Mama's Cake Pop Shop

I love school projects.  Especially ones where Mama has to do a lot of the work. Which is pretty much how all of them are.  Last night's great project was making cake pops for my daughter's Market Day, which was today.  I made the cake, crumbled it up, added frosting, and then rolled the mixture up into cute little golf-ball sized concoctions.  Then I put them in the refrigerator for four hours.  They were ready to go when I came back from my son's Krav class.

"Come on, girlfriend," I called to my daughter. "It's time to finish these cake pops."

She wandered down the stairs.  "What do I do?"

"How about read the directions and figure out how to melt the chocolate."

"Okay," she said, and went to work.  Two minutes later, she looked at the melted chocolate that she had pulled out of the microwave.  "Mom.  What's wrong with this?"

I looked at it. It was a sticky mess.  "I'd guess it was nuked a little long."

"Mom, I can't do this!" She complained. "Can you do it?"

I agreed to do one batch and show her how it was done, but she had to do the rest.  Which she did.

Then she had this brilliant idea to make them look like the French flag.  This wasn't easy, because almost half of the cake pops fell off the stick as they were dipped into the chocolate. She had to dip those things three times - in blue, white, and red chocolate.  To her credit, she did this herself.

Then it was time to package them.  "Mom," my daughter said, after trying to do it herself.  "I'm going to break these things.  Can you do it?"

So at 10:30 at night, I was painstakingly packaging cake pops.  When I was done, I asked my daughter how she planned to transport them to school.

"I don't know," she said.  "Do you have anything?"

I looked around and spied the cat litter box.  Fortunately, it wasn't in use.  So I cleaned it up and used it as a cake pop transporter.  My daughter was not exactly thrilled about transporting her cake pop project in a kitty liter box.  But hey, this is how I roll at Mama's Cake Pop Shop. Only the best!

Don't Wake the Cat!

Schultz is on a roll.  If you're new here, Schultz is our hundred pound German Shepherd.  And this week, he's been bad to the bone!  Today's episode involves the cat.

Bootsy (the cat) was lying on the back deck, sound asleep.  What did Schultz do?  He went up to the cat, very quietly, and stood over him.  The cat was somehow unaware that Schultz was there.  Schultz stared at him for at least three minutes.  Then he decided the cat should get up.  So he barked.  Loudly.

Let's just say, the cat was not pleased.  He did exactly what I would have done if I were him.  He gave Schultz a good swipe on the nose with his claws.  So now the dumb dog has a huge scratch on his snout.

I hope Schultz has learned his lesson about not waking the cat!  (Now if I can only get him to stop sniffing the cat's butt when he's eating!)  

Fan Dog

You may recall that I took my son to a baseball game a few days ago.  While we were there, we got one of those foam hands with the finger pointing up that says, "Number One Fan."  My son loved this thing.  Apparently, our hundred pound German Shepherd, Schultz, loved it, too.  Because yesterday we found it on the ground, looking a little chewed up.

 

"Schultz!" my son yelled.  "Bad dog!"

Schultz gave Bubba a melancholy look and slinked off to the corner where he plopped down on the ground for a self-imposed time out.

I guess he just couldn't resist the smell of barbecue chicken wings and cotton candy!  (See previous post regarding Mister Sticky Fingers for that story.)  

Winners Announced, a Cover Reveal, and A-Z Reflections

Lots going on at my pad, today.  First, the winners of my book giveaway:  Mason Canyon and Robin from Your Daily Dose.  Congratulations!  I hope you enjoy the books!


Other news:  My new blog friend, Stephanie Faris, has a cover reveal:  25 Roses.  Isn't it lovely?  Congratulations, Stephanie!




Here's a little blurb about the book:

Valentine's Day means one thing at Stanton Middle School: students will send each other chocolate roses. Each year, Mia Hartley watches while the same group of students gets roses and everyone else is left out. This year, she decides things will be different. As the student assigned to write names on the cards, Mia purchases 25 roses and writes her own cards, designating them to 25 people she's personally chosen. But she soon learns that playing matchmaker is much more complicated than she thought it would be.

Now for my A-Z Reflections Post:

This was my third year of doing the challenge.  Really?  You say.  Yes, really.  I did it on my other blog, Gone Gardening, for the past two years.  This was the first time doing it on Mama Diaries, and I honestly didn't know how it would go, with my life being so random.  But it worked.  The key for me was to have planned posts for every letter in the alphabet, and then allow for some spontaneity if something happened to line up with the letter of the day.  I think I achieved a decent balance of past stories and current stories, which made it kind of fun.

I also spent a lot of time blog hopping.  I was a minion this year, which meant I had "pet blogs" to keep an eye on, to make sure they were legitimate and participating in the challenge.  I visited probably over 100 new bloggers, which was a lot more than last year.  It was fun to see their posts and make new  friends.  I only wish a lot of the bloggers I had visited, had reciprocated and joined my site, or visited me. (Thanks to all my new friends who did!)  I did get new followers (especially on Google), which I am very happy about.

Will I do it next year?  Probably.  I'm not sure if it will be on this blog, or the other. Either way, it's definitely worth doing.  As crazy as it is, it's a great way to meet new bloggers and develop a sense of community here in the blogosphere.   
   

A Giveaway and Mr. Sticky Fingers

It's the hundredth anniversary of Mother's Day here in the United States. At the pad of the Mama Diaries, that's a big deal!  To celebrate the occasion, I'm giving away autographed copies of my books to two lucky winners.  I'll send them anywhere in the world. The winner will be chosen on Tuesday.  If you'd like to have a chance to win, please leave a comment below.

Also, for anyone who missed my previous post, I won the ePublishing Experts contest to have That Mama is a Grouch made into an animated ebook.  Thank you to everyone who shared my article on Why Children's Books are Important!  I couldn't have done it without you!

Now for the story:

I took my nine-year-old son to the baseball game this past weekend.  And of course, we had to get food.  The kid's food of choice?  Chicken wings and cotton candy.  Now, my kid is not exactly the neatest kid on the block.  By the time he was done, his face and hands were covered with a sticky residue of barbecue sauce and cotton candy sugar.  He was a mess!  I gave him a bunch of napkins and told him to clean himself.  But when you're that dirty, nothing helps!

Not long after his meal, it was "High Five" time at the field.  This is a little break in the action, where everybody high fives each other, and the cameras pan the audience to catch all the high five fun.

"Mama, high five!" Bubba said, holding up one of his disgustingly sticky hands.

"Dude, there is no way I'm high fiving you!"

He put his hands together and high fived himself.  Except he had trouble getting his hands unstuck. It took quite an effort, and I could see his skin actually being pulled from the palms of his hands as he tried to get them apart.

"That's ridiculous, Bubba!" I said.

Then he got an evil look in eyes.  Do you know what he did?  He put those disgustingly sticky hands on my hair!

"Bubba!" I yelled, bolting out of my chair.  "What do you think you're doing?"

"Giving you a high five.  On your head!"

Argh!

No Comprende

First, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who shared my article on Why Children's Books are Important.   I won the contest to have my book, That Mama is a Grouch turned into an animated ebook!  I couldn't have done it without you. You guys rock!

Now for the story:

My daughter came home from school yesterday with a big grin on her face.  "Mom, you'll never believe what happened."

"What happened?" I asked.

"You know French class?"

I nodded.  "Yes.  I know French class.  What about it?"

"Well, the teacher was blah blah blahing in French, which nobody understood, when somebody butt-dialed their iPod. The Suri app came on. (Suri is the app where you ask her a question, and she responds.)  While Madam was talking, Suri interupted, 'I'm sorry.  I don't understand.  Please try again.'"

(She went on to tell me that the entire class erupted in laughter, and that the Madam took away the iPod.  So much for understanding French!)

Friendly Car

We have a lot of pollen in the state of Georgia where I live.  It coats everything with a fine yellow powder - including our cars.

This morning, my car was coated with such a dusting, along with a fresh topping of dew.  My nine-year old son took one look at this and decided it would make perfect writing material.  He took his index finger and began writing all over my car:  "Hi y'all!", "Have a nice day, y'all!"  And of course there were plenty of smiley faces to go along with the friendly greetings.

So, ladies and gentlemen, if you happen to be driving around in Georgia, and you notice a particularly friendly-looking car, it's mine.  Just wave and have a nice day - y'all.