Our Wedding Cake

10 years later. I have to admit, one of the reasons I have forgotten about our wedding cake for so long is because, well, it wasn't taking up space in our freezer. Up until last year, it had been in my parent's freezer. And had they not had to replace their refrigerator, it probably would still be there.

I didn't even know how it was wrapped, as my mom did it (per our cake lady's instructions) after we left for our honeymoon. So this pink blob has always been a mystery. In fact, up until a couple days ago, I didn't realize it was frozen with the real flowers from our wedding on it.

I thought I would show you how the cake was wrapped, because it survived 10 years in a freezer amazingly well. I feel like I am doing this backwards, but just think of it like you are unwrapping a package with me....

The cake was wrapped in three of these pink bags. I'm not positive, but I am guessing the cake lady left them just for this purpose because they were the perfect size.

Inside the bags, the cake was merely wrapped in foil. 

Unwrapping the foil was pretty exciting. It was one of the moments of truth (the other being when we actually tasted the cake). I unwrapped the cake straight out of the freezer and was shocked to find it had NO frostbite or ice on it anywhere. The poor flowers didn't fare so well, but given that they had been frozen for 10 years, it is actually amazing how good they look. In fact, as the cake defrosted, the flowers actually smelled good. 

I actually snuck a taste of the frosting once the cake was defrosted, so knew that at least tasted fine with no weird consistency or anything. But I was shocked to find the cake tasted totally fine. It tasted a little on the dry side, like day old cake...but certainly not like 10 year old cake. I'm still super impressed with how well the cake fared. 

I have to admit, it was fun watching my kids eat a piece of my wedding cake. I mean, we are talking about MY KIDS eating MY WEDDING CAKE! Little people that weren't in existence when we were married. Little people that have become so much a part of our story getting to enjoy something from our beginning, from our wedding. That was pretty neat. 

So if anyone out there is considering keeping some cake for an amazingly long about of time and still want it to be edible, its totally doable.  And now that I think about it, I totally should have saved half the cake for our 20 year anniversary...do you think it would be ok if I dug it out of the trash (that it has been in overnight) and refroze it?

10 Years

10 years of living life with my partner in crime. We certainly have managed to pack a lot into the past 10 years of life. It's been an amazing adventure and there is no one I would rather spend it with than Ian. Sometimes I am shocked by how lucky I got considering we "chose" each other when we were just teenagers...it's almost as if God had something to do with that ;) 

I feel so amazingly blessed to be living life with someone who allows me to indulge in my Taco Bell cravings, unloads the clean dishes in the dishwasher (because he knows I hate that part), doesn't baulk at my lack of love for the mornings, loves coffee as much as I do, doesn't judge me for how often I take my car through the carwash (hey, it's unlimited!), puts the paper on the porch so the sprinklers don't soak it and fills my car with gas without me even knowing it. This man allows me to be who I am (quirks and all) and accepts and loves me just like that. 

I really don't think I tell him enough, but he is a blessing and and an amazing part of my life. I am looking forward to the next 10 years (and more after that) and all the adventure it holds for us...like Connor becoming a teenager (eek!). 

I love you Ian Grimbleby and am proud to be your wife. 

Awkward/Awesome {thirteen}

I had such an amazingly awkward thing happen the other day, that it spurred me to do another round of awkward/awesome. So maybe you should be thanking the dude in my first happening for this entertainment today.  

Awkward: A dude flirting with me when he totally saw me just standing with my hubby and kid. 

Awkward x2 (or really a zillion): He ended our conversation saying, "Next time you wear your owl and I'll wear my lizard."

  ** I should note that most of the conversation was regarding my owl necklace which I now kind of never want to wear again. 

Awesome: Boys pee standing up and can pee anywhere. 

Awkward: Even standing BEHIND my peeing boy, he still managed to get pee spray all over my feet. 

Awkward: That moment when you see your UPS driver while you are out driving and wave at him, only then realizing he has no clue who you are. 

Awesome: A nice old man talking to my kids. 

Awkward: Connor refused to talk to the guy and Isla buried her head and wouldn't even look at the poor man...and he kept trying, with the same results. 

Awesome: Free (relatively speaking) breakfast at the hotel we were staying at. 

Awkward: Me taking the kids by myself to said breakfast. Holding a tray of food while pushing a stroller and trying to keep a toddler from running away is not fun on any level. And not one single soul in the crowded restaurant offered to help. One lady even told me I was moving too slow.  

Awesome: The king size bed at the hotel. I so want one now. 

Awesome: Tomorrow is mine and Ian's 10 year anniversary. I know, right?! We are like a legit old married couple. 

Awkward: I plan on us eating the original top to our wedding cake from 10 years ago. I realize this was supposed to happen at 1 year, but things happen. I bet it is going to taste amazing. 

Awesome: Good tasting 10 year old cake or not, we are headed out for a night of celebrating tomorrow night and I am super excited. 

How about you, anything awkward or awesome happen lately?

Legoland

I'm not sure what I expected Legoland to be, but it certainly beat my expectations. Driving up to it, Connor got the biggest smile on his face when he spotted the lego men lining the drive into the park. And when he got his first hands on experience with one, he was certainly in awe.

 ^^ This park (within the park...you follow that one?!) was the first thing we really did after entering the park. I have to admit, I was swept away by the lego flowers. How stinking cute are they?! After letting the kids play forever, we had to drag Connor away crying. We kept trying to explain to him there was more to be discovered, but you know, that is a hard concept for a three year old.

Since Connor wouldn't tear himself away from playing for a ride, Isla got the privilege of going on the first ride. And I am going to say that is ok given that there were many rides she was just too short for...though I don't think she minded.

^^ I almost peed my pants laughing when I saw this picture. That pretty much sums up how Connor feels about getting his picture taken. I was actually afraid he was going to have a meltdown on this ride because he didn't get the helicopter he wanted (he wanted to ride in a police one), but he surprised me and was ok with it...though kept saying all day that he wanted to ride on a police one and eventually got to.

Connor got to meet a few life-size lego men in the park. He was oddly obsessed with their hands, wanting to turn them and even tried sticking his head in one of their hands! When that didn't work, he took to stepping on their feet. What an active one I've got!

Isla took a nice nap in the stroller and it really made her enjoy the afternoon. She was all smiles and enjoying life...as long as she wasn't strapped in her stroller!
 

While Ian and Connor played building and racing lego cars, Isla and I played with the duplos. I am actually blown away by how well she can stack them...though I think that has to do with the number of legos and duplos we have all over our house! Talk about exposure. While playing with the duplos she got a little possessive when other kids tried playing close to her (think trying to grab the duplos other kids had while yelling "mine!") but there were so few people around, that really only happened once.

So I totally didn't realize there is a bunch of water play in legoland (I mean, HELLO, they have a water park right next door), so wasn't adequately prepared for my kids to take full advantage of it. Either way, they got in on the action a little bit (or maybe I was that mom that thought squirting them was funny, but whatever). And you should have seen the surprised look on Isla's face when she decided to stick her hand in front of this water stream!

^^ This is Connor and I on one of the last rides he went on. It is one of the first rides by the entrance of the park. When we first walked in, the line was an hour long. By the end of the day (when we decided to hit it up) it was only 10 minutes. Not bad at all and Connor enjoyed himself.

Legoland has those cheesy photographers all over the park that you see at these types of touristy places. We took full advantage of them and didn't have a single picture turn out. We seriously had like 10 pictures to look at and the kids didn't look happy or even look at the camera in any of them. Oh well. I'm glad they had fun even if we don't have a cute family picture to prove it.

We stopped for dinner after we left the park. Connor fell asleep in my lap in the middle of the restaurant. He managed to stay asleep when I carried him out to the car and buckled him in his car seat. He slept on the ride back to the hotel, stayed asleep when I put him in the stroller and when I transferred him into bed...and he slept for 14 hours. Talk about a tired boy! I'm glad he had so much fun.

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This week's photos brought to you from an amazingly large hotel bed. The four of us shared a king size bed last night and there was totally enough room for all of us. It was amazing and the experience totally has me thinking about upgrading to one. 

This week:

• Connor woke me at 1:30am saying "Mama, there is a lego in my nose." Yep, there was. And after a stressful 10 minutes, it was out. 

• I got the windows tinted in my car, just in time for summer and just in time for Connor to put a sticker on the tint right after it was done. 

• I am a sucker for real mom articles - I enjoyed this one this week. 

• We went out of town and I forgot my camera. I feel like my arm is missing. 

• Connor slept all night in his bed two nights this week. Talk about amazing! 

We took the kids to Legoland this weekend and it was just as amazing for Connor as I hoped. Be prepared to have way too many (iphone) pictures of the experience coming your way soon. 

Isla, The Teething Monster

Isla certainly has proven to me that girls (or at least her) are way more drama when it comes to teething than boys. Every single stinking tooth that she has gotten has come at a price...a price for the whole household. Currently she is working on getting in her top two year molars. The bottom ones already came in. It's rough, I tell you. After a couple nights of getting almost no sleep one starts feeling pretty crummy. And the thing is, many mornings, just when I finally coax Isla back to sleep, Connor is up for the day. Awesome. And Connor doesn't nap. Double awesome. But we are making it through. Somehow. Though I have a feeling that copious amounts of coffee and me sneaking away for a girls night last night helped.

Somehow, in the midst of the sleepless nights, this girl still manages to charm the socks off me...though these times happen in the light of day...there be no charming of this mama in the dead of night. The way she says "help me" when she wants me to do something or how she gives Ian and I kisses. Even watching her try to run after the big kids playing tag at the park melted my heart.

But the nights. Oh how I dread them. I just pray that these two teeth come in quickly so we can all get some sleep again. You know, like actually sleep more than an hour and a half at a time.

Are you...

Are you more of a squeeze from the end or a squeeze from the middle type of person? And what do you think that says about you?

Myself, I am more totally a squeeze from wherever makes the toothpaste come out type of gal. I'm never that organized about it. In general I would say this is about how I am about life. I do what needs to be done to get things done and that's about it. And if I have to be, I can be organized. But in general, our desk (and bills/important pictures) looks like I set the kids loose on it. And you know what? Because of automatic bill pay and not having to worry about bills going unpaid, I don't really care that much about it...except when I have company over. Then all of the sudden I wish I was an organized person! Now you get me...I'm a squeeze from the middle type of person. It explains so much, right?

Now again I ask, are you more of a squeeze from the end or a squeeze from the middle type of person? And what do you think that says about you?

Splash n' Catch Bathtime Fishing Set {nuby product review}

Bath time in our house is one of those things that is greatly looked forward to. As the kids have gotten older, finding more age appropriate toys has become more difficult for the bath. Usually the problem can be solved by bringing regular (i.e. non bath approved) toys in. Thankfully Nuby has done a great job at filling that void and coming out with some bath toys for older toddlers. The splash n' catch bathtime fishing set is definitely one of those toys.

Connor enjoys this toy for its intended purpose, catching things with the net...bubbles included. While Isla is more fond of the fish links that come with it. And me, well I am happy that it is BPA free and a hit with the kiddos. I'm also pretty excited that it totally works as a toy for their kiddie pool outside as well!

The Nuby splash n' catch bath time fishing set can be purchased at BuyBabyDirect, Amazon, IdealBaby, BuyBuyBaby, Bed Bath and Beyond, Diapers.com, Tuesday Morning and Bealls. And I noticed that it had amazing customer reviews on all these retailers websites because it is just that great.

I did not receive any compensation for this post, although as part of the Nuby Mommy Blogger program I may receive items to sample or review. All opinions are my own and 100% honest. 



You can stay up to date on all things Nuby by liking the Nuby Facebook Page, following Nuby on Twitter, following Nuby on Pinterest, and watching for Nuby Photos on Instagram.

A Shout Out to Ian

Happy father's day to my children's amazing dad. Back when we were teenagers, I really wasn't thinking about what kind of dad Ian would be, but I must say he is amazing. He happily allows the kids to sit in his lap and get food all over him. If I wake him to take one of the kids at night, he will take them without complaining and allow me to sleep. When I watch him snuggle with our kids and pray with them, my heart swoons. God surely knew what he was doing when he picked such an amazing man to be my hubby and the father of our children.

We celebrated Ian this morning by heading out for doughnuts...and judging by how busy it was, most other families had the same idea. Then we drove around in search of the perfect background and took some father's day pics. 

Ian got to open his father's day gift where he got a coffee mug he was wanting and a funny questionnaire from Connor. Apparently Ian is 3 years old, his favorite color is orange and his favorite thing to do is play legos with Connor. Oh the sweetness.  

Ian, you are an amazing man. You are the perfect partner in life and parenting. And I hope you know how much our little family loves and appreciates you.

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We went for shaved ice because, well, nothing really sounds better on a hot day. It's so yummy. But seriously, the kids need to be hosed off before even getting back in the car. They get messy. I was trying to document that in our little group photo, but it did not do their sticky, syrup covered selves justice. I had to change Isla's whole outfit when we got home and somehow Connor got it all down his shins. But at least they enjoyed themselves, right?

This week:

• We went blueberry picking with my MOPS group. That will probably be the last time for the season, as the bushes were looking rather picked over. 

• Connor took a three hour nap (I finally woke him after three hours), then didn't go to sleep until 11pm. 

• Ian and I went on a date. Thanks to an idea from Molly, we hit up the thrift store first and picked out outfits for each other for the date. 

• A lady I did not know disciplined Connor while we were out and he was playing. I've never had that happen before and I hope it never happens again. 

• We've chased trains a few times this week. Connor loves it and as soon as it is over, asks to go chase another train. 

• We took the kids swimming in a real pool (you know, not our plastic kiddy one). Isla seemed to love it and though Connor had to be forced in, he did ok. 

Next up, father's day. I hope Ian likes what the kids got him.

Little Moments Not To Be Forgotten {three}

You will have to pardon me. Now that temperatures are up, it is time for mostly more outside living. So, most of the pictures will be of us living it up in our yard. There you have it.  

watermelon eating by Connor // watermelon eating by Isla // sibling love...even if it is while watching tv, this mama will take it! // backyard swinging // baby tan lines // watering mom? // "hello!" // Riley bunking it "up" with Connor // motorcycle riding