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Monday, March 22, 2010

Garden Gnome Cookies

To celebrate spring, I wanted to make some spring-y cookies. I knew I wanted to save the bunnies and chickies for Easter, so what to do? I have a new dragonfly cutter that I've been dying to try, but ultimately I couldn't resist trying out the garden gnome cutter I ordered a few weeks ago. You know you picked a good one when you find yourself smiling and practically giggling while you decorate! These were really fun.



I started with a little sketch - making an outline of the shape and figuring out where the colors would go.



These cookies were time consuming, not so much because of the decorating, but just because of all the different colors. Each color means a new bag, new tip, new bowl, etc. I used seven colors in all, including three shades of brown. (My gnomes are multicultural, lol).

The beards were the most fun. I piped them separately so they would have texture. I used an edible food marker for the eyes. This was the first time I've used one, and I did like it. Two poor gnomes lost legs in the process of drawing on the eyes. Poor gnomes. I mourned for them by eating them. I figured they would want it that way.

The result, delightfully creepy spring gnomes…




I think next time, I will make the boots black, and give the gnomes just a tunic instead of pants and shirt.  I also think I would add a thick black belt. 

Just for fun before I move on to Easter cookies, here are the shamrocks I made for St. Patrick's Day...


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Magic Kingdom

So the Loveridge side of my family is pretty “blog-tastic”. There is a whole lot of blogging going on. Everyone seems in on it – aunts, uncles, cousins. I’ve been planning to follow suit for awhile, but just never seem to have anything interesting to write about.


I thought though, that our recent trip to Disneyland would make a good subject for an inaugural post, so here goes! My first blog. I’m such a big girl! (And I promise that future blog posts won’t be this long...)

Disneyland – February 2010

Ethan and I took a vacation to Disneyland with our good friends Anna and Elias Hunter. (In July, Elias became big brother to triplets when Anna and her husband Robert had three boys: Adam, Alex, and Evan! The triplets stayed home with Robert and the Grandmas; this was a "big kid" trip only!)

Pre-trip excitement:

Ethan is on a huge Star Wars kick right now  Everything is Star Wars.  So he was pretty excited after I told him there would be a Jedi Training Academy show, wherein the actors choose kids from the audience to come participate in Jedi Training. Before leaving, he practiced jumping up and down, and yelling “Pick me! Pick me!” (This was after he told me that maybe if he just sat quietly they would pick him. I told him that while that was a good strategy for school and the library, it probably wasn’t for Disneyland.) I went to the t-shirt shop in town and had them make up some shirts for the boys that said “Jedi in Training” for them to wear. I also tried to prepare Ethan for the disappointment if he didn’t get chosen, but I was secretly willing to go to every single showing of it while we were there if need be. More on that later…

I told Ethan that there was going to be a Pizza Hut in our hotel. He looked a little puzzled when he asked, “So, like, we get to hunt for pizzas???” I wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed when I explained that it was just a restaurant.

I found out that the Fairfield Marriott in Anaheim, where we would be staying, is the site of Don Boderman’s “hot tub hands” incident. If you know Don and you don’t know the story, you’ll have to ask him. It’s a good one.

Trip highlights:

When we checked in at the hotel, we were told that we had been upgraded to a “themed” room. Our room was more like a suite with a separate room, which was all decked out with characters from the movie “Cars” for the boys. They loved it, and I have to admit, it was pretty cool.


Playing DS in the "Cars" room

No lines. Yup, it’s true. February is definitely the time to go to Disneyland! We experienced hardly any wait time at all for the rides, usually probably only about 10 minutes. The longest we probably stood in line was 35 minutes, and we only did that maybe once or twice. It was rainy on and off one of the days, but the weather was fine the rest of the time. Our first night there, we rode Splash Mountain and when we got to the end of the ride (still on the “log”), the ride operator asked if we wanted to go again. So without even having to exit, we got to ride again, and then a third time! She offered for a fourth time, to which the boys said “Yes!” (but the moms said “No!”).


Meeting Minnie


Jedi Training Academy – The show began with the Jedi trainers coming out and scouring the audience for young “padawans” with whom the force is strong. Then the Jedi master came out and invited those “younglings” to come up and be trained. Fortunately, Ethan and Elias both got selected to participate right away! As far as we could tell, they were the only two who got picked together, so we were happy about that. It was a fun show. They all got capes (I'm sure there is a Star Wars name for it, but I'll just call them capes) and "practice" light sabers.  The Jedi master taught them all some moves, then the bad guys came out and each child got a turn to try out their moves. Ethan got to fight Darth Vader and Elias fought Darth Maul! (Before the show started, I got a real “talking to” from one of the Cast Members because I had skipped a barrier to ask him where the kids should line up. And not a nice talking to, either. A fairly mean one. He went on and on, and finished with, “It’s just for your safety ma’m”. Ok. Got it. I’ll remember that next time, Mr. Happiest Place on Earth.) After Ethan was chosen to participate, I said a small little prayer that Ethan hadn’t been punished for my barrier-skipping sin, and especially for the fact that I would not have to come back and watch four showings a day until either Ethan was chosen or we had to leave for home! Whew!


On stage. Yeah, he wasn't excited AT ALL! 

Learning some moves from the Jedi master







Perfecting some moves before showing Vader who's boss!







Bring it on, Vader!


Standing proud with their training certificates!


Favorite Rides - Ethan’s favorite ride was California Screamin’ at California Adventure. It’s a giant roller coaster, including an upside-down loop. Ethan was barely – and I mean barely- tall enough to ride. The Disney Cast Members measured him a few times, just to make sure. It’s a good thing I hadn’t found time to get him a hair cut before we left as I had planned to do. If I had, he might not have met the height requirement, it was that close. During the first few seconds of the coaster, I looked over at Ethan only to see him white-as-a-sheet with a terrible expression on his face. When I asked if he was ok, he said "Yes, but please stop screaming. PLEASE!"  I stopped screaming and took another peek at him. He still looked petrified. But at the end of the ride, he said “That was AWESOME!” and then he begged to do it again. We rode that ride a lot. He says his “second favorite” ride was Splash Mountain, and his “third favorite” was It’s a Small World. And, don’t tell him I told you, but he still really loved the Winnie the Pooh Ride (Awwww….).










Autotopia






Winnie the Pooh ride


Friends forever!




Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I love this picture because you can see how he holds his lower lip over his upper lip all the time.  That's why it's always so red and chapped above his lips! 


No-go-rides – The first ride we went on was Indiana Jones. Ethan had really been looking forward to it, but the ride actually terrified him. In retrospect, we probably shouldn’t have gone on that one very first! We weren’t able to get Ethan to go on it again, even though Elias loved it and went on it a few more times. Not surprisingly, Ethan wouldn’t even give the Haunted Mansion a shot. We did manage to get him on Tower of Terror at California Adventure. When the lights went out, right before the elevator shaft dropped, there was a split second of silence and then all you could hear was poor Ethan’s little voice saying “…. I think this was a bad idea…” Needless to say, we couldn’t get him on that ride again either.


Right before the Indiana Jones ride. He did NOT look this happy afterwards!

Coming home - As much fun as it was, it was still nice to come home see our other friends and get back to the "normal" routine.  Being away from home always reminds me how much I love being here (and sleeping in my own bed)!

My little Jedi!