Last Day

We are going to miss these faces while we are on Vacation.

Today was the last day of daycare until August 12th!

See you soon kiddos!

Rainbow Surprise :: Twilight Sparkle

Have I introduced you to my niece, Lilac Lynn? She is my brother's, finace's daughter. She is such a sweetie! We are smitten with her! Recently she turned seven. As Little Sister and I are the cake makers in the family it was put to us to make the cake. Since Little Sister is off visiting the Cousins the task fell on to my shoulders. I asked Lilac Lynn what she wanted for her cake and she said: Twilight Sparkle. (Don't you just love the gap in her smile .. she lost her front teeth!)

I don't have a daughter. Any chance I get to purchase, make, knit, or cook something for a girl I go a little crazy. All right, a lot crazy. It's a good thing that we've added a little girl to the family or I might go even crazier every time I get to do something girly.

I went to pintrest, my source of inspiration, and I found this cake, it was a gender reveal cake. Then I researched Twilight Sparkle and My Little Pony Cakes. In my researching I noticed a theme with My Little Pony; rainbows.

Hmm, rainbows. Rainbows are fun and the cake needed to be deep to hide Twilight Sparkle in it. Couldn't I? .. Oh yes I could!

This is what I made ..

To make your own Rainbow Cake you will need ::

• Three (3) boxes of classic white cake mix :: made with egg whites to keep the color of the cake white.
• Gel food coloring (because the color is more vibrant) in the six colors of the rainbow (in case you didn't know the rainbow order is this: red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple :: I didn't know the order until I started a daycare and a kid informed me). You could mix the colors yourself with food coloring. The purple I mixed myself, it's not bright enough for my liking.
• Big bag of M&M's and a smaller one of Skittles
• A bit of crazy. I pulled all the brown M&M's out of the bag and added in purple skittles so that it was a true rainbow that poured out of the cake.
• Evil Cake Frosting (You can find the recipe here) it uses crisco so it is not the most healthiest .. but it's a kids birthday, they are supposed to be crazy with sugar!! I make mine with either milk or almond milk and it's a big hit! I tinted some green for the edges of the cake.
• Bamboo Dowels At my WalMart there is a whole Wilton baking section and that is where we found our dowels. Previously we found them in the workshop. I probably could have gotten away with out using them but I traveled with my cake to a park and I was nervous it would fall apart. 
• Surprise Toy and Other Decorating Bits At WalMart (and I'm sure it's true in other places) you can purchase the cake toppers. We bought two of the ponies and the barn background at WalMart. We also purchased one pony in the toy aisle.

TO MAKE::

• Cut circles out of the middles of four cakes: I cut out of blue, green, yellow, and orange. To make my circle I traced around a small cereal bowl. The size doesn't matter, just make sure that you leave an inch or two around the edges. Set cut out circles aside then frost and layer your cakes, all but the top.
• Hide your Surprise this cake would work for any gender, so whatever the small coveted toy is, put it inside.
• Stuff the Hole this is a very important part that my SIL pointed out to me. You must fill the cavity. If you do not, it will fall in. I filled mine with my rainbow candies (M&M's and Skittles) but you could pack other candies inside, as long as it is packed in firmly.
• Cover the Hole place your final layer of cake on the top. Push dowels slowly through all layers of the cake.
• Frost and Decorate 

If I've left something out let me know! 

Want to see some more cakes?

Diaper Cake --non edible

Barbie

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Boat and Fish Themed Cake(s)

A Good Start

To say that we've been busy would be an understatement. 

We've been spending a lot of time at Jason's parents camp. Our latest crazy is to "paint" strawberries with marshmallow fluff and toast them over the fire. Stomper loves them!!

Last week we had Vacation Bible School at our church (sort of like a day camp..but shorter) which kept me well occupied. We all has so much fun! I cut Stomper's hair funny for funny hair day and dusted it with cornstarch. Then in the afternoon I buzzed all his curls off. He looks so grown up with no hair!

We bought a park pass to the state parks. We plan on spending a lot of time at the lake this summer. Next Tuesday we will be headed up to the park for their Owl Walk. Stomper loves owls, I think he'll get a kick out seeing and hearing some live ones. Our good friends also have a park pass and live only a few miles away so last Sunday we invited them to come with us to the lake. We were the only ones at the beach due to the rain. Not sure why people don't swim in the rain, maybe they are afraid of getting wet?

Today I sent Stomper with Jason's parents to go camping during the bi-annual family reunion. We will head up on Friday. It will be a good way to start my vacation, For the next six weeks there will be no daycare, we aren't sure what we will do with our time! 

I have a few posts planned. I hope to work on them tonight and tomorrow. Make sure you come back for: Slip n Slide, a Cake with a Surprise, Grilled Salad, and a Broiler Update!

Not What We Were Expecting

ex·pect  (k-spkt)

    v. ex·pect·ed, ex·pect·ing, ex·pects

1.

a. To look forward to the probable occurrence or appearance of: expecting a telephone call; expects rain on Sunday.

b. To consider likely or certain: expect to see them soon

 

We are firm believers that God will supply all our needs. This winter we realized that the family on a whole needed a break from daycare. We all needed a chance  to recharge and reconnect with each other. Financially it seemed impossible. Taking six weeks off from daycare meant six weeks of no income from that source. Dad and Jason would work their jobs, of course, but the income from the daycare pays for a lot of necessities.

On faith Mom agreed to shut the daycare down for the summer. We know that God supplies our needs, but still it is hard to trust.

We are a family if six carnivores. Granted we eat other things, but we love our meat. When I plan the weeks menu I first think about the meat and then what to eat with it. In case you haven't notice from your most recent trip to the grocery store, meat is expensive, especially the red kind. We buy all our ground beef from BJ's Food Club, we know it's not the best meat, but for the money it keeps us well fed. I figure that we eat about twenty pounds of ground beef every three weeks. Some of the meat is eaten by daycare kiddos, but most is by us.

Our big meat expenditure is one of the reasons that we are growing our own food; including our meat. Our broilers will be ready soon for eating, but that doesn't cover the burger we eat. Trusting God is hard, but we trusted that He knows we love burgers on the grill, meatloaf, and tacos so he would provide.

Do you remember the deer? The day after we processed the deer (Wednesday) Jason called the dispatch center for the sheriff department and told them he'd like to be on the roadkill list. The next day he got a call. "Hey Jason, do you want a moose?"

Yes! A moose! A seven hundred pound cow had been hit and her spine broken. Jason and a buddy went to the scene and collected the moose.

The freezer is full! Not only with ground moose, but steaks too. God has fully supplied our red meat for the next six months! We are so grateful for God's provision. We've been passing out moose meat like candy at a parade, and still our freezer overflows!

I saw recently on either facebook or pinterest a little saying: "God promised to supply all our needs, but it may not look like we were expecting."

Thank you God for being greater than my expectations!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny for a Yarn Along .. a little reading, a little knitting, a little photography..

Wow, it's been quite some time since I've posted a Yarn Along.

I have been reading, a lot, mostly due to the fact that my asthma kicked in again with a vengeance which meant I spend a lot of time sitting, but with out room to knit. So I've been reading, right up to when we bought the lap top. Now I've been wasting countless hours playing The Sims 3. 

This is what I've read:

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner, Ship Breaker, and Acorna Books 1-3.

It took me a long time to get through Ship Breaker, I'm not sure why. It is a post apocalyptic book. It's good, but not awesome. The first few chapters were my favorite and then it got I don't know .. blah. Not a book I'd recommend.

Bree Tanner was all right. It doesn't have chapters so its hard to find a stopping place. I won't be reading that one again either.

Acorna though, perfection. I was in the library a few weeks ago and I was thinking about sci-fi. One of my favorite sci-fi authors is Anne McCaffrey. She wrote the Dragon Riders of Pern series plus the Rowan series so I thought I might read them again. Sadly, they didn't not have the book I wanted to read, but had another series she co-authored with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. The series is about a woman/alien named Acorna. It is fast paced, filled with interesting characters, and holds your attention. Acorna is well thought out and the supportive characters have depth. I am definitely recommending this book.

I do manage to knit a few rows here and there. I am nearly done with the hedgehog part of my hedgehog/squirrel. The squirrel still needs a tail, which I will finish as soon as I purchase a pom-pom maker. I learned how to crochet while making the hedgehog. I had to ask my Mom for help (who has crocheted in the past) to figure out I was supposed to do after I slipped the stitch, but after that it went great. It is looking really, really cute. Stomper is going to love it Christmas morning!

Around Here

It is raining here, again, for the millionth time. We are stuck indoors more than we are able to go outside it seems. When we do go out we get work done. The turkey house is done, finally. The plan was to move them in today with our six new laying hens. However, no one wants to get soaked, so they will wait for a sunny day.

The garden went in last week just before this last batch of storms. Despite my trying to keep the tomato plants to a minimum there is twelve in the garden. Partly due to a misunderstanding at the nursery. What my  Mom thought was cherry tomatoes is, in fact, low acid tomatoes. If the ran stops I will snap a photo of the garden and tell you what we planted.

Come back tomorrow for a Yarn Along post and my Christmas Prep KAL update!