Someone turned 30!

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Happy 3rd Birthday!

I added text and emailed this as an invitation

 

We haven't had the party yet, but I'm pretty excited about the cake. Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration I would never receive on my own.

 

I pinned this cake a while ago. I knew it was what I was going to do for Mateo.  Looks sort of easy, a 3 and CARS (most important part).  I first started thinking of how to make the shape. I had decided (after asking advice of my good friend) to use 2 bundt cakes, but once I read the tutorial, I decided her way was a little easier. And, I have to be honest here...I ended up buying the cakes. We were in Germany Monday and received some upsetting news, so when I saw them at the store, I realized how much stress they could save me. The taste of the cake as been compromised, but we were going for the looks this time.

Here were the links that were helpful.

Icing Recipe (I used 250g butter with 2 cups powdered sugar and 3 tbs whole milk)
Checked out what a grass tip looks like. Unfortunatly I didn't have one.
Butter conversion
Refresher on how to use a vanilla bean
And after a moment of fright of not having green dye...

 
 
 
 

 

Happy Birthday!

Our gem turned 2 on Tuesday. I knew I did not have energy to do a big party with all the family. No matter how simple you try to keep it, with just the immediate family it is 10 adults and 10 kids. I also think it is kind of fun to do something ON the day, so I decided to invited the few family members who were not on vacation and our neighbor with Mateo's little friend.

I DID want to do a cute cake. Mom made and awesome UNO cake last year, so I want to try to make something this year. I love monkeys and remembered I had pinned quite a few last year.  I looked the week before his birthday at the recipe and design. I should say I have never made a special cake before. I normally do cakes in the 9x13 casserole pan and service it out of there. For my sister's 16th birthday I successfully made a coconut wedding cake, but you just cover the top in pineapple whipped cream and coconut.

I read some article saying how Pinterest can make you feel badly because of all the great ideas that just seems so unattainable for everyday, normal life (at least that is how I remember the article). The point of the article actually was to just do SOMETHING to make things special. It does not have to be Pinterest-perfect, but to take some of those thousands of ideas and scale it to what works for you. No need to feel guilty over all the possibilities, but to take advantage of the creative inspiration and DO something.

So that is my take on things right now...that was my take on the birthday. My goal was to have a cute cake. Something Mateo will later remember from the photos.

That being said: Here is the photo of my first special cake, first time making icing, first time using pastry bags (I had fun with those!) I was happy with the results! Especially the taste! It was a banana cake. If you Google 'monkey cake' the idea and recipe are probably the first one to show up.

Everyone complimented the flavor/moistness of the cake! That in itself pleased me. I have to admit I thought my monkey was pretty cute. It was probably the 2nd hottest day of the year, so the icing was difficult to work with, but I just did my best.

Happy Birthday

Normally I try to keep baby photos on the baby blog, but these are for the hubby's birthday.

26-Yikes!

I crossed over the bridge and am now nearing my 30's. I didn't do anything big for my birthday, but had a good one. To start it off, my present from my parents was for Christmas and my birthday. They got me a Kindle Fire (which I love, btw). Since we were going to be flying on New Years' Eve, my grandma had a little family party on the 30th. I got to pick out a cake and since I LOVED the cookies from this store, I choose the giant cookie for the cake. Grandma made it really nice and we had the fancy china an silver. A highlight of the night was my hubby and sister playing around with the helium tank.

On the actual day I talked to my parents on the phone and got lots of facebook messages. We flew that day and when we landed it was the 1st in Belgium. I was surprised they didn't announce anything for the new year on the plane.

Often here people will do something for their birthdays. First I thought it was a little strange, like hosting your own party, but now I kind of like it. Less stress for everyone else. So sometimes the ladies will have a breakfast or tea for their birthday. Someone asked if I was going to do a breakfast and I said it depended how I felt. I felt silly inviting people, because to me it sounded like a plea for gifts, but I thought the idea sounded nice. I normally don't have many people over at a time, because it stresses me and it seems our house is too small for it, but I realized I could rearrange a little and have just as much space in the living room as others have.

So I decided yesterday to have a breakfast today. All my SILs came, plus my MIL, 2 aunts and a cousin. It was nice!

The bottom photos are some of my gifts. I love my new fruit bowl, I am sure I will love the chocolates, but since I'm on a diet, I think I'll leave them wrapped up a little bit longer and I REALLY love my new jacket. I have wanted a long jacket for a few years, but never found one that fit, was the right price, right color, had the things to keep your wrists and neck warm with a hood. Finally I found it yesterday! Oh, and I wanted a belt, but did not really want a tie. PLUS it is an added bonus if I don't look like the Michelen man in it. So I recevied a gift certificate for my birthday and I put it towards my jacket that was 50% off. Now I need some cold weather to wear it in.

Happy 26th Birthday!

Here is my hubby 26 years ago (maybe a few days less :P). We are supposed to go out to eat tonight, but have not figured out where! The Greek place I wanted is closed today, so maybe Thai? Or all you can eat ribs?

Happy 20th Birthday!

These are pictures of her last birthday that we spent together...it was a surprise, Hawaiian-themed pary :)

Happy 30th!

April started the birthday boom in the family. Surprisingly, there are very few winter birthdays (I am one of them). Yesterday was Esther's 30th! The forecast predicted rain, but we were hoping for something different, as it was a garden party. Thankfully, we were blessed and it only started sprinkling as the last guests left. We had a lovely afternoon all together. A few of us pitched in to get her a bench for her yard.