My Cupcake Quest

So it is my birthday next week and you know what I want?

I want to make delicious, perfect cupcakes. I consider myself a pretty good cook but for some reason the art of cupcakery continues to allude me. Even a box mix turns out funky when I make cupcakes. Too spongey or too dry. They shouldn't be squishing underneath my grasp as I try and frost them, right? What I want are dense, moist cupcakes--preferably without shortening in the recipe (although if you twisted my arm hard enough...). Something more like pound cake. So should I just be using a pound cake recipe? I have also yet to make a frosting that tastes as good as one from the store which I'm sure some people may say is total sacriledge. Are those frosting recipes for real with 6 cups of powdered sugar? It is just so maddening because I was so close to getting the perfect cupcake recipe. I was attending a party, at kindergarten and one of the moms made cupcakes. They were so freaking delicious! So I asked her if it was from a mix or what and she told me it was an old family recipe and that it had vanilla yogurt in it. She assured me she'd share it with me but after 4 attempts to remind her (yes, 4), I clued into the fact that she didn't want to share it with me. So now it is all up to me. I am going to try out the best recipes I can find. I might be puking cupcakes by next week but how else is victory going to be sure? With all the cupcakes stores and t.v. shows around these days, you'd think a lowly home cook could find one trusted recipe, right?

If you have a great cupcake or frosting recipe THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO SHARE (unlike some people I know), please email it to me at my public email: jelmelt@yahoo.com. Let the birthday gluttony begin!

Love, Julie

Swimming Lessons

I love this picture. If you've never done a swimming class with a child, this pretty much sums it up.

We just finished up our family swimming lessons.

Tati is such a dare devil in the bathtub (she floats, dives, holds her breath, etc.) we decided we had to get her into swimming lessons. It was a Parent/Tot class. A lot of the things were fun but I was certainly glad when our two weeks were up and I didn't have to get in the cold water, get splashed in my eyeballs and sing all those dumb songs anymore. Plus, it was such a work out having us all shower and eat lunch everyday afterward. We are all actually in big need of a hair cut now what with all the chlorine damage. Tati had a great time. She was definitely the bravest in the class but she wasn't too keen on other people scheduling her pool time. A lot of the time you could hear her yelling stuff like this,

"No, I do it all by myself!"
"Mommy, let go!"
"I no sing song, I jump!"

She is convinced that she can swim by herself and with no life jacket. Even when I would let go to show her and she would go down, she would still want me to let go of her. We were very proud of her being able to navigate in a life jacket and also on a noodle. She is physically ready for the next class but she would never listen to a teacher so we'll have to suffer through the next few years of high alert while in or around water.

Chloe was in the same class as one of her BFF's, Corbin. Corbin was VERY afraid of the water. I think Chloe was nervous and a little bit afraid the first day but she knew Corbin was super afraid so she was brave. She would often stay next to him and give him encouraging words. He was even the topic of prayer nearly everyday. "Please help Corbin be brave." By the last day, Corbin swam in the water with everybody else. We were glad that she could be such a good friend to him.
This was Chloe's teacher, Spencer. I just had to include this picture because it is hilarious that she wanted a picture with him. And hilarious that I have a picture of this random half naked person. She also made him a card. I'm sure he thought she had a crush on him but she is just a sentimental girl. We love her for it.

I'll finish off with 2 movies of Tati. Since I was in the water, obviously I couldn't take all the photos and videos. Luckily, Greg came one day to watch and was able to capture some of our experience. One is of her jumping in. The other is how excited she is when she's swimming "alone" (with the life jacket).






If you listen really carefully after she jumps in you can hear her say, "Mom, let go!"

Happy Summer Swimming to You!

Oh brother

I was helping Tati get dressed today and as I was holding the pants for her to slip in her legs, she says to me,

"Mommy, I don't want those. Those pants dorky."

And now I'm realizing that I need to emphasize more positive adjectives in my speech.

O Canada Day!

We celebrated our last Canada Day here this year. We're planning on moving next year by the beginning of June. It was super fun. We celebrated in perfect Canadian style.

We dressed in our Canadian colors and t-shirts.

We got some tattoos. Don't ask me how a lizard and sun are patriotic but they chose what they wanted.

We let the girls pet some weird insects and creatures.

(Why do the tarantulas have jelly beans or good-n-plenty in their tanks?)

The girls got sparkle hair and red and white nail polish.


We ate some yummy carnival junk food.

We even rode our bikes to watch some fireworks. It was a little tricky because sunset wasn't until 11:00 p.m. So we made everybody take a long nap and then we all slept in the next day.
(I don't normally wear a reflective vest but I was riding my bike in the darkness on the way home.)



--Please note, we celebrated the 4th of July too. Just no pictures. A nice family in our ward invited all the Americans over for dinner (which meant us and the missionaries) and we had hamburgers, watermelon and even burned up some sparklers. It was super nice of them and fun for the girls. And of course I enjoyed listening to my favorite Mo-Tab c.d. "God Bless the USA" which Greg can only handle one day/year. He's such a scrooge sometimes.

The Camping Gong Show

We've been trying to get our sorry booties camping like every weekend since the beginning of June and we were finally able to get out. I think maybe we should've seen it all as a sign that maybe we weren't supposed to go but no, we went for it anyway. Well, that's what we get for trying so hard. Our camping trip was a bust. I wonder sometimes if we need to be more spontaneous and then things would work out better.

I can't say the adults had fun but the kids sure did. So we're glad we went for them. We keep saying we need to get out again and have a good camping experience to make up for it. Hopefully we won't run out of summer or good weather before it happens.


This is what I learned:

• I hate our tent. I want a tent with windows.
  
• It is important to bring a frying pan and/or some sort of vessel in which to cook your food.
• If you eat your breakfast and lunch for dinner, you'll probably have to leave earlier than planned the next day.
  
• We really need to get our A/C fixed on our car.
• If the cotton woods are losing the cotton, we really shouldn't try to go anywhere outdoors.
• I will never understand that one chipper couple up at the crack of dawn saying good morning to you as you walk to the pit toilet.
• When you're hot and cranky, you'll pay ridiculous prices for ice and popsicles.
• Having the sun not go down while you're camping makes it very difficult to sleep and pee outside w/o somebody seeing you.
• It will now be essential for us to buy those enormous Costco muffins each time we go camping since they pretty much saved our lives from starving.

• It doesn't really matter where we go, our kids can always have fun.
• It doesn't really matter where we go, our kids will always fight about something.

Their favorite place to play while we were camping was in the trunk of the car. Let's hope their simplicity lasts for a long time.


We did have some highlights though, like seeing the largest dragonfly in Canada (and maybe the world).


And then my favorite parenting moment that I can remember:

Us three girls walked over to the bathroom one last time before we left. As it was a pit toilet, it was quite stinky. You know how that goes. I don't think Tati's sense of smell is quite as apt as mine and Chloe's are. Chloe in fact, may be well on her way to having a bionic nose. She was actually making gagging sounds and almost dry heaving for the stench. Tati quickly peed and went over to Chloe's side to give her some encouragement. Chloe started to get really frustrated and grossed out yelling to me that she couldn't pull up her pants AND plug her nose at the same time. I tell her to breath out of her mouth and just try and hurry. Then I see it. The most loving sister moment ever. Tati is plugging Chloe's nose for her while Chloe pulls up her pants.

It is funny because our "Practice Camp-Out" actually worked out better than the real thing.

The Practice Camp-out

We decided that before we camping for real, we should see how Tati did around fire. She is a coo-koo afterall. She was a little bit scary but overall, she did great. We got these retractable marshmallow sticks from Target while I was in CA and they were awesome!

I mean who doesn't love to roast marshmallows?!

Although Tati couldn't decide whether she liked marshmallows or strawberries better. In the end, the strawberries won.
This is a hilarious shot. Chloe had the camera for a time and decided to follow Daddy and Tati into the woods while Tati peed. Chloe couldn't stop laughing about how hilarious she was that she took this shot. It was pretty awesome.

The best thing about "practice camp-outs" is that you can go home at the end and shower and sleep in your nice warm bed.

Family Fun!

Saturday morning while Mommy and Daddy are sleeping, the girls are playing a game called, "Stack all the books in the book shelf". The real fun part was pushing it over. Why do parents even buy toys for their children?


This is one of those videos that just warms a Mommy's heart. Daddy had the girls wash the dishes while I was allowed to rest a bit.



This was from a family walk down by the river. I just love how good of friends these girls are some times. It makes us so happy.