Nana's Surprise Birthday Beach Trip!!!

This past May,

we did something we haven't done in a while,

quite a while.

All 12 of the member of our immediate family,

on my side

(mom & dad, baby sis & middle sis and her hub and baby)

all piled into the same house...

for the WHOLE

weekend!

My sisters and I planned it.

My mom was turning...

well she probably wouldn't want me telling her age,

anyways, it was a multiple of 10,

so a biggish birthday.

So we got dad on board,

booked the house 

(thanks to my sister's inlaws)

made the plans,

plotted to deceive,

and 

made it happen.

We are all SOOOO busy,

my baby sis was headed to Colorado for the summer

and everyone was just all over the place,

so it was not hard to tell mom

that we might not be able to all get together to 

celebrate her upcoming birthday on May 10th.

But secretly,

behind the scenes,

we wanted to do something special.

We thought about a big party,

or dinner with lots of family and friends,

but ultimately decided,

what would mean the most to my mom 

would be to have all of her kids and grandkids together.
For the first time in years,
and possibly the last time in a long time.

So we got dad in on the plan.
The baby sister was going to come up with an excuse
to go to the beach for the "day" on Friday.
Then there was discussion of staying in a bed and breakfast for the night,
before coming home on Saturday.
Then mom thought we were having a cook-out at her house,
with family and friends,
that Saturday night.
Dad was in charge of "calling everyone",
didn't happen (wink, wink).

Thursday, I baked up a storm,
making
 a birthday cake for mom (Sour Cream Pound Cake)
 & my oldest (Mounds Cake

).

Then, Friday,
my dad,
my middle sis,
and I,
all coordinated our timing
and met at the beach within about 15 minutes of each other!
Shockingly since we were all coming from different directions
and travel times!

Mom and my sis were having froyo.
So we all surprised her at the froyo place.
We let the 5 grandkids walk in first,
Mom was shocked.
Then when she saw dad...
she got tears in her eyes.
At first,
she thought that we had all just come for ice cream
(long trip for ice cream)
then when she saw dad,
she realized something else was going on!

I just *knew* she had a suspicion,
but I guess I get my occasional aloofness
honestly.
(love you ma!!!)

And since we were at the Froyo place,
the rest of us
HAD to get some!!

 Then we went to unload at the beach house.

And see how much
stuff
and
kids
 we could
put into an elevator!

We got 5 people

and

a whole corner of stuff.

We took Nana out to the 

favorite beach restaurant!

On our way, 

we stopped for a photo op!

Nana & Papa and all the grands

(this looks Christmas card worthy to me!!

or

a Facebook profile or cover photo! haha!)

Nana & the girls

Papa telling the big boys one of his tall tales.

Papa and the girls!

Tony Cruz sad because I wouldn't let him drink Texas Pete!

Sister Cousins!

That night we decided to share the

humongous Easter Bunny that we were given.

One

bite

at

a 

time!

The next morning,

a quick elevator ride took us down 

to wake up sleeping beauty...

By all these cuties!

Wake Up Aunt Mimi!  

We are ready to go to the beach!!!

We spent the day on the beach.

After dinner,

we celebrated the birthdays!

(That is an awful lot of candles!!)

Nana wouldn't let us put candles in hers.

Then the birthday boy attempted to cut the cake!

 Apparently the chocolate ganache was a little hard to cut.

After our bellies were full of cake,

 some of us were so worn out,

we fell asleep on the hardwood floor!

The next morning,

after we got out hair brushed by daddy,

we headed home.

We had a great trip!

Recipe Corner: Paula Deen's Sour Cream Pound Cake

My mom

and

my oldest have birthdays

3 days apart.

My mom, May 10th

My oldest, May 13th.

The previous post was the 

Mounds Cake 

I made for my oldest.

I asked my mom what kind of cake she wanted...

she went simple.

I don't like simple!

Challenge me people!!

She was happy with

 a store bought pound cake,

strawberries

and

whipped cream.

A Strawberry Shortcake

I tried to talk her out of it!

Told her 

"You had that last year!"

to which she responded

(without skipping a beat)

"How many years in a row have you had the

EXACT SAME cake??"

To which I just quietly and defeatedly said

"Touche, mom, touche"

Then at dinner that night I told my husband the same story.

Before I could get my mom's response out of my mouth,

my husband was staring across the table at me with his mouth open

in amazement,

getting ready to defend my sweet mother,

then he heard her response to me and just laughed!

So,

what mama wants,

mama gets!

But I was NOT buying her a pound cake!

NO SIR!

And I had never made a pound cake before,

so I was QUITE excited and nervous!

I searched for a bit and settled on 

Paula Deen's Sour Cream Pound Cake

(mainly because I had bought a GIANT vat of sour cream

from Sam's a few weeks prior and it needed to be used!)

As with the Mounds Cake,

I followed directions.

I had to since I was a first timer!

This, the creamed butter and sugar,

is a thing of absolute beauty itself!

And scrumptious, too!

Alternated in the rest of the ingredients,

And then held my breath as I poured it into the bundt pan,

I was scared it wasn't going to fit!

And I might or might not have licked the bowl 

and spoon

of this too!

I was even more nervous watching it bake!

Good gracious that thing puffed up!

And the top was so amazingly crusty and sweet and amazing!

This cake DID NOT make it to my mom's with all of its pieces!

It remained uncut,

but not unscathed.

This is how it traveled 

and 

this is the ONLY picture we got

of it dumped out of is pan

along with the other cake

and

the birthday people

(plus one).

I *will* be making this one again!

I have no idea when...

but it WILL happen!

Recipe Corner: Mound Cake

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If you will recall, 

last year,

my oldest just wanted a 

"simple"

 Skittles Cake,

Simple cakes are

NOT 

in my vocabulary!

So I made this

Skittles Flavored Rainbow Cake

(which by the way is, BY FAR,

my most popular post with 

10,824 views at last look!!!! 

WHOO HOO!!!)

So this year,

he the instructions I was given were

"coconut and chocolate".

So I started Googling!

And

Pinteresting!

And came across something called a

Mounds Layer Cake

over at

Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

I was so excited!!!

I followed the directions pretty spot on.

I only took a few pictures,

but lemme tellya,

this stuff,

right here,

 in the picture below,

is AH-MAZING!

Cream of Coconut!

And you see this 1/3 c measuring cup right here?

Those are ABSOLUTELY 

lick marks in the bottom of that thing!

No Shame here!

I totally LICKED the thing CLEAN!

(after dumping it in the mixer, of course!)

 Just in case you needed another look!

And it make a KILLER

addition to ANY

cup of coffee!

I did resist eating the rest of the can

with that spoon sticking out of it.

Barely though!

 In this process,

I also discovered the amazingness of fluffier buttercream!

I had been a Wilton girl for a while,

mainly because I was too scared to play with my icing.

This buttercream turned out so amazingly smooth and fluffy!

I haven't gone back to "regular" buttercream since!

The cream of coconut and heavy whipping cream are added to the butter

and whipped.

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT!!!

(this is just the start of the frosting!)

 The center of the cake was simple,

flaked coconut combined with sweetened condensed milk.

I did not cut any of these cakes down,

usually I will level them,

I chose not to since there was such a thick layer of coconut

in the middle,

I figured it would all even out.

Frosted it with my new favorite frosting!

Made my ganache!

I attempted to speed up the process a bit,

and threw it in the fridge to solidify a bit.

I kept checking it and it went from not quite ready

to too thick!

REALLY QUICK!

So it didn't "flow" over the top as I had wished.

I had to help it...

But it still turned out GREAT!!!

And my mom & sisters told me it looked like what we get at 

our long time favorite bakery...

what a compliment!!!

And it tasted YUMMY too!!

So its official,

my oldest has outgrown shaped and designed cakes

and has graduated to

specific flavors!

I wonder what he will challenge me with next year!

Water Safety Awareness Class

One of the mom's from our homeschool group

put together a

"Water Awareness Class"

at our local YMCA.

I signed up,

said I was interested in my big boys taking it...

then when the time came,

wondered if it was really worth my time

(and theirs - the boys).

We had too much to do,

we were quite behind in our school year

(after taking the entire month of December off).

And it was at 1:30!

We are still usually doing school work at 1:30p.

We usually don't finish until about 3pm

because my kids don't stay on task!

Anyways,

I knew it was going to hinder our school week.

So I really didn't want to go.

At the last minute,

we decided to go.

I am soooooooo
glad we did!

The big boys had a BALL
and
learned a lot!!!

 I let the little swim a little too.

I can't remember what prompted this picture,
but he was proving to me that he had
his bathing suit on the right way
by showing me the tag was in the back...

I love everything about this one.
His hair
and
that booty!

The class started with a little chat,

and then a swim test.

I knew Jackson wasn't a strong swimmer,
he was hesitant to teach himself
and try...
and no matter how hard the hubs and I tried,
he was just too scared to drown.
So we realized he probably needed
someone else to teach him.

He got semi-private lessons!
I was stoked!!

My sweet friend offered 

(unintentionally)

to swim with the littles during the class.

I let her.

Here the boys are learning how to use

"the hook"

as a rescue device.

The second day my sweet friend decided that if I wasn't 

going in with my kids...

she wasn't either.

She would rather be out chatting with me!

Haha!

Thank goodness for awesome life jackets!

Apparently they make good 

hats too!

Another exercise they did,

was feeling what ice cold water felt like.

Why?

I am not 100% sure,

but I think it was just to kinda

desensitize them from it

(as much as you can in about 2 minutes)

They stuck their arms in the bucket

of ice cold water!

Best face in the world!

Nope, THIS is the best face!

Or is it this one?

Then, since they survived the arm thing...

they got it dumped on their heads

and 

down their backs...

Then MOM got to dump cold water on them!!!

This class led to the boys taking the 

"pre-swim team" class.

They did great and are ready to start swim team...

as soon as football season is over...

if we don't do basketball.

Recipe Corner: Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins!!

(This is another Throwback Post!,
I started this one probably 2 years ago,
not sure why I never hit the "Publish" button)

I have been making these for the past few years.

I love them,

my kids love them,

my husband loves them,

my mom loves them,

They are a HIT in this family!

I have NO idea where I got the original recipe,

I would love to credit the original poster...

but I have no clue where I got it from.

I used to only make this in the fall.

Then it became a year round staple.

And I have even made it with 

FRESH

pumpkin before!

We used mini pie pumpkins...

even broke the tip off of my 

Calphalon chefs knife

trying to cut open one that 

had been shellacked!

(if that's even a real word or spelled correctly!)

Anyways...

I digress.

Back to the pumpkin muffins!

 The players:

The beloved recipe card:

First,

combine all wet ingredients, 

sugar & pumpkin pie spice

into large mixing bowl:

pumpkin

tip for getting the pumpkin

out of the can easier...

open both end of the can

remove one end

then push the other end through 

with all the pumpkin...

right into your bowl

then scrape the residual pumpkin out with a spoon!

In a half cup measuring cup,

put in about 1/4 c of applesauce

and then fill the rest of the way with oil.

You get the moisture from the oil

and cut out a bit of the fat & calories

using the applesauce!

Then combine 

until it is a homogeneous mixture

(my science teachers would be so proud!)

In a seprate smaller bowl,

combine flours, salt, baking soda & powder.

Fold into the wet mixture.

We use mini muffin tins for ours,

easier for little hand and mouths!

Pre-cooked: 

I wish I had matching pans at least!

Cooked:

But as you can see,

I didn't even get them in the bowl before

the little people swooped in

and started scooping them up!

Yes,

she is starting with 5!!!

The recipe:

I have tweaked the original recipe a bit,

the one you saw on the card,

mainly adding another 1/2 of ingredients

to not quite double,

but make more for each batch.