Mice and Men…

That is what my week has revolved around.  Well, that and cleaning, chauffeuring Bella to and from school, working on my certification courses, practically living at the grocery store and camping out in the kitchen - my least favorite place of the house.

But my top two have been the mice and my little man.

Mice.

A colony of mice have decided to take residence in my house and garage.  We have caught 6 in the past few days – and we know there are more.  Just last night as I was getting ready to go to bed I was in the kitchen and heard something in our pantry – so I opened up and sure enough I heard a mouse in there messing around.  We put a trap in there and BAM – we got him. 

As for the garage – it’s party central in mouseville out there!  It’s gross and it’s making me mad.  So far, today, I have caught 2 and have the trap set to get the other dirty, little scoundrels.  We have been through many packs of these lately.

Dear mice.  Get a life and get a new place to live because you have worn out your welcome at my house.

Men.

My little man and his birthday have had me busy.  Why?  Because I can’t do anything the easy way.  Nope.  I have to make my life and busy as possible baking cakes, cupcakes and other nifty edibles.  It totally would be easier to buy it all and right about now I’m wishing I had.

But this will be a special day for him.

One year old!

His party will have about 24+ people – many of those will be other kids.  Since it’s for a one year old, I won’t be having activities for the kids.  Past experience has proven that kids Bella’s age and younger like to run around, play and dig in stuff – so why plan games when they can just be free?

Okay, maybe not that free, but free to play! (Isn’t that a cute shot – I took it last night at bath time.  He ENJOYS himself some bath time!)

We will have lots of munchies because I always like snacking when I’m somewhere for a party.  I don’t know why.  Yes I do.  It’s because I enjoy food so much.  But, other people like it too, so there will be munchies and drinks and balloons for the kids to take home.  Everyone will also get to take home a cupcake.  One that I made instead of bought.  I preferred doing this over spending $100 to make ‘goodie’ bags for all the kids to take home.  Easier and less expensive. 

   

I am also getting two poster size photos of Scout done, from when he was born and one I took today.  Then I’ll have 10 other photos from each month in between!  I’ll have these ‘out on display’.  I always like seeing how much they change over the year.

Now, about the cake.

Usually I order a hubungo yummy sheet cake, but for some reason I got it in my head that I wanted Scout to have a tiered birthday cake.  Well, instead of paying $150.00 for one, I decided to make that too.

“Kari, have you ever made a tiered cake before?”

“No.”

This is why I’ve been in the kitchen 17 hours a day and at the store 5 times since Monday.  And I still have to assemble and frost it all tomorrow.

I found a fantabulous recipe for white cake on Martha Stewart’s website, after searching all over the internet and in my own recipes for the perfect one, this one WON.  Of course I had to make it colorful!  I did a test run and VOILA!  It is scrump-dilly-umptious and I cannot wait to eat it on Saturday! 

So, that is my life right now!  The certification courses are going good and I am learning some good info!  I do most of my reading late at night when I should be sleeping.  Now, I need to go down in my basement and get 16 years worth of information I have saved and pull it out for reference!  But, if you all remember my basement (the only organized place in the house), then you can guess that will be easy.

Thanks for all the comments on the hair!  I’m not sure I’ll be able to thank everyone individually!  I wish I could give you all one of my yummy cupcakes with home made buttercream frosting.  I am enjoying my new cut and even like it when I don’t ‘style’ it with that amazing glue!  I never thought I would like a style like this – but it’s fun and it helps me not look like a SAHM.  Oh wait, I am a SAHM.  But, I still don’t want to look like one. Nothing wrong with wanting to look sassy at 34, right?

Hope you all are having a good day.  I need to get my bum back in the kitchen and bake.  I so could be Julia Child!  Seriously.  Except I’m short and I don’t have an accent. 

Until tomorrow,

remember to:
live.laugh.love.and.celebrate.life.

“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.”

Larry Lorenzoni