Building a Cake

OK, this is just a short post. I have to tell you about the cake that Naomi made for a friends birthday. I thought it was ingenious! It is designed to look like lego!

Isn't that amazing?!!! This cake was an absolute hit. I am amazed at the variety of things we can do with cake to make birthdays special and memorable. As I think back over the years I can remember some specific birthdays and events by the cakes I made for them.

As a teenager I decorated a cake to celebrate the first anniversary of our eternal family - having been sealed together for eternity one year before...

I remember making a mothers day cake special for mothers day a short time later. We celebrated mothers day with a friend that year and shared the cake with her, her daughter and grandson.

Mom, Adele and I 

I remember Shylah's birthday cake for her second birthday where I made a duck in a pond because she loved 'duckies'.

Shylah's second birthday

I remember making a pirate birthday cake for Chad and then playing 'pirate' games with the kids. We had a bean bag toss where they tried to throw the bean bag through the pirates eye patch. I also remember another year where I made a cake for him to look like a pizza... it really does look like pizza too!

Shylah, Chad and Alisha

I also remember doing a remake of my parents wedding cake for their 25th wedding anniversary party. What a grand occasion that was.

Cake decorating is not something I have done for every birthday and certainly not for every occasion, but as I look back over the years, there are some that really stick out in my memory. I don't think it's the cake as much as it is the love and time that was felt and shared for the occasion. Regardless of what it is that makes it stick out in my memory, each cake is associated with special, happy memories and in a small way has added to the joy of the occasion for me.

Birthday Art

So last fall I was introduced to a new type of art that I had never previously considered. Art quilting fascinated me from the moment that I first saw it. I decided that I wanted to learn more about it and I wanted to try it out! So, I decided to make a wall hanging for my daughter for her birthday. It took me about 3 weeks to complete, but I thoroughly enjoyed making it and look forward to making another.

The project began with some brain storming. I asked Alisha what types of things she would like, if I were to do some art for her. She had a number of suggestions... dragons, a ship in a storm, and a few others. However, as I considered her suggestions, those were the two that stuck in my mind. To connect the images, I added a third one, a light house which included a ship on the sea and a dragon flying in the sky. 

As I brainstormed I began to see spiritual parallels. That cemented the project in my mind. I sketched it out and then began the fun of assembling it. 

First I went shopping for just the right fabrics. I came home with lots of colors and a bonus... a water print! That made the ship panel easy to do so that's where I started! I drew the patterns to scale, each one being the same size as a letter size copy paper. I traced and cut and assembled starting with the ship, then the lighthouse and lastly the dragon...

Once all the panels were sewed I put the whole thing together adding a border in the colors Alisha had specifically asked for. I added the backing and it was ready to be quilted.

 This was my first time machine quilting and it took a little practice on some scraps to decide what I wanted to do, but I LOVED making it! Here is the finished product... I have added rhinestones and beads to make it sparkle and shimmer.

I added an explanation on the back that tells of the spiritual symbols I was impressed with as I assembled it. I added some beads and ribbons to the top and it was ready to present.

The day arrived about a week after the actual birthday. Alisha and Brandon came down and celebrated with us. It was a fun and memorable birthday celebration...

After a special birthday meal we enjoyed cake and of course opening presents. This year her choice of cake was angel food. We had just had a Relief Society activity where they served angel food cake and gave out a number of recipes for angel food cake toppings. With that fresh in my mind, I prepared a couple of my favorite toppings for Alisha's birthday cake.

Here you see her opening her gifts. Her expression tells it all as she pulls her wall hanging out of the box.

Following the cake we started playing games. Spoons kept our attention for a while and we played several rounds before calling it a night.

We all looked forward to having Alisha come home for a while to celebrate her birthday with us. We cleaned the house with a little extra attention, cooked the food to her requests, and wrapped gifts, planned games and then just enjoyed the moments we had together. Life is full of moments to enjoy and I have found that the moments I enjoy the most are those I spend together with my children and husband. It is absolutely delightful having my older children come home to visit and spend some time with us. I can't begin to express how much I look forward to these visits - even the short ones! I love it when we have time to sit back and relax, play a few games and visit. 

Truly I would not trade one second of family time for all the money or entertainment in the world. Time is one thing that when invested in family, yields the richest dividends of life. What a blessing and joy it is to gather my family round, to love them, to laugh with them and share my life with them.

Gram and Gramps

Well, it has been a year now, since Chad's dad came home from recovering in Calgary from his stroke. There is so much that he needs help with now, that we try to go visit frequently to take care of those needs. Just after Christmas last year we enjoyed a day with them.

The wheelchair always seems to be popular. Breanna was interested in sitting in it and experiencing how to maneuver with her hands. There isn't a lot of room though, so she couldn't go far.

The kids found a game and we all enjoyed just being in the same room together as we played, goofed around (Naomi and Beth) or just visited. 

One of the things we made sure to do on that visit was to help with the rewiring of the electronics that had been moved upstairs. Grandpa now has a 'den' where he can sit and watch TV. We helped them set up the old princess bedroom and turn it into Grandpas man cave. It's all set up with his equipment. In fact, he has two TV's in there, and will go back and forth between a couple of shows. One of the things we had to do to make this project possible, was to remove some of the tiles on the ceiling downstairs so that all the wires for sound and cable are all in the right place. Chad and Myles took on that task and worked well together. When we left, Grandpa was pretty happy with his den.

A couple of months after that, we decided to go and take Grandpa to the gun range. One of his favorite past-times was shooting at the gun range, and since his stroke he hasn't been able to go there anymore. Not everyone wanted to shoot, so only a couple of the kids went to the range, the rest stayed back at the house and visited with Grandma.

Here is Grandpa, watching. He couldn't get very involved, but was a great source of knowledge when the guns wouldn't fire properly.

Melodee, was one who was eager and anxious to get to do target practice. She loved firing the rifle. I don't know how good her aim was because to me there was so much evidence of bullets on the target from previous shooters, that I had no idea if she added another mark or not... but it doesn't matter, because she LOVED it (which is very apparent by the size of her smile in the photo below).

Breanna wanted to come along as well, but she was not interested at all in firing any shots. She watched mostly through the window where we didn't have to wear ear protection. But it was a new experience for her to be sure.

Melodee takes aim

Myles and Melodee try to get the gun unjammed.

Chad takes careful aim with his dads gun.

Myles takes a shot.

Another of our memorable visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house included some of the aunts and uncles - Grandpas brothers and sisters. They offered to bring all the old Rice photo's in for us to scan, so we came appropriately prepared and scanned page after page of photos. It was a wonderful day, for as I scanned well over 1,000 photos, we all visited. Often, the conversation was inspired by some of the old pictures, and fun stories were shared.  

Again, the kids tried out the wheelchair with big smiles on their faces. 

At church, Breanna had the David and Goliath lesson and each child came home with a marshmallow slinger. It was pretty fun! It made me wish that I had thought of something like that when I taught that lesson at home!

While the adults visited, some of the kids decided to walk to the park. They had a pretty good time too... playing on the swings, rolling in the grass and just enjoying the beautiful day!

As always, all good visits come to a close and off we went on our way home. Part way there, we had a little contention build in the vehicle between a couple of the kids. There seemed to be nothing we could do to dispel it, so as luck would have it we were coming up on a campground and decided to stop there to let everyone explore for a bit and to stretch their legs. It was a really fun time! We discovered a rich sandbar just below the bridge and the kids thrilled at jumping off the embankment into it! The evening was peaceful and lovely. Naomi and Breanna took a little walk by the river while the others enjoyed the sand. They even found some painting rocks. It was a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.

In fact, in the succeeding visits, the kids often request that we stop back there again which we have done.

Our visits to Claresholm are frequent and enjoyable. I guess it hasn't always been that way, it seemed so difficult to go often when the kids were little, especially with the shift work that seemed to dominate our schedules. However, I am so grateful to see my children enjoying their grandparents. They love to go visit and just be there. We seldom go for longer than a day now, but it is worth all the extra driving to spend those few precious hours visiting and reminiscing. It is so easy to see how much our visits lift the spirits of Chads parents. We feel needed and it is so good to be needed. In fact, our relationship has grown and strengthened more in the past year I think than in any one given year previously. I am so grateful for the opportunities we have to spend with them, for I know, that like all good visits, this opportunity too will eventually come to an end. That won't be an easy time for us, but, it will help to have all these good memories to draw upon. What a joy and a blessing family is - especially when they share their stories and memories with you. We LOVE the history of our parents! It is so fun to learn.