Ace of Cakes

When I asked Owen what he wanted on his cake for his third birthday, he answered "backhoe." So, a google search of 'backhoe cake' got me started. The end result was not only a backhoe, but a dumptruck as well. Crazy, yes. Fun, yes!

As you can see the dirt is crushed Oreo cookies and chopped chocolate bars.

Mini-donuts, white chocolate, colored licorice and M&M's, for decorations.

For this cake I used a store-bought pound cake cut. To hold up the licorice "arms" there are bamboo skewers cut to length. (I think next time I will also use a tiny piece of licorice to join the arms.)

For the dump truck, I made my own pound cake and cut it per specs found online. Not bad for the first time out, but the proportion of grill to windows is off somewhat...

I made cream cheese frosting to cover and "glue" pieces together.

You can see I put each cake on it's own foil-covered cardboard for storage in the refrigerator (a side-by-side), and then onto a larger one for display (which would have fit in a full-size refrigerator).

The birthday boy reaching for his favorite part, the chocolate!

Also in the works for the infamous "next time" are working parts, construction signs, rock piles, and even construction workers. We'll see.

A Two-Year Old's Day

It was a bad day for Owen. I will share three of the highlights, or maybe lowlights, of this day. (There might have been more.)

The kids weren't up for too long when Owen came up from the basement crying. I asked him what happened and he said, "Ahva did it." (Ahva=Ava) I asked him, "What did Ava do?" Owen said, in his robot voice, "Ucker me. Eye." As he pointed to his eye, I see it is swollen and red. I asked again what did Ava do. "Ucker me. Eye." I asked him if Ava 'uckered' him and he nodded. I couldn't figure out what 'ucker' meant. So, I called the perpetrator.

Ava reluctantly came upstairs and I asked her, "What did you do to Owen?" After a brief explanation of what the fight was about, she concluded with, "...so, I threw my candy at him." Although I knew the answer at this point, I still had to ask. "What type of candy was it?" Ava answered, "A sucker." Ouch. Three days later, there is still a red mark.

The second event, though not as painful, cost me a yardstick. My good one, too. It was a full 48", not the actual 36" yardstick. I think the increased length is what got Owen into trouble with this one. Again, Ava and Owen were playing together, this time in my bedroom. Ava was playing piano, and Owen was, well, testing the limits of the yardstick. (Which I got out to center a wall hanging, so it is really MY fault he had it.) I hear a loud crack and Ava screaming for me to come. I run in there and see Owen crying, standing on my rocker/recliner in the corner, with the broken yardstick behind him. He is holding the back of his bare leg saying "owie", so I ask Ava to explain this one. She says Owen was sitting on the stick and it broke. With more questions, I established that Owen had put the stick across the arms of the chair and when he was sitting solely on the stick, it caved. Luckily, no real injury out of that one besides maybe a tiny splinter?

Our third trauma could have been life-threatening. Take it from the girl who stuck a key into an outlet at age 4. Maybe it's in the genes? I was touching up some paintings on the wall that had been annoying me for some time. I stood in front of the humidifier in our bedroom, not wanting to move that to get at the paintings. I don't think it was running, but it was plugged in. Owen was playing at my feet. What I didn't know was that Owen had a penny. As you are putting the pieces together in your head, it probably didn't go down as you are thinking. All of a sudden, there were sparks flying, the blue kind, and smoke. I screamed because I was right in front of the outlet. A loud pop and a fuse was blown. The girls were crafting in the kitchen and when the lights went out they screamed, too. It all was only seconds long, but I looked down to see Owen still holding the penny and the humidifier still plugged in. He had wedged the penny in between the plastic plug and the wall, the penny touching both prongs of the plug-in. I grabbed Owen (who was crying), and the penny. When I finally looked at the penny, I saw the two grooves where the posts had been, and some blackness where it was burned. Wow. (And yes, I am saving the penny.)

Well, that was one day. I am glad we have more. And I am glad we have God's protection over us!

I am fairly certain after posting this, that they will take back my "Mother of the Year" trophies. That is, what's left of them.

One of those days

You know those days when the dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes completely, the dryer takes two cycles to get the clothes dry, you are out of bread, milk and dog food, the kids tell you they don't have any clean clothes, your library books are overdue -- one is lost somewhere-- and you can't renew them online because your internet is down for the third day in a row, you feel PMS coming on, the broken sink sprayed you in the face when you went to wash the two-year old's hands after he found out for himself his diaper needed changing, there are what seem like a hundred beads on the floor after your four year old spilled the container her older sisters were using for their craft -- and when you move the chair to sweep them up, you see someone spilled ice cream the night before and didn't tell anyone, the phone rings (which you don't even think about picking up at this point) and some recorded message is playing on the answering machine again saying you have been pre-approved, it is getting cloudy and cool so the kids are now inside wanting to "do" something, so you decide to give up trying to clean anything and watch a movie with them, only to find that you don't have any clean bowls for popcorn because the dishwasher didn't work! Yeah, I'm there.

Just Another Day

On this day, my oldest two girls went tubing with a group of kids from church (well, not all were from our church, but they all left from our church anyway!). But, of course you can guess that my day just wasn't that simple. After all, I'm blogging about it, right?
Again, my story begins with my husband informing me the night before that no, he would not be coming with us, nor would he stay home to watch the younger two so that I could go tubing with the girls. (An impending snowmobiling trip had hurried his need to fix his snowmobile.) I had invited friends to go tubing, and I was looking forward to spending a day catching up with a good friend. (Not much adult conversation here!) I even asked my mom if she could watch the younger ones, but she was working that day. And I already got the "don't ask my mom" speech from the husband, being as they just got back from vacation.
To my surprise, and with no assistance from my husband, we were at the church 35 minutes early! EARLY! No one else was there, only the bus driver's vehicle and what looked like Pr. Jim's truck in front. So we waited. Cherished the moment so-to-speak.
Finally, the girls let me leave and I was off to find jeans that fit and were going to last longer than one year. (This was only decided after sitting in the van in my "skinny" jeans for too long.) We went to JCPenney and found some jeans, but not after dressing room fiasco number two. (The first one having been at the ones in the kids section, where Owen kept walking in front of the sensor and dinging the bell over and over and over, until people were starting to stare. I was sure they couldn't see Owen which made it more interesting.) Owen could not be kept in the stall with me, and I don't even know why I thought he would. I had to run out with my pants undone, because I heard the ding of the bell that meant he had left the dressing rooms. Indeed, it was funny for everyone who happened to see us, but for me, not so much.
After two fall-down fits from Owen, me dropping the clothes in my arms three times - and then stepping on them once, trying to find Owen four times and finding Ava lying down on the benches in the shoe department because she was tired (unbeknownst to me), I ended up with a three dollar shirt for me, two pairs of nylons, a cute little spring outfit for Ava, a little white shirt (for Ava), and three Easter dresses besides the jeans I came for. No, not all on the list, I know. A passing glance on the way out the first time revealed that the girls’ dresses were 50% off, today only. (Because you know they will never be on sale again.) Still a bit more than I would like to spend, but comparable to Target's prices at 50% off, I decided to go for it. This year we will look like we put thought into it! Hopefully Jeremy won't mind...
We then went to BK drive-thru to get lunch to eat at Grandma's, even though it was only 11 :00. I thought that getting a "king sized" meal would suffice the two kids. Wow, was I naïve! The monster cup filled with Hi-C was a little top heavy, so much so that it tipped out of my holder and spilled under my feet while driving. Well, not all of it. The rest spilled at my parent's house when I knocked it over on the counter reaching for a glass. This was when I learned that the food dye in that drink is industrial strength! I had to get out three different cleaners before I got the red stain off the white counter. This made me decide to never, ever, get Hi-C again.
Not sure why this surprised me, but when I finally got to eat, I saw that I got the wrong sandwich and my York peppermint pie was missing (that was an impulse buy anyway). I didn't care at that point. The food was still warm, that's what mattered.
I hardly finished eating when I needed to change a stinky diaper. Owen had been a wild man that day, and it was probably a good thing that I grabbed him when I did. Let's just say, fruit scented lotion looks like yogurt to a year-and-a-half year old. Plus, my dad was there trying to fix a computer – which wasn't going so well. I just wanted things to stay on the down low and somewhat quiet. It wasn’t happening.
When I changed Owen in the bathroom, I saw Reader's Digest had a story entitled 10 Ways To Be REALLY Happy (or something close to that). I think, “I know the true source of happiness, but I bet that’s not in there.” (Insert reality check here.) At that exact same time Owen tried to get up and I was nowhere near finished wiping, so you can fill in the blanks. Let’s say I REALLY had to think about the true source of happiness because I wasn't feeling it at that moment.
To sum up the short time at Grandma's: Ava spilled red Hi-C on the couch, Owen had spit out the nuts from peanut M&M's all over the floor in the kitchen (after he secretly pushed a stool over to the counter to get them), I saw my white shirt was also stained with red Hi-C (that was now dry), and Owen almost ran off with a hand-blown glass pitcher. And yes, there is more to tell but it pretty much went like this, "Owen! No! No! Give me that!"
I couldn't take it anymore; and frankly, neither could my dad. We all ended up leaving at the same time. I decided to take the long way to ensure sleep in the wild child. We had almost an hour and half until the bus was due back, and I was wondering what to do. End destination: Target. Owen slept in the cart; Ava and I shopped in peace. I saw a container that would be perfect for my laundry soap, so I put it under the cart, the only place for it. We picked up a few dollar items and some clearance hat and mittens, and spent the rest of the time talking to my cousin's wife's mom we met in the toy section. (We could talk for days, easily.) Since I don't wear a watch, and didn't have my phone, I had no idea what time it was. I joked to the lady in the 10 items or less aisle that I had 11 items, and then we were finally headed out to the van. I hit a bump in the lot which woke up Owen, and my container went sliding out. Oh, yeah, the one I didn't pay for!! Oops, I guess it was 12 items!! I loaded up the kids, parked closer, and ran back in to pay for it. The lady at the doors stopped me and I explained that I didn't have a return; I simply didn't pay for it in the first place! She laughed, and so did I.
I knew before I went back into Target the second time that it was 2:32. When I finally got to church it was 2:42. 12 minutes late. And not only that, the girls said they actually got back close to 20 after, so they'd been waiting twenty minutes or more for me. Ugh! Can't I just deduct the minutes from being early that morning and call it good? =)

Note to self (and husband): Find a babysitter next time!

Clean up!

In the interest of coming up with a new blog, I decided to post others I had on myspace and other personal notes. Hope you enjoy these! Maybe it will give me some time to come up with new ones!

Wipe your spit on your shirt

What not to say to your one year old. After eating a "turtle" he ripped out of the box, Owen was spitting out the nuts. I grabbed the trash can, and we managed to get the chunks in without fallout. Phew! Then, seeing the spit laden grubby paws and having no tissues within reach, I say, "Wipe your spit on your shirt." I must have missed the day in child psych when they tell you kids only hear the last part of what you tell them, because Owen looked down at his shirt and spit his chocolately chunky mouthful onto his shirt. Mmm mmm mmm. Hide the turtles better I guess. Or maybe THINK before you SPEAK?!?! I can smell the mother of the year award, it is close, real close...

WHAT I LEARNED FROM AN ORGANIZER

(Since my husband got to go on 2 snowmobiling trips last year, I got to have a professional organizer come to my house, and this is what I learned.)


1. Store things in zones – e.g. Put your mixer in the bottom cupboard below your flour, sugar, etc.; put kid dishes in the lower cupboards so they can easily access them
2. Put things you use more often in front, things less often in back (or within arm’s reach for more often, higher up or further down for less often)
3. Organize books by subject (seems simple, but I have since tweaked this- now my books are in horizontal stacks on the shelves according to subject)
4. Keep surfaces clear
5. Group things in the area you use them (similar to #1, but more household/room oriented)
6. When things look nice, you’ll take care of it
7. When in doubt, throw it out!
8. Keep things to a minimum – How much do you REALLY need?
9. Fewer things are easier to keep clean (for me – this includes clothes!!)
10. Don’t take freebies!
11. Things used less often (once/twice a year) can be kept elsewhere (not in the area of use)
12. IF YOU DON’T LOVE IT, GET RID OF IT!