Practice makes perfect

Our neighbor, Amy, had her birthday party last weekend, and she asked me to make her a cake. I was so flattered and happy to do it. 

She requested the strawberry cake and icing from Nicole's shower...you know, the cake that almost killed me? 

But, instead of the crazy vertical layers, she just wanted strawberry. Piece of cake!

And, for the icing that speckled my entire kitchen last time, I decided to make the batch in two parts. I made half the batch of icing, and then the other half. This technique changed the entire experience! The icing was easier to manage and mixed better, making a nice consistency. It didn't overflow the mixing bowl, and we won't be finding specks of it until Christmas. Miraculous! 

So it turns out that The Cake That Almost Killed Me actually taught me something. 

I feel like there is a life lesson in there. 

I made a collage! And other things

Our neighbors Sean and Nicole went on a ski trip last week, and we dog-sat their Izzy. Below is a collage I made of some fun times we had.

In other news, it snowed. Like real snow. Monday morning we woke up to a surprise snow storm. The flakes were huge and fell on and off all day. In an effort to capture the falling snow, I took lots of photos and even movies. But, with the sky being grey and the snowflakes being white, I couldn't get them to show up very well. What I did manage to do was to take a series of photos, one after the other, with a setting on my camera. Then I made this video! It looks like the snow is falling, and you can see the size of the flakes. Pretty snazzy.

Chris was really nice and took Grace out in the snow. He took pictures for me since there was no way I was walking to the park in the cold. For those of you who may not know, Grace has a voice. It's a low-pitched, slow drawl...kind of dopey. I am the master of the Grace voice. It's pretty close to Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, but a slight faster tempo. See if you can hear it.

"Hey Mom, it's cold out here, and Dad wants to go to the park."

"Mooom, he's making me stand by the water and pose. I don't like to pose, Mom."

"Mom, tell Dad this is the last one. Seriously, it's cold. At least he bought me a jacket."

"Okay Mom, it's not that bad. Dad's pretty cool, and I like being crazy."

The craziness: