More Cakes

Since I haven't taken the first Wilton Cake Decorating class, I asked a friend of mine if she'd be willing to come over and show me some of the pipping techniques she's learned.

I ran out of time to bake a cake, so instead I made microwave cake- yep, I took 1/2-cup white cake mix and added 1/3-cup water (and a crushed oreo cookie) and poured it into a greased plastic cereal bowl, and after 90 seconds in the microwave, viola! I had cake.

I also made the butter cream frosting. Mine was rather stiff, but it still worked great for making some of the flowers. Shanda brought TONS of fun stuff, and we pulled out our tips, bags, and couplers, and had fun decorating cakes!

I did get a picture of mine, but I forgot to take them of Shanda's adorable cake and another friend's, Donnarae, "present" cake. I am looking forward to more opportunities to play with frosting- I want to try two-toned flowers, and practice some more with different techniques.

Oh, and Megan wanted to be the "vanna white" for my cake. She loved the frosting but wasn't excited about the cake. I loved the moist "cookies and cream" microwave cake. YUM!

Swimming

With some friends, I've got the girls signed up for swim lessons. My hope had been to get Megan swimming like Zoë was last summer before we headed to Utah.

I didn't even think about Miranda and water...

Lo, and behold! We have another water baby.

When Zoë was little we spent quite a bit of time at the pool (once or twice a week during the summer). She got to the point where she would jump from the edge of the pool, even the diving board, down into the water, go under and kick up to meet one of us. That all changed after she wasn't allowed to go swimming from doctor's orders.

She became freaked out of the deep end, and last summer I told her teacher to go ahead and push her. By the end of 6 lessons (two weeks!) she was swimming in the deep end! This year, she's already (at the end of 2 lessons) swimming the length of the pool, has started learning the technique for crawl stroke and back stroke. She's made impressive growth, and I'm SO PROUD of her! She loves swimming, and I think she also loves the recognition she gets for doing so well.
Megan? Well, she's been scared of the "deep end" (which is anything that comes up past her bellybutton). Still, she's nearly backfloating on her own, and she'll jump to you from the edge of the pool, and just last week she put her face in the water (with goggles on) and picked up 10 rocks (longer than 10 seconds under water!) I wish we had just two more lessons before we went to Utah, but maybe while I'm there I can work with her and get her swimming, too...

That leaves Miranda. Oh, my little girl, my "baby" who wants so badly to be a big girl like her big sisters. She likes Megan's goggles more than Megan does, and wore them longer! She is rivaling Zoë for being the youngest jumper, and she LOVES the water!

She will jump in if you hold her hands, and she's almost to the point of jumping in on her own (although I'm trying to get her to count so I have some warning- she did jump in completely on her own once, with nobody around, and she bobbed under the surface until a mom who was closer could grab her. She came up a little concerned, but gave me some high-fives!)

As I said, before, she loves wearing goggles, and she also loves playing with the Princess diving sticks. She even loves playing with them at home...

I'm glad my girls love the water. I'm excited that they are learning to swim. I am grateful that, the older ones at least, also have a healthy respect for the water and aren't crazy. I just wish we had better access to a pool!!!*

*Nope, sorry, this is not grounds for us moving to Arizona, Amy. :)

Beaches

The first time I touched the gulf coast water, I was shocked with how warm it was. The color was muddy, it smelled of salt, but not nearly as potent as some of the coastline along Seattle in the summer, but it was obviously ocean- with waves, sandy beach with washed-up (and often dead) flora and fauna, and lots of shells. Zoë and Megan both had a wonderful time, as did Travis and I, any chance we got to drive the hour to the beach.

When I first saw Lake Michigan, it was from the Chicago side. It's impressive, as you can only see blue water to the east as far as your eye can tell. It was usually blue-gray, as I'd expect a (pollute) lake near a city to be, although on really clear days the water looks almost blue. It has the more distinct smell of lakewater, not the briny ocean.

Then, we went to Silver Beach, the Michigan side of Lake Michigan. I was dumbfounded! White sand from the sidewalk down to this georgous blue water that had gentle waves breaking on the sand. Seagulls, shells (ok, they are freshwater muscles, but still shells!), drift wood pieces... wow. Of course, the smell was clean- more like I imagine lake water should smell, and there was some vegetation. The water is not nearly as warm as the gulf (doesn't even come close), but it was still pleasant in the shallows.

Of course, Zoë was right at home splashing in the water and digging in the sand. Megan (who was only 10 months at the time) started eating rocks. Yuck.

Since it's only a 40-minute drive from our house to Silver Beach (even faster than our trips to Galveston or Surfside from our house in Texas!), I've made it a goal to get to the beach once a week (excepting the month I'm preparing for, gone to, and back from Utah). We're two-for-two at this point, and we're so glad we've had some great friends to play with! It was only 64 degrees when we went the first time. The water was very chilly, but the kids still got in, and the adults still got burned! The second week the high was nearly five degrees warmer, and the water was a little better (but still cold!) and we had as much fun!

Zoë loved collecting shells and telling the others how to build a castle.

Megan loved digging in the wet send and trying to find the right combination of water and sand to make sandcastles (she largely ignored Zoë's slave-driving instructions).

Miranda enjoys eating the snacks, and playing in the sand- not digging, but actually running around, putting her head/belly/toes in sand pits. She has no interest in the cold water, but doesn't mind playing in the sandy "mud".

Zoë makes a perfect base for a sandcastle.

Megan is trying to get the right combination of sand and water to make a castle wall.

Zoë ready to go try out the playground as the water was too cold.

Miranda playing on the "bigger kid" playground,

heading up the stairs to go down the slide (see video below)

Prarie Farms- where a Kid is really just a kid...

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit a local farm a few weeks ago. We had the fun of seeing bacon-fated pigs, noisy chickens and turkeys, and adorable kids
(baby goats and human offspring). There were also rabbits, horses, guinea fowl, beehives, ducks and geese. Part of the cost included a 20-second pony ride.


We went with some friends from our church, and Zoë and Miranda had a blast!
Zoë's favorite part was holding this little baby goat.


Miranda loved all the animals, and was ready to explore everything. However, I must say her favorite part was the "horsey" and getting to ride on one. She was so eager to jump into the saddle and take off!

"Hi! Horsey!!!" Miranda would say when she walked up to this pony. This isn't the one she rode, but this animal was so patient and gentle with all the ruckus and attention.

The girls feeding "Peter Rabbit" just outside the barn.
Miranda loved petting the little animal- and tried to pick him up.

Where was Megan in all this? She was horribly SICK. I thought when I loaded her up that she had a simple cold. She didn't have a fever, she handn't thrown up, but she didn't sleep great the night before. I risked it and felt like a horrible mom because she sat, alone, in the van for the 3+ hours we were there. Any time I tried to coax her (or drag her out, once) she cried the entire time. I took her back and snuggled her with her blanket and let her sit there. She had NO desire to get out. Of course, the moment she felt better and looked at the pictures, she's been asking to go back to the farm... Oh, and she probably had a virus, but it turned into an ear infection.*

Zoë also enjoyed riding a pony. She was rather comfortable, and I didn't really even need to hold on to her. I was quite surprised that she remembered riding a pony when we went to Thanksgiving Point two years ago... "Remember when we rode ponies with Grandma?"

Miranda, looking like a serious cowgirl watching for predators...
I promised Megan we would go back to the farm so she could see all the animals and do all the things her sisters wanted to do.

Thanks, Jillian, for the invite- we had so much fun!




*She told Travis a few nights later, after a fever, not eating, and puking a bunch of water early one morning, that her ear hurt. She never mentioned it to me! The next morning when I looked in her ear, I immediately called her pediatrician and took her in. She had a raging infection. He wanted to start her on the pink syrup (Amoxil) antibiotic. I hate messing with that messy drippy stuff, always worried why it doesn't last 10 days... so I asked if we could have a pill form. I didn't realize the capsules they had would be so HUGE! Still, Megan is a champ- she swallows them down with whatever liquid is on hand, and has no problem taking them (if I can remember to give them to her!)

Dentist, round 3?

Since my tooth became unbearable (it's really been bothering me since I was pregnant with Miranda!), and I had a root canal in April, the dentist finally got around to getting the crown going. Two weeks ago they drilled and drilled and dug another huge hole in my (THANKFULLY) numb tooth. They left a little filled stump there in my mouth that my tongue could NOT get used to. And, they said, "Don't chew on your left side".

Now, I'd gotten used to not drinking cold things on that side (three years of not being able to tolerate anything cold on a tooth is good for reinforcing habits), but NOT CHEW!??!

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise, because as they reminded me today, at my second of three appointments with the dentist (not including the initial evaluation followed a few pain-blurred days later by a visit to the endodontist for the root canal), the final crown won't be ready for three weeks.

Ummmm, I'm going to be in Utah in three weeks... can we speed that up? Well, it might be ready in two. I schedule the appointment, hoping the lab that they send the molds to that make the crown will do a perfect job shaping and forming the tooth, and that it will arrive in time for my appointment (two days before I leave for Utah) and I won't have to worry about a temporary crown.

A temporary crown that is as rough as sandpaper, that bulges into my buccal mucosa (or inside cheek), that is VERY tender right now (cuz they had to shoot the gums full of lidocaine so they could wrap a tight band around the still-inflammed (and bleeding!) gum to get a good impression mold for the final crown), that cracked three times while the assistant was trying to make the temporary. Not very reassuring that the assistant spent half the time talking (while trying to make the temporary) about how the temp crown falls out all the time, but don't worry, here's a little package of cement, and just squeeze some of that on the inside of the tooth and pop it right back in there... oh and if the cement leaks out around the tooth, don't worry, it'll flake off. And there's enough here in this packet to glue it in six times.

WHAT!??! I have to deal with THAT for possibly the next six weeks? AARGH! Although, in consideration, maybe it's better to deal with a temporary crown I can pop back on with some cement than to be in Utah and have something happen to a shoddily made permanent crown that cracks or breaks off.

Anyway, the last three weeks have been good training for not chewing on that side. I might just keep it that way for the next six. Maybe I could just not get the final crown... but I've paid for it (OUCH!) and this temporary crown is not very smooth, comfortable, etc. (see above complaints)

I really hate going to the dentist...

Sidenote: While at the dentist, I overheard a young women (apparently in her 20s) who called her mom practically in tears. She had fallen on the stairs while at work and completely cracked her front tooth- almost at the gumline! She said it was throbbing, and apparently the tooth was bleeding (so much for patient confidentiality- I got most of this information from the assistant making my temp crown). I understand the young woman was immediately referred to an endodontist and was to have a root canal that afternoon. Of course, I was jealous about the immediate referral (I had to wait FOUR DAYS in a pain-induced and drug-induced haze since I couldn't take ibuprofen since I was pregnant!), but sad that she had her front tooth to deal with. And, I could feel her pain (both literally and figuratively) over the cost, the TIME, and the cosmetic aspect. Poor lady!
I almost laughed when I heard her cry in anguish to her mom, "I hate the dentist!!!"
My sentiments, exactly.