Sleepovers and Snow

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  I most certainly did!!  I got a phone call on Saturday afternoon from my nine year old grand daughter.  She informed me that she and Landin had decided that they should come over and have a sleepover and invite Allie to come too!!  Worked for me!  I'm always up for grand kid pajama parties!!

We spent most of the afternoon, just hanging out, we found out that my oldest grand daughter had a basketball game, so we all piled in the car and went to cheer on her team.  They won!!  YAY !!!!  More often than not, she has a big fan club there cheering her on.  Danny and I try to make as many games as possible and she has her other grandparents, aunts, uncles and even a great grandma that come on occasion also.  It has been said that it takes a whole community to raise a child.  I love that my grandkids have such a large support group.  There is no doubt in their mind or ours for that matter, that they are loved and have support from us all.

Ok, sorry, back to the sleepover!!  On the way home Lanie ask if I had ice cream at home.  I told her no, but had a great idea!  A friend on facebook had recently made snow cream!  Our Alaska winters over the last few years had not accommodated with very much snow, but this year we have had plenty!!  I'm loving it and we had just gotten some fresh stuff that day.  Perfect for a big bowl of snow cream!!  I told the kids my idea, they had no idea what it was, but were super excited just to try something new.  Allie, said "Nana, I just wished on that star over there that we would make snow cream!"  I laughed and said, "Well, you wish is granted!!  We are making Snow Cream!!" 

I have made snow cream many times over the years.  So I have my own recipe, but was curious, so went to Pinterest and actually found another recipe for it, slightly different ingredients, They used soy milk for theirs and I have always used evaporated milk, but basically the same.

This is pinned to my board "Food and Recipes"

Stepped right out onto the deck and filled up my big stew pot with fresh snow!!  Started mixing all the ingredients and Landin and Allie ask if they could help.  I told them there wasn't much to do, just had to keep mixing until I got it right.  Landin looked at me and said, "But Nana, we always help you."  I had to giggle.  They are so stinkin' cute!!  We got it just perfect and I dished it up. 

Their very first bowl of Snow Cream!!

I remember my mom making it for me and my brother and sister and I have made it many times for my kids and their friends.  I actually posted this picture on my facebook page and one of Danielle's long time friends commented that she had memories of me making it for her too.

Good stuff and Good memories!! 

We woke up the next morning and Allie had brought a big bottle of bubbles and ask if they could play with them.  We did for a little while, indoors, but I also remembered a pin that I had added that involved bubbles.  It had said that if you blew bubbles outside and it was below freezing, they would freeze.  Perfect!!  Had to try it!  This is pinned to my board "Nana Day Activities to Try"

They were so excited, they didn't even take time to get dressed!  We all threw on our coats and boots in our pajamas and went out of the front porch to give it a try!!

It worked!!  They really do freeze!!

Lainie wanted to try to pick it up, but it melted as soon as she touched it.

I didn't have any time to plan craft projects or buy extra goodies at the store before the kids arrived this time, but we still had loads of fun!  Sometimes, the little things that happen spur of the moment are the best!

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Happy Birthday my Son!!

As promised, I wanted to show you Chad's birthday cake!  He and his daughter's  birthdays are January 6th.  My daughter-in-law, Jayme had asked for a specific cake for their daughter who loves rubber duckies right now, but for Chad she said to do whatever I want. Ahhhhh - creative control!!  What do do, what to do!!!!

I had made their wedding cake when they got married in November several years ago, it was a gorgeous winter wedding, the cake was all white with this beautiful shimmering dust that I put on to look like icicles.  Ever since then I had wanted to expand on the idea of winter cakes.  Since his birthday is January, definitely winter time, it was my perfect opportunity.   I went to Pinterest for a little extra inspiration!

This is pinned to my board "Inspiration"

I had seen another cake a few months ago, that I didn't pin, but thought was beautiful, it was a dark blue fondont and had shimmering pearls all over it.  The thing I liked about the cake above was the dimensional snowflakes on the bottom left cake.  So with those two ideas in my head I got to work!

On the day before their birthdays, I made the decorations out of "Royal Egg White Frosting" out of one of my old "Wilton Cake Decorating" books.  Use 3 egg whites (room temp), 4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar.  Beat it on high for 7-10 minutes.  It is a nice consistency to work with but will dry hard within 24 hours.  I used a small round frosting tip and got creative!  My biggest concern was to be able to pick up and decorate with the snowflakes once they were dry.  If I made them too fragile they would shatter before I even got them to the cake, so, knowing me and knowing my luck,  just for "backup purposes" you understand,  I made more than double the amount that I thought I would use.

You might notice the yellow blob in the top right corner, well that was my attempt at seeing if the rubber ducky would be better as a royal icing ducky rather that a gum paste ducky.  Not so much!  Didn't look anything like a duck, so that idea was ditched almost immediately!

Oh and have to give you another little tidbit that goes into the "mishap" category.  I got the decorations made and started working on making their birthday presents (more on those in a later post), after all, I only had one day left before they had to be finished.  Started working on them and the power went out for 3 hours.  I got shut down for the night!!

So now, It's the big day and since I had lost a few hours the night before, I got up extra early and got started!  The cakes were baking in the oven by 8am!  I used 3 layers of 8 inch round cakes.  Chad's favorite cake is white cake with white frosting.  I used a regular cake mix for the cake but made homemade buttercream frosting.  It's SO much better than the storebought!!  I used blue food coloring and got to work!!  You have to do a "crumb coat"  It's just a thin layer of frosting, then I put my cake in the freezer for a few minutes to set the frosting.  That way you don't have crumbs showing on the final frosting of the cake. 

If you notice the glass of water and knife, I have a little trick I use to get all the lumps and bumps out of the frosting.  You could also use the special spatula's you can buy for decorating a cake, but I find a simple butter knife works just fine.  Just dip your knife in warm water and smooth over the cake.  Perfect!!

Once it's all smooth, I added a simple border with a flower tip and added the snowflakes!  Remember I told you about the sparkles that I used on their wedding cake, I also added those and found some Christmas cookie decorations that were tiny snowflakes, so added a few of those also. 

Also, remember, I told you that I had made "extras" of the snowflakes, just in case?  Well.........

It was a VERY good idea!!!

The royal icing recipe made LOTS, so I had more than 1/2 still left even after all the decorations.  I didn't want to throw it out, so..........

I made the kids little candies they can enjoy on our next "Nana Day"!

Happy Birthday Chad!  I'm so very proud of the Husband, the Father, the Man you have become.  Love you and pray that the best for you is still yet to come!!