Cars Cake - Third Birthday

I got to make a cake for one of my favorite little men last week. Since it was a Car’s theme, I decided to go with a racetrack. Since I was using a gluten-free cake mix, I knew I had to go with my round cake pans as the mix wouldn’t fill up a sheet cake. I figured I would just make a figure 8 track, (sorry, that pun just slipped out) but as I was looking I realized a number 3 would be even easier. Good thing, he was turning 3! hehe

Here is what you do:

Bake 2 cakes, and let them cool.  Cut about an inch off the side of each one before laying them side by side.  Then cover with chocolate frosting.

Carefully separate the gluten-free cookies, then use a sharp knife to carve a little circle out of the middles.  Places your "wheels" around the outside for the border.  (Confession time, I broke a few cookies, so I didn't have enough to go all the way around.  hehe)

Use white frosting (#  tip) to make the road.

Crush up the leftover cookies, and sprinkle inside and down the left side like dirt.

Draw the checkered area (the finish line) with the white frosting. 

I was planning on using M&Ms for the starting line, but the container of mini's didn't have enough green.  Being too tired to tint some green frosting, I discovered a box of nerds in the cabinet.  Waaaalllaaaa!  Instant starting line. 

Since I was headed to the Bloom Retreat, I left my husband in charge of transporting the cake, gift, and all three children to the party.  Yep, he's the man!!  There was a minor gift incident, but the children and cake made it fine.  I heard it through the grapevine that the mini-cars were placed on top at the party, but I never got any pictures to prove it.  Found these two on the phone though...

Obviously, Sissy wasn't interested in the game.

Recipe - Pumpkin Chock-o-Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Chock-o-Chip Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

- 3 cups flour

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 teaspoons baking soda

- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon nutmeg

- 1/2 teaspoon allspice

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 2 cups pumpkin puree

- 2 eggs

- 2/3 cup oil

- 1/3 cup water

- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare 24 muffin cups (with oil spray or paper muffin liners).

2.  In a large bowl, stir together first seven ingredients.

3.  In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil and water.

4.  Stir pumpkin mixture into dry mixture until smooth.

5.  Stir in chocolate chips, then scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

6.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

7.  If no liners were used, let muffins cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTES:

This makes 2 dozen big muffins, or 4 dozen mini muffins.  

This photo is what the recipe calls for...you can see why I call them Chock-O-Chips!  You can add between one cup (for someone with a normal tolerance) to two cups (I would have to say Choco-Obsessed!) of chips depending on your chocolate preference.

Reflections on Bloom

This past weekend, I attended the Bloom Women’s Retreat where the mother of a dear friend of mine was speaking.  I know their family’s story, but to be able to hear it from a different perspective (and see the video that made tears flow from depths of my soul) was very special to say the least.  In heaven we are going to experience fellowship with God and others at an incomparable level, and part of that will be hearing their story (and hopefully watching the 3D version of it too, hehe)  It was amazing to get a little piece of that here on Earth...to see His work in people’s lives, how they have overcome and conquered even through pain and hardship, and to get to know my sisters in a deeper way.

I didn’t know what to expect, but came with expectancy in my heart.  It has been a stressful couple of weeks (the immigration saga, Luigi’s trip out of the country after the sudden death of his uncle, a battle of sickness with our children, and considering adoption...just to name a few things).  I was needing some answers from the Lord, and a refreshing for my weary soul.  Thank you Lord that your timing is perfect!  

I am still processing many things, but wanted to write down a few notes/quotes that really spoke to my heart last weekend.  

In His presence, there is fullness of joy.

Shattered dreams are never random, they’re a piece of a larger puzzle.

Nights of crying your eyes out lead to days of laughter...it is a GIFT to receive.

God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Write His mercies in water, trials in granite.

The opposite of play is depression (not work).

Questions to reflect on:

Am I “tuned in” to what has eternal significance?

How can I be more fun?

How can I laugh more with my children?

What needs to change in my life?

What do I want to be known for?

Gentiles, Jedis, and Bad Women

We were watching a webstreaming of the Feast of Tabernacles gathering in Jerusalem.  Angus Buchan, from the movie “Faith Like Potatoes” was preaching in his strong accent but the children didn’t seemed to be phased until...he said “to the gentiles.”

Aryelle perked up and said, “Mamita, did he just say Jedis?  Is Jesus going to make us Jedis?”

Ha!  Well, not exactly...

Then about an hour later, Levi said, “Mamita, that man’s wife is very bad.”

I looked at him with a confused look as I heard Angus speaking very highly of his wife, how she is a woman of prayer and watches over their household and all the orphans they have adopted.  

Then Levi said in a very concerned voice, “but he said she’s the mala of the family!”  I had to laugh because mala does mean bad or evil in Spanish.  However, Angus' actual words were “She’s the mada (imagine mother with a very strong accent...hehe) of my family!

Earlier that afternoon, the children and I had a big discussion about how we don’t assume everything on movies is acceptable to say (after playfully calling Papito an idiot... big oops!  Still trying to figure out where that one came from.)  Anyway, glad they really took that discussion to heart.  hehe

Make it Yourself - Lego Table

It has been almost two years since our family entered into “the Lego phase.”  When Levi opened up that very first box, I knew...someday, we will have a Lego table!  Now if it were possible to ship things from amazon.com to Panama, I would’ve been tempted to do so a whole lot sooner.  However, since the move, our little table that used to get lots of action in our kitchen, now sits rather lonely in the corner.  That’s when the lightbulb went on...we could add a top and make our own Lego Table!!

Here’s what I did:

- Recycled a top from an outside table

(basically a square of pressed wood that measured 2 x 2)

and asked the hubby to spray paint it black for obvious reasons

(like covering the water damage and crayon decor that is now WAY out of style)

-Hot glued 4 large lego squares to make land and water

-Waited for the troops to return...

-Surprised the happy boy!!

Taaadaaa!  I was very happy with how the finished project turned out

(and the fact that it cost $24 to make!)

Nerves or Nachos?

Let me just warn you up front.  We’re all about keeping it real around here.  This is not our Falsebook Facebook page, it is life...the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Last night, it was definitely ugly!

I fell asleep putting Sissy to sleep, and awoke a couple of hours later to multiple toilet flushes.  After spending the day watching my man tirelessly pursue our immigration situation, I chuckled to myself about how he is even persistent with the flushing!  Rolled over and went to sleep until...Boom!  It hit me.  First the awful gurgling noise you could hear from across the room.  Then the cold sweat and goosebumps (or chicken skin in Spanish), followed by the uncontrollable lip curl as you grab your stomach in pain.  Your brain registers the emergency situation just in time for you to jump up and make a mad dash for the white throne.  Whew!

All right, now the joke was on me.  We both slowly and gingerly walked backed to the bed and tried to come up with a reason for the suffering (as if that would somehow make it all better.)  Was it NERVES from stressing about this immigration situation and wondering if it will ever be resolved?  Highly probable, but wouldn’t account for the precise timing...within minutes.  Was it the four dollars-fourth of a cup serving of  NACHOS I ordered at the stadium?  Nope, because Luigi only had one bite...hardly enough to trigger his “buzzard” stomach that can handle anything.  

Finally, at around 0230 we realized that if we sat straight up in bed and didn’t move a muscle...life would be okay.  Every ten minutes or so one of us would be brave and inch down a little, until it felt like the little bubble moving too far inside a level.  At this point it was flat out comical, although I’m not sure if I laughed or cried myself to sleep.

I was reminded of a Dean's Memo that was read over the loudspeaker of our ship on Semester at Sea (when 800 of 1000 passengers were sick after a certain port), "You will not die from diarrhea…you will just feel like you're going to die."

After some discussion, we think we figured it out...let’s just say if something says “Refrigerate after opening.” that most likely means before carrying it around in your diaper bag all day.  Lesson learned the hard way.

Created from a rib(bon)

I am LOVING our new bible curriculum! (You can read more about it here).  We start our day drawing stick figures of the bible story, then collect our illustrations in a binder.  We were flipping through previous lessons, and I was asking the children some review questions.  

I asked Aryelle “How did God make Adam?”

She quickly replied “He pulled a ribbon out of him!”

(add photo)

“and that was the lion that was allergic to Adam.”