Making Cake

We just celebrated Kate's 1st birthday! 

She is quite the interesting personality...very stoic and hard to impress. She likes to hang out and do her own thing, and is not nearly as clingy as some of the girls have been. Her current favorite activity is to drop things into my boots when I'm not watching. (Thus causing me to shriek in alarm when I put them on and touch a small object with my foot that might be a snake or a scorpion, but in reality is merely a crayon.)

My big project for her birthday was making a cake for it. I want to volunteer to make my cousin's wedding cake in a couple months, because I like that sort of thing, but I've never made a three-tier cake before. I wanted to see if I could actually make one that looked good, and also how far in advance I could make it, what flavors of cake and icing to use, if I could freeze cake in entire tiers, etc. Logistics, basically.

I'm calling this my prototype--it turned out structurally sound, level, and tasting great, but there are a few things I would do differently next time for the decorating. I would stick with store-brand shortening for the icing--the texture was a lot better before I ran out and switched to Crisco brand. I would decorate the cake only one day in advance rather than two. The cake kind of settled and got some weird lines in the icing the longer it sat. I would also use a smaller decorating tip--I didn't get the precision I wanted for my mendhi-inspired designs. Overall I was pleased though.

Next up, trying my hand at this "refreshing jeweled flan" I found in a cake magazine from 1987. I plan to be crowned the queen of the Utah potluck,

The Beast Birthday Ever

Today is my birthday!

The Morning: After sleepily consuming the best breakfast in bed Austin has ever made me (he hates eating in bed so doesn't really get why it brings me joy) I wandered into the kitchen just in time to help Sammy put on her Belle dress she got yesterday for her birthday. "Is Dad the Beast?" I asked jokingly, giving up on my attempts to get Sammy to wear clothes under her flimsy dress up. "No," she smiled winningly, "you're the Beast." I was a little annoyed. Today is my birthday after all. "Go put your plate by the sink." "Yes, Beast."

The Afternoon: Later in the day, we went down to my parents' house and left the girls with them while Austin took me off for a little birthday surprise fun. I anticipated the nice lunch (I ate a chicken heart! (Thereby taking upon me its mighty strength!)) but was totally not expecting the trip to the indoor shooting range. It was a great idea of Austin's. I got to try out several different types of pistols to see what I preferred. We also had a little fun with a semi-automatic rifle--it took me back to my Halo-playing college days.

We aren't really gun people and didn't try to act like we knew it all. I personally learned a lot and left feeling more comfortable with firearms. Although from reading the online reviews this place* doesn't have a great customer service reputation, three different employees were nice enough to help us plus a random older gentleman who spent 10 minutes instructing me on stance, grip, loading, unloading, etc. I'm not sure, but this might have had something to do with the fact that I was at a shooting range dressed up in a skirt and little puffed sleeves. (Life lesson #761: Don't wear camo to a shooting range, you'll just blend in with the rest of the crowd...)

Tonight: We had planned to go to the waterpark later in the evening, but all the shooting and eating was kind of tiring. I tried to put the girls to sleep at 5:30, but for some reason they weren't thrilled about this. They finally went to sleep and now I am blogging because at the end of the day, I really like to write and Masterchef isn't on...boooooo. I'm off to eat Pralines and Caramel ice cream from BYU and drink fancy water in a wine glass! Ciao!

*It's called "Get Some" Guns and Ammo. They answer their phones, "Get some." ??

Party Hearty

On Saturday my cousins and I had a cousin party. Is that redundant? So I don't know if it's a Utah thing or just a thing, but the women I live near are really into throwing very cute and craftily-decorated parties. Starting at the tender age of 1, their kids are treated to elaborate themed birthday bashes with correspondingly large guest lists. In contrast, the highlight of my daughters' first birthday parties has involved giving them a cupcake in their high chair to get messy with. Voila! Every kid's dream first birthday! It's been kind of an adjustment for me here.

I think it would be easy to say that these moms are in a competition, and they just want people to 'ooh' and 'ahh' over what they've done. I know there is that element, but I think more than that, these moms just want the party or birthday to be special, and decorating and cooking is a way to do it. The problem then comes when their friends are throwing these super cool parties and they start thinking that maybe they're not doing enough, and they're being a slacker mom, and wow, won't it be embarrassing when their friends ask what they did for their kids birthday and all they did was cake and ice cream. Then you end up with over-the-top parties and the element of competition creeps in.

It was so refreshing to hear a mom I know talking about taking her son to Burger King on his birthday to get a crown for him. I thought, here is a mom who is really concerned with making her kid's day special by doing what is important to him, not what is important to her. Some kids might care about having a ton of friends/"friends" at their party and intense food and decorations, but I don't think most kids do.

So back to my cousins party, I know we would be happy sitting around my unadorned table and talking for a few hours, but I decided to decorate anyway. Just like we get dressed up to go to church or to a wedding, I think there is value in decorating for special occassions and holidays to lend an air of importance to them. But it's hard to rein yourself in sometimes. I could have easily spent 50 dollars on a tablecloth and dressing up my house. But I borrowed a teapot, serving set, and vases from Mom, spent 5 bucks on fabric from the fabric store, 6 dollars on flowers, and everything looked really nice. (Although pitiful compared to my friends' parties.)

My Kitchen

Females of any age like tea parties

Look! I did a crafty decoration by my calendar!

Like I said, I knew I didn't have to decorate for us to have a great time, but it helped make our get-together feel special. So I'm glad I did.

More Randomness, Please.

Birthday Fallout: So I went to the birthday party with Sammy. I think she had fun, which is the important thing, but now I am dealing with the fallout, which mostly involves policing a toy lightsaber and Austin wanting to join the foreign service so he can get a cool diplomatic passport. Say what?
 

GRE Joy:  I will neither go into that long story nor the story of why I just got done taking the GRE. If nothing else, it was a self-actualizing experience.  But I think I aced it. At least the verbal and writing sections. The math section bubble-marking went something like this:  A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D, etc. Good thing schools don't care about how good English grad students are at math. Anyway, if anyone wants tips for the writing section I came up with a pretty decent formula for success there. Also, I recommend having a Nana visit you and watch your kids so you can study.

Marshmallow Bed: Maybe due to the stress of test-taking, but our old bed was really bothering me. We bought a new bed that is super comfortable, but didn't realize how big it was going to look in our room. Not only is it a king, but it's like 4 feet high. I have to get a running start to get in bed at night.

Secret General Conference Fort: Where is the blanket from the bed, you might ask? Well it is being used for greater purposes. Many thanks to Kellie for the inspiration.

Super Cici: And somewhere in there, Cici has started walking! I know, this is a picture of her new hobby of playing in our shower, but much to my chagrin, I haven't actually got any photographic or video evidence of this new development.

That's all. Happy weekend!

There is a great disturbance in the Force...

Today Sammy got done with preschool (she goes two days a week) and hopped into the car exclaiming happily about a card she had for me. I love to see her artwork so I happily took the card. Too late, I realized the magnitude of what I was holding--her first birthday party invitation.

If you think I forgot to put an exclamation mark at the end of that previous sentence, I didn't. I'm not sure how I feel about all this birthday madness starting so early. Do three-year-olds really feel the need to party a la Star Wars? But really, their age and the theme of the party is not the biggest issue: I would have to go and be social and buy a present and help supervise kids running around everywhere. I have always planned to strictly avoid hosting group parties for my children, but I thought the issue of going to other kids' parties wouldn't come up until kindergarten when I wouldn't have to go with Sammy. Can I tell my child that we have temporarily converted to Jehovah's Witnesses? Do I have to tell her anything? Would a Good Mom suck it up and attend the toddler birthday party?