Once upon a time...

Once upon a time I had a niece that asked me to do her wedding cake. What's an auntie to say to that? It was a beautiful cake, but an even more beautiful wedding. Simple, but elegant; just like my niece.

The Easter Bunny can bring a miracle.

This year we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We do this every year, and it's fun to see how the kids have all grown; until they become too old to participate. At some point, they decide that they are too old to join in the fun. That is when this face happens:



Brian, you can pretend that you don't want to be out there, but we know better!

Most of the candy and eggs are on the ground, there aren't many places that you can hide things in this yard, so it seems pretty easy for the older kids.

Then again, we can find some pretty tricky places to put things. The trees have some nice branches that hold eggs, among other things, that make it a bit more challenging. Who am I kidding? One good shake of a branch, and the eggs, along with a bushel of needles, will come raining down upon you.

Shake it, Miriam! Shake it for all you're worth!

Some of the grandkids get a bit too excited when it comes to the long awaited hunt. They just can't contain themselves. Secretly, I think Whitney is stealing Taylor's eggs when he isn't paying attention. Why else would cousins hug so much?

Some of the eggs have to be more difficult for the older kids, because we have to make it harder. This is where Uncle Doug thought it would be a good idea for Sydney to sacrifice an arm to the chicken wire, in exchange for those prized candy-filled eggs. What a guy. 

This year, we had some super-fun toys in the mix. This is Doug, and his brother, Ron, in their "disguise". I don't know what it is, but suddenly, they actually look alike......

Even Celisa thought the glasses were super cool! Ah, who am I kidding? Her smile is adorable!

Why is it, that whenever someone puts on a pair of glasses, they start thinking they are a Rock Star? 

Whitney couldn't wait to wear her glasses, she had to start living the rock star life while looking for her next candy fix, she just couldn't wait.

Then, as if it couldn't get any more fun, the pirates came out.

Ahoy, ye mateys!

Hunter had a chance to learn how to wear a pirate earring and eye patch. Every young boy should know how to do that, right?

Trust the actor to know how to do it right!

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

This is what happens to your teeth after eating all that easter candy. Just one more of the Dentist's favorite holidays. I think we'll be buying him a new car this year.

There were bubbles-a-plenty to find, and Nene and Sydney took full advantage of the moment. Jaxson had a blast! What a cutie. I'm thinking of a great Christmas present for Shannon this year. A bubble machine would give her some seriously needed time off!

Even though this is at the end of the blog, I saved the best part for last. Grandma and Grandpa opening their mission call. Yay! I'm so excited for them! I can't remember the exact place, but they are serving in Eureka for the handcart treks they hold there. They will meet so many people while they are gone for the summer, I can't wait to hear about all their adventures! They always chat up the most interesting people, and have wonderful stories. This will give us a chance to add them to our missionaries that we pray for. What a fantastic example to the family. I'm so proud of them.

Happy Easter! (It's late, I know.)

We sure love you Grandma and Grandpa! Our prayers and our hearts are always with you.

Where's Waldo?

Every January, the young men and women of our ward get together to play "Where's Waldo?". The leaders find some adults in the ward that are willing to play the game, and take a pictures of them a week or two before the event. The night of the game, the adults dress up to hide their identity, and show up at the mall before the kids arrive. This gives you time to find a place to hide in plain sight. (The idea is to NOT be found, but you aren't allowed to go more than 5 feet into any store.) The youth are given a sheet of paper with photos of all the players printed on it. When they find you, you have to sign your photo to confirm that you were busted.

This year, Doug and I were asked to play along. Obviously, we were more than willing to give it a go. Doug was great! He bought a mustache and beard that you apply with spirit gum. (In case you don't know what that is, spirit gum is a liquid glue that you use to glue all sorts of things to your face. Highly useful at Halloween, but also dangerous. If you aren't careful, you might just glue your fingers to your upper lip. I'm just sayin'.)  With his Nascar shirt, temporary panther tattoo on his arm, beat-up baseball hat, and a shaggy beard, Doug was pretty intimidating. The kids thought so, too.

Apparently, they were a bit too scared to approach him. They would sit down, stare at him for a bit, discuss among themselves whether they thought it was him or not, wait a bit, discuss some more, and most walked away. Some looked him right in the eye, and still didn't recognize him. He was finally found out, and then they spread the news. After that, the jig was up. He had a blast, though.

 

I waited until that day to get a long over due haircut. (That morning, my hair was a couple of inches below my shoulders.) I added some black hair spray as a futile attempt to hide myself. Actually, it wasn't hairspray. It was "hair-spray". This was not a sticky spray that is used at Halloween, it was a spray that is used to cover bald spots; in other words, "fake hair" in a spray. Unfortunately, it doesn't stick to your hair, so you have to add hairspray over the top. Let me just take a moment to explain why this product is a bad idea: It doesn't stick to hair. At all.

However, it will create a cloud of hair color dust, something like a mushroom cloud, that will land on everything within a half-mile radius. I sprayed my hair with it, only to find that it landed on my arms, my face, my neck, and clothes. (Good thing I did it outside.) It was EVERYWHERE. My face had a gray hue that would surely give me away immediately. I quickly found that in order to get it off, you had to use soap. If you don't rinse the soap off immediately, you will have to start over. Just to make things more difficult, the slightest breeze will blow it off on some unsuspecting bystander. Nasty stuff, that is. Like I said, I don't recommend it.

After arriving at the mall, I was wandering around, trying to find a place to be inconspicuous. I passed a window, and noticed a woman standing completely still behind some mannequins in a window. I wondered why she was there, or what she was up to. She didn't look familiar to me, so I forgot about her. At the end of the night, and I showed up at the food court, I realized that it was a woman from our ward. Cory was fantastic! I didn't recognize her, at all! (Normally, her hair is red, and makeup isn't a big thing for her. Karate is more her style.)

While wandering around, I found a place where I could see down the hallway through some windows. It gave me time to find something to do. I noticed that if I were looking at something in a window, I could see the reflection of the kids and leaders on the glass. It was so fun to see them walk right by me, and not even suspect that I was on the list. After awhile, the third group to pass me started noticing that I wasn't looking at any of them. That was when I got caught the first time. Suspicious behavior. Gives you away, every time.

One of my favorite moments was while I was standing in front of Hallmark, "reading" some booklets that tell you everything that happened in a certain year. It was interesting reading, I highly recommend glancing at one for a few seconds, but not much longer. As I was "reading", my neighbor, Nate, walked right up next to me with the sheet of paper in his hands. In frustration, he yelled to all the others in his group, "Let's just go in here and ask everyone if they have seen anyone on this paper!"  I had to try hard not to laugh. He was only about a foot away from me. I thought he had figured out who I was when he walked up, but was so relieved that he hadn't. Within about 30 seconds or so, someone else found me. Could it have been that I was acting suspicious again? They had walked past me several times, but now I was right in the group, and didn't dare look at any of them. Suspicious behavior, again.

Later, I was walking down the hallway, as it was almost time to return to home base. I looked at my watch, and thought I could hang out a few more minutes. I walked over to a bench to sit down, but when I turned around, I saw Brother Hanks. He was sitting down on the opposite bench with a black wig, holding on to a stroller. It surprised me, so I though I would walk over to him to chat for a bit. At that moment, Sister Jacobsen and Sister Dayton walked up to him. They found him and wanted to take a picture. I almost walked into them both. I had to stop myself, regain my balance, and take a moment to compose myself. They still hadn't recognized me. I took the opportunity to walk right by them, and waved goodbye to Brother Hanks, chuckling as I left. 

We had a great time, and I have to say, the best part of the night was that my own daughter walked right by me at least 3 times. I really didn't think my "disguise" was that good. I guess it was just good enough to keep me from being recognized from behind. We have such a great group of youth in our ward. They are so much fun! I can't wait to see who dresses up next year, and who gets found.

Carving the turkey.

This year for Thanksgiving, I had some extra time on my hands. Usually, I end up making pies, but this year, I only had to make one. Hmmmm.....What should I do with all that extra time? What to do....what to do..... I should think that would be obvious. Make a turkey cake, of course!

I started with 3 layers of cake:

and carved it into a turkey-ish shape. Do you have any idea how many different shapes of turkeys there are? I looked up about fifty pictures of turkeys on the internet so I would have a model to go by, and I found about fifty different shapes to carve. In the end, I decided to wing it. Get it? WING it? Ok, so a decent sense of humor is not required for carving a turkey, sue me.

I then used Rice Krispy treats to shape legs and wings, (I promise, I am out of wing jokes) and covered them in white chocolate so the fondant would stick to them.

I frosted the cake, and then covered it in fondant, and added a dent. I know it looks like a mistake, but it isn't. I promise. I did not accidentally stick a finger or thumb into the fondant. This little dent is on purpose.

I know we jumped a few steps here, but they were boring to most people, anyway. This is the finished cake. I colored the fondant with some food coloring, and stuck the legs and wings on. Notice the pop-up timer? There it is, proof that the dent was on purpose. I made some lettuce, fruits, and veggies to garnish the board. It looked pretty plain when it was just a turkey on a foil covered board. The stuffing is the cake I carved off. Hey, I had to do something with the leftovers. Waste not, want not, you know? If you think I was going to take the time to make fondant stuffing with little celery bits, you've got another thing coming. Do you have any idea how much time that would take? Ok, not very long. But still, the cake was just sitting there, begging to be used. So what if nobody would be able to eat it because it would dry out and be disgusting? I am more concerned with the effect. It almost looks like real stuffing. So there. 

Lettuce, lemons, and corn. Now, I know they are not to scale. I was working with limited amounts of fondant, here. I didn't want to have to make a whole new batch of fondant, just to make the garnish look more realistic and life sized. They turned out really cute, anyway. 

Here, we have an orange and an apple. I know that seems obvious, but for those that may be fruit challenged, I thought I better specify. My nephew asked me if they were made of cake. I said no, and he looked so confused. I then explained that they were made of marshmallows. You should have seen his eyes light up! He asked me in a soft, reverent voice, if he could eat it. I said yes. He looked like all his dreams had come true. I gave him one of each kind of fruit and veggie. Even one of the pumpkins, which I did not post a picture of. I figure that everyone should know what a pumpkin is.

Everyone was afraid to cut the cake. I finally had to cut it myself, or it would all go home with me. I seriously did not need that to happen. The legs and wings went first, just like a real turkey. There was a yellow cake, a white cake and pumpkin chocolate chip. The pumpkin layer was my favorite. Soooo good. I will definitely have to make that one again.

Colton was a good sport, and didn't eat his turkey leg until I got a good picture of him. He later complained that it was good, just too much white chocolate. Is there such a thing? I don't think so.

Celisa chose a wing. (Insert your own wing joke here, mine have flown the coop.) I don't think I have ever seen someone eat a wing joint first, have you? In that respect, I decided that this was better than a real turkey. No bones.

What do you do after you have had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and turkake? Why play cards, of course. I would have thought that was obvious, as well.

When I first brought the turkey into the house, a few people thought I was really carrying a turkey. There were many comments on the fact that we didn't need another turkey, and they were a bit upset, or maybe confused that I would just decide to bring a turkey without telling anyone. When they realized it was cake, there was a general sigh of relief from the family. It was worth all the work just for that moment. :)

My nephews and nieces posted pictures of it on facebook immediately. Within minutes, I was hearing comments from around the world. Ok, maybe only the nation, or maybe it was mostly around the state, but there were comments, nevertheless. I put this on my cake blog, but facebook and my neices and nephews beat me to it. What a technologically advanced world we live in. It never ceases to amaze me.

This was a fun adventure for the holiday, but does this mean I have to top it next year? Not possible. Might as well give up now. Leftover turkake, anyone?