My First "REAL" Cake

We were invited to a birthday party for two adorable little boys and I sneakily coerced the mom of the birthday boys into letting me make the cake for the party. Ok, not really. It wasn't sneaky at all. I just begged. What can I say, I really want some practice! In all honesty, it was wonderful of them to let me use their birthday cake as practice. Talk about being a trusting guinea pig.

The theme of the party was Magic/Magicians. It was AWESOME. The kids were all invited to share magic tricks at the magic show (great idea by the way), the food was delish, they went on a scavenger hunt, made magical pinwheels, opened presents (of course) and watched a short Disney/Pixar clip about Presto the Magician. I hope my kids don't hold me up to the same standard for their birthday parties because this one couldn't be topped.

So like I said, I made the cake, and I had a blast doing it. I learned a TON, by trial and error of course... and was pleasantly surprised with how the cake turned out. Surprisingly, I didn't stress out a ton (except for the few times I felt like a neglectful/bad mom for working on the cake instead of playing with the girls) until we had to transport the cake. Snow, rain, hail, some minor sliding in the trunk and a few repairs later, and relief was mine. The cake was delivered intact, and it tasted pretty good too!

I LOVE making cakes. Like, I lose sleep at night thinking about how to make them because I'm so excited. Hopefully I'll get to hone my skills on some trusting friends in the future.

THIS is fun

Now THIS is fun. I'm so glad Lydia is finally big enough-- scratch that, OLD enough, to have fun playing with Brooklyn. Two kids 2 years apart? I'm starting to get the hang of this. ...AND enjoy it!

Sprouting Teeth Like Weeds!

Documenting the arrival of not one, but TWO bottom teeth.

Fishing with the Girls

We found ourselves with a beautiful day, Tim at home, and a few hours to kill, so we headed out to the lake to try fishing for a bit. Fishing turned into throwing rocks in the water, which turned into Lydia eating rocks. All in all, a fun afternoon.

A Full House

We had more visitors!!! Frankly, I think it's amazing that people keep wanting to drive hours and hours to see us, but I am SO GLAD they do. We love having company, and Brooklyn was really excited when she found out that Austen, Dirk and Aunt Tana were coming to visit.

We tried to keep them busy while they were here, but I think the kids favorite thing to do was just play with the toys around the house. Making sugar cookies for Valentine's Day and eating knife-fuls of frosting was probably a close second. We also went out and made a fire for hot-dogs and tin-foil dinners, played at the park, and wandered around the local zoo, aka the corrals.

For my personal fav, the absolute highlight of the week...
This is a picture of Tana working tirelessly to whittle a stick for Dirk to roast a hot dog on. Little does she know, he has already downed TWO raw hot dogs, and is about to start on his third one. I guess he didn't care about the roasting part. Best news of the night-- after he and Austen plowed through a package of hot dogs by themselves, nobody got sick. Miraculous if you ask me.

Making Valentine's Day Cookies:

I realize that there are a lot of pictures here...

At the "Zoo:"

Playing at the park and gym:

Campfire:

So that about sums things up. Thanks for visiting!

Cribmates

Have I mentioned lately that Brooklyn likes to climb into the crib with Lydia? Yes, this does make for interesting "naptimes." Not a whole lot of actual napping gets done, but I love hearing them giggle in there together.

Butt Aid, relief for the un-happy butt!

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Butt Aid, the dollar store version of Desitin, is pictured below.

You know, "relief for the unhappy butt," (or bum, as we like to call it). It seems to do the trick, even if it is a disgusting cream/brownish color. Now typically, and by typically, I mean ALWAYS, we use this for rashy bums. I hadn't really considered using it for artistic adventures. Apparently Brooklyn did...

REWIND TO 7AM THIS MORNING:
I have a pretty awful cold/maybe strep right now. So when the girls woke up early this morning, Tim went and turned Dora on for them to watch. He came back to bed. A few minutes later we heard Lydia squealing (not a happy squeal). This is a very common noise when she gets onto her belly and gets high-centered. However, Tim still decided he should go check on her. This is what he found:

Like I said, artistic adventures. I really don't know what else to call it. I wish you could have seen how much of her was really covered. Neck, ears, hands, etc. This picture just doesn't do it justice.

I'm thinking Brooklyn might like a face-painting class...