"Surprisingly Sane"

That's how Daddy described Mam's birthday cake this year. "Compared to the castle???" he said. Well, O.K. I guess it probably seemed that way. No matter that I ended up using 6 boxes of cake mix. Seriously. I do the most ridiculous things. I made this cake twice...in part because my first cake slid off the cooling rack and had an unfortunate encounter with the countertop. In part because I decided I just didn't like what I'd created, even if I could fix the damage with frosting.

This year, Mam requested a "rainbow party", which naturally leads to a rainbow cake. How very simple! But if anyone can figure out how to make it complicated, that'd be me. So let's start here...That is a 16" round pan, which hits each side of my oven when I slide it in. And yes, that's the cake in there in all its rainbow-y glory. I split the batter from 3 white cakes into 6 and colored each one differently. Then I put each one into a Ziploc bag and "piped" them in circles...as fast as I could so the batter didn't spread too much. When it was cooked, it didn't look nearly as colorful.The whole plan here was to bake this giant circle, cut it into two semi circles and the put them together to make the cake. And, if you do the batter this way, you end up with a cake that looks just like a rainbow. I made this all up...but I'm sure I'm far from inventing the idea.You can also see that despite the browning on the outside of the cake, the colors inside were still really bright and awesome...as long as you can stomach artificial color anyway. So, the next step was to create a base and it seemed like sky blue would be the appropriate color. This is the "crumb coat" so it doesn't look pretty.Then, of course, I had to turn this into a non-crumby rainbow. I started Thursday night with the colors, but there was clearly a little problem with the structural integrity of this cake.I always consult with Daddy on these matters because I'm usually baffled by cake engineering issues. We managed to prop it up a little and put it right back in the fridge to firm up...on a board at a significant slant. It was better the next day, but the slanted board remained...all the way through the party. I managed to finish up the colors on Friday night after the kids went to bed. It was starting to look pretty good.Unlike her underwhelmed reaction to the castle cake, Mam saw this cake in the morning and said "Is that my cake???" as if she couldn't believe her good fortune.I waited until Saturday morning, before the party to add clouds. I used the bits I'd trimmed off the cake as "landscaping" for the clouds. You have to understand, that this is much scaled down from my original plan of somehow fashioning a pot of gold out of cake. I really wanted to do that and have a cloud at the other end of the rainbow, but with time running short and my ideas for making said pot running thin, I decided a rainbow on a cloud would have to do. Having just started a new cake decorating class at a cake decorating supply store meant that I found a couple of cute little leprechauns to stick in there too.Turns out, clouds require a lot of frosting. I ended up sending Daddy to the store for more sugar at the last minute. Yikes! Still. I was pretty proud of my rainbow cake, despite the carefully disguised listing to one side.It also made a lovely centerpiece on the party table.Of course, no rainbow cake is complete without rainbow birthday candles, right?And wouldn't you know it? This one turned out to be rainbows through and through...almost like I'd planned it that way or something...So, what do you think? Surprisingly sane??

Five

It's a little baffling that my youngest is now five years old. She looks five. I guess it must be true. And today's pediatrician appointment confirms that she's still strictly average...50th percentile for weight and between 50 and 75 for height. Huh. How'd that happen?

It doesn't really matter that I moved Smunch's birthday party up two weeks this year. It still seemed like Mam's birthday came the very next day. It didn't. But it did become a 3-day event with a celebration in her "Innovative" class the day before her birthday, another celebration in her regular preschool class on her birthday, a family celebration and her birthday party on Saturday.

For school, I made our traditional birthday cookies, as Mam requested. You'd think she'd get tired of these and request messy, sugar-laden cupcakes, but these are cute and seem to be just fine with her. Besides, they make so many that I could make enough for both school parties.The celebration in the Innovative class was pretty low key. It involved having the teacher read my account of what Mam had done with each year of her life thus far and then having Mam pass out her cookies. Smunch was happy to join me since he was out of school by that time.

The biggest event of Thursday was that Aunt Karen and SPENCER! arrived in time for dinner and the kids all got to spend a little time together before bedtime.

Friday morning started with a very happy Mam opening a new Hanna Anderssen outfit from Gram Pam and Grandpa Ryder. Naturally, she wore that to school despite it being kind of a crazy combination of things...that matched, sorta.Birthdays in the regular preschool classes are a lot of fun. The puppet, Goocha, comes out to try and find the birthday child. He listens to the kids' ears to see if he can hear the birthday song in there, looks for balloons up their noses and looks at their teeth for signs of birthday cake crumbs.Then there's candle lighting and blowing out before snacks.Again, Mam passed out cookies to her classmates...but this time, SPENCER! was there to join in the activities. He was uncharacteristically unenthusiastic to be there. He was shy and clingy.He ate his cookie and finally warmed up when he joined the kids on the playground and started having a blast. He even joined in at story time, announcing to the whole class that he was silly, just like that picture in the Dr. Suess book.We had to wait until Smunch and Daddy got home before Mam could open presents. Naturally, SPENCER! wanted to help. Mam didn't really appreciate his efforts.When it comes to presents, Mam is a lot of fun. You always know exactly what she thinks. She never holds anything back and shows no sign of being the least bit self conscious about it. When she opened a new tin tea set, "Oh, a tea set..." (moving along to the next package). But when she opened a pretty little plush winged horse...I love this look. It makes her a really rewarding kid to give presents to. She also loved her new roller skates, her Cinderella doll and Thumbelina, who hides in a flower.

Per tradition, we went to Mam's favorite restaurant for her birthday, which meant taking a trip to Fresh Choice in chilly winter weather. But Mam was happy. That was the end of the festivities for the night because goodness knows...I had a cake to work on!

First Grader

Nothing says "first grader" quite like losing one of those top front teeth. Smunch is now official.

Backyard Wildlife

I'm always taking pictures of the flowers and fruits in my yard. It never ceases to amaze me the despite my somewhat black thumb, these things keep coming back just to cheer me up.

Late in the afternoon yesterday, I decided to try and get some ranunculus bulbs (or are they corms?) into pots before the rain started. That meant scrounging around the yard for some empty pots. Given the black thumb thing, it's not a big challenge.

But when I moved one likely candidate for a pot, I found that I'd disturbed one of our neighbors, this tiny little guy...And he's not exactly what you might expect from this photograph. This is just the only one that came out in focus. I was delighted to find him, knowing that amphibians are particularly sensitive to anything toxic in the water or soil. I take that to mean that while I may kill some of our plants, the yard is, on the whole quite healthy.

I felt a little guilty having ruined this little guy's home...and then bringing him inside for the whole family to see. It always makes me happy when the kids are interested in my weird little creatures. They even stopped watching whatever it was on the Discovery Channel to come meet this fella.

Unfortunately, I really did need to use the pot I'd found him under, so I let him go in the leaves around a different pot. Hopefully, that's good enough. Mam's supposed to take something that starts with 's' to school in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll have to dig him or his friends up again...

Super Sled

Since I have my own deep-seeded fear of skiing, I'm not particularly anxious to have the kids learn. And, honestly, it was just so nice to kick back and be in no hurry to get anywhere during our whole trip, that I'm inclined to keep it that way. Of course, that almost certainly isn't going to happen. Daddy did go up for a half day of skiing at Squaw Valley. He had a blast.

I had a blast reading my book while Daddy skiied...interrupted at intervals by one or another kid-related incident in the snow outside the cabin. There was some significant screaming and crying and a memorable moment of Mam banging on the cabin door screaming "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY!!!".

The emergency...which, in truth, was indeed a minor emergency, turned out to be that Smunch had fallen down a hole in the snow next to the cabin and couldn't get himself out. It was even a little bit of an effort for me to drag him out. Sometimes it's nice to have two kids who have an interest in taking care of each other...even as they beat each other up.

Mam managed to give me her cold right before we left for the mountains, so my enthusiasm for snow play was a bit limited. I was glad I'd thought to bring all the ingredients for homemade chicken soup...and a bunch of tea bags for sitting by the fire, reading and sipping.

Daddy was there for much of our time around the cabin, of course and he orchestrated two really killer sled runs for the whole family. The first was right across the street, on a rather steep hill that was several feet deep in snow. We all went out and had a lot of fun sledding down, even though we had more than our share of wipeouts.Well, O.K., maybe that was just me.

Mam seemed to have a great time sledding, squealing all the way down the hill, but she wasn't nearly as interested walking back up the hill and repeating the exercise over and over again as her brother was. She preferred just to sit happily in the snow in her snow bib.By my last sled run of the second day, also on this steep hill, the snow on the trees had melted enough to turn the snow below to ice and one leap into the air and crash to the ice took my tailbone out of commission for the rest of the trip. Ouch! I still haven't quite recovered. From time to time, you can see me go to sit down and pop back up like I've sat on a tack. But no, it's just that bruised rear end of mine.

While Daddy was skiing, I introduced the kids to a far simpler form of sledding, since I wasn't about to chaperone a sled trip on my own...especially as the wipeout queen. Instead, I showed them how to sled down the ramp of snow that the plow left at the end of the driveway.Even though it made for a short sled run, it also meant they could do it by themselves, they could go down head first if they wanted and it wasn't much of a hike to get back to the top.

One of the other things we never got the opportunity to do on our trip back in December was build a snowman. The kids had really wanted to do that. This time, I didn't let them miss out. We started this one on our first day, but the snow was so powdery that it really didn't stick together well...hence the lumpy appearance of this guy. But we had fun putting this one together and my soup ingredients came in handy yet again.S/he does have arms, but Mam insisted on using sticks for arms and they just don't show up with the background.

I don't think we'll make it back up to the snow again this year. I've got plans for camping come spring break, assuming it's not too cold. But I have a new appreciation for vacationing in the winter. We had a great time and really did everything we wanted to do. Next time, though, Smunch says he's going skiing.

Breakfast Nostalgia

As you might've guessed, I grew up in a family that wasn't big on snow or winter sports. By the time I tried to learn to ski at the age of 21, it was far too late. Perhaps it was always too late and I've always had a good portion of stodgy, thrill-averse old lady in me.

My parents took my sister and me up to the snow only once during our entire childhood (although we later moved to England where it snowed with some regularity and we did plenty of sledding around the house). I suppose they wanted to make sure we knew what snow was, at least.

That doesn't mean my family didn't like Tahoe though. As one of the premier vacation destinations from the San Francisco Bay Area, we did make a yearly trip up there. We always went during the summer when we could swim in the very cold lake, fish for crawdads, rent jet skis and hang out by the pool, playing bingo with the other vacationing kids.

I have a lot of fond memories of the little traditions our family had on our Tahoe vacations...bringing bacon fat as crayfish bait, getting ice cream at the pool snack shop, my dad's morning trip to the 7-11, when he never failed to bring back donuts. But one of my fondest memories is of the place in the picture above.

This is the Old Post Office Coffee Shop in Carnelian Bay. As the name suggests, it was once a post office. But by the time my family was spending a week each summer in Carnelian Bay, it was already a cute little breakfast spot and we went there at least once each trip.

During our last Tahoe trip, I learned that this place was indeed still open, but we didn't have the chance to go. I was way more disappointed than I should have been. It's not really a secret that this trip was, in part, just because I had to eat there again. It's not that the food is so amazing, although it was yummy. I also felt an inexplicable, urgent need to share that part of my childhood with my own kids.We went on our first morning out and I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint. It was just as I remembered, right down to the cute little dining room with the old-fashioned postage stamp wallpaper.That's the waitress there with the red hair and the black "Go Postal" T-shirt. All the staff had these shirts. It's funny to think that slogan would have been totally meaningless when I first went there.

The kids devoured their pancakes and I savored my blueberry pancakes...something I discovered for the very first time at the Old Post Office and have loved ever since.

Although our summer is already full of vacation plans, I'm already plotting a summer trip back to Tahoe. I'll drag my sister and SPENCER! with us too. This nostalgia was too good not to share!

Tahoe Take Two

It seems like it's been an eternity since we were really able to go on vacation. When I say "vacation", I don't mean the kind where we spend our days trying to placate whiney kids or doing kid-friendly activities that we really aren't excited about. Those seem like necessary excursions, but I'm really talking about the kind where we get to unwind, at least a little, and spend some time doing things we really enjoy.

So, during "ski week" this year, we decided to go back to Tahoe...no family obligations, no one to coordinate meals with, no one with expectations that our kids must learn to ski. No free cabin either, but we found a great cabin that was everything we needed and we were smart and lucky enough to leave on Tuesday and come back on Friday. No blizzards. No traffic...although we did have to use chains over the summit to the lake.

The kids really wanted to see snow falling and fall it did. Except there was a lot of snow falling as we approached the lake and virtually none after we got to the cabin. But I was proud of myself for having Daddy open the windows in back so the kids could have snow fall on them...and for pointing out to Smunch when there was a dainty little snowflake in all its crystalline glory sitting on his sleeve as Daddy removed the snow cables from the car. He was amazed that snowflakes really look like...well, snowflakes. Next time. I'm bringing the magnifying glass.

By Wednesday morning, the neighborhood around the cabin was a true winter wonderland. The trees were all still coated and the road around the cabin still covered. I took some time to take some scenic photos after we trekked down to get breakfast (worthy of its own blog post) and came away with some shots that show just how pretty everything was when the clouds parted...There were a lot of impressive and beautiful icicles to be seen hanging from the local cabins, but these ones caught my eye. Must be windy down there by the lake!It was the perfect way to start our little mini-vacation in the snow...already promising to be beautiful and serene. And what do you know? I read a BOOK while we were there! I still can't quite get over how amazing I think that is!

SAHB - Stay At Home Birthday

Aside from the startling realization that my firstborn is now seven years old, I learned a few choice little things this week. Chief among those things was that having Smunch's birthday party two weeks before his actual birthday was totally inspired. Of course, I had no clue at the time, but when Smunch's real birthday rolled around on President's Day, it was mellow and so much fun!

All weekend, I'd been looking forward to Monday. I had some great birthday surprises planned that I knew Smunch would love. On the downside, President's Day was closely preceded by Valentine's Day (aka: another sugar overload) and also marked the beginning of Winter Break (aka: ski week). That meant we had two kids with horrendous behavior ALL weekend long. It took some of the joy out of my plans, but by Sunday night, I was looking forward to Monday morning again.

Thanks to one of my friends who knows about Smunch's love of sports, I was alerted to this awesome set of Major League Baseball bedding (thanks CSB!). I hatched a plan to surprise Smunch first thing by removing him from his bed in the middle of the night, hanging framed photos of his baseball heroes on his wall and changing all his bedding. The room went from this...to this...The ribbon on the center picture is because this is the only brand new one of the three. He was given the other two earlier, but we'd never hung them up. Lest you think we were banging on the wall, I actually did all the work of putting the nails in the wall while Smunch was at school a few days earlier. Once we were done, we brought him back from our bed to his.It'd be an exaggeration to say he didn't wake up at all, but he certainly went right back to sleep. I left a pack of baseball cards on the throw pillow at the end of his bed and then went to sleep, trying to keep one ear open for whenever he got up.

We missed the moment when he figured out that he had a brand new baseball room. I'm not sure if he was onto us from the beginning or if he noticed when he got up to pee around 4am. He said he didn't want to come in and tell us because he knows we like to sleep. Nice kid.

When he got up in the morning, Daddy and I both thought he hadn't noticed the new decor, but a little while later, we overheard him giving Mam a tour of his new baseball room, ripping into his baseball cards and telling her which team each player was from. He read all the team names from his new quilt to her. He was pretty psyched and it was awesome to hear.

Not surprisingly, I really wasn't up for making Smunch a fancy new cake. After his birthday party and my birthday, we'd had an awful lot of cake around the house already. Instead, I decided to take him (just him and me) to this place...and let him pick out seven cupcakes. It was so cute!And then...well, then I dragged my poor little birthday boy to exchange some clothes at J.Jill...which meant he had to wait around while I tried stuff on. The saleslady was super nice and offered us the handicapped dressing room, where Smunch laid down on the bench while I tried on clothes. After all the horrible behavior of the previous few days, it was unexpected and a huge relief. I got some new clothes and indulged in my serious shopping vice, stopping in Gymboree to see if they had a particular line of baby girl clothes on sale. They did and I managed not to buy anything. But...on the way out, I spotted these boy's pajamas...on sale!OMG. Smunch loved these and it was so much fun to just say "Hey, buddy. It's your birthday and you can totally have those." Besides, after all the effort put into the baseball room, who could resist some baseball jammies??

I got out of the mall with no more damage done. We went home, Gram and Grandpa came over for some present opening.Smunch got a new remote-controlled dinosaur, a motor for his erector set, a old-fashioned game of Battleship and a kit for a solar powered car. He loved it all. He didn't love that he had to stop playing with his new toys and go to a swim lesson...at least he didn't love it until he got there and found that you get a free cookie on your birthday!

As soon as we got home, we left again to meet Gram and Grandpa at Smunch's favorite Italian restaurant. Italian because Italian means noodles and he may never outgrow his ridiculous love of all things noodle.More than anything, though, he wanted the staff to make a big deal out of his birthday. It took some patient waiting, but I think he found it worth it. Don't you?Of course, he hardly needed a sundae with all those cupcakes at home. But it didn't stop him from digging into the chocolate marshmallow cupcake he'd picked out for himself.Before he went to bed, Daddy and I got an unsolicited big hug and "Thank you for my great birthday!" Couldn't ask for anything more than that.

There was no big party, no friends, not a lot of presents to unwrap, but I think this will go down as one of my favorite birthdays for my kids ever! Hopefully, Smunch will remember it that way too. Happy birthday, buddy!