Cake, take 3

Ok.....so in the beginning of this thought process, Monkey wanted a pirate birthday. So I thought I could do something pirateish for the cake. Then my first thought was to find something that looked like a treasure chest and have coins spilling out. So I finally found something at Hobby Lobby that was perfect for that.

Then.....take 2. I thought I was going to be able to make the cake itself look like a treasure chest with fondant frosting. Well, doing this process was proving much harder than the thought process was! I made the cakes yesterday so they would have time to cool. Then I started making the frosting around 1pm today....and was trying to assemble the cakes. It is now 7pm and I just finished putting the cake together. It would have worked but the fondant kept ripping on me and after however many hours of trying to put it together, the bottom was together, so I took the top off the cake and we changed the idea back to idea 1....

But take 3...we already have the bottom piece set for the bottom of the treasure chest, so it's not quiet what my first thought was, not anything like what my second thought was...and with Plan C, we have the cake all set and ready for the party! I'm happy with how it turned out, however it is not what I really had planned. Oh well! Such is life. It's just a cake after all!

So here's the final masterpiece....


And did you know that Brown is extremely difficult to make in frosting! Mix red and green, but it turns out more of a reddish "brown" if you can even call it that. So if I knew we were going to end up with how we finished the cake, I would have chosen a different color for the frosting....otherwise it was going to be a cedar treasure chest! :)

Monkey's Birthday

Yesterday Monkey turned 6 years old! He's been soooo excited for his birthday to come ever since October when we had Bear's party. He said, "I can't wait for my party, because I've never had a real life birthday party before!" Too cute. He's also very excited about his best friend coming to the party. We just put some candles in his ice cream since we were making the cake for the party on Saturday.

He decided he wanted to do another photo shoot like we did once before...here's my top 2 favorite pictures that I took yesterday....

Fruity Chicken Stir-Fry

I have to admit the first time my Aunt made this recipe for me a long time ago...I thought it sounded gross. But much to my dismay, I love it!
It's yet again another easy recipe that you can set aside also for those hot summer days when you don't want to turn the oven on. Plus it's easy!



Fruity Chicken Stir-Fry
1 1/2 cups minute rice
3/4 cup mayo
3/4 cup orange juice
2-3 chicken breasts
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 can mandarin oranges (I don't use this ingredient)

TJ's not a fan of the mandarin oranges so I stopped putting this in the recipe.

Fry chicken and cut into small chunks. Mix mayo and orange juice in a bowl. Add mixture and rice to the pan. Stir and bring to a boil. Add green pepper and pineapple and oranges and simmer 5-10 minutes longer.

And you can always make the recipe bigger just by upping the quantity of everything, depending on how many mouths are you feeding that day.

*I've wanted to make this before but realized I didn't have any orange juice in the house so instead used mt.dew. It's "citrusy" so you couldn't really tell that much of a difference. And I've not had pineapple before too so I've used green grapes cut in half. It was good that way too! :)

Great Lyrics for every Parent/Guardian/Mentor to hear

I heard this song, and thought this is some great stuff....I think more people need to hear this....So here you go. Pass it on. :)

Somebody’s going to show him what love looks like, tell him what’s wrong and right, are you the one?
Somebody’s going to teach him about the birds and bees, drinking beer and smoking things, are you the one?
Are you the one, that’s what I ask myself, when I look at my boy, yeah I can’t help, but wonder about the world and all it’s dangers.
Are you the one, that’s going to have that talk where he turns red and your shell shocked...or will you leave it up to some stranger? Somebody is going to reach him while he’s young. Are you the one?
Somebody’s going to be the one, that she turns to, when she’s hurt and she’s confused. Are you the one?
Somebody’s going to be the first to break her heart let her down and leave a scar. Are you the one?
Are you the one, that’s what I ask myself, when I look at my girl, yeah I can’t help but wonder about the world and all it’s dangers. Are you the one that’s going to have that talk where she turns red and your shell shocked....or will you leave it up to some stranger? Somebody’s going to reach her while she is young.
Are you the one? She’ll call when she’s in trouble the one who gets there on the double when things aren't going right. Are you the one he wants to be like when he grows up, the one who always shows up at his games and plays in every big day of his life. Are you the one?
Are you the one to teach them how to pray and who to give their souls to take, or will you leave it up to some stranger? Somebody’s going to reach them while they’re young. Are you the one?

I thought this was too great to not share. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

*Music from Guy Penrod's CD titled 'Breathe Deep'