DINOSAUR REX!

I'm not sure what gave me the idea, maybe even Dave suggested it, but some time shortly after visiting the Aquarium we thought about making a trip to D.C. for Caleb to check out the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian. Since March was ridiculously busy with birthday parties, my cake class, etc., we skipped our monthly family day outing. To make up for it, the first weekend in April we just sat around the house and enjoyed time together. The second weekend though, we decided to get out of the house and hit the museum.

To help Caleb get a better idea of where we were going, I pulled out a Mercer Mayer book we'd read on a number of occasions about Little Critter's trip to the Museum of Natural History. Hoping to give him a clear idea that we'd be looking at dinosaur bones not actual dinosaurs, we talked about what Little Critter saw and what we could expect to see on our trip. Nothing like making those text to world connections, right?

 

Just a warning to everyone who visits D.C. in the spring, you may want to check out what events might be happening in the city that could affect your outing plans. I can't tell you how many festivals were being held two weeks ago when we visited, closing street after street and making it difficult for us to figure out how to get to our destination. Finally, we arrived at the parking garage we prepaid to use and parked close the bottom of the garage only to realize soon after that there was no elevator. Since we couldn't take the steps with a double stroller, our thighs got a little more of a work out than we bargained for. Dodging through festivals and a million other tourists, we eventually made it to the museum though. It was a beautiful day in D.C. which made the walk enjoyable.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of the Cherry Blossom parade.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect since "Buddy" from Dinosaur Train, one of Caleb's favorite new cartoon series, was passing through.

TRICERATOPS!

Though Caleb is super interested in dinosaurs right now, I wasn't sure how he'd like the museum where he'd be looking at a bunch of fossils rather than the colorful images from the books and cartoons he's used to. To my surprise, he was over-the-top thrilled with this place. Rather than running straight for the enormous skeletons of the most well-known dinosaurs, Caleb began by taking in every small exhibit he could find as I tried to move his attention to those prehistoric monsters. He was enthralled with every section of the dinosaur exhibit. I really wish we had the Flip with us so I could have recorded his enthusiasm. Hadley, while not quite as excited, was a very good girl and went with the flow on this part of the family outing.

Since we got a late start, after quick run through the dinosaur exhibit we had to pull Caleb away and get some grub. We ate quickly and tried to keep moving to get the most out of our day before the kid's nap time. 

I saw on the Smithsonian website and in the Little Critter book that the museum had a butterfly exhibit that I thought might interest our preschooler. At the mention of the idea, Caleb was definitely eager to get there and see what is was about. Although I initially thought it was a free exhibit, the butterfly house had a pretty good size price tag on it and the line was probably at least twenty people deep so we peeked through the windows instead and moved on to the bug exhibit where Caleb got to hold a caterpillar and crawl through a tunnel to see termites.

In Mercer Mayer's book, the critter class also visited the planetarium while at the museum. This would have been exciting for Caleb who loves to lay in bed at night and look at the stars shining on his ceiling from his penguin Dream Lite. Our time was limited though because of all the delays that morning and we were getting down to the crunch for naps, so we thought it would be best to head back to the dinosaurs since we promised we'd come back to that exhibit before we left. 

Hadley needed some Mommy milk at that point, so the fellas decided to split from us for a bit. From the way Dave told it, it sounds like we ended up missing one of the most exciting parts of the day as a result. When Caleb went back in the dinosaur exhibit, his full attention was on the tyrannosaurus rex this time. Hustling through the other guests and yelling "RUN! DINOSAUR REX!" to everyone's amusement, Caleb stirred up quite a few smiles from onlookers. Dave tried to focus his attention on a few other dinosaurs but Caleb was so concerned about getting away from Dinosaur Rex that he couldn't concentrate on anything else.

Caleb and I screaming and running from Dinosaur Rex!

All of us were pooped by the end of the day, especially Miss Hadley who fell asleep in the stroller on the way back to the car.

A little later after supper that evening Dave took Caleb to the grocery store, or "supermarket" as Caleb calls it after watching a particular Bubble Guppies episode. Dave said our boy was just about as thrilled about helping shop for all the food we need as he was the dinosaurs earlier in the day. All the way through the store he kept asking, "Do we need to get eggs now?"

As Dave tucked him into bed that night Caleb said, "This was a really fun day!" I hope he keeps the memories from his fun day for years to come.

A Piece of Cake

So about that cake decorating class I mentioned a  few posts back.... Finally, I have a chance to tell you about it!

Probably a year ago or better I saw a sign at Michaels advertising cake decorating classes. While I was immediately excited about the possibility of taking one of these courses, the logistics of finding childcare and trying to squeeze it in never really seemed to work. With that in mind, for Christmas this year, I told Dave that I'd really like to try to get in a class if possible, requesting he volunteer to watch the kids as his present to me. Not so keen on the idea, he bought me a few Little House on the Prairie DVD sets instead. I loved the DVDs, don't get me wrong, but I still really hoped for the opportunity to take the cake course.

A month or so later I came up with a plan! While I had mainly been looking at the course offerings in Winchester, I decided to check out Gainesville since it is about the same distance from my house. They were offering a Saturday morning level 1 class for the month of March which I thought would fit our schedule well. I asked my mom if she would be willing to watch the kids for two Saturday mornings and bargained with Dave to watch them the other two, pointing out that this plan would give him two Saturday mornings to himself. Everyone agreed to my scheme, and finally I was going to learn to do some fancy cake stuff!

My cousin Stacey lives in Gainesville and is interested in cake decorating/entertaining as well, so I asked if she'd be interested in taking the class with me. I was even more excited about taking the course when I found out she wanted to join me and that the timing worked out perfectly for her too. I love spending time with that girl! The icing on the cake (excuse the pun), was that the classes were on sale for $10 and the supplies were on sale for 40%. Definite signs that we were meant to take the class, right?

Despite having to roll out of bed early and add baking a bunch of cookies to decorate to my already long list of to-dos, I was excited! Week one we showed up with our Course 1 Wilton Decorating Basics Kits ready to go. I got a bit lost on the way there, but Stace had my back, picking up some decorating icing for me and gathering the papers I'd need.

The instructor, Mila, began by giving us an inspirational story from her life. She grew up as a child who was forced to help with her mother's cake decorating business and was often pinched when she failed to do the role she was assigned. After later moving to America as an immigrant though, she recounted how she became more than grateful to her mom for giving her skills that helped her make money even at times when she couldn't find steady work here.

Afterwards, we sped through all the basics of how to get started decorating, including the different types of decorating bags to use and how to cut them to add the tips, how to insert the couplers and secure the tips, and how to put in the icing without making a mess. Most of the information was a review of what Aunt Pat had already shown me, but Mila did give a few new tidbits that were definitely helpful.

Next, we started some hands-on attempts with the practice boards from our kits. There were handouts with pictures of different designs you could create using the varying tips. We slid these pics under the clear plastic coverings of our boards and began trying to mimic the examples. While the samples were pretty easy to follow, Stacey and I both had a lot of trouble squeezing the icing from the decorating bags. Some of the other class members complained about this as well, so the instructor commented that we should stir the icing more to help. Having used butter cream icing in the past from the grocery store, I knew it was much easier to squeeze out than the Wilton's brand Michaels sold (plus it tastes A LOT better), so for the sake of my hands which already are sore from the Lupus, I opted to buy my icing from the grocery store when we had to purchase more later.

SQUEEZE!

Star tip attempts on my practice board

Trying out another tip

While a little practice didn't quite make perfect, our instructor gave us the go ahead to decorate the cookies we brought. I know you'll be super impressed with these, but we aren't taking any orders quite yet.

My masterpiece attempts

Stacey's fancy pants cookies

Mila had some Color Mist Food Color Spray we got to try out too.

Week two started off like a whirlwind as Mila jumped right into the lesson and practice. I definitely learned more during this session and was excited to try new designs. There were a few things I felt I did well immediately but other things that made me feel like I should be in a remedial cake decorating course. We were proud of our successes and laughed at our flops. It was a good time. The only downer was that our teacher turned into a cake Nazi at times, scolding us when we didn't do something the way she wanted. We laughed to ourselves that she needed to cool off a bit since this was a hobby after all, but remembering her story on the first day about her mother pinching her when she didn't do what she was supposed to for their cake business, I guess I understand why she was a little high strung at times.

Was pretty proud of the flowers I made in the middle here

Not so proud of this creation...I forget what kind of flower it's supposed to be.

Nailed my first attempt at rose making...

...not so awesome job at writing though

Cupcakes were our canvas for week three's lessons. We started by learning to make mums and trying out a few ideas from our workbooks and then moved on to making a pull-apart cake.

Here is an example of a mum. I this case, I think the decorators icing may have been better to use since it is stiffer.

We also learned to make leaves which was pretty simple.

Since she gave us free reign to choose any design from the book we wanted, I attempted a heart.

For the pull-apart cake, she had us buy a specific large semi-flat tip to use to icing the cake. This made covering all the cupcakes and smoothing the icing much easier. She also taught us to have a cup of clean water handy to dip our spatula in to make the icing smooth out better which was an wonderful idea (and so helpful for someone like me who wants it to be perfectly smooth and gets stressed sometimes trying to create that flawless look).

Nice job, Stacey.

After the base coat of icing came the decorating.

For the final week we compiled all our skills to create our final projects. Knowing I had Hadley's birthday party later that day, I made a Hungry caterpillar cake. I was happy with it for the most part but again the writing part got the best of me. Guess it will just take practice! Stacey made an Easter cake to take to Granny's the next day which turned out beautifully. TLC, go ahead and save a prime time slot for Stacey and Lindsay's new cake decorating show!

There was a young girl (maybe about middle school age) and her grandma who sat at our table that we bonded with throughout the course. We encouraged each other when trying out new designs and creating our final pieces. Feeling proud of our creations, we looked around the room to check out everyone else's work. Wow, were we shocked! I think some of these girls might have done this a time or two before. Maybe we need a tutor...

I might not have been at the top of the class but I did pick up quite a few useful tips. I was also thankful for more opportunities to practice; something that rarely happens at home with my two little ones underfoot. Struggling through the first trimester of this pregnancy made taking the class a little burdensome at times though since I was giving up sleep to get up early to get there and staying up late to make the treats we needed for decorating, not to mention the nausea, migraines, and other aches that were in the mix. On top of all the health hindrances, March was a super busy month for us too; every weekend was jam packed with birthday parties. When the time came to decide whether or not to sign up for Course 2, I told Stace that I thought I needed a break from my hobby for a bit until things calmed a little and I regrouped. Dave, knowing my perfectionist tendencies, has reminded me in the past that hobbies are supposed to be for relaxing not getting stressed over. I took his advice this time, and though I'm excited about learning more, I definitely needed some time to recoup following such a rushed month.

Maybe some time this summer? Dave, this might be a good birthday or Mother's Day gift. (hint, hint :))