ice age karate party

this saturday my nephew had his 3rd birthday party. he has been obsessed with a huge billboard of ice age 4 by his house. i actually have a newspaper clipping of it 3 pictures down. i was going to try to make a cake as close to that picture as possible. his favorite ice age character is Scrat- the squirrel who is obsessed with acorns. so i decided to make a cake and acorn-resembling cake pops.

can i tell you how much i hate cake pops? i am no good at making them and the idea of them is so wonderful, but the execution is so terrible. so terrible. the cake pops took almost everything out of me, so i lost all my mojo for the rest of the cake. fortunately Mc Donalds happy meal toys are ice age toys, so i just used the one of scrat on the big ice berg pirate ship. i was going to make it all out of fondant, but i didn't want to! so there... sorry corban, aunt jihae will do better next year!

even though i am not super-happy with the way the cake pops turned out (i didn't even get a good picture of one!) they were apparently delicious- which is great news. i used chocolate cake, chocolate fudge frosting, and they were dipped in chocolate melty-waffers, topped with tootsie rolls. i couldn't eat one cause that sounded like a cavity waiting to happen ;)

anyhoo, here is the cake i made for the karate party that was just for corban and his little friends. the party was SO FUN. i will post pictures of it later. but the cake is just a yellow cake, with chocolate frosting, and marshmallow fondant. on the left side i have a row of tootsie rolls. i thought it looked cute. AND, the fondant didn't actually fully cover that side, so i needed a visual diversion ;) the topper is the mc donalds' toy and some more tootsie roll acorns.

and then this is the cake that i made for corban's family birthday party that was held an hour after his karate party. there's the newspaper likeness of the billboard that corban loves. the cake is another yellow cake, and the frosting is buttercream, cause lindsay loves buttercream :) i had visions of a better ocean, but alas- that's what i came up with:

here is the frosting i used for my cake pops. my girlfriend was just saying today that she was just thinking about my cake pops today. girlfriend- this is the taste you are craving. good ol kroger brand chocolate fudge frosting:

here is corban at his karate party, cutting his cake with a ninja sword. i was just going to make cake pops for his party, but then chris said he really wanted to see the ninja sword-cake cutting (it was advertised on the invitation!) so i made the cake at 6pm the night before the party. glad i did!:

and here's corban blowing out his candles at his family party:

corban dear- i love you so much and you are such a precious and wonderful little boy! i love your voice, your joyful demeanor, the jaunty bounce in your step, and so so so much more. you are a bright light in my life little (gigantic-tall) one.

so much randomness in july

ok. i don't want to forget these things so i am adding them all in one post.

we are not a holy family. we go to church A LOT, but that doesn't make us good or holy. but my kids are awesome and they are trying to figure out this Christianity thing. tonight topher was crying by the garage (he was with chris) and i was in mia's room with lily. she heard topher wailing and she starts running towards him and is screaming: "topher! what happened?? i need to pray for him! please!"

it was incredible.

then after topher got prayed over, he prayed for our family before bed. he thanked Jesus for me, his mom, with such pretty hair. (that's a compliment to you christin roberts!) these kids. so wonderful.

anyway, here's a pic of my mia moo from this week. she is so beautiful. SO BEAUTIFUL! she is cutting her first tooth. yup- 8.5 months old and still toothless. perfect since she is still nursing. she's been saying dada for a very long time. that made chris really happy, which meant nothing to me cause she just said it whenever. the dog- dada. me- dada. veggie straws- dada. but now, alas, she actually reserves 'dada' for for her real dada. it's pretty precious, annoying that it might be (i birthed her without drugs people!)

here's an incredible pic that lily drew of dr. topher and patient dad who got a shot in his arm. lily and toph are still not that aware of what dad does at work- so i wanted to clarify what kind of shot he got. it was the needle kind. i don't know if your pediatrician's office has a check-out table (the thing the kids sit on to get checked out on) with stairs that lead up to it- but ours does- and that's what lily drew chris sitting on. again- her art makes me so happy!!!

then topher drew the same picture, but his execution was a bit different. he's bigger than his dad, which is the same in lily's picture. but the stairs and check-out table look more like a rug than a table. ah the difference between a 4 and a 5 year old!

i just love this picture, and the boys in it. in the green is my nephew (chris' cousin's kid) and he read chris' shirt that says: "spartan race", and then he dug out the hat and axe for chris to have so that he could match his shirt. how awesome is that?!?! i don't know if lily or topher would know what a spartan would look like when they are 8. we'll see...

and, my favorite day of the year came and went without a blog mention, so here it is now: chick fil a day. the day you dress like a cow and get free food at chik fil a. so awesome. here's lily with her cow head gear, and a balloon cow she got:

and my hardcore husband giving milk to his chubby little calf mia moo :)

kindergarten part 2

ok. so, i think i mentioned that i picked lily up late on her first day of school. this is another reason she is going to need counseling in the far future. and who am i going to bill? her school! they told me to pick her up on the south curb, but alas- she was waiting on the north curb! it is really hard to get somewhere fast in a school zone! so i got to lily and she was the 2nd last kid to get picked up (i guarantee the other kid's parents were probably on the south curb too!) lily said she thought i had forgotten to get her. it wasn't my fault counselor!!!!! her teacher gave me a 'south curb' card! argh.

the next day, chris dropped her off cause he had to go to the office and get a 'north curb' card. then lily says to chris: "dad- are you going to pick me up today? cause if you do, you have to be smarter than mom! you have to pick me up at the right spot!" i didn't think she was going to figure out that i am not smart til 2nd grade...

here's lily's new favorite pose when taking pictures:

what a ham!

anyway, lily got this shirt fron one of my besties. it was so sweet of her to give lily a shirt (and matching hair clip that you can't see cause it's by her pony tail) and lily wanted to wear it for her first day of school. but the sweetest thing about the shirt is the card that came with it. i don't know if you can see, but the shirt says: "LOVE shines." and the card that my friend wrote for lily said:

"lily, we are so excited for your new journey! you are going to be such a great student, and you will make so many friends. now is your chance to let your love for Jesus shine! i know you will stand out and stand up for Him. 'Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.' Matthew 5:16 we love you!"

honestly, i have such PHENOMENAL friends!!!! i cannot believe how blessed i am to have amazing friends who love me, but also love and shower my kids with love love love. so awesome.

she also got a sweet pencil box from her lovely aunt lindsay. she loves it so much. what's not to love- it's hello kitty and from aunt lindsay. the perfect combo :)

so, besides the pick up fiasco, everything was great with lily's first two days of school. oh wait. except that i sent lily to school in flip flops and apparently those are a no-no. oops! i even read the student handbook that explicitly says not to wear flip flops, and i missed that part. but we went out and got lily two pairs of close-toed shoes for less than $5 each! yeah Gap and Target!

i don't know if you remember when lily went to preschool, but topher totally freaked out when we left lily at school. we did a much better job at preparing topher for lily's first day of school this time, and it helped that he never got out of the car! and i think it also helps that he has another sister to hang out with at home. honestly- topher does not pay too much attention to mia, but lately- they've been pretty cute bffs: 

so funny. but of course- when lily gets home from school- it's the lily and topher show all over again:

lily, the kindergartener

today was a gigantic day in the life of my lily. she became a student. a student of the glorious grade of kindergarten.

now, for those of you who don't live in arizona, your head is probably spinning. why the crap would lily start school in the middle of july? labour day isn't til september... i know. i know east coasters/canadians. put down your pitch forks. here in the desert, there are some schools that have modified year-round calendars. so they start school in july, have a 2 week break in october, have their regular christmas break (2-3 weeks?), a 2 week break in march, and then get out in mid-may. craziness. so, lily is now attending one of such crazy schools.

fortunately, lily's school really helped prepare her for.. school. we had meet-the-teacher on monday, then a kindergarten assessment on tuesday (that will get it's own post), and then i threw her a little 'lily's going to kindergarten gasp shock depression' party, and then she went to school today. ...

lily was definitely very nervous the minute we touched the door knob of her classroom. she looked at chris and said: "Up-ie!" she hasn't asked for an 'up-ie' since... a long time!

anyway, today i tried to drop her off and pick her up in the wrong spot, and i got super-choked up when i dropped lily off, and almost lost it when topher said: "what's wrong mom?... you're sad? i'm sad too. i miss noona." but other than that- we had a great day. lily did SO GREAT! she didn't cry when i dropped her off, and she didn't cry when i picked her up second-to-last (remember? i tried picking her up in the wrong spot! i was there early! just in the wrong spot...)

my big girl is just getting so big so fast!!!! lilster- we love you, and we are so proud of you, and we are so excited about all the things you are going to learn this year!

lily and chris going to meet the teacher!

lily and chris coming back from her assessment...

back-to-school cake thingys (not pops, cause they aren't on sticks...)

lily at school!!!!!!!!!

i have more pictures on my other camera, so i will post those later. and i have more to write but it's time for bed. so i will write more later too. i have to get up in the morning and remember to bring lily to school tomorrow...

fun with the iron

so we've done this craft in our special needs class at church. my friend christie is the director of the special needs program at our church and she has such great ideas. i love her. i totally stole this craft from her. and my kids LOVED it.

we have tons of ugly crayons. i love crayons. but i kinda need them to be sharp and unblemished. pug is a crayon eater, or crayon chewer i should say. and the kids are good at wearing crayons down too. so we have a good amount of scrappy crayons, and this was the perfect way to get rid of some of them!

all you need is an iron, a towel, wax papaer, a pencil sharpener, and some crayons. we decided to work on writing out the kids' whole names this day. so the kids traced out their names that i dotted out for them. then they cut them out. here's topher showing how to use kiddie scissors, that are so safe they barely cut paper: 

then you sharpen your ugly crayons:

we spaced out topher's name and sprinkled the crayon shavings between a folded piece of wax paper and got it ready to be ironed:

and then you iron the paper and kinda squish the crayon bits down. BUT don't get too crazy with this part, especially if you have a lot of shaving on the edges, cause then this will happen:

yup. i got crayon on my iron! doh! that sucks. and on the towel. oh the things you have to do for art.

and that's lily and topher proudly (and kinda creepily) displaying their oeuvres d'art. great times!

fun with construction paper

topher and lily are big into legos these days. but legos are kind of expensive, and the ones that the kids really want are really small- aka wonderful chocking hazards for my little mia moo.

they have lego sets of everything- harry potter, star wars, super heroes, even princesses. and mega bloks (a lego-like company) also has power rangers. crazy.

so in my cheapness, i figure if you can build with lego blocks, you can build with construction paper (and glue!)

so trying to beat the 110+ weather outside, i cut up some shapes and the kids built their power rangers.

i like giving the kids their glue on a plate and then they paint the glue on. it helps us from wasting too much glue. and i bought this jumbo stack of construction paper at costco. it was about $8 for 670+ sheets! that's a lot of paper.

anyway, the kids also love going to storytime at barnes and noble cause they hear a story and then they get to do a craft associated with the story. i love going too cause someone else has prepared the craft and technically gets to clean it up after we are all done. but i have quit being a wuss and i prepare myself for a craft-related mess everyday. or almost everyday. some days we brave the heat- as in we find a pool to lounge at!

here's a superman craft we did that coincides with a superhero book that topher has:  

this book- lemony snicket 13 words, is awesome. despondent, scarlet, and haberdashery are part of the 13 words in the book. so are bird, cake, and hat- and those are the shapes i cut out and that the kids glued. good times.

so go through your kids' shelves and find some of your favorite books and cut stuff up and get your kids to glue it together!

have fun!!!

line up ladies! or run away...

i don't know if topher is trying to butter me up cause he has committed some heinous crime that i don't know about yet, or cause he wants some new toys, or cause he has the sweetest heart in the universe. anyway, here are the incredible things that came out of his mouth yesterday:

-walking through a store at the mall-
"mom. look in this mirror to see how beautiful you are."

-chillin at home-
topher: "mom, you are beautiful."
me: "topher! you are so sweet! when you get married in 28 years, make sure you keep saying nice things like that, cause girls always love to hear that they are beautiful."
topher: "but mom, i want to marry you!"
me: "that's cute topher, but i am married to your dad. don't worry though, one day you will find a girl that you love."
topher: "but i already found a girl that i love!!!!!"

(a few months ago he told me that he was going to marry his friend cambry, so i am going to try to redirect him in her direction ;)

i know ladies, you are all lining your daughters up to marry my boy. but here's something he said that reminds me that he is still just a boy. a crazy, inappropriate, crazy, boy.

-driving over the train tracks on our way to the mall. it's lily and topher's favorite street in the world because of these train tracks that happen to be on a small little hill. they think it's a roller coster and even put their arms in the air-
lily: "that was fun mom! let's do it again!"
topher: "woah! that made my weiner dizzy!"

the end.

busy as a bee

happy fourth of july to all my american readers, and happy belated canada day to my canadian readers!

we have been crazy busy the last week or so. it's july- party month. from the 1st to the 10th of july, we have 5 birthday parties that we have gone to/are going to. and that's just the first ten days of july! there are more coming after that too!

fortunately i am only slotted to make cakes for 2.5 of the birthdays this month. which is good, cause i tried to time myself to see how long it takes me to make cakes and cookies for a party, and i banked over 8 hours! but it's not so bad since i discovered that baking ahead of time and freezing cakes not only save time, but are a necessary step, especially if you need to carve the cakes. which i did.

so i made a cake for my sweet friend Jenny, whose sweet and adorable daughter turned one yesterday, but had her party on sunday. the party was so lovely, even though it was a million degrees out. but fortunately there was a pool and chick-fil-a sweet tea involved, so i am not complaining!
anyway, jenny told me a lot of months ago that she was having a bumble bee themed birthday party for bree, and i told her that i would love to make a cake for her. and then i was out and about and found a bumble bee and bee hive cookie cutters, so i also made cookies to boot.

the cakes were duncan hines, but the cookies, chocolate buttercream frosting, and the marshmallow fondant were all homemade! i even decorated the cookies with the marshmallow fondant which made life a lot easier since my hand goes kinda stiff when i have to pipe too much. i haven't gotten a real review about the cookies (lily and topher loved them, shocking, i know) so we will have to see if that is something i will actually do again. the cake was three layers, and the smash cake sat on top with a little fondant bumble bee. something i probably won't do again is make the smash cake with fondant- cause it's just too hard for a 1 year old to smash. but i used the fondant for bree's smash cake cause i didn't think the shape would hold properly if i iced the bee hive- due to the ridiculously hot weather we've been having.

anyhoo, eveything turned out pretty good over all, and jenny is such a great photographer that even if things didn't turn out great on my end- she made everything look great in her pictures ;) great job jenny! and happy 1st birthday sweet little bree! i love you you cute little chubby girl!!!!!