Do Not Eat Raw Cupcake Batter

What has the world come to when someone feels the need to put a disclaimer on the box of cupcake mix?  And have they ever made cupcake batter and not eaten any of it?  I am not sure I could be friends with them because how much fun is it to eat the batter any way?  I am not usually a box mix kind of girl but sometimes things catch my eye when strategically placed in the aisles at the local grocery store.  Cupcakes with creamy filling from a box sounds delicious and easy. 

And they were.  Mix the batter, and please don't eat any, fill the bottoms of the papers, squirt in some of the filling stuff that comes in a pouch, top off with the remaining batter, and bake. 

There are two to choose from, vanilla with chocolate filling and chocolate with creamy white filling. 

I made both so we could try them out.  I took them to work because we cannot have 24 cupcakes laying around the house!  They were gone before lunch and that is a sign of a good thing.  I don't feel like I have had a food success if there are leftovers to take home.   

A New Home for some fish

I set up the aquarium with the stuff we bought at That Fish Place and the plant from the pond.  I put the snails in too but took them out the next day after they destroyed the plants. 

On our last trip to WalMart, I found the Easter Island head.  It was a de ja vou moment because the night before I was watching Ancient Aliens and they were at Easter Island.  I was thinking I want one of those heads for the fish tank.  And the next day, a voile'!   I think I like the looks of the stone better in the tank but I like the head too.  Maybe next time I change the water, I will find a place for them both.  And maybe a longer bubble wand.  I feel like that fish in Finding Nemo, "Bubbles!!"

I am letting the tank settle and cycle to get the good bacteria built up.  I think we will take him to get some fish for his birthday in November. 

And if you have never watched Ancient Aliens and don't have any other particular beliefs, you should totally watch it.  It makes the whole idea of them very compelling! 

Construction Rodeo

 I had off work Friday to go to the Green Dragon.  Guess what?  It was raining and I was into not taking a tired cranky kid to the Green Dragon in the rain. So after lunch with Eileen who was our neighbor in Millersville, we took a road trip to our friends Christmas in September sale up in Perry County and picked up a few things. If you live around here you know saying Perry County is enough said about where in Perry County one actually went.  I never wanted a DVD player for the car but it has proven to be a mood changer when little man does not want to do something that involves the car.  The ride up went well and the ride back did not involve a nap so the evening was iffy. Saturday we went to see my grandma and Sunday we were planning to go to the beach for a pizza and to show Baylor the ocean.  I have a photo of the water touching his feet at the beach when he was 18 months in the bathroom and he often asks where was he and what was he doing.  Now he would remember going.  But the weather forecast for the beach was 60% chance of rain.  That was not good enough odds to spend 6 hours in the car there and back.  I had a back up plan for Sunday though. 

I had Baylor play outside all morning, digging with his diggers and loading rocks in his dump trucks.  We did bubbles and rode his bike around. He chased ducks to the creek that was not too recently flowing in my parents basement.  Thank you TS Lee for that.  By 12:40 he was worn out enough to not fight getting in the car again.  He almost feel asleep just 2 minutes from the Construction Rodeo in Mt Joy.  I saw a billboard on  my way back from that Fish Place and looked it up.  It is a benefit for Make A Wish event.  When I spied the crane, I pointed it out to Baylor and he perked right up asking if we were going there.  He was just jumping out of his skin to see the diggers, crane and skid steer loaders.  We arrived just in time for the dancing digger.  We had pulled ahead of my parents to get a good set to see it so I was juggling the video camera and the still camera and the cell phone to get a picture to send to Lori.  It was not an easy juggling event for me.  The dancing digger swayed and went up and down.  It was not something any one should try at home but was pretty amazing to see. 

Every night for the last few weeks out bedtime reading selection in Construction ABC's.  The first letter is A and it is for aerial lift.  Baylor almost always asks what it does and we found out at the rodeo.  It was disheartening to me when I climbed on behind another mother and child and the operator mumbled to his coworker, "weight?".  I know I am a big girl but was I really pushing the weight limit of the lift.  It really hit me. But as usual I like to feed my feelings so I had a little ice cream from the Turkey Hill stand later.  Baylor loved the lift!  Thank you for manning the camera Grandma. 

There was lots of stands for kids to participate in playing or building.  Baylor spied the sand pile with the diggers and could not keep his eyes off of them. He waited by this one until the kid was done and almost lost his turn when a bigger kid tried to cut in front of him.  He loves these diggers!  There were blocks hidden in the sand for the kids to find.  They had numbers on them and could pick a prize from the same numbered basket.  It was rigged because they would hid a block right in front of each kid so everyone was a winner.  Baylor cared less about the blocks.  He just wanted to dig. 

And then he wanted to ride the pedal tractor.  He needed help but kept his feet on the pedals the entire time. 

The machine operators were actually competing while we were all watching.  This backhoe was set up to pick up basketballs off the orange cones and then dump them in the basketball hoop.  One operator picked up all three balls at once and got all three in the hoop one rolling in after another.  Amazing. 

The one was picking up buckets and stacking them up one inside another.  It was a huge digger with a huge bucket!  Then he had to take the stack and drop them in a barrel. 

There were only two crane operators competing and from what I could tell they had to move the arm through the arc without swinging the ball wildly about and then dunking it in one barrel and swing around to dunk it in the other barrel. 

This one was picking up the pipe with rope that was run through it and having to set it down on the two boards in the right. 

Here is the one picking up basketballs.  One other digger was doing something with golf balls but we kept missing it in action. 

Then there was the skid steer barrel racing, just like in a rodeo. Because of all the rain the ground was so torn up it was amazing they could manage it.

This operator had to first pick up the buckets off the posts and then put them back on the posts. 

Baylor loved it!!  He could have sat here and watched for hours.  He was not interested in getting in one.  They had some sitting around for the kids to get in but he turned it down every time. 

On our way out they had the dump truck obstacle course going one.  This dude backed up too far and knocked down the 2 x 4. He does have a trailer on the back so I thought he did pretty good weaving in and out of the course, backwards! 

Life Lion was there also but Baylor did not want to see it any closer than this. 

Maybe next year he will.  I am totally putting this on the calendar for next year. And telling all my friends with boys.  It was another little boy Heaven.

Country Fair at the nursing home

One of the reasons we did not have Meme's birthday celebration on her birthday was because we had already made plans with my parents for that weekend. With our work schedules, Lori's plans are during the week and I have the weekends. I had off work Friday to go to the Green Dragon. Guess what? It was raining and I was not taking a tired cranky kid in the rain to the Green Dragon. So we took a road trip to our friends Christmas in September sale and picked up a few things. I never wanted a DVD player for the car but it has proven to be a mood changer when he does not want to do something that involves the car. Saturday we went to see my grandma at the nursing home.  She has been there since soon after Baylor was born.  My grandpa died 9 days after Baylor was born and Grandma was in the mid stages of Alzheimer's and could not stay by herself.  She has gotten a lot worse since leaving the farm but is in a good place.  I don't see her often and have a lot of guilt over that.  The last time we went Baylor was just learning to walk.  It was fun walking him past the people in the hallway because every time we walked by was new for them. One lady would say, "Oh look, a baby," every time. 

Saturday was their first Fall Fair for the residents and their families.  It was held in the back parking lot and thankfully the rain held off for the day.  One end of the lot had some animals, one calf, two goats, a rabbit on one corner and ducks, pheasants and Guinea hens at the other corner.

In the middle was a photo scene where you put your head on the top and a face painter.  It was cute seeing the women with flowers on their face.  One tent had a band area.  The lady at the mic was a resident and she sang along to "Home on the Range". The band sang a lot of the older songs the residents would know.

Baylor packed his diggers because he was sure there would be dirt for him to dig in.  And he was right. 

One employee was the clown which was good because he knew all the residents. 

My farmer and Grandma.

This resident in the yellow was a sweet soul that went with Baylor to see the baby bunny. 

Dad was helping Grandma to eat her lunch which was spaghetti and meatballs, carrots and bean and bread.  Why they would choose long spaghetti strands and not cut them up is beyond me because it was like a toddler eating it. Just as messy.  But we helped her out.  She was in a good spirit and did not seem to confused about who we were and why we were there. 

Then we went downstairs where they had food for the guests.  We had hot dogs, sandwiches, chicken corn soup, and ice cream.  Lordy, they gave about two cups of ice cream per dish and I had to politely tell her several times that one scoop was good for Baylor's dish and my dish.  Dad brought Grandma downstairs to join us before going outside.  Michael the clown came in and out and brought Grandma a balloon.  She held on to that balloon the entire time. 

Dad took her outside to see the animals, thinking she may like that.  She seems somewhat interested but she was more worried about being chilled to the bone being outside. 

Dad took her inside after we took this photo of my son the lady on the trapeze and Dad the body builder. 

While we waited for him to come back we went to see the balloon man.  He had just shown up at that time and had only made a few things for some residents.  We picked a caterpillar for Baylor to carry rather than something to wear.

We headed out and past the photo scene so I got Dad and him together.

Me and him together.

Buddy, Grandma, caterpillar and him together.

Then we headed to the farm.  The still have the sign up with my Grandparent's name on it.  I think I will write them and ask if they ever take it down to let me know. 

I was sad seeing it still there though.

They have made so many changes to the farm it is amazing.  I would love to see inside but will not bother them with my trip down memory lane.  The original farmhouse is the stone house, everything else has been added.

We stopped by Aunt Betty and Uncle Dick's to visit.  I noticed I totally blocked Uncle Dick's head with the newel post after I downloaded the photos.  We had a nice visit, well Grandma and Buddy did.  I sat on the stair with Baylor while he rearranged the rocks in the garden. 

Happy Birthday Meme

Today was Meme's birthday but we celebrated on Thursday when we were all home.  Lori picked up cupcakes when they were out shopping.  We dug out the candles and gave our best rendition of Happy Birthday.

And then the both worked on blowing out the candles!  Baylor is going to be a pro by his birthday in a few weeks because of all the birthdays we have had in the last few weeks. 

Happy Birthday Meme!!!