Happy 6th Birthday, Hartwell!!

My fella is 6! He asked for squinkies boys. And an iPhone.

We spent a day last week at Disneyland. Hartwell's friends joined us that afternoon so he could go on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, three times in a row!

We ate dinner at the Blue Bayou, his choice, and then went on the fast rides! Beckett is not a fan of rollercoasters, which was hard for Hartwell. While riding Big Thunder Mountain at night, Hartwell exclaimed, "Mom, look, it's so pretty!"

We went to the Mad Hatter to get hats. Hartwell wanted the goofy hat and Bee got a pirate hat. Their hat choices pretty much describe them perfectly.

He's just starting to take care of his brother and watch out for him. At dinner the other night, Beckett asked to use the rest room. Hartwell said, "I'll take him!"

After school today, Hartwell will pick where he wants to go. I have a feeling he's gonna say,"McDonald's!" But with my luck he's gonna was A Float Sushi.

Birthday. Dough. Nuts.

For Beckett's birthday breakfast, I thought we'd do something fun and special so we made birthday doughnuts! Why, Hartwell, why? He poses like this on purpose because he thinks it's a good picture. Oh, and his shirt is on backwards. And Bee is wearing an eye patch. Nuts.

Remember how lazy I am? Here's how easy birthday doughnuts are to make. Also? I was so tired I didn't realize my lens was blurry:

Ingredients:

Canola Oil 

Grands Refrigerated Biscuit Dough

Then we added:

Glaze

Powdered Sugar + Milk

Maple Glaze

Powdered Sugar + Milk + Maple Syrup

Cinnamon Sugar

Duh + You Know

I stretched and slightly flattened each biscuit and then cut a small circle into each biscuit. Or Bee did, blurrily:

Then popped them into the hot oil. (They say 375 degrees, my oil was a bit too hot.  I think maybe medium low would be best if you don't have a thermometer thingy for the oil).

 

The doughnuts are pretty easy, just set them in the oil and turn them when they start getting brown. For the holes, I plopped all of them in and just kind of stirred them until they were a uniform color. Then I scooped them onto a cooling rack set inside a jelly roll pan. You could also use paper towels, but those are like currency around here.

Super Happy Doughnut Boy!

 

Super easy and pretty good flavor for biscuit doughnuts. I made a biscuit monkey bread recently and they tasted like biscuits with cinnamon and sugar. But these were pretty close to actual doughnuts. Which goes with the theory that everything tastes better fried!

Legoland!

Beckett is a lover of all things lego. So for his 4th birthday we went to Legoland! Here he is at the Lego Volvo Driving School. Hartwell was bored and Bee was a terrible driver! I realized that Bee likes control. He is in full control of his body at all times. It does what he tells it to. But put him in a car and he freaks out and drives into a wall. (And there is NOTHING wrong with that. It happens, people!)

Here they are posing with their new drivers licenses! Right after Bee fell...

My biggest problem with Legoland are the crazy, random rules specific to each ride. Some are 4 and 36", some are 4 or at least 36". It was a pain in the butt to parse each sign down to whether or not Beckett could go on the ride. Luckily he was perfectly happy running through the sprinklers!

 Log ride!

Star Wars! Nice R2 Unit! Hartwell is really into posing like a nutcase/Barker's Beauty:

Bee meets his hero. And kisses him:

So I had to do this. I miniature effected Miniland.

While waiting for his big brother to go on a scary ride, Bee wanted me to photograph him.

Bee did NOT like the slide:

Meanwhile, Hartwell was tall enough to drive a boat by himself!

After Beckett was unceremoniously told he couldn't ride a ride, his dad bought him a knight outfit:

Which helped him vanquish his enemies:

Carabiners!

We have a birthday party to attend today in the park. The mom had the best party idea ever. She just sent an email that said something like "Come celebrate my son's birthday! We'll be at the park around 3 pm! Come for an hour or stay all day!" And it's on a weekday, so it doesn't really infringe on other plans. Plus, three o'clock is a great time to get the wiggles out.

I made these trinket bags for the birthday boy. His mom is quite a hiker and I thought these would be perfect for collecting excellent rocks and sticks and quarters. And anything with a carabiner is awesome!

I put those grommets on by myself. In case anyone heard any furious hammering this afternoon.

The tutorial is from Amazing Mae.

Ya know, for boys!

For Hartwell's 4th birthday his grandma took him to Disneyland. The next morning we ate at the Storytellers Cafe and then walked around Downtown Disney. Grandma spotted this place, Ridemakerz, which is like Build-A-Bear but with cars. It's so nice that there's something similar. The boys were so cute picking out their car and wheels and decals. And then a super cute girl helped the boys put them together.

 

 

I love that the boxes are almost bigger than they are.

Did I leave the oven on/what should I destroy now?

More bag.

Everything in my cabinets Cake

I bought two cake mixes for Bee's Party. Somehow I had convinced myself that 24 cupcakes wasn't enough. So for John's birthday, I made the extra chocolate cake. (He likes cake).
The middle is marshmallow fluff. The frosting is malted cream cheese frosting with the leftover Oreos pressed into the sides. It was a little bit like eating a spoonful of stevia. But sweeter.

Apropos

My sister suggested dust masks for the nearly smoked out (not that kind) party.

Bee's Birthday!

Thanks to my cottage industrialist for the google talk. She helped me figure out the bad asp mailing label. Seriously, Cameron, you should rent yourself out on google talk. $20/hour for inspiration and links. But not for me. I'd have to get a second job to support my habit.