Speech: 9/04/13

During circle time Ms. Jaime read the story Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. It is a story about three white mice who spend their days on a white sheet of paper hiding from a cat.  One day while the cat is sleeping they discover three jars of paint and begin to pain with it.  as they play in the paint they find that they can make even more colors by mixing two paints together.  Students were given a specific color mouse (red, green, white, yellow, blue, purple, or orange).  They had to request using language, “I want a mouse, please.” For students who are working on their colors, they were asked to ID a specific color mouse from a field of 3 choices (ex. Get the red mouse). As Ms. Jaime read the story students were called up based upon the color paint the mice stepped in.

Students participated in one big center activity.  Each student was given a zip lock bag.  They then could request two different colors of paint that was squirted into their bags.  Students had to use language to request for the color paints they wanted by saying, “I want a squirt of (color) paint, please.” Once they got their squirts of paint, they closed the bag and mixed the colors together to see what new color it made.  Students were then given a paint brush to paint a picture of a mouse.

Carry over home activity:

cookie sheet
dropper
vinegar
food coloring
baking soda

Pour baking soda on cookie sheet. Mix different colors of food coloring with vinegar.  Using a dropper, drop the various colors of colored vinegar onto the baking soda.  The colors should mix together and also a bubbling chemical reaction.

Argh!

Yes, that’s the sound that pirates make but it’s also the sound of a tired mother after a LONG week of seminary, running, school, work, sickness, and extracurricular activities.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy in my entire life!!!  At least that’s how I feel right now.  I’m sure there will come a day where this will be considered easy.  Even though last week presented a whole slew of schedule conflicts we made it through the end of the week.

Monday was a holiday and with that brought Daddy being home!  The flip-side to that is that I didn’t any of my Monday “chores” done.  Laundry pilled up and the floors didn’t get done but we did get our grocery shopping done as a family 🙂 .  Come Tuesday I picked up one of my young women for seminary and went for a run while she was in class.  After dropping her off at home, I went back to my family and did scriptures, breakfasts, lunches, got Jared off to work, showered, and dropped the kids off at school.  I got a text message later that morning from the missionaries reminding me that I had signed up to feed that that night.  CRAP!!! So I quickly start pulling stuff out for dinner and got going on that.  Jacob and I did homework and laundry until it was time for me to take him back to the school for his class.  I had just enough time to go back home, change the laundry, finish up dinner and then head back to the school to pick him up but be home before the big kids got home from the bus to an empty house.  That’s one thing that I try really hard to do- to be home when my kids get off school.  If I’m going to be a stay-at-home-mom then I should be home when they get home.  I know there will be the occasional time when I’ll be a minute or two late but that will be on the VERY rare occasion.  When all the kids got home we had time to empty backpacks and get dressed for boxing, scouts, and activity days before we were back out the door.  Emma was dropped off at the church for activity days (now that she’s eight 🙂 ) and the boys and I did homework in the car.  At 5:15 we dropped Joseph off at boxing and then headed back to the church for scouts at 5:30.  Emma finished with activity days at 6:00 and then I had to pick up young women for mutual at 6:30, the same time that Benjamin gets done with scouts. By the time I get done with mutual, drop off kids, and get home I am wasted- chocolate wasted!!!

I can only imagine what Thursday has in store for us with dance and boxing.  I am going to be living out of my car for most of the week.  At least when we get Jacob’s transportation issues straightened out I’ll have a little more time outside of the car but for now that’s just the way things are going to be.  Oh the joys of having grown-up children 🙂

So why am I writing all this down for remembrance??? Even with everything that we had to deal with I know there will come a day when I’ll miss this crazy time in my life.

Speech: 8/28/13

During circle time students participated in a language lesson related to common objects found in the classroom setting.  Ms. Jaime brought in Ned’s head (a puppet that you can hide objects inside). Students had to use language by making a request to put their hands in either Ned’s ears or nose.  They pulled out a classroom object (scissors, eraser, glue, glue stick, crayon, paints, markers, clock, pencil, or cup).  They then had to state what the object was (if they had difficulty labeling, they were given choices) and what you use the object for.

For our next activity students were given color card.  They then had to find other students that had the same color card.  Once they got into groups they were asked to name something that comes i that color.  For example, green grass, red apple, and blue ocean, etc.  Ms. Jaime then drew that object on the board.

During small group centers, students participated in a sorting game.  They were given different food objects and asked to label and sort them in to the same color containers.

Jacob’s 4-yr check-up (late)

I COMPLETELY forgot to get Jacob’s 4-year check-up and shots so on the last day of school last year they expelled him.  It probably seems a little extreme but I can see how they would see that as noncompliance and would take action.  He ended up finishing up the last day and then that gave me all summer to get his shots.  Well, with everything going on this summer I FORGOT AGAIN!!!  So knowing that school starts on Monday that meant I had today and tomorrow to get him in to see his doctor.  Luckily for us, someone had cancelled for today so we took it and ran down to the office.

It was great to see everyone from the office.  They have been so supportive of Jacob’s therapy and wonderful at keeping a close eye on all the things we’ve talked about over the years.  His doctor checked that his surgery from a couple years ago was doing well and still healing and not interfering with his growth.  It almost brought me to tears to see his doctor getting excited about the muscle tone we’re seeing in Jacob’s legs and hear him talk to him and hear his progress.

We have officially caught up!!!

Height: 41.3 inches (33%)
Weight: 38.5 lbs (46%)
BMI: 15.8 (62%)

He has been doing so well but it is so nice and comforting to hear it from professionals and have a stamp of good health on my little man!  Now we’re ready for school!!!

“Bun in the Oven” Shower

This weekend I threw a shower for a dear friend having her first baby.  She has been Emma’s primary teacher, on and off, for a couple years and is now Jacob’s teacher. Emma is obsessed with her and I can’t say any differently.  She’s an amazing woman and we are so excited for her to be a  mommy!

She has a great sense of fashion and had a super cute idea for her shower.  And so I started planning a “Bun in the Oven” themed luncheon.  My dear, dear friend Jamie helped me design and plan out the dessert and food tables.  She was called away at the last minute.  Her mother-in-law’s health was failing and so the whole family went to Utah.  Just before she left she came through for me and gave me all her dishes, made the pinwheels, and some treats.  She knew how stressed I was about people bailing out on me as time when on and she felt horrible but I honestly wouldn’t have cared because she had a much more pressing issue than my baby shower.  But that’s just the kind of amazing friend she is and I couldn’t be more grateful!

Everything turned out beautifully!  The food was wonderful, the decorations were perfect, the house was cleaned, and the kids were away with Jared!

Another friend of mine is a genius when it comes to graphics.  She whipped up some graphics for the water bottles and some subway art for the food table!

A couple tubes of ribbon from the dollar store and a bent hanger made a beautiful “chandelier” for over the island.  I reused the circles from Jacob’s two-year-old birthday party and just used leftover scrapbook paper from the pinwheels to cover up the monkey paper from the birthday party.
 
I was able to find some ADORABLE ovens on etsy and used those to hold cinnamon rolls as party favors as guests left!

Jared and the kids came back in time for Emma to see her teacher and give her some love!  I hope that Emma is always so blessed to have such devoted and faithful leaders in her future.  What an amazing example of being a beautiful, successful, working woman but who still has her sights set on having an eternal family!

Bubble Guppie Cupcake Toppers

I was so awful.  I made these amazing Bubble Guppie cupcakes and didn’t take a single picture before they were picked up 😦  It kind of makes me sick because they took a lot of time and work and then to have no record of it feels like loosing something very important.  At least Jared snapped a picture of the toppers while they were still sitting on the cutting mat before I put them on the cupcakes.  Even this picture is missing one of the sets of toppers that I made but it is better than nothing.

Bubble Guppies seem to be all the rage these days.  This isn’t the first time I’ve had an order with them as the theme. And I’m guessing it won’t be the last!

Precious Moments Cake

One of the cake orders I had for the weekend was this beautiful Precious Moments cake.  It was for a mother who had given birth to a baby girl on her own birthday only to have to give the baby back to Heavenly Father a couple days later.  This all occurred last year and so with her and her daughter’s birthdays approaching she had ordered a special cake from me.  This was a bit tricky because it had to be gluten-free, coconut-free, and peanut-free.  I had never dealt with anything like that before and had to read all the labels to my ingredients like crazy.

I wanted to focus to be on the cake topper which was this beautiful depiction of a mother handing her swaddled child back to an angel. Since the baby’s middle name was Sunshine I thought it would be nice to have a sun-ray effect leading to the top of the cake.  So using some tinted butter-cream I pipped an ombré, ripple effect- getting lighter toward the top.

I loved the look and was pleased that I could create something beautiful but not over powering the meaning and message of the topper.

Pool Party Cupcakes

An old friend of mine from high school ordered two dozen cupcakes for her daughter’s birthday party.  It was pool themed and so gave me a very wide net.

I used this opportunity to complete my Individual Worth Project for personal progress.  Since our ward split back in November our ward hasn’t had the man-power to call a personal progress specialist.  It’s one of the things that has been sitting by the wayside.  But with camp now over and things somewhat settling into place I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to pick it up.  I know, as if I don’t have enough to do, but I know how good this will be for the girls even if I have to drag them thorough it.  To show them how easy it is and that the goals are attainable I’ve been working on completing the program alongside them.  For my Individual Worth project I was to develop a skill and then teach it to someone else.  I’ve been working on my cake decorating for two years now but only recently have I really been focusing on fondant creations.  There’s a young woman in my ward that wants to open a bakery at some point in her future.  My goal was to teach her some of the basic skills of cake/cupcake baking, frosting, and fondant skills.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to teach her and have her practice those skills.

We worked for about 10 hours to complete this one order!  It took forever!!!  But I’m very pleased with the work she was able to put out by the time we were done.  I taught her how to make her own fondant and then she colored it so she could practice at home.

It was a great way to do a project and now I can tell the YW about it and hopefully that will inspire them to get their projects done too.

Kaya’s baptism cake

Today one of Emma’s little friends got baptized!

I was so blessed to be asked to be a part of her celebration and create 100+ cupcakes and a two tiered baptism cake.  Her mom and I had collaborated a few weeks back about what she wanted (white being the obvious color pallet) but she gave me quite a bit of free reign.

I kept the cupcakes pretty simple with french vanilla cake, white whipped butter-cream frosting and pearls on half and white crystals on the other half.  Her dessert table had jars of white candies, mints, and marshmallows.

The cake was a two-tiered french vanilla cake with MMF and some sugar jewels that she had purchased to put on the cake.  I added a large fondant flower on the top tier to bring everything together.

It was really lovely when we saw her get baptized and noticed the big white flower she had in her hair.  Emma leaned over to me and mentioned that it looked like the flower on the cake 🙂 .

I LOVE that I was asked to be a part of this special day and make something as equally special for Kaya’s baptism party!
     

Hulk Cupcakes and Cake

A dear sweet friend of mine from back in elementary school contacted me regarding her daughter’s 4th birthday celebration.  She asked if I could make a HULK cake and 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.  I had to make sure I heard her right in that she said it was for her daughter and she wanted HULK.  It’s just something you don’t hear everyday 🙂 Once we got all the details put together I sat down and started thinking about how I was going to create this and make it exciting for her.

If she was as big a fan as Quincy says she is then it needed to be a little  cake with a big impact!  This is what I came up with…

It was only a six-inch cake but my boys thought it was larger than life!  You should have seen them when they woke up this morning and the cake was complete 🙂 I think Quincy’s daughter will appreciate it, especially if my older boys did!
     
The cupcakes were a little more whimsical.  I made simple medallions to place atop each cupcake.  There were a dozen Hulk faces and then a half dozen simple Hulk logos.  I thought they turned out really cute!  I love the design and how everything came together especially since this weekend was jam packed with cake orders- 4 to be exact!  Now onto the next order!