Pineapple Upside Down * Whoa! * Cake

Ha! Ha! So I need to work on my cake skills! This was my epic-fail of a birthday cake experiment (for myself). I used my new layer cake pans from my mom, and made two upside down pineapple cake layers. Then I whipped up some cream-cheese frosting to layer lightly in-between and swirl on the top. As I assembled it, I was so excited because it looked beautiful -- just like I had envisioned it. Brad walked into the kitchen as I was about to finish the top. He was holding Thea Belle. The three boys whirled in like a dervish. Then in crazy, cinematic slow motion the pineapple rings looked as if they were sliding off the top. Brad says casually, "Use some toothpicks to hold them down" I look at him skeptically as we both realize it isn't just the rings, each section of the cake is falling away from the center like monkey bread...and the cake is quickly sliding off onto the counter and floor. I grab a big mixing bowl off the dish drainer and grab each section throwing it into the bowl before it hits the ground. Wow. What a mess. It was horrible. And so funny. Good thing it was only our little family and the Bergets for dinner. It still tasted good. All the same, Pathetic Birthday Cake #2 for the Johannsen year. Lincoln's is up next. (p.s. the title of this post is Brad's brain child (-:)

Wookie Love

The boys have never seen the Star Wars movies but they have a Star Wars ABC book and so they know some of the characters. One Saturday morning Brad was reading the book to them and they began asking about Chewbacca and if he was a good guy or a bad guy. Brad told them he was a good guy and that he was a Wookie. Then he found a funny video on You Tube that had a bunch of clips of Chewie doing his yell thing. Then he found a tutorial on how to make the sound. Brad was practicing with the boys and didn't know I had the video playing on the camera. He's actually quite good, right?

Friends...

 

Saved Kids!

 

 

 

So Dietrich had a drawing break-through last week. He is such a perfectionist that he is very unsure of himself with drawing and won't try to do anything representational, especially people. But last Thursday he drew his first people -- though, if you talk with him about it, please refer to them as "kids" because he is very, very specific about what he was trying to draw. Despite how excited I was for him about how they turned out, I ended up narrowly saving them from destruction as they were deemed unacceptable by the artist. Ah well, maybe he will be less scared to try it next time. Poor Dietrich and his unattainable Picture in His Head. I totally understand.

 

 

 

 

Thea Belle's First Cereal

Thea Belle has been pretty frustrated with nursing lately and sleeping poorly at night. And she is 6 months old. And she started sitting up un-assisted. And she's interested in our food at the table. So...we tried cereal for the first time. She didn't protest but was fairly uninterested. So after three days of trying we decided to wait a week or two and try again. Lincoln had a similar reaction -- Thea will get ready when she's ready. Still a first is a first, so here it is (-:

Lincoln's First Time Painting with Big-Kid Paint

Mr. Vo & Dr. Big-Nose

Often when pretend-playing, Dietrich refers to himself as Mr. Vo and Atticus becomes Dr. Big-Nose. I do not know why. But after these glasses made their way from the Millers' house to ours, at least "Big-Nose" makes more sense.

As requested by Atticus...Can you tell how tired I've been lately? -- Oh dear.

Scary.

Proof That Lincoln Doesn't Always Dress Like a Dufus & is Often Quite Jolly

Atticus' Drawings from March 2011

Lucy Penvensie (Chronicles of Narnia)

Big Left-Hand Guy (a bad guy from Word Girl -- who was in one episode we saw a year ago and this is what Atticus drew last week. The kid's memory is epic.)

Ready for Spring...

Brad bought me this beautiful bicycle for my 37th birthday and to celebrate the anticipation of my first spring/summer in 5 years not being pregnant! I am so excited to try it out. For riding to church, for taking the kids to the park, for family bike rides and picnic rides. We're getting another bike kid carrier off of craiglist so we can take all four kids for longer rides. Hooray!!!!

Here's a nice photo showing the colors and design. It is a Raleigh, Retroglide Women's 7 speed.

And this is the one I think Brad should have...