Scrapbooking with Troy

Troy and I had some mother/son time on Thursday. He has been on winter break since the Thursday before Christmas, therefore I decided to take off of work to spend time with him. We had just the activity to do together, SCRAPBOOKING!

Troy received some legos for Christmas and he wanted to make a book of all of his creations. So, we decided to add pages to his scrapbook with them. We went to Archivers in the Mall Of America. You can buy and take some of your tools inside the store to create pages, etc. while you are there. Troy picked out some stickers and paper specific to Star Wars and Lego. We then went into the back room to plan our pages. Troy was a huge helper and really knew what he wanted to do. He did all of the cutting and the majority of the gluing. We left the store with the pages all ready. We just needed to print out our pictures at home.

We had so much fun with the project that he is talking about scrapbooking other toys as well.

How to Make a Gingerbread House

Matt and I volunteered at Troy's school for the holiday party. When we arrived, we found out the kids were going to make gingerbread houses. Troy's teacher, Mrs. Kunkel, had thought of everything. She had us lay out different candies (lollies) and marshmallows on the table, a tub of icing and graham crackers. She then showed the kids a variety of gingerbread house pictures as examples so they could see how to decorate the roof, the sides, and even the yard outside. You could tell their creative juices were flowing! 

Kids started by covering an old small milk carton with graham crackers using icing as glue! They then used their imagination and put m&ms, tootsie rolls, candy canes, life savers, etc. all over their houses. A few candies made their way into their mouths which was all apart of the fun. We had a great time with them.

EMMA - The Tap Dancer

Last week, Emma came out of her first tap class saying she had so much fun. Now in her second class, she is definitely listening more and trying to learn the routine. She came home singing some of the songs and wanted to put her tap shoes back on, so I take that as a good sign. Her recital is in May, so we have a lot of time to practice.  NOTE: I would recommend turning the background noise off.

The Star Wars Story - According to Troy

NOTE: Troy has been rather enamoured of Star Wars lately. He brought home a Star Wars book from his school library this week, so that may have sparked the following story.

Once there was a spaceship. The people were going to destroy Darth Vader at the station where the storm troopers were. Once they were ready to attack a storm trooper, a guy got out of the spaceship with his light saber. He started fighting the storm trooper and killed him, breaking him into pieces.

They flew back to a restaurant but bad people were there, so they went into the restaurant. The man went in. He "zirked" [according to Troy, this is the sound of a light saber] the storm trooper and he was dead. His friends came over and went in with him. They were seated and were ready to eat good. They ate and they ate, because fighting bad guys makes you hungry! They went back to the spaceship and got in. They drove back home to their planet but a storm trooper surprised them and took a light saber!

TO BE CONTINUED....

AUSTRALIA - DAY TWO [PART ONE]

Today was going to be the day we were heading to Australia. This time we had tickets through Delta and they do not travel out of San Francisco, so we had tickets to fly out of San Fran to Los Angeles early afternoon. Emma and I took our time getting up. We had to be out of the room by 11 a.m., but did not have to be to the airport until 1 p.m. I asked the front desk how much it would be to take a cab into the city and have a tour before heading to the airport. She made a call and came back with a flat rate. I couldn't believe how reasonable it was, so I told her to BOOK IT! 

Emma and I had a quick breakfast and the driver was waiting for us. He put our luggage in and away we went! Talk about making lemonade out of lemons...best decision I made. This cab driver was great! The San Francisco Giants had just made it into the World Series, which was to be played there that night! He started by taking us by the stadium. It was crazy around there with the media. He then took us by the Bay Bridge. We saw some cable cars and he then took us to Pier 39 where all of the Sea Lions are! He dropped us off and Emma and I went running! So much to do around there and we could hear the Sea Lions calling! It was great! You could also see Alcatraz from this point! We got our pictures and we were off back to the cab. 

He then took us by the Fisherman's Wharf. I remembered being there as a child, but could not recall much else. Then, he took us towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I was busy taking pictures from the car and had no idea he was taking us to some of the best look out points! We got right in with the buses and we got our shots. We got back into the cab and away we went! What else was there to look at? By this time, I couldn't believe our luck by getting this exclusive tour. He then started taking us up some pretty steep streets. Before we knew it, we were at the top of the windiest road in America! He took us all the way down and then pulled over at the bottom so we could get some photos. 

Lastly, he took us through Little Italy, Chinatown, and every other "good" area you could imagine. All of the restaurants were making my mouth water. By this time, we had seen basically all of San Francisco and ready to go to the airport. When he dropped us off, we had been on tour for 2 hours! This was perfect, especially with a little person who doesn't like to spend a long time looking at bridges and windy roads, etc. This made our little pit stop all worth it. 

 We checked in at the airport and headed to L.A.  

AUSTRALIA - DAY ONE

Emma and I were lucky to leave Minnesota when we did. The weather was horrible and the cold flurries were coming in. Luckily we were heading west to San Francisco, so the weather would not effect us. We found out from the captain on the flight that other planes were grounded and were not allowed into Minneapolis/St. Paul due to the bad weather. 

On our trip, Emma decided to take a friend on board with us - George. George was on an adventure from Emma's school. The kids take turns with George, each one taking him for a weekend of adventures and documenting them with pictures to show the class. George has had more of an adventure than we ever thought possible.

We made it to San Francisco in good time. The down side - the waiting. Flights to Australia do not leave until late at night, so we had a good 6 hours to kill in the domestic terminal. We found out early on that flying business class on stand by was out of the question. Children apparently need to be 8 years or older. This made our chances of getting on stand by decrease considerably. With hardly any place to go and no Starbucks to be found, we found many interesting things to do to occupy our time and keep us awake.

As the time neared to board the plane, there were a ton of people. As the staff started to set up for the flight, I was treated very rudely when I asked about the status of stand by passengers. Odds of getting on...plummeting. Closer to take off time, we were told there were 40 passengers waiting to get on stand by and not everyone would get on....plummeting lower. The rudeness continued. After everyone was boarded, they called two elderly couples to get on and stand by was complete. We did not get on the flight...plummeting complete.  

Luckily, my fantastic husband was at home with his trigger finger just waiting to click accept on two tickets to Sydney for the next day. There was light at the end of the tunnel. Now, we just had to go back and get our back from the baggage claim and find a hotel. By this time, it was 11 p.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Central Time.

We finally got our bag off of the baggage claim and Matt had reserved a hotel for us. Now, a cab ride over proved to be interesting when the driver had no clue where to go. However, we made it.

 By the time we got in the room and got Emma into bed, it was 12:30 a.m. Pacific Time, 2:30 a.m. Central Time. My gorgeous girl did great and that really helped me keep my sanity. Cost effectiveness was out the window by this point, but I knew we were definitely getting on a flight to Sydney, so that eased my mind.  

AUSTRALIA - THE PLAN

Our plan was to visit Australia back in August. Matt's sister was getting married during the time we would have been in Oz, so we decided to push it back to October. This time we had been offered certificates to fly over through a friend. Troy had a week off for fall break. The whole thing was going to be cost effective and the timing was great!

Emma and I were going to leave on October 12th with the boys leaving on October 13th. This would make our chances of flying standby better. The weekend before, however, we found out that flights were oversold and the planes overpacked. We were not going to be able to go during this time. God had other plans...

My trial, originally scheduled for October 25th, was pushed. This allowed Emma and I to head over by ourselves. We could not take Troy out for another two weeks on top of his other week off. Well, we could have, but did not want him missing that much school. Flights were opening up around this time as well, therefore it was still cost effective. Or so we thought...

The End to Soccer

Troy has had an interesting go of soccer. He did not fair too well in the beginning, but as the weeks have gone by, he has gotten better with each practice or game. The bad episodes have gotten smaller and now he has been able to stay in most of each game.

What he does not realize is that he is really good! He is a great runner and can really kick the ball. My favorite line is from last week when Troy was on defense. The other team was trying to score a goal and Troy kicked the ball out of bounds. We were so excited for him and cheering. He said, "Did I save the town?" I told him, "No, buddy, you saved the city!" He was so excited.

 His old teachers, Miss Heather and Miss Stephanie, came to watch him this week. He loved having them there cheering him on. Saturday is his last game and I am kind of happy it will be over since he is in Gymnastics and Swimming as well. I compare the number of activities to Troy's comment to me this afternoon, "Mom, my brain is out of juice."

Corporate Cakes

I have a lot to add to the blog for last month, but I wanted to get this on here now.

My work had a dessert pot luck contest this past week. I decided I was going to bring in a cake, but it couldn't be just any old cake. It had to be pretty spectacular since there were prizes involved!

The firm I work for has the tiger as their mascot. Yes, I even have one on my business cards. I thought by doing a tiger themed cake with the firm logo, I would get me some extra points. So, I started to design the cake. Matt had some good ideas to incorporate the tiger stripes with the firm logo.

The cake itself is two 10-inch round chocolate fudge cakes. The inside is a peanut butter mousse...which is to die for! Well, the results turned out great.

The good news is that I won first prize! A $75 gift card to William-Sonoma. The cakes were judged on appearance, taste and creativity. I have also had some inquiries about possible side jobs from people at work. Either way, I enjoy doing it.   

RECIPE: BLUE CHEESE BEEF TENDERLOIN

I found a great recipe for Beef Tenderloin. This was submitted on allrecipes.com, one of my favorite new sites. I tried to post it on my new facebook page - "Constantly Cakes," but it was too long. Therefore, it is here for all of you to enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 (3 pound) whole beef tenderloin
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup red wine, and
2 gloves garlic, chopped

Place the beef in a shallow dish. Combine teriyaki sauce, red wine (I used cooking red wine) and garlic (I used the mince garlic you can get in the grocery store); pour this over beef. Allow the beef to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minute.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C)

Place beef on a broiler pan and cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and cook for 30 minutes more, or to desired doneness. (This comes out medium. For medium rare, try for 20-25 minutes). Let the beef set for 10 minutes before slicing.

Blue Cheese Sauce

4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour creap
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
In a saucepan over low heat, combine blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until smooth; serve over sliced tenderloin.

The flavor from this is fantastic. Enjoy!

CAMPING

Camping is one of my least favorite activities. So, when Matt bought a tent, I was not too thrilled. We have not had a chance to really go camping this summer, so in order to get some use out of the tent, and I guess a little adventure, Matt decided to put it up in our back yard.

The first weekend in August, Matt and both kids decided to camp out in the back yard. I am not sure who got more sleep, but I was so worried with all of the wild life in our backyard. The kids did not seem worried at all, nor Matt. However, at 4:30 a.m., I received a knock on my bedroom door. It was Troy, who proceeded to crawl in bed with me. That was about it for camping this summer.

Friends have a spot they go to off the lake, which is very nice. We might try that next year. MIGHT is the key word.

Troy's "PUMP-IT-UP" Birthday Party

We celebrated Troy's 5th birthday with his friends from school at "PUMP IT UP!" It is a place filled with huge bounce houses and slides. The kids had a great time and the adults seemed to have a good time as well! The kids had 40 minutes in one room. Then 40 minutes in another room. Who knew there were so many bounce houses out there?? The last 40 minutes was for the party room, where Troy had his own blown up thrown, crown and sceptor to open his presents.

Troy has been asking for a castle cake with Toothless, the dragon

from the movie, "How to Train a Dragon." Who am I to say no to a challenge? We were able to use some of the same pillars from Emma's cake and change them around a bit, which saved A LOT of time. We came out with the result below. The cake was a huge hit! Matt was a big help, especially with the dragon.

Grandma and Grandpa Mehlbrech (Bob & Val) came up especially for the party, along with Matt's sister, Becky. It was great having them here for it, and I know it meant a lot to Troy. Thanks, guys!

That is it for us for birthday's this year.  I am always up for the opportunity to take on an order or two, but no takers yet. Matt would have a fit! I love doing it, though.

Mehlbrech Family Pictures

We just had family pictures taken with Jen Taylor, a fantastic photographer, out of the Twin Cities.
We had our pictures taken last fall with her and some of those you would have seen on our Christmas cards.
Anyway, we had summer photos taken this time. I can not wait for the rest!

Check out our initial set of pictures on:
http://jentaylorphotography.com/blog/troy-and-emma-minneapolis-family-photographer/

They are fantastic!!

Troy - 5 Years Old

Troy is 5 years old! It is so hard to believe that he will be heading off to Kindergarten soon, but he is ready. He can hardly wait and asks every day if it is time for his new school. I can wait a little longer...it seems like yesterday he was taking his first step.

Height: Approx. 46 inches tall

Weight: Approx 50 pounds!

Hair Color: Strawberry blond
Eye Color: Blue
Favorite Foods: Chicken Nuggets, Strawberries and Grandma's Sweet Corn

Favorite Colors: Blue

Favorite Activities: Playing with Legos

Favorite Animal: Elephant

Favorite Movie: Hero of the Rails and Dinosaur Train

Favorite Characters: Lightning McQueen and Toby the Train

Favorite Items: Alien Dog
Language: Troy speaks a bit of spanish with me, but we are working on it.

EMMA - 3 Years Old

I can not believe I am even typing 3 years old. Time sure does go fast. Emma just celebrated her third birthday and I thought I would tell you some of her favorites and facts.

Height: Approx. 37 1/2 inches

Weight: Approx. 33 1/2 pounds

Hair: Curly/Wavy Ash blond hair

Eyes: Blue

Favorite Colors: Pink and Purple

Favorite Foods: Chicken nuggets and broccoli

Favorite Activity: Coloring with markers

Favorite Characters: Dora and Sleeping Beauty

Favorite Movie: Princess and the Frog

Favorite Items: Blanky and Pillow

Favorite Animal: Tiger (so she says)

Language: Emma's annunciation for different languages is very good. She was counting to ten in Swahili in school and does really well with Spanish at home.

Emma 's Princess Birthday Party

We celebrated Emma's 3rd birthday at The Wisconsin Dells this past weekend. Emma had requested a Princess Dora Castle Cake. After seeing many castle cakes on various cake sites, I thought I was able to rise up to the challenge. I now know what is involved in getting a monsterous cake like that together. Let me just say it takes many layers and many days to get it to what it became. Starting with the cobblestone pathway on the bottom to the Princess Dora figurine, it was all a worthwhile process for a three-year-old princess.

Aside from the cake, we stayed at the Copa Cabana Resort again. The same place we had Troy's third birthday party. It worked so well then, we thought we would try it again. Friends and family came in from various places and it was a nice day outside for some water slides and fun. Thank you to everyone who made the trip up. You really made Emma's day extra special.

The weekend would not be complete if we had not gone to Mr. Pancake's House. This has become the ritual, I guess. One that I am definitely not complaining about.

A Night With Star Wars

For our anniversary, I bought two tickets to "STAR WARS in Concert". I had heard so many good reviews and couldn't pass up hearing John Williams masterpiece in a live setting. Another great part about the concert was the museum portion. Displays showed movie costumes, head pieces, Chewbacca, Darth Vadar and the mold of Han Solo from Empire Strikes Back!

Matt even ran into some trouble with the storm troopers. I can not take him anywhere.

The show was fantastic! The laser show did not last too long, but the narration by Anthony Daniels, known to us as C3PO, made it that much more real. I highly recommend going if you are able to.

WORLD DOMINATION!!

Matt thought he would teach Troy a new game over the weekend. I thought it was a little too grown-up for him, however Troy had perfect reasoning for choosing his color red. Red was good and black was evil. When asked why black was evil, he responded by saying "black is not a color in the rainbow." You can not argue with that logic.

Troy proceeded to dominate without Matt actually letting him win. That's my boy!

Happy Fourth of July!!

We were in Monroe, Wisconsin for the Fourth of July fireworks. Unfortunately, after about 10-15 minutes, the weather decided to not cooperate and proceeded to pour with rain. We have been very fortunate in previous years, so I suppose we were due. Troy took off with a chair over his head and most people just ran for it! We luckily had some umbrellas. The fireworks kept booming all the way home. This is video we took of the beginning. Please excuse any singing and/or commentary.

Matt's Surprise Birthday Party

We had planned on going to Monroe, Wisconsin for the 4th of July this year. With Matt's birthday falling on a Saturday, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get the gang in from Milwaukee for a surprise party for Matt. With much help from Nick (friend of Matt's from college) and Val (Matt's mum), we were able to pull off a great surprise!


As you can see, Matt's cake was the Favre Viking's Jersey. I thought this might be my last chance to ever do this cake, so I put my plan into action. Val did a great job making the cake, the cookies-n-cream filling (YUM!) shaping and frosting the cake. Thank you so much, Val!

TEE-BALL

Troy was finally old enough to play tee-ball this summer. An adult has to go with him though and they actually have a lot of kids involved. It appears they go in rotation, so a group does field practicing, while another does batting and another runs the bases.

Emma and I caught a little bit of the action last week. Catch Troy in action with his ground balls!

As for the fall, Troy will finally be old enough for Soccer. Matt has already signed him up and has been very eager. Troy and Emma will both head back to Gymnastics and hopefully more swim lessons. Troy has also been asking when it is going to snow again so he can go back to skiing. I told him that it better not snow any time soon, I want to enjoy my summer!

Enjoy your Fourth of July Holiday if you are in the States!

Happy Father's Day!!

We have had a nice Father's Day. The kids decorated their own cards for Matt. Troy even drew him a special picture. Matt received some grilling tools and a new hat for his big noggin.
We then went for brunch in the Mall of America. Restaurant "Crave" was really organized for the event today and the kids ate for free. We couldn't ask for me.

We went and saw Toy Store 3 last night. The movie was great and the kids loved it! I knew Buzz and Woody were going to be at the mall today, so we headed over that way to get in line after brunch. The kids were very well behaved and waited patiently. Buzz and Woody flew all the way from Disney World to see us! They were so excited. We got home and they both crashed.

Matt's dad, Bob, and our nephew, Wyatt, have dropped in to stay overnight on their way back to Wisconsin. It's a good day for Matt to spend with his dad.

Swimming Lessons

Troy and Emma started their swimming lessons this morning. They were so excited!! They both did a great job. Troy had no troubles putting his face in the water and kept wanting to swim on his own. We lucked out with a private lesson and their teacher, Miss Emma, did a great job with them. Troy even wanted to get back in for "more fun!"

Our New Fireplace

When we moved into the house, you can see by the pictures, the walls were basically white. The trim was a neutral wood color and there was carpeting in the family room you see here.

The only covering over the windows were cheap plastic blinds.
Now, you can see the walls have been painted. The trim has all been changed and painted white. There are white wooden blinds, brown drapes and silver rods. And, wooden floors have replaced all of the carpet.

The final item seemed to be the fireplace. The one we had was not functional. In fact, we found out early on that it was leaking gas. At the time, we decided to just turn off the gas and have been living with the fireplace covered up by our media stand.

The new fireplace is now in place and fully functional. Through the process, we also found out the old fire place was not up to code. That is now taken care of. Looking back how the room used to be, you can see how much it has transformed in the three years we have lived here. Matt has done a great job pulling all of this together.