Princess Cake

Smiley had decided she wanted to have a "Minnie" themed birthday party.  Just like last year :)

Then she decided she wanted a "Dora" themed party.

Then  "Princess"

Then a "Dora, Minnie Princess" party.

Ultimately she decided on a "princess" party.

I had a feeling this is the route she would take which was good, because I had "pinned" some cute princess cupcakes ~ cute and super easy!

source ~ my pinterest via Jennycookies.com

Then, I made a mistake.

I asked a 2 year old, if she wanted cupcakes or a big cake for her birthday.

Of couse she replied,  "A BIG cake Mama!"

Bring on the internet and the millions of princess cakes to go along with it!

I gave her 5 choices:

#1

Source 

#2

Source ~ Pinterest

#3

Source 

#4

(Source)

#5

(Source)

Well, which one did she pick?

# 2

I admit, #2 was probably my favorite, but I was secretly hoping she would go for #3 or #5 as I figured they would be the easiest :)

And while I liked #2, the tiara wasn't my favorite, so once again, I relied on handy dandy google to see me through!

I ended up making a gum paste tiara using the template from this website.

The process I used was pretty much the same process she used.  

I found an old utensil holder, taped my template onto it, then parchment paper over top of that.

I tinted my gum paste with pink gel color, rolled it into fairly thin "snakes" and placed it over my template. Having 2 templates is a great idea.  One flat on your workspace to guide you and one taped onto your rounded object.  To get the gum paste to stick to the parchment paper, I would dip a small paintbrush into water then paint the water onto the template before sticking the gum paste onto the template ~ it worked fabulously.

When I was finished, I set the whole thing aside to dry.  The longer you give it to dry, the harder it will become (although after awhile the color does begin to fade a bit).  Since my "snakes" were fairly thin, mine dried pretty quickly.  I let it set for about 25 hours before putting it on the cake.

I thought it turned out GRRReat!  (channeling my inner Tony the Tiger)

Now onto the cake

I did 4 layers total

2  ~ 9" round cakes one of each white and chocolate cake

2 ~ 6" round cakes one of each white and chocolate cake

For the white cake, I used a recipe I had seen on pinterest called ~ Wedding Cupcakes.  Obviously I didn't make cupcakes, but I used the same recipe.  It was a really easy recipe ~ basically you doctor up a boxed cake mix.

And the end result was fantastic!  My kids LOVED it!  They said is tasted like yummy marshmallows!  Definitely a recipe I will remake!

The chocolate cake cake was also a box mix.  I doctored it up like I typically do ~ Add follow the directions on the box, but add in and additional egg, 1 small box of instant chocolate pudding and 3/4 cup of sour cream.  The result is a super moist, delish cake!  A favorite at our house.

Between all of the layers and for the "crumb coat" before I put the fondant on, I used my very easy "go to" Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended, then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more (you can add more cream as needed to get the consistency you want)

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I put the cake together with the buttercream ~ alternating layers (and no making fun that they aren't even ~ they still taste good!!!).

Then covered the 9" layers with Marshmallow Fondant (recipe found here)

And then the 6" layers.

Next, I stacked them up.

Colored some of the left over fondant with gel colors and decorated it in a similar pattern to our "idea cake", by cutting out circles and stripes, rolling little balls, and by making more "snaking" to use as trim and flowers.

The result:

A DELICIOUS cake fit for a princess!

Seriously people.... If I can do it ~ so can you! :)

Someday Crafts

Fit for a Princess

Friday was little Smiley's birthday.

She was definitely smiley all.day.long.

Ready for the Princess Party?

A Princess Cake

Fit for a 3 year old Princess

Presents

Crazy Dancing

A request to slow dance with Mom 

Birthday song Sung and Wishes Made

All done while hangin' with family

Wanna know more about the cake?

Come back tomorrow and I will tell you about how it came to be :)

I must have blinked!

Three years ago today, I was at home, alone, and my husband was in another state with Sassy and Action.
I called him early that morning and said, "Hey honey, I think you may want to come home a little earlier than you had planned."

You see, even though I was only 37 weeks pregnant, Smiley was ready to make her entrance.

Here's the story ~ Hubby was going out of state to go on our annual hunting trip.  I had just had a prenatal doctor's appointment a few days earlier and my doctor suggested (or shall I say, told me) that I shouldn't make the trip ~ 5 hours in the car to a town with a population of about 1000.

I obliged.  That weekend, I did LOTS of Christmas shopping, movie watching (I still remember that I watched the Sex in the City movie and Baby Mama) and relaxing.  Sunday night, I decided the crib needed to be put up.  Right then.  So as I was contorting myself into interesting positions in order to set it up all by myself, my brother called.  My brother lives 45 minutes away and we began talking about what hubby and I would do with Sassy and Action when I finally did go into labor.  It was settled, I would call him and he and his wife would try their hardest to help us out.

I ended up having sporadic contractions all night.   I knew.  So in the morning, I made the call to hubby.  Who packed everyone and everything up and began the long drive.  Hoping he would make it in time.  I went and got my eyebrows waxed ~ flinching from the contraction pain and not the eyebrows being ripped out of your skin pain, and dropped off a birthday present. I called my brother and reminded him of the conversation we had had the night before.  He figured out a way to get to my house.

(photo taken around 3 am ~ couldn't sleep,  and between little contractions here and there, I knew we would be meeting our new little one soon, and I didn't have any belly shots yet! Hence a propped up camera, with a flash and artificialy light = AWESOME) 

Soon, hubby and the kids were home and Uncle T arrived.  We took off to the hospital full of nervous excitement ~ would our new little one be a boy or a girl? Healthy?  Would everything go ok? And,  I knew I wasn't going to have an epidural (personal choice) and I was a little nervous about the pain.

I will spare you the lovely details, but in no time we were holding our beautiful baby girl, with hearts overflowing with love and happiness. 

(the only picture of me holding my baby girl in the hospital! 

Totally bums me out that I don't have more!)

I must have blinked, because today, this beautiful baby:

Has become this feisty, best hug giver, sweet,  music lovin', 
little 3 year old.

Happy birthday baby girl!  

I love you more than words could every say!

The story of a girl and her glasses

I have a story to tell, and it's kind of long.  But it's a story I want to tell.  One, I will always remember.
So go grab yourself a little snack and get comfy.
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Ready?

Ok........

Wait, one more thing ~ just a little warning that all of the pics have been scanned in and are not the best of quality ~ but you'll get the picture, I think :)

When She was born, we noticed her eyes right away.  Blue and beautiful.

As she grew older her eye lashes grew longer and her beautiful blue eyes seemed to sparkle.

She was spunky, happy and stubborn.  As she learned to talk the four words we most heard from her were, "I do it MYself"
So, when during her 3 year well-check she didn't want to "test" her eyes I was only mildly surprised.  Her doctor said she looked perfect ~ of picture of health (especially since she had ear tubes put in  when she was 11 months old).  She mentioned to keep an eye on Sassy's eyes and if I noticed anything weird ~ falling down a lot, squinting, or anything suspicious to call.

It was maybe 1 week later when I saw it.

I was putting some snapshots into a photo album.  It was so obvious.  How had I never noticed before?!  In many pictures my beautiful Sassy had 1 red eye and 1 normal eye. Weird.

And some of the time when it didn't turn out red, one eye seemed to be turning in.

We went back to the pediatrician.

We were referred to a pediatric opthamologist.

He is a very good doctor.

He is a very busy doctor.

We waited what felt like forever to see him.

And when we did, the results were shocking.

Sassy was 20/20 in her right eye ~ excellent!  And 20/1000 in her left eye!

That's right, 20/1000

She was diagnosed as having Amblyopia ~ which is basically loss of vision in one eye ~ for some reason, the brain prefers one eye over the other and does not turn the other eye on.  She also had significant crossing of
her left eye.

As a mother how could I not have known this!  I felt like I had failed my daughter.  I remember when her funny "trick" was to cross both of her eyes and then turn one back so she had one crossed eye and one straight eye.  Then she would make them both straight.  THIS WAS NO LONGER FUNNY!  Had I missed an important sign?

Well, we were determined to get her vision back.

She was prescribed glasses (which when on would mostly correct the turning of her left eye):

And had to patch her "good eye" 15 - 20 hours a week

while pretending to be pregnant.....  with a balloon.....

Just kidding!  Just had to see if you were still reading along :)

We had to go back and see the eye doctor every 3 months.

There was gradual improvement in her vision ~ with lots of tears and frustrations along the way.  I mean, really what 3 year old wants to wear a patch over the one eye they can see out of and basically walk around blind?

20/200

20/100

20/80

20/70 ~ stuck for what felt like FOR-E.V.E.R.

Still wearing glasses ~ trying to not scratch the heck out of them....

And still patching ~ and that got harder and harder.

She was busier.

And she was concerned about what her friends and other people might think.

There was lots of talk about "true" friends.

20/60

1st grade.

Eye alignment surgery.

We decided to have this surgery done to align Sassy's eyes.

She was "put under" and I cried.

Waited.

Nervous.

Never happier to see her eye doctor and hear him say she was being transported to recovery and that they would come and get us soon. He told us her surgery went perfectly.  Her eyes were finally straight and "man that girl has some beautiful eyelashes".

I just wanted my girl.

When we finally got to see her, her eyes were quite red and she was super nauseous.  I'll spare you the details and just tell you it was a very long 25 minute drive home.

The first thing she wanted to do when she got home was to look at her eyes.  Red or not the smile on her face when she saw how straight they were was priceless!

20/50

Woot Woot!!!

Straight eyes ~ WITHOUT GLASSES :)

 

Now, Sassy had to patch just enough to at least keep her vision where it was.

Appointments decreased from every 3 months to every 6.

20/40

No more patching, and we only have to see the doctor once a year.  Here she is and here she will stay.

Sassy, her long eyelashes, her beautiful blue/green/gray eyes that are perfect and straight.

Baby it's been long and at times frustrating for all of us, but you've been a champ.  You've come such a long way and I am so proud of you!