Adding Tooth Fairy to my resume

My little girl is growing more and more each day.  She lost her first tooth on Sunday and she couldn't have been more excited.  I quickly made her a "tooth" pillow that can hang on her door knob so we didn't have to deal with trying to get the tooth out from under her pillow.  At 3pm she said she didn't want to dinner and she wanted to just go to bed so the tooth fairy would come. :)  We convinced her to eat dinner and go to bed at a normal hour. I brought her up to bed and we hung the pillow on the inside of her door.  I waited 2 hours before heading up there to switch out her tooth with money.  Well, Jenna was one step ahead of me as always.  I was able to open the door without her hearing me BUT she wrapped the pillow around the door knob a few times so I wasn't able to just grab it and pull it into the hallway like I planned.  I had to try to dig out her super tiny tooth with my nail without dropping it and then had to slide the money in the pillow and hope it stayed.  :)  Mission accomplished!  She was so happy to see her prize and said she wants the tooth fairy to come back tonight. I'd say it was a success!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Here's to hoping everyone has a wonderful day filled with family, friends, and yummy food!  :)  Make sure to take time out to be thankful for all you have.  Also, please say a prayer for those who could not be with us today whether they have passed away or are away protecting us and our freedom.  May God bless them all!

I am thankful for my wonderful husband who has stood by me through all of the trials and tribulations we have been through the last 12 years together.  I am also thankful for my two beautiful daughters who keep me on my toes 24/7/365.  They are wonderful blessings and I can't even imagine my life without them.  Lastly, I am thankful for our wonderful family whom we know we can turn to whenever we may need something whether it's help with something or just simply a hug.  They really are the best and we are super lucky to have them in our lives.  

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  Make it a great one!
 

It's not even Turkey Day yet!

The other night we were driving over to Dan's house and Jenna noticed a house that has their Christmas decorations up already.  She says, "Daddy, why are there decorations up already?  I saw it!  Why?"  Matt says that maybe because the weather was nice the people decided to put them up early or maybe they just really like Christmas.  Jenna didn't really think that was good enough.  She says, "But it's not even Turkey Day yet!"  My daughter is brilliant! 

Chase comes over this morning and tells Jenna about how Mom bought him a small Christmas tree for his room.  He tells Jenna he is so excited that it's on his desk and he loves it.  Jenna says, "Chase, are you forgetting something?" Chase says, "I don't think so, why?" "But Chase, it's not even Turkey Day yet!"  :)  At least I taught her something! 

Age is just a number...right?

Yesterday we were watching Pixar Shorts.  Well, there is a short that shows an older man (balding, grey hair, walks with a cane) playing chess against himself.  Chase says that the man is walking really slow and Jenna tells him it's because he is old.  Well, I took this opportunity to ask Jenna how old she thinks he is.  She says he's 100!  :)  I took it one step further and asked how old she thought I was.  She says 105! WHAT!?!?!  She giggles and says, "No Mommy, I think he's 105."  "Ok, Jenna, then how old does that make Mommy?"  "60!" Wow!  "Well, how old are you Mommy?"  I know I walked right into that one but, come on, 60?!?! 

Cause I'm 5 now

Jenna seems to think that now that she is 5, she is a full fledged "dult".  All weekend we had to hear about all the stuff she can do now that she's 5.  Apparently, there is even a 5 year old playground at school that she was just beyond excited about.  Well, the other day, as she and I were cuddling on the couch, I gave her a big hug and kiss and she says, "Even though I'm 5 now, Mommy, I still love you."  Wow, ok, thanks! ;)  I keep telling her that no matter how old she gets, she will always be my baby and I think that's what she was going for but, boy, did it come out wrong.  She sure does say the darnedest things. :)

Success!

The cakes were a success!  Phew!  I am so relieved that that is over. :)  When I ask Jenna what kind of cake she wants, I cringe because I never know what she will come up with. I was nervous, as I said in the previous post, because they don't sell Jessie pans and I didn't even know where to start.  My friend, Kim (whom is my cake mentor), told me of a frozen technique that I could use and she sent me a the information on how to do it.  I was super stressed this week that it wouldn't work and I would let Jenna down.  I thought about giving up and just going to the store to find a Jessie cake topper or something but I was determined to make this work.  I LOVE this new technique and I can't wait to do it again!  :)  If you want to know how I did it, keep reading.  I found coloring book pages online of Jessie and Bullseye and printed them up.  I then taped them to small cutting boards and covered them tightly with saran wrap.  I made a batch of buttercream frosting and colored it black. I took a size 2 Wilton icing tip and began outlining the pictures.  When I was finished with the outlines, I put both pictures in the freezer.  I left them overnight since I only had naptime and bedtime to work.  Then I made another batch of buttercream and made all the colors I would need for the pics.  It was just like coloring....stay inside the lines and color in the icing picture.  :)  After I colored both pictures with all the icing and froze it, I put a layer of buttercream (white) over the entire picture.  Once that was frozen and the cakes were iced, I pulled the saran wrap off of the cutting boards and flipped (carefully) the pictures onto the cake.  Then I piped around the picture and there you have it! :)  I actually jumped up and down and hugged Matt when I successfully put Jessie on the cake.  I was so relieved it worked and it was over. But, like I said, I love this new technique and can't wait to do it again....Chase's birthday is in Feb!

Cake time

I don't know why I do this to myself but here goes another cake adventure.  Jenna requested a "Jessie" cake this year and I am trying out a new technique.  Today I am baking the cakes, yes I said cakeS!  4 boxes of cake mix (still not brave enough to make cake from scratch!) = 2 12x2 inch cakes and 12 cupcakes.  I am going to trace Jessie on to one cake and Bullseye, her trusty steed, on the other cake.  Since I was only able to get 12 cupcakes I will spell "Happy 5th Bday!" on them. I know it's just cake but since I started out making "cool" cakes for her birthdays I feel I have to continue.  It turns into many hours of work and stress.  But, seeing the smile and awe on Jenna's face, makes it all worth it in the end.  I will post a picture when I am done.  Although I can't start until I go buy an icing tip for writing...seems I have misplaced my tip, although I vaguely remember getting so frustrated after my last cake adventure, I threw stuff out. :)  Oh well....fingers crossed this one goes better. 

Our trip was DUSHI!

Bon Dia!  Aruba is a wonderful, beautiful, amazing place! :)  As you saw in my last post, our trip there was lacking all over the place but once we landed in Aruba, I could feel things turning around (must have been the humidity). The first night there, Matt, Heath and I had dinner and ended up at the casino. ;)  Now, I was never one for gambling.  I like to get something for my money.  If I have an extra $100 laying around (like that ever happens), I don't see the point of just throwing it on black and letting it ride. :)  I would much rather go to Vera and get myself a new bag. ;) Ok, sorry, got a little off track. Anyway, we get to the casino and I decide to play Black Jack with Heath (one seat away) with Matt standing behind us. I started with $50 and left with $100!  :)  That's all it took to get the itch.  We went to the casino 4 nights out of 5 and I won 3 out of 4! :)  My big night was $190 (with a little help from Matt). We played Roulette together and were on fire. We quit while we were ahead and it was wonderful!  The night I lost, I only lost $40 so I was still feeling great! 
We woke up Monday morning and I was barely able to turn my head. When we left NJ, I had been having neck pain.  I vowed to make a appointment for a massage. We went food shopping so we would have some snacks and drinks....it was $50 for a case of Heineken!  We got back to the hotel and I went for a deep tissue massage.  Holy hell, that little 4 foot nothing, 100 nothing woman beat the crap out of me!  She got to the knot in my neck and said "Oh my god!"...I'm assuming that's not good in any language.  I left there and didn't feel much better, in fact, I felt worse.  It took a day, but I felt wonderful and still do!  
The rest of the trip we spent our mornings at the beach and our afternoons at the pool.  We played Bingo at noon with the old people.  :)  We were the youngest ones there and it showed.  They rang a bell at 2:30 for happy hour and the old people were thinking it was the dinner bell.  :) 
Our last full day there, we wanted to do something fun.  The whole time we were there, we kept seeing a speed boat pulling a tube behind it.  We couldn't understand what was so fun about it since the ocean is wave free.  It looked like the people were just sitting on a couch being pulled behind a boat.  Boy were we wrong!  The ride was CRAZY!  I knew we were in trouble when the boat driver said "oh, you guys are young, I'm gonna flip you!"  :)  I never screamed so much in my entire life and I gave birth to Jenna naturally! We got flipped and it was the most beautiful thing in the world.  We were out in the ocean, it was 60 feet deep and you could see the bottom as clear as if it was 10 feet deep.  It was definitely a wonderful experience...no matter how many times I screamed for it to stop. :)
It was a great way to end our trip.  We were not particularly happy about coming home to snow but all good things must come to an end.  Although I am still upset I didn't buy the "Just call me Dushi" t-shirt.  Dushi means awesome in Aruba but I hesitated since dushi is too close to douchey here in the states. ;)  Anyway, our trip was, in fact, Dushi Dushi and I would go back in a heartbeat!  

Continental sucks!

Sorry for my language but they totally ruined the beginning of our trip! We were slotted to leave at 9am and arrive in Aruba (YAY!) at 1:30pm.  Well, we didn't leave Newark till a bit after 1pm!  What was the hold up, you ask?  Apparently, the air conditioning in the rear of the plane was not working.  Now don't get me wrong, if there is something wrong with the plane, I would much rather they fix it before we leave than have to do some emergency landing mid-flight.  BUT, it was all about the way they handled the whole situation.  We pulled away from the gate on time and were waiting on the tarmac to take off.  Then, after sitting there for over an hour (Matt was already into his nap), the pilot tells us there is a problem with the air in the rear (where we were sitting) and it would be fixed within minutes.  Well, within seconds, he gets back on to tell us we are returning to the gate and if we wanted to get off the plane we could but we didn't have to.  We head back and hit and the gate are told to gather all of our belongings cause we had to get off the plane.  Now, this is 10:20am...we exit the plane and are told we will depart at 11:15am.  We get some food and look for a bar (btw, they are all closed on Sundays in Newark Airport...wth?!).  The time then changes to 11:45am and we are getting more angry by the second.  At 11:30, they announce they will be giving each passenger a food voucher for $6 worth of food in the airport.  $6 for a meal?  Really?  In the airport?  Come on now!  Within minutes of receiving our vouchers (Heath and I were in the front of the line) they announce we will be boarding.  So much for the food vouchers.  I think they just did that to make themselves look good.  They didn't look any better in my eyes, they just pissed me off even more.  We board (again) and get a drink voucher to use on the plane.  Some of the passengers asked if they could use the lousy $6 food voucher on the plane and they told us they didn't accept them.  What?  You are the ones who gave them to us!  Idiots!  Anyway, we board, get settled, are a little happy about our free drink and we begin taxiing on the tarmac only to get that most wonderful announcement that the problem has NOT been fixed and they will attempt to fix it again.  After another hour + we finally take off.  The air felt wonderful, even a little cold BUT the front of the plane didn't have air! To make matters worse, the attendants were super nasty to us, like it was our fault we were 4 hours late!  We finally made it to Aruba and had an amazing time....post to follow!