Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake

Tomorrow is my youngest son's 5th birthday.  He decided he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake.  I borrowed the pan from my co-worker/friend and made the cake on Saturday.  Sunday evening I made the cake and it took me about 2.5 hours.  I have finally gotten smart and bought more than one tip of the same size so I don't have to keep washing out the tips and couplers when going from one color to the next.

I have told my youngest and the other two boys for that matter, that they are not allowed to keep growing up.  Do they listen??  NO!  My middle child has grown so much this summer that his jeans look like high waters.  Don't they understand that Moms need to hold on to their babies??

 Here's the cake after it has cooled.  This pan had good definition which makes it easier to find where I need to be when decorating.

 The background icing.  I have such a hard time icing the corners or bumps.  I can't get enough icing there and when I go to smooth it out I wind up taking most of the icing off.

 All of the outlines are now piped in.

 Ohh, it is starting to take shape!!

 Getting close!!

 Ta Da!  I did it!  Youngest son was not so happy that Thomas's face was so dark.  I didn't realize how little black coloring I needed to make the gray.  I kept adding more frosting to try and make it lighter.  It got to a point where I was just wasting the frosting so I went with what I had.


Happy Birthday to my Baby Boy!!

A date with my hubby

We went for a week long vacation in Eagle River, Wisconsin last week.  On one of the afternoons I went shopping down the strip by myself.  I started off going into an antique store... voluntarily!  You may not know this about me, but I really dislike history.  I hated history in school and somehow managed to eke by to get the grades.  Well, lately I have been intrigued by the Edwardian Era (early 1900's) and want to make/assemble a costume from that time period.  See, I bought an antique sock knitting machine back in January.  It's dated 1908.  This darn machine has really pulled me into the era and I have been reading about the era on the internet and getting an idea of the fashion of the time.  The reason why I am interested in the Edwardian era fashion is that in conjunction with the historical society I will, at some point in the future, give a demonstration of my sock machine.  What better way to do it than in period attire!  Back to the present. I found this hat at the antique store.  It was priced at $22.00.  I asked if she could give me a better price and she said $18.00.  I said, "sold!"  I realize that this hat is most likely not of the right time period, but I think it could pass for what I need it for.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the flowers on top.  The flowers are faded pink and rather quite pretty.

 So, once I had the hat I had to wear it!  I suggested to hubby that we go out to dinner at the local supper club.  He readily agreed.  I found a babysitter and worked on putting my attire together.

Now, here's the second story.  I also love to shop at second hand stores.  Saver's is my favorite.  I particularly like to buy skirts and dresses.  Usually these items have very little wear as compared to say, T-shirts.

 I found this dress at Saver's. Surprise! It still had the original tags on it.  The label is Apt. 9 so I think that is Kohl's.  It was priced at $134.00.  The original store marked it down to $99.99.  Saver's priced it at $29.99.  I tried it on and wow, it fit perfectly!  I opened my stall door and asked the next lady if she thought it looked good and if it was worth $30.00.  She said, "yes!" and proceeded to hand me an extra coupon she had for 20% off.  I paid around $25.00 for the dress !  Woo Hoo! Way to go, Karen!

 The dress has been hanging on the back of my bedroom door just waiting to be worn.  I had no particular event in mind when I bought it.

Once I bought the hat I knew which dress I was going to wear with it! I also knew that hubby needed to take me out on a date (:

 I brought the hat to work to show Foster Grandma Virginia who is 78 years old.  She loved it!  She also told me that she has an antique hat pin she's been wanting to get rid of because she keeps poking her fingers when digging around in her jewelry box.  She offered to give it to me.  Wow!

 She brought the hat pin to work today and I tried it with the hat.  Yikes! It's sharp!  I yelped and she laughed saying, "I remember those days!"

 Next is the hair.  I still own a hairdini (remember those?) and the directions.  I whipped it out and practiced putting my hair into a french twist.  I then styled my hair this morning as you see it here with the french twist.  I did have my bangs down for the day and pulled them back to put on the hat.

 I am unsure if I am wearing real pearls or not.  I have real and fake, but I sure can't tell them apart.  No matter to me, the pearls added a nice touch.

 Last night I redid my finger and toe nails because I can't wear peep-toe shoes and have a bad pedicure. Not after all this work anyway!

All of this because of a HAT!

 I did want to wear black gloves.  I had the right glove, but no left one.  White gloves just didn't go with the rest of the ensemble.

 Alright, I am no model, I can't take a decent picture to save my life and I have gotten a little soft in the middle.  Despite all that, I SO enjoyed getting all dolled up.  I really think I was born in the wrong decade (or era).

 I love this picture (above) even though it was taken between poses.  I just like being able to see the top of the hat.

 Again, I can't model, but they are cute and funny pictures anyway, right?

My darling husband.  No other person could "get me", wait cross that out, could put up with me the way he does.  Love you, Sweetie!

EWWWW, Get a room!

Again, this was a between the poses shots that hubby snapped of me.


Thank you to 5th Street Photography for taking the first 9 photos.  Here's a link to their site:
http://5thstreetblog.com

Strawberry Hats

Here's a link to the strawberry hats I made.  These are very quick and easy knits.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Karen1343/kids-fruit-cap

My garden

Hello everyone!  Here's a look at my garden this year.  Everything is coming along nicely.  That's our house in the background.

Shaun the sheep

Here's Shaun the Sheep!! Have you ever seen a Wallace and Grommit movie? If so then you know Shaun the Sheep! I found this pattern and wanted to make the little guy. I made this for hubby and the boys knew about it. Prior to having kids we used to watch the Wallace and Grommit movies and now the boys are into them. It was quite a coincidence that I started making this, prior to the boys knowing, and then I take them to the library and they picked out a few Shaun the Sheep movies. Hubby giggled when he opened his gift and that night he was snuggling with it before I went to bed.

Here's a small snipet of the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9QeosTh7w

Devil's Head Ski Resort

As a class field trip the entire 4th grade went to Devil's Head Ski Resort. DS1 was apprehensive about going as it was something new and scary. The permission slip stated that snowshoeing would be available for those who didn't want to ski. I told DS1 he didn't have to go, but I wanted at least to try the bunny hill once. That alleviated his fears somewhat. Neither one of us have ever been skiing before.

The above photo is a poor picture of DS1, but you can see one of the more advanced runs in the background. We were awaiting directions in the cafeteria before heading outside.

Here we are after getting our helmets. Adults weren't required to wear them, but I wore mine! I figured if anything it would be warm.

Finally! We got our skis!!! Now we waited in line to have enough people to form a group. In all it took about 2 hours to get outside from when we arrived. Not only was the entire 4th grade there, but there also was two other schools as well.

There were 6 stations to go through before being allowed to go down the hill. This was station 1: getting your skis on and learning to stop. We were taught little pizza (toes towards each other and heels apart so it looks like one is making a wedge of pizza with their feet) which one uses to slow down. Big pizza is the same thing but only a wider stance and used to stop.

We graduated!! On to station 2!

More pics of station 1.

Woo hoo! At least one ski on!

And two skis on!

Here's me in the perfect pizza stance. Proof that I was there!

Station 2: learning to walk up the hill and stopping.

DS1 is the one off on the left.

Here DS1 is showing off an excellent pizza stance.

More pizza-ing.

At the bottom of the "run".

Neighbor boy and DS1 in front of one of the black diamond runs. We were heading into lunch.

By the time we headed into lunch Ds1 still had not passed the final run before heading on to the ski lift. He was quite upset with himself. He wouldn't talk to me at this point so I wasn't quite sure what was wrong. I incorrectly assumed that he was not liking the day and too scared to continue. I asked his teacher about the snowshoeing, but she didn't have an answer. I asked DS1 if he wanted to snowshoe if it was an option and he didn't.

After lunch we headed back to the stations. DS1 continued to go down a few more times. I wanted to go down the hill at least once so while he was mastering the last station I grabbed another mom to be my buddy and to help me get down the hill. She's skied before so talked me through how to get on and off the lift.

Once at the top of the hill, well, there's no turning back at that point. I applied my new knowledge and started going down the hill. The snow was less than ideal conditions. Basically, it was pure ice. To compensate I really zigzagged back and forth down the hill. At times I was going so slowly that I had to kind of walk forward to keep the momentum going. Julie, the other Mom, was very patient and stayed near me. I have to say it was scary, but I did it!!! When I got to the bottom I raised my hands and shouted, "Olympics here I come!!!"

When I looked around for DS1 I saw him in line for the lift!!! I can't believe I missed his "graduation". He was grinning from ear to ear and it was so good to see that. He later told me that he was so upset earlier because he was upset with himself for not graduating sooner. From that moment on he was on cloud nine. It was such a confidence boost for him!

For the rest of the day we skied together....well, we went up together. He became a speed demon and raced down the hill. Meanwhile I took a snail's pace and slowly built up my confidence.

After our first run together the busses were loading. I was so thankful that I drove separately because that allowed us to stay as long as we wanted. If I wasn't there he would have had to leave after only one run. It became quiet after everyone left and less stressful because there were not as many people on the hill. I timed us. It took about 11 minutes from getting on the ski lift to getting on the ski lift for the next run.

By our last run I finally wasn't zigzagging as much and was able to go a bit faster. We left at about 2:40 in time to get the other two boys from school/daycare.

I would like to thank the 4th grade teachers for giving us this opportunity to not only learn how to ski, but also to build up DS1's confidence and give us some much needed mom/son time together.

P.s. I tried swimming tonight. I had to pull myself out of the pool after only doing a little less than half of my normal workout. This is one tired Mama!

Finally, the school is selling tickets for this Friday for only $15.00/ticket. Guess who's going back??