Happy Birthday Cupcakes.

Earlier this week a good friend of mine had a birthday. It just happens we play softball together too. So, I thought I'd do something nice and bake some cupcakes for her. Me, being nice? I know, but I can be sometimes. I decided to do something fun and make them fancy. Years ago...and I mean 30 years ago....I made cupcakes with gum drop flowers decorating the tops.

See...here is proof...this is me in Eric's parents back yard in the summer of 1979 with a plate full of cupcakes for him. Must have been trying to impress someone or something.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you how to make cupcakes with gum drop flowers. First you make the cupcakes. You can be fancy and make them from scratch or just go and buy a stinkin' box of mix like I did. I wasn't being that nice.

Mix 'em and bake 'em and try not to eat them before you get them decorated. Thank you.

For the decorations you need big gum drops, sugar, a surface to roll them out on, and a rolling pin. Easy enough.

Put lots of sugar on the surface that you will be rolling them out on. I used a washable cutting board because it can get sticky. Set the gum drop in the sugar...

...then flatten it a little bit with your hand.

Put some sugar on the top after you've flattened it.

Then press it down a little with your rolling pin. It looks like I am whapping it, I'm not, just was using one hand for the camera.

Roll it out a little at a time, putting sugar on the top pretty often. If you roll it out too fast it will stick to the rolling pin and you'll wonder why you had decided to be nice in the first place.

Roll a little, sugar a little, roll some more...

until you have a nice oblong shape.

When it's all rolled out, cut it in half the long way....not the wrong way, the long way.

Each half will get rolled up into a rose shape.

Roll and pinch as you go. It gets sticky but that's what holds it together. Don't pinch too hard or the bottom will come off. Um...that sounded bad.

Repeat as often as you want with whatever colors you want until you have as many flowers as you want. But don't use the black gum drops...because...yuck, that's why.

See...look at all these....I must have really been feeling nice.

Then you roll the green ones and cut them into triangles for leaves. Just pinch the short flat side of the triangle around the stem and you're good to go. I would have taken a picture of that, but I forgot. Oops.

Frost your cupcakes...I did take a picture of that but it was blurry....and then stick a flower or two in the top. Happy Birthday Gum Drop Flower Cupcakes. That's what I'm calling them.

They were a hit! And since I'm being so nice I won't show a picture of everyone chowing down on cupcakes after our game. You're welcome.

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Kris!

Funky Day

I'm trying to keep things positive on my blog, but today was just sort of a funky day and I don't have anything nice to say so I'm not going to say nuthin' at all. Well not really, but sort of.

Why the funk? Sort of an accumulation of things...but the topper for the day was the all day noise! The neighbors had tree cutters in all day, they sawed trees and then they chipped trees with a really noisy, bad exhausty chipper that filled my house with noise and fumes and put me in a funky mood. Sometimes living in the suburbs gets to this country girl.

Here's a funny little flower. The screens aren't the greatest in our house, this one in the master bath has a little hole in it next to the spring loaded lock thing that holds it in place. One of my silly petunias found the hole and has decided to come in to visit. Probably to get away from the noise next door.

Too bad all that noise followed the poor little flower inside. Here's hoping for a quiet tomorrow in the burbs.

The Mission Trip

During the wee hours of the morning yesterday, Brian packed his bags into the van for the short ride to church before heading out on a long ride for a mission trip. This is Brian at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. He looks a little sleepy. This is also an example of my photography skills at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. The dark shadow on the right side of the photo would be the camera strap....or maybe it was one of the bags under my eyes. Yawn. Bye bye sweetie pie.

Three chaperones and it looks like 11 teenagers (Eric took the picture so I'm not sure if some weren't there yet) piled into 3 vans to journey to St. Louis, MO for a week of volunteering, working, sharing, and learning about the every day struggles that people can face in an urban setting. The kids range in age from going into 10th grade to soon to be seniors. Umm...it appears the girls out number the boys by quite a bit.

The vans were packed up and off they went. Cell phones are discouraged, so contact will be limited. Last year Brian went on a mission trip to an Indian reservation with his confirmation class. Eric was a chaperone for that one, so I wasn't very concerned. This time around, I'm feeling a little discombobulated with the idea of him being so far away without one of us with him. Our main contact will be daily emails from the church that are written after a daily phone call from the trip chaperone. We got our first one today.

This was the email...short and sweet.

Jennifer called to let us know that they arrived safely yesterday. The trip, thankfully, was uneventful. They had just finished devotions when she called and everyone was heading off to their sites. Some were going to a nursing home, others to a transitional home for women and children and the last group was going to be moving furniture. They will be going to see the St. Louis Arch this evening. Jen asks for prayers, for open minds and that the students will expand their normal circle of comfort. She asks for prayers for safety, especially this evening. Tonight is the All-Star baseball game in St. Louis, so the downtown area will be unusually busy and congested. So far they are having beautiful weather.

My reply was...

Thank you for the update! I’ll admit that having my son so far from home is expanding my parental circle of comfort! :-) It’s good to hear that things are going well.

But what I wanted to say was how was the drive down there? What are you eating? Is the sleeping pad working well enough? Is it too hot? Crowded? What are you working on? Who is in your group? Did you bring enough underwear? Are you getting enough rest? Drinking enough water? Do you miss your momma?

I guess that's why they don't encourage them to phone home. I know that he's fine. I know that I can count on him to be level headed. I know that the chaperones are good. I also know that I am missing my boy. It could be a long week.

Saturday Baseball

What's more American that baseball? In my last post I mentioned that Billy was in the MBT state tournament this weekend. Last year his team won it. This year, not so much. They didn't make it out of pool play. With two losses for both teams going into today's game, they knew that this one didn't matter.

But they came out to play. Billy's team took an early lead. 10 runs in the first inning. 5 runs in the second. The other team couldn't put one on the board. The head coach decided to show some mercy to the other team and didn't push the boys to keep competing. Nice gesture on his part...almost a not so nice outcome.

The other team started hitting. Our team stopped. Our batters struggled, our pitchers struggled, the other team scored a couple one inning, then a few more the next, and the next. Next thing they knew their 15-0 lead had dwindled....the tying run was on first base with two outs. Bottom of the last inning. And then....their boy....struck out. Game over 15-14. It felt like the boys won a game and lost a game...but it was all the same game. A fitting ending for the tournament.

The boys have league play-offs starting this week....and one more state tournament next weekend....then it's done. Done! It feels like they just started. I'm going to miss it. Not just the games, but the moments in the games. Like this one, where Billy automatically picked up the opposing teams bat and handed it to them, just to save them the trouble, just because. Is there a better feeling than noticing one of your kids doing something nice when they don't think anyone is watching? Just because.

I'll miss watching the camaraderie that's formed on this team...they all get along pretty darned well. I'll miss their laughs, their emotions, the pats on the back, the crack of the bat, the sound of cheers from the bench....and the snap of the ball hitting the mitt. But the one thing I will miss the very, very most...because I know that it is only a part of this particular season...is the sound of this very serious catcher's voice as he yells...

..."BALLS IN, COMING DOWN!!" and his husky low teenage boy voice cracks into soprano right in the middle of the call. Oh dear, it slayes me, every time. When they are out there playing and trying their hardest in the dust and heat of the day sometimes it's hard to remember that they are still just boys. The boys of summer, winning or losing I'm cherishing the moments. The seasons of this life are simply too short.

Busy Baseball Day

Billy's baseball team qualified for the MBT State baseball tournament. It started today. Two of their three games of pool play. This picture is from their first game of the day, at 1:00 pm. It was taken during a pitcher change. Unplanned pitcher changes usually aren't a good thing. The boys didn't have a very good game, they lost to a team that they had beaten during league play just over a week ago. Ugh.

This is Billy at the second game. He was up to bat near the end of the game with the bases loaded. He hit a lonnnnnnnngggggg foul ball to the left side. Then...then...he had a sacrifice fly, scoring a run. Unfortunately they needed quite a few more than one run to catch up. It wasn't a good day for the home team.

Billy seemed to take it well. He played a good game, he always makes me proud. He and his dad have a lot to talk about after the game. I wonder if they realize how lucky they are to share such a bond. Win or lose, that part of the game is a wonderful thing to watch.

I've got a lot of pictures to sort and CD's to burn before tomorrow's morning game, but I'm so tired my eyes are crossing. It will have to wait until early morning. In the mean time, here's a cone flower of a different color that was growing in the park where the boys were playing ball. Love it.

And I really love having my camera back, all fixed and good as new. More tomorrow. Have a happy weekend!

30 more Seconds of Fame

Last April I did a post about a Twins game and having 30 Seconds of Fame. Well...I'm feeling sorta famous again. Maybe not 30 seconds worth this time....it's probably more like 3 seconds, or maybe not at all...but I do think that this was pretty cool. I get this magazine. I'm not sure why it's delivered to our house, I hadn't subscribed, but I get it monthly. It's not my type of magazine, but I do like to page through it and look at the ads for inspiration and ideas.

Anyway, I was paging through it last night and a little something caught my eye... see anything familiar? See anything you might have seen a few times on my blog before?

It's Skylar and Czar!! My horses! Crazy! My mom had mentioned last spring that the dog was barking and barking, so she looked down the road and noticed a car parked on the side of the road with people milling about. Someone was fluffing the hair of and making a big fuss over a really tall woman in a yellow dress. She assumed that it was a photo shoot of some kind. She was tempted to go and see what was going on, but didn't want to disturb them. We had forgotten all about it....and then last night I was paging through this magazine getting ready to toss it in the trash when I saw my ponies! Whoa! (sorry, couldn't resist)

The dude in the picture doesn't look like he appreciates the lovely aroma of a pasture in the spring. City folks! :-) They had taken photos all around town to advertise different fashions. And cool horses.

The whole thing is strange. Strange that they picked that spot. Strange that my mom noticed them and mentioned it to me, strange that of all the magazines it could be it was one that I strangely receive for no apparent reason....and very strange that in just quickly paging through it I instantly saw them. But you know what, I really like it when strange things like that happen, because it's a wonderful reminder that there really are no coincidences, it's all a part of a plan.

Amen.

Three Hour Tour

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.


The mate was a mighty sailin' man, the Skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour. A three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost. The Minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle, with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the Professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's Isle.

The Gilligan's Island theme song was written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle. Mary Ann was always my favorite character in the show, who was yours?

This blog isn't really about Gilligan's Island. It's about the crazy boat ride that we took at the cabin this weekend. It's a little boat, just perfect for a nice adventure on the river. We (Billy) checked the gas, there seemed to be enough...but we decided to go upstream just in case. I'm glad that we did! We got to see "Tin Can Island" that is pictured above. Year by year it has been getting smaller. The river was really high, which seems strange since they are suffering from a drought in the area...but the height is controlled by a dam and they are keeping all the water that they can on the upper half of the river. I'm not sure why....but it was high and not moving very much.

After circling around "Tin Can Island" we noticed something swimming along the Minnesota shore...we watched as it left the water and went up the bank into a bush. Can you tell what it is? I know that my pictures aren't very good of what we saw...but at least it's proof....we saw a beaver!

He was a big beaver! He (or she) was really dark, almost black. It went up into a bush and came back with a nice branch in its mouth. These were taken on it's way back into the river. It gave us the eye....

...and then decided to swim out around us with its branch. It could cover a lot of ground (I should say water) in a big hurry!

A few minutes later the grass on the bank started to wiggle again and out came another beaver. This one was almost red in color. It followed the path of the first one, around the boat and headed upstream. This one didn't have a stick. Sorry about the photos, it was getting dark and I was using my zoom, from a moving boat. :-)

We were feeling pretty excited about seeing the beavers, it's sort of a rare thing so it was pretty special. Trouble was it was starting to get a little darker than we liked, and we had a ways to go to get back to the cabin. That's OK, we'll just open it up and go fast! Good plan...sputter, sputter, sputter....silence. Oh no, out of gas! Bummer. That's OK, we are upstream and we have oars and two teenage boys to row for us. All is not lost.

Row row row your boat, gently down the stream....merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream. Looks like Brian is thinking it was a nightmare! We were pretty far from the cabin! But then Eric started thinking, maybe, just maybe we can tip the gas tank up just a little bit so the little bit of gas and its fumes can get to the motor and we can make it back.

I knew there was a reason I married a smart guy! It started!! We motored all the way back to the cabin and arrived just in time to see the beautiful red sunset over the water. Our little boat ride ended up being a nice little adventure...but thankfully not a three hour tour.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale....

And if you are singing the Gilligan's Island theme for the next few hours, it's not my fault! :-)