It's a Piece of Cake!

I have always enjoyed baking and, while I have not had any formal training and would certainly not consider myself a skilled baker, I have always been one to "dream big". Often that leads to culinary disasters since I get partway in to a big project and realize that I'm in way over my head!

For my daughter's first birthday in 2008 I wanted to make her a homemade birthday cake. I was hoping to make something special and that tasted as good as it looked. I decided to attempt to make a pig cake to go along with our farm animal party theme. We were expecting about 40 guests so I needed something big that would serve everyone. The obvious choice was a sheet cake. After testing a few recipes I decided on a white cake with a vanilla butter cream frosting. Here is the end result:



For her second birthday this past November, I decided to raise the bar a little bit. We were doing a zoo theme for the party so, after searching for cake ideas, I finally set my sights on one particular design that I had seen. The cake was a tiered cake with a fondant icing. I have made very few tiered cakes in my life and had never worked with fondant so I knew it would be quite the challenge. In addition, the photo of the cake that I was attempting to re-create had many small animals decorating the top of the cake that were made entirely of edible fondant!

After a few trial runs of the cake (who wants to eat a birthday cake that doesn't taste good too?), several hours of labor and some online baking tips later, the cake was finished. Here is the end result!



While it certainly isn't perfect, my daughter loved it and our guests gobbled it up quickly and many asked for seconds! The bottom tier of the cake is a white cake with a rhubarb blueberry filling. The top tier is a dense, rich chocolate cake with a hazelnut cream filling. The icing is marshmallow cream fondant and all of the animals on top are made of edible fondant.

I have realized that making homemade birthday cakes is actually not very difficult and can be quite fun! I am already looking forward to my son's first birthday and my daughter's third birthday next fall so I can play "Cake Boss" yet again!

Supermom

The toddler is a bit of a bruiser. He is a big boy, always in the 98th percentile or higher. This means that if you lined up 100 toddlers his age there would only be about 2 toddlers that are bigger than him. At gymnastics class he towers over the other two year olds. True to his size he is a tough guy. He has had many tumbles, the kind that when you see it happen you gasp for breath and then hold it waiting for the ear piercing cry that comes after. Most of the time with Cian……the cry never comes. He’s fallen and scraped his knee without a peep, been wacked on the head with multiple toys while playing with cousins and friends, fallen from furniture, down stairs and off of climbing apparatus. He has never been one to fall down and cry for attention. He always picks himself up and gets right back into the action. Because of this when he does cry I know that it is serious. Tonight I was feeding the baby and I suddenly heard the ear piercing cry. I put the baby down and ran to see what happened. Cian had been following daddy into the kitchen and somehow got is hand pinched in the baby gate. Cian was already on his way back to me crying and in tears. I knelt down in front of him and put my arms around him. He fell into my arms and tucked his little head right into my shoulder. I just held him. I felt all the tension go out of his little body and his cries and tears subsided. I am a superhero! That is what I felt like. I had the power to take away the pain and make everything alright. I remember my mom being that for me many times, even as I got older, sometimes even now. What amazing power mothers have. It felt good to have that power tonight and to know that even though all of the world’s pain can not be made okay by a simple hug from mom some of it can.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is an amazing giveaway! Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! I am now addicted to Made By Rae's blog and have been reading through since the begining, this toddler backpack is my sewing project for a Christmas present for my son and his friend Liam! I would love to win though!!!

Through the eyes of my child

Do you ever find you are so caught up with life that you don't stop and look at things? I thought I was pretty good at smelling the roses but sometimes it takes an expert like my daughter to make me step back a realize what great things fill our lives.



My daughter notices small details of things all the time.



The other day my mom and I went to check out a new mall that had opened near us. While it was nice and all I was focused on what kind of stores they had and weather I would be going there very often. I wasn't WOWED by it and in some ways disappointed in it.



Then I needed to get some navy pants for my daughter and the store that had her size was in this mall.



Last night I took dd and meet my mom there and had a girls evening. My daughter drank everything in and it made me look harder at how the mall looked than what was in it. She thought it was amazing and like a museum. It has a "ranch" section with cowboy stuff and horseshoes in the flooring with Cross Iron Mills ( the name of the mall) in each one. They had dinosaur type bones in one section, a cool "fireplace" and so much more. She noticed all the little things that I saw but didn't appreciate.



It was a good reminder to look around and enjoy and appreciate the things in our lives. I thought I would share to remind us all to step back and enjoy!

School starts Monday!!

I am getting really stressed! I am ready for the return to school we have the clothes and just have to give the school money for their supplies.

Last week was school shoe shopping. What a stress. My 5 year old will be going to kindergarten and he was a piece of cake. Went ot the first shoe store and the second pair where a hit. My daughter on the other hand.......

Her sensitivity issues make socks and shoes a nightmare that cause her to melt down. She has lived in Crocs for years now and we had a skecher shoes that where similar to crocs but a bit more like shoes last year however they really aren't the best shoes and it was mentioned that maybe she could have more appropriate shoes for this year.

Well that is hard. We hit I think every shoe and kids store in Calgary that carries shoes. Three days of looking. I think we found a winner, a cross between a mary jane and a runner that is pink and has light up flowers.

Now the shopping is done I feel like i have to prep her. I have been coaching my daughter on how she needs to do things on her own and that there won't be an aid like last year. The other day I called to school to make sure that her teacher is aware of her issues. I also was hoping we could go to the school so dd had a heads up on things and I could chat with her teacher about a few things. I was told she was going to have two teachers that job share. I was a little concerned as stable structure is big for kids like her. She can be pretty easy going but I wasn't sure how she would take the back and forth of two teachers. I said that usually consistency is important for kids like dd and the lady in charge said she would look in to it. Anyway by the time we got to the school to meet the teachers they had decided it was best to move her. I just hope that she will still have some girls she knows in her class.

Her new teacher seems nice and I think she will be good with dd. My daughter likes her and so that is a good sign. I know the teacher my son will have and while I had hoped he could have them same teacher as my daughter, it didn't work out that way. I know he will be fine. He is such a good guy when it come to these kinds of things.

Now in just two more sleeps both kids will be in school. I am not sure if I am mentally ready for all this but otherwise I have everything under control. For the moment. Till i find out what my school bus route is.

I feel like summer is over already :(

We have had a great summer. Two weeks on the Shuswap of hot sunny weather and hours and hours on the beach, in the lake, or in the pool. We all had such a great time.

Then we came home and my brother and his family came out for 10 days. Again the weather was warn and we did some Alberta sight seeing I have never done before even though I have lived all my 43 years here. My kids had a ball playing with their cousins who are 10 and 12 but where really good with the kids.

Last week the day our family went home the weather turned cold and rainy and I realized my kids go back to school in 2 weeks! Now that is down to a week and I have been scrambling to find indoor shoes for the kids as well as clothes and any other stuff they need for going back.

I am lucky that our school has a set and reasonable fee that we pay every year and they supply all that they need for in the classroom.

Only a couple of days after my kids go back to school I have start up meeting for going back to work. I have to do a dry run on Aug. 25 and start on Aug 27.

It just feels like with all this back to school and works stuff along with the crappy weather that summer is over.

Why is it that winter lasts forever and summer never seems to last long at all??

Are We There Yet???

In a few days my husband and 2 older children will leave for our annual trip north. They will drive the

L-O-N-G road to Yukon together, while our youngest and I wait for several days and fly up to meet them.

During these last few days at home I am trying to get organized so as not to forget anything, and have as much as possible loaded into the truck with my husband.

My children, it seems, have other plans. They have made every attempt humanly possible to cause mayhem and destruction. They yell and scream. They push and shove. Every strategy in my bag of parental tricks has been trotted out in a vain grasp at some form of familial harmony.

All the while my husband is insulated from the chaos in the ivory tower of his workplace.

I can hardly wait for the silence of being at home with just one child, if only for a few glorious days.

Are we there yet??