Yesterday Jer Bear celebrated 5 years!  We ate Lucky Charms, blueberry muffins, Ramen noodles, fruit snacks, and olive pizza at his request for our meals.  He got the Lightning McQueen umbrella he's been wanting for a year, as well as some Cars 2 toys, a Cars scooter, a Bobcat (machine) toy, a huge stuffed alligator, and a few other things.  We took the day off of school and watched Cars 2 together.  It was an exciting and fun day, and it was especially nice that we didn't have the stomach flu, as we've had 4 other years on or close to his birthday!  It's hard to believe 5 years have gone by!  We love our sweet, tender-hearted little guy and it's exciting to see him growing and becoming more mature.

Jeremiah wanted a snowmobile cake.  I couldn't find a snowmobile toy, after checking in at least 7 stores, so I made him one from duplo blocks, and he still loved it!

Baby Katrielle is One!

Last Friday, our tiny girl had a birthday!

I'm so thankful God has blessed our family with this little one! 

She is such a delight to us.

She LOVES the song "I'm a Little Teapot" so I ended up decorating her room with that theme.  We also decided to do a teapot birthday for her.  I found a darling cloth teapot set at the thrift store and washed it really well for her.  I also found a musical tea seat (new-in-box) this summer at a yard sale for $1 which I gave her. 

I stuck two cupcakes together and made this cake.

Opening gifts chosen and wrapped by her brothers!  Yay!

Alathia chose this crown and jewels toy for Katri because her name means "God is My Crown."

Having 3 big siblings is a ready-made party!

My brother Grant, who works in the oil industry in Pennsylvania, just came home for a visit and was able to come to her party.  But Kate is going through a timid stage, especially with Grandpas and Uncles, so she was not happy about him holding her!

And even though she's seen a lot of Uncle Colter recently, she didn't want him to hold her either!

My mom got her a little tea set that makes pouring sounds and says "Please" and "Thank You"

She loved it soooo much she wouldn't put the tea cups down, not even to drink her bottle!

At lunchtime, we ended up going to the Mexican restaurant to see my brother and had a great time, as my entire family was together.  Since it was her birthday, the waitresses brought out the birthday sombrero and sang to Katrielle and gave her a free birthday dessert of fried ice-cream....

....which everyone was happy to eat for her since she's too little for sweets!

(These pics are from my mom's old camera--so they're not the best quality!)

Someone gave us this brand-new dress for Katri and I thought it would be perfect if it had a little teapot on it.  My friend Amanda found some darling teacup fabric at the thrift store for me, and I used it to sew an applique on the dress and teacup sleeve cuffs.  I even made a little hair band to match.  I love having little girls to dress up!

All in all, I think it was a pretty wonderful day for our little Kay-kay!  We are excited to see how she learns and grows this coming year.  She is our "mystery girl" whom we haven't quite figured out yet.  She is sometimes compliant and mellow, sometimes stubborn and strong-willed, sometimes a go-getter, sometimes a cuddler, sometimes quiet and shy, sometimes outgoing and loud, but always very curious!  (The kids and I sometimes call her "Curious Kate" instead of Curious George.)  She has had a rough month, with a bad cold that lasted 3 weeks, pink eye, roseola, an ear infection, and cutting her eye teeth, but on her birthday she was perfectly healthy and happy, go figure!  October and November are rough months in our town as far as sickness goes, so not having to cancel her party felt like a miracle!

6 Years Ago....

6 Years Ago today, on a cold winter morning in MN....

A chubby little girl was born....

....and made a mommy and a daddy of two young folks.

We love our little "Cowgirl" so much!  Happy Birthday Alathia Joy!

She really wanted a Bullseye toy for her birthday so her Jessie from Christmas could ride.  Even though it's the world's hardest-to-find toy, we got her one!

Our tradition is to decorate the table with gifts and themed decorations so that when the child comes up for breakfast they get a "running to see what's under the Christmas tree" kind of feeling.  Then we let them open one gift each time we have a meal or snack so they enjoy their presents all day long. 

The birthday child gets to choose the menu for the day.

Ali picked Lemon Poppyseed muffins for breakfast,

Ramen noodles (uhhg--oh so healthy, right?) for lunch, and macaroni and cheese, rolls and butter, Jell-O, and veggies for supper.

A red hat from the Dollar Store and an iron-on-transfer purchased for $5 online make for a frugal but cute birthday outfit.

Ali remembered me saying that on my 6th or 7th birthday my mom made me a sewing kit, which I and the neighborhood kids used to make tons of little pillows and doll clothing.  So, she wanted one too!  Grammy made her one for her gift.

Auntie Kianna, Josiah's sister, gave her two beautiful dresses, which she needed, as well as some hair clips and make-up.  She was so proud of her painted nails!

A hand-made little apron from Auntie Kandina, Josiah's other sis.  It matches her cowgirl hat!

Got Ali's cake image here, online, so that making her a cake that would delight her was super simple and easy for me and only cost 1/3 of the price that it would have cost to order a store cake.

I got a package of 28 Toy Story Christmas cards on after-Christmas clearance for 59 cents.  I used the Jessie and Woody ones to make a birthday garland to hang in the dining room and saved the Buzz ones for Jer since he is saying he wants a Buzz-themed birthday in November.

Train Cake

My friend Lora's son turned 2 on March 17th.  She made this really nifty cake which both William and brother Nicholas adored!  You can find the instructions here.

Cake Tip

I mentioned that I made the Angelina cake a couple of days before the party to save myself stress the day of the party.  How did I protect it in a small house with lots of little children that love cake?

My first thought was to grab a cardboard box to put it in, but then I thought of the dust, dirt, and smells that it could absorb if I went that route.  So, I decided to raid my kids' closet.  I am a container-freak and have all their playsets and homeschooling supplies in plastic tubs so I had plenty on hand.  I just dumped one out, stored the games that had been in it on a shelf temporarily, rinsed it out, flipped it over, and kept the cake safe!

Angelina Cake

My first plan was to make a laminated picture to simply stick on the cake.  You can buy frosting cake toppers of characters but I didn't want to pay $10 for one online.  This was only about 50 cents to laminate at the local printshop.  However, I was thinking "mouse" when I colored it and forgot Angelina is white!  FAIL!  When my friend Tina suggested I trace a coloring page on wax paper with frosting to make an Angelina topper, I was excited to try it!  The laminated picture was demoted to front door decoration.

Here is my friend Tina's cake, which she did several years ago for one of her 5 lovely daughters.

All that I had on hand was whipped frosting (store bought) so it made a bit of a gooey mess but here is the final result of tracing a coloring page.  I thought I was supposed to freeze it to make it hard so that it would scrape off.  It turns out I should have just traced the outline of her, dumped it straight onto the cake and filled in the outline with other colors.  That's how Tina did it.

Instead I tried in vain to scrape the frozen Angelina from the wax paper with a metal spatula.  The legs, head and tail came off.  The body and tutu were a jumbled mess.

Here's my attempt at using decorator gel tube frostings to cover over the frozen whipped frosting Angelina.  I'm thankful the head and tail stayed intact because they were the cutest parts.

Here's what happens when you get halfway through your daughter's full first name only to realize it won't fit.  Should have stuck with her nickname!  I was out of pink base-colored frosting too!  Uh-oh!  FAIL!

Here is the solution to the problem.  Cover it over with MORE frosting!  I had thought about making a homemade batch of white buttercream to trim the cake with white lacy ridges but then I thought, "They don't need any more sugar!"  The cake is 2 9x13 layers, the bottom layer is strawberry cake, the top layer white.  I snipped a raisin apart with scissors to do the eyes and nose.

I did this cake two days before the party and have it in the fridge because I didn't want to be either melting down with stress on the day of the party or have a flop and no time to run to the store and get stuff to fix it.  Preparation is my key to party success!

For more Friday Fails, visit sweet Myra's blog here.

How To Make a Monster Truck Cake

My little boy loves monster trucks and apparently he's not alone! When looking for cake ideas I noticed that almost all of the cakes had a THREE candle on top of them. Must be a 3-year-old boy thing! I combined several of the ideas I liked from cakes I found online and got some tips from a friend who made a monster truck cake last year.

Large glazed donuts covered in black frosting, make the wheels. Every mama of boys should have a jar of black food coloring around so she can make racecar/tractor/truck wheels, soccer balls, etc. I put Hershey's Kisses in the wheels for hubcabs.

One gal online had built a wooden platform for her cake. I decided to do something similar. I have a little wooden cutting board that is the size of a loaf pan. I covered it with foil and "glued" four baby food jars to the bottom with honey.

One person had made no-bake cookies for mud. I liked this idea, but knew that with all of the cake and ice-cream, we'd have enough sweets, and Mommy especially doesn't need the temptation of no-bake cookies around! So, I just took a few cups of oats out of my 50# bag and colored them with a couple of Tablespoons of cocoa and about 1/2 C. of water. They look lighter in this pic but they are actually darker and looked just like dirt.

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I didn't get pics of the body of the cake. Oops! I used one white cake mix and baked it in two glass loaf pans. I discovered that I could have used two cake mixes because the loaf pans were deeper than I had realized. Be sure to grease and flour the pans well so the cakes come out nicely. Cool completely in the fridge or freezer for a few hours. I dumped out the loaf pans and since one loaf of cake wasn't thick enough I put them together on top of the base board and then took a knife and made a diagonal cut down the front to make the windshield. The piece I cut off was then placed in the middle of the cake body to form the cab of the truck. Then I covered the whole thing in frosting. If I did this again I would probably use a whole cake mix in one loaf pan for the body and then a rectangular chunk of cake added on top from another loaf pan for the cab.

Reese's candies for tail-lights

I used homemade cream cheese frosting. One batch was more than enough for the whole cake. If you purchase your frosting, buy at least two containers of it. Jer wanted a green truck but you could make any color you choose. Laffy Taffy ropes make a nice roll-bar in the back. You can also use sour straws. Foil makes nice windows on the truck. If I ever make another (and no doubt I will with two little boys in the house!) I will add the child's name on the side of the vehicle.

If you want to get more dramatic you can even smash the little cars with a hammer before putting them in the dirt.

There are numerous monster truck cake photos online if you want more inspiration! Just google Monster Truck Cakes

Jeremiah Turns Three!

Our sweet little boy turned three the other day! It's hard to believe how fast the time with him has gone. He had a delightful day and especially enjoyed his monster truck cake, his new monster truck toys, semi, and wooden train, and we went swimming in the evening at his request. My brother and his wife were in town for the weekend and were able to join us and my folks for homemade pizza and cake and ice-cream. We are so thankful God blessed us with our tenderhearted little man!

My Test Cake

What little girl wouldn't adore a cake like this?

Carsen and Kennedy were over when I decorated the cake and they thought it was great fun to watch and lick the frosting off the utensils I was done with.

Of course the day after Ali's birthday I discovered a new blog, which I love, and this cake! So, next year we are going to make this cake for Ali's birthday (she's already declaring it will be a princess party for all of her friends!)







I wanted to share this link with all of my friends since many of you have little girls out there who would love a cake like this too! She has a video tutorial that's very informative on how to make this. I used a couple of oven-safe glass bowls to make the dress.





One of my friends and I were talking about this cake and she mentioned it would be a cute bridal shower cake and then it hit me, I am having a shower for my sis-in-law to-be next Sunday! So, I don't have to wait a year to have an excuse to make it. Hence the test cake above! It was fun to do and I'm sure I'll get better as I do more of them. I made it longer and taller than The Happy Housewife's cake in order to more closely resemble Anna's wedding dress. I'm hoping to do the real cake for the shower in chocolate instead of white cake and with an all-white dress and with a barbie that more closely resembles Anna (with a veil on top of her head of course!) My brother just can't understand why we ladies get into stuff like this!







This cake cost me around $4 to make (including the dollar store barbie) and it yields about 10-12 pieces. I know it looks really slim, but it's actually made with two cake mixes!

More Blue Cake Pics

I think by the time this photo was taken Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Joel have got the mystery figured out!
My friend Hannah did such a nice job on the cake!

Our little nephew Daniel enjoyed his piece of cake the next morning!

My sister-in-law sent me these photos of the blue cake my in-laws received. I already posted pics a couple of weeks ago of my folks eating their blue cupcakes.