Having Cake and Eating It, Too!

Edited: The After Photo!

We're starting the week of birthday celebration at our house tomorrow. Since the family is flung far and wide, we usually end up celebrating birthdays once locally, and again with the out-of-towners. Sometimes the out-of-town party is closer in proximity to the actual birthday, other times it's delayed by several weeks. But, we always get a chance to party! ;-)

The first order of business for any birthday party is, of course, The Cake. I have been making and decorating birthday cakes around the house since the girls were new - I took the Wilton Cake Decorating class just to hone my skills. (Only got through Level 1. I am not certified for fondant, and just barely made it through Roses.) I have a toolbox full of cake tools - decorating tips, icing tints - and a nice stash of shaped pans - metal and silicone. And I'm not afraid to use 'em.

Some cakes have been awesome: the Homestar Runner series (The Cheat & Trogdor), The Monkey Cake (tweak the frosting with a fork to make it look like fur!), the flower cupcakes...Others have been less than stellar accomplishments: the Barney Cake that almost read "Happy #2!", last year's pink and brown bowling ball fiasco (first attempt with the spherical cake pan and an off-site party. Transportation fail!). Then, there's the year of the Mickey Cake and the Almost Ugly cupcakes (a legend among the Sisterly Drama stories around my sister's office - I blame my pregnant alter ego, Hormona.) But, this year's cake has great potential to be Really Good.

Kate chose the color scheme, based on a butterfly cake set in the Wilton cake book from a few years ago. The cake's from a box, but the icing is from scratch (buttercream: mmmmm!). The Wilton version is all fondant, but this cake is the first time I've successfully been able to use the "smooth the buttercream with wax paper" trick to make it look like fondant. And, the lettering around the edge of the cake (suggested by my husband) turned out straight (albeit a little slanted) and legible. Yay!

Tomorrow's the big fun - I will turn the icing bag over to the girls to handle the top of the cake. Come back and see the after photos. ;-)

The Quest for the DAR

A couple years ago, I was traveling to the east coast for work, and scheduled some time to visit my grandmother in Baltimore. I believe I was walking out the door to head to the airport when she mentioned the Daughters of the American Revolution group. She'd done the research, and we qualified as decendants of a Revolutionary War soldier. She didn't think she had time to join and "do all that paperwork," but it might be something I could do. Hmm...

This information hung out in the back of my mind for a few years. When my daughter was in 2nd grade, I helped chaperone a field trip with her class, and we visited an historic home in our area that is maintained by the DAR. That peaked my interest again, and I started conversation with the local DAR chapter to see what I had to do to join the group. (Maybe it includes initials I can include after my name. "Alison Caufield, 6th generation DAR" - probably won't get me any pull except with the second graders.)

Now, just browsing the "how to become a member" information on the web site is a bit daunting - they talk about proving the lineage, through birth, death and marriage certificates, tombstones, military documents. I imagined this process as embarking on something along the lines of the "National Treasure" movie - traveling far and wide to track down clues and pieces of the puzzle. But without having to break into the White House. ;-) Luckily, my grandmother has documented the family lineage, and I got my hands on it. So began the adventure.

Turns out, a lot of the "way historical" work has been done, and you don't have to re-do it for each applicant. The DAR has a list of eligible soldiers/service members, and when you apply, you can connect to lineage that someone else may have already done. So, most of what I have to do is track down certificates and documentation from my generation backwards. There's my project for the spring!

Turns out, I can also trace my ancestry back to the sister of George Rogers Clark. My husband would like to see if we can use this to our advantage, and possibly of "take over" some cities in our area that are named after him. We can all dream, right?

She's Gone Multi Syllabic!

I guess I first noticed Kim's new words while we were home with all the snow and ice. I don't remember the first multi-syllabic word she threw at me that week, but the second was this:

"Mom, you have had plenty of opportunities to finish the bedding for my baby doll. When will you have that done?"

Another example from tonight:

"Mom, I'm embarrassed that I don't know how to fix things." (Said during a fit of tears after we'd found some damaged baby doll furniture. Broken furniture is in the glue-drying stage as we speak, and should be good as new tomorrow.)

I'm sure she hears these words all the time, but it surprises me to hear her use them. Then again, she is a First Grader, and that, as we all know, is the Big Time.

So, where I once would have scrambled for a notebook or scrap of paper on which to write these little quotes (to save and embarrass her with later in life!), I now have The Blog, where I can keep these gems forever and always. Yay, Blog! ;-)

Movies I Will Watch on Cable a Thousand Times

Coming off a week of being house-bound due to snow and ice, I'm contemplating the various movies I've stumbled across on cable. No matter where they are in the storyline when I find them, I'll always stop and watch them through to the end.

Now, the interesting thing is that I didn't see most of these movies in the theatre or on DVD. So, I've never seen a version that's not been edited for time and content.

Sister Act, I and II - The big singing numbers at the end always get me.

Drumline - again, I think this one's all about the drum numbers.

Bring It On, Bring It On Again, and I think there's a third one - Dumb cheerleader drama. Yup, sign me up.

Shall We Dance, Save the Last Dance - One of these is the dance version of Drumline, and the other is Antonio Banderas giving dance lessons to high schoolers in detention. You'll understand why I can't distinguish them at the moment. (There's also a Richard Gere Learns To Dance movie. I'd put that one on the list if I could figure out the title. ;-)

Legally Blonde, Clueless - girl power!

Steel Magnolias - swoon

The Devil Wears Prada - this movie I actually saw on DVD first, but discovered in on cable a couple weekends ago. New to the rotation. Sweet!

School of Rock - "and the legend of the rent was way hard core!"

Bridget Jones Diary and its sequel - another swoon, because there's no way my husband would sit through this movie with me.

Air Force One - see, that's one that DH would join me to watch.

Any Tom Clancy movie (Clear and Present Danger, etc.) - mostly because of Harrison Ford, but there's the action-adventure aspect, too.

Stripes - talk about a blast from the past. This one's left over from my college days, I think, when cable was new and fresh, and the cable networks were desperate. Or, it could be Bill Murray's cadences. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

I've still got two more days at home, and being that I'm feeling kinda puny, I see more channel surfing in my future. We'll see if I find anything to add to this list.

Snow! (well, ice, actually)

I was a bit sarcastic Monday night when I updated my status on Facebook. You'll forgive me, but the weather forecasters here go a little overboard. Turns out, they were more right than wrong -between late Monday and early Wednesday, we got snow, then ice, then more snow. It's not often that we get ice 'round these parts, but it is not something you want to mess with.

Tuesday, when the novelty of the snow day was still fresh, the girls and I did some shoveling on the driveway, and then ventured out to sled on the big hill behind Gramma and Grandpa's house.

Wednesday, after the ice arrived, we all hung out at the house, amusing ourselves with various electronics (WOW online for DH, Harry Potter audio book for the DD's, and work email for me). All was good until about 11:30, when we lost power. Yeeks! The girls got out the Crayola clay and made some sculputres, and after a couple hours we all bundled up and had naps. When the power came back on about 4, I discovered a) our neighbors had all taken advantage of not having any power, and spent the blackout shoveling their driveways, and b) our birch tree out front was laden with ice and doubled over. Sigh.

We made another valiant stab at shoveling the driveway, but about 1/3 of the way through the project, the ice got the best of me and my young assistant, and we headed back in.

Today, we are still snowed in and home from school. Work was piling up on both DH and myself, but, as his office is just around the corner, I got the short straw and had to stay home to work. Luckily, we have nieces not too far away, and willing in-laws who we called upon to host the kids for a bit. More playing in the snow, more hot chocolate, more vegging out with a blanket and a movie.

As for Friday, we already know school is cancelled (and Monday's forecast calls for more snow!). We're all a little stir crazy, but we have a birthday in the household this weekend, so we will hopefully find something wildly creative to keep us entertained.

Pro-duc-tive [pruh-duhk-tiv]

When I have a day off from work (as I did Monday, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), I always feel like I should use it for something Productive - usually in terms of an around-the-house project. However, Real Life usually intervenes, and the day slithers away with very little actually accomplished.

Cases in point:

• Thanksgiving 2008 - two days off by myself. Aim was to head up to Ikea and buy a new kitchen table, and start work on painting the master bathroom. I think I poked at the existing wallpaper border in the bathroom, in an effort to determine how easily it would come off. Answer: Not so easily. Sigh. Two days of vegging resulted.
• Christmas 2008 - a week at home with the whole family. There were toys to sort, outgrown clothes to categorize, rooms to clean, laundry to do, and again, that painting job in the bathroom. We did get the toys sorted, but ended up watching movies and playing games instead of accomplishing anything on Mom's List. Not a total waste, but more of a seven-day version of our normal weekend.

So, when I got to last Friday, and the impending three-day weekend, I didn't make a list, I didn't stop by and pick out paint samples. I just went home. We vegged most of the weekend, but still managed to get laundry and dishes done. And Monday morning, I fixed breakfast and we did more vegging. It wasn't until late in the day that I was inspired to work on a project - doll bedding. Because every doll needs sheets and blankets and a pillow.

Somehow, without the stress of a pre-planned To Do List, I managed to be a bit productive on my day off. Though Monday only resulted in two doll mattresses and a sample blanket, I also figured out how to cut fabric into bias tape! And sew short pieces together into longer strips (as for blanket edging)! Because sewing for dolls is much less intimidating than sewing for The Real Thing (aka, a couch slipcover).

But I still have to tackle painting that bathroom. ;-)

Week in Review

Well, it's only Wednesday, so this must be a "first week of the new year" in review, not a Sunday-Saturday review. Yeah, let's go with that!

Started off the new year with our friends in Lanesville - drinks, dancing, even an after-midnight stop at Waffle House. We really forgot how old we all are! New Year's day included big naps for most of us!

Our winter break ended with a whimper - we did stop by Blockbuster and rented some games for the DS's - a try-before-you-buy thing. Reviews:

• Tinkerbell - cute, a little tough for the young one, but the older one took right to it. She is all about the Disney Fairies right now.


• Mario Party - again, my older daughter took right to it, and the younger one just got a chance to try it out today.


• NinjaTown - this one was Pat's choice, but I got the second crack at it and really like it. Even played it while waiting for a conference call to start while working from home the other day. Shh!

So far, our back to school for 2009 has been successful - report cards for the 2nd quarter come home on Friday, so we'll know more then.

Tuesday morning started bright and early for me (well, early, anyway) - I made it out to Jeffersonville to be a background performer for the Jazzercise promo spot on the local news show. I have it on DVR...some creativity will be required to get anything out of that format, so we'll see. I did review the footage and I look happily anonymous. And there's no footage of me trying to do push-ups. Hah!

Today's highlight - VINYL! I've been ordering vinyl printed skins for the DS's - so they may be easily distinguished among the cousins'/friends' units - and found offerings to cover laptops and Wii units as well. Lots of fun stuff, but nothing that really inspired me.

Ok, let's talk about this inspiration thing for a minute. You may or may not be familiar with my latest Dream Car - The Dodge Charger. This was further fostered when I was given a 2008 Ford Mustang as a rental car on two separate occasions this summer - the Mustang was fun, but I'm still a mom, and the Charger comes with four doors. Hee! Nevermind that I've not test driven or even sat in the Charger. It's all about the looks, baby. Anyway, some of the racier models come with - wait for it... - racing stripes! Probably not what I'd choose were I driving the thing in real life, but they look pretty cool out on the street. So, this became my inspiration for the laptop skin - just some racing stripes. That's not too racy. ;-)

Well, I didn't find anyone who made a full skin with racing stripes, but I found a supplier of vinyl online (similar to what you might use for vinyl lettering or vinyl decals made with a home die cut system). The vinyl came today, and while dinner was in the oven, I striped my laptop. Yes, this is the highlight of my week, and another case where my scrapbooking tools and research don't have anything to do with photos. Maybe that should be my 2009 Resolution - Use My Scrapbooking Tools for Scrapbooking! Not Just Collecting!

Now, I'm off to stripe my Wii. Happy New Year!