Outer Space Cake Bake and Auction

You may remember the medieval themed Cub Scout cake auction from last year. Well, this year's theme was Outer Space. Let me tell you, this is a much easier theme for cake ideas than last year's medieval times was. Remember, everything has to be edible -- everything.

Take a minute and think of all the things you can do for an outer space cake.....




Times up. What did you come up with?


Well, we came up with the man landing on the moon (R) and Saturn with it's rings (T).

Before we go into the details, I need a minute to let you know that I know that my boys' hair is too long. They were supposed to get it cut during the week and it never happened. I was too worried that we wouldn't get the cakes done in time if we went and got hair cuts on Saturday. So, they look like ragamuffins in these pictures. You'll be happy to know that they look presentable now.


Back to the previously scheduled blog....


First, the man landing on the moon. R wanted to show outer space, the moon, Neil Armstrong, and the American flag. How to make Neil Armstrong, you ask? Easy! Fondant or gum paste. I had the mixins to make fondant like last year, but I also bought some pre-made gum paste, which I knew dried harder than fondant. We used the gum paste, but I wished that we made fondant because the gum paste was tricky to work with. It still worked though. R made the astronaut himself, with coaching from me (as in, do you think that he had one leg twice as long as the other?) We found a "how to" video on Youtube and used that as a guide. (Again, I love modern-day technology.)

R is using edible markers to paint red stripes on the space suit because "Neil's the commander of the mission."

Here's a closer look of the fine details.


I bought cake pans that were two half-spheres that could be put together for a whole sphere. R wanted a rectangle cake on the bottom to represent outer space (with black icing) and then a half-sphere on top that would be the moon. I forgot to take pictures of the moon baking, but you can see them on the counter in the next picture. R wanted to use red velvet cake for the moon. Here he is getting ready to pour the cherry chip cake mix into the pan for the outer space base.

Here's the finished product -- the first man walking on the moon -- in cake.

For T's Saturn cake, M thought that we could do something with spun sugar like he had seen on the Food Network. That seemed hard to me, but I remembered a craft that I did with the kids a few years ago where we melted hard peppermints to make a pretty wreath to hang in the window. So we bought a bunch of hard candies and gave it a try.

This is the first attempt. M bought Jolly Ranchers and it was beautiful, but waaayy too thick and heavy. There was no way that the cake would hold it without being crushed.

This is the second attempt in the oven. It was looking really good. It got to a point in which it just needed a bit more melting. Wouldn't you know it, I got distracted and it started boiling and all the colors melded together, which T thought was kind of cool, but then it got stuck in the pan and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it out. Argh!

This is the third attempt, which worked great. We used fewer candies so that it would be thinner. We also put parchment paper in the pan first so that we could get it out (so many things we learned along the way!) T did a nice design. It worked nicely, except that we mishandled it a bit and it cracked, making it unusable.

This is a case where the fourth time was a charm. Here it is before we put it in between the two spheres. Okay, now that we got the rings down, it was time to decorate the planet itself. We used Google Images to look at lots of pictures of Saturn and decided to use five different colors of icing. I used this adventure as an excuse to buy the creme-based food coloring kit that I've wanted for a couple of years, but never really had a reason to buy it. The colors are truer and it doesn't change the texture of your icing (or fondant) as much as the liquid coloring does.

T started with a base of white icing and covered the sphere, then he added in waves and swirls of the other four colors. He chose the colors based on the pictures he saw online.

Making Saturn is very serious work.
Then comes the blue.

And here is the finished planet, or the top of the planet, in all its swirling glory.

The auction was a success, raising $300 to buy the boys "class B uniforms" aka t-shirts with the pack number on it. Check out the cool cakes.

The cakes at the auction all looked really great. There were some really awesome ones -- R2D2 (made out of five cake mixes!), the solar system, with 8 different cakes, the Death Star from Star Wars. Those kids (and parents) went all out. Some of the kids favorites were the Death Star and a couple of cakes that had aliens (gummy bears) fighting -- because of all the candy.

T Turns Eight

Here's a summary of T's eigth birthday party:


My dad taught me that you should have an activity for the guests to do when they arrive. I had three: 1) sign T's cast, 2) Decorate T's walker, and 3) Guess how many candies were in a jar. Here are some kids decorating T's walker.


M added his own ice breaker game -- decorate Mr. Smith, which the kids loved! As you can see, M seemed to enjoy it too.
Then the kids made their own pizzas and then ate them. They loved having the independence to choose what went on their pizzas. We played "hot potato" with it. M made sure that all of the kids got prizes by the end of the game.

T got an ice cream ball for his birthday from Grandma on the Lake -- you put in the cream, sugar, and other ingredients, then roll it around for 20 minutes to make ice cream. M ran this game with five of the kids while I helped the other five make fleece scarves.

I didn't get pictures of the scarf making in action, but here are all of the kids with their scarves. There are all a bit crazy -- see R in the back? Crazy kids.



T had help blowing out his candles from his best friend, J. The cake was a delicous ending to a fun party.

A New Cast

T has had his full leg cast for a month and it's time for a new one. He needs to wear a cast below his knee for another month, then a removable (for bathing) cast for a final month.

Here he is, eager to get this big 'ol cast taken off.

The nurse used a little vibrating saw to cut through the three layers of fiberglass that made up his cast. It didn't hurt T; it only tickled when she got down to his foot.

It hurt a bit when T bent his knee for the first few times -- after all it had been frozen in the cast for a month and hadn't been used. He got some tears at this pain, but was still a trooper. Notice how his leg is so skinny and dips down a bit? That's because it atrophied while it was in the cast. The strange thing is that the last time I saw his leg, it was so swollen that it was as big as his thigh. Now it's just a skinny little thing.

M showed T the inside of his cast, which had a bunch of flaky dried skin on it and was a bit stinky. You can tell that T is thinking that it's kind of gross. You can also see his xrays on the lightbox -- can you see his fracture on the one on the right? It is a little diagonal dark line on his ankle and kind of goes around his leg.

Our awesome doctor, Dr. G., instructs his resident how to put on the cast so that it won't rub and irritate T. T chose the color maroon for his cast, but they didn't have enough of it, so they put on a first layer of white first .
The final layer of fiberglass was put on in the color of his choice. He says that he picked it because it's the color of the Griffendor house in Harry Potter.



T hobbled out of the office with his shiny new cast. It was almost 70 degrees on Friday and he loved being outside without a jacket.
He spent a couple of hours in the afternoon making a pop-up book with a kit that he got from his Grammy in California.

He concentrates carefully to ensure that the pop-up effects works properly.

Here is the first page of his book. This will be a fun project for him as he continues his recuperation.

Excuses

I have so many excuses for not blogging....my computer got a virus (again!), my husband's computer won't accept my new camera's memory card, I had pneumonia for two weeks....the list goes on.

So, I have no pictures, but here's a quick update:

• R was in the Quiz Bowl with four of his friends. They won three rounds and lost by only twenty points (out of 300) in the semi-final round.
• T is hobbling around pretty good now. He gets a new cast on Friday. I'm taking time off of work to go with him and M 'cause it seems like a milestone in a boy's life and I want to be part of it.
• T turned 8 last week and had a party on Saturday. 10 kids over -- 9 boys and one sweet, patient girl. They made their own pizzas, made fleece scarves, played games, and won lots of prizes.
• R competed in Gold Rush, a Cub Scout winter outdoor competition, and had a blast demonstrating his first aid skills and such.
• Both boys are excited about Pinewood Derby and are enthusiastically planning what kind of a car they are going to build with their father.
• I have had bad allergies, asthma, and pneumonia. I'm almost better -- knock on wood.
• Hockey is almost over -- bittersweet. I hate the early morning practices on weekends, but love to watch R progress -- and I love to cheer at his games. They are so darn exciting!
• We finished reading the 5th Harry Potter book. I read it to the whole family -- all 870 pages of it. We then watched the movie. This is the first book that M has "read" and then seen the movie. I'm afraid that he now knows what the rest of us know -- the movie is NEVER as good as the book.

That's it for now.

I got "The Call"

You know how when you're a mom, you dread "the call." It's the kind of call that might come in the middle of the night, telling you that something is wrong. It's the kind of call that makes your heart drop for a second. You know the kind of phone call that I'm talking about.

So there I was, merely getting my eyes dilated at my eye doctor my cell phone rang. It was M. "I need you grab some clothes for me and R and meet me at the hospital. If I were a betting man, I'd say his leg is broken." The call. Now, picture me, dilated eyes, driving on a bright, sunny 19 degree day, praying the whole time that I wouldn't hit anybody when I turned into the sun. Yeah, I had those flimsy plastic dark glasses on behind my regular transition glasses, but there were times when everything was a shadow.

But, I digress. This isn't a story about me, it's about my poor baby boy who loves to ski and is very good at it for his young age. It's about how he took a spill and has a spinal fracture to his tibia. M handed the phone to me, telling me that T wouldn't be able to talk to me, but he wanted to hear my voice. On the phone, I heard my boy, whimpering for the most part, then crying out in pain every now and then. I reassured him that it would be okay...that we were going to the hospital and they would fix him up so that it didn't hurt so much.


I arrived at the hospital half an hour later and saw M and R sitting there in their ski clothes zipped down, with bright red faces (from the wind and heat.) T was in a wheelchair, facing away from them, holding his head and quietly whimpering to himself. He was facing away because he didn't want to look at anybody -- he was quite angry at the world while he was in all of that pain.

He was triaged before I arrived and we saw a doctor about an hour later. I was concerned that NOBODY would give him any pain reliever before a doctor saw him. Apparently, they thought that there was a chance that they might have to sedate him to set it and he couldn't have anything in him for that. He was just in tons of pain. If anybody touched his leg at all, he'd yell in pain -- a blood-curtling yell that made my bones shake. It was at this point that the doctor recommended morphine.


So, they gave him one unit of morphine. What a wonderful drug. His face immediately relaxed. He relaxed his Superman grip on my hand. He even cracked the tiniest of smiles for a brief moment. It was a pleasant environment until they wanted to give him some more morphine before they put on his cast. I was in full agreement with this idea of giving him more of the wonder drug.

Now, when they ask if your child is allergic to any meds, I always answer "I don't know." After all, how many meds has this healthy boy had in his life? Not many. Certainly not morphine.

I was looking at T's IV site as they were giving him his second dose of morphine and I could literally (I swear) see a rash creep up his arm starting from his IV and moving up his arm, over his shoulder, and then up his neck and down his chest. It looked like little fingers creeping up his veins and over his body. I think that I actually shouted, "Stop! He's allergic to it!" The nurse looked over and immediately stopped the IV. Then she ran and got some Benedryl. Luckily it didn't affect his breathing at all and the rash disappeared after the morphine was stopped. Whew! Another emergency diverted.

We proceeded with the putting on of the cast. T squeezed my fingers the whole time and I'm happy to say that they finally have feeling back in them. He was a trooper. After they put on the long sock (from top of thigh to toes) they put the fiberglass cast on. Then, after all this work for a beautiful cast, they took a saw and cut it up the inside and outside of his leg. They didn't cut through the top or bottom, so it still was tight. The doctor wanted to give his leg room to swell.

Speaking of his doctor, about five different people said to me, "you are so lucky that Dr. G is on call tonight. He's the best doctor." or "Great. You'll have Dr. G -- he's a fellow in foot and ankle issues." We saw Dr. G's two residents and they conferred with him before they put the cast on.


I've never had a broken bone. I assumed they'd get the cast on him and send us home. Nope. We spent the night. And then we spent another night. We thought we were just spending the one night. Both M and I wanted to stay with our boy, but I "won" because of two reasons. 1) I'd fit better on whatever makeshift bed they'd have for parents, and 2) we didn't have M's sleep machine. So, at 10:30 pm, R and M went home while T and I went up to the Children's Hospital unit.


T wasn't hungry until we got up to the ped unit. They offered chicken noodle soup (I think it was cup-a-soup) which T said was the best soup he'd ever had. The tricky thing was figuring out how he could eat it. T didn't want to adjust his cast at all to scoot up in the bed, so I tore a Styrofoam cup down and he drank it.


T was switched to Tylenol with Codeine (a good med, but not as wonderful as morphine for killing his pain). He could have it every 4-6 hours. The nurse and I quickly realized that every four hours would be needed. T had "breakthrough" pain at about 3 1/2 hours. That extra half an hour was quite challenging for both T and I. I had to figure out how to distract him, which wasn't easy given his painful mood, and of course, he had to deal with the pain.


We made it through the night and T was excited to "order room service." At first I laughed and told him that hospitals weren't like hotels, but I was wrong! He had a menu to choose from and he chose a cheese omelet, apple muffin, peaches, and milk.

Before his breakfast came, we were visited by our three doctors - the two residents from the night before and Dr. G himself. I nearly fell in love with Dr. G -- not in a romantic way, but in an I-can't-believe-we're-so-lucky-that-you're-our-doctor way. He was so personable, so patient, so kind to T that I felt a smile spread across my face. Here's an example of his great bedside manner.

Dr. G - So, T I hear that you're seven. But, tell me, when is your birthday?

T: Feb 26th

Dr G: So, you are seven-going-on-eight?

T: yeah, I guess so.

Dr G!: That's great! I can't believe it! Seven-going-on-eight is the BEST time for your bones to heal. When you're seven -going-on-eight, your bones just get right down to business and heal. As a matter of fact, they started their healing last night. If you were as old as your mom, those old bones would take a lot longer to heal. This is great news, isn't it.

T: with a bright smile on this face: "yeah, it is great news."



He asked T if he had any questions and T asked how the bones actually heal. Dr. G told him that his brain tells the broken parts of the bones to get a bit soft and sticky, then they stick together and get harder and harder until you can't tell there was a break at all.

Pretty cool doc, I tell ya.



When T got home after two nights in the hospital, he said "it's a miracle to be home." We came home with a lot of paraphernalia -- a wheel chair, walker, and crutches. He's good at the wheel chair, can do the walker okay if the pains not too bad, but hates the crutches. We have to get him comfortable on the crutches so that he can go to the bathroom by himself, which will mean that he can go back to school.


Well, T's been home from the hospital for a week now and is doing okay. He still is in a bit of pain and is back on the heavy drugs (the Tylenol with Codeine). But we're hoping that tomorrow, plain old Tylenol will do the trick. He's going to stay home next week too, with the exception of attending the Valentine's Day party at school on Friday. R's bringing homework for him to do, which T doesn't really like too much. He watches a lot of tv, plays video games, draws, and is reading his first chapter book. But, he can't wait to get back to school because it's "boring when you have to stay on the couch all the time."

Here is T earlier in the day, doing quite well on the skis. (I love the flaps of his furry hat flying in the wind.)

Here is is yesterday afternoon, playing video games on his throne (I mean the couch that is now his bed, desk, and dining table for the most part.)

He goes back and forth on whether or not he ever wants to go skiing again. He says that this season is over for sure, but maayybee he'll try again in a couple of years. I hope he does. He sure loved it for a few years.

The Magic Kingdom

We started every morning bright and early, eating yogurt, fruit, and bagels in our hotel room. We arrived at each park at least half an hour before opening so that we could ride all of the cool rides -- we rode some even twice. At the Magic Kingdom, we raced to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain, which we did two times. As we were leaving the ride, we saw this awesome heavy granite ball floating on water. With only a thin coating of water, we could move the ball around and around in the water. The great thing is that my dad designed the water portion of this feature. How cool is that?

This was such a fun trip. The Disney cast members are so nice, courteous, and helpful. R was just learning the Boy Scout law -- with attributes like trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, and cheerful -- just like the cast members at Disney.

Here are the boys in a shot in front of the castle. Notice that they have matching Goofy shirts? I bought those before we went at a discount online store. I figured it would be way cheaper than buying shirts there. M has a Goofy shirt too -- he looked great!


M and I were comparing Disney rides to other theme park rides and we both noticed that Disney rides are much longer. Disney makes it worth your while to wait. Speaking of waiting, we didn't wait in line much at all. We read books on how to get around Disney and ride what you want without waiting in line. We learned to get there early and we learned how to use their Fast Pass system. Was it ever worth the reading!

Splash Mountain wasn't supposed to be open when we were there, but they opened it three days early so we got to ride. I brought along ponchos to wear for the water rides. Since it was barely sixty degrees, I knew we'd be really cold while walking around wet. R took me up on the offer, but not T nor M. So guess who this is a picture of walking away soaking wet? Yep. T and M. They both said that they weren't cold, but the both immediately put on their fleece jackets and zipped while waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

While we were waiting for a parade, cast members got a group of kids in the street to play Duck, Duck, Donald. T got picked three times -- I think because he looks little. Here he is chasing a little girl (T has the blue baseball cap.)


One time he wasn't fast enough and ended up in the mush pot.

The timing of this game to keep the kids occupied was impeccable. The parade was just seconds away before they ended the game, passed out stickers to the kids, and got all the kids back on the sidelines right when the first float went by.

I was happy to see that even my big boy, R, enjoyed the parade and even waved to Doc when he walked by.

That night, we had dinner at the Hoop De Doo dinner show. Oh my goodness, did we have fun! It was a western show with singing, dancing, and jokes. They were the dumb Hee-Haw kind of jokes -- and did R laugh his rear end off! We all enjoyed it, but he repeated those jokes for days to come. The food was tasty too -- fried chicken, bbq ribs, mashed potatoes, beans, cornbread, and strawberry shortcake. Yummo!

At one point, they told us to wave our napkins in the air to the beat of the music. M and R had fun with it.

The waiters passed out washboards so that each table to contribute to the band. What a really fun way to end a long day!

Disney Was Great - Animal Kingdom

We just got back from Orlando, FL, after a nice visit to Disney World. Growing up in So. Cal., I thought that I had experienced the Disney experience often...but the Anaheim version is nothing like the Orlando version. Walt Disney bought up hundreds of square miles of Orlando do that he could create this incredible place to visit -- four huge theme parks and over 10 huge resorts. It's amazing!

We left on a day that had a high of negative five -- what a great temperature to leave! It turns out that Orlando was having some Arctic air, so the temps were in the 60's and low 70's, but if felt like Spring to us. In the mornings, the temp was in the 50's and all of the "cast members" in the theme parks had on their winter gear -- heavy coats, hats, and gloves. We wore pants and fleeces and felt so free without our snow gear. One day it hit a warm 74 degrees and we just loved it. We made it to the pool and hot tub every evening. The pool was heated to about 80 degrees. Even if it was 65 degrees outside, they swam in the warm pool and loved it (I made it in the pool once, but went in the hot tub every night.) What a nice break from all the snow, ice, and freezing temps we have been having here in the midwest.

I took 250 pictures, but will share a few ones to highlight the trip for you. We went to the parks five days in a row, often getting back to the hotel in the late afternoon for a rest, dip in the pool, and dinner. Even with those rest times, we were pooped when we got on the plane to come home!

We stayed at the beautiful Animal Kingdom lodge and went to the Animal Kingdom park the first day. Here the boys are sitting in front of the Tree of Life. A beautiful huge icon in the park that is comprised of carvings of a bunch of different kinds of animals.

Here is the back of the tree, with a better view of the animals on it.
My favorite ride of all the parks is Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. This was the boys' favorite too, until we went to Disney Hollywood Studios, and rode Rockin' Rollercoaster. Anyway, we rode Everest four fun-filled times. I screamed my face off and totally loved it. (I tried three times to get the picture below turned around and it never worked, so you'll have to cock your head to the side. R and T are standing in front of the Everest ride.)

We saw two amazing shows at Animal Kingdom. One was based on Finding Nemo, and it had "puppets" that were controlled by actors/singers that you could see. It was incredible. I had a smile on my face the whole time. We also saw The Lion King show, with amazing singing, dancing -- it was a huge production based on the Broadway show. Wow! Disney is incredible!

T really loves musical instruments. He had a great time playing all sorts of African drums. He bought a Kalimba, an African instrument, as a souvenir. (I had a Kalimba as a child, so it's cool that he bought one. His is beautifully painted. He also bought a maracas in Mexico in Epcot.)

Both boys played instruments with an African band in the middle of the street. At first T was shy, but the lure of the instruments finally got him involved.

One of the highlights of Animal Kingdom is the Safari Tour. You drive through open environments similar to what is in Africa and can see animals in their natural habitats, with no cages whatsoever. The animals roam as they please. This guy blocked our truck for about five minutes. We just had to wait for him to move.

Finally, when he did move, he decided to come right by the truck. Yikes!

We had a great time at Animal Kingdom. We spent two half-days there. Here are the boys after a fun filled day. (You may notice all of their pins on those lanyards -- they collected those and traded with cast members every day. They had a blast doing that.)

Whew!

As AJ told me on the phone, I haven't blogged in a "coon's year." So, here I am a month or so after my latest blog. Here's my checklist from the past few weeks:

• Bring boxes from the basement - check
• Buy Christmas tree - check
  
• Help with craft at Cub Scout pack meeting - check


• Decorate Christmas tree - check
• Fix angel for top of tree - check
• Take down regular decorations - check
• Put up Christmas decorations - check
• Buy presents - check
• Send box to California - check
• Send out box for Colorado family - check
• Make sure M and I have something to wear to fancy holiday party for work - check
• Go to Holiday party - check
• Make cookies for cookie exchange at work - check
• Make Christmas cards - check
• Address Christmas cards - check
• Make little gifts for staff at work - check
• Take Christmas photo of boys - check
• Print out Christmas photo of boys - check
• Put photo in cards and seal cards - check (did that tonight)
• Make dessert for dessert potluck at work - check
• Wrap presents -- not done yet!

In between all of the Christmas preparations, the whole family has had the stomach flu and then a week later has had the cold/flu. That basically means that we were all sick for two weeks. The stomach flu started on Thanksgiving night at my inlaws house (what fun it was to do three loads of laundry between 11 pm and 3 am!)

Since it's been so long since I've blogged, here are some pictures to reward you for coming back to see if there is anything new here.

R went hunting with M one Sunday last month. He's too young to hunt himself (by one year) but he wanted to go and keep his dad company and see what it was like. We decided it would be okay. I talked to R about how he'd have to be bundled up since it was snowing. M had a heart to heart talk with him beforehand, letting him know the details of "field dressing" and told R that it was kind of a sad thing. R still wanted to go. After all of that, they didn't see a deer. (I swear that I fixed the red eye on this picture before I posted it. I tried it three times and gave up. Just pretend that his eyes are brown.)



Here are father and son sportin' their flame orange gear, ready for the hunt. (in the snow)

M and I had a lovely tenth anniversary weekend in October. We dropped off the kids at M's folks house (where they had a great time being spoiled rotten!) and spent two nights away with just the two of us. We went out for some great meals, including fondue, brunch, and tasty steak. At the steak house, we got the royal treatment because their house wine is one of the wineries that AJ and UR sell to -- we got a tour of the restaurant, including where they dry age the beef. It was pretty cool to see, no pun intended! Here we are in the restaurant. It's nice to see how handsome M looks with hair! (His is growing back gradually.)

Here's one that M took of us while we were waiting for the boys to take the train ride at the Zoo Boo in town.

Here's a picture of the boys that didn't make the cut for Christmas pictures, but it's a cute one!

Merry Christmas everybody!