Fun With Cakes

A couple of weeks ago I had another cake order - this one much simpler than the last one I made for her. 

 This was originally my Lightning McQueen cake pan, but her son just wanted to have an orange race car, so I did what I could.  His initials (that just happen to be the same as Tristan's), serve as the "license plate", and the car number is how old the birthday boy turned.

I make my chocolate cake from scratch (thanks Joanie!), so I always have leftover batter.  Normally it gets baked and just shaved off the top of the cake pan before I turn the cake over (then I get to munch on it while I'm decorating it - you know, a baker has to test her work!), but this time I let Grace use it for her Easy Bake oven.  I also had extra frosting, so the kids both got to try their hand at decorating their own cakes.

 

I ended up finishing Tristan's cake for him because he started getting more frosting out the top of the bag than the tip!

 Tristan discovered my bowl of leftover Christmas M&M's and thought they would be perfect to decorate the top.

 Grace did her cake completely by herself!

If the kids get to make their own cakes every time I do, I think I'll have another couple of people who don't mind me making cakes very often!

I've Been Bitten...

... but not by her.

Just when I thought she was going to have a full set of teeth again, she goes and looses another one!

I've been bitten by the creativity bug.  Since David's been gone, I've had to find something to do to occupy my time (cough, choke, gag! - Like I don't have enough to do!).  But I have had material for months with intentions of making different things, and I just always seem to find other things to do.

But with my precious boy begging me for curtains, I just had to get them done!  You see, several months ago, the apartment complex we live in placed a street light right outside his window, and it was like sleeping at high noon instead of midnight - even with the shade pulled.  Well, all the blackout curtains we could find around here were hideous, but I did manage to find a really cute cloth shower curtain.  I then proceeded to buy some dark blue sheets and planned to line said shower curtain and hang them in his room.  Well, that was back before we had to return to the States for a month, it was before Christmas, it was before preparing for David to leave - see, I always found something better to do!  But I knew it was time when Tristan would ask me daily about his curtains.  So, here they are:

 This is a picture with his bedroom light on.

 This is a picture of his room with the light off and just the "shade" drawn.

And this is with his curtains blocking the majority of the light from outside - I think I still took it without a flash so the light provided is from when the camera "highlights" it's subject.

He still has a nice night light with just a crack left in the curtains - hey it saves on my electric bill!

And while I had my sewing machine out (in the middle of the living room), I decided I'd go ahead and work on the other projects that I'd had in mind since about July...

 A cover for my mixer (I used a pattern offline for this one)

 This one is for my deep-fryer - and I made the pattern all by myself!

 This brightly colored fabric is not normally one I would choose, but my lower cabinets are lime green, so it fits nicely.

 After Tristan had curtains in his room, the princess decided that she needed to have curtains too.

 So, my friend Kim and I went to Happy Quilt, and just as I was walking in the door I found this printed fabric - and if you know my daughter, it's TOTALLY her!  Fairys, a unicorn, a castle...  Thankfully I was able to find another fabric that somewhat went with it as I knew the panels would not be enough to cover her window.  I lined the other side with pink fabric, so if she ever grows out of her fairy tale world we can still use the curtains!  I loved her reaction when she walked into her room and saw them hanging!  There was a big gasp and then she came running into the living room and gave me a great big hug and a great big thank you.

And I don't think I ever posted pictures of Grace's completed projects that she was working with Grandma on.  She did most of the work on these doll clothes herself.

Samsung Children's Museum

Yesterday the kids had a day off from school so my friend Kim and I headed up to the Children's Museum in Seoul - with our kids in tow, of course.  Despite the fact that there seemed to be several Korean schools there on field trips, we managed to time each floor just right and had it mostly to ourselves. 

 Of course the water play area was a hit.

 I just love his faces!

 Grace and Lilly

 The boys playing with the ball wall

 The music room

 Kim showing Grace how it's done

 I was really hoping these helmets wouldn't suck their brains out!

 The whole gang

Valerie and Noah, Lilly, Tristan, Kayden, Grace, Michael, and Lucas

 Learning about how people are different

 "Tiling" a bathroom - do we have a future interior designer on our hands?

Or will she be a chef?

I'm sure glad they don't do this with my pots and pans!

 Those are some tired boys!  The only one that made it through the whole day was Grace... only because she kept herself busy.

Another fabulous day with the Stafford crew!  So glad to have good friends here in Korea - It's wonderful how God places people in your life when you need them most.

Snow Day

We actually got enough snow yesterday and overnight to get a snow day.  Initially, I was thrilled to know that my day would start two hours later, and when I got up, I found that they had canceled school all together!  Yippee!  So, the kids and I took some time to go out and play. 

 Tristan thought we should build snow castles

 Attack!!!

 Why do they always throw snowballs at me??

 Attempting to build a snowman.  Unfortunately the snow was just too dry.

We all had a good time, even if we couldn't build a snowman or make very good snowballs.  After our fun in the snow we came in and warmed up with hot chocolate, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup.  You couldn't have asked for a better day!

Swimmer Girl

Grace decided that she wanted to try out the swim team - at least until we can find a ballet studio to get her involved in.  So today was her first swim practice, and the coach was nice enough to let her try it out before they both decided if it was a good fit. 

 Ready to go!

 Backstroke

She ended up doing 2-3 laps in a row by the end of practice, and the coaches were really impressed (as was I!)

  BONK! She forgot to count her strokes when she got to the flags.

Takin' a break - she worked really hard for an hour, and then the coach told her to get out and get a drink and take a little bit of a rest.

I was really proud of her today - made my heart swell a bit watching her.  I was a bit nervous (for both of us) because I was afraid that I would expect too much of her, and I was afraid that she'd get discouraged because she didn't swim as well as the other kids.  So I told her the story of my very first swim practice where I could barely make it to the other end of the pool doing doggie paddle, and ended up being a very good swimmer.  I had let the coaches know that at the end of the summer she was able to swim 25 meters without stopping, but it had been a while since she had been in the water.  I think they were both impressed with her ability and her potential and they would be happy to have her on the team.  Grace seems pretty excited about it, so we're making the commitment to swim for the Humphreys Hippos at least until the season is over in March, and then we'll go from there.  She'll have her first meet on the 22nd so we'll see how she fares against her competition.