sweet (cakes) & salty (tale)

Valentine's Day calls for sweet treats.  One day holiday?  Not in this house.  We celebrate Valentine's Day all month, especially when it comes to sweets.  Britton and I saw a picture of these little stacked cakes in a magazine, and she wanted to make them too.  I made a sheet cake of vanilla cake, then we cut out circles and hearts.  We stacked the shapes with strawberry icing between the layers.  

And covered them in sprinkles and strawberries!

Ahhh, the sweet.  And here's the salty, a cute story from this week.  Britton, Barrett, and I were on our way home from work/school, and we're listening to Britton's favorite song du jour - "Running Down the Hill" by Laurie Berkner Band.  In the song, a flower is describing how, when the kids aren't looking, she (oh, the title says it all) runs down the hill, spinning, and in general having a good ole time.  I said to Britton, "Wouldn't it be great to be a flower?"  Because, after having to think all day at work, I like these kinds of conversations.  And Britton replies, "Ummm....wouldn't it be lonely to be a flower?"

Touche.  I told her no, that the butterflies and bumble bees would visit me.  And Britton says, "Butterflies would suck all your nectar.  For food."  I didn't really have an answer to that.  And Britton, clear and steady, says, "You still want to be a flower, Mom?"

Ha!  I couldn't do anything but laugh at that serious response!  That's my salty girl, even when she's not trying to be salty.

PIA auction: 2 quilts + 1 bag

Every year, I try to make some charity quilts.  Normally, these go to the PIA Auction at my law school.  Read about it here.  I started early this year, knowing that I wanted to do two baby quilts again, and also a Vera Bradley-style bag.  Isn't this perfect for tailgating?

The WVU fabric is a bandana print, and the yellow and white polka dot is left over from Caroline's skirt, which we made when she visited last year.  I added white ric rac to hide the seam where the two fabrics meet, and a yellow and white polka dot button.

If you take out the cardboard bottom, the entire bag is washable!

I also completely copied made this baby quilt.  See the inspiration here.  I used all scraps, except for the dresden plate middle.  That circle came from a fabric that the hubs helped me pick out, and the circle on the fabric was the perfect size for the dresden middle.

I straightline stitched in the ditch for the triangles, and free motion quilted the white square in a loopy style.  I left the dresden plate unstitched.

Last, but not least, is the ABC I-Spy Quilt.  If it looks familiar, it's because I made the exact same one for Barrett for his first birthday.  When I was making his quilt, I knew I wanted to make one for the auction too.  So when I was cutting out the squares, I just cut out two sets.  Putting this quilt together was so fast because the cutting was already complete!  The background is Kona Pewter and the binding is Kona Lagoon.  

All three are on their way to the law school, ready for the auction in March.  I hope they make their new owners very happy!

the tooth fairy visits again

Britton has lost a second tooth!  I thought it was wiggly, but not loose enough to come out.  Then I spied the new tooth already coming in.  Britton is half-shark!  The hubs' hand wouldn't fit in Britton's mouth to yank it out, and I was too freaked out by the idea to give it more than a half-assed effort myself.  Finally, while giving Britton a bath, the hubs got a grip and yanked it out. 

The tooth fairy brought a whole dollar (we're resetting the expectation here), and a little porcelain chicken.  Thank you early Easter decor sales!  Britton told me weeks ago that she wanted the tooth fairy to bring her a little chicken "that fits in her hand."  I oddly remembered that conversation, which helped cement Britton's undying commitment to the existence of the tooth fairy.  Two teeth down, many many to go!

'round these parts

We've now entered that part of winter where the snow just sticks around.  There's no warm days to melt it away into a muddy mess - nope, this stuff is here to stay for the next couple of months.  And with the cold temperature dips, we've sometimes had to observe the snow from the warmth of the family room.  Without pants, but with one of my snow boots, of course!

In an effort to wear out the kids get the kids some exercise, we blast the Laurie Berkner Band and have a dance party!  Am I the only one who leaves the CD playing, even when I'm the only one in the car?  Leis are optional, of course, but completely encouraged.  Don't let Sadie's presence fool you - she wants nothing to do with the noise and jubilation!  

Dance til you drop!

And Britton I will attempt some new recipes.  The moment I saw the cover of my new Southern Living, my mouth started watering for that bundt cake.  And I'm not even a big chocolate person.  But heck, I own a bundt pan that never gets used, and I had most of the ingredients, and luckily the hubs was headed to the grocery store and could buy the rest.

Britton loves helping with baking.  She wants to measure everything out, and add it to the mixer.  I give tidbits while we're baking, and hopefully one day it will stick with her.  She was in charge of the glazes, and oh so proud of her work!

Being indoors so much has forced these two to find common play opportunities (dance parties included).  Barrett is in love with Britton, and wants to do everything she is doing.  Barrett's main cause of frustration in life is not being able to do what Britton can.  Lucky for us, Britton likes to include Barrett, and is very patient with him.  

The nap mats and sleeping bags get pulled out for lounging.  How else can we watch 300 episodes of "Wild Kratts"?   Lounging leads to wrestling, which leads to everyone getting tired and going to bed without complaints, and that makes mommy and daddy quite happy!

it's cookie time

It's cookie selling season for Girl Scouts, and Britton and I are ready!  I took the order form to work on Friday and made some great sales.  But I thought it was important that Britton should have to sell the cookies too.  And what better way then hitting up the neighbors?

Britton was nervous.  She's naturally shy, so we did some role playing before we left the house.  When we got to the first house I think she was relieved no one was home!  But as we made our way from house to house, and Britton saw me talking to our neighbors, she started to relax as well.  And tonight when I asked her what the best part of her day was, she said, "Selling cookies with you."

I love that she's getting outside of her comfort zone, and doing things she doesn't normally get to do.  I knew she'd have fun in Girl Scouts, but I had no idea how many opportunities it would afford Britton to do new things.  Hand me the Somoas and call me proud!

the winter games

Our week started out with snow, snow, and more snow.  It was beautiful.  But it was so cold that we couldn't venture out into it.  I mean, there were nights that the temperatures dipped below freezing.  So we lucked out when the snow stuck around for the weekend, but the temperatures decided to be more forgiving.  

Britton has been asking to go ice skating for months.  She decided to ask her friend Ali from school, and I called up her mom to see if they could join us.  We planned to meet up this afternoon, and I admit, I was nervous.  I've only ice skated once in my life, and it didn't occur to me until I was lacing up Britton's skates, that I was going to have to keep her up and me up at the same time! 

We both clung to the wall.  Our first lap was slow but steady, and eventually we started to catch on to this balancing thing.

And Britton let go of the wall....

And both munchkins got to experience the snow too!  There is so much truth to the saying that playing in the snow is 90% putting on snow gear and 10% actually playing in the snow!  This the first snow that Barrett was really experienced.  Last year he was too little to play in it.

We got past throwing snow at each other, and moved on to tubing in the back yard.  We spent the entire time trying to avoid crashing into that tree you see below!  The kids loved tubing, and it's easier than sledding, especially with Barrett.

This was Barrett's second run.  Bad mommy forgot to take a picture!  The hubs and I took turns flinging the kids down the hill, and we made sure to go inside and warm up frequently. 

Another storm is heading our way tonight, so maybe we'll get more sledding fun in this week!

barrett: 20 months old

Yep, this one is on me.  I forgot about taking Barrett's photo until right before bed, and by this time that boy was tired and ready for some sleep!  He had no intention of modeling for me, and wanted no part of it.  It's hard for me to think that in four short months, Barrett will be two years old.  He still seems so little to me, except well, he's not.  He's running and playing and talking up a storm, and he's getting bigger every day.

Barrett loves playing with Britton.  She is his favorite source of entertain (Sadie is a close second).  On the weekends, when he and Britton have long stretches of time to be together, they effortlessly fall into games only they understand.  Barrett gets a kick out of Britton playing with his toys with him, but he will also try and take over her toys too!

We finally got snow this week, and Barrett was not happy about it!  I got him out of the car and set him down so he could get to the snow.  Then, as I was getting Britton out of the car on the other side, I hear Barrett start to cry.  He was scared of the snow, and I realized that it's been almost a year since he's seen it.  Maybe as he gets more used to it (I imagine we'll see many more snow storms), he will finally learn to enjoy it.

Someone has seen Mommy vacuuming those ottomans!

Likes:  cheese (this boy loves his shredded cheddar cheese), yogurt, quesadillas, dipping anything into ketchup, stacking anything up then knocking it down, play dough

Dislikes:  having to leave bath toys in the tub

65 months old

Oh, the life!  Being 5 1/2 years old must be awesome (I can't remember that far back for myself) because Britton is just excited about life all the time!  I reminded her tonight that we were going to Home Depot in the morning for their kid craft group, and she was so excited.  I picked her up early today to go to the library and she was so ecstatic that she jumped up and ran to me.  I love this.  As much as Britton as a baby taught me patience, and Britton as a toddler reminded me to slow down, and Britton as a three-year-old prepared me for a zombie attack, Britton at this age encourages me to be excited about life.  

Britton and I are going ice skating with a friend from her school next weekend, and she can't wait.  Britton is convinced that she knows how to ice skate because she watched an episode of "Max and Ruby" where Ruby taught Max to ice skate.  Ummmm.....not sure that counts, but I'm all for her going into it with confidence.  Me, on the other hand, I totally predict I'll be clinging to the side of the rink.  Glass half empty, I am!

Britton is doing great in school, reading on her own for Stage 1 books.  And we're working on some simple math problems too.  I don't think I learned "greater than" and "less than" in kindergarten, but I suppose you've got to learn it sometime!  She's very much into animals right now, and loves the "Wild Kratts" television show on PBS.

Likes:  helping with Barrett, going on errands with me, having a loose tooth, Wild Kratts television show, dressing up her American Girl dolls

Dislikes:  apples (hurts her loose tooth)