more. She's going to the church nursery this Sunday for the first time, and I'm really looking forward to being able to concentrate on the worship service without bouncing a baby! Chris also got me a "spa day" for my birthday, so I will be using that soon!!
Sweet Hannah Rose, growing up too fast!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Garbage Truck Collection
Aaron's garbage truck collection is on display at our local library! They have a display case in the children's area and different kids get to display their various collections each month. We signed up and got the month of July! Aaron is quite proud, but not quite sure how he feels about not playing with his garbage trucks all month!
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