Robots

One of the few good moments of Monday. It was a tough day. Broken glass. Cuts and lots of blood. Hail. Soaking Mommy trying to save the plants. Poopy nickers. Butterfly decals peeled from the walls. DVDs taken from their boxes. Boys who won't sleep. A tough day. But we danced like robots. We survived after all.

Car Seat Tray Revamp

I got this carseat tray at a consignment shop in Airdrie, Grow With Us.  I had been planning on making something like it for Bryn for our Lake trip this year, since I had no idea where to find one.  I'm so glad I found it, 'cause it saved me a lot of time and effort.

I did want it to have a magnetic top so that Bryn could play with her Melissa and Doug dress-up doll clothes.  So I bought some sheet metal (try the stuff in the ducting isle at Home Depot - it's much thinner).  I took out the liner that the tray came with traced it on the metal, and cut it out with tin snips.  I covered the edge with electrical tape, which was much easier than I thought it would be.

I wanted to give her a second game to play on the tray, so I printed some shapes on a printable magnet sheet that I had laying around, and coloured them in with crayons (I never use my colour printer, so the ink has all gone dry).  I cut them out (in front of NCIS reruns), drew corresponding shapes on the metal, and she'll have a fun little matching game that should keep her busy for a chunk of the trip.  Now, if only I could figure out how to keep Henrik busy for 6 hours!

By the way, Grow With Us is probably the best second-hand kids store I've been to in the Calgary area. Not that I've been to all that many, but this one was really great.  Room for the stroller, well organized clothes and toys, and I found everything I went for (and a few more things).

Ugly Yellow Cake

This cake was NOT pretty.

It was tasty, which is far more important than pretty in my opinion.  After all, this is food we're talking about, and dessert, even.  This is why I don't generally use shortening in my icings. Butter tastes way better! 

This cake was supposed to be pretty and tasty, but it just wasn't.

I think I was going for a white chocolate ganache.  Which is kind of a yellowy colour, since white chocolate isn't actually white.  And I didn't wait for the ganache to cool enough before I poured it over the buttercream base.  So it slouched.  Then, I tried to 'fix' it by adding drizzled semi-sweet chocolate on top.  But I think I let it cool too much, so I ended up with a globby mess. 

Not pretty.  Not pretty at all.  But, definitely tasty!

Polka Dot Cake

I saw this cake on one of my favourite cake blogs, i am baker, and knew I HAD to try it sometime.  That sometime finally came in January of this year, for the family birthday party.  It was a hit, and I'd love to do it again and again, 'cause it's pretty neat looking.  But I end up with so much left over icing, because of all of the colours required. And I'd need to buy a few more grass tips.

Harvest Glen Park

We've decided to embark on a search for the perfect playground.  After Henrik's morning nap, we get in the car, and wander the neighbourhoods looking for a new go-to place to play.

Here's what we thought of the one we found today.


 It's a little too open to the street, but that street is not super busy. There are four swings, two of each kind, which is great if there is more than just my two little ones.





There is some shade, but it felt too far away from the play structures for me to install myself there on a blanket, so we sat in the sun.





My favourite feature was this great little mini structure that both kids liked a lot. It was the perfect size for Henrik.
 


But in the end, Bryn said that she didn't like it, and that she wanted to try a different park next time.  So the search continues! 

Ginger Bridge

So this is not a cake.  Nor was it my creation.  Around Christmas time in 2010, my husband's engineering firm held an in-house gingerbread house contest.  Arvid took it a step further and decided to design and build a bridge out of gingerbread and other edible materials.  It was a very neat project, with much learned along the way, including the fact that licorice string is not strong enough to suspend large slabs of gingerbread, even if you braid it.

It was really cool, and looked so neat when it was finished - I just had to share.