Ethan turned TWO! Can you believe it? I hardly can. But then again, I am not a huge fan of the baby/toddler phase, so I don't mind as time flies by.
We ate at Lazlo's for his supper that night and it was so good! He enjoyed an adult dessert (all birthday kids get one!) and then we headed home to open presents!
He was SUPPOSED to have a circus themed birthday party the next day, complete with a "Big Top" cake that I made and a photo booth...but Jackson decided vomiting all night was much more fun then a party with friends. So, he will wait until a little Christmas party I am hosting and we will call that his birthday.
Bummer, though...I made matching initial tees in the Big Top font for all his friends! :(
Happy Birthday Little E! We love you and are so glad you joined our family as the littlest (even though you've always been the biggest) Remington of all.
So...sorry to have left you hanging for a few days.
While not having time to write this, the whole thing became less funny to me so now I am bored with it.
It started out as a joke to cheer up a sad friend then she basically DOUBLE DOG DARED me to do it and blog about it.
Well, I couldn't just NOT do it, kwim?
So, I really thought I'd at least say hello to some lonely old wrinkly man sitting in a booth hello but alas, ALL THE WRINKLY OLD MEN WERE WITH WOMEN! Boo.
However, I am going to tell you instead about the beast of a wrinkled (not wrinkly, which is a cute word, but WRINKLED which is mean and ugly) old goat who was the manager.
He was so rude and sour, I think he tainted the pies just by standing near them.
I won't go into all the details, but when it was time to check out (at a cash register up front, none of that fancy , I paid in pennies, nickels and dimes...exclusively. Sure, it was just $2.20, but still...he was an old fart and it gave me great pleasure to slowly dig through my massive handful of change to pull it out. (I knew I threw ALL my change into my purse for a reason. And God bless Free Pie Wednesday...I got a piece of chocolate silk pie AND a Mr. Peb for $2.20. Plus the $3 tip I left on the table for our fabulous waitress, Kim.)
So, no cute wrinkly old dudes to say hello to (and a HUGE thank you to Ashley's tips on flirting...y'all should go read them in my comments on the last post, they are fantastic!) but a fun night with nine of my favorite LDS friends in Omaha.
I'm going to Village Inn for FREE PIE tonight with some LDS girlfriends.
And I'm going to hit on old dudes. Really old dudes. And get my picture taken with them.
But, my questions to you are this,
1. HOW do you hit on people? No clue.
and 2. Are really old wrinkly dudes out at Village Inn for Free Pie Wednesday at 9 at night? Cause that is what time we are meeting...
We had to sign release waivers at PE 101 so that we promised not to sue if our kids got hurt.
When Mama sits on her kid, I guess it really could not be pinned on PE 101 anyway...
BUT...why don't they have the ADULTS sign a release waiver???
I mean, a barrel you can roll around in, how can one NOT resist its appeal?
Some toddlers did not think it was so cool that I was stealing the toys, but oh well...he'll get over it, IT'S MAMA'S TURN! (note: this is not my child)
A perfectly lovely pair of size ten shoes. And I will NEVER tell where I got them from!
I made it upright (with a LITTLE help from my friends...I think they just wanted to laugh at me and see if I got stuck.)
And then BAM I was back down. Oh, the boring life of a mommy.
(Disclaimer, if you are the mom I am referring, don't get mad, but at least now you know my feelings)
Hey now, you're an all star, get your game on, go play.
Hey now, you're a rock star....
Only shooting stars break the mold!
my Eiffel Tower glittered and I LOVED it!
Today at a play date, another mother approached me and said she wanted to "pick my brain".
Now, I'm fine with sharing, in fact, I love to brainstorm to come up with great ideas for a mom to use to make a great birthday cake or party or whatever. I don't think I am selfish with my "talents" (though I am in no way "talented"...I mean, check out some of those party blogs if you start thinking that!), sharing ideas and tips with others from time to time. (this is where my title comes into play...just cause i sparkle doesn't mean i'm gold, lol!)
Well, this mom who wanted to pick my brain was wanting to know how I started cake decorating, how I got customers, how I baked cakes, how much did I charge for said cakes, etc, etc. Could she come "watch me do my thing" one day because she was very interested in getting in the business and selling cakes.
See, she is interested in getting into the "cake business" (though I would barely call what I do a business, more of a fun hobby that makes my friends fat) and wanted some tips.
I don't know why but I just felt really frustrated by this. I mean, my mom worked hard to learn how to decorate cakes so that I could one day call her up whenever I wanted to ask questions that are already answered on one of her DVD's or on her blog. She attended many classes, spent tons of money, and baked a lot of cakes to get where she is today. And I, as her daughter, get to steal all her knowledge for free, whenever I want. :) Now, here is the thing...I am not my mother's competition, nor will I ever be. This mom, to me, could potentially become "competition"...I think I would have felt differently if it was a mom talking over a birthday cake for her child or 90 year old great grandmother or something like that.
And that made me clam up and want to escape. I LOVE to share cake baking tips that my mom has shared with me, but I just couldn't bring myself to share some of them. I guess I could direct her to my mother's Start to Finish DVD and give her a fighting change...but another part of me just wants her to figure it out on her own.
Is that just too selfish and ugly of me? There's little I love more in bloggy land then a good tutorial, out there for everyone to see and share and make their own. I love teaching fondant classes and how to use the Cricut or any electronic cutter (SILHOUETTE LOVE!) to decorate cakes like me...but, I'd get paid for that. Not a lot, but still...
I don't know...I'm tired, I've got a cake to finish decorating (it's a 3 cake week this week!), I'm going scrapbooking tonight and tomorrow is a fun day...so my mind is not quite putting into words my frustrations.
Do you think I am being selfish to not want anything to do with this or should I embrace the chance to get to share the skills part of my "talents"? I mean, remember, I've stolen all my skills from my mother. If she offered me money to teach her, would that change the tune of my song? IDK...maybe I am making a mountain out of buttercream mole hill and just need to take a nap.
Anyway, where do you stand/stop on sharing your trade secrets?
Did you know I had an etsy shop? Yep. Full of bow ties, do it yourself iron on kits (to get the appliqued look w/o the price), appliqued tees, birthday banners, and more!
the boys in their matching halloween bow ties!
And I just listed some bow ties for all the boys in your life! (Just $5!) My boys are ADORABLE in them and Brennan told me he got several compliments at church from his. :) That boy is so silly, he loves a compliment...I need to get that under wraps before he gets a big head!
jack had just injured his face in the
spot between his mouth and nose.
And there is also red or white gingerbread men aprons. LOVE them and each of my boys will have one. I am going to put their names under the gingerbread men as well...in a nice green! It's going to be so cute.
So, what do you love to look for on etsy? It's about my favorite spot to spend time just browsing around :)
Last year, or the year before that, or maybe I made it up in my mind, I wrote a post a day about what I was thankful for during the month of November.
This year, due to the taking getting crazy with my cakes and etsy shop, plus having sweet Ms. Mia here each day, I know I won't be able to do that.
But today, I give thanks (and those of you who are my FB friends or belong to MOM, sorry, but I am so grateful I MUST share it again).
I had 5 cakes to bake this morning. 3 marble cakes for a Transformers birthday (I wanted a bit more height for the side decorations so I baked an extra cake) and 2 for a church event. Baking the cakes is not hard to do with the kids around. They play, I use the Kitchenaid, we all drool as we smell the sweet yumminess coming from the kitchen.
Last night, we stopped at Bag-N-Save on the way home from getting Bart after work to pick up some more eggs, because I had 8 at home and needed 10. On a side note, why do so many grocery stores fill the need to promote cheapness? Bag-N-Save is no cheaper then Bakers, Hvyee, Albertson's, or Krogers, yet none of those stores yell "SHOP HERE BECAUSE YOU WILL SAVE MONEY". but I digress.
So, I need 10 eggs. I start baking.
It's a good morning. Ethan and Mia are in the back yard and it brings joy to my heart to watch them play together so well. It is really cute and I should have snuck out and recorded some of their silliness.
Then. IT happens. I need to go potty, so I run upstairs. When I come back down...well, Ethan and Mia were no longer playing in the back yard. Oh, no sir-e. Ethan is standing in an island.
And island of egg.
Broken eggs.
My brand new dozen eggs that cost $1.55 cents at Bag-N-Save eggs. (That sure doesn't seem to save me any money...I think they are cheaper at WM)
Mia is looking on, being old enough to know that taking eggs out of the fridge for no apparent reason and throwing them all over the floor is a bad idea.
So, today, I am grateful that by some miracle (I think it is a miracle because the cake I had left to bake is for the young women at church after all!) two eggs survived the wrath of Ethan...and will live to tell the tale in the story of "The Cake That Was Meant To Be."
And my kitchen floor is grateful for its impromptu bath.
Saturday Night: LDS Girls Night In at Lori's house
games: 1. like hot potato but you had to grab an item of clothing out of a black trash bag when the music stopped and put it on (each person brought a few "odd" items of clothing) 2. "What if..." Write a question (silly or serious) starting with "What if..." then everyone grabs other questions, answers (again silly or serious) then everyone switches again so the questions and answers don't match. Really funny, esp. the ones about my "bits"
food: baked potato bar and LOTS of desserts
Sunday morning: Church
check out the adorable bow ties I made the boys for Halloween Sunday!
Sunday evening: Trick or Treating with friends (Kris and Rebecca and Krewes)
dragon ethan throwing a fit on the ground because i emptied his too heavy pail.
Spider, Dragon, Cowboy, the cutest kids out that night!
Sunday late night: Watch the new AMC t.v. show, "The Walking Dead".
And now I sit in my pajama's, recovering from a weekend FULL of FUN and munching on a few stray pieces of candy.
