BIG CAKE

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Earlier this summer, I was baking bread, Almond Poppy-seed Bread, for some people and I brought one to my closest ward neighbor, the Mendozas. Lily Mendoza is expecting and not much into anything sweet right now, but she and her one-year-old found that they really liked this bread. So, a couple days later, she asked me if she could pay me to make this bread as a large, plain sheet-cake for her sons birthday that was coming up. She said she would give me the sheet-cake pan and any extra ingredients I needed. So, I said I would.

The morning of his birthday party I baked one loaf/cake, which only took an hour, and then the other. I found that my kitchen aid bowl couldn't quite fit all the ingredients, so I ended up mixing twice to make the one cake. Then I made the second. At that point I sent a picture to Lily to show her what it looked like. She had said that she just wanted it to be plain, but maybe with some glaze. After showing her, I reminded her that I would be willing to frost and decorate it to make it more... festive, if she wanted.

She consented and ended up coming by with a bunch of whipping cream I could use to make the frosting. When I was ready to start putting the cake together, Ryan advised me that I should put it on all six of the cake boards Lily had given me and not just one. He was right, it was turning out to be a very heavy cake.
For the middle layer of frosting I made orange flavored and colored whipped frosting. The orange flavor was to compliment the flavors of the cake/bread.

Next I covered the outer layer in plain white, vanilla whipped frosting, and smoothed it out. I used some extra frosting and colored it to decorate it with a birthday message for Sam. I also added sprinkles here and there.

When it was time for the finial touch, I asked Ryan if he could come add the decorative boarder with the cake tips, he being more experienced at it than I was. He did a great job, and the cake was complete!

I managed to find room in the fridge for it where it chilled for a couple hours before I gently placed it in the back of the car...

...and slowly drove the two blocks over to the Mendozas house.

When we came as a family, there were a ton of people there for the party. We had a bbq dinner and Karl and I went swimming while Jared playing in the sand box. There were a lot of compliments about our "beautiful, blue-eyed baby."

It wasn't 'til about nine that I mentioned to Lily that we would have to get going soon and get kids to bed. She convinced us to stay a little longer for cake and the pinata. So, we stayed. She ended up loving the cake how it turned out, and I think it tasted pretty good too.

Sam took the first hit at the pinata and then all the kids got in a line to get a wack at it. The line was set up smallest to biggest, so Jared got to be one of the first to hit it and he had a blast. Karl was too shy to go do it with everyone around.

The rest of the time they watched patiently for each of the big kids to be done with their hits so they could rush in and grab some candy.

The boys made out pretty well with their bags of candy, we enjoyed our cake, then said our good-byes and went home. It was without a doubt the biggest birthday we'd ever been too and I think the boys had a great time!

Stars, Stripes, and Sun Burns

Monday, July 4, 2016

A couple weeks before Independence Day, I felt like I could put the boys to work a little bit when I realized we had absolutely no red, white, and blue decorations. So, we sat down and painted some craft sticks and glued them together to make flags.

The boys love whenever I get out the paint or glue, so they had a good, messy time.

When the flags were dry, we hung them in the window of our front door. The boys were pretty proud of their messy hands and arms... luckily I remembered to have them take their shirts off before painting.

 On the 4th of July we were very pleased to have some visitors for the day. The Edmunds, who Ryan knew very well growing up, came to spend some time at the beach with us. When we first got there it was overcast, so we didn't worry too much about sunscreen.

 The Edmunds brought some beach toys and games that we tried out and the kids had a great time building sandcastles. One of us would get in the water every now and again to try it out, but it was pretty cold. Amy, Anna, Mike, and Ryan all took turns to swim out to the bouy. I think they were a little numb when they got back.

 I wore my swimsuit this time in the hopes of getting a chance to swim, but I found that a wiggly, curious baby and the sandy beach were not a good mix. So, I was on baby duty most the time, and Ryan for part of it when he worked his magic and made her fall asleep.

After a few hours the sun did come out and we enjoyed it for an hour or so more. We ended up being at the beach for about five hours before heading out to get rinsed and go home. With all the clouds, little did we know how very sunburned we all got, especially Ryan.

Back at our house, we had dinner with the Edmunds and got to visit for a while longer before they had to head back home.

During the following week, Ryan had a brutal time trying to go to work and overcome his sunburn. It was at first very sensitive, tender, and painful, then very itchy but still sensitive. His boss told him, one day, that he should go home and put some aftersun lotion on. Ryan bought a bunch of it and after we put it all over his front and back he took a nap and was able to find some relief. He ended up really liking the lotion and wore it constantly for a couple days 'til he was feeling better. The next stage was all the skin pealing. Ryan seemed to enjoy this a little bit, getting really big pieces of skin off. (I did take pictures, but... they're gross.) A couple weeks later, Ryan was feeling like himself again, and we were all healed up of our lesser sunburns as well. I think we all learned our lesson of the importance of sunscreen. ;D

Zeeland Splash Pad

 

This summer we went to the Zeeland splash pad a couple times. Once for a play date with friends and then again for a Primary activity. The primary kids had a jar that each Sunday they brought their scriptures they could put a fuzzy ball in. Since they filled up the whole jar they got to have this activity.

These are some pictures of the kids having a great time at the splash pad!