March Madness!

I kept meaning to post a new entry, but everything has been moving at a quicker pace around here.

Highlights of March

• Henrie's baby Blessing
• Phillip learned to ride his bike.
• Pete Coaching T-Ball, & Phillip's first Soccer Game.
• Amelia is learning to go on the potty.
• Henrie is smiling and sleeping.
• Spring weather and being outside!
• Lily had her dance dress rehearsal.

Lowlights of March

• The Flu bug came and went.
• I did mountains of laundry cleaning up lots of potty 'accidents.'
• Looking for missing dogs

Here is a picture of our little lucky charm! Can you tell which one is Phillip and which one is Henrie?

After the wind storm, we had a lot more pine needles to clean up. BUT all of our sycamore leaves were blown into other yards! Yay!! the glass is always half full! We added another swing to the tree. We now have 3 swings one tree and a baby swing ready for Henrie on the other tree.

Here is Phillip digging his mine shaft. He kept drawing plans for his mine shaft during the winter. He also created an outline of the step by step process .. 1) wait for summer 2) dig with my shovel 3) dig with dad's tools 4) get my friends to dig etc.

Phillip even mentioned that he wanted to have a 'mine shaft' birthday party, but his friends don't HAVE to help. Only if they wanted to. He has since said that he doesn't care that much about gold anymore. Now he is looking for diamonds.

Amelia was throwing a fit, so I put her in timeout. I knew she needed a nap but it was already 4:00. I waited a few minutes and peeked in the room and saw this cute little napper on the timeout chair.

I took a picture of our morning ritual. The kids love to wave at the window as Pete pulls out of the garage on his way to work.

Lily's dance rehearsal! She loves being a girly girl! I did my best with her hair. I was amazed by some of the work of other 'stage moms'!


Phillip on his bike!

Phillip's first Soccer game! He really wanted to do soccer, but we had already signed up for T-ball. So we are doing both! Pete is in charge of T-ball and I will be in charge of soccer. ;-)


Here is T-ball practice. There is the GREAT Coach Olsen taking a knee with the 5 and 6 year olds and teaching them the fundamentals of baseball.


In all it has been a busy but fun month! I can't wait for more games, dances, and spring weather to do some planting.

Henrie's Baby Blessing

We had Henrie's Baby Blessing yesterday. I can't believe he'll be 3 months old this month! Pete did a great job and gave him a very nice blessing. Henrie is such a sweet little baby and is starting to coo and smile. We are so blessed to have such a happy healthy baby boy! I am grateful to have family around for the special event!

Our treat bar with labels and all! Little Amelia liked the stool right next to it :-)

My Lemon Layer Cake .. Before ...

My Lemon Layer Cake ... After! Success!

Cake Recipes!

Well, I spent all day cleaning today. Didn't exercise or anything. Still in my exercise clothes. (Here's hoping!) Anywho, to reward myself I decided to make a Lemon Layer cake. YAY!! Henrie only likes being in the swing and I didn't want to stick him right back into the swing all day so I tried something new. I let him sit in the Bumbo chair. He didn't like it until he was on the counter and eye-level with me and could watch me cook. But, the poor little guy fell asleep in his chair. I guess I need to be a more engaging "Food Network" personality for him. ;-)

In the spirit of cake making, I thought I would post the recipe I used for Lily's Cake and icing.

I have to admit, don't think I'm being conceited ... it tasted REALLY good!

I used a box chocolate cake. I think the flavor was fudge. I think any chocolate box cake would work.

Box cake modifications:

• Extra flour about a 1/3 cup (only do this at high elevation)
• I substituted 1/2 cup butter for the oil
• I substituted water (1 1/2 cup) with sour cream and curdled milk (curdled milk: 1 Tb of lemon juice in 1 cup milk and stand for 10 minutes .. This was a substitute for buttermilk which I did not have on hand).
• Whip the cake batter until it is fluffy.
• I followed the tip from a cake decorator and wrapped the cakes in saran wrap and froze them until I was ready to decorate. This traps in the moisture.

Filling:

• Pudding - I just opened to pudding snacks that I had on hand.

Whipped chocolate Ganache Frosting:

16 oz semi sweet chocolate (I just used a bag of semi-sweet morsels)

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Melt the chocolate. I usually do this in the microwave on a low setting and stir often.

In a sauce pan heat butter until melted. Add the sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt and stir with heatproof spatula until sugar is dissolved, 4 to 5 minutes. Add melted chocolate, butter mixture, and cream to clean bowl of standing mixer and stir to thoroughly combine.

Place the mixer bowl over an ice bath and stir continuously with rubber spatula until frosting is thick and just beginning to harden against the sides of the bowl, 1 to 2 minutes (frosting should be 70 degrees). Place bowl on standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until frosting is light and fluffy, 1 to 2 mintues. Stir with rubber spatula until completely smooth.

I'll post the Lemon Layer cake recipe later. I have to see if it turns out first!