I made a cake for New Beginnings. It was so tasty!
Working on our figures to go on a map of Palestine in Christ's lifetime.
I played around with different designs on cakes. This was hand painted butterflies and roses tipped with gold.
Classic roses on white
Henna inspired designs
Roses and textured buttercream
Palette knife painted buttercream flowers
Jake is awesome at basketball. He has totally become a point guard this year and is doing awesome. His coach said Jake is the one player he never has to tell to get physical. He gets tons of rebounds and jump balls. So fun to watch him play!
Playing Bible Jeopardy on Sunday is fun, we all learn stuff!
We took a break from the polar vortex at home and went to Myrtle Beach to our favorite hotel that has an indoor waterpark.
Our room was ocean view and the room was more like an apartment- 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, washer/dryer. The prices are rock bottom this time of year and we loved it!
Wonderworks! Lots of interesting science stuff and games.
And one of our favorites- laser tag! Nicole did better than all of us, although I wasn't too far behind!
Jim and Mike on a ride that takes you spinning and all over on a rollercoaster simulator. They were funny to watch (and hear).
John could play all day with bubbles.
Trying fried alligator
Mike was the only one who would not dare to try it. This was him watching John eat some haha.
Nicole saved fries from her meal and fed the birds on the way back. The kids all had a blast as a the birds attacked.
She was dying laughing and was totally grossed out by the birds touching her.
More swimming!
After bundling up for temperatures in the teens it felt so good to be in bathing suits and playing around!
John and shuffleboard was a hoot. If the puck got too close to the wall, he couldn't back up enough to get it with his stick and he was SO confused, like a dog trying to fit through the doggy door with a big stick. He did eventually figure out that he could move the puck with his hands haha.
Ripleys Aquarium has a new WWII exhibit. With no fish. We spent about 30 seconds here.
We paid a few bucks for each of the kids to feed the rays. There were 3 other people in the whole place so it was so fun.
Jake was leaning WAY over, feeding a ray and smiling, when all of a sudden it splashed water with its fin into his mouth, eyes, nose, everywhere! He was laughing, turning red as he was grossed out, and then coming within an inch of crying as the smell set in and shock wore off. He was a really good sport. And totally soaked! One of the divers brought over a shirt for Jake so he'd have something dry to wear, it was so nice of them. The back says "I swam with the rays" haha
Myrtle Beach is a ghost town this time of year, but most places are still open so we have the whole place to ourselves and have fun walking around.
We decided after going everywhere to eat at Joe's.
Nicole ordered a huge steamer pot.
And ate it all.
She also got super lucky when we went to the boardwalk by the shore and hit the jackpot at the arcade.
Super happy :)
After getting little toys with the tickets we had ice cream on the beach.
The sea foam drew them closer to the water.
And then they were two steps from getting in.
So we went back to the hotel, and while John napped and I watched from our balcony, Jim took the kids to play on the beach while Mike boogie boarded in his wet suit.
They were in and out of the water like it was nothing! The temps were nice, but not hot and I would have made a sand castle only. They were all in the water and thrilled about it!
We drove home to do this cake for Brandon. I had decided to try a new, less sweet frosting, Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I'd made it once long ago. I learned it is practically impossible to color (we tried gel coloring , candy coloring and it didn't work great). Then learned it didn't take airbrush color well either. Ahhh! I used a bunch of tricks to get the colors right (started the black as a chocolate frosting, etc) Took a while to figure out the airbrush too. One of the shelves of the fridge fell and dented a corner of one of the cakes and I had to fix that also. The pacman pieces were tricky because I couldn't color the chocolate, it had to be colored that way from the start. Another trip to the store. And my piece de resistance, the ruibks cube I'd planned for the top- after 4 hours of many different ideas and efforts- was a no go. It just looked too tacky. I would have to use fondant. Since I'd already spent 20 hours on the cake (yes that made a long night), and the cake was a gift anyways...it went without that. But overall, the cake was awesome. Chocolate Nutella, Caramel Toffee, and Orange Dreamsicle layers of cake. The paint splat cake had a paint-type marble affect inside that matched the outside. The zebra stripe cake had orange tiger stripes on the inside. It was a wild 80s cake and nobody but my sister knew all the drama :)
Good thing I'd just come from vacation haha.
The Swiss Meringue Buttercream was a HIT and so light, fluffy and doesn't pow your face with sugar like American Buttercream. So I made some valentine's cakes. Layers of chocolate cake, strawberry buttercream, chocolate ganache, then macarons and chocolate ganache drip on top.
I replicated the same idea but with vanilla cake and vanilla ganache. I didn't like this as much, it seemed less interesting to me. It was still good, but next to the chocolate one....
My nephew got baptized this last week! The kids sang a musical number with their cousins, it was sweet and although not incredibly amazing (Diana and her cousin were more interested in linking/unlinking arms) it was great to see them all together! We are so happy for Devin!
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