Birthday Girl and Boy

I'm still not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing that Tyler and I have our birthdays so close together. I can't change it so we'll just deal with it. I think we have found a happy medium. We try to plan something for both of us. This year we decided to do a Murder Mystery to celebrate. It was quite fun, but that is a post of its own.

Meanwhile. we each have our own definition of celebration. I like to spend time doing what I'd like on my birthday and get a few presents. Tyler likes less fuss around his birthday. He will accept a few presents, but doesn't need much to be happy. He probably would like to go out to eat lunch or dinner.

The day before my birthday happens to be Jonny's birthday. He invited us out to eat which was really great. We went to a Thai place and enjoyed good food and good company. I couldn't get my phone to take a selfie of all of us. It kept making Tyler blurry, so you get one of each couple.

On my actual birthday, I had a pretty typical day with work and the like. I did notice that someone put a special star in the sky for me, which I greatly appreciated.

I asked June if I could play Spikeball with her. It was my only birthday wish. She plays with her friends all the time, but it is weird to have your mom come play. (I get that.) But she let me play. We went to the fields and had a great time playing. We only stopped because the girls at home had made me dinner. (Which is the other thing I request...to NOT cook on my birthday.) However, everyone was up to play some more, so we decided to take the Spikebrite net out and play into the evening. It was a great birthday. Look at these great kids. They are so fun to play with. 

I did get to open some gifts and Pearl made me brownies, although I told her I didn't need a cake. (She is sweet.)

I promise that Tyler had love and attention and presents on his birthday as well, but less pictures were taken. Here you can see his sweet girls loving on him. He is our knight in shining armor. 

Stay tuned for our fun Murder Mystery. It was our birthday party to each other. 

Chocolate Equals Death

Luckily chocolate does not equal death for me. But for certain members of the family, of the canine variety, chocolate is not the best choice for a main dish. Or even a side dish. 

Chocolate can be lethal to dogs, which is why they tell you to never give your dog chocolate. Obviously dogs will find small scraps here and there on the floor and they live to tell the tale, but large amounts can be fatal.

(music starts as we take you back in time...)

It was a lovely Sunday. Pearl had chosen cake balls for her FHE treat and we had made them and decorated them and they were on the counter cooling and letting the chocolate set. It was time for us to go play Brain Strian, so as usual, we made sure everything was out of the way of the dog. Both trays were put on the island and everything was cleared off the table. 

Nova had been getting into a lot of things that week, so I had been telling the kids to leave her outside if possible. I wasn't the last one out of the house, so I didn't know if anyone put her out.

As we reached the Hulse's, I asked the kids, "Did someone put Nova out?" They were all too far away to hear, and all I received was some non committal mumbling. "Well, don't be surprised if you come home to find all the cake balls gone," I joked.

If only it had been a joke. When we got back home, Nova looked very guilty. We found she had thrown up in two rooms of the house and almost an entire tray of cake  balls gone. I had no idea she could get up on the island by way of the stools, but apparently, she just needed the right motivation.

It was lucky that she threw up. But it wasn't going to be enough. Without some medical attention, she probably wouldn't make it. She had eaten over three times the lethal amount of chocolate.

Tyler is not one to pay money for an animal, but his compassion took hold and he forked out the cash and took her to the Pet ER. They gave her medicine to make her throw up even more and they gave her charcoal to help absorb the toxins in her system. Eventually they also gave her medicine to help her stop vomiting. However, when she got home, she still threw up a bit more. 

It was really scary. I figured it would work its way out of her system eventually, but Tyler is sure she would have died if we hadn't taken her in. Chocolate causes seizures, collapse, a coma or death from a heart attack in dogs. And Nova definitely ate enough chocolate for that, even though she wasn't displaying those symptoms when we got home.

It was a rough night for her, but you could tell she felt better after getting home from the doc. She slept and drank a lot of water. 

We now have a better idea of which surfaces she can reach and we are much more careful about what is left anywhere in the house. Although I would be fine if we got rid of Nova, that particular way is not how I want her to go. And as you'll be able to tell from future Chatbooks, Nova is doing fine and is still very much a part of the family. 

Rubber Made

I got myself a fancy schmancy cake cookbook for this year. I wanted to do a cake a week. Hahahaha. That isn't going to happen. Instead, I might try to do a cake a month. 

I started right at the very beginning of the book with a cool marble cake. It looked like blue marbled stone...so very chic. Oh, let me go take a picture. Everything is better what you can see what it was supposed to look like. 

Pretty awesome huh? My first problem was that I couldn't find those blue colors, so I decided to do pinks instead. 

I made the cake and frosted it like it said. I don't really love making frosting...too much butter and greasiness in general. But this wasn't worse than any other. I learned some great tips for making the cake nice and flat and about doing a thin layer of frosting to catch crumbs, etc. 

Then it was time to glaze. The glaze combined three colors and used a bucket load of gelatin. (I think the British are more fond of their gelatin than we Americans. That said, this is an Martha Stewart cookbook, so...there's that.) My colors were too similar, so they blended too quickly and I didn't get any cool swirls. 

Also, I think I poured it while it was too warm. It didn't set fast enough and you could still see the cake through it. Anyway, learned some stuff and now you get to see pictures of my attempt.

It was very shiny. Should be with all the gelatin.

Then it was time to taste it. 

It was...eh. 

I was very disappointed. Sure, the glaze was rubbery, but I was expecting that. You can't add that much gelatin and not expect some weird texture, but the cake should have been exceptional. It was the basic cake recipe that they use with MANY of the cakes, and it was just...eh. Not really that great. I was so bummed. 

Some of us had a slice, but I actually warned people to not eat it. Not worth the calories. I haven't picked up the cake book again. I really should move forward because there are probably other worthy cakes in there. And honestly, anything is going to be better than that pink cake. 

What can I say...nailed it.

Depiction of the First Vision

Although I don't mention Come Follow Me very often, we are pretty good at doing a lesson most week days. We switch up who is in charge and they get to do whatever they want. 

I was in charge when we were talking about the first vision. There are so many cool artistic depictions of the first vision. I thought that I would make one of my own. I cut out shapes and handed them over to groups and told them to make a picture of the first vision using the pieces I gave them.

This is what they came up with. June and Pearl had a good time. I like their tall, lanky bodies.

Ivory, Dad, and Daisy came up with a different version. Somehow theirs looked like a impressionistic face. I like it.

In case you are wondering, I did have a vision in mind. Here is what I was thinking.

The good news is that with art, you have creative license and each of these pieces are a valid interpretation. The important thing is that Joseph prayed and God revealed himself to a young boy. I'm so grateful that God still speaks to us.

Let's Reflect

Reflections is such an interesting program. We are off and on again in our family. When the kids were younger, I would greatly encourage and nag and finally get them to do projects. Then I realized that I didn't care that much. If they wanted to, they could. If not...that's fine as well.

So the number of kids who did Reflections greatly tapered off. That is, until they realized that one of the prizes for participating is a ticket to our local theater. That is simply because our local lady who runs the Reflections program for our school is a go getter and she always gets tickets. I've never seen anyone do that before. Last year, only Daisy participated and she was excited to go to an extra play with her ticket.

So all the kids got on board this year. After all, they all had art on hand from the summer, so they each chose a piece. The theme was 'I Matter Because'. It was fun to see what each girl wrote for their artist statement. Some were very profound.

Pearl did her Curious Cats

Daisy did her shaded stairs

Ivory entered two categories. Most of the girls did 2D art, but Ivory did photography as well. You'll probably recognize these pieces from the art show.

Robyn entered one piece that was rejected. They said it was too close to the original reference. (Huh...that makes sense.) So she entered this one instead.

June did two entries. 2D and 3D.

I'm not sure I realized how great our Reflections lady, Jana, is until this year. Robyn goes to a different high school and therefore has a different person over her. Her person did practically nothing to award the kids for participating. I didn't realize it was different for every school. I love all the effort Jana puts in. It truly is above and beyond.

I always forget what order the levels are in. I think it starts at District, then Council, Region, then State? We'll go with that. 

The girls are never concerned about moving on. The real prize comes from participating, but it is still fun when a piece makes it to the next level.

Everyone received candy and prizes but some pieces moved their way through the system. Each school was on its own schedule. Everyone's projects were due on different days and the awards' ceremonies were separate as well. Ivory and Daisy were first up at the Junior High. If they like your piece, there are two awards you could get. First is the award of merit, which means your piece was admired, but it won't move on. Or you can get an award of excellence, which means your piece moves to the next level.

Ivory was at a performance that day, so I had to give her both her awards of excellence when she came home. Daisy's piece didn't move on, but she was very content with the candy.

Pearl's school was up next. She didn't move on, but she had a great time collecting her swag.

Robyn moved on, but there were no prizes for her. June also moved on with her 3D piece but parents weren't invited. (They just received their awards in the office.) I did like that Jana chose to skip medals for the high schoolers and give more gifts and candy. She figured they would like it more. I think she was right.

Robyn moved up again from Council to Region, with no fanfare. Ivory and June both moved up as well. (Only one piece from Ivory now.) We had a fun little award ceremony on the steps of the school. Ivory was taking it very seriously.

The Region level was all online. We waited to join a zoom webinar sort of thing. Then we watched as they announced each level. We knew Robyn hadn't moved on or gotten an award. They send emails to inform you. (Although she did finally get something from the school for her participation. I secretly think the lady is just pocketing the money and not using it on the kids.) We also knew Ivory and June received some type of award, but not which one. June got an award of merit. Great job!

And Ivory got an award of excellence so her photography piece will move on to State. I have no idea how that works, but we'll wait and see. 

Meanwhile, I took all the girls ticket vouchers today and got tickets for a bunch of performances. We should have a lot of fun this year. (Don't worry, I'm taking Robyn to plays as well, even though she didn't get a voucher. That wasn't her fault.)

The Great Cazier Bake Off (Schichttorte)

We watch enough of the Great British Baking Show that it seemed we should try something like it. We invited Grandma Dargan along for the ride. We chose a recipe and made sure that we had all the materials and ingredients we needed. Obviously there were going to be some judging issues since we were in different states, but the experience could still be fun.

At our house, we divided onto two teams. Then Pearl and Robyn decided to be the hosts. Sounded good to me. So, it ended up like this. 

Team one: Daisy and Mom.

Team two: Ivory and June

Hosts: Pearl and Robyn

Pearl and Robyn were also in charge of pictures and video. We have them to thank for all the documenting. They took a LOT of video and Robyn is working on getting a 'show' put together for us, but in the end, I still wanted to document with pictures on the blog. 

We had a list of many things that would be fun to try and bake. I chose three and then Grandma narrowed it down to one. She chose a schichttorte. It is a german style cake with 20 layers. We sure started out ambitiously. 

The big day arrived. We were ready to get baking. We even had all our ingredients covered by the gingham cloth.

Tyler was our resident Paul Hollywood. He is just a little better looking than the original. (Tyler isn't an expert baker, but you don't have to bake to use your tastebuds.)

Meanwhile, in Washington, Grandma was doing the same thing we were doing and documenting her own progress. (Sad that she didn't have funny hosts who talked in British accents.) When she sent her pictures, they were time stamped and they fit right in with our pictures. You could literally see that she was on the same step as us for most of the morning. These are her ingredients ready to go.

Ready, set...BAKE. Get cracking on those eggs.

Our recipe was nice and detailed. None of that "make a glaze" sort of instructions. We needed all the help we could get.

Our kitchen is big enough for two teams, but I did have to buy an extra hand mixer so we could work alongside each other.

June is showing you how a deer looks when it is caught cooking.

Lot of mixing and zesting going on. So far so good. 

Isaac happened to stop by. He hung out and watched a bit of the process. I think he might even have  been interviewed by the hosts.

Whipped eggs look remarkably similar in WA and in UT.

Don't mess with Daisy. She is a kitchen ninja.

I like that my girls feel comfortable in the kitchen. They are still learning (as am I) but everyone can follow a recipe.

I don't think grandma Dargan has a zester. But she managed all the same. And she even sifted her flour. I never do that.

The batters are done. Lick those beaters and let's get this cake in the oven.

Unlike any cake I've made before, the schichttorte goes under the broiler...about twenty times. You spread a very thin layer and bake it for a few minutes.

Once it is cooked, you add another layer of batter and back under the broiler. It means you are constantly watching the timer, the oven, and the color of your cake. The object is to alternate between light and dark layers. You cook every other layer a little longer making it a deeper shade and then you will be able to see the layers in your cake. This would be a dark layer, I believe.

The hosts were very helpful and attentive and not at all distracting. 

Hahaha. Can you see June photobombing in this one?

Our team ran out of batter before we reached 20 layers. Oops. No one's counting right?

Once we had twenty layers (or so), we took the cake out of the pan. Some edges were a little wonky and some were a little toasty, but that is easily remedied with a knife. Then we added an apricot glaze layer. It helps the chocolate glaze stick. The chocolate glaze was really fun. It slurped right over the sides. 

Then we added some white glaze and designed it how we liked.

Now place your schichttortes in front of your photo.

Looks good enough to eat. Our judge was happy to dig in. You can see all the little layers. Impressive, right?

The verdict went as follows. Team one won overall, with the best tasting torte (despite the missing layers). Team two had much more defined layers and 20 in total. Grandma won the decoration award. We just have to assume hers tasted good.

In all reality, it was a very dry cake. Most of the moisture is broiled out of it in all those tiny layers. The apricot was a nice touch, but if you took a bit without glaze, it was not as tasty. I think we made them correctly, but we'll happily leave that recipe to the Germans.

Once again, we'd like to thank our fabulous hosts. They really were amazing, and when Robyn finishes the video, I'll get it on here. It should be a lot of fun. 

It was a great first bake off. We'll probably do it again. No injuries or tears. There was only one melted recipe, since I think the hot pan was placed on top of it.