Garfield Cake

Remember that Garfield cake I was planning to make? Well, I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out!

I am not a cake decorator, really, and I don't have much experience...I am also usually frustrated at not being able to match the picture I have in my head of the finished product. But I have to say that this one turned out pretty much how I had expected. I do wish I could have gotten the brown parts a little more even, but oh well.

The cake is a 7-Up pound cake with some lemon juice thrown in for flavor. It's a very heavy cake, but really yummy! The icing is just plain butter frosting, although I added some butter vanilla nut flavoring.  I don't have any piping equipment, so a strong ziploc bag with the corner snipped off did the trick. I put some colored shredded coconut on the top for some added texture. Garfield is sitting on a piece of orange card stock so he wouldn't get frosting on him. The coconut covered it up nicely!

I stamped the paper and then attached the sign to a yellow bendy straw. I stuck the bendy part into the cake so that I could lean it the way I wanted. I did have to stick a toothpick through the bottom seam of the Garfield because he kept leaning forward a bit.

My friend was really happy with her cake and I hope she liked the flavor as well!

Odds and Ends

The pile of presents is growing!

Someone was giving away some Christmas decorations,

including this village. The kids are having so much fun with it

that I decided to let them keep it even though it's breakable...

mostly because we were able to borrow this bookshelf! Having

it set up on the top shelf keeps Jkaile out of it...right now

it's also home to all of my Christmas cards and wrapping paper-also

to keep it out of Jkaile's reach.

This morning I noticed that one of the shepherds was

being attacked by the sheep!

Notice that Samson has also joined the Nativity scene...

Our school's Christmas program was put on this last Friday.

The kids were supposed to wear hats and/or scarfs for part of the program.

Micah was quite a sight in his pointy hat, sports goggles, and ear muff thingy...

On Friday mornings, I usually take care of Haley and Anna for a couple of hours.

Jojo SAYS he doesn't like to play with girls, but he sure has a lot of

fun with them while they are here! :) They

were just too cute out there jumping on the trampoline.

Haley and Anna's family is leaving the field this week...

we sure are going to miss our little friends!

Jojo and Jkaile got out these plastic snowflakes (also in the box

of giveaways) and added them to the tree. Poor little tree

is just a tad bit overwhelmed! It was really cute to see

Jkaile working so hard to get them to stay up there! He did

a pretty good job, though, considering! :)

Walking

I found a walking buddy! Another mom who would like to make a few rounds around the park in the mornings after dropping the kids off at school. I absolutely hate exercise for exercise's sake, so this is very awesome to be able to walk with a friend-it is a much greater motivation than simply walking by myself. Cathy is married to one of my childhood friends I grew up with in Colombia, so it's a neat opportunity to get to know her better...we also both have kids in kindergarten and second grade.

So, walking report, Day One: I think I hurt myself.