Cute Cakes

These are the cakes for my niece's birthday. They were inspired by some cup cakes I saw on Cake Central. (Love that website!) I did three mini cakes instead of cup cakes though. They were super fun to make and pretty easy too. I haven't done fondant for a while. But I found a great new recipe on Cake Central that tastes fantastic!!!! My niece wanted a strawberry cake. I obliged and did a Classic Strawberry Buttercream to go with it. I tinted half the cake batter purple, and swirled it with the pink batter. The cake was pretty inside too!

Hair and Vaseline Don't Mix

Where to start.....Sometime in the last month or so Zander has changed from a kid that would run excitedly to the tub when bath time was mentioned to one who screams in fear and runs away...He also screams bloody murder when having his hair rinsed. I have no idea what happened to cause this change, but I've tried to be extra gentle and reassuring. Until yesterday. My fury at the Vaseline incident may have scarred him for life....

He found a container of Vaseline that I haven't seen or used since he was an infant. And washed my couch cushions with it. And smeared great globs of it in his hair and on his clothes. The clothes are in the trash. So is most of his hair. The cushions have been scrubbed, dried and then turned over. (Thankfully it was the old ugly couch.) Turns out shampoo will not wash the stuff out. The first two photos were taken after scraping as much stuff off as I could and then shampooing twice. I then tried dish soap, thinking, "Hey, this stuff removes baked on grease, it should work on Vaseline." Nope. Tried twice. No improvement. I decided the hair would have to go. So I combed it all up and took the clippers to it. Too greasy. I chopped it mostly off with scissors then went to the tub for more washings. Finally I got it out, but I had to use some Goop Off stuff we had to get paint off the wood floors....(Don't worry, I read the label, and it was safe, I just had to avoid his eyes-which I begrudgedly did.) Then I used the clippers to even the hair out, and then it was back into the tub for one last rinsing. Poor kid, but he got what he deserved!!!! Then I had to scrub the tub of the hair ring caused by the Vaseline now in the water.....sigh.

Love Payton's face in this....although he didn't get the stuff on his clothes or hair, he did help smear the couch and I suspect he opened the jar for Zander.

The new look. Little booger has no right to look so cute!

Easter

Why is it always a surprise what order the pictures come up? This was supposed to be last....but I haven't the inclination to fix it.

No, they aren't real...but they do look pretty good. Good as in realistic. Not good as in I like that sort of thing. He got the sleeves free with a Guitar Hero game.

Easter time. We took advantage of a nice day and dyed eggs outside.

Zander and his egg. He wouldn't let it go.

Pre Easter Egg Hunt. We have an annual one for all the cousins. This year it coincided with my niece's birthday, so we combined it with her birthday party.

Post Hunt, complete with a bunny face. He didn't want to wash it off so he could go to church like that the next day, but I insisted......

Payton and Prayers

Prayer time has become a routine in our family. One of two things happens.

1. Paul: Mom/Kiara/Kegan/I will say prayers tonight.
Payton: NOOOOO!!!! ME say prayers! MY turn!

OR

2. Paul: Payton, its your turn, say prayers please.
Payton: NOOOOO!!!! I say it LAST time.

Seriously those are your only options.... We just can't win.

Hailstorm and other things.

We had a cool and quick hailstorm just now. The hail stones were between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. Zander watched it with me and thought the "balls" were cool. He refused to go outside to look though, even after it was done. Don't blame him, it was very loud for a bit.
It only lasted about one minute. Pretty good coverage for that amount of time, I think.

Zander is officially into the mess making stage. He can open doors, lift toilet seats and climb like there's no tomorrow. Nothing is safe.
Especially when an older brother opens a lotion jar. Not my cheapo lotions mind you. They chose the jar of my expensive stuff. And moisturized my wall. One of my freshly painted walls.... And the piano. Always, ALWAYS choose the scrubable paint!

This was from Kiara's clogging competition in Pocatello. They did great! One team dance got a 1st place and the other a 2nd. Kiara got all 1st places on her five solos. So she has qualified for Nationals in May at Lagoon. Yay!

Her team earned a trophy! The other kids had left already, so these three accepted the trophy. They were super stoked!!!!

They weren't too thrilled with the spider that had taken up residence in their trophy though.....