Sledding and Party Planning!!

Here we are again and I'll, once again, say I can't believe my little girl is turning 3!!! The girls and I were planning on heading to Indiana last Thursday to make sure I had enough time to get everything ready for her big birthday party on Saturday. I got a call from mom on Tuesday evening with news that they were expecting up to 6 inches of snow on Thursday!! I knew if I waited to leave on Friday, I would never have enough time to get half of the preparations done. So, I threw everything together and we headed out on Wednesday. It was a good thing too because they got PLENTY of snow just as expected!!!






We couldn't have been more excited because we LOVE the snow and Nana, Grandma, Aunt Laura, and Jack all had the day off as well! Grace had never been sledding and I couldn't wait to get her out in the mix!! As you've read in my earlier posts, she LOVES a good thrill ride (this is making me extremely nervous for her teenage years!) and I knew she would eat up every minute of it. We started at Grandma's where she has a great hill in her front yard. We brought a sled but quickly learned that Jack had the better idea in using his snow tube!!! That sucker could flat fly!! And, not surprisingly, Grace LOVED IT!!! I didn't get many pictures of her sledding because I was focused on getting videos. You'll see some of those after I have a chance to compile them all together. After we mastered the hill at Grandma's it was time for the big cahooney!! For you locals, we went to the hill between the Baptist and Catholic churches over by the pool. Ummmm can I say BEST HILL EVER!!! It didn't look too steep UNTIL we got up to the last 15 feet or so! After flying down the hill a few times, I could've definitely used a ski lift to take us back to the top! Poor Grace was a frozen popsicle so we called it quits and headed in for some hot chocolate. BUT don't worry because there was more snow fun to be had! After Grace's nap, Nana showed us how to make snow ice cream! FUN!! And delicious if I do say so myself!!

On Friday, Grandma watched the girls while I tried to get ahead of the game with the party food. I decided to make Grace's cake myself this year. Not exactly sure what kind of ridiculous nonsense I was thinking at the time but I went with it. I planned on making mom's strawberry cake since it's pink and Grace requested a princess party. We decided to layer the strawberry cake with a white cake mix to make it stand taller and, you know, look more professional! HAHA! Once I started icing the cake, I noticed something that would make anyone from The Cake Boss break out into a full body sweat!! The cake started to separate on the top!! NOOOOOOO!!! And I'm not talking about a small crack here and there. I'm talking about crevices that resembled something from Death Valley!! We tried patching it with must've been a gallon of icing. And mom even broke out wooden skewers to try and hold the sucker together!! All we could do at that point was say a little prayer that it would hold until the party!

I can't close this post until I give a BIG shout out to Papa!! Every time he turned around either mom or I was sending him to the store for something we forgot. He must've made at least a half a dozen trips to get MORE stuff for us. THANK YOU, PAPA!! I REALLY appreciate your patience!!! :)