99 Problems and a Greer Ain't One...

Some video game is using that song in its ads, so I've had to change the words for Alex because he started singing along. He also started singing the "Real Men of Genius" jingle from Miller Lite, and I have no idea where he got that one? Parenting fail on our part, apparently...

Anyway, in conjunction with Alex's birthday party, little G-dawg turned 7 months old! She's full of fun and surprises - crawling like crazy all over the place, trying to stuff dog food in her mouth, pulling herself up to standing. She says "ma-ma" now, eats puffs like crazy, sits in the regular bathtub without her baby tub, and in a few more pounds, should move into the bigger car seat in another month or so. Best of all, she loves her big brother and is completely mesmerized by his antics!

Turkey Time!

Before we dig into the Butterball variety, I made turkey for Alex's birthday celebration at school on Monday. Since he was born on Thanksgiving, I always like to do something kind of festive for his class treats. A trip to Hy-Vee at 6 a.m. on Monday morning and a venti coffee to fuel my dream of Oreo turkeys was all it took...

The supplies: candy corn, Double Stuf Oreo (you must use this variety!), frosting, Rollos (substituted for mini-peanut butter cups) and chocolate-covered raisins, which I did not end up using.

I originally started out stacking one Oreo on top of another, but I quickly realized that my poor math skills caught up with me again, and I didn't have enough. So, I saw a version with the top of the Oreo taken off for the base, and I did that instead. The Oreo halves left over without the white filling, I simply used vanilla frosting on and they turned out fine. I recommend NOT doing this first, and assembling the body and head before affixing it to the base.

 

Make the turkey body - stick candy corns in between the cookies, push lightly (cookies will break easily) and not too deep.

 

Making the turkey heads - first, take a candy corn, remove the tip of it, apply it to the Rollo with a dab of frosting. Take black icing and add two eyes.

Gobble, gobble! Here are the finished turkeys! You can make a more detailed one with arms and feet (using more candy corns). I didn't feel like it and thought this turned out really cute.



Yellow Angry Bird Cupcake Cake

My son loves Angry Birds and wanted a birthday cake with the theme for his party. He originally requested the bomb bird, but I had visions of kids with mouths stained in black frosting and told him I could do the yellow bird for him.

I decided to make it as simple as possible, I would do a cupcake-cake, since he is turning five and there would be a bunch of kids. It worked out great, every kid got a cupcake, and other than a little initial arguing about who would get the other "eye" cupcake (Alex got one), they loved it. This cake uses 21 cupcakes, so make two dozen and you'll have a few extra to munch on!

Due to time constraints, I used a yellow cake mix from the box for the cupcakes. I did make the frosting, and used Martha Stewart's vanilla buttercream frosting recipe. I NEVER use the 6-8 cups of confectioner's sugar that is recommended. I stick with about 5 and it is more than sweet enough!

You've gotta fight...

For your right...

 To PAAARRRRRRTTTTAAAAAAYYYYY!

The scene: Alex's 5th Birthday Party

The location: Backyard Adventures in Urbandale

The backstory: 15 kids ready to tear it up on a Friday evening

The motivation: Blue drink, candy, cupcakes, pizza and unrestricted play time

The outcome: FUN!

These are the only pictures I got, as I was running around most of the night, talking to other parents, checking on Greer, getting food and treat bags. No matter the age, everyone had a great time!

Catching up with fall

Lots of fun stuff going on the past few weeks, Beggar's Night, Halloween and the First Snow of the Year!

If you haven't seen the Saturday Night Live "Harry Caray Hotdog" skit then you are probably wondering why the baby is wearing a pair of oversized black glasses with a hotdog costume...

Little Hotdog and the Green (Boomerang) Angry Bird

Re-using the Angry Birds decorations from Trunk or Treat

First snow on Wednesday, November 9. We still had carrots left in the garden!