Birthday Cake?

Clark's birthday is next month and I decided I'm going to bake a cake we can all enjoy. So today I decided I better do a test run.

I was all set to tell you how much I HATE BAKING after I finished the cake I baked today. (I do hate baking and I've had 2 other flops recently so I was preparing myself for another flop.) Well, I baked a chocolate cake in a round pan, cut it in half with dental floss, filled it with pudding and frosted it with chocolate frosting. I broke the top and had a very hard time frosting the thing, but in the end all turned out fine. I think it would've been better if I baked two layers instead of trying to cut the thing in half, but that would just double my chances of another flop.

Lopsided, but I think it looks like a birthday cake. :)

My little artist

Bailey has been into making books lately. Here are a couple picture from her latest masterpiece. I thought they were so cute I couldn't resist posting...

Daddy lying in bed
(See his arms behind his head?)

Daddy giving Bailey a hug

Gregory "not feeling well" His new favorite saying.
I think he just likes the cuddle time

Happy 96th Birthday, Hibachan!

Today we celebrated Hibachan's 96th birthday!

We had a delicious prime rib dinner with all the fixings. Yumola! Bailey had THREE helpings of meat today. She just loved it. Gregory ate his fill as well. I think we all did.

Grandma with all her granddaughters

Emma and Bailey showing off the "earrings"
(little gem stickers)

Here's one on Bailey's nose.

Hibachan with all her grandkids and great-grandkids

Hibachan with her boys

Happy Birthday, Hibachan!

...he was a beautiful butterfly!

Today we took down our Valentine's decorations and needed something springy to take it's place. Easter is still a ways away so we decided to make butterflies! The whole project was kind of inspired by Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I love his books ~ especially the artwork! We made the wings with mod podge and tissue paper and the body (the caterpillar) with colored paper and pipe cleaners for the antennae. They turned out really cute and they both did a great job with the mod podge.

Who doesn't love mod podge?
I even had to join in the fun!

 

First we covered our cardboard with colored tissue squares

Here's Gregory's sheet all covered

Bailey adding a final square or two

As the wings were drying we made the caterpillars and
decorated them with dot markers and pipe cleaners
for the antennae. They played with them while the wings dried.

Here's Bailey's beautiful butterfly!

Gregory's butterfly flying around

A closeup shot.
As Bailey put it, "Aren't they adorable?

Singing in the Rain

Daddy is still working on the kitchen and it's still raining out here.

So today, I put raincoats on the kids and we went outside to play in the rain! Gregory spent most of his day under the waterfall coming off our roof. He got a bit wet, but they both had a good time. After we played a bit we came in and dried off

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Well, it seems like we've been remodeling since we moved in and it really hasn't been a big problem until today. Clark is pretty neat while he works and he has done a nice job on all of our bathrooms. He started on our kitchen about a year ago and yesterday he got back to it. Well, I have to say, remodeling a kitchen is not fun. We are doing it in sections, but it is really hard to do any cooking with stuff spread all over the place and dust in every nook and cranny (and that is with Clark running the vacuum the entire time the sander is going!) And it doesn't help that it's raining outside and the kids and I have to stay inside. Well, we are half way done with the corner section and yes, it's looking nice and yes, it really needs to get finished since we've had stuff in boxes for a year now and yes, it'll be really nice once it's done. Now I just have to work on keeping my mouth shut about the mess until it's finished!

Daddy and Bailey working on removing all the cabinets and drawers

My little scooter snoozing through all the noise!
(I moved him once the sanding started)

Where's Bailey??
Can you see her in the pile of stuff?
Amazing what fits into two cupboards and a few drawers!

We had an indoor picnic (as Bailey called it)
since our table is still packed with stuff

A Valentine's Birthday Party!

Today, Bailey was invited to Apurva's birthday party. Apurva is a friend from preschool.

When we arrived at Apurva's house Bailey got to make her own birthday party hat! Her mommy had stickers and pom-poms to decorate. Then the kids ran around and played for a bit while lunch was heating up. The kids had pizza and the mommies had Indian food. I packed Bailey's lunch for her since I didn't know what would be served. She had a hot dog, letter fries and pears. The Indian food was yummy. Very spicy and all quite healthy.

After lunch, the kids had a parade, played pin the nose on the clown, feed the elephant and musical chairs. Then Apurva opened her gifts, we had cake and went outside to blow bubbles! What a fun party.

Fun Morning at the Park

This morning we decided to take the kids to the park. They needed to get out of the house and run around a bit. (or I did) I think everyone else had the same idea. Lots of people were at the park today. Kids had a good time climbing on the structures. Bailey is really getting good at climbing! Physical therapy is really helping her out. Gregory is still fearless as ever.





Ride um cowboy!







Testing out the water park equipment. This is going to be the place to be on a hot day!



Gregory loves sliding

Rainy Days

I hate rainy days - especially when they land on a Monday or Friday when we really don't have anything planned. And for some reason our kids seem to wake up early every time it rains so the day is even longer. UGH.

Well today was a rainy day - actually a rainy morning. We did get to go outside this afternoon, but still, a rainy morning... So after breakfast we had a craft day. We made some clothes pin Valentine animals and heart doily pictures. Luckily our kids love crafts so that kept them busy for the whole morning!

Gomamiso Yosenabe (Sesame Miso Hot Pot)

I didn't take a photo, but I found this YUMMY new recipe. It's like a great big, thick miso soup stew. So easy to make and oh so tasty. Don't be afraid of the tahini ~ it really adds a nice body to the nabe. Try it and let me know what you think! We'll be having it again soon!

Plaster of Paris Project

I wanted to do a plaster of paris project with the kiddies while the adults watched the Superbowl yesterday. But we ended up not having time, so I did it with our kiddies today. Actually a good thing, since it didn't exactly work like I had planned.

We mixed the plaster of paris in a zip lock bag and poured them into 2 molds - a plate to do a hand print and a heart to make a paper weight for Daddy. All went well up to that point. Then we set it on the bench to set up a bit and we tested it at about 5 minutes and it was still too soupy for us to set our rocks and/or make a hand print. Waited another 5 minutes and WOW it got hard all of a sudden. We quickly tried to make a hand print and squish some rocks in the stuff. You can see the results.

I think they had more fun playing with the rocks...

Celebrating Grandpa's Birthday and the Superbowl!

Today we went to Uncle Ryan and Aunty Joey's house to celebrate Grandpa's birthday and watch the Superbowl. From what I watched it looked like an exciting game this year. The kids had fun playing with their cousins. We had a yummy potluck dinner and ate way too much, as always. Aunty Joey had an art project for the kids to work on after dinner so that was a big hit too.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!