10/31/11

Halloween Puppy, Ketchup, and Sushi

Well I'm down to the last minute on this sushi costume! And baby is not wanting to take her nap today! So as of right now, I have less than 2 hours to finish adding the rice to giant sushi costume. luckily I was able to finish the ketchup bottle costume and the free puppie costume yesterday in time for our church's fall festival. The 11-year-old sushi didn't care to dress up for that, so it was okay, however the school costume parade is starting in 1 hour and 45 minutes. i just cannot use a hot glue gun around my 1-year-old! Not a good idea. Here's where I'm at now...


So to make this costume. I took poster board, cut out a giant circle and duck-taped it to cardboard. I cut out arm and leg holes and stapled 2 pieces of fabric to hold up the circle and be an opening on top for his head. The salmon and avocado are made from felt which I hot glued on and cut in shapes to look like the sushi and avocado and carb meat. Currently I am hot glueing white packing peanuts as the rice. I also got a black tablecloth from Target and will line the cardboard to look like the seaweed wrap.

I must brag that my "free puppy" won first prize at the church fall festival costume contest!!!



To make this costume, I made a puppy costume, got an old box from the garage and duck taped her puppy stuffed animals inside. I'll take the one in the middle!


11/2/2011 Update...
Here's the finished sushi costume!

And here's my 3 little monkeys (we coudn't get the baby to sit still for the picture) just before heading out trick-or-treating! Madi ditched the free puppy box and was worried she might not get as much candy because she wouldn't be "cute" enough. hehe. What do you all think? :) She's got more candy than she knows what to do with!








10/29/11

2 Days to Make 3 Costumes

Halloween is just 2 days away.  I didn't mean to procrastinate on costumes this year, but 3 of my kids have birthdays in October and well, I am just recovering from the emotional, financial, and creative overload.
So the only costume that is storebought is my baby girl 1-year-old. She's going to be a little froggie and I picked up that costume from Once Upon a Child last month. It's an adorable Old Navy costume and she is going to be cutest froggie in the Fort Collins Tiny Tot parade, if not, the world.

My older kids have way more complex costumes. Ezrah wants to be a giant piece of sushi, Jack wants to be a bottle of ketchup and Madi wants to a puppy.

Not just a simple puppy costume
Not just any puppy I might add. It was my overzealous idea for her to be a 'free puppy" coming out of a cardboard box with a bunch of her stuffed animal puppies.
Today I am sewing up that puppy costume. i would have been okay with buying a puppy costume, but the stores are totally sold out of everything and me being a glutton for punishment, part of me wants to sew it anyway!

The sushi costume
The sushi costume needs to be crafted. It will be a giant circle wrapped in a black tablecloth (the seaweed) and I will glue white packing peanuts as the rice. I got salmon colored felt to be in the center, just as you guessed it, the salmon, and light and dark green felt to be the avocado and cucumber.

Human bottle of ketchup
My little ketchup bottle boy is actually pretty easy. I got some awful red vinyl from the clearance section at JoAnn's that is perfect. I can just staple that together and it will just be a simple shift of red with a replica of the Heinz ketchup label. Not too hard, but will still take up some of my precious time.

Easy 11-year-old party
Today my son is going to the movies with his buddies to celebrate his birthday. Luckily he is too "cool" for me to do anything creative for this celebration, so I have time to do these costumes.

Oh yeah, I have a baby!
But wait, I don't really have time to make costumes. I have a clingy 1-year-old who breastfeeds constantly! And if she's not nursing, I have to keep a constant eye on her because she is just the princess of havoc, getting into everything.  So breaking out the sewing machine has to wait until baby is down for nap. This baby is obssessed with wires and anything electronic (and obssessed with ME for that matter) so I cannot do anything that doesn't involve her, let alone using a sewing machine. Let's pray for a long nap today!

10/25/11

This day 11 years ago...

...I became a Mama! Taking a step back from the night weaning chronicles,today is all about my oldest kid. Today is his 11th birthday and my anniversary of becoming a Mama!  So in the life of an 11-year-old, there is a lot going on, between hormones, and the need to "fit in". He's as tall as me now.
He wants to be like his friends, which is normal I know. Last week after one of his buddies came over, I heard some banging around in his room. A lot of banging around. I see him coming out of his room with lots of bags and boxes heading for the trash.
Mama: "Ezrah, what on earth are you doing?"
Ez: "Mom, my room needs to be more age appropriate. I hate my room."
Mama: I mmediatly said, "You are so right Ezrah. let's change it" as I am bathing baby I am thinking,  "How could I let this happen? I've been so wrapped up in baby, I absolutely forgo my pre-teen's son's need to be "cool"?"
This poor kid, has had his friends over. They have cell phones, cool posters and playstations and he's got a Finding Nemo light switch plate and his brother's bedding has firetrucks on it.

So, for his birthday, I am surprising him with a big kid room. He started painting a dark blue stripe across covering the mint green and white nursery-style stripe that was already there. he hates his bunkbeds, so his dad took a hacksaw to it. I got a lot of ideas from ezrah, so he kind of knows that his room will be different when he comes home from school today. His room has been off limits for a day now while I work on it, so he know something's up.
Finally after sweat and tears and shopping, it's done. And it looks awesome.

The Unveiling
When he came home from school, he immedietly ran to play with the gift he opened in the morning...an ipod Touch. That's right. This kid has the coolest piece of electronic equipment out of any person in the household, including me and Dan. He walked into his room, ipod in hand, looked up and was like "ahhh" It was a happy "ahhh".
So his room is now "age appropriate" and he's loving it!!! He's hanging out in his room with his new ipod Touch as I write this. I'm glad he's happy. I'm sad he's growing up. He also has his own cell phone now too that he also got for his birthday. That's right, he's 11 years old and has a cell phone. I didn't get a cell phone until I was 33 and it was on my Mom's family plan. All his friends have cell phones, and now he FINALLY (as he puts it) has one.
He's a good kid. He deserves it. My baby boy is growing up! I'll post the pics soon!

Update 10/27
I just wanted to update that this morning I awoke with Ezrah in my bed! Actually all 4 were sleeping in my room, but the youngest 3 always sleep with me. So, is he growing up? Maybe not as fast as I think. He's still my baby I guess! I'll take whatever I can get!

10/24/11

Adventures in Night weaning -discontinued

Why? because I quit. Just doesn't feel right. And I'll tell you what really doesn't feel right...my right boob! Yup, a plugged duct hit and has turned into full blown mastitis. So I take it as a sign that I'm not ready, baby is not ready and my body is not ready. I am trying a new plan to combat the frequent night wakings of baby. I'm trying the Elizabeth Pantley method which is derived from the No Cry Sleep Solution. It basically has to do with not having baby fall asleep while sucking. It's a lot of work and I have tried that with Madi but I wans't too consistent with it and it didn't really work. So I'm giving it a try again.

10/23/11

Adventures in Night Weaning -Night 2



 I am ready to climb Mt. Everest or at least do the laundry...which, let me tell you, is pretty comparable in size.
So, now I am completely confused! Guess what Indy did last night? That little monkey slept! That's right, she actually slept! Don't get me wrong I am not complaining here. Maybe the Universe doesn't want us to night wean.

She woke up once or twice only. My plan was to continue with the first part of Dr. Jay Gordon's night weaning method. I was to nurse a little, then  let her fall asleep not on the boob. Well, she fell asleep too fast when we nursed. Is it a fluke? Probably.

 I am excited about today as I actually feel well-rested! Maybe I will take the kids on a bike ride! Maybe go to the park! Maybe I can clean the house! Maybe I can get clean socks in my kids' drawers for the week!
The possibilities are endless! I forgot what it is like to feel normal!

So Night 2 on our night weaning adventure is pretty boring, but so thankful that baby Indy and I feel so good today!

10/22/11

Adventures in Night Weaning -Night 1



I am not tired. I am beyond tired. Baby Wins, Mama Loses. If there was a word that meant exhaustion x a million, that's what I am. Maybe debilitated is a good word. I cannot function from the nightime hourly nursies my 1-year-old seems to "need." I walk into walls, I look like crap, house looks like crap and no one has clean socks.
As a proponant of the anti-cry-it-out method, this whole idea of night weaning has me a little freaked out. But I am at my last rope; hanging on by a tiny piece of thread. I thought I would give night weaning a try and update y'all on the nightly progress. If there is any!
Just to be clear, I am not weaning baby; not at all. I plan to nurse her forever as she is my last baby. And as a disclaimer, sleeping through the night (STTN) is a developmental milestone, not something that you can "train" your baby to do. I am just trying to end the hourly night nursings and with that, hopefully, Indigo may want to sleep for longer stretches at night. Hopefully.
I'm willing to try Dr. Jay Gordon's method of night weaning. It is a 10-night process.

In love with Dr. Jay Gordon
Dr. Jay Gordon is not a guy who would steer us wrong. he's not Dr. Weissbluth - that jerk who lies to mamas telling us to ignore our babies cries. I hate Dr. Weissbluth - ass-hole. No, Dr. Jay is like us. (and I am secretly in love with him.) He supports long-term breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and baby-wearing and all the things that go along with attachment parenting.  I wish Dr. Jay was my doctor. He does NOT recommend night weaning the first year, as babies under 1 still need night nursies.

Losing It
Let me tell you that I am a walking dead mama. I wish my baby could understand that tired mamas don't take their kids to the park as much as well-rested mamas, tired mamas don't take kids to the zoo as much as well-rested mamas, tired mamas don't have as much patience as well-rested mamas. I'm so tired that I cry at the drop of a hat; I am desperate. And I have 3 older kids (who all STTN) to be a good mama to.

I am not desperate enough to stop co-sleeping or leaving baby alone to cry-it-out, but I feel like I need to take some sort of action. I am only human. And no, praticing attachment parenting does not have to include martyrdom.
Will night weaning help Indy to STTN? I do not know, but I need to take action.

First 3 Nights of Dr. Jay Gordon's Night Weaning Method
So the first 3 nights of Dr. Jay Gordon's gentle night weaning method go like this...Choose your most important 7 hours of sleep. I chose 11pm to 6am -the un-Godly hours. If baby wakes before or after that 7-hour timeframe, you just nurse and cuddle as usual. If baby wakes up between the hours of 11 and 6 (yeah, right "IF" -haha), for the first 3 nights, you nurse for a short time and don't let baby fall asleep at the breast and cuddle, hug, rock until she falls asleep. Do this for 3 nights and repeat whenever she wakes.

May need to Repeat Night One
Okay, Night 1 was last night and I don't think I did it right. I was so tired, I didn't know what year it was, let alone practicing a night weaning method. She actually didn't wake before 11pm, but at around midnight. I nursed her and stopped before she fell asleep, just like Dr. Jay said. She was soooo mad! I hugged, rocked, and cuddled with her, but she was not having it. I think after 15 minutes, I ended up nursing her to sleep. So I may need to repeat Night 1 again tonight with a little more dedication. I will keep you all updated night by night and hopefully Indigo will have some progress...and I will get some sleep!

10/20/11

Just wanted to remind all you Fort Collins Mamas to check out the tab up top:
"Today in the Fort"

 It's updated every day with our weather, how to dress your kiddos for school, what's on the PSD lunch menu, library storytimes, and more fun ideas of things to do with your kids!  

10/17/11

Black Ops Zombie Party

So I woke up early today to finish Jack's birthday cake for his sleepover tonight. I am now tweaking the cake's theme to not just a zombie cake (He wants everyone to come dressed as a zombie), but to a Black Ops Call of Duty (his favorite Wii game) zombie cake. i decided to make the zombies out of modeling chocolate, I'm not much of a sculptor, so luckily, if a leg falls off, it will be perfect because it's a zombie!

Saggy Cake Problem
So at 6am, I was melting some green chocolate and made the modeling chocolate by adding corn syrup. It had to sit for an hour, so I continued onto rolling out fondant (storebought this time) and covered the top tier. I put the top tier on and the bottom cake was not looking good.  I ignored the bottom sagging cake and cut out the top zombie out of fondant.

Indigo had a rough night, so of course I was the one feeling like a zombie, so thanks to my sweet hubby, I was able to take a 20-minute power rest. As I was laying there, my mind was racing about how I was going to fix the saggy cake, decorate the playroom, clean the house, and make the snacks.

Last-minute Change of cake
So with T-minus 4 hours until the party starts, I decided to change the entire structure of my cake because now the lower tier was major sag central. I really wanted this cake to look good.  With 3 1/2 hours until the little zombies arrived, I ran to Michael's with some ideas. I got some letter cutouts and a little more decorator icing.

I decided a Rice Krispie cake would hold up better with a cake on top and I could make that pretty fast. So that's what I did! I finally got to the fun part of sculpting the zombie to look just like the war zombies from the game, complete with brains protruding and holding a small lego gun (the only non-edible) and finally finished the cake with T minus 35 minutes and then cleaned like a mad woman until the zombies arrived.

Time to Clean
Not that the kids would care if cake crumbs and fondant pieces were all over the floor, but there was going to be parents dropping off, so I did need the house to look kind of clean. And I was looking like crap too - perfect for a zombie party, but I was the Mom, not a zombie, so i took a quick shower and dressed in my favorite Mom gear -flowered print button-down and my new Banana Rep jeans -which are a size 2, I must say. Please don't be jealous, first of all I think BP sizes run big and my breastfeeding daughter nurses like 24/7 and sucks everything out of me and because of this, there is no consecutive sleep more than 2 hours in my life right now -I digress, sorry). So I managed to clean and look like a normal Mom just as the doorbell rang with our first zombie guest! Whew!

I left the playroom decorating up to the boys and they did a great job. They set up the black light, hung the skull mural, and put up the orange flicker lights.

So Much Fun
The boys had a total blast! Dan hosted the whole party because I was just spent from the preparations. He did a bonfire with marshmallow toasting and a cool midnight lantern send-off. They jumped on the trampoline wearing glowsticks to the wee hours of the night. Our neighbors must love us.  They played Wii games, watched a comedy zombie movie, which was probably too scary, but Dan watched it with them, reminding the boys that it was just a movie. They were scared, but totally loved it.  I heard lots of screams and laughs from the playroom, but needed to take care of the girls.

And hey, we only had one kid vomit at about 2am, but I think it was just from too many sweets. It's morning now and that same boy is shooting Jack's big brother with a Nerf gun, so I'd say he's just fine. Nobody got there PJs on and I can bet there was no teeth-brushing either, but they had a blast.

Morning time with VERY tired zombies
I'm now about to start some homeade waffles for the boys and will be reminding their parents that they should definately take a nap today as I'm not sure anybody actually slept. The boys absolutely loved the black ops zombie cake and most importantly, Jack loved it so much and he had the best time with his favorite buddies at his 9th birthday black ops zombie sleepover party!

10/13/11

Zombie Slumber Party - not the band

So my 2nd little boy, or not so little, is turning 9. As you all know I get very excited about planning themed parties and love to use my creative side to make them unforgettable. Well, no more Scooby-Doo or Elmo themed parties for this guy. He just wanted to have a sleep-over party. As I was making invitations, he says, "I have one request. I want everyone to come dressed as a zombie." Okay, there's our theme. A Zombie sleep-over party! So, I was googling some ideas for a zombie party and found out that there is actually a band called "Zombie Slumber Party". Oh perfect, I thought, we can play some songs at the party. Well I listened to some and well, no, we won't be playing any Zombie Slumber Party songs. What a terrible band IMO. These songs are inapproriate not only for a bunch of 9-year-olds, but inappropriate for any human being on the planet!
I looked up some zombie cake ideas and while gross, I think I can kick out a cool one. Boy, do I miss the Scooby Doo parties. I'll post more detail preparations for our zombie sleepover in a few...

10/12/11

Uncrustables = Un-Edible

Today I barely had time to pack my kids' lunches. It's Math-a-thon day at O'Dea and my sweet hubby is actually volunteering today! he'll be running one of the 3rd grade math stations. It's his one volunteering job he does at the school every year because he's such a math nerd. Dan, who works at the Coloradoan at night is usually very tired in the mornings (understated). In fact, it's better just to not even wake him to ask for help getting the kids ready because he is a super grouch in the mornings. I mean, he is crankier than my baby when she's cutting a new tooth!
Anyway, he had to get up today to go to Math-a-thon, so I thought I would make a hot breakfast for everyone; hence, no time to make lunches for the monkeys.
I checked out what was on the PSD lunch calendar and as usual, I get grossed out just by reading it.
PSD does try. They offer a salad bar (which I'm sure my boys do not visit), serve whole wheat bread for greasy hockey pucks (burgers) and feature a fruit or veggie every month. They actually think that serving wheat "Uncrustables" as oppesed to white bread Uncrustables is a better choice. What is an 'Uncrustable"? It's a PBJ pre-made in a bag without the crust. Jeez, we can't even spread a fresh PBJ for our kids? I decided to check out the nutional info on these fau PBJs. I am frightened by what I found.
A regular PBJ conatins what? Let's say you have natural ingredients in your kitchen. Your PBJs will contain whole wheat bread, jam preserves (all fruit), and natural peanut butter (only peanuts as ingredients). That is 3 ingredients.
Uncrustables contain over 50 ingredients and almost all of those ingredients are things I cannot pronounce. I'll admit, I'm not the hugest health nut, but I am conscious of what my kids and I eat. My highly scientific rule of thumb is, if I can't pronounce the it, I won't serve it to my kids. Straight from the Smucker's Uncrustables website, here are the ingredients and what your kids are served for lunch at PSD when they choose a PBJ sandwich.
Smucker's Uncrustables: BREAD: ENRICHED UNBLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, UNBLEACHED WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, YEAST, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: WHEAT GLUTEN, SALT, DOUGH CONDITIONERS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: DIACETYL TARTARIC ACID ESTERS OF MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES (DATEM), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, ETHOXYLATED MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, CALCIUM PEROXIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, AZODICARBONAMIDE, L-CYSTEINE), YEAST NUTRIENTS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM SULFATE, AMMONIUM SULFATE), CALCIUM PROPIONATE (MAINTAIN FRESHNESS), CORNSTARCH, ENZYMES (WITH WHEAT). PEANUT BUTTER: PEANUTS, DEXTROSE, SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: PARTIALLY AND FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED AND/OR RAPESEED), SALT, MOLASSES, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES (PALM AND/OR SOYBEAN OILS). GRAPE JELLY: GRAPE JUICE, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: PECTIN, CITRIC ACID, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), SODIUM CITRATE.

EEK! There you have it! Some of our favorite food groups, conditioners, high fructose corn syrup, diacetyl tartaric, sodium stearoyl lactylate...

Needless to say I packed my kids' lunches. I made veggie chicken wraps from our leftover chicken from dinner last night. Horizon organic chocolate milk, carrots and ranch, and a fruit leather. I think all of those things in my kids' lunchbox contain about a eighth of the amount of ingredients or much less than what is in 1 Uncrustable PBJ. 

10/8/11

First B-day Recap

So my little sweetie is officially one. Her party was so sweet. Nothing too extravagent, but a sweet celebration. The in-laws came and my best friend, Indy's godparents and their 4 kids also attended. So with my 4 kids and their 4 kids, that makes for a huge party! We had a lot of fun! My video camera was not working and I can't tell you how bummed I was about that. I guess I've been letting my boys use it on their own too much and well, they inevitably break everything! Her dress was magnificent, if I don't say so myself. I made it! First I wanted to do something frilly with tulle, but I just fell in love with this gorgeous mauve and tan cordorouy fabric.


 And I was thinking that I don't think Indy is such a frilly kind of dress girl anyway. I wanted to be sure she wasn't wearing Madi's frilly first birthday party dress and wanted her to wear something that suited her.
I attemped a 2-tiered cake and it came out pretty good. If you've read my previous post, I made the fondant homeade with marshmallow and confectioner's sugar. And I will never do that again. Let's just say i didn't plan on having that many flowers on it, as I used the flowers to cover up the flaws. When i asked Dan how it looked, he said "It looks like a beautiful homeade birthday cake you made with love". He's so sweet, but I know that was code word for "looks like crap." He's so sweet, isn't he? :)

10/5/11

Making Homemade Fondant!

Today is my Indigo's First Birthday!!! I have to say that I am truly celebrating her birth. I think because it was such an incredible homebirth that I just cherish every memory of it. She was born at 10:05am in the morning after just 4 or 5 hours of labor. Read My Birthstory here.
So I am working on her cake this morning and I really want it to be awesome. I'm really not much of a baker, but wanted to do a 2-tiered fondant cake. I blew $80 at Michael's yesterday buying pre-made fondant and a bunch of other stuff. I remember though how awful fondant tastes! Yuck! So I decided to try my hand out at making some homemade fondant, which I'm told tastes way better. It's made with marshmallows and powdered sugar. Now I get to return the groce premade fondant. Read below for my complete directions for homemade fondant.

What a Freakin Mess
So, the homemade fondant is done! What a freakin' mess! If you've ever made Rice Krispies Treats or eaten a smore, you know how sticky marshmallows are. Well, my kitchen is a distaster right now! There is marshmallow stuck to every thing on my counter, myself, and every cooking equipment I used and whatever is on the counter. There is confectioner's sugar dust on all all the cabinets and a nice dusting on the tile floor gathering mostly in the grout. Lovely.
Ezrah is absent today and I just offred him $10 to clean the kitchen, so I can play with Indy on her birthday! I want her to have a great day and me cleaning the kitchen with her pulling on my legs isn't that fun for her. Her favorite things are bathtime and breastfeeding, so I plan to combine them and take a bath with her today. But the in-laws are coming and this mess has got to be cleaned up. Ezrah will do anything for money, so he's cleaning up right now.

Purple Fingers
I dyed it lavender, so now I've got food coloring under the fingernails after kneading the dye in. And birthday girl is napping, so I've got T-minus 30 minutes to clean up and decorate this cake! Not to mention 4 1/2 hours until the in-laws and friends arrive and the house is a disaster!!! I just tried to get a photo of the mess for you all to see, but my camera is broken! On my daughter's first birthday, my camera is broken! And I'm sitting here blogging.
Here's the finished product (taken with my phone)...as the day went on it became increasing lopsided.



How To Make Homeade Fondant
If you want to try it, here's how it's done. You'll need...

1 bag of mini-marshmallows
16oz of confectioner's sugar
3 TBSP water
butter or Crisco & flour for greasing hands and work area to "help"prevent sticking
a full-size apron, a painter's dropcloth for the floor, bribe $ to get the mess cleaned

In a large bowl dump the marshmallows and 3 TBSP of water and microwave and 30 second intervals, stirring in between until the marshmallows melt.


In a bigger bowl, dump all the confectioner's sugar, leaving about 1/4 cup reserved for later. A stand-up mixer would be best, but I don't have one, so I just mixed it by hand. I started using my electric hand mixer, which I did grease, but that was a BIG mistake. The marshmallows stuck to it so much that it wouldn't turn and it was bad. I could hardly get the marshmallow off and the confectioner's sugar was just flying everywhere. Best thing to do is grease a rubber spatula and stir with that. Add reserved sugar if you need to.

When it's all together, start to knead it. Grease your hands, take off your rings (take off rings first) and grease and flour the counter or cutting board, whatever. Knead it until it is a smooth dough. Grease hands and work space like every 10 seconds. Seriously. If you want to make an even bigger mess, you can now add food coloring by kneading it in. I mixed the food coloring first with the reserved sugar and a little water, to be sure I was mixing purple and not ugly brown or that color the playdough gets when your kids mix all the colors. You know that color I'm talking about.  So I needed that color mixture in.

Put it in a shape to ready to roll. Grease the outside and grease some plastic wrap and let it "rest" for an hour or overnight.
Roll it out with a well-greased and floured rolling pin. You can use the powdered sugar in place of flour too. Roll to about 1/4 inch thick. But I think if it's a little thicker, it may not fall apart 10 times before you actually get it on the cake. If you plan on covering a round cake, do your best to have it rolled in a circle. 

*Be sure the cake is as close to where you have rolled the fondant as possible.*
Have your cake iced with frosting, I used cream cheese frosting. Cake Boss calls that "dirty icing". Then, Pray to the Lord above that the rolled fondant will not stick to the surface and will stay together as you lift it and place it over the cake. If it does, roll again, pray again.
Trim edges and use decorator icing to finish the bottom edge. Go ahead and buy remade fondant for decorations and use them to cover the wrinkles and flaws (if you have any..I did) Take pictures (pictures will actually make your fondant cake look way better than it does in person) and send to your family and friends and they will be oh so impressed! Is my one-year-old baby impressed with her cake? I think so!


10/2/11

MMDs and the Family

It's a beautiful Sunday and my dear sweet hubby is even off from work! Well off from the Coloradoan, but not Kind Care. My husband's "day" job is actually at night and he layout designer and copy editor for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. His "other", much more lucrative job is master grower for a medical marijuana dispensary. MMDs are legal here in Fort Collins and people with a precription can go to a retail shop to buy medical marijuana. 

How do I feel about this as a Mama of 4? I'm still torn. There is just still a stigma attached to it. Here's an example. At Back to School Night I was filling out an "About my Kindergartener" sheet and I got to the question of what does Dad do and his work phone number. I had to stop, think and ended up leaving it blank. i could've put the Coloradoan on it, but he works there at night and why would Madi's kindergarten teacher want to call her Dad at night.  

I fully believe that medical marijuana should be legal and the current system in Fort Collins is great. The town makes a lot of money on taxes, it is regulated, 200+ well-paying jobs have been created, and people are getting the medication they need in a safe environment and do not have to resort to the black market.

There is a group of people trying to ban these dispensaries in Fort Collins and there is a vote coming up to ban them. It was already passed, but thses people got a petition going and now it's on the next mail-in ballot. Tomorrow is the last day to register for this mail-in ballot.

So instead of having the picture-perfect day of decorating for Halloween and watching movies and doing things around the house on my hubby's day off, we all, as a family spent the day working for Citizens for Safer Neighborhoods canvassing a neighborhood and getting people registered to vote. I thought I was pretty non-threatening as I was going door-to-door with a baby on my back and another in the stroller. This has to do with my husband's job. It's how he puts food on the table, pay for our motgage, sports for the kids and everything else it takes to provide for a large family.

I do not use marijuana but honestly, as a regular Fort Collins surburbia mini-van driving mama, it is safer for our kids to have it highly regulated. As it is now, there is no black market, so it's harder for kids to get their hands on. If they ban dispensaries, people will actually be able to legally grow pot in their houses; in our neighborhoods and anyone can get it. I'm thinking the people who are proposing this ban just don't like all the marijuana storefronts. It's the "image" they are worried about. But the reality is that retail dispensaries are the safest way to regulate marijuana use and keep it out of homes and off the playground.