Adventures In Cake Making

The final product. This is the bear cake for the Build-A-Bear party tomorrow. It's supposed to be a bear head with hair bows and a necklace.......

Madeline got to lick the spoon.

Baking......... fingers crossed.

cupcakes for the ears, nose and necklace.

While everything was baking Madeline decided that she didn't like the way I had prepared the goodie bags for the party. So she dumped them all out and redid them. I'll be fixing them back after she goes to bed! ha ha

First hitch. When I tumped the cake out of the pan some of it stuck..... I remember this would happen to Mother and she would piece it all together and just frost over it, so that's what I did!

The Bear Cake!

Distractions

I needed some distraction while making the bear cake so the kids went out on the deck to pick blueberries.

Matthew asked for a banana and I usually cut them up for him but he wanted the entire thing, took it to the couch, settled in and started eating it like a big boy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today would have been Daddy's 67th birthday! Every time he left me a message on the phone he would say "this is your dear old Dad" and he was dear. =)
This picture is of him and Madeline at the Bham Zoo, he LOVED going to the zoo! When we were little it felt like we were loading up to head to Bham constantly to go to the zoo! ha ha

This is him playing Memory card game with Madeline in the floor on his last Christmas. Madeline was crazy about her Grandaddy.

Happy Birthday Daddy! We miss you!

Penguin II

I found a penguin in the Beanie Baby basket downstairs and thought I'd see if Matthew would 'take to it' in case the original ever gets lost. He was so excited and played with it for a while. I don't think it would replace his real one that he sleeps with but it might work in a pinch. He calls all penguins "Yah Yee", not sure why......

Lost In Translation

Madeline left this note for me taped to a stool and in the middle of the floor so I couldn't help but see it. Translation: "I am ready to play Polly Pocket. Come to my room now." ha ha ha

Choco-Messy

23 month old + spoon + chocolate pudding= Choco-messy!

Sippy Man

Jeff lets the sippys air dry on the countertop sometimes and Matthew likes to take the tops and try them out - tops only! Like a really really big pacifier!

Sweet Dress on a Sweet Girl

I got this sweet dress at the great shop in Elba close to my aunt & uncle's house.

I love love the soft material, not sure what it's called but we referred to this as 'nubby' feeling growing up. =)

Paint Color

Madeline has been complaining for a long time about the paint colors inside the house. She doesn't think they are colorful enough. She wants lots of pink, yellow, blue, purple and so forth. She said today "I really really don't like the color of this room". It was our bedroom, which like most of the house is an olive green. I asked what was wrong with it and she said "it looks like mucus." I said it most certainly did not and she replied with "ok, then dried mucus."

Out on the deck

This is our new blueberry bush we have on the deck. The berries are starting to turn blue!

Matthew watching the neighbor's dog again. He hasn't been awake long so he was still in his diaper and holding Penguin. He didn't have his feelings on yet.

I can't keep him out of the begonia pot. The flower petals are a huge temptation for him.

Banana Bread

Madeline and I made banana bread yesterday. She cracked the egg herself and helped stir in the flour. It turned out pretty good!

Matthew popped up to see what we were up to!

It takes a cool dude to pull off a pink flower sunglasses look!

Downstairs

I finally got the built ins downstairs set up. This was about 5 or 6 boxes of books, albums, records and scrapbooks to unpack! But it's finally done- 7 months after we moved in!!

This is the beast of a mirror that Jeff hung in the downstairs guest room for me!

Madeline wanted to try out the bed in the guest room to see how it napped. Looks like it naps pretty good! She likes the new sheets on it. =)

A Green Bracelet

Today was the first swim day for 1st-6th graders at Madeline's Summer Fun camp. They go to the local Y every Thursday for swimming. Each child that says they can swim has to prove it to the lifeguards by taking a swim test (jumping into the deep end and swimming to the ladder without a floatie). Madeline stood in line to take the test last year but backed out at the last min. The kids who pass the swim test get to wear green bracelets and have free reign over where they swim (deep or shallow) but kids who don't pass or don't want to take the test wear a red bracelet, a floatie and have to stay in the shallow end.
Madeline took swim lessons last summer and was able to swim from the shallow end to the deep end with no floatie so I felt sure she could pass the swim test. She decided that she wanted to try again this year and mustered up the courage today. On the way to camp she was starting to back out, I told her it was up to her and reminded her that she had already done a little swimming last year without a floatie in swim lessons.
When I picked her up today she said she took the swim test and passed!! She was awarded the coveted green bracelet! Then she told me that after she put on the green bracelet and got back in the pool she decided she wanted to go back to red after all, switched out the bracelets, put on a floatie and got back in the pool! ha ha ha ha

Wiggles Flashback 2005

In 2005 we took Madeline to see The Wiggles in concert and she got to high five the purple Wiggle named Jeff. I thought these would be fun to look back on now that Matthew is into The Wiggles. Aunt Nancy has said that once was enough for a Wiggles concert!

The Wiggles are getting ready to come out on stage....

And here they are!

Giving Jeff Wiggle a high five!

Yea Wiggles!!!

Jeff Jr.

Jeff made pot roast last night and I made Matthew a plate of it for dinner. I put all the pieces together in the middle portion of the plate and when I turned around he had moved it all around to where the carrots were in one section, the potatoes in another and the meat on its own side. Jeff's mom told me that when he was little he didn't want his food touching and would have to have separate plates. Looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Boys Are A Whole New World

While Madeline and I planted begonias, Matthew played in the dirt with his shovels and the buckets the plants came in.

He had dirt from one end to the other and had a grand time!

And dumped it all over himself over and over.

He only stopped to watch a plane go overhead.

And for the grand finale he dumped the dirt over his head and wore the bucket for a hat. Boys are a whole new world!

Memorial Day planting

On Memorial Day I went and got some new plants to spruce up the outside of the house. I got this beautiful ivy to go by the front door...

Madeline and I planted these begonias on the back deck. These always remind me of Mother. I love them!

And last but not least is a hibiscus for the back deck too. Madeline said we needed more color back there! ha ha

Here We Go Again

Matthew has discovered The Wiggles. Madeline had a huge Wiggles phase when she was 2 & 3, we even took her to see them at the BJCC when they came and she got to high five Jeff the purple Wiggle. Needless to say, we were Wiggled out by the time she outgrew them. CDs in the car, movies, toys, etc. Now Matthew LOVES them. They have replaced Chuggington and he is fascinated! If they are on tv he will not move and can't tear his eyes away. He likes Capain Feathersword the best! Luckily I saved most of Madeline's old Wiggles toys and he is in heaven.

1970's Little People

Madeline got down one of my old Little People playsets this weekend. I have to go to my 'special place' mentally to let her play with these, I don't want them to get lost! =)
She set these up and used the camera to take their family portrait! ha ha

And wouldn't you know it, Matthew went right for them too! He sat on the couch and played with these for HOURS! He's still playing with them now 2 days later! These oldies but goodies never go out of style!

Lunchtime out on the deck