Where Is That Button To Freeze Time?

Man, the weather has been so nice! Joseph plays outside all day on these nice days. He loves to wander in and out, find something fun to take outside and keep him busy. I was at the sink with the windows open and looked up to see this.

Oh yeah, and he had to wear one sandal and one water shoe...with his socks. He was on this kick for a couple of days until I finally smartened up and hid them. It was fine for around the house, but he would throw a fit if he had to wear shoes that matched out in public. I mean really, shoes that match? Come on mom!

He has such an imagination these days. It's great to see that developing. I never had a good imagination (that I remember) so I love it that Joseph does. See the puppy peeking out of the toy box?! I guess that is the dog house.

His other new and fun 'thing' is putting his ride-on car on top of his play house. Josh thinks it would be funny if he tried to ride it down the slide. Me...not so much. But he hasn't tried it yet. He'll sit up there and sing to himself forever.

That's my sweet boy! What a happy smile!

We've also been inundated with walnuts from our tree. I spent a couple of days picking them up so we could mow and fertilize one last time and they are such a mess. Note to self: don't walk across piles of walnuts because you will slip a la cartoon character booby trapped with marbles.

I don't know what the end count was. Six bags? Eight? There were a ton! They've finally all fallen so I left the very few leftovers for the squirrels.

My little buddy loves to crawl up on a chair and peek in through the window at me. Looks like he found something interesting there.

Ha! Looks like one shoe is down. Is that how those socks get so darn dirty?! Maybe it's also my filthy floors... Hmm.... Who has time to clean when there is so much to do outside?!?!

How good does this cake look?! I'll tell ya, it was REALLY good! I started a cake decorating class. This cake was from the second class and it was so much fun! The first class was like an orientation...we watched my teacher make a cake from start to finish and got our icing recipe. I wanted to pick up some good skills for decorating especially for the upcoming 2nd birthday of someone super sweet that runs around here.

I decided to go with strawberry cake with strawberry filling. It was two 8" rounds, each cut in half with filling in between, and icing in the very middle. I'm not a fan of the buttercream icing but it's the best to decorate with. I was happy scraping it off and just eating the super moist, dense cake with the strawberry filling.

To get a good moist, dense cake there were a couple of tricks. I used the Magic Strips which is a baking secret I had never heard of. They are strips of thick cloth that you wet, then pin them around the outside of the pans. It creates a moist, evenly cooked cake. I used a box of cake mix per pan and filled it 3/4 of the way full...more than what the box instructions tell you. My cakes turned into strawberry volcanoes in the oven and created a huge mess...but apparently that is because strawberry is one of the cakes mixes that has more moisture, so I hear that trick works better for chocolate or vanilla. I also used a box of vanilla pudding mix per box and that is what makes it so dense and delicious. Then let it cool and freeze it! This apparently really locks in the moisture and it seemed to work! My cake weighed a good 20 pounds when I was all done!

The icing was quite a production too. I decided to go for a mass batch, or rather several normal batches to end up with a huge end batch. I filled a Rubbermaid 6 qt. plastic container full! My teacher laughed when I brought it in and said no one has ever brought in a container like that. Then I laughed! You mean, they make more over again each week?! No thanks! I'll get it over it one hurrah and be done for awhile! They do sell the big five gallon (or bigger??) tubs at Sam's, but I heard it wasn't as good as homemade. I used 'high ratio' shortening found at bakery's and specialty retailers instead of Crisco. She said the Crisco leaves the waxy feel in your mouth and has less flavor, but I think the high ratio leaves a waxy feel in my mouth too. Anyway, I guess it's all a big experiment until you get really good at it all and have a solid basis for personal preference.

In class we practiced our shells and stars. The shells are around the edge in these pictures, most of mine weren't great (but if I do say so myself, were better than the others in class!!) but every now and then I'd get a good series of them. The stars are what you use for the typical Wilton character cakes, which we'll be doing in the next class. I hope my little hand can handle it! This cake was all practice and goofiness, with the big pink heart on top. I thought Josh would get a kick out of eating a big pink love cake.

My icing came out pretty smooth, but with more practice I should get better at it. We made it smooth using the Viva paper towel method. Viva paper towels have the least design so it doesn't transfer to the icing. You schmear on the buttercream and let it dry for a few minutes, then stick the paper towel right on it and rub with your hand to make it super smooth. It's pretty cool!

I sure wasn't expecting to spend as much as I did on supplies, but it seems like there is so much you need! I know I'll use it all over the years though. I plan on making a Thomas cake for Joseph's birthday, but just a rectangle with the top decorated - not a 3-D character cake. I wish there was a different, less lardy recipe for the icing. I really like the plain ol Betty Crocker or Duncan Heinz jar ones, but they just don't go on smooth. Bummer.

I think this class I'll go with a spice cake. I can't add any filling though since it's a character cake and the design depends so much on the shape - don't want to mess it up. I guess until we get better at icing, this one needs to be left alone inside. At least this week with only one layer, we won't have so much stinking cake to have to get rid of. Thanks to all you who helped us eat last week's!!

Whose Idea Was This?

Fire Saftey Week

We visited our local Fire Station for fire safety week! Joseph loved it! Maybe not as much as Josh and I though. It was super cool talking with the firemen and touring the station.

The truck at this station was a combo engine and truck. A fire engine actually carries water on board to pump out - sans ladder, and a fire truck has a ladder and no water. This one was a new to Plano and they were very proud! It made a grand entrance too...we pulled up and no truck was in the station. I prayed that it would pull up soon since there were a slew of kids hoping to see a big shiny fire truck. Sure enough the huge doors opened and in pulled the awesome red machine!

The guys were great, very nice to the kids and really informative. The adults were of course as interested as all the kiddos and I was all ears through the tour.

Joseph's favorite part was the big long power cord that hung down from the ceiling in the garage. They keep the trucks plugged in so they can be refrigerated and so the computers can run without having the ignition turned on. He didn't care about all that, just swinging the power cord. That was slightly against the rules so we had to keep on our eye on him. ;)

The lights were super cool and wild! They were very near seizure-ific!

Fun fact: they have three fridges, one for each shift, and they go grocery shopping at the beginning of the shift and get what they need to cook their meals.

They seemed to really enjoy hosting everyone and told us to come over any time. I think these guys just might be genuinely nice. It was really refreshing to meet some community "heroes" that actually made me proud. Josh has a memory of his local firemen down the street and how nice they were too. He used to go over there and they would throw the ball with him! They sure do know how to make a kiddo's day!

Big news tonight! Our little Joey pooped in the big potty!! I am still so excited over it.

He took a bath and took off running once he was dried. Kinda reminds me of how a dog runs crazy and rolls around in the grass after you bathe it. He ran into the living room and scrunched up his face and started saying "pooping...pooping...pooping...". He took off back down the hall where I was in the bathroom. I heard him chanting as he ran "poop...poop...poop..." so I plopped down the kiddie seat on the toilet and set him on it. He sat for awhile and Josh and I sat there encouraging him. Sure enough...he went!! And went. I did get a high five but he acted like it was nothing - so surely his parents cheering him on was sooo uncool.

Now this happened with only minimal "potty training". We sit him on it every now and then but not consistently, and certainly have never gotten any results. But he has always been super interested it what it's all about and likes to talk about it with us. For awhile now he has thought it's pretty funny to "puuuuusshh"...albeit with a diaper on. So anyway, it may be nothing but a fluke, but still so cool! I guess we'll talk about it more tomorrow and encourage him to tell us if he has to poop. My thought is that he doesn't recognize the sensation to pee as much as the one to poop - so we'll work on that for now.

As we all know...this is a family of poopers (do we all know that? haa!) so potty training feels like second nature. Was that too much information? Surely even the most "private" of you can feel the excitement...or shall I say, smell, the excitement in the air! By the way, his is like roses....

Happy Halloweenie!

Oh well...better late than never. Which unfortunately is becoming a habit more and more these days. Ha. We had a sweet Joeysaurus for Halloween this year. And what a mess that was. I was one of the poor, desperate housewives digging (and I do mean digging) through what was left of Target's picked over costume area. It was scary for awhile...I wasn't sure if we were going to end up with an horribly ugly and scantily clad princess or a lady bug costume for a pet dog. I was leaning towards the dog costume.

Two Targets and two Old Navys later (Old Navy had some really super cute ones but alas, not in his size) I was really worn out and pretty nervous that my child would be THE child with no costume. I ran into Party City for my last stop and just about turned around and ran when I pulled into the parking lot.

It was a madhouse. The parking lot was packed, there were kids running around everywhere, and best of all - there was a real live mob surrounding the costume wall! It was amazing. There was a Party City employee standing in front of a huge wall of pictures of each costume they had. You had to yell out which one you wanted, he checked on his headset if they had it in the stockroom, then he yelled back the answer to you. I opted not to start yelling with the rest of the crowd. I didn't like any of the costumes anyway. I choose to push my way outta there and run over to the invitation aisle to check out the party supplies for Joseph's birthday. Lo and behold...each party theme had a little matching toddler costume hanging among the invitations, balloons, plates and napkins. I couldn't believe it! I rushed up and down the aisle checking out all the different ones too scared that someone else was going to find out my secret. I settled on the sweet little green and orange dinosaur, pleased that it fit our little guy's personality perfectly! But then I had to conquer the checkout line....

Halloween was a blast at Summer's house. Ada-Gracie had her first party! She takes after her mom for sure. It was super fun and cool!

Joseph couldn't resist the jack-o-lanterns out front. He wasn't too sure about the slimy insides, in fact I think he was pretty confused about the whole thing.


Joeysaurus' diet consists of pizza and cupcakes. They are omnivorous scavengers that don't usually attack their prey except to give hugs, kisses, and cute smiles. Joeysaurus' are usually seen around playground slides and occasionally chalking and kicking balls.

Sweet Ladybug Ada-Grace was as cute as...well, a ladybug.

We had a nice night handing out candy at home, although with very few trick or treaters. I peeked outside at one point and there were about two or three other houses with porch lights on. I guess our neighborhood wasn't in the holiday mood. Worst costume of the night: a little girl that had a tiara with a dollar hanging on it and wearing a t-shirt that said "Money Queen" on it. We weren't too sure what to think of that.

Josh got a trick of his own that was pretty good though....I went out to get the mail and as I was coming back up to the house I saw him go to the window to close the blinds. It was dark enough that he didn't see me coming so I went right up to the window and stared in with a crazed look in my eyes. His face was priceless when he realized someone was standing there staring at him...and he didn't think it was as funny as I did. Paybacks are the worst; I am on guard.

Mary O'Brien Originals

We got some new art work! I really wanted some soothing, beautiful pictures to hang in our master bathroom so I decided to commission mom to create some ocean watercolors. Just so happened that she already had some that she did awhile back and offered them right to me!

This is Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI. I've been here twice...maybe three times???...I can't remember, but it's always a favorite spot. It's probably one of the top three best beach memories I have. There really is nothing like the BVI's....makes me want to hop a plane and get there as fast as I can.

I found this reasonably priced frame at Target and love the way the crisp, white mat frames out the watercolor.

I forgot to ask where this is but if I had to guess she had The Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI in mind when she painted it. Hmmm...I'll have to find out.

I am so happy to have these. But we need them signed next time you come over. And mom, watch out...I caught myself telling Josh last night that we need to get you to paint more for other places in the house that need a little something. I smell the start of a new career! No you say?? Maybe just a little supplemental income? No, not that either?? How about a super cool and beautiful hobby? That sounds perfect to me!