Cake Smash!

Sunday I had the pleasure of accompanying my cousin Kristin to cake smash photo shoot.  What is a cake smash you ask?

smash cake n. a celebratory cake intended to be destroyed, especially by a child. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Growing up, my mom made my brother and I each a tiny cake to smush into for our first birthdays. I still have the pictures my dad took as I demolished my cake in the midst of my birthday party.  The looks on the friends and family around me are almost as priceless as the look on my face at the texture and taste of yellow cake with chocolate frosting!

These days, professionally documenting a cake smash is all the rage! More often than not, it's done a few weeks before a first birthday and the pictures are either shown by mom/dad on social media on the birthday - or used for the birthday party invitation.

Sunday's photo shoot was for an absolutely adorable little girl, I'll call CC.  (Don't get me wrong, mom and dad were REALLY nice - but little CC was just the sweetest little thing!)

Prep: White backdrop and pink & green party decorations

Looking adorable in her party dress!

It took a little convincing - but she finally DOVE into her cake!

I can't show you pictures of the final product (yet).  Kristin is good, but needs a little more time to work her magic AND let Claire's parents see the pictures first.  Instead, here are a few other recent cake smashes! 

What are your thoughts on cake smash sessions?  Did you do it for your kids?

A Baby Revelation...

I have a feeling, that no matter how tactfully I write this...I'm going to lose a few followers.  I apologize in advance!

I've been surrounded by people who have had babies in the last few years.  I'm genuinely thrilled for the blessing of a child that has come into their lives!  My friends have some of the cutest children!!  I absolutely adore them!  Their little voices saying my name and showing me their toys makes my day.  :-)  However, seeing all these children has made me come to an unexpected revelation...

Not all babies are cute!

It pains me to say that.  Am I a horrible person?!?!  For quite a while, I didn't realize that there was such thing as an unpretty/uncute baby. I looooove seeing babies!!  So sweet. So small.  So cuddly and cooing! I know that I want a few of my own!

For a stretch of time, I was confronted with one such uncute baby on a daily basis, and found myself commenting on the picture surroundings and the child's outfit to compensate for not speaking directly about the little munchkin. It was only when another individual also mentioned that she compensated that way, did I realize that it wasn't just me.  This other person was a mom, so it made singleton me feel better...and also very grateful that the other mom had no idea that others didn't find her little bundle of joy as adorable as she does.  Really, if my child(ren) aren't cute - I do not want to realize that!!  Give me the survival mechanism to think that they are the cutest things on the face of the earth!

Am I the only one?  How do you deal in the few-and-far-between situation of being confronted by a little one (or picture) that isn't your usual beautiful cherub?

Where's The Poop?

The lovely Heather and her hubby threw their son a birthday party today.  (Happy 4th Birthday, dude!!)  As you can imagine - there were a multitude of kiddos playing inside and outside.

At this point, I should let you know that Heather has a fabulous bulldog - Shelby.  Well....nature must have called for Shelby soon before the party and the "present" she left in the back-yard was...well, it was found by a little boy.

Which, would have been a "eww" story all on its own, normally.  However, this little boy not only found the poop, but stepped in it - tracked it up the rungs of the jungle gym - around the little treehouse - and then smeared it down the slide.  He did try to clean it up off the slide...with his butt!!  Fine, it wasn't on purpose. But he did have poop ALL over his butt when he came in the house. 

A few other kids found Sheb's little present too...but not nearly as that boy.  It makes for an memorable party, right?

Musical Monday - Gold Digger & You've Got A Friend

Happy Monday! It's been a busy, but fun and relaxing weekend.

On Saturday I brought my Grandmother to the airport so she can visit with one of my aunts in Kentucky. Then I spent some time cleaning out my DVR and reading. See... I have to multi-task even when I'm relaxing! :-)

Sunday was spent mostly with Kirstren and her little boy. We went to see Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in 3D, then lunch at Uno's and a little grocery shopping. Then it was home to make Apple Blueberry crisp (yep, that's going to be this week's TATT recipe).

I'm sharing two videos this week. First is Gold Digger. Definitely not a new song... but I love Glee. It's one of my new favorite shows and they did an awesome job with it.

Second is You've Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story. You gotta love music from kid's movies, the movie's dachshund looks like Meadow & who doesn't like having Barbie dolls as back-up dancers?! Hahaha!

How was your weekend?

Musical Monday - Weather With You

Ah, it's been another wonderful summer weekend. Bright and sunny; hot and humid; fun-filled! Fine, I admit I don't like humidity...but otherwise; a gorgeous weekend!

I hope you all had fabulous weekends too!! :-)

This weekend I did all my usual errands, plus a field trip to the airport and Billy's 6th birthday party. The trip to the airport was to get my grandmother who was coming back from Cincinnati. The airport always has such energy, that I can't help but be happy when I'm there. I really had the urge to just jump on a plane and go. Anybody else have wanderlust or the urge to just get up and go? Somewhere...anywhere?!

Billy's birthday was great! I can't say enough how lucky Kirstren is to have this little boy as her son. He's AWESOME! Below is a picture of the cake she made. Didn't she do a great job?

Crowded House must be making another comeback. I heard this song twice in UK based concerts in the past few days (Isle of Wight and Glastonbury Festival...both in Scotland).

How was your weekend?

P.S. Did you remember to enter my giveaway?

Musical Monday - That's Not My Name

Happy Monday gang! It was a busy, but great weekend. :-) I hope you all relaxed and had some fun.


Saturday morning I picked up my car after it "visited" two mechanics in the past 4 days. You see, Tuesday I left work and noticed that my car was lop-sided. Flat tire...GRR!


I called AAA and they came (promptly too; score!). It was all good until I was half-way home and my "check engine" light came on.


Wednesday morning I called and brought my car to my regular mechanic (and when I say regular - I mean he's seen the two cars I have had in my life). He was nice enough to call before he started work and the conversation went a little like this...


Sarkis (yes, his name really is Sarkis): We have a good news/bad news situation.
Me: Good news first, please.
Sarkis: Well, you didn't have a tire blow out on the highway.
Me: Urg...huh?!?!
Sarkis: Well, you ran over a nail which gave you a flat tire. Then one of your other tires has stress cracks in it. You need to replace two tires.
Me: Um, OK. So, that wasn't too bad. No more bad news, right?
Sarkis: Sorry, but that was all the good news.
Me: (OH, SHIT!) Okay.
Sarkis: You need a new catalytic converter.
Me: Okay.
Sarkis: I could do the job... but it will cost you.
Me: So, what are my options?
Sarkis: Not to tell you what to do, but I've already made an appointment for you tomorrow morning with the Chevy dealership. It should be under warranty.


And IT WAS!!! Not a cent for parts, or labor, or anything! And better yet - the Tahoe came back nice and clean. :-) The rest of Saturday consisted of all the errants I should have been running Tuesday through Friday.


Sunday was fun and family-centric. Kirstren's little boy got Christened (or is it Baptised?... I confuse the two.) and then there was a BBQ. I love that kid!





I made white Sangria and quickly realized that at the next family BBQ (in a few weeks), I need to triple or quadruple the recipe. That stuff went like wildfire. It could be that everyone needed a drink... but I'm still taking it as a compliment. My milk chocolate chip and hazelnut brownies disappeared pretty quick too.






So, I've heard this song a few times and something about it is REALLY familiar to me. It just has a really similar rhythm to another song, but I can't put my finger on what song it is. What do you think? Regardless, it's a nice peppy song. :-)

What did you do over the weekend?

"Baaa"ck At the Ranch...

...or farm, as it were.

After a particularly stressful week, I was thrilled to have chaperoned a field trip today! Despite the fact that the constant rainfall in the north east means we'll be rowing to work soon instead of driving and the kids being keyed up (the last day of school is Monday) - today was a BLAST!!

This was my mom's last field trip as a first grade teacher; I'm honored to have been there. (For all you moms out there - NO parents were allowed. I went in the place of one of the school Aides/Paraprofessionals.) The last field trip I chaperoned was during the school system's trend of discovering the tidal pools at the beach. Quite fun... but as the trip nurse - I came home with one child with a broken arm and two others that needed stitches. I can HAPPILY report that no one got injured with anything more serious than a muddy knee on this trip!

The kids were very well behaved, the farm guides were amazing and it was great seeing some endangered/rare animals so close up & get to see the children's reactions too. Their perspective on things is a joy to behold. :-)

Sorry I didn't get to take pictures. Between the torrential rain, keeping the kids moving/paying attention/fingers out of animal pens, and trying to discretely deal with work emergencies - I didn't have a free hand to take pictures. Here are a few from the farm's website.

Pepper the Nigerian Dwarf Goat was the biggest hit with the kids. She was very gentle and the kids got to feed her. :-)

Gypsy hid from us...but there were Peacock feathers to be found around the farm!

I don't remember what breed of goose the white one here is, but apparently, she lays GREEN eggs!