Last Week of Summer

Just for remembering - we had a couple of base boards get some water damage.  One was from a valve leak and the other we think leaked in from the door opening somehow.  The door is covered by the patio roof, but I guess enough rain must have splashed in through a crack to get the board wet.  It's all under contract so for the past month we have  had the plumbers come to fix the valve, then some other workers come to put new sheet rock in to patch the hole.  Then the carpenter came to put in new base boards, then the painters came to finish it.  So now it's all fixed and I'm glad I don't have to try and understand the workers who usually know more Spanish than English.

This week we found out our teachers for the year.  Tyler has Mrs. Gomez who team teachers with Mrs. Frantzen.  When we met them on Tuesday night and dropped off Tyler's stuff they seemed very nice.  Tyler has one church friend in his class so that is nice. Right after that I had a little meeting for the preschool I am doing with the girls.  We just have a group of 7 moms with 8 kids.  We are going to meet just once a week since this is really a pre-pre-school.  We talked about what curriculum we were going to use and times etc.  I'm glad we are all pretty easy going - I'm not stressing about it too much. Then after that meeting I had a primary presidency meeting.  We were assigning parts for the program, so that took awhile.  I think I got home around 10:30.  It was a long and busy day.  

Damon will have 4 teachers this year but his home room teacher is Mrs. Everill.  We went on Thursday to drop off his things and figure out his locker.  It took a couple of tries but we got it.  It's hard to communicate the craziness of the population size at both of these schools.  There are so many kids and not nearly enough room for people to park.  I parked in a neighborhood and Damon and I walked a couple of blocks.  It was a bit of a pain since we were carrying quite an armload of school supplies.  But we managed then I had to hurry home to take Chris to his meet the teacher night.  We again had to park blocks away and I was carrying a large box with a couple of reams of paper - I was sweaty with tired arms when we made it inside. They talked to all of the Kindergarteners together in the cafeteria first then we went to their individual class rooms.  Chris will have Mrs. Powell this year.  We have heard lots of good things about her and that she has received the teacher of the year award several times.  Chris didn't know anyone in his class - but he will make friends.  It was cute, Chris thought that he was going to be starting school that evening.  As we were leaving he said something like: "Now do I start school?"  

This week was also a cake week.  I did a wedding cake and groom's cake on Saturday but it takes me all week to get it ready.  Tuesday I made the frosting, Thursday I baked the cakes and worked on the fondant parts.  Friday I made more frosting, made the fillings, and base frosted the grooms cake.  The cake was a 8/10/12 inch square cake.  I rarely have had all three layers cake - most have done styrofoam for at least one layer.  So I had a lot of cake to make.  It ended up being 15 cake mixes for both cakes.  The groom's cake was a double layer cookie sheet size.  

Lots of boxes, oil, and eggs.

Friday we went to Pump it Up one more time with some friends.  The girls collided heads really bad at the end and that expedited our departure to say the least.  

The boys have been spoiled with their screen time and play time over the summer.  I really should have had them earn it more - but I guess I don't mind letting them be kids.  Once school starts they will be in screen time withdrawals.  

 Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 to get some of the cake done before I had to be 'mom.'  I was able to get the wedding cake layers assembled and base frosted which was what I was hoping to do.  Then we did breakfast and got some of our jobs done.  At 9:30ish Doug took the kids to the park and McDonald's to give me some space in the kitchen.  I didn't want to do the fondant with little helpers. :)  So I was grateful for that and I was able to get the fondant on the three layers done by 11:30.

We did lunch and sadly while we were eating Chris was curious about the cake in front of him and left his mark.  I was quite upset, but I didn't get too mad at him.  It of course was partially my fault, I should have moved it.  But this cake had gotten a crack in it and moving it would make the crack get larger.

 I was able to repair it, but it of course didn't look quite as good.  I was so grateful that I hadn't put the boarder on yet, that would have been far worse.

 The groom was obviously a proud Texan.  In case you don't get the 'Not Texas' part, Texas is Texas and everywhere else in the USA is 'Not Texas.'  This was done in buttercream and heat and humidity are just not friendly to cakes and frosting.  The colors were starting to bleed and the frosting was almost melting. Not fun.

 The wedding cake went really well.  I bought the fondant this time and I was so glad I did.  It handled much better than mine usually does.  The royal icing for the lace was fine and the pillars assembled nicely.  The ribbon was a bit tricky.  I didn't have perfectly straight sides, so the ribbon buckled a bit and it absorbed some of the grease from the buttercream so it started to darken in spots. When I went to set it up I put on new ribbon and put some wax paper on the corners to hopefully prevent the absorption.  I didn't get to see it with the flowers on it, but I asked the mom to send me some pictures, we'll see if she does.

They had the church gym decorated as nicely as I have seen.  They had fabric and lights covering the whole ceiling and poster pictures along the walls with spot lights.  It was very nicely done.

It's fun decorating cakes, but it is a long process and hard when you have to be a mom at the same time.  It just means staying up late and getting up early.  I think I tracked spending 21 hours on these two cakes.  I'm sure others could do it quicker, but it was a lot of clean up and baking time.  Glad I get more practice and try some new things but also glad to be done.