Hello Spring

Yesterday was a really nice day. It started with an extra hour in bed while Stephen made a delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon for us and his brother Nick who had come over early. I have to say, my husband is the king of pancakes. Try as I might, I can't even make decent pancakes let alone ones to match his. He doesn't cook many things or even often, but what he does cook he takes very seriously hah.

Then he and Nick went to work outside in the yard, raking leaves and fixing it up. They made it look great, I’m so happy to have a nice tidy yard now. They took Willow outside to 'help' too leaving me with just Ryder so I could make a cake for Stephen and his other brother Mike who’s birthdays we were going to be celebrating later at my mother in law’s.

I even managed to get some housework done during this time which is a miracle these days. I felt productive as I tackled the laundry - which my husband thinks I'm avoiding, did dishes, cleaned, got me and the kiddies bathed, put stuff away and all with the sun shining through the windows.

The cake was easy and quick to make. Just a simple box mix yellow cake which I baked up in the morning and froze. I like to add a couple of tablespoons of dried meringue powder for fluffiness and a teaspoon or so of vanilla to mask that boxed flavor.

Then while the babies were napping and shortly before we were leaving to go to Stephen’s Mom’s I pulled it out of the freezer, leveled the tops and frosted with stabilized whip cream frosting which I made myself using piping gel (Wilton’s recipe).

I crushed some Nilla wafers to pat around the sides and piped some whip cream rosettes on the top edge and in the middle I scooped some sweetened strawberries. Decorating must have taken 30 minutes max. I think it looked pretty but the whip cream didn’t hold up to piping very well so the rosettes kind of flattened and melded into each other a bit. After freaking out about it all the way there though, I finally let it go!

Once we got to Marie’s, Stephen and I (well, mostly Stephen while I took pics) made the potatoes for dinner, using a Paula Deen (from Food Network) recipe that we’ve made before for ourselves and loved. I have to make another post to share the recipe they are so good.

We ate them with steaks and barbecue chicken which Nick and his girlfriend Olivia grilled up outside.

And here is Willow getting her first hair cut (not counting Mommy's poor attempts) by Olivia who is a hairdresser in training. She did a good job and so did Willow who sat still throughout, earning herself a lollypop :)