New Cast Day!

Logan had an appointment this morning to get his new short cast. I just kept him home from school on advice from his teacher. He would have only been there a short while and he wasn't missing anything. I realized as we were leaving that I had just barely enough gas and no time to stop. Of course. Robert told me to keep it under 60mph (not easy on the interstate!) and we made it there just fine thankfully. Logan was fine today. He went with the nurse easily to get x-rayed. The Dr came in and told him all they had left was hot pink casts and Logan wasn't having that! LOL

I forgot my camera today (I think I forgot my brain too) so all of these are from my phone.

Waiting to go get x-rayed again. Bella wasn't happy.


The sun was really bright! Here he's getting the old cast sawed off. He got to keep it.




Re-wrapping his arm in Gore Tex.


He picked a dark blue color for this cast. His arm is a bit bruised at the top now and the skin is peely but should be good in a week. He'll have this cast on for another 4 weeks.


After the Ortho visit we decided to head over to the zoo. What a gorgeous day! Everyone was starving so we stopped for lunch first at the Garden Grille just inside the zoo. Robert hated his veggie burger. I don't remember him complaining the last time he went so maybe they changed it. Everything else was okay. I wish I had remembered to bring my 20% off coupon though (one more thing I forgot)!

The Cloudy Leopard was actually out!


*Tamani* (the baby) was feeling rather mischevious today. She kept messing with (?) Mama. So cute though!!!


Here's my own baby. She liked sitting in the water.


She didn't like when someone ran past her and splashed her though.


Goofy boy


Happy to get all warmed up.


Brrrr. It wasn't cold at all outside but the water was really cool.


That was the end of our day. It was close to dinner time so we packed up and left after the water fun. Back to school tomorrow!

KMart Double Coupon Days!

I emailed Kmart customer service to verify and Florida stores will do double coupons April 18th- April 25th, 2009. I'm waiting to find out which stores are participating.

I took advantage of this a few months ago buying Pampers. I got $4 off each package! At that time it was double coupons up to $4 off ($2 coupons).

New 'Do

I couldn't get the colors to come out right in my photo program(took them in the bathroom mirror- no flash) so I changed them to B&W. I did get my hair colored though.

Lookie!!

It's cooommming!! I was driving past last week (on my way home from the cake supply store) and snapped these. Our new store opens May 6th!

XBox 360 cake

I don't think I did a great job. It looked differently in my head than how it came out and I definately will do things differently next time BUT the birthday guy loved it and so did all his friends and family. I got a lot of compliments on it and was told how much it really looked like an xbox plus everyone loved the taste so that's what counts, right?

The controller is made from rice krispie treats (see the pan in the back?). It's covered in buttercream (real) and fondant (which tasted pretty good btw). The knobs are rolos I cut in half and covered. The A, B, Y, X buttons are M&Ms upside down. I wrote the letters on them with edible food markers. The cake was yellow boxed cake (x 2), a box of pound cake and 1 package instant pudding powder (pound cake and pudding help make it more dense for carving) with buttercream frosting, pineapple preserves and fondant. I used silver luster dust to make the silver metallic details and edible markers for the writing. All the air holes were made from poking a food thermometer into the fondant. I won't go into my mistakes but I'm sure you can see them. LOL This is only my 2nd time working with fondant though so I won't beat myself up too much.

Spring Break Is No Fun

It's Spring Break here. I haven't blogged much so you must be wondering what we've been up to. Let me tell you. Nothing, nada, zip. I've had at least 2 kids sick all week long. Bella's been super cranky and has had no appetite until today (teething perhaps?). Ian got sick Tuesday night so I had to keep him home Wednesday of course. We missed our annual Easter Egg hunt/party with our playgroup as well. Partly because Logan wouldn't be able to play with his friends on the playground due to his cast but mostly because Ian was sick.

I finally got everyone out of the house today. No, not a fun trip. I volunteered to make my BIL's birthday cake for his party on Saturday so I had to go on a fondant run. The closest place that doesn't carry the yucky Wilton brand is a cake shop/supply store about 40min from me. Yes I could have made it but I was scared to. I read a lot of mixed reviews on the recipes. Bella was so cranky when we left that I came straight home afterwards and attempted to put her down for a nap. Yeah right. Ian took one though despite the fact he told me he wasn't tired. When he woke up I packed everyone up to go to Micheal's for more supplies. Once again Bella was Ms Crankypants. I gave up the idea of hitting Publix and came home yet again. Thankfully I was able to get out and go to Publix by myself once dh got home from work. And then I had to make a second run when I forgot key ingredients. Ugh.

Want to know what I'm making that I'm driving all over town for? An Xbox 360 cake with controller. Ambitious I know! I think I can pull it off though- or at least I hope so! I baked the cakes tonight and they are chilling. I made the rice krispy treats and shaped my controller and it's chilling in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll make some buttercream, trim and fill my cakes with buttercream and pineapple preserves and freeze the cake for a bit before carving it. Then I just need to roll out my fondant, cover the cake and controller and decorate it. Send me some good cake decorating ~~vibes~~. I need them! This cake has to be ready to go by 2:30pm Saturday afternoon! Now I know why cakes cost so much thru a small bakery. It isn't cheap to make one and it's time consuming! I know my BIL will appreciate the effort though and hopefully everyone will enjoy it. I'll take pics and post them once I'm done.

As for Spring Break, it's basically over and there's nothing much I can do about it. We'll do something on Sunday I'm sure and then next week while dh is on vacation we'll do something too. Maybe we'll hit the zoo after Logan gets out of school one day. Or go over to Downtown Disney. Or maybe we'll just veg and wait for summer break. ;)

Birthday Party Time!

Finally. Today was the day. I was running around like a crazy person this morning. I had to decorate the cake and smash cake, run to the store to have the balloons blown up, go to Publix and get the drinks and ice and stop in Walgreens to pick up the photos for the favors since our printer didn't have the right ink last night. I got home and people were just getting here so I got started a wee bit late. I'm so glad I got all the baking done and the frosting made yesterday.

Everything went well though. Bella looked cute as a button in her birthday dress. We had a simple spread- make your own sandwiches and chips and dip. That's it. I bought 2 loaves of whole wheat bread and dh didn't think people would like it. I went ahead and grabbed a loaf of white at the store this morning. Guess what went first? Yep, the wheat. Now I have to run to Costco again to get more for our family! I made fresh onion and ranch dips too. Yum! I barely got any they went so fast. Note to self- buy more food for the next birthday party!



I got a ton of compliments on my desserts. I made a vanilla Giant Cupcake with fresh strawberry frosting for the general party goers and a mini one for Bella's smash cake. I also made Bakerella's cupcake pops in chocolate. Time consuming they were but so worth it! They came out so cute!

Giant cupcake- REAL strawberry frosting. The cupcake liner is actually some vellum paper.

See all the bits of strawberry in there? Yum!





Bella's appetite has been off the last two days. She barely ate anything yesterday and only had a banana today and a few tiny bites of other stuff. Needless to say she didn't do a lot of smashing or eating her smash cake. Oh well. We had pics from her actual birthday of her enjoying a cupcake. I made her cupcake smash cake from scratch. It's this recipe from Martha Stewart. The frosting is from that recipe as well. It was good! For her high chair decor I bought a simple chocolate brown towel to cover the usual navy blue cover and made her a pink tutu. She looks so tiny still in her chair.




This give you a better idea of just how big the *mini* giant cupcake is.


My niece enjoying a cupcake pop.


I love this photo of her. I think it will go up on our wall.


One of MY favorite gifts of the day. My dear sweet friend Julie knitted Bella some cupcakes!! How sweet are they?!




Bella seemed very taken with her Tinkerbell card. That's my girl! ;) I love Tink!


Pulling Minnie Mouse (not a gift) out of her new stroller/walker.


Of course you know babies, they'd much rather play with the wrapping paper and packaging than the actual toy!


Her balloons. Did you know Party City will blow them up for you for a nominal fee? It was cheaper than buying a helium tank myself!


The party favors. The pictures and holders were for each family to take home and the goodie bags for each kid. There were 3 *flavors* of photo holder although only 2 are pictured (chocolate is missing). Goodie bags had Hershey Kisses (pink from Valentines), a cupcake bookmark, cupcake birthday stickers and a Krazy Straw.


Her party was a huge success. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Bella missed her afternoon nap so she was exhausted tonight. I still can't believe it's been a year since she was born. Time seems to go by so quickly. Thank you to all my friends and family who came today. Love you all!!

Birthday Photo Shoot

Talk about exhausting. Trying to take a photo of a one year old is like trying to catch a shooting star. Bella is just quick! I'd stand her up and by the time I was 2 ft from her she'd be crawling back to me. I had to wait for dh's help and it was still a tough job. Here are a few of our outtakes.

Pulling out her bow


I'm all up in your face!


Crawling away


Chillin' on da balloon


Reeaach


Phew. All this picture taking makes a girl thirsty!


Cutie pie


ET impression? No idea what this face was.


Oopsie!


Vogue. Work it!


No more pictures!


Our favorite of the bunch.

Wow

(A couple of people have commented that she doesn't know about expiration dates but I'm 99% sure I emailed her once before about this carseat and flagged it and it's now back up again. That's okay, I'll just keep flagging it.)

I'm thinking if you know the mfg date of a carseat and that it even has a sticker on it then you should know when the seat EXPIRES. Check out the ad on Craigslist I just flagged.

ONLY needs a new seat cover. The elastic is stretched out and why I recommend a new cover. You can buy Britax seat covers on ebay for $30-40. Aside from the seat cover, excellent safety rated car seat and never in an accident. Mfg Date is Nov 1999. I am still using another Britax Roundabout in my own car from Mar 1999 and is the best car seat I've had. Navy blue is the color of the base. Great for a second car or backup seat for grandma's car. This seat can be used rear facing or forward facing upto 40 lbs. This comes with the tether strap for anchors in newer cars. Easy to use and install.

Really? a 10yr old car seat? Is a child's life really worth $25 to this person? Sad. I emailed her about it and flagged the listing. Want to see what happens to a child in a 10yr old seat in an accident? Watch this video

Car seat video

Everyone should watch this video.

New AAP Car Seat Recommendations

All of my friends know just how concious I am about car seat safety. Many of them come to me for advice and if I don't know the answer I will find the answer and learn something in the process. My children are all in a 5pt harness. Yes, that includes my 6.5yr old son (except in dh's car where he's in a booster). My children do not go anywhere without being buckled in. I don't care if we're driving around the corner. It's not an option.

My children were all rear facing until they hit the weight limit on their convertible seats as well (usually 33-35lbs depending on the seat). Bella of course still is and will be for a long while. Up until recently pediatricians would tell you to go ahead and forward face your child in the car at age 1 AND 20lbs. (we won't go into the fact that 99% of peds know nothing about car seat safety). The AAP came out with a recommendation a year or so ago stating that while you can FF your child at 1 AND 20lbs it's best that you leave them RF. Now they've revised it yet again to state that you should RF your child until age 2 or until they've outgrown the RF requirements on their seat. Yea!! It's about time!

Did you know....

• that a child is 5 times more likely to be hurt in a crash if they are FF vs RF?
• a child can be internally decapitated from being FF too soon?
• that a child's head makes up 25% of their body mass? That equals a lot of force on the neck/spine in a crash.
• no child has died from a broken leg from being RF in a crash. Would you rather them break a leg/hip or break their neck? They are not uncomfortable RF. They will find a way to sit (Criss cross applesauce for example)

Great RF information!
Kyle David Miller Foundation
Car-safety.org

If you've recently moved your child to a FF seat and they are still within the limits to RF, it's not too late to change them back! It may not be convenient for the parents but it's safest for the child.

If any of my local friends/family want help with their seats they know where to find me! I'm always glad to help and if I can't I won't leave you in the lurch. I'll find you a technician in the area to help. Oh and btw, do NOT go to the local firestation unless you know that there is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST). I hope to one day be able to take the courses to become a CPST.