Beggar's Night vs Halloween

This was our second Halloween here in Des Moines, but this year was the first that we actually celebrated. Last year was spent with Chinese food and an episode of Ghost Adventures in the loft. Some might think this was a pretty uneventful way to spend Halloween - and they'd be right. The Chinese food was sub par at best, and halfway through the night long Ghost Adventures Live episode, we found out it was all a hoax. BOO!

Now that we have a child, we can actually participate in trick-or-treating without strange looks! Only we couldn't participate in trick-or-treating, but rather begging. The Des Moines area celebrates two holidays for some reason - Halloween and Beggar's Night. The latter is very similar to the trick-or-treating on Halloween night back in Nebraska. Rather than say "trick-or-treat," beggars are supposed to do a trick or joke in return for a treat. Des Moines is apparently extremely proud of this as all you hear on the radio or read in the newspaper is about how you'd better have your joke ready for Beggar's Night. I can appreciate how the native Des Moinesians are attempting to keep the tradition alive, but it doesn't seem to be working. We spent Beggar's Night at our friends' house and most of the beggars would fore go the joke and go straight for the candy bowl.

We decided to take our little ones out to beg at a few houses to tell a joke or two (probably more so for candy for us to eat rather then their first experience in a costume). Azra went as a banana, but I can't say that she enjoyed it too much:

Once she was next to her boyfriend Cavan, then she was much more content:

All-in-all it was a good night, and Halloween night at another friend's house was fun as well. However, an eve to the eve of All Saints Day seems to be a little unnecessary. Let's just stick to good ol' Halloween.

Mom's 50th Birthday

Can you believe that my lovely mother is now half a century old? I remember the days when I thought that 50 was a couple of years shy from life in a nursing home, but now it seems like a vibrant and fun age when you actually begin envisioning the reality of the fun you'll have during retirement (unlike the 30 years of dreaming I have left to go). I mean, heck, my Grandma is over 70 and she's still out-running us. Okay, maybe walking, but she even manages to do a load of laundry, cook, and clean while us youngsters are rubbing our feet afterwards.

Lucky for me, my parents still have the spunk to drive six hours round trip to visit us for the day. To top it off, it took more like 7-8 hours due to the crazy RAGBRAI (annual bike ride across Iowa - a huge event here) traffic. They arrived around 11:30, which gave me plenty of time to hit up a few garage sales as well as the grocery store before their arrival. While I was at the store I saw a beautiful, unique floral arrangement. I just had to bring it home with me for my mom, even though I knew it was kind of a weird gift for someone driving three hours back home. Though she loved it, she was gracious enough to leave it with us to bring some much needed color into our great room. Aren't these flowers just awesome - I love the lime green ones, and isn't the big pink one just to die for?

The one thing that I wanted to be sure to do was to make her a cake. I don't ever remember her having a birthday cake, but she always made sure to have one for us! I searched long and hard for the perfect homemade recipe before stumbling upon a delectable cake at my friend's bridal shower the night before. I made sure to get the recipe, and it was semi-homemade - even better! It was a super moist yellow cake topped with a light and creamy frosting.

I wanted to make a beautiful display, so I made two round cakes instead of a sheet cake in order to put it atop my pretty cake stand. However, I neglected to note that the light and creamy frosting would not bode well for a stacked cake. My gorgeous two-tiered cake quickly looked like Mt. Everest on a 100 degree day - it all came falling down. My luscious white frosting starting sliding down the sides into a gooey blob along with the perfectly placed pineapple topping. And like a mom to her 5-yr old cake decorating daughter would say, she told me it was great....only I'm a 24-yr old! It was delicious nonetheless, and I didn't need her confirmation as my tummy voted itself -- I ate the leftover half of the cake in two days. :) So, without further ado, I give you The 50th Birthday Cake (I don't have the name for it, so someone should help me come up with one!):

(I told you it was ugly - and this was before the rest of the pineapple and frosting fell!)

1 box yellow cake mix (and whatever other ingredients it calls for)

1 box white chocolate pudding

1 tub Cool Whip

Prepare and bake yellow cake mix according to package. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. With a toothpick, make multiple pokes throughout the cake (without poking through all the way to the bottom).

Prepare pudding according to directions. Before it thickens, pour enough over the cake to cover it. Use a spatula to spread evenly in order to ensure that it gets to all of the toothpick holes. After the remaining pudding has thickened, gently fold in the Cool Whip with a spatula. Spread over the cake and top with fruit, if desired.

I also added about 1/2-3/4 cup coconut (I eyeballed it) to my cake mix before baking to give it a little extra yumminess. I topped mine with pineapple, but strawberries, kiwi and banana would also be delish!

**I think it would be best to use recently thawed Cool Whip as I believe that the creamy consistency of the cool whip was one of the culprits in my sliding frosting goo. Better yet, stick to a sheet cake for this one so it has nowhere to go but in your tummy!

Baby Cruz

Apparently 2009 is the year for babies - I have two cousins on each side of the family expecting! There will be a trio of infants at this year's Thanksgiving at my mom's side, and there will be FIVE infants on my dad's side (my cousin Katie is having triplets!). Baby #1 arrived this month to my cousins Brian & Cathy. I haven't yet been out to see him, but my mom sent pictures and he sure is a beautiful baby.

Baby Cruz

Born: 6/8/09

Cathy was able to make it up for my brother's graduation, so I gave her Cruz' birthday gift a little early knowing I probably wouldn't be able to make it back to Nebraska after he was born. I've been living on my sewing machine whenever I'm not at work or reading, so I decided to make him a few things.

The first was a hooded towel. I bought 1.5 yards of yellow terry cloth and just used scrap fabrics for the accents. It was pretty easy to make, but I must admit that sewing in circles took a lot of patience for me. It is big enough that he can be wrapped up snugly now, but still be able to use it once he reaches the toddler stage.

The second was just a simple tag blanket. I got some super soft minky fabric and a fun, gender-neutral fabric for the front. It was my first go at sewing on stretch fabric, and I hated every minute of it. Actually, it was my second attempt - the first was a miserable failure that is super cute, but poorly constructed. Chris liked it though, so I kept it for Baby Curtis. I love the idea of tag blankets as I grew up carrying around a gross burp cloth as my security blanket, so I plan on making many more of these for other gifts as they're just so darned cute! Too bad the minky fabric wasn't so expensive, but it's worth it!

I have a lot of other projects complete that are just waiting for their time to shine online, so hopefully I can get the pictures up soon!

I Heart Tom...Tom

I'm starting to think that the first day of Spring is truly Easter. The middle of March is still far too cold (or at least it was this year) to be considered anything but a mild winter month. And what's a better way to spend a beautiful Easter weekend than in a car?! Chris and I made the 10-hr roundtrip trek to Palmer, NE on Saturday morning while Lola enjoyed her weekend at daycare. She loves the daycare, and they love her so much that they even took some Easter pictures of our canine baby whenever they could catch her for a photo. And was I bit jealous that she was enjoying her exercise while I was stuck in a car? You betcha.


(She has recently become fond of sitting like an amputee. I can't imagine that she's comfortable, so maybe she's just trying to keep warm?)


So, after dropping off Lola, we hit the road around 8:30AM on Saturday morning and pumped ourselves up as much as we could for the five hour trip ahead of us. There were two things that helped pass the time: a change of scenery - we took the highways instead of interstate, and playing with our new toy- the TomTom. I don't know how we ever lived without one! It was a welcome change to not have to look down at a road map or Google printoff, especially given we were taking the road less traveled. TomTom's pleasant voice let us know in advance when we'd have to turn and even self-corrected the path when we took a wrong turn due to some construction. It left us all the time in the world to appreciate our new surroundings and make fun of the hicks in such small towns that some were even "unincorporated" instead of listing their impossibly small population (I'm guessing Ames, NE is pop. 12). We missed so many great photo ops, but I was able to get a picture of Clarks, NE - homeland of mom's family.


Looks positively delightful, no? :)

After arriving at my aunt and uncle's farm, we were welcomed by cookies and a sofa on which to nap. The rest of the weekend was spent playing an awesome new game (Wits and Wagers) and Chris learning how to be a country boy. My cousin Brad taught him how to drive the tractors, and although he couldn't figure out how to successfully work the CB radio, he still thought he was such a stud up on those big boys. So much so that he sang "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "Do You Think My Tractor's Sexy" for the rest of the weekend. However, the real kicker of the weekend was our little impromptu game of The Newlyweds Game. My aunt came up with some rather tough, and surprising questions. The husbands sat across from us wives and we tried to guess what the others answered. Most of the questions were light-hearted: Who fell in love with whom first?, What brand is your lawn-mower?, etc etc. And then it got interesting.....

"What is the most unique place you've had sex?"

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....uh.oh.

All of us youngsters were surrounded by our parents, and our parents by their parents. There's no way that any of this could go well. We were seated oldest to youngest, so my grandma began.

Grandma: "The trunk of a car"

The rest of us: "EWWWW! ...wait, inside the trunk, or on top? I mean...ewwwwwwwwww!!"

It was even better when the husbands guessed incorrectly because then you got two answers of naughty acts that you'd never want to hear come out of your aunts, uncles, or PARENTS mouths. I thought that I got by easy after hearing my parents' responses when my cousin and her new husband learned that the craziest place their parents "did the deed" was in my cousin's new house while they were moving them in!!

What a better way to celebrate the resurrection than to end the holiday talking about sex? Sorry about that, Jesus.