Oh My it's Cold

I know many places in the US have been struck with crazy cold temperatures, and the state I live in is one of those. 

I saw a little blurb on Facebook yesterday that stated my state was currently colder than Mount Everest, Antartica and Siberia.  

Friends, it is cold here! 

My kids haven't had school yet this week  ~ 3 snow/too cold to go days so far and tomorrow is up in the air. Not that they are complaining!

And breaking news, I just got a phone alert that states we have now hit 57 degrees below zero wind chill. Brrrr......

Anyway, this past weekend my hubby's parents drove 4 1/2 hours to come visit and celebrate Jackson's 15th birthday (which was last week).  

While it wasn't quite as cold as today and yesterday have been, it was still quite cold, but we got out and had some fun anyway.

(chocolate cake on his actual birthday ~ his favorite since he was 7!)

(carrot cake to celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma)

They arrived Friday night and we spent some time catching up and playing cards.  I was completely unsuccessful in my quest to win and ended up being the biggest loser of the night.  Hopefully next time I will be able to turn my luck around!

Saturday morning after I made a yummy egg bake via this easy recipe I found on Pinterest, Hannah and I jumped in the car for a 40 minute drive to a softball photoshoot.  She was one of two players selected from her varsity softball team to be a "featured" player for a high school sports publication.

When we were finished with that we grabbed the rest of the family and headed to our local Top Golf facility to do a little golfing.  I'm not quite sure what the actual temperature was when we were there but since the high was only 10 degrees on Saturday, it was chilly. Sitting under the heat features did make it mostly comfortable.  

After that we warmed up at home, went to mass, out to dinner at Jackson's requested restaurant ~ Red Robin (that kid loves a good burger) then bowling.  I sat out of bowling as I tweaked my arch while working out and wasn't able to put a whole lot of pressure on it. It was fun watching a couple of good games of boys vs girls. Oh, and the girls won!

Sunday brought one more amazing breakfast bake via Pinterest. Biscuits and gravy casserole, another one of Jackson's favorites! Then off to watch Hannah play a couple of softball games in a sports dome. -9 degrees! So glad she was playing inside!

When those were over my in-laws headed for home and we had a nice, relaxing Sunday awaiting the snow and cold that was destine to come.

Hope you are staying warm and enjoying the one's you love!

~Wendy

Another Teenager in the House!

Action has been talking about this day for 2 1/2 years.

I don't know why, but when Sassy turned 13, back in 2014, I thought it would be fun to get her 13 presents ~ a couple bigger items and a bunch of little items: lotions, nail polish, fun socks, you know 13 year old girly stuff.  

What I didn't realize was, I was creating a new tradition.  One that Action couldn't wait for.  Thirteen presents on your 13th birthday! Oh, the anticipation!

Fast forward to Sunday January 22nd.  Oooh the air was abuzz with excitement.  Action came down from his bedroom in the morning after a good nights sleep to see that there were indeed 13 presents lined up in front of the fireplace just waiting for him.  However, upon further counting, he was bummed to see there were actually only 12.  I had to explain to him that the headphones he "needed" a few days earlier because his older ones had broken were actually part of the 13 (*wink *wink ~ more to come later!) gifts.

No worries, he was still excited!

Now he just had to wait until his Dad and Sassy got home from softball practice........

When they finally got home, present opening began:

He received:
A Book Light
Nerf Gun Darts
Body Spray
Body Wash
Deodorant
Twix Candy
A DVD
A Duvet
A Duvet Cover (time to redo his room ~ an update the decor he'd had since he was 2)
A Book
New Wall Art
And
Sneakly I wrapped presents 12 and 13 together in a one, so it looked like he was only getting 12 presents!  #12 was his first cell phone and #13 was a case for his phone.

Needless to say he was excited!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and when we got home it was time for CAKE!

True to form, he requested his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (RECIPE HERE ~ with update pictures!).

A week later Grandpa and Grandma were able to make the 4 1/2 hour drive to visit.  Sassy had a volleyball tournament, but we still found time to celebrate our newest 13 year old.  This time the requested dessert was cheesecake ~ yummy!

(I think 13yr old stayed up too late the night before ~ he looks a bit sleepy in this picture!)

But that wasn't all!  Just last weekend, Action had a couple of buddies over to celebrate as well!  They went to an indoor paintball facility for a few hours, came back to our house to have  ~ you guessed it ~ CAKE, chocolate cake (although in cupcake form), and spent the night.

I think this kid of mine had a good time celebrating his 13th birthday!

Chocolate Chocolate Cake

I have been doctoring store bought cake mix for a few years now ~ adding in sour cream and dry pudding mix mostly (see here and here).  

And this chocolate cake is no different.

This is Actions favorite cake ~ he has requested for 3 years for his birthday and I am happy to make it for him.  

(Action is so little in this picture!  Cute little 9yr old ~ Check him out here with his chocolate cake at the age of 13!)

Cake:

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 small package (3.9oz) instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1 cup (8oz) sour cream (I use regular sour cream ~ it's dessert after all)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup canola oil
4 oz semisweet chocolate, melted

* Mix all of the ingredients together.  Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, medium for about 2 minutes.  The batter will be thick.
* Pour batter evenly into two greased 9" round cake pans  (I also line the bottom of the pans with a
   sheet of parchment paper cut to size.)
*Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes ~ test for doneness with a toothpick
* Cool in pans for 10-15 minutes, remove cakes from pans and place on cooling racks to cool
   completely.

You can also make cupcakes ~ the recipe does make a thick batter so plan on scooping it into your muffin tins.  I use paper liners.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Frosting:

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened, baking cocoa
1/2 cup milk, room temperature

* Beat the butter, powdered sugar and cocoa until mixed.  Then add milk, beat until smooth.

Cake Assembly:

Place one of the cakes on a plate.
Top with frosting.
Place 2nd cake on top of the frosting layer.
Use remaining frosting to coat the top and sides of the top and sides of the cakes.

Serve:  

Cut into slices and serve with vanilla ice cream, which in my opinion is the perfect compliment for all of that chocolate.  Oh and top with strawberries, because having a little fruit with this delicious chocolate cake makes it healthy.......right?

 or

Enjoy!!!

Ordinary Miracles (2)

It's Monday and once again, I'm asking you to look for and tell me some of the Ordinary Miracles in your life.
Because, what if, we change the way we look at the ordinary things, people and events in our lives.  What if we see all of our day to day events as miracles? What about the things and people we see every day?  How would our perspective change if we chose to see our ordinary days as miracles that we should find wonder in and be thankful for.

Last week, I witnessed the ordinary miracle of celebrating a 10 year olds birthday:

And I watched his little sister smile and immerse herself in the art of licking chocolate birthday cake batter off of the beaters. 

Every Monday, lets come together and share about the ordinary in our lives that we have chosen to see differently, as miracles..... Ordinary Miracles.  After all, that is what my blog, my minuscule little corner of the www is suppose to be all about ~ finding the beauty every day, even if it doesn't look/feel beautiful.

Leave a comment and tell us, What Ordinary Miracles have you witnessed lately?

Oh, and tomorrow ~ the recipe for Action's FAVORITE chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

5th Birthday Cake

Perhaps you already know this, but last week Smiley turned 5 (no?  click on the link to see some pics).  As a family we celebrated her birthday quietly by driving 4 1/2 hours in the car back to our home from Great Grandma's house after a fun weekend of family time and a bit of pheasant hunting.  She chose where we stopped for lunch ~ Subway ~ and opened presents when we arrived back home.

We tend to not do "friend" birthday parties until the kids are a bit older but since both mine and hubby's families mostly live in different states, large family parties tend to not happen either.  However, this year, my parents were able to come up for a visit and my brother and his family were able to come down.  So, a small party was planned.  And you can't celebrate a birthday without a birthday cake.  However, when you are five, it can be very difficult to decide on what kind of cake you want.  After going through the typical character cake ideas... Dora, Princesses (which I made for her 3rd birthday), Doc McStuffins and Fairies, Smiley determined she wanted a rainbow cake.

Whoo Hooo!  I was excited :)

So, we got baking!

I started with 2 boxes of white cake mix ~ disregarding the box instructions, I doctored them up by mixing them with (use 1/2 of these amounts for only 1 box of cake mix):
1 C Vegetable oil
1 Cup Water
16 oz sour cream
8 eggs
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding mix

Once the batter was throughly mixed, I:

• Split the batter evenly (about 1 3/4 cup of batter per cake) into 6 different bowls.
• Added a different rainbow color of food coloring to each bowl.  I used a small blob of Wilton's  concentrated gel icing color to each bowl (I used no taste - red, orange, yellow, kelly green, blue and purple).
• Mixed the coloring into the batter very well.
• Poured the batter into 6 different, greased (I also line the bottom of my pans with parchment paper cut to size)  8" or 9" round baking pans (lets be honest, I only have 2 pans, so I repeated this step 3 times)

• Baked each cake about 18 minutes at 350°
• Removed from the oven, cooled about 5 minutes in the pan then removed from the pan to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
• Once they were cool, I wrapped them in Saran wrap and stored the in the fridge until the next day when I was ready to frost and assemble the cake.

Fast forward to the next day:

I made up some frosting:

3 sticks softened, unsalted butter
3 8oz packages softened, cream cheese
3 lbs confectioners sugar
* Using my stand mixer, I mix the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, then gradually add the confectioners sugar.

*I left my frosting white (actually off white in color due to the color of the butter) as I wanted the inside of the cake to be the star.

Time to assemble:

• I started by leveling each cake ~ using a serrated knife, I sort of shaved the top of each cake to make sure they were straight across and not rounded/raised in the middle.
•Then I began to stack and layer:  (I wanted this cake to go the "typical" rainbow route)   purple - frosting - blue - frosting - green - frosting - yellow - frosting - orange - frosting - red then frosting across the top and down the sides of the cake.

I had purchased some long, stick like sparkle candles as well as a tall #5 candle, but I thought I needed more decor for the top of the cake.  I headed to my craft room and pulled out some fun paper.  Using the colors of the rainbow, I created a bunting to stick into the top.  I did this by cutting the paper into a diamond shapes, then folded and glued each one over a piece of black string to create a double sided flag.  I attached the ends of the string to 2 bamboo skewers and stuck them into the top of the cake.  Ta dah ~ a super simple cake decoration.

I also added some colorful sprinkles to the top of the cake for a little hint of color as well.

We brought the cake out, sang happy birthday to Smiley, let her blow out the candles, and got ready to enjoy a little cake and ice cream.

Our guests were very surprised to see that the inside of Smiley's plain looking birthday cake was not so plain at all, it was a beautiful rainbow of color.

And me, I had fun telling everyone to  "Taste the Rainbow"

1 week ago

One week ago, I was spending my days on the beach:  

walks, drinks, sandcastles, ocean water, cool white sand, giggles, sun, friends.... ah.......

And while I have so many pictures to share about our vacation, 

today (a week late) I want to wish my beautiful girl a happy, happy 12th birthday.

She is:

An athlete

Smart, Persistant and Determined

Loving, Helpful and Considerate

Happy and a Friend to Many

and a lover of life

Happy Happy 12th Birthday beautiful girl!

and Hubby whose b-day is one day after Sassy's

(and that cake?  It's their favorite so 

I made it when we got home from vacation ~ on Easter Sunday.  

You can find the recipe here )

Let's hear it for the boy.....

Today is Action's 9th b-day!

My Little Man

who is so handsome and tried to arrive 9 weeks early

But ended up coming only 1 week early

This guy, my son,

Whose smile is contagious

Who is goofy

and my personal Rock Star

Happy Happy 9th birthday my sweet boy!