The Very Hungry Caterpillar Turns Two

August 13th was Andrew's second birthday.  I love to plan birthdays.  I decided long ago that he was going to have a very hungry caterpillar birthday cake.  I looked at so many pictures online for inspiration and finally found one that I thought would be awesome.  It was originally an inchworm from Betty Crocker but I just changed the frosting colors to make it look like the very hungry caterpillar. 
I had my little sous chef (Katie) who is always by my side in the kitchen.  She watches You Tube tutorials on cake decorating all the time.  She helped me decorate the cake which turned out pretty darn cute. 
Andrew wasn't sure what to do with the candles. He was going to pinch out the flame.  Daddy helped him blow them out instead.  He loved the frosting and ice cream, not so much love for the cake.  He was great at opening his presents which included a potty chair and training pants.  Potty training here we come. 

Happy 4th of July

This is our third year of crafting our own 4th of July t-shirts.  I love it.  The kids love it.  We all love it.  I looked and looked for inspiration and finally came across a fun idea for their shirts.  Thanks Pinterest.  We decided to make bleached, freezer paper stenciled shirts. 
I started by finding patriotic clip art that the kids liked.  I printed the pictures, cut them out and traced them onto freezer paper, which I then cut out again.  There is probably an easier way but I was afraid to put freezer paper in the printer.  Next, I ironed on the stencil and then sprayed with bleach.  I took the shirts outside to dry a little then peeled of the paper.  Finally, I washed and dried the shirts.  The kids were so in love with them.  It was a great project.  The possibilities are endless with other holidays too.  I can't wait!!

This is what the ironed on stencil looked like.  I can't find my pictures of the finished product.  I will post when I get them off of my phone.

Eric's 11th Birthday

I can't believe my baby turned 11 this year AND is in middle school.  He turned 11 on June 14th.  I know, I'm still behind on all of my posts.  Here's a little bit about Eric.   He has always been such a good, laid back kid.  I mean always, since birth.  He will do anything you ask him to do.  He tries very hard in all that he does.  This summer he is taking golf lessons for the second time.  He really likes it.  Hopefully he will stick with it.  He really cares about his brothers and sisters and often thinks of them before himself.  He started middle school on August 13th.  I cried.  A teacher came and gave me a hug and said he would be well taken care of at school.  She even called me later in the morning to assure me he was fine.  He has been playing violin for the past two years, but this school doesn't have orchestra so now he's going to try the trombone.  Wish him luck!  Eric loves pizza and so he wanted a pizza themed party.  Pizza for lunch and two pizza decorated birthday cakes is what he got. 

Sir Francis Drake

I forgot to put this post before the graduation post.  The 5th graders worked very hard researching the Revolutionary War.  As a final chapter in their unit everyone chose a significant person from the era and learned everything they could about them.  They compiled a written report and then had to memorize it.  This was all in preparation for the Wax Museum. 

Eric chose Sir Francis Drake (frankly I didn't know who he was really or what he did).  He completed his report, made visual aids and created a costume.  The 5th graders posed around the gym and the rest of the school came to look at them.  The other classes were given tickets to give to the "wax" models.  When they received a ticket they told all about their character.  I was so proud of Eric when he told me his bio.  He did great research and memorized it all. 

5th Grade Promotion

I really hate to admit that I'm old enough to have a child going into middle school.  Why do those two words make me cringe when I say them?  Because it's MIDDLE SCHOOL that's why!!  I had a tough time in middle school and it only consisted of 7th and 8th grade kids and there were only 40 some kids in the entire Junior high.   Deep down inside I know that Eric is a good, tough, resilient young man and he will most likely be just fine, but as a mom I can still worry. 

At the end of May he moved on from elementary to middle school.  There were three classes of 5th graders and they put on an awesome program for the parents.  They changed the words to "In the Jungle" and learned a cute little dance that went with it.  I was in the back row crying and trying not to show that I was crying.  One of the girls wrote a poem (which won a literary contest) and she changed it into a song that she performed. To end it all there was a cute slide show and diploma ceremony.  He had a great teacher, Ms. McCloughan.  He absolutely loved her. 

When it was over Eric told me he saw me crying in the back of the gym.  It wasn't too long until he was in tears as well.  He was so sad to leave Grant Elementary and his friends.  They ate goodies and signed each others t-shirts.  It makes me sad to think about now. 

 He had a great teacher, Ms. McCloughan. He absolutely loved her.

Track Day May 2012

I'm still playing catch up on what's happened so far this year.  By the way, I can't believe it's already more than half over!! Yikes. 

Eric and Charles both had great track days this year.  I sure wish I had posted this when it happened because now I can't remember what place they each got in their events.  However, I just called them over here to rack their brains. 

Eric participated in the obstacle course and placed second, the high jump and placed 2nd, 100 yard dash and placed 4th, and Javelin and placed 6th.  The next day he was chosen to help with the younger classes.  He helped the first grade teacher operate the obstacle course. 

Charles participated in the 100 yard dash and placed 4th, obstacle course and placed 2nd, standing long jump and placed 1st and finally the running long jump and placed 2nd. 

Katie came along as chief cheerleader and nacho eater. She also fell backwards off the steps of a really high slide. Luckily there were no broken bones just scrapes.

 

Katie's 5th Birthday

When it comes to birthdays for the kids I like to plan well in advance.  Months before their big day I start probing about what they want for their birthday and what kind of cake they want.  Making birthday cakes for them is one of my most favorite things to do.  I really should take a class on decorating so mine don't look quite so homemade.  But no matter what they always love them.  I'm proud to say that I have only bought one cake for all 25 birthdays they've had (it was Charles's 1st birthday cake, sorry Charles). 
So anyway, back to Katie's birthday.  She wanted a princess castle cake.  I looked online a ton and watched You Tube videos on making a castle cake.  In the process, I got her hooked on watching these how to videos.  She still watches them and runs the battery on my phone down every time.  She did learn a lot.  Whenever she plays with play dough she throws our things like "cutting the dome off your nine inch cake", "put a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper over your fondant to roll and smooth it".  She's a hoot.
I thought the cake would be easy peasy after watching the tutorial a hundred times.  I was wrong.  It kept falling apart while I was frosting it but Katie kept cheering me on telling me it was OK.   Her special job was to put the sanding sugar on the cones. The cake  looked alright if you weren't too close. 

 She received great gifts that she loves and uses almost everyday. She was given everything she needed to learn how to swim from lessons down to the towel and flip flops.  The swimsuit had to be given a test run in the tub that night.  Here are a few pictures from her special day.