3-2-1 Cake Mix and Cake

This weekend was special. It is our annual Trails for Kids fundraiser. If you have been here anytime at all… you know that usually, we have this ride in April. Also… this year has been “interesting” (to say the least!) so we had to postpone until this past weekend. All summer long we wondered if it would even happen. I mean seriously…

But the time came and it did, in fact, happen! I can’t give away any of the details on the ride just yet but know, it was a MAJOR success! That would be an understatement!

On Friday night of our fundraiser, we have a bake sale. A few years ago I had a chocolate chip cookie in a cast-iron skillet go for $130. Well, this year I had something go for more than that… but that’s another story for another time :). Yup, I’m mean.

Today I want to share a recipe I’ve shared before… BUT… the cool thing is this is perfect for camping. And since this fundraiser involves camping, what better time to share, am I right?

3-2-1 Cake Mix & Cake

Ingredients for Cake Mix Setup:

  • A box of Angel Food Cake mix
  • A box of your favorite flavor of cake (chocolate, funfetti, lemon, you name it!)
  • A ziplock bag

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1 Sugar Cookies

The third set of sugar cookies I’ve made this year. They were so easy and so much fun. 

I love the bright colors. They initially wanted a llama, but I didn’t have a llama cookie cutter and I didn’t have time to figure out how to do a llama. So since it was a first birthday, we went with the colors of the party and a 1 as well as MJ is one. 

These colors were soooo pretty in my opinion. So happy I got to do them. (more…)

Patchwork Moose – Talkeetna, Alaska

We ate breakfast at a restaurant called Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant in Anchorage the day before. Our waitress was so awesome. She asked if we were out of town or locals. When we told her we were on vacation, she asked where all we had been and where we were headed next. Then she suggested heading north to Talkeetna, Alaska. 

The next day we grabbed breakfast as we headed out of town headed north to Talkeetna. The waitress had given us a few different Alaska books to look at and mom and my husband did some research before we headed there. One of the things mom saw was a quilt store located in Talkeetna called The Patchwork Moose. Now, my grandma’s birthday is the same day as mine which also happened to be the week we were on vacation. Very few years have I missed celebrating with Grandma. So we decided to go to the quilt shop to bring grandma back some fabric from Alaska.

The Patchwork Moose

22262 Talkeetna Spur Rd
Talkeetna, Alaska

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Going on Vacation: Alaska – July 2020

Let this be known… I’m not here to debate if going on vacation was the right thing to do or not. I was stressed out in the weeks prior to leaving. Stressed beyond belief. I had a few meltdowns. I might be 2. Anyway… the point is… we went on vacation, we had a great time… And here’s what lead us to head to Alaska. We’ll call it the “backstory.”

The initial plans

Alaska wasn’t our first destination.

When my little was about a year old, we were planning a summer vacation. My mom kept mentioning that we should go to Disney World or Disneyland because the little loved Disney so much. I kept saying, let’s hold off until she’s at least 5 or 6. If we’re going to spend that amount of money, I want her to remember it.

Jump forward to last fall.

My husband and I were looking for a vacation for the 2 of us. I don’t know why I think we were just killing time one evening. That’s when he spotted that we could go on vacation to Disney fairly cheaply. Then the debate was on World vs Land. Eventually, we fell upon land because we’d never been to California. Okay, well he had for work, but does that really count?

We talked to my parents and his mom about going to see if they’d be interested. Yup. Got the older daughter on board… and plans started moving forward. (more…)

Bull or Heifer (but not mine, just so we’re clear)

It’s so interesting the things that have come about this year. 2020, you’re sure keeping us on our toes. So one of the interesting things is the debate about gender reveals. Some love them and others think it’s wrong. I’m not sure why it’s wrong. I think it’s fun. 

A friend of mine put out a Facebook request for cookies for a gender reveal. Someone mentioned me and that friend hit me up. Asked if I’d be willing to do them. Of course.

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Memorial Day Weekend – Coronavirus edition

This Memorial Day Weekend we found ourselves back at the lake. Last year we skipped out on the lake and went to KC house shopping, but this year, what is there to do? 

We bought a camper earlier this year and had big plans for it. So far, the best it has done was to house my husband’s office when schools closed.

Finally, it got to move… And guess what, it didn’t crunch the cab of the truck! Yey!

And while we had plans to SCUBA dive this weekend, we had more fun on our boat. What? Yup, we got a boat. It’s not new… in fact, I’d call it vintage or classic… do they refer to boats like that? It’s a 1976 Baja. It was my grandpas. He passed away in 2010… The boat had maintenance done to it just before that. We pulled it out of the barn a few weeks ago, hubby changed the gas and she fired up. She has a few issues. 

In fact, the drive cable broke. Simple fix and really one of the easiest things to go wrong. I wound up towing the boat back to shore on a kayak. (more…)

Mother’s Day – Coronavirus Style

If there is one thing this Coronavirus season has brought… it has brought a lot of people staying in and staying away. But… it has brought a lot of people wanting to get out into the great outdoors. Us included. Even though I’ve spent a lot of time outside.

And for some reason, we thought it would be fun to take up hiking. Yup, you read that correctly. Why not? I have been working my butt off here lately outdoors (which when hubby isn’t working his real job, it’s made him work outside too, plus our little. She’s great). So we thought it would be fun to take a break. And you know, go hiking. Something we’ve never really done… but my little has been wanting to do things like that so now is the perfect time.

Happy Mother’s Day to me :). (more…)

Breaking a Calf to Lead

We’ve been having fun around these parts. When you can’t go anywhere or do anything, might as well make the most of it the best way you can. 

When I was younger, I wanted nothing more than to show at the fair. While I showed horses so I could compete that way, that’s not really the type of horse showing I wanted to do. Plus, it wasn’t the same as if I showed livestock. I had the privilege later in my FFA years to show sheep. And through friends, I learned how to show hogs, goats, and cattle.

I really wanted to show cattle, but it wasn’t in the cards for my family and me while I was growing up. No big deal. And maybe the little won’t want to show cattle. But right now she’s a PeeWee… So we have our bottle calf and we’re going to try and show in the PeeWee show at the fair.

Part of what is required for that is breaking this stubborn calf to lead on a halter and rope. I put stubborn up against stubborn. We’ll see who wins. Wish us luck!! Oh, and hope that we don’t break any toes in the process!

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Homeschooling 101: Planting Seeds… Coronavirus Day 38

Once upon a time, we were in a science class in grade school. We planted beans and corn from seed and watch the germination process. Jump forward 20+ some odd years (I don’t know how many) and I decided to do that with the little. It was a time of the Coronavirus Pandemic when schools were closed for the rest of the year and we had to homeschool. And when I say homeschool, our school district wasn’t prepared for that. Eventually, they sent out daily work, that wouldn’t harm the kiddos grade, but would help it should they do it. But after we did that work, we did our own education as well. This time… science.

Since this spring we got into gardening, why not do the germinating thing, right? I had seeds waiting to be planted in the ground. Mainly corn and green beans as I attempted to start other plants in the greenhouse.

Corn prefers to be started directly in the ground. Beans on the other hand don’t mind being started indoors, but in my luck, they still do better directly in the ground. (more…)

The Day I Lost My Cool – Coronavirus Day 35

Oh gosh, they never tell you how hard being a parent is. Throw in a pandemic and gosh, I fail. I receive a Big. Fat. F. This is one of those tales…

First, can you look at the picture above and see what it is focusing on? Maybe… maybe not. I’ll give you a hint… look at the hair.

They tell me every little girl plays hair salon at some point in their life. Mine happened when I was in 2nd grade. The difference was I didn’t cut my own hair. My cousin cut my hair for me so I’m told. I don’t remember that.

So let’s paint the picture.

I am having Major allergies right now. Hello, my gray truck will be green from now until June. My allergies have been in overdrive. So I took a Benadryl on Thursday night to dry me up. Those usually kick my butt but help too so… (more…)