Pic(s) of the week: Gabe's B-Day Cake

Ok, so I might have exaggerated a little when I said I made Gabe and awesome cake. It was a cool cake, but not what I would classify as awesome. I had much more planned for this cake but the amount of time it took to make the cake and frosting from scratch coupled with a sickly, and high maintenance child, I ran out of time for my elaborate plans.

As evidenced by my obviously hasty depiction of the Kansas City Chiefs logo. The original plan was to have a replica of the actual logo but I literally had 30 seconds to slap something on the side.

Also missing is a Happy Birthday Gabe on the other side. Again, no time.

Still, I think it came out quite nicely.


There wasn't room to put all the candles so I left off a , and just went with 8.


It was tasty. Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. The cake came out a tad dry, but the frosting was yummy. In retrospect, I would have saved a LOT of time by just sticking with a boxed cake mix.
I think Mia liked it too.

Fall Traditions

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that Fall is a favorite time of year for us. October is certainly the kick off to a busy few months as we gear up for the holiday season and countdown to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (wow, Christmas already??).

I love to watch Mia grow into our traditions. The first weekend in October is always a big weekend for us. The Fall/Halloween decorations come out, we celebrate Gabe's birthday, pick pumpkins, and break out Ichabod Crane and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown movies. Even though Mia came down with an ear infection on Friday, we were still able to take part in our traditions.

Saturday, we celebrated Gabe's birthday. His mom, Bonnie (aka Grandma B. or "Ma B") came to join us in the fun. To make it extra special, I cooked one of his favorite German meals. Sauerbraten, spatzle, and red cabbage with apples. Yum!!!

(picture from KitchenProject.com)

It sounds fancy but let me just confess that the Sauerbraten was cooked in a crock pot and everything else was pre-made and shipped to me from a great little German food company in Denver. Nevertheless, it turned out superb. I highly recommend this meal.

I did, however, bust out the Martha Stewart vibes and baked him an awesome cake. Which I will share with you in the next post.

After dinner, we spent a rare night out with friends and had a great time. As usual, I forgot my camera so I have no pictures to share. I really must get better about that.

Sunday, we continued our annual Fall tradition and took Mia to the Johnson Farms pumpkin patch. Oh boy, what fun we had! Mia loved, loved, loved it.

Here we are last year:
This year, Mia is walking, talking and able to really take it all in.


We saw baby chickens...
She kept going back to see these little babies about 5 times. It was hard to pull her away.

Then she discovered she could chase the bigger babies around.

You can barely see the little chicken, but she chased and chased him all over.

She loved looking at all the animals there. So much more exciting than seeing them in a book.


Gotta get back to the chickies!
She had no fear or hesitation this time.

Then there was the hay loft where she drug her Daddy back and forth across the hay for quite a while.
She was having a blast.


Finally, it was time to get on the hay ride up to the pumpkin patch. But by this time, she was losing steam.

We didn't spend much time in the patch, but she was able to pick out a couple of pumpkins. Which ever one she pointed at and said "pretty" or "cool", we took.

By Sunday evening, we were all exhausted, but it was a fantastic weekend with fun had by all!

Pic of the Week: Funny Story

Ok, so it may not be funny to you, but it was hilarious to us. So I am going to share it with you anyway. And you will like it. Or not.

One day last week, I picked Mia up from daycare, brought her home and needed to start dinner. So I set her on our bed, turned the TV on to Sesame Street and left her to enjoy Elmo and Abby.

I know. It is not the greatest parenting tactic, but hey, it's the way we roll when the need arises.

Anyway, when I put her there, the bed was made with the pillows neatly tucked in under the sheets.

As I began dinner, I could hear her rolling around, mumbling to herself, squealing at the tv, your know the whole thing. Then silence.

And we parents know, silence can be bad.

So I peeked in to find this:
Now, are you thinking what I am thinking?
Could she be advanced enough to know to pull out a pillow, fold it in half, and lean back for a comfortable view of the TV? Or, could it be a total accident that she took advantage of?

We will never know.

Hilarious.

BFFs

When we go to Denver, one of our favorite things to do is spend time with our good friends and fellow parents, Greg and Shawna. Their son, Gavin, is 15 months older than Mia so it is a great to get together with them so our kids can socialize. Mia has always played well with other kids, but since she has been in daycare her social skills have been better than ever.
So it was no surprise that she and Gavin were immediate buddies. In fact, they played so well, that for most of the night we adults were able to socialize without too much fussing from the kids. It was fabulous.

They did puzzles...

Played with cars...

Colored...
And then there was this...
If this keeps up, we might have a Schnelle/Kunz wedding someday!

For more great pics of bathtime fun, see Shawna's post here.


P.S. Mia will certainly have fun with this cutie soon! Gavin's lil' sis, Sloan.

Mission Impossible

Last weekend, the three of us loaded up in the minivan with two of our dogs and headed West.

Destination: Colorful Colorado

Our Mission (and we chose to accept it): To attend the wedding of my baby brother in which our daughter was to be a flower girl. One of three. Thank goodness.

Mission Accomplished? Not really, but close.

The Debrief:
It is Thursday, the day of the rehearsal. The wedding party and family converge upon the Beottcher Mansion to rehearse the next day's nuptials.

The Mothers at the Rehearsal

None of us know what to expect from an 18 month old. Everything hinges on her mood. Nevertheless, I was anxious to see how she would do in practice.

Mia at the Rehearsal

When the time finally came to practice the procession, we spent 10 seconds on the flower girls, and it was all over. I am a little worried now. But, I don't dwell and just head down to the rehearsal dinner.

Fast forward to the Wedding Day.
We arrive an hour and a half before the wedding and get Mia dressed. We had to force her into the dress kicking and screaming. Not a good sign. The next hour would be spent in a feeble attempt to keep her happy. It was a long hour. She was not too cooperative for wedding pictures. Another sign.
Ten minutes to start time, Gabe takes Mia outside to ease her boredom. Five minutes to start time, I send Cindy, our friend and savior, out to tell Gabe that I will be in the audience waiting for her to come out in the procession. The hope was that she would see me and walk up the isle without too much trouble.
Start time.
Out comes the Groom and Best man.
Next, the Bridesmaids
Then Flower girl 1...
Flower girl 2...
...............
...............
And the Bride...
No Mia. Flower girl 3.
Crap.

Turns out, due to a communication error, Gabe didn't realize it was go time.
We completely missed it.
I cannot begin to tell you the despair and self-punishment that man went through (and still is going through).
At the end of the day, despite our disappointment, it was a small hiccup and a beautiful wedding!

My Handsome Bro

What a beautiful bride!

I try not to think of it as a waste of time, money, preparation and effort by the bride and ourselves. It just wasn't meant to be.

Besides, it was worth it just to see her dressed for the part.


So we chose to forget our woes for the night and celebrate! Cindy took Mia home for us so we could relax and enjoy the evening. Thank you Cindy!

The Groom's Family Table

Congrats Phil and Gretchen! What a great party! We Love You!!!

I am still trying to figure out what is on his nose????

The wedding was the focus of our week but only one of seven fun filled days we spent in Denver. More to come!