A Day at The Lake

We made the first of probably many trips this summer to Sun Valley Lake last weekend. Tanner's mom and step dad own a house a couple of hours south of us that sits near a beautiful lake. We were only able to make the drive a few times last summer, but as Parker gets older it gets easier for us to take him on day trips. Tanner has been waiting very patiently for the weather to warm up so we could finally go back to the lake and enjoy a day together as a family.

It was still a bit tricky with Parker's nap, but we attempted to just leave a few minutes prior to nap time and let him sleep on the way there. That turned out to be a bit of a bad decision, because by the time he fell asleep in the car we were only about 45 minutes from the lake. Once we got close he woke up, so he ended up with about a 30 minute nap. He usually naps for 3 hours, but we were hopeful that he'd still enjoy himself.

Napping baby is so preicous

Family pic!

Once we got to the lake Parker did perk up pretty quickly, and he loved exploring outside. Tanner worked on putting the motor back on his fishing boat so we could take it out on the water while Parker played. He really loved the boat, and was very excited to sit in it.

After a quick lunch Tanner and I took the fishing boat out while Tanner's mom took Parker to the beach. They had a lot of fun together splashing in the water and playing with the sand. She even taught him to say "beach bum". Ha!

And Tanner and I had fun, too. He caught a whole bunch of crappies, which we will enjoy eating in the near future! Him and Parker posed for a nice picture with one of Tanner's fish.

After dinner with Nana and Papa, Parker was beyond exhausted and slept the entire drive home. I guess someone else was tired, too...

Week By Smart Phone 20/52

It's starting to feel like actual Spring around here, finally! We're spending more time outside, and loving every second of it. Parker is a total angel lately, too. I can't believe what a joy he is to be around. It's like he's a totally different kid now that he's 2.

Figuring out the Spiderman "motorcycle" (Parker's word for it). He'll get himself down the driveway and into the road now. Steering presents a problem, still. Maybe he'll have it down by the end of summer!

Fishing!!!

Enjoying some cake at great grandma Pat's place. I can't get over what a big kid he is now. Sitting in a chair and eating at a table with a plate and fork all by himself. Wow.

Also, he's so cuddly lately, too. It is the bestest thing in the entire world. My mommy heart is melted.

Parker noticed his piggy bank for the first time, and has been obsessed with putting coins in it and dumping them back out. He also likes to shake the pig and hear the coins jingle. So cute.

Watering the lawn in the nude.

Sidewalk chalk.

Parker and mommy ice cream date. He was a perfect gentleman. His ice cream melted quickly, and he called it ice cream "doop" (soup). We also discovered that he likes to dip his fries in ice cream just like mommy.

Had to.

More chalk.

Full getup.

Jumping on the bed is our new nightly pre-bath ritual. I think Parker might be part bunny rabbit.

We broke out the basketball hoop for the first time. Parker was a total natural. He loved it!

We weren't sure if this was against basketball rules. Parker carried the ball to the hoop in his butterfly net.

This is the first picture Parker ever took with my phone. I think it proves just how deep and misunderstood his soul is.

May or may not be linking up with Kat at [Living Like the Kings] today, depending on if she's still hosting while trying to care for a new baby and a toddler. Good luck, Kat!

Parker's 2nd Birthday Photo Book

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How To: Train Birthday Cake

Today I wanted to share with you how to make your very own train birthday cake! I was at first pretty intimidated by the idea of a train cake, but after making this one I can say that it was a lot easier than I had thought it would be. And it was such a huge hit with our party guests and my train obsessed birthday boy.

I originally got the idea for a train cake from Pinterest, but then I got to Googling for ideas and found some more resources. I incorporated what I liked from each of the tutorials I saw online, and in the end I think my cake turned out great!

These were my inspiration cakes, along with their links, in case you are interested.

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I ended up really liking the first cake's video tutorial, and found it the most helpful for the bare bones structure and instructional portion for making my cake. I also really liked their idea and the third cake's idea for using licorice as a frame for the freight cars. The second cake's smoke stack from an ice cream cone and marshmallows was a great alternative to making my own out of cake, plus we ended up using the cone for Parker to have an ice cream cone with his cake, which he loved. Finally the third cake's oreo wheels were perfect because Parker loves oreos (and so do I!). They also stuck very well to the frostring, and looked more like realistic train wheels than the fruit rings the first cake uses (in my opinion). All of these ideas combined turned into my end result:




Let me break it down for you how I did it. Tanner helped me by baking the cakes the day before, which is so important. We used 3 loaf pans and 2 boxes of cake mix. After the cakes came out of the oven we set them on the counter to cool for 10 minutes. Once they were cool we removed them from the pans carefully and put them in the fridge overnight. The next day (the day of the party) they were cool and ready to be cut and decorated.

We used one large loaf pan and two regular loaf pans

Before you start cutting your cakes you first want to make them level by making a straight cut across the top. Then you will turn them over and decorate the "bottom" for your train. How you want to cut your train is entirely up to you, but I stuck to the first train cake's advice and cut each of the smaller loaf pans into 4 equal parts (these were the freight cars). The train in the tutorial only used 1 loaf pan, but I had 2 so I ended up with twice as many freight cars, making my train much longer.

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The larger loaf pan was used for the front part of the train (or the main engine), and I cut small pieces off of each side vertically, then narrowed the front a little more. Then I cut some of the back off to make it shorter, and stacked that piece on top to create the back of the main engine. The "roof" of the main engine was some leftover cake top that we had shaved off in the beginning to make it level.


For display purposes, we cut a sturdy piece of cardboard down and taped aluminum foil to it. The train was still long enough that it needed to curve around, but you could just as easily cut your cardboard longer and make your train one straight line. It's entirely up to you. You could even use a nice cutting board if you had a large enough one, but we didn't.

The frosting for our cakes was a store bought vanilla, and we whipped it up and divided it into separate bowls. Then we added different food coloring to each bowl to create a multi colored train. You could do all one color, but I thought the multi colored look was more fun. I learned quickly that frosting the cakes on a separate cutting board and then carefully transfering them on to the main display was much cleaner and easier than frosting them directly on the aluminum foil. I frosted each cake individually, and then added the oreo wheels, licorice lining, and candy freight while the frosting was still wet.





I decided to put Parker's birthday candle in the first car instead of candy, and I thought it was perfect.


For the rest of our freight we used gummy bears, organic animal cookies, and chocolate kisses. The possibilities here are really endless, though. I also liked the idea of crushing up oreos and using that for freight that appeared to be "coal", but we didn't end up doing that just because I thought the oreo wheels were already enough oreos. The ice cream cone smoke stack was stuck into the main engine with a toothpick through the bottom, and the marshmallow "steam" was connected with more toothpicks. And there you have it! Easy peasy!

This cake was so fun to make, and really easy to do. The total time to decorate it was about an hour to an hour and a half on the day of the party. I loved seeing Parker's face when he saw his train cake, and I'm so glad I did this for him. Plus, it was turned out pretty tasty, too!

Throwback Thursday: Mother's Day

These are Parker and I on Mother's Day in 2012 compared to us in 2013. I can't believe how much bigger he is! And how much blurrier...

My Hair Donation Story

If you aren't following me on Instagram, you might not know that I recently cut a lot of my hair off! I've been wanting to get a few inches cut for awhile now just because my hair was so long it was getting unmanageable. I was constantly getting it caught in things: purse straps, coat zippers, car doors. If it wasn't getting caught in something it was getting yanked on by Parker. (Ouch!) And then there was the constant hair blowing in my face and getting in my way due to wind and weather. Those things combined with the sheer amount of hair that was getting everywhere in our house from the shower drain to the carpet to our clothes. (Yuck.) I had had enough! Plus, I had sort of gotten to that point of just giving up on it. Aside from spending a good half an hour curling my hair for our family photos, I hadn't done a thing to it in months. I was bored with it, it was too long for me to attempt blow drying it or styling it, and so I just ended up letting it air dry and throwing it in a ponytail half the time. Lame.

Still, I wanted to wait to get my hair cut until after our family photos for Parker's birthday. I needed photographic evidence of my long beautiful hair one last time. A few days later I met a friend of mine for drinks and she commented on how long my hair was. My response was that I wanted to get it cut because it was really driving me crazy, and she suggested I donate it. Funny but the thought of donating my hair had never even occurred to me up until that point. At first I was hesitant because I only just wanted a trim, but after giving it a lot more thought I decided if I was going to cut my hair I wanted it to be for a good cause.

I checked out the donation requirements on the Locks of Love website and found out that they needed a minimum of 10 inches. That's when the doubt started to set in. I became really uncertain of cutting off that much hair. One night Tanner and I were sitting on the couch, and I was voicing my concerns to him. He suggested we measure out 10 inches in a ponytail just so we had a good idea of how it would look. The next thing I knew I was telling him to just cut it off. I knew if I didn't do it at that exact moment I was going to chicken out, and this was something I really wanted to do for a child in need. So Tanner cut my hair off, and filmed it for all the world to see.

Afterward I was surprised at how I felt. I wasn't crying or hysterical, but mostly in shock. It was also kind of exhilarating and liberating to just cut it off spur of the moment like that. It was of course completely uneven, though. Here I am right after.

I already had a hair appointment scheduled for the weekend, but the next day I moved it up to ASAP. I did not want to walk around looking like I had my husband cut my hair, ha! Unfortunately they had to cut at least another 3 inches off to make it even, because we hadn't done it correctly ourselves. I do regret not going to a salon to begin with just for the reason that I think those extra few inches could have also been donated instead. But live and learn!

I have to admit that I really hated my hair after they "fixed" it at the salon. It was just SO short. And I'm still not totally used to it, but I'm slowly getting there. I'm someone who prefers long hair, especially on myself, so I don't think I'm ever going to love this look. Still it isn't the worst haircut I've ever had, and with time I will like it even more because it will grow out. I think I'm going to keep donating my hair every few years if I'm able to, because it's such a great and easy way to give back.

The donation process was very easy to do, in case you're interested in donating your own hair. If your salon doesn't participate you can simply request to save your ponytail, and then you just slip it into a ziploc bag and mail it in a padded envelope to the address on their website. I also included a form with my information on it so they would notify me a confirmation that they received my donation. If you aren't ready to part with your hair you can also sponsor a child or send a monetary donation.

Tanner put the video of him cutting off my hair on YouTube just so we had an easy way to share it on the blog, and with friends and family. Surprisingly it's already gotten over 1,000 views. I joked to Tanner that I was going to go viral, ha! But I just hope that I can inspire someone else to give back to this great cause.