LEAH'S BIRTHDAY . . . oh yeah, and steve's

Has it really already been a year (plus a month!?!)? Sheesh . . . time seems to be blowing right by me. Leah loved her first birthday party.
For her, it's all about the food.

It's traditional for the birthday girl (or boy) to get her own cake on her first birthday.

Note to self: next time(?), don't decorate the cake with choking hazards.

It does not make for a happy birthday girl when you have to keep taking her cake away to clear off dangerous candies.

Even with the choke-able Sixlets distracting her, she made a pretty good dent in her cake.

Steve thought maybe she'd had enough; Leah vociferously disagreed.

Thanks Sam . . . way to help a girl out!

Even though she's only a year old, she's very good at communicating her needs. See how she clearly says, "I'm done! NOW!!"

Bath time! (another first birthday tradition)

(Please look past the built up soap scum and grime. I had such good intentions when I put that scrub brush there.)

It's hard to believe these two are related. Leah's eyes are so dark, you can hardly see the pupils. Sam . . . well Sam is almost see-through.

Since Leah had her own cake, and it was Steve's birthday, too, I had to make a 2nd cake for the rest of the party. I found the recipe for Chocolate "Peanut Butter Cup" Cake on Bakerella's website.

This cake is to die for, no exaggeration!!! The only thing I did differently was to double the recipe and bake it in 3 10-inch cake pans. We had lots of people to feed. And the leftover batter made awesome cupcakes.

Warning: Be sure to have plenty of milk on hand before eating this cake.

16 Layer Cake for a 16th Birthday on the 16th

A few months ago, I was looking at Bakerella's site with Anna, and we came across her 14-Layer Cake. Anna immediately and enthusiastically said we should make it for her 16th birthday, but with 16 layers. I, in my postpartum and ongoing mental fog, agreed. Honestly, I didn't think the day could possibly come, at least not as quickly as it did. I'm not old enough to have a 16-year-old! Aaaack! I remember too well being 16 and all the raging hormones and emotions that went with it. I'm not ready!!

Of course, the day came. I wasn't sure I'd be able to muster the time or will or ability to get this cake done. I talked to Anna about it, and she, in her usual sweet and unselfish way, told me, "That's okay. You don't have to make it. Just make a sheet cake. That'll be fine." That sealed it - how could I possibly not at least make the effort for such a sweetheart?!? But I knew I couldn't do it alone.

I enlisted the help of the other Anna. (To avoid confusion, the other Anna will henceforth be referred to as Lanna (little Anna) and my Anna will be referred to as Banna (big Anna).

We started with 16 disposable cake pans. Banna and Lanna helped cut parchment paper circles and grease and flour the pans. I'd never used parchment paper before - I always just resorted to begging and pleading to get my cakes to dump out in one piece. Parchment paper works much better.

We spread just over 1/2 cup of cake batter in each pan. That was maybe the hardest part. The parchment paper wanted to slide all over the place.

I was able to bake them 4 at a time for about 12 minutes per batch, so it took less than an hour to bake them all. That's no worse than making cookies. Then we dumped the cakes out of the pans, stacked them up with Saran Wrap between each layer, and stuck them in the freezer. FREEZING BEFORE ASSEMBLING WAS VERY HELPFUL!

The next morning, I made the chocolate sauce to go between the layers. I could have used a bigger pan - it expands a bit while it's boiling. Thank you, Shauna, for your help with this part. It was so yummy - a religious experience all on its own!!

We all got to sample it, and although we all wanted to, only one of us kept screaming for more.

It was Banna's job to keep the screamer happy with mouthfuls of chocolate sauce.

She had mixed success and ended up with chocolate smeared all over her cute white shirt.

Lanna pulled a few layers out of the freezer at a time and got them ready for me to sculpt. Some of them were a little uneven or a little thicker than the others, so I used a long serrated knife to level them out. That's why the freezing was so important. It made them much much easier to sculpt.

Lanna and I kept stacking and sculpting and drizzling, . . .

. . . trying to build a stack that didn't lean too far in any one direction . . .

. . . until, finally, we had 16 layers.

I poured the rest of the chocolate sauce over the top of the cake and spread it up and down the sides. I liked the way it looked at this point, but Banna wanted to follow Bakerella's suggestion to hide all the layers. That way, slicing into it would be a yummy surprise for all the cake-eating guests.

So I iced the cake with chocolate buttercream icing. I put in 16 tall candles, . . .

. . . lit the candles, . . .

. . . and we sang to Banna. We sang our little hearts out.

Notice the 4 sympathetic blows going on behind her.

Banna cut the cake.

Serving it up was touch and go until we figured out how to use my wide, straight-edged scraper to prop each piece against so nothing toppled.

Isn't that a pretty cake!?!

It was so yummy and moist. And it was fun to make!! It took some effort, but I'll definitely make it again.

With All This Loveliness . . . the House and Two Step

Do we really have to go home in just a few days? I could stay here forever . . .

. . . and watch the sunset

. . . and hang out with my family

. . . and catch geckos (oh wait, that wasn't me)

The sunsets from up on the hill overlooking the ocean are spectacular.

Do we really have to go home?

I could stay here forever.

Place of Refuge (Two-Step)

This is a fun beach for us.

The tide pools are shallow and warm for the babies.

There are plenty of salt water saturated lava rocks to chew on.

It's not just babies who like the tide pools - I'm not sure about the salty rocks, though.

Jumping in from the two steps is easy and fun.

The snorkeling is awesome. What a great variety of beautiful sea life! One friendly diver even wrote "ALOHA" on the bottom of the ocean with cinder blocks.

Getting out on the steps is almost as easy as getting in.

All the family is having fun together - hardly any fighting. Of course, it helps that I told my kids if they fight with each other, they will only be allowed to play with each other (no cousins).

When Sam got here, he got right to work.

He's working on his plumber skills.

Smiling for the camera looks so painful. Cheese.

The pool is huge, 3 or 4 times the length of a normal pool - it has no deep end, but it's deep enough to swim in and still touch bottom the whole way across.

The yard is full of all sorts of flowers and fruit trees.

like coconuts

and avocados and mangos

and lots of giant hibiscus

Yep, I'd be happy to stay here forever.

California Trip Part 2

Our trip to California was a little different than usual. The main purpose was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. But, of course, we also had a great time visiting with cousins. What made it so different was that the cousins were all still in school the whole time we were there. That actually made it really fun for me. The kids got to see all their cousins after school, but then I got to have them with me part of the time, too. Usually, I hardly get to see my own kids when we're there because I don't want to pull them away from their cousins who they don't get to see very often.

Leah and Michael

Playing in the park

Swinging

and swinging - Leah couldn't get enough.

climbing

digging

all aboard

playing on the train

Leah and Will hanging with Scott

So much fun is exhausting, especially if you're also working hard as a handyman.

And this trip got us even more excited for our next trip . . . to Hawaii. We're there now - pictures soon.

California Trip Part 1 (Martha's Birthday)

Before I start my post, I just want to issue a formal apology to Holly for letting over a month lapse since my last post. I will try to do better for you.

We just got home from a fun trip to California. Our main reason for going was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. It's always hard to think of a gift for my mom that she will really love. This year, though, we had such a killer gift for her that I absolutely had to be there when we gave it to her.

We almost surprised her by showing up at her door unannounced but decided a couple of days before we left that it would be a bit much to drop a family of 8 on her without any warning. We got there on Saturday and started a week long celebration with barbecues, pool parties, lunches, dinners and lots of family. With so many people's schedules to take into account, sometimes you have to have several parties so that everyone can be included. It was awesome!

Amy comes up with the best gifts. She is my hero.

Zach, Timmy and Lily's 60 favorite things about Nana for her 60th birthday

The best day was the family dinner the Friday night after her birthday. Rich and Becky did surprise her by flying in that afternoon and showing up at the restaurant.

It's so fun to make Martha cry.

This was also the night we gave her her big group gift.

It's so exciting - what could it be? Something out of this world from Anthropologie maybe?

She knows it's something good. She just doesn't know how good . . .

. . . and that it's been in the works for over 2 years.

Uh-oh. Here come the waterworks.

Steaming up

Better lose the glasses

You started working on this when!?!

Yep, over 2 years ago with Amy as the whip hand.

Thank you so much Amy - it never would have happened without you.

Yes, I know it's blurry, but it's the only picture I have that shows most of the group.

Two years in the planning and executing, with a final scramble in the last couple months to get it done, and Martha has a quilt made by all her daughters and embroidered with the whole family's signatures. It was an awesome birthday week!

Rock On

Where did Sam learn to rock out laying on his back 80's rocker style? Does Sponge Bob do that?

I desperately need a real video camera. The phone cam just doesn't cut it. Although the poor quality at least somewhat disguises the mess of the room.

Christmas Cookies

Yes, I realize it's May. But I found these as I was going through the past few months' pictures and realized I'd never posted them. This is one of my absolute favorite Christmas activities.

Christmas Cookie Decorating Ed***n Style
(Do-Rags Optional)

We start with Nana's awesome rolled sugar cookies. She makes them thin and crisp. Then we dip them in a thin layer of white or pale green icing. Nana's buttercream icing that she makes with browned butter is AWESOME! Let them dry.

Then they're ready to decorate. We put every color of icing we can come up with into little squeeze bottles. The icing is mixed on the thin side so it will easily squeeze out of the bottles.

Hands are always washed first. Does it do any good? Probably not with all the finger-licking going on.

Intense concentration is a must.

The competition is fierce.

Everyone is trying to one-up the cousin next to him/her.

Thin cookies = thin frosting = thin participants?? Maybe not.

Anna is the most fun for me to watch.

She takes her time and comes up with the most detailed designs.

She's an artist through and through.

Some of this year's favorites:

Look at all that detail! Squeeze bottles are by far the best cookie decorating tool there is.

Edible art is the best. Especially when made with black icing!

Yummy!

Thank you, Melissa, for the awesome pictures!

Puerto Vallarta

Travelling is stressful. Travelling with a baby is extra stressful. So imagine my level of panic when, the day before we were to leave, I opened the dryer to find mine and Leah's passports mixed in with the towels looking like this.

Add to that a missed flight and full blown PMS, and what do you get? Complete emotional meltdown.

It's a good thing we had such a beautiful home and beach to speed the recovery process.

Leah can't wait to get out into the sunshine and pool . . .

and relax in the hammock overlooking the ocean . . .

(Poor Amy's a third wheel)

and watch the beautiful sunset.

In spite of the rocky start and the swine flu media event that got into full swing just as we arrived, we had a great time!

Spring is Busting Out All Over

It's hard to believe we had 4 inches of snow on the ground less than a week ago when I look out my window and see this . . .

and this . . .

and this . . .

Spring is busting out all over.

Ahhh, Spring Break

First day of Spring Break, and we already have a broken trampoline and injuries. **Warning: Semi-graphic picture ahead.**

Poor sad Sam.

Abby got hurt, too, but at least her injury didn't warrant pictures. Give me strength.

On the plus side, at least I'm getting lots of work out of my overflowing household. They're gonna be thrilled for school to start again!