Poop!

Ugghhh...having kids under the age of five is just messy sometimes.

Last night, I bathed all three of the little ones. Ross was the last one in the tub and didn't want to get out. I was going back and forth putting laundry away (don't worry -- he makes noise CONSTANTLY, so I can monitor him easily and I was close by), so I didn't actually see this happen. I hear Reid and Ross giggling excessively. I figured there was a lot of splashing going on and that I may have to put a fresh set of pajamas on Reid due to splashing. I enter the bathroom to be greeted by a tub full of poopy water. The kicker? Ross was fishing the turds out and lining them up on the edge of the tub.

There was only one thing I could do -- turn around and bite my lip to keep from laughing. Yes, I know it is gross, but Ross was so pleased with his "collection" that I couldn't help but laugh (and it was either laugh or cry at that point).

Sigh...the boys sure are a handful.

My not so fabulous fondant...

So, today I assembled the fondant I made last week into a cake. It is certainly not perfect. In fact, there is a ton of stuff wrong with it, but I think it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. Now, no one is allowed to laugh at this, okay?


I definitely rolled the fondant out too think, which is painfully obvious in the picture. And I just could not get the edges smooth -- there are a ton of wrinkles and folds in the fondant. And there is a ton of powdered sugar on the top of the cake. And, well, we'll just leave it at that. What I learned:

1. Fondant must be thin enough that the decorative pieces aren't too heavy to adhere and that the sides can be smoothed without massive wrinkles.

2. Too thick of a layer of buttercream under the fondant is bad -- very very bad. The buttercream squished around under the fondant, making an even more un-even looking appearance.

3. I need a few more tools before trying this again, namely a plastic ruler and a non-stick plastic knife. I had a hard time cutting the ribbon.

4. Three year olds are not helpful when rolling out fondant.

The cake itself was fabulous. I used the Blackout Cake recipe from Karen Barker's "Sweet Stuff" (a book I highly recommend, by the way -- the Peppermint Pattie cake is divine), which is absolutely my favorite chocolate cake recipe ever. I iced the cake with white chocolate buttercream and filled it with white chocolate hazelnut buttercream. I wasn't overly fond of the hazelnuts. I think I would have liked it better if I had ground them up finer and perhaps added a bit of hazelnut extract. The buttercream was amazing, however, which is saying a lot, as I generally don't like buttercream.

The fondant was okay -- it is just really really sweet and a bit chewy. It is a bit like having a layer of taffy on the outside of the cake. It is certainly edible, but not desirable in my book. Fortunately, you can just peel the fondant off the outside if you don't want it. It definitely is fun to work with and the effect is really cool, so I'll be trying this again soon. In fact, I'll probably be trying it for Reid's birthday in a few weeks...now just to figure out a Hawaiian themed cake for him!

Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!!!!!

Yuck! I just had to fish a GIGANTIC mouse out of my pool. Not quite big enough for me to call it a rat, but close. Ick, ick, ick, ick, ick...

At least it was floating in the bottom of the pool. We've had mice before (two little ones) and a couple frogs (though, those stupid things don't die, unfortunately), but they were in the skimmer basket. I hate cleaning the skimmer basket out, because you actually have to get your hand near whatever gross things are in it. At least when I'm fishing something out of the water, it is on the other end of a 16 foot long pole.

Ugh...it just gives me the creeps thinking about the wet little thing.

Obviously, I can handle these things myself, but dang I wish Jeremy were here to deal with the gross stuff!

Mmmmm...strawberries!

Yesterday morning, Betty & I took the kids strawberry picking at a nearby patch. We only picked two baskets, but brought home 6 -- two was enough picking for the "experience". My only complaint was that there were a TON of bugs -- much more so than we ever ran into when blueberry picking last year. The kids had a good time, though. Here are a few snapshots of the outing:

This one cracked me up! "Grandma, there is something wrong with this one..."

And, yes, Lucy was along. She was on my back in the carrier, though, so no pics of her today!

I made two batches of jam yesterday afternoon. Reid was surprisingly helpful with this process. I managed to only burn myself once on the canner...something I do EVERY TIME I can. I can cook without incident most days, but I cannot can safely.

The jam is mostly for Jeremy. He loves strawberry jam and much prefers homemade to anything store bought. So, hopefully, the two batches will make it through until the next strawberry season, else I could have a grumpy hubby on my hands.

Now, what to do with the rest of the berries in my fridge...

In the kitchen.

So, yesterday I took a stab at making fondant -- the play dough like frosting for cakes that is super trendy right now (for those of you -- like my husband -- who don't know what it is). I made it with marshmallows, which isn't traditional, but is supposed to taste much better. It is currently sitting in the fridge waiting for a cake to magically appear in my kitchen. It didn't taste too bad, though not the best frosting I've ever had (I do think I'll try adding a flavor when I knead the coloring later). However, it is for aesthetic purposes that I am making it, so as long as it is edible, it is all good with me. I want to do Lucy's cake in fondant, so I have plenty of time to try this over several times.

It was quite the sticky mess. Essentially, you just melt a bunch of marshmallows and then knead in a lot of powdered sugar. My counter (and apron) were a mess. And so was Reid. I kept him busy by letting him lick the bowl from the marshmallows. You know what happens to melted marshmallows after a few moments at room temperature, right? Yep, it gets quite firm. So, it was really an impossible task that I set Reid to. That didn't matter, though, he kept at it for a good 1/2 hour. And that was plenty of time for me to make the fondant and then clean up.

Hopefully I'll get a first stab at putting the stuff on a cake next week.

And for those of you who know me well, then you'll also know I'm a bit like "Tim the toolman", but in the kitchen. You know, that lovable guy from "Tool Time" that had to have more power in everything that he did. Well, that rule applies to my appliances -- more power is always better.

I have a nice KitchenAid mixer that I got for a wedding gift. It is totally adequate for most mixing purposes. I, however, convinced myself several years ago that I needed to upgrade to a bigger model because of my bread making (which, legitimately, was pretty rough on my original mixer). Jeremy has mostly ignored this repeated request. But, he must have gotten tired of listening to me. So, my oh so sweet husband surprised me with a new mixer. When I got home from Ohio a few weeks ago, this was waiting on the front steps for me:

Cool, huh? I more than doubled the power in the motor and did double the bowl capacity. So, I now have 6 quarts of mixing capability. And this thing is so stinking cool!!! I can actually knead a loaf of bread without it walking across the counter.

And I was originally trying to figure out what to do with the old one. But I've decided to keep it. I like my kitchen toys and don't part with them easily. Plus, you just never know when you'll need two at once, right?

P. S. I should mention now that I typed this post while making dinner and feeding Lucy. It works like this: type sentence, feed Lucy a bite or two of banana, throw some cheerios on the tray, type sentence, peek out at boys who are on the screen porch (which would be visible from my sink if I were two inches taller) and yell at them for being ornery to each other, write sentence, stir pasta, repeat. So, yes, this may not be the most well written post ever.

A girls weekend!

The boys spent the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa in Ohio watching Aunt Johnna row. So, Lucy & I had a girls only weekend and it was a lovely, and productive, weekend at that.


Thursday I managed to finish shampooing my carpets and then had dinner with my friend Erin and her son (who is just a month older than Lucy). On Friday we went shopping with Erin and her son. I did some major shopping -- which is something I haven't done in ages --and had a blast! And the entire trip went amazingly well with the two babies in tow. We seriously lost track of time and entirely missed lunch. And let me tell you, Erin is a total enabler. I almost came home with two purses (I did honestly need one -- mine was literally hanging by a thread when we got to the mall). I'm still wondering if I need to go back for the hot pink croco patent leather purse (well, and those brown sandals that I couldn't justify while we were there). Now, I enjoy shopping with Jeremy, but he never would say "that is sooo cute" at the sweet little girl outfits -- it was so nice to go shopping with a girl friend!


On Saturday, Lucy & I tackled stuff around the house. I washed the car seat covers and cleaned part of the van. Why didn't I clean all of it? Because it literally took me an hour to clean the third row (where the boys sit) and the ceiling. The ceiling? Yes, the ceiling, people. It was covered in what I am assuming is milk splatter. It does look better, though, and I did get the worst of the mess. Lucy's nap just was not long enough for me to get more done on that, though. I can't even remember specifically what else we did on Saturday, but we were busy all day and the house looked much better by the time I went to bed.

On Sunday, I did all my usual Monday cleaning. I thought it would be nice to have it done so that the boys & I could spend today just hanging around together. That was a great plan, until I woke up with mastitis (I know, probably too much information for some of you). So, while I haven't felt driven to the doctor yet, I'm feeling pretty run down today and took several naps.

Oh, and I did manage to spend a little bit of time scrapbooking this weekend -- something I haven't done in months. It was nice to have some recreational time to myself.

Lucy stands!!!

Lucy has really been getting around lately. She crawls all over the place, though her crawl is getting modified into a "bear" crawl. She wears a lot of dresses and those tend to get caught under her knees and trip her up, so she has taken to crawling on her hands and feet (with her rear end sticking straight up). It is quite comical to watch, but kudos to her for figuring out a way around the problem! I was just wondering yesterday if this hurdle would give her more incentive to learn to walk soon.

This morning, she sat on the floor with me while I folded diapers. She spent a long time pulling herself up on the basket and got herself up on her knees several times, which she was happy with because she could then reach in and fling items out of the basket. I was just wondering if she'd get herself up to standing, when I looked up and there she stood staring at me with a huge grin on her face. She even let go with one hand. She was thoroughly pleased with herself! Of course, this happened as I was almost finished folding, so the basket no longer had enough weight in it to be stable and I had to hold it down for her, else I would have snapped a picture.

I really just cannot believe how big she is getting already! She is definitely the last baby in this household, so I'm trying to enjoy each milestone and stage. It is crazy and sad to think that soon she will be a toddler and that the baby days will be over for our family. At the same time, though, I can't help but think "hallelujah" -- the lack of sleep issue cannot be totally overlooked no matter how sweet babies are.