"Cake Wrecks" or "What Happens When I Help My Cub Scouts"

My lovely sons are cub scouts and they like it.  They learn stuff and feel good about accomplishing stuff and get patches and stuff.  And stuff.  But this time of year, ready or not, I have to grit my teeth, roll up my sleeves, and be a mom to two cub scouts.  

I don't like February's Blue and Gold Banquet.  Or March's Pinewood Derby.  They are labor-intensive. Our ward has a cake baking/decorating activity to go along with Blue and Gold Banquets. I thought I was being smart this year when I picked a dozen cake options online and had each boy pick what kind of cake they wanted to decorate.  JO picked well.  He made a paper template, and did a Ninja design with powdered sugar and red sugar granules "for the blood."  

                 JO's is the cake on the left on the blue tablecloth.

With two boys, I have double the opportunity to ruin a cake.  This year I almost ruined RO's.  Apparently I've watched too many episodes of Cake Boss.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to make a 3D pirate ship.  I also don't apply my basic knowledge of physics to every day life.  

RO baked two cakes and we froze them.  Then Tuesday morning I made three layers of awesomeness, carved into the exact shape of a pirate ship.  This was going to be good.  I was going to dirty ice the cake for RO (Cake Boss nod) so he could decorate with chocolate wafers for the railing, Pirouettes (like cereal straws) for cannons and the mast, Cocoa Krispies for cannonballs, a peanut butter cup for the steering wheel (all boat-savvy people call them steering wheels, right?) and coconut dyed blue for the ocean waves.  But the icing was too heavy.  After a can and a half of frosting RO's cake fell apart-- I shouldn't have tapered the sides.  Stress!  

If only he'd wanted to decorate the Titanic, then we would've been in business.  The wrecked cake was on the table when the kids got home, and JO wasn't impressed with RO's cake.  He thought it was horrible. RO said "Woah! What happened?"  Another cake was in the oven almost ready to go.  RO ended up making a cool cake, just on a smaller scale, using some of the collapsed cake, and adding some legos.  The cub master teased him about legos not being edible, but at that point I didn't care.  The end result was almost much, much worse!  

Notice the shark eating the pirate who just walked the plank?  A nice touch, I think.

So. . . 

Mom, can we please start working on our Pinewood Derby cars now?  

I'm in Love!

(with our new vacuum cleaner)

We Got Jimmered!

(clap, clap, cla, cla, clap)

RO and I traveled (via actual airplane!) to the land of Jimmer where we were simultaneously surrounded by loved ones and enjoyed a little one-on-one time.   I miss out on so much living far away, so this was so nice to be able to have some time in the middle of winter to spend time with my family.

On Saturday my oldest brother, Andrew, bought RO a BYU basketball t-shirt and we were treated to seats at the BYU v. UNLV basketball game with all three of my brothers. Then we went to Los Hermanos with my parents, my three brothers, Andrew, Steve, and Dave, my two sisters-in-law, Crystal and Logan, and two of my nieces. Los Hermanos is a favorite family hangout where we enojy huge helpings of chile verde, chile relleno, nachos, smothered burritos and fried ice cream.  Nuff said.  Steve had to go back to work because the person who he'd arranged to cover his Saturday/Sunday shift went home.  Some people are so

classy.

 On Sunday my baby brother's amazing and tiny and cute and not-mine-so-it's-okay-if-she-only-sleeps-one-hour-at-a-time-at-night baby got blessed.   

(see how tired she is?)

Sunday afternoon and evening we were at Dave's in-law's home for dinner, the game, and so much food including, but not limited to way too many chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.  

Monday, after RO watched Jurassic Park, we took my parents and Andrew to our family's favorite spot, the Dinosaur Museum.

After touring BYU's Legacy sports memorabilia building (my dad and Andrew saw Robbie Bosco in the elevator) and a lunch there, we had frozen yogurt, mine was strawberry with mochi topping.  RO's was topped with practically everything chocolate he could think of, plus lots of bubble gum.  Funny kid!

After Mom got home from dropping my brother off at the airport, it was off to Trafalga with Grandma and Uncle Buckethead's family for mini golf, Dippin Dots, and game tokens.  (Did we have fun and is JO ugly?  Check the 8 ball RO got with all his tickets!)

We had dinner: chicken and cabbage with sautéed sweet onions, tomatoes and invisible black beans (because we completely forgot about them).  And dessert was root beer floats.  If you're counting, yes, that's three kinds of frozen desserts in one day.

Tuesday morning RO and his grandma went to the museum while I did some thrift store shopping.  Not that I didn't want to walk through a museum, just that thrifting is way cooler than that. Love you, Mom!  We packed our bags full of clothes and future birthday presents and headed north to Dave's house.  While there, we checked in on drywallers who never showed up because sometimes you just need to wait for drywallers to not show up.  (It's how you take a break from all the fun and excitement during a vacation.)  While RO was relaxing there, in front of a TV, I went with my mom and Steve to some open houses in the area.  We stayed at Steve and Crystal's house Tuesday night.  RO watched Kung Fu Panda and I did a Kitchenaid homemade bread tutorial and was tutored in both the proper way to roll rolls AND how to knife pictures onto an egg-washed bread loaf.  Dinner was pizza.  And root beer floats.

Wednesday morning RO watched Toy Story 2 and we turned our fresh-baked bread into french toast with homemade Magleby's syrup and fresh whipped cream.  Steve threw pottery, I watched in awe.  My brother made a beautiful bowl in 10 minutes.  Then we went to RO's Great Grandmother's house to visit, eat takeout, reinstall a voice-to-text phone, and have cookies and ice cream before heading to the airport.  RO and I had a blizzard shake at the airport and were surprised to find that Ben, JO, SO, and CO brought milkshakes to share with us at the baggage claim area.

We had a fun vacation and were spoiled rotten the perfect amount.  And this weekend, thanks to Andrew, who gave me a DVD copy of the animated Gulliver's Travels movie I recently blogged about, I will get to hang out with my own family, but I'm not offering them seven kinds of frozen desserts.  Ben seems to have survived being a single dad and only lost one child.  But he found her again so, he remains a pretty awesome guy.

Well, wouldn't you know it?  Blogging doesn't get the vacation laundry washed and folded.  Hmmm.  I had better take my dad's advice and wrap it up.  Love you, Dad!

Meetings

I like to simplify.  I like eliminating the fluff.  I like to focus on what really matters.  But sometimes I don't like to choose.  

I attended a fun social last night that was simply called a "Relief Society meeting." The sisters gathered in our Church building to meet and get to know each other a little better.  We were asked to put three things that we liked into a paper bag and share our things with the group.  I brought three things, but I wanted to bring a bazillion.  I jotted down a few things I wanted to bring and narrowed it down.  My original list looked something like this:

primary chorister stuff (I love digging through magazines and blogs to find new, creative ways to teach songs to the kids in primary and although I lack an effective way to organize it all, I have a lot of fun stuff from tambourines and stars to stickers and PowerPoint prints in sheet protectors)

thrift store treasures (Ditto what I said about digging around for great primary chorister stuff.  My mom taught me to never pay retail, tee hee!)

chocolate (Does this even need an explanation?  My favorite is dark chocolate, but milk chocolate works  too!)

books (I inhale them like. . . chocolate.)

my kitchen plans (a dear friend who is now retired from the cabinetry business came over a few years ago to measure and sketch up what we need.  I cannot wait to renovate our pathetic kitchen, but I don't look forward to not having a kitchen to cook in while we get it done.  I'm hoping to get started this summer.)

Sam Choy's Polynesian Kitchen cook book (I found this a few months ago and have been enjoying some great recipes from back in the day.)

mini drill (I have two of these.  And maybe it's the lack of upper body strength talking, but it's just so handy to be able to have a palm-sized power tool, especially when I'm doing electrical wiring.)

pottery from Steve and Jamie (Oh how I love pottery!  in my dream kitchen there is a corner shelf unit just for displaying pottery.  I love the smooth pieces and the blackened raku pieces equally.)

piano (its so relaxing to sit and play.  I'm teaching the three oldest kids to play, even though they don't want me to.  I've never heard a pianist say "I wish my parents hadn't taught me to play the piano." But I have heard the opposite: "I wish I'd stuck with the piano lessons."  I am not as good as I want to be, I'm working at it.)

playdoh (Playing with playdoh is one of my favorite things to do with my kids.)

sewing (I can sit down to sew and the hours just fly by.  It's just so fun, unless I mess up and have to unpick stitches.)

And the three I shared last night: yellowstone postcard (I loved our Yellowstone adventure last summer.  The Firehole river was great, but the Sapphire Pools are my favorite.  God's creations are amazing and there are so many wonders in Yellowstone. I can't wait to go again this summer and bring Ben along this time, too.)

my T.V.aholics anonymous membership (I have a love-hate relationship with the television.  I can be a total zombie sometimes. It's been three months since we unplugged.  And while I still watch The Office, etc. on Hulu, it's been great to go back to living life T.V. free.  It's not easy to fend off the "Can I watch Dora now?" questions from CO, but I strongly believe that minimal exposure to media is important for my kids, and especially important for their mother's well-being.)

a handmade bead necklace (I admired a necklace at my mother-in-law's house, it was something her sister brought back from Africa where she was a Church missionary.  She surprised me with it for Christmas two years ago.  Doncha love re-gifting?!?  I shared this necklace along with my love of beads and bending wire.)

Its just that simple.

Pet Peeve

We have three guinea pigs now.  A friend of a friend needed a home for her guinea pig while they focus on health issues in the family.  We are happy to help, but I do admit to wanting a break from pet ownership.  The guinea pigs' habitat of cedar shavings is messy.  And the dog is annoying.  He chased after a door-to-door meat salesmen the other day.  (Not that I would have bought anything.  I am not a fan of solicitors.  Send me a coupon in the mail.  Buy add space in a newspaper.  Make a commercial.  Don't knock on my door or call me.  Thanks!)   

Anyway, I read about a pet co-op where four families shared their pets.  I think there was a hamster, rabbit, turtle, and small bowl of fish.  They didn't share cats or dogs because adjusting to a different home would be difficult.  The families would rotate "ownership" every three months.  After a few months of taking care of a pet, you hand them off to someone else for a while. The variety kept the kids interested, especially kids who LOVE going to the pet store to look at new animals (I married one of those kids). 

We took care of this furry brown rabbit for one of Ben's co-workers for one day.  Look how attentive my kids are to their a borrowed pet! A one day pet is a commitment even I can handle making!

 Isn't a pet co-op a great idea?
Anyone want to borrow some guinea pigs?  

Jesus Had a Famous Cousin?

This year our family is reading the New Testament. We are on chapter 4 of St. Matthew. (It's not a race, is it?) The kids loved learning about how the Wisemen fooled Herod by returning home another way.   And they had NO IDEA Jesus had a famous cousin. The older ones knew all about John the Baptist, and even started an impromptu singing of the song; "Jesus came to John the Baptist in Judea long ago." But they didn't know Mary and Elisabeth were cousins and Jesus and John were second cousins.

Our kids have 14 cousins. They don't live near half of them, but they love their cousins all the same. They can identify them all in photos and even CO knows the two cousins they haven't met yet. Cousins are a good thing. We are glad that even Jesus had cousins.

Two Very Cute Cousins!

The first weekend in February, I'm taking RO to visit grandma and papa and two of his cousins, (one is pictured here sleeping in a Christmas stocking, and here is a baby picture of the other one)!

Nothing Like a Break:

The Christmas break angels were looking down on us. Okay, so it was Ben's co-worker who likes to buy DVDs then loan them out. The kids and their friends who came over had access to a bunch of DVDs. They worked very hard at being unproductive children. She loaned us:

Air Bud

An American Tail

An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

Aristocrats

Babe

Babe: Pig in the City

Beauty and the Beast

Bridge to Terabithia

Brother Bear

Brother Bear 2

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Curious George

Doctor Dolittle

Donkey’s Christmas Shrektaculer

Dumbo

Finding Nemo

Finding Neverland

Golden Compass

Goonies

Gremlins

Happy Feet

Horton Hears a Who

Ice Age

Ice Age the Meltdown

Lilo and Stitch

Madagascar

Merry Madagascar

Monkey Business

Narnia: The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe

Narnia: Prince Caspian

Neverending Story

Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Oliver and Company

Over the Hedge

Party Penguins

Pinocchio

Pixar Short Films

Princess and the Frog

Ratatouille

Santa Buddies

Shrek Forever After

Sleeping Beauty

Snow Buddies

Snow White

Surf’s Up

Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Up

Wall-E

Wild

Whew! I found two movies I liked: Finding Neverland and Shrek Forever After (I helped with being unproductive during a few movies--loved being broken-footed for Christmas, ha ha!)

And to make me feel slightly productive, Facebook has a "my year in status" tool that turned my 2010 profile updates into a thing of beauty. I like it!