Kaia’s party was a hit! The kids played hard, ate well, and should all be sound asleep by now! The cake got rave reviews, so I thought I’d post the recipe:
Party of the century :-)
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Monthly Archives: June 2007
The cake of the century
Kaia turned 4 last Sunday, but we are having her party tomorrow (we were out of town last weekend). Kaia asked Toby and I to make her birthday cake with her instead of buying one! She picked out all the stuff… the cake pan, the decorations, etc…
So, today, we set about on a cake baking expedition! Seeing as we had a 16″ diameter round cake pan that is 2″ thick, we had to quadruple the recipe!!! (Man, I hope lots of people show up at the party tomorrow, ’cause this thing isn’t gonna fit in our fridge!) Here’s Kaia mixing the ingredients in the biggest pot we have.
As you can see, the batter turned out rather tasty! We made a Hummingbird cake (which is kind of like a carrot cake, but with pineapple, coconut, pecans, and bananas).
Here we have our little cake cooling. I can’t believe it came out of the pan in one piece! (to give you some perspective as to how big this friggin’ thing is, that is a dime on the front corner of it!)
Kaia really disliked the decorating process, as you can see. And, of course, she had not sampled any of the icing by this point!
And here we have the final product! Ariel sitting on an island, while purple waves lap the shore. The sun shines brightly down on the fruit people who are dancing in the sky, on the island, and in the sea. Everything in and on the cake is edible and we used turmeric, annatto, cranberry, and blueberry for the colorings. Next time, I’ll get some chlorophil for some vibrant green. Now… how to get this too the party??? Hmmmm…
Hooked
Well, Smallville and BSG are on Summer break, so Toby and I have found another show to get hooked on. The show is just getting started so join me, won’t you? 
Summer’s here!
Happy (almost) first day of Summer everyone!! I always love the longest day of the year, but it also comes to me with some sadness. ‘Cause that means every day after it is getting shorter 
Things are going well here at the homestead. The chickens are happy, Suki is enjoying time in the shade with her favorite bone. Unfortunately, our great friend and house-helper, Mattie, is moving back to Canada at the end of the month! He’s been an amazing help and support with the house so far and we will really miss him. Another friend may begin working for us in a few weeks. Plus, a few years ago, Toby helped install a veggie oil conversion kit in a school bus in Chapel Hill. Well, the woman who owns the school bus now lives near us and she wants to give a few days of work on our house to repay the favor!
Toby and I have started talking about whether or not we want to have another child. Part of me really wants to. I look at Kaia and I think “how could I not want another one. It’s so absolutely amazing to be a parent… to watch her grow and learn… the complete love I feel” and part of me is like “why would I ever want to put myself through that again?! The nausea of pregnancy, the immense weight gain, the pain and depression after the birth, the endless nights without sleep… ugh!!” So, you see, I am torn. Now that I finally have my energy and my sanity back (though unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever get my body back), it seems like having another child would be easy… ’cause I’m in a good place. But all that changes after not having slept in 2 years. Toby and I would both really like to adopt, but no one will approve us right now… you know – tiny cabin, out house, now shower, no money and all that. So, maybe in the future. Kaia is up for another child, without a doubt. She gives birth to some kind of pretend baby every day in preparation for the real thing
Baby or not, I’ve started trying to get a little more exercise. I’ve been getting up early to go out and hoop a little before Kaia wakes up. It’s been really nice hooping in the cool morning air. It puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day. I’ve also signed up for a workshop in July that I am really excited about. I hope it will get me into some sort of hooping routine! I continue to (slowly) get better, but I want more!! Here is a hooper doing some of the moves that we will be learning at the workshop.
Viriditas is going great! We are finally picking up! This week was booked. We have people from South Carolina, Eastern NC, and even a tourist from CT. coming in for the Maya Abdominal Massage. And Herb consultations have picked up too. Hopefully this is the start of something. Then maybe we can start paying off some business loans. Our Summer Newsletter is out if you want to see it.
Happy Solstice!
Decking the roof
We had some great progress on the house these past few days. A bunch of friends came out to lend a hand on Sat. and then Toby’s dad stayed over to help again on Sunday! We have such awesome friends and family!!
Here we are beginning the decking of the first story roof. Each piece of wood was planed on one side to give it a smooth, clean look. Then the edges were routered to give them a finished look. Then hammered into place. The floor was constantly covered with sawdust. We will have enough sawdust for the composting toilets to last for at least a year!!
More decking…
Toby and his dad trying to lift the center post up to the second floor.
Just about finished! There’s the center post for the second story laying over to the left… See it?
Here is the view of the ceiling from the inside. I was laying down in what will be Kaia’s room. Pretty, eh?
Kaia enjoyed all the saw dust we made!
We just got pounded!
In the past 4 weeks, we’ve only had 1 really good rain. The plants are very parched!! Well, today, we got pounded. Problem is, there are no leaves left on the plants!!
Yes, this is hail! The ground was covered!
This is the road in front of our new house. Looks like a lake! All that stuff in the middle is floating balls of hail!
Here are some nice sized chunks!
How ’bout this one???
luckily, there was no damage to the house or cars… just the poor plants.
spaceship house
Sorry for the long break! We’ve been a little busy (HA, like we ever have down time)
Here is the house from afar… Second floor rafters are up! Woo Hoo!!
This is a picture of the ceiling, looking up from the first floor near the center post.
This is the sub floor of the second floor. We will be putting hardwood on top (we’ve gotten enough from the local hardwood floor dumpster to do the whole floor!! I have no idea why they throw out this great, perfect wood!)
Looking down the stairwell into Kaia’s room.
Day of Adventure
Kaia and I and two of our friends met a bunch of other homeschoolers on a goat farm tour today. We drove ~1 hour to the farm and planned on having the afternoon to play. But, soon after getting there I started feeling light headed and had to sit down. I broke into a cold sweat and the world around me started getting dark. Some of the mamas, and the farm owner helped me inside to the couch and got me some cold rags. I laid down, drank water, munched on some crackers and fruit and started feeling better. So, after ~15 minutes I got back up to join the grew. I hadn’t walked too far when it started again. I was having trouble walking in a straight line. So I went to lay down in their small shop store and the farm owner (who also happens to be an ICU nurse) took my BP (which was fine) and offered me some gateraide and ice cold cloths. I felt totally fine when I was laying down… I’m not pregnant, I don’t have a virus, it wasn’t heat exhaustion, it wasn’t my blood sugar… the only thing I can think is that it was vertigo. I never had any issues with vertigo until a month ago when I was at my Maya Abdominal Massage class and I started getting dizzy when I laid down. Supposedly, there are particles moving around in my inner ear and they cause dizziness with a change of posture. So, I wonder if with all the hills we went over and all the turning my head and neck to deal with the girls in the back of the car that maybe some of the particles moved and made the vertigo worse. Either way, the girls had a blast milking the mama goats and feeding the babies, and my friend was nice enough to take pictures for me. On the way back we ran into a tremendous rain/hail storm that was amazing.
here are some pics:
