Spokane Ladies Trip

We piled the cars with girls (and GQ and Isaac -who was not happy about the ratio) and set out for Spokane. We had a fun weekend of site seeing, ice cream and LOTS of play time.

fixing the fondant...

So here are my finalized fondant creations....
One, just to practice buttercream, and the other for Annie's Ladybug party...Up next, getting the Spokane video on here...

cake...

I've been wanting to try a new white cake recipe, and Art has been encouraging me to try my hand at fondant. So after all my chores were done and no school work to busy up my Sunday I made that my project (not considered work because I do it for fun!)
I tried the new recipe - not bad, I haven't tasted it all frosted yet.
And then tried fondant.
The fondant went fairly well, the main issue is that I like a really soft cake and fondant likes a firmer cake. So it's a delicate balance to make both turn out. The main issue is that I don't like the straight sugar taste of fondant, but it is really fun to play with!
In my process of practicing I made two small cakes, one round and one square (for covering purposes). I decorated the round one with fondant and I'm going to decorate the square one with buttercream.

Here's the issue - now I have two cakes at my house. And no purpose for them.
So if anyone needs a cake, you just let me know!
(Below are pics of the Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake from Father's Day - apparently I'm in a circle mode right now)

hmmm, what to do?

I'm trying to be responsible.

It's summer and my husband has given me explicit instructions to, "relax and enjoy your day."

But, I am my fathers daughter. It's summer and you have to catch up on all things you've slacked on for the last nine months. That, and I can't possibly sit and watch TV while my husband works hard all day.

So I've made a schedule. It involves walking, playing ball with the dogs, working out, weeding (1-2 hours), a small amount of school work, writing, house cleaning, baking, and a few summer classes.

This week I got to dance, act, and create big scary dragon masks at ArtsExpress. It was definitely worth the weeding that did not get done.

Next week I am scheduled to take a week-long 3 credit class for my Gifted Endorsement (Yes, as a part of my career I have to pay money to take classes to assure I keep a job). This class is a crash course, it takes several months of evening classes and squishes them into one miserable week.
However, it also happens to be occuring the same week as the ladies are visiting Spokane. And when I say ladies I refer to pretty much every girl in the family who is capable of climbing in the car (and Isaac and GQ -sometimes you just get dragged along). I would love to go to Spokane. I would love to see Emily and her adorable children. I would love to visit and cackle for a 10 hour drive. (That would be 5 hours of driving, and 5 hours of potty and drink breaks).

So what to do?

There is also the issue of space, I'm not sure how much there is in the loaded vehicles.

And that whole 'being responsible' thing.

And I'm not sure how I'll feel about being away from my husband and dogs that long.

But it will be such a fun outing...

hmmm, what to do?

It's Over....

I've survived the Unshushables.

We were told at the beginning of the year that it was going to be a challenge. They were right.
We deemed this group "The Unshushables" because they NEVER shut up.
All of them.
They just talked.
Non-stop.

It was Frank who yelled "SUMMER!!!!" at the top of his lungs the second the flag ceremony was over. (or nearly over)

It was Sam G. who whispered to me while they lowered the flag...
"Now I can whistle as much as I want"
"Shhh, we're being quiet."
"And I can sing 'Happy Birthday' whenever I want!"
(Gentle nudge with elbow) "Sam Shhhh!"
From the other side of me Josh responds, "Did you just elbow a student?"
(Gentle nudge with other elbow)
"You just elbowed ANOTHER student!"
"Quiet, both of you! We're supposed to be respectful!"
"And now I can whistle uncontrollably!"
"SUMMER!!!!!!"
Followed by the chant, "Summer! Summer! Summer!" from the rest of the 5th grade!

This was the hardest year of teaching I've ever had. I absolutely love the kids, as long as I don't have to teach them anything.

Famous One-Liners:
Frank to Mo, "You are SO my grandma!"
Sam G as he puts a gift on my desk, "Sorry I'm such a pain."
Frank, when I told him he had an upcoming test, "Oh no you didn't"
TJ, before spelling the word in the Spelling Bee, "Come on Mr. Bubbles, give me some magic."


Responses to my question, "Does anyone have any other questions?", meaning, I just taught something, do you get it? Curriculum based questions?
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"It's my birthday in 13 days!"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"Would you help me break Mr. Bubbles out of jail?" (This is a toy that was taken away and was in another teachers desk)
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"What percentage of the earths surface is North America?"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"It's my birthday in 8 days!"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"Do you think I should get a pet monkey?"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"How do you..." ... "Sam is this related to Math?" ...
"Yes... how do you feel about triangles?"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"It's my birthday in 3 days!"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"I really like dolphins."
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"Could you spell that spelling word for me?"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"You know, we're practically related."
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"It's my birthday!!"
"Does anyone have any other questions?"
"I can whistle Twinkle Little Star with my mouth closed!"

Oh how I'll miss you.
In fact I dreamt last night about being in school with all of my students and trying to identify which ones were aliens.
Hooray for summer!

Blog slacker...

I've been a bit of a blog slacker. I've been far too busy counting down the days until we're freed from the Penn-itentiary...
Mostly we've been working in the yard and making garden plans (making them, not yet executing them). We have had a little fun....

We went to the Tulip Festival with Bud and Kelli and my Mom...The tulips were lovely but the boys were pretty adorable too!


Eli really likes Uncle Art....

Art spent most of the day with Eli insisting that Art push...

I wonder why?
Eli was also the official map reader... a very important job.

Mostly we ignored those antics and enjoyed the tulips.

We also had an exciting adventure in our backyard this week. Our neighbor has a hive and one morning it 'swarmed' (this is when there is a new queen and she takes a part of the hive and moves to a new place). Her new place was our Lilac bush. We got to come out and take pictures before our neighbor sprayed them with sugar water to satiate and then moved them into a new hive.
Yes I was standing about 1 foot from 6000+ bees....
We are going to keep the new hive in our yard for the summer, hopefully it will make my plants insanely lovely!

So beyond that, the fun has been in CRT tests, Spring Fever in 10 year olds, putting together the end-of-year play, and squashing all summer daydreaming to fit 'one more thing' in... 18 days, but who's counting?

Cupcakes, get your Cupcakes!

A photo story of my cupcake weekend....





Dark Chocolate cupcake with Peanut Butter Mousse; chocolate buttercream frosting with buttercream, and gumpaste flowers

Triple Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache
Triple chocolate cupcake with chocolate cream cheese mousse filling and whipped chocolate ganache frosting
French vanilla cupcake with white chocolate whipped ganache

French vanilla cupcake with fresh strawberry cream cheese filling and buttercream frostingDishes - lots of dishes.
Finally, the presentation at the shower for Arica!

90 cupcakes - 1 left over. I'd say that was worth the work.