Monday, April 30, 2012

Cake it On

 Yellow cake filled and frosted with vanilla whipped cream frosting.  She wanted a "flower cake" and wanted them made out of sour straws so this is what  we came up with.  She loved it.
Tasty too.
White cake with strawberry filling, frosted with vanilla buttercream and topped with white chocolate shavings.
For a friend.  Didn't get to taste this particular one


BUT... Fallon wanted a "strawberry cake" for her birthday so I made the same thing with extra strawberries on top and I had more than my fair share of that one!  Mmmm...
Yellow cake, chocolate ice cream (dredged in Oreo crumbs), and Airhead tomatoes and lettuce, fondant cheese.
Fun party cake!
I didn't take photos, but this month I also made a German Chocolate cake, with peanut butter filling, chocolate buttercream, and "decorated" with Reese's Peanut butter Cup pieces on top.  Divine!
But I think the favorite was the "Black Forrest" cake:  Devil's food cake, a little chocolate buttercream to crumb-coat, cherrie pie filling, frosted with Cool Whip, and topped with more cherries.  Always beautiful AND delicious.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

One of Those Weeks

It all began on Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day and Jeff was driving with his truck window rolled down when -ZAP!- out of no where a bee flew in and stung him on the lip!  Not only was it a rude gesture, but the sting-site became a giant swollen lump of lip for a couple of days.  OUCH!  (Jeff wondered if that's how it feels to have colajen injections?)
By Friday the swelling had gone down considerably and we decided to go on our Friday night date.  We were on our way to Logan and then decided we'd just grab a bite to eat here in town instead and head back home to catch up on the smooching we'd been missing.  Before our meal was even served we got a phone call from a nearly histerical Quincy to "Come quick!"  Stilman and Walker had been riding home from soccer practice (so at least they were close to home) when Stilman popped a "wheelie" and his front bike tire fell off ("quick release" tire- the clamp of which had been messed with by who-knows-who, but most likely little sisters or neighbor kids just wondering what it was for.) and he hit the street face first.  It took some time to get him cleaned up and dig all the gravel out of his cheek and neck, but we were grateful that, aside from lots of scrapes, some bruises and a few chunks of skin off here and there, he was in pretty good shape!  It certainly could have been a lot worse.  He was feeling pretty beat up of course and couldn't help wondering aloud, "Why does this stuff always happen to ME?"  (-Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder that myself.)
As if that weren't enough to keep us busy for a while, Sunday night Tevya was playing outside without any shoes on (Which of course she's been warned about 746,893 times - if you include the 17 that particular day.) and stepped on something that hurt her really bad.  Being the kind and compassionate mother that I am, I brushed her foot off, pulled something off that looked like it might have been a stinger, and said, "Well, I'm sorry, but that's what you get."  She whined about it all night and I finally had Jeff look at it before she went to bed to make sure there wasn't something else in there like a sliver or something I'd missed in my haste to be so compassionate.  Nothing.
But 1:00 a.m. she came flying down the stairs screaming her head off and I was up with her every hour for the rest of the night trying everything I could think of to make the pain stop.  Next morning her foot was swollen so fat and was so red and she was SO miserable it was certain my instincts had been wrong.  She wasn't just being dramatic after all.  The doctor confirmed she's been stung -probably by some mean yellow jacket, had an allergic reaction, AND gotten an infection!  She missed 2 days of school and we both missed a lot of sleep, but she's better after a bout of antibiotics, lots of Benadryl, and alternating doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofen for 3 days (and nights).  Whew!
I could do without another week like this for a looooong time.