How about some cake?

As I have been making Madeline's birthday cake this week for an early birthday celebration, I remembered that I never shared the photos I took of the dumplings enjoying a little chocolate peppermint cake I made last month.

For the cake, I used a high quality dark chocolate cocoa and coffee to enhance the chocolate.  The frosting is a traditional (American) buttercream that I flavored with peppermint extract.  I also added some crushed peppermint candies to the layers.  The cake was delicious, and Patrick declared that it was Jesus' new birthday cake at Christmas time.  I wholeheartedly agreed! It's a perfect holiday cake. 

The only issue I had was that I ran out of frosting!  So I couldn't pipe any decorations.  Oh well, it sure tasted great.  And the dumplings thought so too!

We are thoroughly enjoying our company and can't wait to help Madeline celebrate her birthday at tomorrow's party!

We went to the park

We love winters in Central Florida because they are so mild.  And this winter has been an exceptionally mild one indeed.  We usually hit up our favorite park by the river quite a bit, but because of our recent move, the dumplings have spent more time playing in the cul-de-sac than at the park.

So when I told them the other day that we were going to head to our favorite park, they lit up!  As we were driving along the river and the park was in sight, they gleefully exclaimed from the back of the van "We missed you!!!!"  Hilarious.  But true.

I always bring my camera to the park, ever since those photography classes I took last summer.  So snapping a few shots of the dumplings was to be expected.  What I wasn't expecting, however, was the early winter sunset.  I just forgot that it sets so early now.  So this was a total plus.

They chased dragon flies and rolled around on the ground while the heron on the dock posed for me.  Of course, when I wanted to snap them having fun, they were done.

I think we need to get back to the park some more.  Sorry new cul-de-sac.  I do love you, just not at this time of day.  I hear the river calling my name.

 

Winter Carnival

I know. It sounds odd, right?  Most folks attend carnivals in the fall.  Count us among them.  However, we also have the opportunity to hit up a carnival in the winter.  And that's because dear (second) cousins of mine  live in South Florida in a community that is half snow birds.  So what do you do when you have all these snow birds down for the winter and all their grandkids that come visit during their Winter Breaks from school?  Well, you put on a one-day carnival, of course!

My cousins Ed and Eileen live in a golf community.  And for one day out of the year, the driving range is converted into a midway.  This year the temps were in low 70s, and the weather couldn't have been better!

After riding all the mini rides (they had some enormous, vomit inducing ones too!), the dumplings decided they wanted snow cones.

After cooling off, they found some hula hoops and got to work shaking their hips.  It wasn't enough to hula hoop with just one hoop.  Nope.

Caleb eventually had five going for a brief period.  Now I know this shot makes it look like Madeline was doing it, but that's because I had a fast shutter speed.  She sure was cute trying though.  

We had such a lovely day.  Ed and Eil, you're the best!  And I sure hope that next year we'll have three dumplings at the carnival.

Well, I have been spending copious amounts of time on the computer this week trying to take a crash course in cake baking and decorating.  I was not impressed at all with the birthday cake I made for Jesus.  (I won't bore you with the details.)  However, I still wanted to make Caleb a birthday cake this year.  Can you believe this precious boy is turning 8 on Saturday???  I still can't!  Anyway, I have found the buttercream recipe that I have been longing for.  It's actually a Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  (I didn't even know there was such a thing until this week.)  Well, I had a go at making it today.  Can I just say delish?!  Light, fluffy and not too sweet.  Just perfect.  I really don't like how sweet buttercream frosting is when made with confectioner's sugar.  Nope.  It's too sweet for me.  So I love this new frosting, but before I can call Caleb's cake a success, I still need to actually make the cake and decorate it! lol.  In the next few days, I'll let you know if steps 2 and 3 are as successful as step 1.   Well, for his birthday celebration this year, we plan on taking him to see The Mouse one day, and we're also going to go roller skating with a few friends and family.  That means a lot of birthday photo fun!  He can't wait, and neither can we!

Christmas Eve

Before I share the unwrapping of presents on Christmas Eve, I thought I would share these two snapshots.  I spent the better part of the last week baking in the kitchen: rolls, bran muffins, oatmeal bread, caramels, cookies, monkey bread, and birthday cake for Jesus.  Yep, I lost track of how much butter, sugar, eggs, and flour I went through.  Anyway, one afternoon Caleb was playing the Wii in the school area, which is right off the kitchen (woot), and I just had to steal this moment.  Gosh, I love that boy!  

And then throughout all that mixing and chaos, I did manage to snap a photo of my eager beaver little helper.  She even gave up playing outside to help me with the cookies.

So Christmas Eve afternoon, we headed to church for service.  And then we drove over to my sister's in-law's house. All of the extended family gather together on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts.  My brother-in-laws Aunt, Uncle and cousins were also there.  So we had 6 precious little ones and a bunch of big kids grownups to tear into presents.

My brother-in-law's father, Phil, is a retired post man.

Oh, and yes you're seeing that right...the presents spilled out from under the tree and into the next room!

Wrapping paper went flying everywhere. And although she took her sweet time, Ashtyn successfully opened her presents.

There was lots of pink and sparkles since the girls outnumbered the boys 4-2.

This was one of many bags filled with wrapping paper.

Caleb got a Lego set and immediately began putting it together.

Just as we were thinking that we should be heading home (it's an hour and a half drive), Patrick noticed that one little munchkin was missing, yet he thought he heard something in the bathroom.  Well, wouldn't you know that little Ashtyn managed to lock herself in there!  She was completely unrattled as the men figured out a way to pry the lock open.  Oh, what a way to end the night!

After the long drive home, we spread our own gifts under the tree.  This little reindeer was a gift tag/ornament  my sister made me last year.

I'll be back with the photos from Christmas Day in a separate post.  We celebrated from waaay before sun up to well after sundown, which translates to a lot of fun and a ton of images.