Can't Stop Baking Cakes!

So after all these October birthdays, Dan asks me, how could you be making ANOTHER cake? I think I kind of have my technique down by the end of the month. So check the awesome awesome cake I made for our church's fall festival at ECC. It was the first cake to be taken from the cake walk!

Minecraft Cake Baking Lies

 

I am sorry to any of my faithful readers that I have not blogged in so long. Yes, to all 3 of you...you have my apologies. It is October and  3 out of my 4 kids have birthdays.
As practicing attachment parenting to older kids, a topic that I so try to explore and define. I believe that just because we cannot breastfeed, wear them in a sling, or co-sleep, with our big kids does not mean we cannot be attached parents! 

I think this month, I came closer to the definition of APing older kids while celebrating their birthdays. Of course lots of hugs, kissing them goodnight, helping with homework and stuff like that is all part of it. However this month, a month of celebrations, I  showed my kids that I respect what they are interested in and helped them to celebrate, not just their birth, but celebrate who they are! On October 5, my Indigo turned 2. We had her party at Cool Beans, which is a really cool place to have a party for a toddler. As far as attachment parenting, she is still my baby and still very easy to practice APing as she is still nursing like all day and we cosleep.  But in spirit of my point here in respecting and celebrating who our kids are as a way of keeping the attachment parenting frame of mind, I accomplished with her dress!

We already know that she is not the frilly princess girl that Madelyn is. I didn't dress her in a taffeta flowery pink dress for her party like Madi always wore. No, I respected who she was and she wore a simple deep purple velour Hanna dress from Once Upon a Child with funky leggings from Clothes Pony that her Godmother Susie got for her.

 

On October 18, my second son, Jack turned 10. Do I wish he was not completely obsessed with the xBox game, Minecraft? Yes I would like his main interests to be something a little more productive, but I love Jack for who he is. He absolutely loooves this game called Minecraft, a video game where you build worlds and is chracterized by the entire game being made up of blocks and huge pixels. I would have loved to bake him a cake with sports or footballs on it, no one really wants to have their son be obsessed with a video game, but it is about JACK, not me.  He wanted so much for his party to be Minecraft inspired. His party was a Loveland Laser Tag Fun Center and if you've ever had a party at a commercial location, you would know that you must bring a cake that is commercially prepared. I totally broke the rules to be sure my son had the Minecraft cake he wanted. I was going to pass my homemade Minecraft cake as professional!
I bought a cake box from Michael's and a cake bottom board from King Soopers. I didn't think covering a cut box with tin foil would pass as professional, nor would a plate from home. My plan was to print out a fake Whole Foods or King Soopers logo and barcode onto a label on my home printer and stick it on the box. I had a bit of luck because when I purchased the cake board from King Sooper, she printed out a barcode label with the KS logo and didn't stick it on anything. So there it was! A real King Sooper label ready to stick on my cake box! It said 28 cents on it, as that was the price of the cardboard cake board, but hopefully the staff at the laser tag place wouldn't be looking that close!
Here's my son's Minecraft themed cake encorporating the spirit of the giant pixel game! I don't think King Sooper could have or would have made a cake like this...

Each "pixel" was put on indiviually. If you know the game, you would really appreciate this game. Unless you were my son, Jack. "Cool cake, Mom", he said after about 5 hours of applying pixels and being sure they were the exact same colors as the game. God bless Jack's best friend, Aidan; he thought the cake was the coolest thing ever and really made me feel good. he's such a sweetie! If it weren't for Aidan, I might have resigned to never try so hard again!
However, I did get some more complements on the cake at the party although I could not accept them. You see, the manager of Loveland Laser Tag happened to be a big Minecraft fan. "Where did you get this cake?" Hmmmmm.

Disney World Trip, Part 1 - Magic Kingdom

 Say goodbye to the tossing and turning, the sleepless nights in awaiting my re-cap of our Disney World trip from the eyes of an attached mama! Sorry it took me forever to get to my blog as it's been a week since we've been back, but we had jumped right into our crazy life with school, kids, babies, practices, tournaments and laundry. Oh the laundry after a vacation! You don;t need to hear about that. Because the Disney trip was so adventurous, I will devote a post to each theme park.I guess I never realized what it would be like at Disney World with children.  My own children! It wasn't so much, enjoying Disney "through" their eyes. It was more like enjoying it "with" them, because Big Daddy and I were having just as much fun.
The Journey
Well, to Dan's  step-mother's horror, we missed our flight. She works for United airlines and thanks to her connections, we were on a flight just about 2 hours later. We did arrive an hour and half early to DIA, but life happens. It was actually quite an adventure, running and rushing. We tried our best, but babies poop, kids have to pee really really bad, and Mama needed a ciggarette before we left the house. Whatever, everything happens as it should and our destiny is layed out before us. Who am I to question destiny?
The plane ride was not a non-stop to FL anymore, but oh boy, Indy was non-stop breastfeeding on the flight. She had a virus the week before and never got rid of that darn diarrhea. Needless to say, I became very familiar with the changing area on the plane. Glad they had one because I remember flying with Big Boy as a baby and nowhere to change a diaper.
Without me realizing it until the day of our journey, Indy had learned to verbalize her word for breastfeeding. And so, in amazement of herself feeling she can communicate, she has now become obssessed with "na nas". Not only did I become familiar with the baby changing area, but if I'm not mistaken, the stranger next to me became familiar with my breast.

Arrive in the Fort (Lauderdale)
We walk off the airplane, just a few hours later than expected to find my Mom greeting us with tears and my Dad a huge happy grin. I can appreciate my mama's emotions as I couldn't imagine not seeing my children for so long. It was our first glimpse of true love on our trip and we haven't even gotten to fairy tale land.

The Bus

My Dad had a Suburban waiting for us. This is how destiny works. If we didn't miss our flight, he would've picked up a mini-van that was short a seat. Because he picked up the car  reservation later, the car rental place had apologized that he couldn't hold the mini-van, but offered a Suburban instead...for the same price! Now we would all ride the 3 hours in comfort to Disney World the next morning.

Our ResortWe stayed upon the Disney grounds at a beautiful place called the "Old Key West Resort" We had a 2-bedroom villa and a full kitchen. It was great that we were able to make food and breakfast before we left for the parks. Do you know that feeling when you're at a hotel with kids and everyone's starving and mamas and dads need coffee and you have to get everyone ready before getting all the morning neccessities? No worries here! Loved this place! There were Mickey ears on the fences and a Mickey ear slide at one of the pools.

Magic Kingdom
Without further ado, let's get into it, shall we? Ahhh, Magic Kingdom. Arriving at the gates, I shared in as much excited anticipation as the kids. I think My Dad did as well.

The second we got onto Main Street USA...none of us knew what to do first. Take a picture with Walt? Sure that sounds good.

We walk up Main Street and were in awe of Cinderella's castle. I couldn't believe we were looking at it. I hoped Princess felt the same.

My Mom and I thought a good idea to rent a double stroller and went to pick that up. Us attached mamas prefer wearing our kids, so i did have the Ergo, but we needed a stroller for Madi and when I went on ride as that baby couldn't. We walked straight through Cinderella's castle and were face to face with the most amazing incredible carousel we have ever seen. The horses and carriages were immense, the music was beautiful and oh... it puts the carousel at NewWest Fest to shame. We decided that would be our first ride and the entire family went on. 

I was riding the horsey with Princess beside me. I see my Dad behind me and smiling. Was he taking this in? We were here! We made it! Was he enjoying the moment, entrapured in the fact that this dream came true? I knew it was early and we were all still in shock that we actually AT Disney World all together. But I looked at him and smiled and hoped he was savoring the moment.

Next stop...Pirates of the Carribean. To Adventureland we go.

At this point, Indy fell asleep on my back and I stood the Pirates ride out so she could sleep. I enjoyed walking around, enjoying the familararity of the Magic Kingdom in memories of when I was younger. I watched a little Pirates show, got a soft serve vanilla cone and some cotton candy for the kids when they got off the ride. Here's a pic they took inside the ride. Amazing likeness to Johnny, huh?

Dan emerged from the ride like this

We decided to head off to Story land to see if we could spot some princesses as Princess was nagging "I want to see princesses" We realized that the characters don't just walk around anymore. Nope, you've got to wait in line to see them to, just like any other ride. Boys were itching for a roller coaster at this point too.
But we decided on "It's a Small World" ride. A classic.

The kids loved it and Indy, to our surprise enjoyed it so much! I hadn't really thought about the baby really enjoying anything, but she pointed in amazement at almost everything! Here's us waiting in line for Small World.

I really enjoyed It's a Small World" ride. It seemed so sweet and cute and just a pure message. I loved how it and wondered if it was the inspiration for the World Showcase of Epcot. IMO, World Showcase at Epcot was the entire Small World ride, but with real live people, and on a bigger scale.


Strollers and Stroller Parking
So after a few rides, we realized that it was really different to be here with a stroller. It wasn't really the stroller in general, which I will critique in a sec, but just having a stroller makes things a little hard. I guess I never realized what it would be like at Disney World with a stroller. I guess I never realized what it would be like at Disney World with children!  My own children! It wasn't so much, enjoying Disney "through" their eyes. It was more like enjoying it "with" them, because Big Daddy and I were having just as much fun.
Anyway back to the logistics of Disney with a stroller. Outside every ride, every restaurant and attraction, there was "stroller parking". What a pain, but I guess you can't really take strollers on the lines or in the restaurants. It's just necessary, but a pain in the butt. I was thankful to have the Ergo because there were so many places I couldn't take the stroller and I did have a squirmy toddler who loves to run and explore without looking behind. So she goes in the Ergo and on my back or Big Daddy's back. I want to mention that this was the very first time, out of all 4 kids, Big Daddy wore one of our babies in public. I was so proud!

Due to the bulky nature of the double rental stroller, my Mom and I decided to take our own the next day. Even though it's a single, it has more storage space and it's easier to manuver. And if Princess was tired she could sit and baby could be in the Ergo. The funny thing about strollers at Disney is there are "No Stroller Parking Signs" and Stroller Parking Signs". At one point, Big Daddy went to park the stroller and said there was a freakin' stroller valet. They always would move and arrange the strollers when we were on the rides, so when I went to retrieve it, I felt like an old lady coming out of the mall looking for her car.

And off we were to lunch at Peter Pan's place. Awesome food. Indigo had about 3 tons of mac and cheese and we all liked the food. The boys were DYING at this point to do a real roller coaster.

And off we were to lunch at Peter Pan's place. Awesome food. Indigo had about 3 tons of mac and cheese and we all liked the food. The boys were DYING at this point to do a real roller coaster.
So  we decided to head over to Tommorow Land and check out Space Mountain. On the way, the boys saw a cool driving racing car thing and the boys and girls split up. Madi and I did the Teacups, while the guys did some racing.
On the way, Princess finally decided she needed Minnie ears. With lots of choices, she chose these...

And so, with excitement and anticipation, we headed to Space Mountain. And guess who was braver than we all thought...Princess, who exactly made the height cut-off of 44 inches, wanted to go on Space Mountain. It is widely known in our family that I rode on Space Mountain when I was 3 years old and had peed in my pants. My Mom was a little scared for her to go andf so was I. We thought, well, it's a rite of passage I guess and she really wanted to go on. My Mom hung out with baby Indy and the rest of us were off into the dark, futuristic buidling of the infamous indoor roller coaster, Space Mountain.

STILL UPDATING THIS POST......