Wilton Cake Continues

For Mother's Day I received a Wilton Cake decorating kit with the course materials to learn some basic buttercream skills.  This has been something I'd been wanting to do for several years!  And boy have I learned some simple lessons that make a big difference.  First, too much water can make your frosting droop.  But, it still tastes great!

The kids have been asking whose birthday it is when I break out the cakes and frosting.  I guess since we're not much of cake eaters around here (we prefer pie!), that only truly special occasions merit frosting skills.  Not anymore!  Now, we can have pretty cakes without a reason...Mommy needs to practice!

Day Camp 2014

Although this was our second experience with Cub Scout Day Camp, this was the first time either Shawn or Linda got to attend with John.  But we had a fun time spending the day with some fun boys!  Linda volunteered early in the week as a den walker (you get to keep the boys in line as they go from activity to activity).

Shawn got to help out at the BB gun range!  John stayed to help Daddy set up water balloons so the other boys could shoot them down!  The family showed up in the evening for an early campfire ceremony and a picnic.  The kids loved the huge pavilion and seeing where John had spent his days all week.

To help Shawn keep from getting sunburned and for a Father's Day gift, we got him an awesome Stetson straw hat!  Now with boots and a hat, he looks like he was born in Texas!

Happy Easter 2014

The kids were especially excited to go look for eggs this year.  They think they have the backyard pretty memorized and they "know" all of the great hiding places.  Yeah, well, Daddy did a great job hiding the eggs.  And the kids had a great time looking for them.

We made them line up in the front entry to get ready to find eggs.  One by one we let them loose, youngest to eldest.  Joe was off like a shot to find eggs.  Then Jack, Bekah, Kelsey and finally John ran outside to share in the fun!

Look closely at Joe by the fence...yup!  That's underwear!

We did have a bit of an Easter surprise!  Joe was so focused on finding eggs that he forgot about his pants.  Oops!  Better pull up those pants, Joe Joe Man!

And we even put some eggs just out of reach in the empty bird feeders!  Reach, John!

 

Look at all those pretty eggs!

Those aren't all plastic eggs.  Some of those were the hard boiled ones that the kids dyed on Saturday.  We need to remember to take the eggs out of the fridge an hour before we hide them as the condensation makes a mess when you hide them.

Ah well.  It was a good day!  And we even got to church where we were reminded today isn't just about eggs and candy.  It's really all about Jesus' resurrection.  And the kids have told me Jesus liked candy too!  I'm not one to argue because I have a sneaking suspicion they're right.  Happy Easter!

Texas Gardening: Round Dos

After a failed first attempt to put tomatoes in the ground this year (they froze in the ice storm we had), our garden looks like it's flourishing a bit.  We have a few newcomers this year and we'll see how everything goes.  We're doing a few "experiments" in our square foot garden.

One of the newcomers is our new pumpkin patch.  At least, I think it's a pumpkin patch.  I'm not exactly sure what's growing but it is a lovely green!  Either we'll have fat, orange pumpkins or a ton of yellow summer squash.  Sounds great both ways.

 

We have two grow boxes of tomatoes.  Yes, I said TWO!  We're hoping to put up a bunch of bottled tomatoes and even more homemade spaghetti sauce.  I found a recipe that everyone likes but it's going to require a few quarts of tomatoes!


And we added a fourth grow box to the group.  With the new soil, it's doing great  (see first picture above).  One of our grow boxes (to the left) is going to need a little extra help...but I think we also have older seeds trying to germinate in it.  So, we'll see how well the corn grows.  And yes, I said corn.  There are some who swear you can do corn in a square foot garden.  I'm also interested to see if the zucchini can be trellis/staked upward.  We're going to try acorn and cantelope on the large trellises.  So, it's going to be a summer full of adventure and fun!

And our last addition is Daddy's newest joy!  We got a blood orange tree!  At some point we'll have to put it in the ground, but we're hoping that comes after we find our dream home in Texas.  Until then, Jack is his buddy.  Check back this summer to see how the harvest goes.

While we enjoy a good flower garden the same as anyone else, we're going to see if we can do an edible flower garden in the front yard.  We put some carrots, beets, lettuce and other herbs mixed in with mums, petunias and we're hoping some marigolds pop up.  But who knows?  We didn't do as much to help this soil and Cedar Park soil isn't really soil.  More like glorified sandy dust from the limestone.  But we're working with it.

This is a purely flowering flower bed.  The girls begged to have some flowers up front.   So we put in some kind of flower seeds and then are filling in the rest with Allysum and Petunias behind the sliver of a rain barrel.  Yes, that's a 50 gallon rain barrel that we use to harvest the rain.  We've had two storms and it's already full to overflowing.  Yeah!  "Free" water!  This will come in handy during the hot, rainless summer months.  And I've been told this is going to be one long, hot summer.  Great!  So was last year.

The Only Flowering Bed

Texas Capitol Field Trip With John

John's third grade class took a field trip to the state capitol this last week and we had such a good time.  I've been here for nearly two years and haven't been downtown much.  This was a first for at least three of us!  Jason accompanied us and boy was he a hit!  All of the kids (especially the girls) wanted to hold him.  The tour guides even loved his happy smile!

But we got to learn a bit more about our new state's history and proud heritage.  It's definitely different living in the Republic of Texas!

We started off in the Visitor Center where we learned about the early settlement of Texas.  John especially loved seeing the old Bowie knife and rifle that were hanging on the mantle.  He wanted to take a picture of just about everything...even the pictures of pictures.  But Jason and I tried to make a good show of it when we were in front of the camera.

Ms. Mehlow's a great sport!

  

Then, we learned about the Lady of Justice that stands on top of the capitol.  The kids thought it great fun to put their own faces through the cutout.  Jason didn't get a turn, but Mommy and John would look great if we were back in time.

 

And while everyone else was watching a cool video on the building of the capitol, I sneaked off to get this one of Jason!  Ride 'em, cowboy!  He's our true Texan! And John got to follow suit.

 

Off to the main part of the tour.  The kids thought the Rotunda was amazing.  And that star at the top is really 8 feet across.  The kids were REALLY impressed by that because the star seems so small when you are 218 feet below it.

We took pictures in the different chambers for the Senate and House of Reps.  And it was a this point that lil Jason could take it no longer.  All I knew was that his head hit mine...and I figured he was happily off in dream land.  I couldn't see...so someone else confirmed it.

By the time we made it to the basement (yes, I said basement!), I think most everyone was just about pooped out from all the history.  It was lunchtime anyway.

So, I took a panoramic picture and we were off to get lunch at the park.

Jason was really excited to be out of the backpack carrier and able to crawl around.  He was a good sport the entire time...even when I took him just a few minutes later to the doctor to "discover" he had another ear infection!  What a good sport!

Blue Bonnet Pics with Kelsey

I have been planning ahead just a teeny bit.  Okay, so it's more than a couple of months away, but there are a couple of good reasons.  First, we had to mail order this awesome dress and I didn't want it showing up on her baptism too small or too big.  So, we got it early to make sure it fit.

Second, July is hot in Texas and I didn't want a red faced little girl in her baptism pictures.  End of March is such a pretty time around here.  We've got flowers and trees blooming; birds are nesting; and the weather is perfect!

These blue bonnet flowers only bloom in the spring and they make for a beautiful backdrop!

And these pictures also are training for me with my new camera.  Thanks for being a lovely test subject, Kelsey.  Now...if only I can learn how to make the camera white balance....

Spring Break 2014

Grandma Sue came to visit us again this year and we were all so excited!  Here's some snapshots of some of the fun we had!

While some of the kids spent time at a friends house, we took the youngest three to a wonderful park in Round Rock, Texas.  It was made specifically for kids of all abilities.  There were wheelchair swings; swings big enough for older handicap kids; a safety town; and a sand pit!  The boys didn't know where to go first!

When it got a little colder in the week, we stayed home and let the kids play in the garage with some of the bikes and scooters.  Well, the bikes were forgotten when the kids found the orange traffic cones!  There's so much excitement with these cones!

We even got to celebrate a little birthday party (a week early) for Joe with Grandma Sue.  He loves his new Lego set!  Thanks, Grandma Sue.  We miss you already!