Cake Boss

The moment you've all been waiting for..... The Cake Boss Party!

It was a blast! It was messy! It was loud! And it was tasty!

B turns 11 on Wednesday, but she had her "kid" party over the weekend. She is in love with Buddy and the show Cake Boss, so she had a cake decorating party.

First things first: cover the floor and tables with throw away tablecloths!


See all that frosting over there? I made a regular 2 layer cake for each kid (you know the germ factor was big in this decision, no sharing here). Each kid got a can of white frosting and then I put colored frosting in piping bags. The theme was animals, so there were animal crackers, teddy grahams, animal cut outs, toothpicks with animal heads....

But to begin with, we watched an episode of Cake Boss and made "chef hats" which were just white baseball hats from AC Moore.

Then we played "pin the hat" on Buddy. (I'm not so good at drawing, but they didn't seem to mind).

The kids got to go into the decorating room and pick to cakes and got busy! There was much concentration and a few innovative techniques.


This stuff is really cool!
Food coloring is not for chugging.
A shot of the room in action. Many kids said, "My mother would never let us make this big of a mess." It was an easy clean up though with the tablecloths everywhere!
Here are some of the masterpieces:






I let them decorate for about 5 minutes too long, because they started frosting their hands. That's when I had to use my teacher voice and tell them to wash up.

One of the girls gave B the game Apples to Apples (Jr). It was a big hit and they all played that until the pizza came. We couldn't possibly cut into one of those beautiful cakes for dessert, so B got her favorite ice cream cake.
Big sister, K, was a huge help!!! If you need any more details, let me know. I probably didn't need to make every kid a regular size cake, but it certainly gave them more room for creativity!

Friday Fragments

Thankfully I am not too stuffed to be able to write my Friday Fragments! Maybe if I get all my frags out, I will have room for more cake today! Check out Mrs. 4444s and see how her turkey day was!

*We started out our day yesterday with a 5k turkey trot with about 800 friends. Some man liked my sister's dog so much, he insisted he walk it half way.

*I was out shopping this morning at 6:30. Here are some suggestions for Black Friday shopping:

1. Do your research. I scoured the ads yesterday and wrote down what I wanted to get in each store, what time they opened and clipped any coupons needed.

2. Set out your outfit the night before, so you can hop out of bed and right into it. Don't forget your socks (I did). And don't dress too warm, malls are hotttttttt!

3. If you have a few stores to get to, do not browse in the beginning stores. Get what you need and get out. If you have time and money left over, then you can relax and browse.

4. I stay away from Best Buy. The people mental for the 4 $300 computers in the store scare me.

5. Smile. It really freaks some people out how you can be so happy at 6am.

*I did get the things I was looking for this morning. Black Friday was definitely more worthwhile when my kids were little and I had to buy a bunch of toys, though.

*I have to get to work on my Christmas letter. I have the pictures, the envelopes, the return address labels, now the hard part, the letter. It's where I talk about how rosy and wonderful everything is and that my kids are perfect. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

*We went to a jump rope workshop in CT last weekend. Some of the teachers were in the Macy's Day parade yesterday! We also went to a mall where the kids got to do this

How fun is that, right? We don't have cool stuff like this in malls near us! They even had bungie jumping, but we didn't think that was such a good after dinner activity!

*Back to my cake making. B is having her birthday party tomorrow where 10 kids will be designing cakes. B loves the show Cake Boss. You know how some kids have their teen idols hanging on their wall? B has the crew from Cake Boss hanging on hers. I will post their creativity next week!

Have a relaxing weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

So many things to be thankful for today and every day. Hopefully the people in my life know how thankful I am for them. I try to spread my gratitude for my family and friends (yes, that includes you, too)throughout the year and not save it for one day.

At church last Sunday, the children's "sermon" was focused on gifts. Amy, the fantabulous education leader, told a story that I will try to sum up...

When Amy was younger, she loved going to her Grandma's house. Her grandmother had a box under her bed full of gifts in case she was going to a party or someone's house for dinner. Once when Amy was over, she and her grandma had somewhere to go and they pulled out the box to find a gift. To Amy's horror, there were 2 gifts in there that Amy had given to her grandmother in previous years.

Anyway, this story and the special box of gifts under the bed reminded Amy, and trust me that she put this much more eloquently than I am right now, that often times as we get older, we don't use the gifts that we have as often as we once did. She is a fabulous artist and she realized that in the day to day hustle and bustle of life with 3 boys, a job and various other responsibilities, she let her gift of painting for herself, go by the wayside.

The whole purpose of her talk was to use your gifts and share them with people, not hide them under your bed and let them get dusty. Obviously, it resonated with me because I am still thinking of it on Thursday. I take pictures, but usually it is for a reason: someone is paying me to take their picture. My gift of taking pictures just for the fun of it, just for me, has been buried under my bed. So, time to dust of the camera and take some artsy fartsy pictures and you my blog friends will be the recipient of my "gift".

So, on this Thanksgiving, while we are being thankful, what gift do you have that is getting dusty?

Frag'n Friday!

Frag'n Friday: Bits and pieces of news in a post, so you can start your weekend empty minded. Go check out Mrs. 4444's, she's written her 71st Friday Fragment!



*Is it wrong that I am jamming out to HS musical while I am writing this. Yes, it is hard to sing, dance and type all at the same time. "I'm absolutely fabulous...." (That is the song, I am not bragging.)

*Are Thanksgiving and Christmas on some sort of an Accela train? I feel I am way behind already and it's only mid November!!

*Speaking of that, I wrote a list of things last night to do this morning before I leave for a jump rope workshop in CT with B, after school. I have done a bunch of things since I have been up (5:30), but none of them were on my list!!! Ugh, I will have to write them down and cross them out anyway.

*Any suggestions on what to get tween girls for Christmas? Let me rephrase that, something that doesn't cost over $500! And they already have horses, so keep that off the list.
"Daddy, I want a pony!" (hear English accent, with foot stomp)

*The funniest damn thing that happened this week, happened to a friend of mine. She was out to dinner with some other friends (why the heck wasn't I invited? Just kidding, I let her go out with other people once a month). Anyway, after dinner, she ordered, "Coffee with Bailey's on the side."

The waitress brought her coffee with 2 Bay leaves on the side.
Yeah, that's yummy, right?

*Happy Weekend!!!!!!

Meeting

OK here I am sending my first post from my blackberry. The reason? Because I am sitting in a meeting for school comm people from around the state and I have made some astute observations (while knitting).

*First I think we all know how I feel about sitting in a rOom with sneezing, coughing ppeople. Enough said.

*Do not answer your cell phone while sitting in the middle of a row of people who are trying to listen to the speaker.

*Many of the people like saying "respectfully" and "politely" to the chairwoman.

*i think this meeting and many others I go to would go much quicker without motions, seconds and discussions.Well discussions are OK, but not if you are getting up to the microphone to hear yourself speak.

*2 women are discussing their love lives.I wish they would speak a little louder.

*Crap, I just sneezed. I feel the need to stand up and tell everyone I have bad allergies.

Frag'n Friday!

So, it's actually Saturday night fragments, but hopefully Mrs. 4444's won't mind. It's an easy one because it's a post of pictures I have taken thinking I would get them into posts, but haven't.

The first set is from the Wellfleet Oyster Festival. We had fried dough....


This is one of the crafty things people do with the oyster shells after they eat the oyster....they turn them into beautiful decorations.

There were a variety of men wearing strange hats. Why? I guess to try to sell their wares.




B and her friend posed in the middle of 2 oyster shells


Then one night, B and I went down to the shore and took pictures of the beautiful sunset. Just looking at these pictures makes me feel blessed to live here.



B, modeling for me.


My mom and a few of my friends and I took a class on how to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece. Not too bad, eh?


This is my brother in law's boat coming in with a full catch! Look at all the seagulls behind him!!


One day B and I were going somewhere and got stuck in a line of traffic behind a man moving his boat to dry dock for the winter. There is a man in a blue hat on the top of the boat manuevering the tree limbs away from the boat. He must have lost a bet to get that job.



So those are my fragmented pictures for the week. I will work on getting this up on the right day next week!

Icky Germs!!

Dear people who are shopping in the same stores as me,

I would really appreciate you NOT shopping if you are sick or a just "getting over" something. It is only November. There is plenty of time to get your holiday shopping done. I know it is exciting to see the Christmas ornamentation and hear those familiar carols, but you would SERIOUSLY be better off at home in bed. There is this wonderful invention now called the internet where you can get just about anything you need by sitting in front of your computer. You could even blast some Christmas music in the background while you shop. You can cough and sneeze all over your own keyboard (not me).

I understand if you are at the grocery store stocking up on chicken noodle soup and ginger ale, or at the pharmacy getting some much deserved drugs. There is no need for you to be in the Christmas Tree Shops or TJMaxx. I can only put so much antibacterial liquid on my hands before they will dry up into little stubs. And I am pretty sure I am not suppose to put that all over my face, but truly you leave me no option when you are hacking away in the same aisle as me.

Please don't make me resort to wearing a mask.

Although, I am crafty and could probably adorn one with bedazzles or fleece or pompoms or something. Hmmm, maybe I have a new business opportunity here. Well, I will get started on it right after I take a disinfecting shower!

Sincerely,

Germ-a-phobe Sue

Happy Holidays.....

I had to look back in my blog to see if I had written about the subject of Christmas in my family before, and oddly I haven't. Weird, I know. Yes, it is the beginning of November and we have been talking Christmas up in my house for months. Just for the record, we are not as bad as a friend of mine who's mother in law talks up Thanksgiving 13 months ahead of schedule!

Yes, I am one of those shoppers who often times starts Christmas shopping for the next year at the day after Christmas sales. Yes, I love Black Friday and hunt for the best bargains in the Thanksgiving day flyers instead of taking the typical turkey day nap. I don't mind Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I just love the time of the year that is Christmas.

However, my family is turning it into a rule run episode. Of course, my entire family will read this and there will be hell to pay, but I am throwing it out to you, my blog family to aid and assist. With my Mom's side of the family, we have a name draw. We are allowed to spend (I think this year it was dropped to $30) so much on the person's name we have. Unfortunately, for the past few years, we have not all gotten together around the holidays, so the opening has been done over the phone.

Then we have the stocking draw in my immediate family. It is fun, we each have one person that we spend $10 on and there is usually a theme involved. Sometimes you have to shop for a certain color, other times something that rhymes with their name, this year something that begins with their name. We have fun, we laugh and it is always amusing.

Then we have the name draw with the immediate family for one gift up to $100. This is where the major trouble comes into play. Some of us are crafty, some of us want to buy for everyone and some of us feel that $100 on one person is too much pressure. The emails between family members having been flying like wildfire for the past month! That's right month and I still don't think that we have a good answer. My brother's girlfriend even jumped into the melee today (God Bless Her). Because of her 2 cents, she bought herself the privilege of saying grace at dinner.

Help stop the insanity! Tell us what you do for Christmas or Hanukkah (Melisa). Our family needs help and is losing the real value of Christmas which is the eating, I mean the togetherness of family and friends!

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Frag'n Friday!

Welcome to a special addition of Friday Fragments. Why is it so special you ask? Well it is Melisa With One S's birthday today!!! It is also K's half birthday! Go spread the birthday love around and stop by Mrs. 4444's to tell her I puffy heart her, too.

*We were driving to the dentist yesterday and passed a car from C-lab. C-lab is a place that draws blood, takes pee etc... K could not believe that their was actual blood in the car with some older man driving it.
"Ted Kennedy had more security around him and he was dead! This guy is driving people's BLOOD with no security or armored car!!!!"
She doesn't come out with one liners too often, but when she does, they are good!

*She also told me that some kid got busted in school for having soda in his locker. Evidently he had like 7 sodas in his locker and was handing them out to his friends. The guidance counselor confiscated them. The science teacher explained to him that sodas were unhealthy. And he came back with, "Well 2 of them were healthy, they were grape!"

*My father in law was "Quahoggin' Mama" for Halloween. I have no words other than what a good sport.
*I know you all love Gretel and she's always into something.... Here's the latest. Once again I left her in the backyard (you would think I would have learned my lesson). She is attached to a 40ft wirey thing and has the run of the backyard. When I looked out the window to find her, I couldn't see her anywhere.

*
Yup, she had dug herself a nice little tunnel under the deck. I literally had to pull her out.

*She is a very patient dog for the most part.....

*I am doing a little better getting to people's blogs sooner than later. I am also enjoying checking out some new blogs, courtesy of all the bloggers doing Georgie and Amy's Secret Santa (see button above). I do love Christmas and a little birdie told me today it is in 50 days! Ack, get me to the mall!!!!!

*Oh, if you need any seaside holiday ideas, check out my friend Becky's etsy shop or her blog. She is one of the most talented people I know (and really nice too!).

Happy Weekend!!!!

Scallop Season

Scallop season opened on November 1, but for some ancient bylaw, the guys were not allowed to go on Sunday, so it officially started Monday. This once was a huge money maker around these parts, but through shifts in tides, sands, etc, it has been pretty weak for about 20 years. For whatever reason, this is the year it has turned around. So I introduce you to the scallop shanty where one opens scallops.

This is what scallops look like.

This is what they look like when the shell is opened. Evidently they have muscle and guts around the scallop that one has to peel off.

Matt is showing the girls and his nephew the fine art of opening the scallops in a very cramped scallop shanty.

K shows me the cool way to open them.

B found a crabby in one of hers.

Remember Where's Waldo? I made Where's Gretel?

And here it is, the fruits of their labor.

For this little bag here, a fisherman would get about $20 to sell it to a fish market. You, as the consumer, would have to pay about $50 for this amount. Unfair? Yeah, I think so. Place your wholesale orders now!