A Spider-Man Cake

     Today is this sweet guy's 33rd birthday. He's the best husband, daddy and friend. And I'm simply pleased as punch that he's mine.
     The other night we were talking and I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He wanted a chocolate and caramel cake with cookies and cream frosting. In the process of discussing birthdays and cake I said something to Buirlen about how maybe we could make a Spider-Man cake for his birthday coming up in March. He latched onto this idea, and so we decided to do it now. Don't worry, Luke got his choice last night at his birthday party with the Williams family. But tonight, we are celebrating with Spider-Man!

This boy is currently in a "Spider-Man is cool" phase. At Christmas, I found a Spider-Man action figure and that was a well spent $5. He sleeps with it most nights. His Ama has managed to find him quite a few shirts, Auntie Keren made him a mask, and Auntie Anna got him a sleeping bag. The boy is loved. 

I've been enjoying watching the Great British Baking Show lately. So, making a Spider-Man cake was a good opportunity to practice my cake decorating skills. I decided on a lemon and orange cake and colored it blue.   

It has a blueberry filling.

Blue frosting. 

I decided to try my hand at making marshmallow fondant. I pretty much just tastes like sugar, but.....

it created a lovely smooth finish. 

Ta-Da!

And this weeks new cookbook recipe. A tomato tart. That Pioneer Woman knows what's up. This was tasty!

My Sweet Beulah Bee. 

Taking a snooze with Ama

Tea quotes

Happy Today. 

"What a desolate place would be a world without a flower." ~Clara Lucas Balfour

Today...And the Beginning of the 20's, May They Be Roaring!

Today. Saturday. Legos. Muffins. Scrapbooking. Tea. Music. 

This girl and her spectacular smile and beautiful eyes.

This boy. He loves his sister, Spider Man, scrambled eggs, his cousins, and making messes. 

When your love of cousins combines with your love of making messes....Amazing things happen. 

Where or where could that boy be. 

This girl, she has skills. She can go for days without pooping, but then she blows. I'm getting my poopsplosion clean up skills honed into a streamlined process. 

My Grandpa Kinney loved cookbooks and over the years he gave me quite a few. For Christmas, my mom gave me a couple of his that she found, a sort of last gift from Grandpa. I've always been really bad at using my cookbooks. I've tended to just do stuff from my head, or go to the internet for a recipe. Well, I've decided that this year that is going to change. My goal for 2020 is to use my lovely cookbooks. So far so good, I've tried quite a few new recipes and it's been fun. 

When I was a kid my family lived in Kenya for a couple years. While we were there, my Grandpa would send us audio letters. He kept a tape recorder in his car and when he was out driving, he would talk to us. I remember listening to these as a kid. Well, my dad recently was able to convert them to digital so we could hear them again. I opened them up a few weeks ago and started to cry. It's been so fun to hear Granda's voice again and all the little quirks and mannerisms of how he spoke that might be easy to forget one day. It's been a neat gift. 

Don't forget that joy is found in Jesus, and He so wants you to choose it!

"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day." 

~Henri J.M. Nouwen

Hello Fall

       Summer 2019 is gone and we've slipped into fall. In fact, we've even had our first little taste of winter with the first snowfall a couple weekends ago. Buirlen was highly impressed and had to get out and play in it before we had breakfast, that "nose" as he called it was pretty neat. During that first snowy day, I went out and salvaged the last bouquet of flowers from my garden. I remember thinking what an interesting juxtaposition of seasons it was to be picking the last of summers flowers, while the trees were displaying fall's colors and there was a layer of winter's snow on the ground.

Ready to play in the "nose".

Earlier this summer I made a backyard discovery. The row of what I thought was crab apple trees turned out to actually be wild plums. I was pretty excited by this discovery. 

Fruit sampling

     My garden is done now, but we had a good run this summer. My beans didn't do as well as they did last year for some reason, but it was a record year as far as hot peppers were concerned. So. Many. Hot. Peppers. And they are HOT! I planted 3 varieties and at least one is no joke. I made the mistake of chopping up a whole bowl of them to put in the freezer without wearing gloves. I also had chapped hands. By the time I was done my hand was on fire and I kept it on an ice pack till about midnight that night. I certainly learned my lesson where peppers are concerned.

Snapping green beans.

Getting tomatoes ready for the freezer.

Eating his weight in corn at Grandpa and Grandma's.

     Late this summer, we headed up to Williams, MN for a Jackpine work weekend. Jackpine is our church's yearly camping retreat which we love. Luke has only missed 2 in his entire life. This year a bunch of us went up several weeks before to get some work done on the grounds. It was a fun day, though the bugs were horrendous.  I will confess that my help only went so far as providing supper and cookies. My good friend Polly came up with her husband and youngest so it was a fun time catching up with her. The work weekend had been planned for earlier in the summer, but then got moved due to weather. Luke had built a brand new outhouse to take up there and then the date got changed, so we had a classy set up with an outhouse sitting in our driveway for a month or so.

Installing the new outhouse.

The best boys playing hard. 

    Then in September, it was the actual Jackpine. I always love that weekend. So much fun camping, and spending time with good people. It rained the first day we were up there, but the rest of the weekend was pretty nice, though a bit cold. Buirlen had more fun than he could stand. Nothing like being outside all day with your best boy, Ephraim, and big cousins running around to play with. Life is good.

Pizza anyone?

The Williams siblings. 

    And the impatient waiting game has begun as far as baby girl's arrival is concerned. I am now a little over 37 weeks and so ready for her to get here. The hospital bag is packed, people to watch Buirlen are lined up, baby clothes and such are cleaned and in the dresser, and my parents are on standby to come up when they get the call. Now we just wait. Buirlen loves babies and is going to be such a good big brother. We talk about the baby a lot, but honestly I don't think he has a clue as to what's coming.

This quilt is pretty special. My mom found the quilt top at my Grandpa and Grandma's house this summer. She is pretty sure that her grandma made it and for some reason it never got it finished. She sent it on to me and I realized it was the right size to finish it off into a quilt for the new baby. So that's what I did. This little girl will have a quilt that was possibly started for her years ago by her great great Grandma. That gets me right in my sentimental heart. 

And some randomness. 

Twinning with Poppy

Nothing like a nap in your easy chair. 

Luke played Shadrach at our summer VBS

Going for a walk.

And another walk. 

Sitting high

Two very helpful dish washers.

And another walk. 

My classy(and opinionated) dresser.

We had a giant bonfire with all the scraps and stuff that came off the house last summer when we re-sided. 

Grocery shopping is exhausting. 

Trips to Menards with Daddy are FUN! Grape pop and a new hammer. 

Saturday ice cream outings. 

Happy Fall!

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson