Lil Monsters

When we left Newnan, I was up to my ears in cake orders. Eric and I had actually looked into some rentals for a store front and I had gotten an official business license for my web store. But, then life happened and before you knew it I was declining orders and had to put notice that I would be moving. I had to cancel my business license and put away my dreams a little longer.

When we moved in our German house I was actually excited because we have a big basement, with a big room that I made my cake room. But it has slowly become a storage room for two main reasons:

1. My German oven SUCKS
2. We live quite far out and transporting of cakes is my all time NOT favorite thing to do

In December, Avery's teacher emailed me and said Avery had told her that I did cakes. ACTUALLY, what happened is my little sales rep (AKA Avery) took my business card to school!! She asked if I would do a cheese cake for her and I said sure! I actually had to monitor my oven so much that I thought how ridiculous. I am sure the kids could share some stories about me and my choice words for this oven from H..E..double hockey sticks!

Well, Avery's teacher contacted me again and asked if I would make a cake for a teacher having a baby. I said sure, and we decided to use her baby bedding design as a base for the cake. Her baby bedding is called "Lil Monsters" and it sure is cute! These little guys are mimics from the quilt.

This was my take on it, and they all enjoyed the cake, which was Vanilla filled with fresh strawberry filling and my buttercream recipe.  I only had a little problem with delivery, the green guy fell over, one of his ears fell off, but it made it there in one piece.

Driving the cake in I swore I wouldn't do a cake again living in the mountains with switch backs, it is so stressful to me! I have had cake catastrophes happen, just ask my friend Stacy when her daughters castle cake steeple fell off as I drove it over to her house on a 95 degree hot Georgia day.  I was in tears, if that tells you anything:)

I saw Mrs. Thomsen the next day and she asked if I would be her cake lady... I said sure...

My Little Techies

You might remember when I highlighted a few months ago what the kids have been up to lately.  While there is always something going on, Nicky and Avery have a constant conversation about new ideas for their Minecraft "server" and how to bring them to life.

Yes, Nicky has created a server in which his buddies all get on and they can play together.  I should have known it wouldn't take long for him to start creating videos. Creating, coding, video editing, all things Nicky loves to do. This is the kid that makes mini movies with our huge Sony Camcorder using tapes!

Avery was so excited when they finally started to record in her room. We moved one of our computers up in her room (with Net Nanny on it of course) and they would yell down the stairs, "Mommy, quiet OK because we recording".  Then I would hear excited laughing and Nicky saying, "Avery, do you like this song, this font, what about if we phase in".

The below video is completely made by Nicky and Avery. I could not tell you how they did any of this! They built the Minecraft house, the character, Avery wore mic headphones and Nicky used his video skills he learned in a class this year, and they found a song and added it.

I told them I would post a video if it was about two minutes long, and this is what they came up with. Pretty creative kiddos! Make sure you make it full screen to see how cool it is!

Pasta Perfection

This morning I received this email from Zachary:

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 10:41 AM, Zachary N Brown wrote:

Can we have spaghetti tonight? Or ravioli.  

What he is doing thinking about this at 10:41 am is beyond me, but this just confirms what Eric and I have realized the last couple of years.  These boys eat, sleep,eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, it never ends!

So before I left for the day to do some errands, I threw my favorite spaghetti bolognese recipe in the crockpot to cook all day.  I remember the first time Eric and I had bolognese in Naples, Italy patiently waiting for Zachary to make his grand arrival.  It is such a vivid memory and I remember it was the best tasting sauce ever.

When I returned home, kids in tow, I asked Avery if she wanted to help me make some pasta.  She has never done this with me before, but as expected, she is a genuine natural!  It is always awesome to hear your child say over and over again "how cool this is" and "maybe I want to do this when I grow up". I just love her  sweet little self.

The best part about it?  The sauce is just that good...but the difference in making your own pasta and the box pasta is like night and day.  It just melts in your mouth! It truly makes any pasta dish so much better.

I use a very basic recipe for homemade pasta, and you can use Kitchenaid attachments that make this much faster, but then Avery wouldn't have thought it was so cool!  A little flash back, Eric bought me this machine in Italy 18 years ago, and who would of known that our daughter would be having so much fun with it?

See below the collage for the recipe if you would like to give it a try! Click on the collage for a larger view.

Homemade Pasta

(I have found a very easy method for making this. I throw my flour in my bread maker, make a dam in the middle and add the egg/water/oil/salt that have been beaten together, and then I let it knead for 10 mins, pull it out and let it sit in a baggie for 20 mins. We roll on each setting twice until we get to 4 and 5. Then, roll thru desired pasta shape, letting air dry until you are ready to use. Boil for 2 mins and drain and serve)

1 1/2 c Semolina Flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 Tbs water

2 Tbs olive oil

Lake Constance/Island of Mainau

I am seriously a week behind, in everything, in every way. This can be blamed on many factors, but mostly just that I am losing my superwomanness.  I admit it!

We got back from Lake Constance on Monday of this week, and I am just now getting around to posting our pictures.  I also realized my Mothers Day post didn't post as planned, so now it has, late, but posted!

Eric and I had a "need to escape" week and planned a trip to the beautiful Island of Mainua on Lake Constance. This huge lake borders Germany and Switzerland.  This was a last minute trip decided on Friday afternoon to leave on Saturday.

That is just how we roll sometimes.  Crazy, I know...

So being that Germany seems to be involved in a eternal rain shower this year, it should not shock us that it rained during the trip. But the few spare moments we had sunlight or a break in the rain, it was breathtaking. We also spent a lot of time in the butterfly garden, and got some cool pictures, as you can see below.

We drove to the Island, but we were heading to Garmisch afterwards so our route changed. We had to put the Tahoe on a ship and set across the lake. Pretty hefty price of 15 Euros (about $20 dollars) but shaved about an hour off of our trip.

This is the same boat we were on, they have multiples going back and forth all day

Amazingly, with all the cargo, these boats haul "bootie"!

When you first come into the park, you really are blown away by the beauty of nature! For some reason, I could not get Eric or the boys to pose in front of this giant flower?  Even Avery seems to have the look of "hurry up, before someone see's me", it sucks my kids are getting old!

We then carried on thru the park to the butterfly gardens. It is really just nature galore up to this point. So pretty....

Yes, this butterfly was really this big!

I love this photo, check out his eye, he was looking at me!

Zachary is really getting into photography, and he has his own style and a great eye. I offered up maybe being a National Geographic Photographer?

Eric thought he might pass out in here, it was so hot, and honestly, we did all leave looking like we had poodle perms. As Eric has the straightest/finest/yet volumistic hair on earth, and it reacts to humidity by sticking straight up off his head and my straight hair curls, I imagine we looked like dorks.  I am sure we were a sight to see coming out of the sauna butterfly garden.

Avery attempted the circle count to see how old this baby was.

Just breath taking, even with the clouds looming

I was on my hands and knees trying to get how beautiful it was, it really didn't capture how pretty this view was.

I requested one of these in our background, Eric said he would get back to me:)

Nicky really is taller than Avery, but in this picture he looks like a pretty little guy.  See Avery's hand, it was gravel that they were pelting at each other. Nothing like standing out as Americans!

Ok, a private joke, but Zachary and Eric always seem to fall into this GQ stance, this is what he is laughing about.

We had a long talk about the inner flower at this point, Avery just learned about this again in 4th grade Science.

Love this picture of Zachary, he has always been a thinker.

Nicky, conjuring up what he can throw in the water next.

This pic is overexposed, but I love Avery's expression. She enjoyed the flowers as much as I did and ran up to them saying "take a picture of this one"

Just thinkin...about what we can throw off this huge cliff?  We have to seriously watch these two, at one point Eric caught them hanging off a tree in the park. I am the mother of monkeys.

It was starting to rain as we took this picture!

I didn't want to overload this page with nature shots, so I have created a page dedicated just to the nature photos here, they truly are spectacular if I must say so myself:)  Although, I did hear a grumble walking around the park from Eric "how many pictures of flowers can we have", I ensured him they were for a very important project, that I might do someday! Click here to see the page! Nature Photos

We intend to go back to the Lake Constance and stay at a hotel around the lake. There are so many little towns that border the lake, each with a history of its own. I imagine we will be going back two or three times more. This was our first trip there, and we mainly focused on the Island of Mainau, because it was a good day trip and easily planned for our on a whim planning.

If your interested in learning more, you can read about the Island of Mainau here.

Happy Mothers Day

Nicky was always knee deep in Knex and then it was Lego's.  We went thru phases of printing out massive instructions off the Knex site on how to build monstrosities that he attempted.  But when he was in 2nd grade, his sweet little self made this for me upstairs in our hallway so I would see it when I woke up.

As I am sure most mothers do, I have big box of gifts all three of the kids have made me, but I am so glad I took a picture of this long ago. I can't wait to see what homemade goodies I get this year.

Happy Mothers Day!

Smile for the day

This is how school pick up goes:

Hi Mommy!
Hi Avery, how was your day?
Good...I did this, this and this
How did you feel today?
Good!

Can we get a donut? Pleasseeeeeee

Nicky usually comes to the car about 10 minutes after Avery.  This is how the conversation goes....


Hi Mommy!
Hi Nic, how was your day?
Good...I did this, this and this!
How did you feel today?
Good! Ummmm,

Can we get a donut? Pleasseeeeeee

(Zachary is at track practice and when Eric picks him up, their conversation usually goes like this and sometimes if Zachary is starving, he will email to have Eric bring 2 bars)
I AM STARVING, DO YOU HAVE A CLIFF BAR
Eric: yep, here you go

So, a couple times a week, we swing into the commissary and I let them get only the chocolate cake donuts. Not the white yeasty sugar laden donuts, but a plain cake donut can't be so bad, right?  Well, I am sure it is, but as I have been told by Nic that he has the healthiest lunch in 7th grade (and this isn't a compliment from him) I figure whats the harm?

The sweetest part of this donut deal?  Is who goes in and gets it.

One thing I have always loved on military bases is the safety net of your community. When Zachary would ask to ride his bike to the library at age 12, I had not a second thought. Or when we would discover we needed milk, we would send him down on his bike and he would pick up a German pretzel for himself as a reward for getting the milk. Kids love to be treated like trusted little adults! I love that I can do that with my kids.  Even though we don't live on post, It is still nice to be able to be more trusting than I can on the economy.

Avery has always been my little shopper, and she learned when she was probably 7 or 8 how to use our debit card and pay at the self checks.  She is 10 going on 20 (hmm, I heard that myself a few times growing up).  She loves nothing more than to get "her" ID card, the debit card, a list from me and any coupons and take them in and pick up a few things, along with the after school donuts.  So Nic and I wait in the car, parked in the safe corner parking space where she doesn't have to cross the street, and she heads in with with her list and cards in hand.

Today, I had to laugh and take a picture because she stopped and got this cart as well.  It just made me smile. She is such a huge help and I love letting her do stuff like this, tasting little bits of life while still being our favorite little girl.

"What is so funny, just grabbing a cart like you do Mommy"

"Why is she taking a picture of me?"