Quick Update

What another fun packed month! And it would appear the this next month may not allow much more free time. With the sun going down so late, Big Girl J is having a hard time staying in bed when she goes down. Last week, after I took a day for training without the girls, I promised Big Girl J that we would spend the whole next day together. After putting her to bed that evening, with the sun still showing, she came out of her room and said, "Mr. Sunshine is still up, and you promised we would spend the whole day together."
What do you say to that!?! Not fair, so we cuddled for a little and I got her to bed just as the sun went down.
Little Miss O is getting very feisty. She has learned how to pull hair (since she has none, it is a safe fighting move.) She also uses her little nails to try and stop her sister from taking toys from her, and yesterday she bit her sister! I put her in time out and she kept getting down from the chair, so her time out ended in her room, in her crib. After a minute, and she quit crying when I had closed the door, I went to get her out of time out. She had covered herself up and was going to nap! What is silly little girl!
Yesterday my children tested me and my patience. I learned a few things and still need to figure out a few things. I am just glad that day is done, and I hope we can have a better weekend. Please can we have a better weekend, I beg that it gets better!
On a lighter note, I had three cakes I did this month, and 2 due for next weekend. I helped my sister-in-law make her 8 (almost 9) year old's birthday cake.

I don't know much about Sponge Bob, so I am glad Mister C came wearing a shirt that showed Sponge Bob, so we could reference him!
I made Momma's birthday cake. These were actually small cakes, but larger than cupcakes.

I tried to make them took like flower pots, I ran out of time to make flowers (obvious bad time management) so I used peanut butter cups as the flower. I claimed that this was the rare butter plant from the south western peanut farms of Antarctica....
And then step brother's girl friend asked me to make a cake for her dad's birthday.

From the golf game step-brother, step brother's girlfriend's dad, and Wonderful Husband played that morning, it sounds like I should have place all the golf balls in the water feature!
I also had my first Iris blooms!!!!! I am bad at names, so why should my iris be any different. I think I should place name tags on them this year.

 The first, and many of these guys have bloomed since!

Second to bloom! Love the pastel coloring of this one!

I had one more open yesterday, white up top and yellow on the bottom, again don't know the names, so help would be great, so I can give them name tags and call them something other than "little guys."

And lastly, my veggie garden. I planted most of the plants I had started from seed in the garage. I think I will attempt a time laps of the garden, by taking a weekly picture of the garden. more on that later!

First Communion Cake

I really do have fun making cakes. I know I am not a professional cake maker, but I am quite happy with this one. My fabulous hair dresser had a daughter, whom on May 1st had her first communion. She asked for a cake, that we talked about during my previous hair appointment, and also maybe dyed my hair a few minutes too long because of the cake talking! But I am still happy with my hair.
I wanted another shot at making good branches. She wanted flowers. I went with a two sided cake.

I used melted chocolate piped onto wax paper and then placed in the fridge to make the branches. I was much happier with these. I was not happy with my cross on top. I made it from rice crispy treat that I should have made a day ago and forgot. So I made it an hour before and it was not completely hardened, so it leans a bit. In fact it was leaning enough that I placed a plastic fork behind it, to prevent it from completely falling off the cake!

This is the front. After setting the cake on the table, I turned around and realized that I still have a lot of flowers left. And I don't really want to take them home, so...

I tossed them all on the table in front of the cake. I must say, I think that really finished the cake wonderfully!
During the cake making process, Wonderful Husband had a birthday. I used the left over blueberry batter and the leftover strawberry batter and made small 'tuna' sized cakes. At a recent booth a Tupperware lady had a set of plates, cups, pitcher, and cake holder. I had met this lady at other events, and I have debated on purchasing this set. At the latest booth she informed me that this was the last set. It is no longer in the catalog and she has no more available. I thought for a minute and responded with, "do you take checks?"
She informed me that the small cake container will hold a cake the size of a tuna can.

Actually you can bake a cake in a tuna can, just clean it and get the paper off it. So I made 3 little cakes and set each girl down with their own cake to decorate for Daddy's birthday.

 Cake decorating is something Big Girl J very much enjoys. She takes it very seriously!

However, Little Miss O didn't understand why she couldn't eat the cake and lick the icing. If you look close at the picture, there is a bite sized piece of cake missing here. Just after this picture was snapped she licked the spreader. But the look she gave me when I told her no, was the best.
Since the cakes were so small, Wonderful Husband only got one candle to blow out. Big Girl J was hung up on that for a few days. Kept asking 'how old are you?' with a follow up question of 'then why did you only have one candle?'

Mother's Day Fun

I was going to post on the cake I made a week ago, but I have not prioritized the blog, therefore more fun things have happened since my last blog! I will try to blog about the cake tomorrow or the next day. Maybe the day after, I will make the goal to post again by Wednesday!
Back to it. Mother's Day. I love Mother's Day. Not because I think I deserve some sort of special day to be loved a little more, or that I need a special day to be appreciated. I feel appreciated (almost) everyday, and I know even though they don't show it, my babies love me most days, hopefully. I love Mother's Day because it seems to be the official kick off to the gardening season. I have also made it clear that I don't need anything other than being allowed to enjoy a garden nursery and have no judgment passed at checkout.
The girls seem to enjoy the nursery, they like all the flowers. I had them help me pick out Dahlias. I picked a dark red, Big Girl J picked a yellow and red one and Little Miss O picked a hot pink color! I love them, I just hope I can grow them this year. All the plants I purchased yesterday went in the back yard. My front bed it full and we have sprinklers through the back beds this year. The back beds are still considered full sun, but maybe an hour less than the front.
Big Girl J was upset on this trip to the nursery, they were so busy there weren't any little carts for her to push. In fact if I hadn't grabbed the run away cart in the lot, I would have been without a cart!
After enough pouting, Wonderful Husband went in search of one. He came back with a wagon, and it worked! Little Miss O was a little jealous, so we put her in the wagon, and she got to go for a ride!

They didn't actually knock anything over, but they did try! Everyone kept stopping to say 'how cute' and then laugh a little when the wagon wheel caught  the corner of a table or a trellis. Then they switched!

That didn't last too long, but she tried. Wonderful Husband had to give a little push on occasion to help her along.
There was a station for kids to plant a plant for mom. The girls were a little hot and seemed uninterested, but when there is a chance for me to get a free plant I push for it. Little Miss O picked out a lovely yellow pansy and Big Girl J picked out the plant with lots of little white blooms. Not sure on it name, but it is a creeper plant. Either way, my girls enjoy playing in the dirt and when they realized that was part of planting a plant, they were on board.
Big Girl J's wagon was commandeered while she was playing on the playground, just prior to planting her plant. When she finished her plant she went to put it in the wagon and was very displeased to find it missing. I tried to explain that it is a busy day and someone needed it, Wonderful Husband tried to explain it as you left it unattended and you lost it. I hope she got the gist of both!
I suggested her not to be upset but to go home and play with her own wagon. We pulled it out, put Mommy's plants in it along with gloves, shovels and kneeling pads. We went around the garden, I picked a place to plant something and she picked out what plant would go there. It was wonderful team work, and I really enjoyed my entire day!
She also helped me plant my corn, soybean and green bean seeds in the vegetable garden.
Wonderful Husband made me my favorite Belgium waffles for breakfast and took me to one of my favorite lunch places for lunch. At lunch my little girls waited patently for their mac and cheese. But they were too adorable, I had to take a picture!

First Hair Cut

Little Miss O finally grew some hair! So in honor of that, the hair hanging over her ears looking shaggy and the hair on the back of head was very rough, I let her get her first hair cut.
I actually did not plan to cut her hair. In fact I was only planning to get my hair did and when we arrived at my friend's house, Big Girl J asked to get her hair cut. Her actual words, "Can I get my hair cut long?"
I have decided I will allow the girls to choose their hair cut. After Big Girl J had several hair cuts, I started asking if she would like it to look like Dora's or other TV characters she can relate to. No, Elmo's hair cut was not one of those options!
So mommy sat in the chair and turned into foil head, getting my highlights. When I got out of the chair to let it sit, Big Girl J promptly climbed up. My hairdresser smiled, because she is such a great 4 year old to never fight getting her hair trimmed. After just a few minutes and a nice clean trim, Big Girl J jumped down. Then Little Miss O tried to climb up. As a 20 month old, she found it difficult to climb into the chair! But I helped, thinking just let her sit there and be comfortable with it when it is her turn. Then jokingly I commented that she didn't have enough hair to cut.
But our hairdresser said, "\We can trim it and clean it up."
Initially I had a fear of what happened when Big Girl J got her first trim. She looked like a little boy. I was not pleased with that trim, nor was I very pleased with that hairdresser. But there is a reason I am not getting my hair trimmed by her any longer. In fact, my current hairdresser is the best I have ever had! The first time she did my hair, I just told her what I did not like about my hair. She fixed it, made it wonderful, and I have trusted her ever since. Every time she says, "what do you think if we do this?" I say yes, I trust you. If you think it would look good then do it!
So I look at my wonderful hairdresser and say, "OK."

 She gave a smile, but wouldn't give a full smile. She was a bit unsure, but did great!

Little Miss O didn't fuss one bit. She sat there quiet and turned her head as directed. And never go mad at mommy for taking about one hundred pictures! I was not prepared with my real camera, although my camera phone does a wonderful job. I was also not prepared with a bag. However my wonderful hairdresser came through with a fresh clipping of hair and a baggy! And to make the hair cut the best ever.... Little Miss O didn't look like Little Mister O when it was done! My wonderful hairdresser cut Little Miss O's hair just like a little girl's hair should be cut!