Winter Carnival

I know. It sounds odd, right?  Most folks attend carnivals in the fall.  Count us among them.  However, we also have the opportunity to hit up a carnival in the winter.  And that's because dear (second) cousins of mine  live in South Florida in a community that is half snow birds.  So what do you do when you have all these snow birds down for the winter and all their grandkids that come visit during their Winter Breaks from school?  Well, you put on a one-day carnival, of course!

My cousins Ed and Eileen live in a golf community.  And for one day out of the year, the driving range is converted into a midway.  This year the temps were in low 70s, and the weather couldn't have been better!

After riding all the mini rides (they had some enormous, vomit inducing ones too!), the dumplings decided they wanted snow cones.

After cooling off, they found some hula hoops and got to work shaking their hips.  It wasn't enough to hula hoop with just one hoop.  Nope.

Caleb eventually had five going for a brief period.  Now I know this shot makes it look like Madeline was doing it, but that's because I had a fast shutter speed.  She sure was cute trying though.  

We had such a lovely day.  Ed and Eil, you're the best!  And I sure hope that next year we'll have three dumplings at the carnival.

Well, I have been spending copious amounts of time on the computer this week trying to take a crash course in cake baking and decorating.  I was not impressed at all with the birthday cake I made for Jesus.  (I won't bore you with the details.)  However, I still wanted to make Caleb a birthday cake this year.  Can you believe this precious boy is turning 8 on Saturday???  I still can't!  Anyway, I have found the buttercream recipe that I have been longing for.  It's actually a Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  (I didn't even know there was such a thing until this week.)  Well, I had a go at making it today.  Can I just say delish?!  Light, fluffy and not too sweet.  Just perfect.  I really don't like how sweet buttercream frosting is when made with confectioner's sugar.  Nope.  It's too sweet for me.  So I love this new frosting, but before I can call Caleb's cake a success, I still need to actually make the cake and decorate it! lol.  In the next few days, I'll let you know if steps 2 and 3 are as successful as step 1.   Well, for his birthday celebration this year, we plan on taking him to see The Mouse one day, and we're also going to go roller skating with a few friends and family.  That means a lot of birthday photo fun!  He can't wait, and neither can we!