Ten Years Ago...

Looking back to 10 years ago seems like such a long time ago, especially considering the "major life events" that have taken place since! 

10 years ago puts me back into Jr. High. As 7th and 8th graders we had a new-found freedom before us called periods, not subjects, as they were in elementary. We finally were able to "choose" (as much as 7th & 8th graders do) our classes. Band and choir? Home Economics? Shop or Art (I picked shop!) Our lockers became our space - our dumping ground, our lunchtime hangout place. So long "my" desk! Hello countdown to last 10 *predictable* minutes of every period! No more bus rides home after school. Thank you for taking over my afternoons, volleyball, basketball and track! And HELLLOOO cute boys! ; ) 

Although I am a little embarrassed to post this photo, I feel as though I must. This is me at the end of my 8th grade year. I LOVED this shirt. Futhermore, I love that Hjortsberg let us use our precious Spanish class time to take photos of each other! Not sure how this one made it back to me!

In five shorts years, I became a young lady, graduating from High School and starting life on my own.

Now, five years later, I'm a wife and a mom...and I still stand the same!

My how I've grown up! 

But in all honestly, it's funny in as little as ten years, how everything you once knew is completely different than what it is now. As an 8th grader, I occasionally thought about my future. Did 14 year old Sadie think 10 years later she'd be married with 2 kids? Um, no! I didn't even think I'd be married, let alone have kids! I predicted myself to still be in college, studying something cool. Instead I finished early, settling for an Associates degree instead of a Bachelors. I envisioned moving out of state to find my husband-to-be and to settle down. Not quite how it all went down...

Funny how life works!  

Folder Car City for Boys

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post this! My boys LOVED this city I made for them out of folders and a sheet of construction paper. 

Wasn't terribly hard to make - would have been easier if I had steeper stairs though! We made it work either way! I was going to make it big enough to cover all the stairs, but they were getting too antsy and wanted to play with it!

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to read 4 books this year. When Perry and I packed for our honeymoon in Jamaica, he packed a couple books, and suggested I do the same. I don't ever have anytime to read, and when I do, I get sleepy! But I'm happy to say I completed "Something Borrowed" by Emily Giffin at the end of October. I started reading while getting my tan on, laying on the beach. I don't read very often- I still have a book on my shelf from 3 years ago that has about 80 pages left in it...if only I could bring myself to finish it!

I've found now that I'm not in school and forced to read, I'm kind of enjoying it! Because of my "newly found" past time, I added it to my list of New Year's Resolutions, seen here.

Anyways, for those of you who have seen the movie, "Something Borrowed", it's based on the book. I read the book and then watched the movie. I actually bought the book not realizing they were the "same". I was super excited once I found out it was made into a movie, only because for the first time, I had actually read the book. But like everyone says, the book was way better. They changed the characters around quite a bit, and made it hard for me to follow.

In the book, there are two best friends, who have been friends all their life. One friend is engaged to be married, and the other finds herself in love with the groom-to-be. I don't want to wreck it for those who are going to read it, but then it all kinda spirals out of control. Clearly a romance novel - my favorite!

Needless to say, I'm now reading the sequel,"Something Blue" on my new Kindle Fire. I love it! I can now read in bed without the lamp on! I'm also impressed that I'm over halfway done with this book, and I've only been reading it for 2 weeks! At this rate, I'm going to blow my 4 book goal out of the water!

Tool Cake for our 2 Year Old!

Here it is! The finished product! JP's tool cake! Complete with a hammer (notice the wood grain on it!), a wrench (inscribed with "Dustin Tools"), a screw driver, and measuring tape. By far my best cake created - and easiest, sorta!

I created the tape measure last after I had made all the tools. Initially I was just going to wrap it around some tools, but because of Hunter's little "incident" I opted to wrap it around the whole cake instead. I love how it turned out!

Here's the top part of the cake with my mending job. You can kind of see the patch under the hammer head.

I used a food marker that I borrowed from Alicia (Thank you!!) to write the measurements on the tape measure. Pretty handy! I didn't even know they existed!

My younger sister Robin was able to make it to town for JP's birthday and happened to come just in time to watch me make the tape measure. She had never heard of fondant before so I let her use my leftover fondant to build something. Here's what she came up with.

It's a little bear with a blanket on it. Under the blanket is a heart on it's tummy. The inside of the bear is the leftover cake from my first attempt. I'm pretty sure she ate him today...

Part Wreck, Part Progress on JP's Cake

I am happy to say that other than trying to get the fondant to stop sticking to my counter top, I had a pretty stress-free day. I created the fondant yesterday afternoon while the boys were napping, and conveniently just after Perry finished cleaning the kitchen. I've heard a lot of people say that fondant is really hard to use, but I think differently. Yes, I threw a few curse words at it today when I couldn't get it to not stick to my counter, and then to not rip when I picked it up, but I knew at some point it was going to work. It only took...4 tries. 

I used a recipe for marshmallow fondant. Its super yummy and really simple to make! 

Its ingredients are:
1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
3 tablespoons of water
2 lbs. powdered sugar and optional flavoring

All you do is put the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and put it into the microwave for 2 minutes. Stir marshmallows making sure it’s all melted, then add your flavoring and powdered sugar to your liking. Knead dough on a powdered sugar surface and keep adding powdered sugar to make dough less sticky and more workable. Allow your fondant to set up overnight covered. Before you use, microwave for 30 seconds and knead until smooth and pliable. Click here to go to the website I used.

I've never (knowingly) left mine overnight in the fridge because #1. I never had that kind of time before and #2. I hadn't read that part until just now! Regardless, after I rolled the fondant out for the 4th time, and powder sugared my entire kitchen counter, I finally got the fondant to not stick to the counter. Once I transferred it to the cake and cut off the excess, I was one happy camper! I think it turned out quite nice!

Once covering the cake was done, I was ready for an easier task. The decorations for it were much less stressful! Without giving away what the cake will look like (can't post until tomorrow!) here's a little preview of what's going on top of it.

Making these tools was so much fun! I can't wait until JP see the completed cake. Hunter on the other hand couldn't wait until tomorrow to have cake....

I was SO mad. I turned my back for 2 seconds and he takes a chunk out of the side... I'm still new at fondant so the patch work might look a bit sketchy! Thank goodness I saved what was left of the orange fondant!

Attempt 2 at JP's Cake

If at first you don't succeed, try try again! I re-baked his cake and that turned out 100% better!

I did 2 marbled cakes instead of 1 big one this time. I figured if I made one big one, I wouldn't have to try to glue them together. In my head it worked, but in my kitchen, it didn't. If it would have came out of the pan correctly, I'd be ahead of schedule!

Both cakes came out of the pan perfectly. But one froze lop-sided so I did what I had to do to glue them together. And because it looked so ridiculous, I'm not posting that picture!

I did all the baking yesterday morning, and started making the fondant to cover it all yesterday afternoon. That was a HUGE mess! And took longer than it needed to. "I can just make orange by using my red and yellow dye" Half an hour later, I was at Michael's buying orange dye. :) 

1st Attempt at JP's Cake...

Every birthday party we have, we celebrate on the closest Saturday. For obvious reasons. #1. I don't have to work with other people's work schedules. #2. Nanny and Papa come. #3. Its the day after my normal days off of work, so it gives me a little extra time to make the cakes.

Here's why I clearly need the extra time:

I used a box mix for the cake. Betty Crocker's White mix, to be exact. I followed the directions. The only other thing I did was I split the batter into thirds and dyed them. The bottom color was blue, middle was orange and the top was yellow. Once I put the three colors into the pan, I twirled it and "stomped" it down a little and popped it into the oven.

After it was fully cooked and cooled, I went to pop it out on to the rack, it split its self in half in the middle of the cake - almost an even break! And the top part instantly "cracked" and fell open like a flower....

It tastes good though... but this is clearly why I start working on the cake on Wednesday.