Gwen's Birthday Shirt

Allrighty, I've been super absent around here... get ready for a slew of posts...

Gwen turned 5 and her Mom wanted a birthday shirt like Catie's.
I think it turned out really cute.  I used fabric for the 5 and purple flocked, iron-on vinyl for the words.

Gwen loved it and the birthday was a success.

Pumpkin Cake

This here is a serious cake, and oh so yummy.

It starts with 6 layers of pumpkin cake.  Thick, dense, moist, perfectly spiced, pumpkin cake.
The layers are filled with a caramel buttercream and that beautiful frosting above is maple cream cheese, with a caramel swirl on top.

It was incredible, delicious and I'm seriously craving it right now.
Though I'll be honest, there was one thing I would change... I think the awesome caramel buttercream was actually pretty unnecessary.  The pumpkin and maple were so delicious together that next time I would use a basic buttercream between the layers.

Want to make one?  Let me give you the recipes, but remember, this is a serious cake, it's going to take some time to put together.

First the pumpkin cake, and this recipe comes from Paula Dean.

Pumpkin Cake
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

Now with the cakes done, you'll need something to put between the layers.  Like I mentioned, when I make this again I would use a regular buttercream but the salted caramel was nice so if you want to use then here's the recipe.  First you need

Salted Caramel Glaze
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp freshly ground sea salt
Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugars and bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Stir in whipping cream and bring back to a boil. Boil for exactly 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in salt. Cool completely.  Once your caramel is cool add it to your buttercream.

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
Beat together butter and icing sugar, it will be dry and crumbly and look gross but add your caramel and it turns beautiful and so yummy.

Time to assemble.  Split each of your 3 cakes in two and layer your frosting between each.  It will be awesome and tall.  Trim the edges of your assembled cakes to make smooth edges.

Time to make some maple frosting to top it all off with.

Maple Cream Cheese Icing 
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Mapleine (maple extract)
1/2 tsp salt
Mix cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, Mapleine, and vanilla until smooth.

Frost your cake using your favourite technique.

There you have it.  I told you it was serious, but it's well worth all the effort, promise.

Here's a glamorous inside shot (on a paper plate) so you can see all the layers.

And one last one, cause I can't help myself.

Eden vs Catie

Today Eden is 1 year and 2 months old.  It's been a while since I posted a Eden and Catie side by side photo.  Both such cute girls yet still so different.

I'm not sure these girls could be any different.

The other day I was vacuuming and it was the perfect example of their differences.  Catie used to cry because the vacuum was too loud and she didn't like it, Eden cry's because I won't let her play with the vacuum.

Catie dislikes doing things that are new and difficult and Eden loves to try new things.

She loves when Daddy gets home from work, I think it's her favourite part of the day.  She hears the door open and she heads off yelling, "eyyy, Ddaaaaa" (translation, Hi Dad!) with her arm stretched out in an adorable wave.

We love our Eden.

What the Girls Wore #99

Eden is at a really fun age, she's becoming sort of independent and lovely

We went to Grandma's house and the girls had a great time on the trampoline together.

Grandpa made cupcakes and Eden was a huge fan.  She devoured it, unlike how she daintily picked at her birthday cake.

Hanging out at bedtime.

We spent the morning at Prairie Winds Park and Eden was a bigger fan than we had anticipated.

Catie had a blast, as expected

Playing at the park, filling her bucket with rocks.

Eden discovered the foam chair that is just her size and is super excited.  She loves to plop down and relax.

More rocks in buckets

Eden and I at the farm

Catie and Daddy, hanging out.  Check out all the sticker on Catie's face and legs, they've been there for two days now... it may be time to do something about them.

Butterfield Acres

Fieldtrip day!  Catie's preschool went to Butterfield Acres, a local farm.

We milked a goat, though Eden was not a fan of the goats.  Catie wasn't interested in milking either but she did love the horses and the smaller goats.

We pet sheep

 And saw donkeys

Eden eventually warmed up to the goats

And they both loved the bunnies

The tractor ride was the biggest hit and it was a really nice day.  Yay for preschool.

First Day of Preschool

Some kids have a hard time leaving and going to preschool... my Catie is not one of those.  The Friday before school started we went to meet her teachers, as we pulled up to the school Catie climbed out of the car and called, "Okay, thanks for dropping me off!"

The actual first day of school came and went just as smoothly as I expected.

She was excited to be there and was so busy playing she couldn't be bothered to say good bye.

I loved her little ladybug backpack and she loves that she gets to take a snack with her each day.

She was so great that we celebrated with ice cream after her first day.

Love this girl.

Birthday Cake

I love birthday cake.  I especially love that my girl's aren't old enough to make many demands so I get to make the cake that I want to eat.  I let Catie choose the cake flavour, chocolate, and the frosting colour and the rest was up to me.

I should have taken a shot of the inside cause this was a pretty cake.  I baked it in a 9x13 pan, then cut it in half.  I cut each of those halves horizontally so I have 4 layers and I stacked them all up, adding a super yummy chocolate ganache between each one.

Chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, thick, pink buttercream frosting... perfect!

As each of her guests showed up to her birthday party Catie brought them over to see her cake, she was really pleased and everyone thought it was super delicious.

Birthday Shirt

Catie's birthday was coming up and a birthday shirt seemed to be in order.  She was super excited to be turning 4 and she loves this shirt.  She wore it three day sin a row and told everyone she saw that she was four.

The 4 is a reverse applique and it turned out super cute.

But really the important part is that the shirt wearer is thrilled.

Catie's 4th Birthday

She turned 4!  This seemed like an especially big milestones and Catie was extra excited.  She was more aware of her birthday than she has been in the past so we decided to go all out and throw her a party with friends and everything.

I'll start out with a birthday questionnaire.

She had 5 friends over and we started off with a little Don't Eat Pete.  There was some What Time is it Mr. Wolf?  We ate dinner, cake, opened gifts and Catie loved being the centre of all, loved showing all her friends around.

All her friends, eating dinner together.

Blowing out her 4 big candles.

I couldn't be more pleased with Catie, she's at a delightful age.
She's polite, kind, sweet and finally seems to be potty trained.  She loves school and gymnastics.  Her imagination is growing every day and she's an amazing big sister.

Gold Spray Painted Shells

Since I hung my gallery wall I've been wanting to add more gold to my house and finally came up with an awesome idea, to paint a sea shell.  I pitched the idea to Brad (I knew he'd care more about the shell than I do) and since it was a gift from his parents he wasn't too thrilled with the idea.  I dismissed it but once again my awesome Mom came through for me and gifted me three shells.  I figured three was a bit much unless I was going for a beach theme (which I'm not) so I only painted two.  They just turned out so incredible!

I apologize but I didn't take a picture of the star before, here's the shell though, pre paint.  It was a very nice shell, but just a shell, which is not my things.

I gave the shell 4 light coats and the star only took 2, in fact the bottom only needed 1.  These shells painted up so quick and perfectly that I think it was the most satisfying paint job I've ever done.

The star is so delicate, and these shells catch the light and shine like I didn't expect.

Before I painted I checked on Pinterest for the best gold spray paint and found this awesome blog post that took all the guess work out, she did all the hard work and this is her photo below.

I liked the Rust-Oleum best so that's what I used and I'd highly recommend it.

I put these both on my fireplace mantel and the only thing that would make them better is more gold!  I'm a little addicted.