Hippity, Hoppity Holiday

If you're not the religious sort, Easter is pretty much all about the Easter Bunny. That's sort of silly when you think about it, but it gives the kids something to look forward to. Mam started asking about Easter at least two weeks before the day arrived.

The kids woke up early and took it upon themselves to dress in their Easter best...which was pretty cute and pretty funny. Probably not quite what I would have chosen, but then, my parents decided to go to San Diego for Easter this year. That meant it was just the four of us. And it meant that no one was here to be disappointed that I hadn't cooked a breakfast extravaganza or used my best china. There was no pressure and it was a decidedly low key day...except for the egg-hunting, that is.We didn't dye eggs this year. I'm the only one who will eat hard boiled eggs, so I didn't see the point in wasting them. The Easter Bunny left markedly fewer plastic eggs around the yard than in previous years. There were complaints that there wasn't enough candy. There was plenty of candy. I still anticipate throwing out the majority of it, like every other year.

I was thrilled to see our big rose bush had burst into bloom right on cue. This has got to be one of my favorite plants in the whole yard. It's just so darned pretty and I do very little to keep it that way. Our cat, Oliver, was fairly desperate to join us and since he's learned to open the back door, he almost did...I didn't take any pictures of breakfast. We'd picked up some cinnamon rolls and bear claws at the local bakery. I scrambled some eggs and Daddy cut up some fruit. We ate on our everyday plates. It was yummy and totally nausea inducing. I had to take a nap afterwards.

Daddy and I fully enjoyed the day. No baseball games, no practices, no one to entertain. But at the end of it all, Mam declared, "It didn't even feel like Easter!" I don't know what was missing for her, exactly, but I'm inclined to try and keep it this low key. My gosh, it was a nice change...and honestly, I think the kids had a pretty good time, don't you?

Blah, Blah, Blog

I don't know what it is about this time of year exactly. Maybe it's the relief of having the birthdays over with. Or maybe it's the craziness of baseball and softball season. I took a hiatus from blogging about this time last year as well. But this year I also have a job and I've been working out like a crazy woman. I'm not totally sure what's up with that either, but the bathroom scale? It's not up at all. In fact, it's down, so I feel the need to keep working out like a fiend. I doubled down on yoga this week, made it to pilates, ran about 10 miles (total). I've also been at school a lot, taking kids to the library, helping kids with writing, helping kids with reading, helping them construct bird nests, serving lunch.

At the same time, turning 40 doesn't seem to be agreeing with me very well. I'm facing a very classic mid-life crisis and dealing with it poorly. Here I am at 40. I've achieved most of what I set out to do. I'm in desperate need of a second act, but I don't know what that is and I'm not willing to do less parenting to achieve it. Hmmm.

Anyway, so where were we anyhow? Well, there was this:Smunch started his baseball season as a member of the Phillies. He has a nice team. I like them. And, much like last year, he's one of the better players on this team, where he's one of the weaker players on the club team. It's probably good for him to have the contrast.

And there's this:Mam seems to be enjoying playing with the Pink Butterflies. And I'm enjoying being the team manager again, but parents really are crazy. I feel ridiculous having to tell another mom that her 5-year-old daughter canNOT play with those big earrings in her ears because she really might tear her earlobe off. It's very obvious. It's not my kid...and yet, I'm responsible. And I ask them not to bring snacks for their kids to eat during the game because it's very distracting both to their kid and to the other players. The game is only an hour. I think they can wait. FEED them before you come for heaven's sake! But several parents don't take my pleas to heart. Their children are a problem. Apparently, I also need to ask them not to bring toys for their daughters to play with during the game. Ugh. At least the girls themselves are fun.

One of my other high school buddies finally saw fit to turn 40 as well, so my group of friends all attended her party in The City. It made for some fun photo opportunities.And all of us were there...which is always nice. This will be a fun year that way.Got to hope it's this good ten years from now!

Spring break came and went. I took the kids up to the zoo for part of one day, but mostly we were at home, waiting for Smunch's next baseball practice to occur. So, it wasn't quite the fun spring break one might hope for. We spent the final weekend in Manteca, playing at at baseball tournament with the Mavericks.

There's not a lot to do in Manteca, but they do have one heck of a baseball facility there. Each field was built as a replica of a famous ballpark. On Saturday, the Mavericks played a double header at Yankee Stadium. Apparently, the tournament organizers weren't really up on the habits of 9-year-old boys because their games were scheduled back-to-back at 6:30pm and 8:30pm. Although they didn't get back to the hotel until 11 that night, they were all psyched to get to play under THE LIGHTS at least.Now, the day before the tournament, the coach sent the parents an e-mail saying that not everyone was going to be in the starting lineup this time around. This time, he said, he was going to field the most competitive team he could. I knew what that meant. It meant we were driving to Manteca to see Smunch play just a few innings of three long games. Bummer. That's pretty much the way it played out too, but the Mavericks played respectably. The mercy rule was never invoked. They always played to the time limit. And Smunch even managed to walk, steal second, have a short conference with the coach...steal third,and finally score the tying run by stealing home.He never actually got a hit during the tournment, but he had a good time, even though he didn't play much. And the hotel had a pool, so he and Mam got to swim with the rest of the team before their lackluster game at Fenway Park on Sunday. Who could blame them? They were tired. They hadn't slept well at the hotel. Their opponent was relatively local and their team got to go home early and sleep in their beds Saturday night.

I admit it was kind of fun, but I was still left wondering why we bothered. While Daddy kept score on his iPad, I took over the controller for the outfield scoreboard. At least that was mildly entertaining.

And last weekend was Easter. I guess that ought to get its own blog entry. I didn't take nearly enough photos, but that's O.K...

Play Ball!...Again

Last weekend was a super sports extravaganza all over the place. Smunch had two hours of practice with the Mavericks Friday evening, followed by an hour of basketball practice. We started Saturday morning getting Smunch to the tournament ball field at 7am for an 8am game. *yawn* Daddy took that on while I dropped Mam off with a friend so she could make it to opening day for softball. Then I took off for the tournament myself.

It was early and chilly. The Mavericks have been practicing for just a couple of weeks. The other teams at the tournament have been playing together for months...or years in some cases. It was a valuable lesson in humility for a bunch of boys who'd tried out and made the team.There was a lot of stealing during this game. The Mavericks' are Mustang 1 level PONY players...and they've only barely started practicing for their regular season. Mustang 1 is the first level where they learn to steal bases and such. So, it's a little mystifying to them yet.Smunch is attempting a steal of second in the picture above. See the ball? He didn't make it.

I left after that game and picked Mam up, fed her lunch and whisked her off to her last basketball game. Smunch was also supposed to go to his last basketball game...and maybe if his coach hadn't given out trophies at practice the night before, he would have done that. Instead, he decided to play the second game of the baseball tournament...and I made him call his basketball coach and tell him. Unfortunately, the coach didn't answer, so he had to leave a semi-intelligible message an hour before the game and Daddy took him back to the diamond.

The Killer Penguins made their last stand. It was one of their most challenging games of the season and only seven girls were available for the game, instead of the usual 10. The girls played hard and they did well. I don't do a very good job of keeping score, but I think they were probably a little behind at the end.

No matter, I had to whisk Mam off to her opening day softball game with the Pink Butterflies. We weren't too terribly late to the game. Just missed the first inning. Mam seemed to have fun.I forgot to take off her basketball jersey and didn't even notice until the end of the game.

I called Daddy when the game ended to see if I needed to head back to the baseball facility. I didn't. The score was 21-0 and the game was almost over. The Mavericks would have one more game on Sunday. Just about the time we set the clocks forward an hour for daylight savings, I got the e-mail that the game was at 8am the next morning. The boys would need to be there at 7am again...only this time it was an hour earlier.

Daddy got the early morning job again and Mam and I made it there during the first inning...to freeze our butts off in the foggy, breezy early morning while the Mavericks got pummeled one last time. It might just go without saying that we did *nothing* for the rest of the day.

Hasta, Killer Penguins

According to our schedule, last Saturday was the final stand for the undefeated Killer Penguins. I'd offered to make a cake for their celebratory end-of-season party. Of course, I didn't know at the time that the end of season party would be scheduled on Mam's birthday. It prompted us to have her party the previous day. And it prompted me to take the entire week off work to complete two cakes at once.

In typical Killer Penguins fashion, they vanquished the competition.Mam scored three baskets and her teammates scored many more. The other team might have scored three total. I was glad they scored, at least.This basketball season was so much fun. The coaches were great, the girls really enjoyed each other and played really well. Not surprisingly, that meant I wanted to make a really special cake for them.

I started experimenting with making fondant figurines. I'd never tried that before and wasn't the least bit sure I could pull it off. I liked my killer penguins though...and judging by the number of people who asked me where I'd found them, I'd say other people did too.I wanted an "icy" look to the cake, so I chose not to blend all the color into the fondant and make it marble-y. And knowing I had a team and siblings to feed, I put it together just like Mam's ladybug cake.It sat like that for a couple of days, which was a pity because it didn't look nearly as marble-y by the time I got to decorating it. We had to go to several stores before we found an appropriate basketball hoop. I just couldn't imagine making an edible one of those. Store #3, which was out of them, called store #4 and put it on hold for us. I made a little lake and piped on some snow.I added borders to both layers and carefully started placing penguins. Note to self...it's much easier to have a consistent border if your cake is in the middle of the plate.As a final touch, Daddy helped me engineer a dunking penguin.Somewhere along the line, I got an e-mail saying the reservation at the restaurant was for 46 people. I briefly panicked and made a quick sheet cake...which was, um, not particularly attractive, but functional.

Driving the cake over to the pizzeria was a little dicey and dunking penguin didn't show up entirely intact, but it was easy to fix and the cake went over well. The crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to Mam and most important, she got her trophy, as the coaches described her as a "little fireball". Ah, yes. Fireball, indeed.Naturally, it turns out that the coach's schedule was wrong. The Penguin's last game is this coming Saturday, overlapping with Mam's first softball game. There won't be any more cake.

Turning 7

I'm finding that it's hard to plan anything truly special for my daughter's birthday. I don't necessarily do a whole lot better with her brother, but as soon as his birthday's over, it's already too late to start thinking about hers from scratch. So, it was several days after Smunch's birthday that I sat down with Mam to talk about a guest list.

I don't know where this child came from. I really don't. She isn't a thing like her mother. I can tell you that. I always had a few really good friends and some peripheral friends, but I wasn't friends with everyone. Mam, is friends with just about everyone. There are some notable exceptions, but there are 24 kids in her class. Even if she's not fond of a quarter of them, that's still 18 children to invite. In the end, she invited 17, including a kindergartner from down the street, a friend who goes to another school and two girls who aren't in her class this year...in addition to a full half of her first grade class.

I made a snap decision that if we had to have that many children at our house, they were going to watch a movie. I chose "A Bug's Life". Despite the ladybug in the movie being a rather surly male, I figured it was probably as close to "on theme" as I was going to get.

The kids started arriving at 4:30. By five, they were sitting down creating their own mini-pizzas out of English muffins and all the fixins I could come up with. Pizzas were flying into the oven and flying right back out.It was complete chaos. Kids were loud, kids were crazy, some kids were grumpy. Prodded by her current "boyfriend", Mam announced it was too loud. I suggested she rethink inviting so many kids next time.

Once kids started finishing their dinner, we sent them off to play Twister in the family room with Daddy.With 15 kids, it was still crazy. Not too many kids can play Twister at once.

Mercifully, we started the movie as soon as 5:30 rolled around. And a beautiful silence filled the air as 15 children became complete zombies in front of the TV. Of course, there was plenty of giggling, but relatively speaking, it was so under control!When the peace was finally over, at least there was cake to keep them occupied.Naturally, half of them complained about either the fondant or the strawberry filling. Cake never occupies kids for as long as you'd hope. We ended up having Mam open her presents...something children rarely do at birthday parties anymore.

When that was over, they all went HOME. And that was the best part of all! That and the next morning...Mam's actual birthday...when she got her brand new bike, which she already loves.Funny to think there was a time when I was near certain that she'd never be able to ride a bike...much less have a crazy birthday party.

Ladybug Birthday

Mam decreed that this year would be a ladybug year for her birthday. Well, O.K., I thought. I had visions of an oval-shaped cake that I could decorate as a ladybug. That's a lot of red stuff. It's hard to color things red. It takes a lot of coloring. It took a long time for my vision of this cake to finally take shape. As always, it had humble beginnings.This was a white cake with strawberry filling...as requested. Naturally, upon actually tasting it, Mam decided that she doesn't like strawberry filling. Such are the whims of a 7-year-old.I wasn't so sure what color I wanted this cake to be either. I wanted it to be bright and cheerful. Ladybugs make me happy. I wanted this cake to have that same effect. After seeing Mam's rather extensive guest list, I also decided it needed two tiers.And now it was yellow. It wasn't quite the bright, cheerful yellow I'd been looking for, but I decided to go with it rather than doing anything rash, like making a whole new batch of fondant...because yeah, I make my own fondant and color it myself.I added grass. Lots of grass. As much grass as I thought I could add without turning it into a jungle cake. The grass is just rolled out fondant, cut with a pizza cutter. I added a leafy fondant border...because it just needed a border.I made daisies out of gum paste and let them dry so that they curved just so. I made ladybugs out of red fondant, rolled into egg shapes and cut in half...then added heads and spots with a FoodWriter pen.Last, but not least, of course, I had to add the flowers and the ladybugs to the cake. It was looking promising, but it was hard to know for sure until they were on.I always take a picture at this step because I'm so worried that I'll write on the top of the cake and that'll ruin everything. Honestly, the writing, while being elementary school perfect, turned out oddly centered. Fortunately, a few strategically placed daisies and ladybugs seemed to make up for it.I admit I was pretty proud of this one. It turned out every bit as cool as I'd envisioned. Mam loved what it looked like, even if she's refused to eat any of the leftovers. Of course, I don't want to be stuffing myself with them either. Maybe next year, I should just whip out the canned frosting and a box of cake mix!

More Snow...a Lot More Snow

On the way back to the cabin from Homewood, we stopped at the ski rental store and turned in my skis for snowshoes. At that point, when I was feeling, oh-so-not-part-of-my-skiing-family, I really just needed the promise of doing something I would really enjoy, even if it was going to be a solo trek. It seemed like some snow hiking and a peaceful afternoon to myself might be just what I needed.

It was snowing when we got up on Thursday, making Daddy decide not to take our fledgling skiiers back out to the slopes. So, there would be no peace in the cabin. Daddy put the chains on the van and we had breakfast at my favorite little spot in Carnelian Bay. And we went back to the cabin. As soon as there was a sign of the snow letting up and with the rest of the family all zombiefied by one screen or another, I put on my snow gear, swiped Daddy's nice sunglasses and set out with my camera.

Ahhhh. There's nothing quite so beautiful and quiet as the woods in the snow.Walking in snowshoes can be hard work, but I was much more in my element than I'd been for the past couple of days. I took photos of the cool little things I saw along the way.One of my boots was giving me problems, but I managed to ignore it for the most part. That is, I ignored it until I suddenly realized I'd dropped Daddy's expensive sunglasses in the snow where I'd last stopped for photos and I really needed to go back for them. Fortunately, I hadn't gone too far, but by then, my boot was really killing me. I triapsed back up the hill, found a piece of the glasses sticking out, grabbed them and headed back the way I came. Now, I was really going to have to head back to the cabin. I couldn't keep my socks from slipping and the rubbing on my left heel. I got a little lost with all the trails in the snow, but fortunately not disoriented. I made it back within half an hour or so.I arrived back at the cabin to find Daddy creating a sled run on the hill across the street. I was relieved that the kids were finally back outside. And sled runs are fun!Until this happens...That doesn't even look so bad, but then this happens. and sledding is done for the day. Too bad. I missed most of it. But with my foot still hurting, I couldn't have made it up the hill anyway. And no wonder it hurt!Maybe I should learn to pay better attention when my body's trying to tell me there's a problem. Ouch!

We knew there was a storm blowing in later on Thursday and that it was supposed to last through Friday, but we stayed in our cabin because a) I'm cheap and we'd paid for it and b) I really wanted to visit some friends on the way back and Thursday was a school night for them so we really needed to swing by there on Friday. It retrospect, it probably wasn't our best choice. This was our driveway on Friday morning.I hurried to clean up the cabin and feed the kids breakfast while Daddy went out, excavated the van, reinstalled the chains he'd been able to remove the previous day and packed the car. Still, we weren't out of there until just after 9 o'clock. The road wasn't looking so good.But CalTrans' website said the highways were still open and we'd already been told the next renters would be coming regardless and we had to get out. So we left. The road up to the main freeway was dicey and by the time we actually reached the freeway, they were turning traffic around. We were stuck.Stuck in McDonalds. Turns out there are worse places to be. McDonalds has cheap coffee and free WiFi. We hung out for an hour or so. Daddy's iPhone went off with a Facebook update from one of his friends.

She wasn't going skiing because they'd closed Alpine Meadows. It was going to be a lazy day at the cabin for her. Oh, really? I thought. "Think she'd let us crash with her if we need to?" I asked?

I hastily composed a quick message asking if her cabin could be our emergency backup. She replied. "ABSOLUTELY!" They weren't far away either, so we readied to leave McDonalds, which was getting crowded, and head to her cabin. The storm was still pretty ferocious as we left.We ran into a long line of cars waiting for the freeway to open and couldn't get past to the road we needed, so we turned around and headed for another street that would connect us with where we wanted to go. Should have known better, of course.

The road to hell, I'm convinced, is paved with steep, snow-covered hairpin turns.

We reached the uphill hairpin, but had to slow too much for an oncoming car and couldn't make it. The van wouldn't move. We backed down the hill, so a four-wheel SUV could get past us. It had a hard time making it too, but cars kept coming and we had to keep moving back and back and finally into a snow bank where we couldn't get out.

Fortunately, people in the mountains seem to be pretty nice and very helpful. A good samaritan in a big red truck came by and offered to help. He also had a shovel. He and Daddy dug us out of the snowbank and having had enough of the hill, we turned around and went back to the main road.

This time, we made it to the turnoff we needed and slowly made our way to our friend's ski rental cabin. The snow was so high in her neighborhood, it was hard to find, but we made it sometime between noon and 1 o'clock. And there we stayed, learning that the friends I'd hoped to visit had stomach flu plaguing their house and keeping an eye on the highway webcams and the CalTrans road conditions pages for hours...partaking in our generous hostess's tea and hot chocolate and feeling thankful for saving our leftover pizza from a few nights before and bringing it with us...for just this occasion.

Right about 3:30, there were signs that the main highway was open again. Cars on the webcams appeared to move and as soon as the CalTrans page said 80 was open, we packed up our stuff and left, with Daddy's friend and her boyfriend blazing us a trail in their GMC Denali.Although it started snowing like crazy again by the time we made it to the highway, we got there without incident and started the slow trek through the mountains towards home. By now, it was 4 o'clock and we were just leaving Tahoe.

It was a long drive into Auburn, but it was nice to finally see the sun again, hitting the snow-covered trees. (If you look carefully, you also be able to tell that our drive probably wasn't nearly as long as the drive in the other direction.)We stopped for dinner around 6 and arrived home around 9:30, exhausted but happy to be here...where there was a reported chance of snow while we slept.