Fun with Mom: Cave of the Winds

Mom came last week and we had so much fun.  I always knew my mom was cool when I was young.  But she is cooler than cool.  While she was here we talked and talked and talked.  We ate and ate and ate.  We planned Hallie's birthday, watched stuffy British love stories, and shopped.  One new thing we did was visit the Cave of the Winds.  I had never been in my four years here.  We will for sure be going back again.  It was a blast.  It was so fun . . . even with our little girls.  The tour took about 45 minutes.  We just couldn't stop talking about how much we enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, the pictures don't capture the true beauty of the caves.  But, I think they do capture how we liked them.

 

Funny Pink Munchkins

The Tiana Cake

Let's just clear the air right now.  I am not a cake decorator.  My mother-in-law gave me a nice set of Wilton tips.  I use them but not as elegantly as I could.  I honestly lack the patience.  But, I really have fun making butter cream frosting and going crazy!  And the girls love the result . . . which is what matters.

To make this cake, I used a large Pampered Chef batter bowl and baked a yellow cake mix for 55 minutes.  That didn't make a long enough dress, so I baked another yellow sheet cake in a 9 by 13 pan.  After, letting the cakes cool overnight, I laid the batter bowl "dress" cake on top of the sheet cake and sliced around like it was a circle stencil.  I repeated this step one more time to add enough height.  What I forgot to do was put frosting between the layers to help them stick together.  Then I did a thin crumb layer and froze the cake for about 15 minutes.  Then, I added green frosting and slapped on more white to make it look fancy (even if it is kinda sloppy).  Chris had the idea to use white flowers from my craft bin and I cut up one green dot candy for the leaves.  Tiana's legs were wrapped tightly in plastic wrap before being shoved into three layers of yellow cake.  The result was a tasty and very sugary concoction.  One day I will bake more cakes from scratch.  But for now, it's homemade frosting and the good old Betty Crocker box.  And that works for me!

Lots of imperfections make it look more homemade!

She started to melt by the time we lit her and dug in.  Poor Tiana.

Now that's an enthusiatic cake eater!

Tiana Birthday Party

I'm not embarassed to tell you that I dream about my children's birthday parties at night.  And not just the weeks preceeding their birthday.  I am talking about one month after their birthday concludes I am thinking about what we could do next year.  It's not as though the parties are super elaborate.  The last three years it's been just our family gathering for dinner and presents.  But it is just so fun to do cakes and decorating and a meal that honors the person we love!   Hallie and I thought of several options this year . . . a Fancy Nancy party, a Pinkalicious party, Wonder Pets party or a Princess party.  Hallie just kept telling me she wanted a Belle cake and Tiana cake and Jasmine cake.  In the end we settled on Tiana.  Especially after we found gorgeous posters of her at Dollar Tree!  Once we knew we were going Princess and the Frog theme, Hallie thought of her dinner . . . Gumbo!  Hallie had never had Gumbo before, but that is what Tiana loves to make in the movie.  Hallie instructed me "Gumbo is like soup!"  So we rounded out the menu New Orleans style.

My mom and I had so much fun picking out candy for our candy bar.  Lily pads were apple sour rings, gator eggs were watermelon jelly bellies, sour patch kids were voo-doo dolls, and australian apple licorice were bayou boats.  It was a hot day, and we didn't want to fry the beignets, so we bought powdered sugar doughnuts and pretended they were the "man-catching beignets" Tiana makes in the movie.

Hallie was determined to cook just like Tiana. So she "helped" me chop by holding on to my arm (she insisted). Then she stirred up the Gumbo throughout the process.  In the background, we played The Princess and the Frog soundtrack.

The funny thing is, once we poured the Gumbo over a bed of rice, I don't think Hallie touched it.  But she loved making it and I don't think she regretted making that her dinner of choice considering how authentic it was to Tiana.  Thankfully, Claire loved the spicy concoction and downed it heartily.

 

 

We have a tradition of decorating the birthday chair.

We called Grandpa Wynn on the web camera so he could witness the present opening frenzy.

What a fun night to share between our little family.  And what a fun way to spoil our favorite four-year-old.

And by the way, Claire's birthday is seven months away and I am totally thinking Minnie Mouse!

Our new family room!

After weeks of talking about it . . . and even more time executing it . . .  Chris and I are proud to present our new family room!  We love this new room.  It is peaceful and serene and represents the best of us.  Chris custom built those bookshelves.  I drew a picture of what I thought we could do.  He added to the picture and executed something incredible.  Someone I know asked a contractor for an estimate on a similar project . . . the estimate was $2,000.  We thought perhaps we could buy some pre-done IKEA bookshelves.  That would have been at least $800.  Even Walmart or Target bookshelves wouldn't have looked near this and may have been $500.  Chris bought the lumber and we painted the entire room for less than $300.  And I can't tell you how accomplished we feel.  I also can't tell you how much more in love I am with this guy.  He can build me stuff!  I sewed the pillows.  We both painted . . . and painted . . . and painted.  It took lots of problem solving and lots of idea bouncing.  And it was totally worth it!  That being said . . . it is not 100% complete.  We will still be adding moulding to the fireplace surround and the wall underneath it.  We also will be switching those brass bars on the fireplace that scream 90s (this place was built in '99).  And we want to get our family picture taken and printed on a large black and white canvas for over the fireplace. This place is so serene and beachy cool, we aren't even tempted to decorate for fall yet!

For now, I will just share the "after" pictures.  I plan to document the journey in later posts.  But, I must leave you with at least one "before" so you can see the massive difference.

BEFORE: sort of a collegiate meets african safari look . . .

And now . . .



seventeen months tomorrow!

At seventeen months, this baby loves babies!  Her hype for Minnie Mouse is even more amped than it was last month.  She loves books and loves Minnie.  You can imagine her joy when Hallie and I found her some Minnie Mouse board books at the store.  Chris and I estimate that she uses the word "guck" (stuck) one hundred times a day.  Everything is stuck.  She is either "guck" in her high chair, her toy is "guck" under the couch, or the closet door to her book collection is "guck."  Also, if you are holding her longer than she wants to be held, she is indeed . . . "guck."  Her other favorite word is milk.  She'll say that at least thirty times.  She needs milkaholics anonymous.  She is just learning to say "Peeese!" and still squeaks the cutest "Gake you!!" you've ever heard.  She has had too many disasters with poop lately.  I am sparing you that by leaving those pictures off the blog.  But, they are stored on our hard drive so she can feel sympathy for all the feces cleaning I did years down the road.  She is turning more and more into a daddy's girl.  She flaps her hands every time the phone rings while Chris is away and screams "Daddy!  Daddy!"  When I hang up she smiles and says "Bye-bye, Daddy!" lovingly.  She loves her sister Hallie but lets her know when she doesn't want something by yelping loud and clear. 

We love this little girl!

The last days of three . . .

This little girl has mere days until she turns four.  She will never ever be three again!  Gasp.

Chris and I have been engulfed in our family room project lately.  She was watched way more Sesame Street and Charlie Brown and Care Bears than I care to admit while I painted and painted. 

But Chris did the last swipe of the brush last night.  Our family room makeover is complete.  And this little girl has five more days of being three and I want to live them up.  We don't have to go lots of places but we can enjoy the simple things . . . those are what she likes best anyhow.  I am thinking of reading piles of books, making cookies, play dough time, painting water colors.  It sounds fabulous . . . and a litte bittersweet. Sniff-sniff.

Our family room project is almost done.  We have been painting so our main computer hasn't been plugged in.  I cannot wait to have "project mode" over.  And then my mom comes!  Yay!

Around our Abode

While I was waiting for Hallie to come home from preschool (and while Claire was napping) I snapped some pictures from around our home.  I started in her room (because I really missed her) and then I just ended up walking around and snapping this and that.

Painting her closet doors is on my "to-do" list. :)

Ruffles!

Previous owners had a dog for a week (seriously, they changed their minds).  We don't need a doggy door so we turned it into a chalkboard last summer.  We usually put seaonal messages or love notes on it.

This trunk is in a new location.  We're still figuring out what to put on top.

We love our home.  It is our fifth member of the family!  We really missed it while we were in California this summer.  It is not the just house that is special, it is the spirit that dwells here from the memories we've made.  We are slowly making changes that are exciting.  We'll share those as projects are completed.