Adventures in Cake Decorating...

I've begun a new hobby.
Along with scrapbooking, drawing, blogging, walking/jogging........I'm learning cake decorating.
Probably, like scrapbooking, it won't be one I use very often.
I figured with four wonderful blessings, all with birthdays within a three month period, it would be beneficial if I learned to decorate cakes. At least as well as the $30 sheet cakes you get at Walmart. I figure surely I can do that. At least. Maybe.
I actually came to the decision after seeing one too many ugly cakes at parties.
Please, don't get me wrong. If one of the ladies in our church had decorated a cake I would give her props and tell her it's lovely. I'm talking about birthday cakes that people paid money for. That look like a child decorated them. Breaks my heart every time. Cause most of them are expensive cakes.

So, some brave lady friends from church went with me to a cake decorating class. Being the good Hispanic group we are (I know, I look it, right?) we arrived late. Thank goodness, it was a class just for us, so the teacher was understanding (I knew I should have told them 5:30, not 6:00...we were all there at 6:30...*sigh* If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?)

Panamá

Bolivia

We had a blast! So many new things I never knew! I'm sure I could have mucked through it enough and eventually gotten the hang of it, but it was so much easier just to get the information in a two-hour class than to trial and error it at home!! If you haven't had the opportunity to take a class, go to your nearest Michael's or AC Moore and try one of their cake decorating basics classes. It's a skill that, as a Mom (or super Dad), will come in handy. I mean, who knows when you'll have to ice 2 dozen cupcakes for a school party? Or grab a cake from Walmart after the bakery is closed and have to write the inscription yourself?? It's also just fun.

And on Monday, we're making roses!!

What about the Children?

Oliver and I spent the weekend in Atlanta at a NAMB conference geared at the Hispanic Church. I went expecting to sit through more meetings on how to evangelize to the immigrant community, what materials to use, what other churches were doing...Who am I kidding? I really had little expectation, I was just happy to have a little vacay without the blessings (Thanks Maga and Papa!!)

I was blessed with a revelation.
Now, while I speak the language and almost all of my friends do as well, I still feel different. I'm not an immigrant, I don't know what it was like to grow up with want, to move to a new country with a new language and expect to thrive. My husband does.
There is a whole new generation growing up like me. Maybe they speak language. Maybe they (perhaps not I, though someone did ask if I was Puerto Rican) look the part. They don't know the want though, the desperation that had their parents seek a better life. They are, for all intents and purposes, American.

They are the Second Generation. They are my children.
I know the importance of my children learning the language of their father. The difficulty of trying to learn it in school. He sees the importance of learning english and bettering themselves. Most First Generation Parents don't see how important it is to raise their children to learn spanish. They send them to school, where they worry about whether they will be able to keep up and excel, not knowing the language. They may send them to stay with family one summer, so they get an idea of what their parents grew up with, but they push them to speak english. The children do learn English and they learn it well. So well that they no longer use Spanish. They answer their parent's questions in English. Then they grow up, get married (maybe to an american who has no Hispanic connection) and have children.

The Third Generation. My grandchildren.
Who grow up not speaking any spanish except a word here or there to talk with their abuelos. Who know nothing of their grandparents' country.
Who are lost at sea in their grandparents' church.
This information was a revelation. I never really understood how alienated Second and Third Generation Hispanics feel. How my children may one day feel. It's our God-Given responsibility to teach them to serve God. But these children don't really understand the Bible lesson. They may speak the language, but they were never taught to read it. So we begin doing Sunday School in English.
Then they grow up. They go to the main service and are lost.
What do we do now?
Oh, you speak English, find an English-speaking church to go to? Reject them? It's given us as a church much food for thought. In the next 10-15 years, this will be the problem our church faces. Right now our concern is will our children worship, but soon the question will be, Where will our children worship? Will we accomodate them, or remain stubborn, clinging to tradition? I suppose, on some level, it's a question every church faces, even English-speaking ones, but it's one that truly effects immigrant churches. I don't just speak of spanish-speaking, but I know of several other churches, Korean, Filipino, Brazilian...
We are a country of immigrants. It's a valid question.

New Adventures....Again...

Ok, so one of my New Year's resolutions was to get in a better shape than I am...lumpy that is...all my curves are in the wrong places and that is mainly because I am a sedentary creature. Apart from running after children and the usual housework, if I can do it sitting down, I would much prefer to do that.

I don't think I could run to save my life. I know that jumping just isn't going to happen for the same reasons I have to be careful while laughing, coughing and sneezing. Let's not even mention situps. But, we purchased an Xbox with Kinect and a dance game and my hope is to dance the inches away. Right now, I am almost 2x what I am supposed to weigh, which really baffles me. I don't feel that big. I look at pictures of me and think, am I really that big?? I am otherwise very healthy, which is why I want to do something about it now, before deteriorating health gets in the way. I made a promise to myself that I would not ever have to wear elastic. I can still fit into a size 20 jeans, and I am determined to drop at least 2 pants sizes.

So, first off is to limit myself to no more than 2 cups of coffee a day and, other than that, drink water.

Second, be deliberate about what I eat. I have a bad habit of eating something because it's there, not necessarily because I like it or it even tastes good. And I'm a horrible meal planner. So I made some healthy freezer meals that I can take out the night before and defrost for the crockpot. I just have to be careful of portion control. That's my downfall and it's one my children are learning, so it needs to be nipped in the bud.

Third, I will be deliberate about not being sedentary. My laptop is being moved to the counter so that I have to stand to use it. I am going to take the dog for a walk at least 3 times a week. If I don't have the children with me, I am going to park as far as I can from the store(even in the rain). Take the stairs. Get my own drink. You get the idea. Bring. It. On.

King Cake?

Ok, Well, I knew that the recipe was simple. I mean, that's what Sandra Lee is famous for. Unfortunately, it also had ingredients that are no longer made. You can't get breadsticks without garlic on them. That, my friend, is just yucky! So I thought I could do it with the Rustic French Bread. It probably would have worked, if I had paid attention to the stove.
Oops.
I unrolled the bread dough (that was fun) and sprinkled brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans inside(more of all of the above next time), rolled it up and stretched it to make a ring. First of all, it was too small. I think I'll have to slice the dough in half and see if I can't make it bigger. I'll post later on about if it worked out. At this rate, I might as well have just made the dough from scratch. *sigh*

Mardi Gras in March

Tomorrow is the second Friday, which means American Girl! This is our month to take over snack and craft. We picked the new historical girls, Marie-Grace and Cecile. They are based in New Orleans, so we decided that we were going to do Mardi Gras three weeks late. We will make a King Cake (a la Sandra Lee, with a few changes, cause I really don't have time to make from scratch), pralines, and masks for girl and doll. Thanks to the Dollar Tree, I got the masks last month, we just have to put all manner of gaudy sparkly things on them. The doll masks I had to create. Again, thank you Dollar tree. They had foam sheets, very similar to those bought next door at AC Moore, but thinner, which would normally bug me, but in this instance it is preferable, because it's more form-fitting to the doll's face. So I made a pattern out of 3x5 card and an oval hole punch(which I also used on the foam, it was so thin) and cut it out.

The hard part was finding something to hold it to the doll's head. I could use ribbon, but I could just imagine how many times I'd be called upon to tie it. I found some hair pretties, cut them and with a knot in place to keep them from coming free, I stapled them. Depending on the size, you may have to connect them. I used a bead beacuse while it seemed to knot fine to itself, knotting two together kept coming undone. Also, now it's adjustable to a smaller doll's head.

After that you get all the other goodies picked up at the Dollar Tree (I think it's my new favorite store), and decorate.

Ribbons and feathers we had onhand. I got some sequins from AC Moore, because I had a coupon. We used a low heat gluegun to glue the sequins on. I have to go get some round ones for tomorrow...little ones...just to drive the moms crazy. I do have one complaint...the glitter glue never dried. It's been four hours and it is still as wet as when I put it on! So I think we'll try real glitter. Maybe. Or puffy paint. Maybe just some more sequins.

Daddy-Daughter Dance 2012

I really love that my husband loves his girls like princesses. Saturday night was our Homeschool Association's Daddy-Daughter Dance and Daddy took the two oldest to dance the night away. And they did. I went along to serve in the kitchen like a wench, but I got to sneak out and take a peek as I was refilling the food tables. And, of course, I got in a few pictures. Our Princess adores her Daddy.

Our Fairy kept coming to the kitchen to give me a byplay of the evening.

Addictions...

Ok, my new addiction is Pinterest. If you haven't been on Pinterest, you're missing out on a plethora of such fantastic ideas that after ten minutes you'll feel like SuperWoman, or June Cleaver, or both. You'll be able to conquer the world with homemade foot scrub and frozen crockpot meals for a month. Oh, and don't forget the five million ways to use egg cartons...never forget the egg cartons...
That being said, you really find some creative ideas(and other interesting stuff), especially DIY, which appeals to me. I've gotten several ideas toward the organization of the girls' room. Ideas using mostly stuff I already have on hand! Big plus! Such as the piles and piles of doll clothes. We tried an over the door shoe holder. All that did was test the strength of plastic. So I found an idea to make a holder of doll clothes.

At least, it does so in a little better organized manner (which Our Princess likes) without wrinkling everything(Which Our Princess also likes). Each outfit has half a bag, though Pink and Green Mama only has like 6-8 bags per crate and I have 25 crammed into one. I have to go get another crate, so that they come out and go back easily, so that Our Fairy has no excuses. One can hope.

Maybe I'll turn the shoe holder into an herb garden.

Well, THAT was easy!!

Last week I went on our semi-annual undie run and decided to pick up some training pants for Our Oso. Because of his speech development, I wasn't planning on starting until Summertime, just because I didn't think he was ready. I think, perhaps, I wasn't ready!! Anyways, I picked out the Cars undies and he found them in the bags and decided he liked them better than his diaper. So he took his diaper off and put them on. He had a day of accidents while he realized he couldn't just go anywhere anymore and I gave him a treat(Doritos, like I said, I wasn't prepared to start yet) every 15-20 min. when I checked to see if he was still "clean and dry." I gave him a bunch every time he went in the potty and the next thing I knew I was walking past the bathroom and he was in there doing his thing, no fanfare, nothing. He does like to flush the toilet, a lot. He sits there, lets a little dribble in, then flushes...lets a little more dribble in, flushes again. Now I have to teach him about water conservation...

Mother Son Date Knight

I had a date tonight to get new shoes and have dinner at Chick-Fi-La. It was great! My date didn't talk much, and kept leaving me to hit the playground, but it was a special night. They cordoned off a section of the restaurant and put tablecloths on the table. They had shields on the table to decorate. They handed out roses to the Mamas and swords to the boys. They seated us at a table and took our orders. Our Oso probably didn't think it was all that (except the sword, the sword was all that and a bag of beans), but it was special for me to spend time with him. We don't get to spend time with just he and I very often. I can't wait until they do it again!!