The One Where They Play Cake Boss

When Noah and Riley are together, anything can happen. When Riley spent the weekend with us, I casually mentioned that we should play Cake Boss and decorate a cake. I was surprised when they jumped at the idea and dug right in. I've had fun creating some cakes of my own, so I was excited to get them started.

I decided to let them take the reigns. I stood by to supervise and make sure the kitchen stayed within a reasonable level of chaos. They chose chocolate cake. They mixed it and baked it on their own. They surprised me when they decided to bake a few tiny cakes in miniature loaf pans. My grandma Laugerman gave me these pans years ago. As a blue ribbon baker, she would be proud to see her grandson using them.

The boys were pleasantly surprised to see how easy marshmallow fondant is to make. I think they were secretly delighted that it also makes a huge mess. Boys will be boys, ya know!

It was interesting to see their designs. It was awesome seeing these two rough and tumble boys dig into their creative and artsy side!

The One Where They Spend the Day in St. Paul

Mark has some vacation days that he needs to use up, so he decided to take a couple of days off this week. Wednesday was spent working on the bathroom that is progressing quite nicely. I'll give you an update on that another day.

Thursday we decided to go to St. Paul and do a few things. We stopped by Rice Park to see the ice sculptures at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. It was a pretty chilly day, so we only stayed for a little while. Noah was very impressed with the amazing ice sculptures scattered throughout the park. He decided that maybe he'll make a career out of that some day.

We made a stop at the Science Museum. With Mark along, the boys spent time doing different things than they usually do. We actually only got to a couple of exhibits, but we spent a lot of time at each of them. It was a great learning opportunity for both boys. We were so impressed with the Hubbel Telescope movie at the Omni Theater that we decided to take that film in again.

When we were done with the Science Museum we decided to do a late lunch at Cossetta. We stopped by to pick up my brother, John who works just a few blocks away. Austin and Noah love hanging out with John. He has a knack of making each one of them feel like they are very important to him.

The One With the One Act Play

During the months of December and January my life was full. Full of things I love. I love drama. I love directing. I love teenagers. I love hanging out with my kids. With One Act Play I got to do all of these things. I have the privilege of directing the One Act Play at Princeton High School. I get to do something that I'm passionate about, plus I get to do it with one of my kids!

Austin is a freshman this year. Even though he is homeschooled he is allowed to participate in extra-curricular activities through the public school. It has been such a fun experience for him to get to know the kids at the high school and to have fun acting in plays.

The play I chose this year is "Check Please". It is about a series of blind dates that end up badly. Austin played dual roles. He played the part of a man who appeared to be the perfect date until it was revealed that he was married. For that, he got a glass of water in the face! He also played the part of a sleazy overly-romantic guy. His costume was complete with silk shirt and lots of bling.

One Act Play is a competition event. We performed at our Mississippi 8 conference festival and were one of the 3 starred performances out of 9. Our journey ended at the 7AA subsections. It was an amazing experience to work with such a talented cast. I will miss working with them and look forward to next December when we start working on another production.