The Force

My littlest one is obsessed with all things Star Wars. Each year for their birthdays, I ask my children what type of cake do they want. I've made many types over the years: 3D girl cake, 3D Teddy Bear cake, trains, Candyland cakes, Butterflies cake, fairy cakes, etc. My older boy is not a fan of cake and, a boy after my own heart, has requested cheesecake and other such wonderful desserts. My older daughter is more into strawberry type desserts now. My youngest still likes the more fun shaped cakes. He challenged my creativity when he asked for a Death Star cake.

I thought about cutting a circle out of 13X9 cake. But what fun would that be? He's only 6 once. I used a 50% coupon for Michael's and bought a sports ball cake pan. Years of cake-making taught me to use pound cake for 3D shapes. Thanks to the Internet, I learned of setting the 3D ball on a cake base so it didn't crumble apart. While he initially asked for the unfinished Death Star in the 6th movie, I sadly informed him there would be no way to keep the Death Star intact for long if I hacked into it early. He was thrilled when I told him I would use candy to decorate it. Everyone wanted a piece of the Death Star, especially the Junior Mint deflector array.


Most importantly, my little Jedi lit up and the Force was with him for his entire birthday from the Glow in the dark new Star Wars shirt, the Lightsaber guide book, Yoda marshmallow sucker, Luke Skywalker puzzle, Lego Star Wars Character Cards, R2D2 Operation, FX Anakin Lightsaber, and Lego Star Wars sets that have been played with almost non-stop.

Did I mention he liked Star Wars?

Family Film

For a church activity, we had a Fall Film Festival. Everyone was encouraged to make their own family film, about 5 minutes long. I love playing with the video format. I took a year long class in high school on video editing. What took up a whole room at the school of video editing equipment now fits nicely in a compact computer program. My favorite program is Pinnacle, even though it eats up memory and is a massive RAM hog. However, on a borrowed computer with lower memory and RAM, I haven't even bothered to install Pinnacle. I know its' limits. So, I gave Windows Movie Maker a whirl. It was easy to use but the video formats are way limited.

Without further ado, here's our submission to the festival. The vocals aren't ours, we give full credit to InsideOut Acapella with their song titled "In the Sun They Melted (Snowman II)." Yes, it may take a while to load up, I think it's worth it.

My Piano

I started lessons when I was 12. That is the year my mother managed to get a piano. My brothers all started lessons when they were 8. There is a big difference. While I can "play a little", my brothers have mastered multiple instruments and play beautifully.

So while my husband thought someday, I was thinking now. I want my children to have my brothers' musical skill, not mine. I saved all the birthday money I was generously given by family and scoured KSL classifieds.

Here is what I found for $75, a 1920's piano in need of some love:


I took my accomplished musician brother with me. He played the piano, said the action was better than my mom's, all the keys played and piano keys weren't chipped. However, you can see from the picture that it had better days. Most of the pieces that remove for tuning had been damaged and didn't fit properly. The knee board was cracked at the bottom and no longer sit properly and besides the dings and gouges, someone had CUT the piano legs, removed them and then glued them back in without wiping out the excess glue (I'm still at a loss as to why).

Did this faze me? Are you kidding! I have a gifted carpenter as a husband. While he didn't own a lathe for turning new legs (we bought them turned), he cut new wedges and fashioned all the pieces back to their original state. He then spent a week with wood putty and myself as the sander to take care of dings and gouges. With the exterior components all fashioned properly, I then set about painting.

It was far too damaged and repaired to stain it or retain the wood color. So I enlisted my mother and we painted and antiqued. I scrubbed hardware for 4 hours. Now I have the results.

My husband's next project is to fashion me an old fashioned piano stool. I found the hardware to make it adjusting for $25. This January my kids start lessons and no it isn't optional.

Baby Shower

My sister-in-law is due January 2nd with my 1st nephew to live in the state and easy distance to spoil and love. Sorry dear Sister, nephew and future nephew (due Dec. 21st) and 2 nieces in Wisconsin. You make sure your medical school dad tries really, really hard to get residency much closer.

My daughter and I eagerly set out to provide an awesome baby shower. Grandma set the theme with lambs. Yes, that's right, we adore lambs. Being Shepherd's (with the correct spelling) has always been a source of pride and we wanted to help welcome the new lamb to the fold in style.

I made a diaper cake (unfortunately, no picture). We played candy games like how many butter mints are in the big plastic bottle and name that candy shout out with breastfeeding matching Milky Way and the night of conception matching Skor candy bar. It was a lot of fun.

My favorite addition to the party came from my 9 year old and her love of getting cookbooks from the library. Her latest checkout was Cupcakes Galore. She was flipping through it 2 days before the shower and found sheep cupcakes. So we jetted to the store. Friday she made cupcakes and Saturday she decorate them.

Aren't they cute? Just need frosting, Junior Mints and marshmallows. Not only did we have a themed treat but my daughter loved making them and showing them off.

Halloween

Halloween Night--my WONDERFUL brother not only dressed up but took my 3 eager children trick-0r-treating for hours! They came home loaded up with candy, said he was the best uncle ever and knew which houses gave the best candy. So, one of the real stars of Halloween was my brother who left me to lounge around passing out candy instead of booking it with my kids for candy.

She, of course, was brilliant. However, I didn't concoct her brilliance. Every year my kids love their costumes and look amazing. The other real star of Halloween is Grandma. My husband took one look at my daughter's vampiress dress and asked if we took the sleeves off could she wear it to church. It's that fancy. It is made out of left over bridesmaid dress fabric and notions. It cost me all of $1 for a pattern and I don't count the boots because she needed another pair shoes.

He was scary. He wanted to be. He is my most easy going when it comes to costumes. Somehow, he always chooses something we have stuff for. I spent $6 buying a Dracula make-up kit with fangs and the medallion. Grandma had the cape and she made him a special cummerbund to finish off the effect. He always shines on Halloween in my eyes. If he notices a discrepancy in candy levels, he never fails to share or help other kids feel good about what they have. It's a trait I love about him.

The force is strong with this one. Grandma of course made all the pieces for his Jedi costume. I made the lightsaber out of a pool noodle and duct tape. I learned long ago that little Jedi's need soft lightsabers for their duels. Grandma knew how much my littlest one loves Star Wars and made the costume purposely bigger so he can enjoy it for the coming year and maybe even next year. Thanks to my family, my children had a wonderful Halloween.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Yes, that is what happens when your 3 children go off track right before Halloween. There were play dates, parties, Halloween costumes to get in order, church activities and responsibilities, baby showers to plan and execute, a piano to refinish and paint coffee table to match living room decor and 3 kids to keep from killing each other.

But, today, my children are back in school.

Did I enjoy sleeping in? Of course. But what I do not currently hear? I don't hearing fighting or teasing. I read the paper this morning, finished all my daily cleaning chores, read Star Wars books with my kindergartner and I'm now sitting down to enjoy computer time which would be non-existent with my children clamoring around me. It's a little bit of heaven.

I was very creative the past 3 weeks with my children and now I hope to share with all of you my triumphs and best moments. My husband always says wow but as a female I want a little more gushing from those who know how much work it really takes.