Riley's School Birthday Celebration

I've been dying to make a fondant covered cake for a while now. I didn't want to do it for a big event though because I was afraid I would mess it up and then there would be either an ugly cake or no cake. My aunt KK found this cake book in Goodwill a few months ago, which had the coolest kids cakes all decorated with fondant. I decided that I would try one for Riley's birthday party. I also decided to make another regular cake so if this one turned out really bad then I would just have the regular cake to serve.





Then I realized that Riley's birthday was on a school day. So, I decided that her one-year-old preschool class would be a good, non-critical audience for my first cake. So, I made a little school-themed birthday cake just for her class. And this is how it turned out. As you look closely, just remember it was my first so it's not NEAR perfect. I probably could go on and on about the imperfections I see as I look at the pictures, but it's ok. I was happy at how it turned out. It was a lot of fun to make! (Please ignore the retro 70's tupperware cake platter.)

I ended up making a pony stable cake (fondant) and a barn cake (regular icing) for her actual birthday party, so look for a post on those soon.

REVAMP

As you might can tell, I'm totally changing everything around on my blog/blogs. I hated the idea of making my blog private because then I can never get any new readers. *sigh* So, I came up with this brilliant idea that is taking way too long to accomplish. What I've done is exported my whole blog, created a new blog with the same name but different url, imported my old blog onto the new one, I'm keeping the old one public, I'm making the new one private, and I'm erasing any posts I feel are a bit personal from the old blog. whew! So, if you don't happen to look at my blog but once in a blue moon and haven't seen that I'm making my blog private and won't find out until it would have been too late OR if you just stumble upon this blog and like what you see and would like to read more up to date stuff, you still will have the old blog which will give instructions on how to be invited to read the new, private blog. Does this make sense? It does to me.

I think I'm still going to post random, general, maybe humorous things on the old blog, just to keep it up to date. So, that's that, and that's why I've removed pictures and a lot of my old posts. Thanks to all of you who have given me your email, I will add them to the list. It makes me feel good to know that more people than just my mom (because what mom wouldn't?) read my blog!

Montgomery 002: Old Alabama Town

Last week I decided to take the kids to check out Old Alabama Town. Actually, I really was just taking them to the playground there because it cost money to go on the whole tour. The tour sounds cool (I really can't remember if I've ever been), but I really am looking for mainly free stuff with this whole challenge thing and didn't want to spend the money. If you want to go check it out and go on the tour, if you haven't already, I think it's like $8 for an adult and the children 5 and under are free.

Anyways, the playground was really cool and the kids enjoyed it. After they worked up a good sweat playing out in the scorching heat (yeah, we kind of did this on the fly and I wasn't really paying attention to the time so we were out there at the hottest and sunniest time of the day; not a good idea because everything on the playground was so hot), then we walked across the street to the Tucker Pecan Company and got ice cream cones. Pink for Riley, green for Jack. They don't care what the flavor is, just the color.

The Montgomery Challenge: Mission 001

The first place we went is the most obvious place to take kids for a free and fun outing if you live in Montgomery. The museum of fine arts, of course. They have such a fun kids area. I grew up going there regularly. Since I was little, though, it has expanded by at least half it's original size. The kids actually enjoyed jumping off the steps in the little amphitheater more than anything.

Never fail, the race car track is always the favorite "exhibit," and we end up staying over in that section for half an hour usually. I really don't see how watching a little stock car going around and around in the same path can be entertaining for that long.

I was watching two other kids besides mine that day, and we were at a house that was close enough to the museum to walk there, so we enjoyed the scenery along the way. The museum is a great place to go on a rainy day or really any day, and if you haven't been there (which I'm sure if you're reading this and live in Montgomery you probably have) you should totally go. It's fun, educational, and let's the kids exercise their creativity.

Name that tune!

"Row the goss from chinny in a wok......."

This is what Jack was singing in the backseat yesterday afternoon. I knew what it was because he had sung other more intelligible parts of the song before he sang this part. I thought it was hilarious though. I was singing the song along with him and then we got to this part. I was like, "The tune's the same, but he is not singing the same thing I am." So, I stopped and asked him to sing it again. And this is what he said over and over, "row the goss from chinny in a wok." Do you know what song it is? Think about it.......









Here's a hint: It's an old school Bible song.















"Roll the gospel chariot along,
roll the gospel chariot along,
roll the gospel chariot along.
And we won't tag along behind."

Psyche, not really

Okay, so I'm going to make my blog private. Well, I already did but I'm undoing it and then will redo it in like a week or so. Basically, I thought that if it was private then my email address would pop up and it would say to email me your address and then I could make it where you could read my blog. Apparently, Blogger has changed some things, so that instead of giving people who aren't invited a way to contact me so they could be invited, they are just told they aren't invited. So, I am writing a post to let anyone who reads this blog know that I'm about to make it private and to send me their email address. My email is rileyroo@rocketmail.com.

Email me with your email address. Thanks!

Congrats Grad!!

Not your typical graduation of the season, but I wanted to give a shout out to my sister Lauren who completed 12 weeks, I think, of Officer Training School. Her graduation was over a month ago, but I still wanted to post about it. I can't really give any true description of how OTS was for Lauren, because I wasn't there, but I do know it was very very tough and not everyone made it through to graduation. At one time Lauren described it as prison...........not fun. But, it trained her and put her in the position that she is in now: Second Lieutenant Naylor.

Her rank is in the top 15% of the Air Force, which I think is pretty cool. The coolest part to me though is that she now lives in Panama City! We've already visited once and plan on visiting frequently. Our last visit will be it's own post entirely, coming soon. Anyways, good job Lauren, and we are proud of you! ...........And you need to update your blog by the way............... It's almost been a whole year.

Lauren and Mamarine on graduation day:


Waiting for the shuttle to take us to the ceremony. It was freezing outside, mainly because of the wind. (That's Jack under the frog blanket):


"Will this be over soon?" (just kidding):


Family and friends:


Second Lieutenant Naylor:


Mom, Dad, and Lauren:


Graduation Parade:


Family and friends freezing while watching parade:


First salute:


Getting pinned: