Movie Magic & More

The other day as I finished dinner preparations the kids all filed into the dining room for their dinner. I don't think I can properly convey the noise that 23 preschool children fresh off the playground can make as they file into a cement building. Let me just say it is LOUD.

In the midst of all this chaos Johnny walked up to the counter that divides the kitchen and dining room. He called over to me as I chopped vegetables at the island.

I could barely hear him over the din:

"Mommy, I wanna something something lucky dips."

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I wanna something something looby pips."

"What?"

Finally I asked Johnny to come into the kitchen. He stood next to me and I leaned over to hear him better.

"Mommy, I wanna give you love's true kiss!"

Awwwww!

"Ok, sweetie, how about I give you a hug?"

Any guesses which movie he's been watching?

***********

The other morning I was looking after the twins during shift change. It was early in the morning and a few of the children were gathered around the cradles with me.

Luke was fussing a bit so I was settling him down.

Peter said, "Look, he's like Spiderman!" I tried to figure out what he meant by that.

Then he showed me:

"His hands are like this!"

A moment later Peter said, "Now he's a bad guy".

"See?"

"His hands are like this!"

********

Even Jasmine has been picking on poor Luke. She pointed out that he looks like a comic book entity called The Watcher.

What do you think?

Poor Luke is gonna develop a complex if this keeps up.

Exactly Two Years Ago: My Girl Can Kick Your Tail
Exactly Three Years Ago: Super Story part two

Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real

I'm linking up for the first time with Like Mother, Like Daughter for their meme with the title above. (There should be an adorable button here but I can't get it to work)

 Pretty

 I adore these flowers (I think they're frangipani) and love when they bloom!

 Funny

Not even cats escape the geekiness of this house. 

Poor Chai. The kids made her a super hero costume out of candy wrappers.

Happy

I finally finished these counted crossstich projects. I began working on these two flowers in 2005. In between I finished many more projects but I found these to be a little boring.

Now all I have to do is find frames and a place to put them. How many years will that take me?

Real

A shot of one of our three pantry shelves. 

This is kinda for Tom. He gets nervous if our staples aren't fully stocked. 

I want him to know I'm holding down the fort while he's away.

For the Win!

I have made no secret of the fact that we are not your average family. We not only live in the African bush but we enjoy very active imaginations. Well, not me but most of the rest of my family do.

This calls for some very creative birthday cake requests. Some years are better than others and when I asked Troy what he would like his cake decorated as, it was done with no small amount of trepidation. When I heard he wanted a Clayfist cake my heart sunk just a little. This was going to be challenging. I don't blame you if the name Clayfist doesn't ring a bell. Even if you keep up with the comic book or super hero crazes you are probably not familiar with this one. That's because Troy invented him. Troy has created this whole super hero and his accompanying nemesis: Toxicity. Because no super hero would be able to hold his head high if he didn't have an archenemy to fight against--and it's even better if said bad guy is the exact opposite of said good guy. Oh, the poetry!

I love that Troy is creative and has even built his own website: Becrazed Comics to display his art and creations. He has done stop-motion animation, built remote controlled robots and edited a movie that he and his siblings wrote, filmed and starred in. Troy and Timmy also have started filming their own 'stunt' video series.

But when it comes to having to take something that your child created and turn it into a birthday cake--well, that is a little bit of a challenge.

So, are you ready to see the final result? 

Here it is! 

Clayfist and Toxicity battling it out!

We continued with the yin yang theme inside the cake*. 

(Sorry the photo is unclear) 

I couldn't have done this without my two helpers: Timmy and Jasmine. Jasmine baked the chocolate cake and whipped up the icing and Timmy was a big help with the squiggles. I have too orderly a mind to do random art.

Happy Birthday, Troy

May you live long and prosper!**

*The layers were chocolate with with cherry sauce and white cake with a simple syrup infused with cinnamon. I iced the layers with a buttercream frosting. 

**Sorry, couldn't resist....;)

Geek Mothering Fail

This week we celebrated Timmy's 17th birthday. One year before 18!! How did this happen??

Anyway, Timmy decided he wanted to have a Green Lantern cake. I told Jasmine that I would look it up on Google so I knew what the face looked like. She gave me a funny look and said that, no, it was a symbol. Oh. This should have been my first clue....

found here

Once I found out it was a symbol I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Simply a circle cake with 2 rectangles on either side. Done!

We settled on carrot cake made from scratch. Homemade cream cheese became delicious icing. Way to go, Mom!

What was that you said? Pride comes before a fall? Well, you might have said something earlier!

The cake was assembled. Strawberry yogurt served as a moistening and delicious filler between layers. I got out a kite that showed the Green Lantern image and copied it exactly. Just as I finished trimming things so it looked perfect Jasmine walked in. 

Jasmine: Why are the side rectangles tapered?

Me: Because that's what the Green Lantern symbol looks like. (Duh!)

J: No! That's the Justice League Green Lantern.

M: Oh.

J: Just stick the pieces you cut off back on and we'll cover it with icing.

M: Umm, I already ate them....

So, we moved forward. Can't cry over eaten cake now can we?

The icing was gorgeous. Beautiful, creamy white loveliness. But that wouldn't do for a Green Lantern cake. So out came the colors. After the first addition of green it looked perfect for a baby shower cake. Nope. More green. Now it looked summery. Still not good enough. I had an idea. Add some black. We did just a drop and sure enough it looked much better. Let's add a bit more. Oops! Now it looked like green-purple mold. Not quite the color we were looking for. 

The more we worked on it the worse it looked. I felt like we were in the middle of a sci-fi or horror movie. Would this icing morph into a monster?
Aaah! Attack of the (Surprisingly Sweet) Swamp Thing!

Adding a bunch more green finally worked. We iced the cake and were ready to sing.

It looks like I still have a ways to go to be the perfect Geek Mother. But at least the kids know I try.

Happy Birthday, Timmy!