It's so hot and humid here. SO HOT AND HUMID. Peter's been bugging me to cut the boys hair for a few weeks. Liam's had several hair cuts (one in particular that made me cry), but this was Simon's first MAJOR chop.
Or buzz, as the case may be.
My head knows that this look is much more practical for the summer, but my heart (oh, my heart) hated to cut it all off. You might be thinking I should've just cut it short, but anyone who knows this child knows how impossible it would be to get him to sit still long enough to get an decent cut. So the razor it was.
Now look at this next picture. I can't look at it without laughing.
Who IS this guy??
my little skin heads
Aren't they all cute??
(Sorry for the noise all you photogs. Didn't realize my ISO was set to 800. Argh.)
After hearing about Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) in the comments on another blog (I can't remember which), I decided that it would be perfect for the Clone Wars cake that Liam had in mind for his birthday. The recipes I read all looked easy enough, but I was surprised that it really WAS so easy. And fun.
Here's what you'll need:
- 16 oz bag of marshmallows (I used the big ones, but the minis would probably be even better)
- 1 few tablespoons of water
- 1 kg icing sugar
- Crisco shortening (eww.)
Step 1: Melt the marshmallows
Place the entire bag of marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 Tbsp water. Melt in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, remove and stir. Repeat until the marshmallows are all melted, which should take around 2 minutes. Be careful as THIS GETS HOT.
Step 2: Prepare your work surface.
While you marshmallows are melting, it's time to prepare your work surface. Seeing as our two main ingredients are marshmallows and icing sugar, things are going to be STICKY. In order to make the later step of kneading possible, you'll need to grease your table/counter with Crisco. Crisco grosses me out, but it was a necessary evil in this case.
Step 3: Add the powdered icing sugar.
Adding approximately 1/2-3/4 of the bag, stir until mostly combined. As you can see, we're taking something sweet and adding something sweeter. Can you feel the sugar crash already?
It will likely still be a little lumpy.
Step 4: Kneading. Oh, the kneading...
After you've stirred in the majority of the bag of icing sugar, grease your hands with Crisco. Palms, backs, fingers, the cracks between your fingers. (Again, Crisco is pretty high on the list of "Things I'd Rather Not Touch Let Alone Eat", but you will appreciate it's usefulness in this recipe.)
Take the bag of icing sugar and pour most of what's left onto your Crisco covered table, making a small well in the center. Now empty the contents of your bowl into the sugar well.
NOTE: This is MUCH to do after smearing Crisco all over your hands. A hot glass bowl + Crisco-coated hands = great difficulty.
Once your icing sugar well is ready, go ahead and scrape your marshmallow mixture out of the bowl. Begin to slowly fold the marshmallow onto itself. The icing sugar will stick to the marshmallows and be incorporated in as you knead. At this point, the fondant is soft and warm and soft and supple and soft and... did I mention soft?
Seriously. Even if you don't have a cake to decorate, make some of this stuff just to experience this first bit of kneading. It is almost beyond words. I can hardly describe the sensation of touching this stuff at this point. It's luscious. Heady. Do it.
Almost done.
Knead until all of the icing sugar is incorporated and no little specks of white are visible. This will take at least 8 minutes. You will need to periodically re-grease your work surface to keep the fondant from sticking. If your fondant seems too dry, add some water 1/2 a tablespoon at a time (DO NOT add too much or you'll find yourself stuck in a downward spiral of "a bit more water, a bit more sugar, a bit more fondant, a bit more sugar". Err on the side of caution.)
Step 5: Wrap it up.
You could use the fondant right away, however I read on several sites that it's better to make it ahead and refrigerate it at least overnight (it will keep in the fridge for weeks). In order to do this, coat the ball of fondant in Crisco, cover in plastic wrap, and place inside another bag or container, squeezing out as much air as possible.
Need some party supplies? Want to make your own pool noodle lightsabers? Check these links below and have it all delivered to your door. If you find any of these links are broken or sold out, let me know and I'll find some new sources. Wouldn't the minifigure ice cube trays be fun? They could be used for ice (obviously), chocolate, or even to make Lego man crayons!
Disclosure: I'm a member of the Amazon Affiliates programs. This means that if you purchase an item from a link from this blog to those shops, I will receive an affiliate commission. However, I only share products and services that I would personally use and that I hope will be a good fit for you.
It was my first Father's Day without my own dad. I didn't see him or talk to him on the phone. I didn't get to tell him that I love him and how blessed I am to have him as a father. I spent most the day purposely NOT thinking about him and his absence from a day that, for the majority of my life, revolved around him.
my daddy and baby me
I didn't write a post last year at this time (I was totally new to this whole blogging thing... starting my blog in May and then not posting again until near the end of August! Blog FAIL.), so I don't remember when I talked to him that day or what exactly was said. I don't remember if it was a good day for him or if it was day where he really struggled with the effects of his brain surgeries from earlier in the year.
I wonder if I would have made the effort to remember all the details if I had known that it would be his/our last Father's Day.
Probably, he talked to Liam and Simon for longer than he talked to me. It's fun to listen to the nonsense of a 1 1/2 year old and the Lego-filled ramblings of a 5 year old. Little boys who didn't have any expectations or judgments. Little boys who didn't worry and didn't have to hide the fear in their voices.
When it was my turn, I'm sure I did most of the talking. I think that he was still having a hard time speaking and finding his words at this time last year. Once so articulate and eloquent, the surgeries that were performed (and the infection that followed) greatly impaired the language center of his brain. So I likely talked while he listened.
And I likely cried a little after hanging up.
**********
Of course we still celebrated here, but we were celebrating Peter, my children's father. One of my reasons for starting this blog was to be able to document the little things that happen in our lives. I know my children will remember the big events, birthdays, Christmases, getting their drivers licenses, graduation, weddings, etc. I wanted this to be a record of the little things that go on in our lives. I hope that they will be able to look back and see -through the fights and mistakes and any misfortunes that may fall- how much they were loved.
How much they ARE loved.
My boys are so blessed to have the father that they do. Their heavenly Father did a great job in picking Peter out for them! He may not be the perfect parent (neither of us are), but he loves them with the kind of love that moves mountains. I know that sounds like a bit of a cliche (it definitely sound like a line from a cheesy song!), but there really is nothing that he wouldn't do for them.
He's the kind of dad who will learn the words to a specific song that his boys insist be sung each night before bed... even though he doesn't really like to sing.
He's the kind of dad who will spend HOURS sitting on the hard floor, bent over bins full of Lego, because his son wants him to build a catapult... even though it's supposed to be his day to relax.
He's the kind of dad who will play silly games and make strange noises in order to coax a few more bits into his toddler... even though on the inside he's screaming, "Just. Eat. It. Already!"
He's the kind of dad who shares his bed with his infant sons and endure kicks and punches all night long... even though he'd rather said infant slept in his crib.
So thank you, Peter, for loving these boys so perfectly and for loving their mom, too.
Happy Father's Day... a day late, but I know that doesn't surprise you!
This one's going to be a little bit harder to give step-by-step instructions for. To begin with, I spent an embarrassing amount of time on the Star Wars Lego website. If you click on the link and take a look at the home page you'll see that that's where I took the header, side and footer from.
In order to use any of the elements from the website, I had to first save a screen shot containing each piece that I was interested in using. As I said, the main bones of the invite came from the home page, the majority of the rest came from the Comics link. I did remove the navigation bar at the top and elongated the whole thing in order to have room for all of the birthday party details. The picture in the window near the top came from one of the comic episodes, as did the silhouettes of Anakin, Asoka and R2D2 near the bottom.
All of these elements were put together in Gimp (a program similar to Photoshop but doesn't require one to sell a kidney to buy it it's free to download), and then the text was added one line at a time so that I could control the font size to give it the same look as the scrolling Star Wars intro.
I'm pretty proud of how seamless this looks, especially considering that it consists of at least eighteen different "layers" or elements. While it's hard to explain how this was done -especially to those who aren't familiar with Photoshop or Gimp- I think that this method can be used to make an invitation to fit any theme.
Someone suggested selling customized birthday invites on Etsy or the like, but I'm not sure of the logistics regarding using what I'm assuming are copyrighted images. Think there'd be a market for them?? ;)
I took so many pictures of my preparations for Liam's birthday(s). Even though it's weeks later, I can't waste them! So first up in our five part series of Excruciatingly Painstakingly Detailed Steps to your very own Star Wars birthday party will be...
Pool Noodle Lightsabers
Step 1: Measure one pool noodle and mark the middle.
In this case, I already had one lightsaber completed, so I used it as a guide. This is not a science. It does not need to be exact. Hopefully no one will be comparing length... they're little kids after all. Using a sharpie or similar works well. The end will be covered by tape when all is said and done.
Step 2: Cut.
Use a serrated knife to cut the pool noodles in half. The cut surprising easily. Like buttah. Step 3: Admire your work. Step 4: Assemble your supplies.
In additions to you pool noodles, you will need: duct tape (silver, grey or both), black electricians tape, scissors. Step 5: The end.
Cover the end of the of the pool noodle first. They are a bit of an awkward size in that one piece will not cover the end completely, and doing a simple 'x' will leave little corners exposed. We found this to be the most effective way to cover the end of your lightsaber 'hilt'. Step 6: Cover your hilt.
Using the duct tape and electrical tape, wrap the bottom eight or so inches of the pool noodle to form the base of your hilt. You can chose to use all black, all grey, all silver, or a combination of all three. Step 7: Spend hours and hours and hours detailing the hilts.
Cut lines and pieces, impossibly tiny square and thin strips of your various tapes in order to create the lightsaber hilt detail. Stay up until midnight several nights in a row in order to complete a dozen unique, one-of-a-kind pool noodle lightsaber.
Yes, THEY ARE EACH DIFFERENT. Have I mentioned that I can be a little neurotic?
Cost break down
- pool noodles from Walmart $1.97/2 = $.98 each
- 2x duct tape, 1x electrical tape ~$11.00, used approx half so $5.50/12 = $.46 each TOTAL $.98 + $.46 = $1.44 each
Since these made up the majority of the "loot bag", it was a very frugal parting gift for all of the kids who attended. The kids beat each other silly played with these lightsabers for the entire three hour party. When it was time to leave, Liam also gave each child a Clone Wars kite that we found for $2.93 each, bringing our total to $4.41 per child. They each took home two things that they can actually play with, not a little bag full of junk.
Need some party supplies? Want to make your own pool noodle lightsabers? Check these links below and have it all delivered to your door. If you find any of these links are broken or sold out, let me know and I'll find some new sources. Wouldn't the minifigure ice cube trays be fun? They could be used for ice (obviously), chocolate, or even to make Lego man crayons!
Disclosure: I'm a member of the Amazon Affiliates programs. This means that if you purchase an item from a link from this blog to those shops, I will receive an affiliate commission. However, I only share products and services that I would personally use and that I hope will be a good fit for you.
So I cut Simon's hair.
Who IS this guy??
my little skin heads
