This is part 2 in my recap series of emails! And then after that, I’ll send out a shorter email about once a week. Hope your week is going ok!

PROJECTS

PROJECT #1

As I mentioned in the last one, Alexander’s birthday is coming up soon. And as many of you know, I like to create a special birthday cake every year on the kids’ birthdays. Alexander’s requested cake is as follows:

• Tall tiered cake that looks like a giant can of soda (I may invent a new brand for this design rather than trying to copy an existing one). His drawing showed 3 layers.

• Ice cream and cake layers inside (he always requests ice cream cake, and it’s always sooo hard for me!!). I’m guessing 2 layers of cake and one layer of ice cream. Working with ice cream is just really tricky, and I only get to practice once a year😅

• Coke-flavored cake OR Coke-flavored ice cream … IS THAT A THING?? I need to research this. If it’s not an existing thing, we may have regular vanilla cake and then Coke floats on the side.

• On the top will be a small figure (usually I make these out of fondant, but I’ll double check with him) trying desperately to open the giant can of soda.

PROJECT #2

Charlie’s room was meant to be Bea’s nursery. But most of his toys were in there, so he wanted to sleep in there. We’ve switched, and now the nursery is Charlie’s room. The wallpaper is more “nursery” and not very “dinosaur,” so I’m thinking I will remove the wallpaper (I’m going to try to repurpose some of it!) and paint the big wall.

Maybe a mural? I’ve done small designs on the walls in the past (like a flower that’s about 3 feet in diameter), but to paint a whole wall needs a little more thought. And I don’t necessarily want it to be cartoon-y, and I also don’t trust myself to make it realistic. So where does that leave me? If you have any ideas (or experience), send that my way! I’ll start planning it this week and get to work on it shortly after!

ROAD TRIPPING

In a future email, I’ll talk all about how I actually plan out our trips. It will be a stand-alone email I think so that you can save it if you want.

This past trip, I realized that whenever we are in the car for a while, Cam and I constantly quote the movie Dumb & Dumber. It was one of the first things we bonded over, way back in 2008 when we started dating. Maybe it’s because Harry and Lloyd are on a sort of road trip for a big chunk of the movie. When we were driving to Colorado especially (they were going to Aspen), I remember seeing the mountains in the distance and thought to myself “I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this.” 

Also… unrelated but always make me laugh:

• Harry... I took care of it.

• Don’t you go dying on me!

• You are one pathetic loser! No offense.

• It’s a cardigan, but thanks for noticing!

Anyway, in case I didn’t mention it before, we are planning another trip in the fall, to the beach. Charlie’s never seen the ocean! We’ve been a few times to the beach with A and AB, and I swear, Alexander gets stung by a jellyfish every time. It’s ONLY HIM. I don’t get it. We’ve done Gulf Shores both times, so I imagine we’ll go back, but I’ve heard Galveston is nice too. The Florida beaches are lovely, just so far away from us. We’ll see!

HABITS

Here are some of my habits, and I think a couple can be useful for you!

1. Lattes - I make 2 lattes most days. We have the Breville Barista Express. It’s pricy!! If you have not heard of camelcamelcamel.com, it’s a place to check out the price history of items specifically on Amazon. The Barista Express is anywhere from 500 to 750 bucks, I believe, depending on when you try to buy it. Lately, I’ve been enjoying a caramel almond iced latte!

2. Solitaire Grand Harvest - I got this app to earn points for another app (face palm), but now I love it. I’m currently on level 1,486 😄 

3. Frownies - These are face strips that help reduce the appearance of wrinkles. I use them on my forehead and 11 lines. Personally, I’ve noticed a difference, especially in my 11 lines! A few things you should know: they have a slight unpleasant odor (it goes away after a couple minutes); it’s tricky to remove them (I do it under warm running water!); and I’ve heard that scar tape would work just as well and for less money.

4. We got a Skylight Calendar at Christmas, and that’s a daily thing for us. Alexander loves it. I add to it through the app, little things I need to remind the kids. If there’s something I need Cam to do at some point, I’ll put it on the “Honey Do” task list. There’s a grocery list section where anyone can add items we run out of (and the list syncs up to the app so I can see it when I’m out).

5. Back in November I stopped drinking. I was never a heavy drinker, but I did think about it a lot. I decided it wasn’t serving me in any positive way, so I haven’t had anything since. What I’m enjoying right now are two things: 100% fruit juice plus sparkling water (we got a Soda Stream!). I do about 1/3 juice and 2/3 water. Another new thing I tried in Colorado are these non-alcoholic canned drinks, like a prickly pear paloma - delish!

MORE FOOD

I thought of a couple more foods I’ve made recently!!

• Date caramel - I mix this with peanut butter and dip apple slices in it. SO GOOD.

  

• Chipotle copycat - I do the chicken, beans, rice, and corn salsa (no jalapeno for us). For beans and rice, I just add cilantro, lime, and salt… My friend said to try the copycat sauce as well, but I haven’t yet!

  

• Biscuit loaf - That’s a TikTok video, and I know not everyone has that app. It’s a pretty straightforward biscuit recipe that she bakes in a loaf pan and serves as slices!

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3

Okay so the final part will include

• book, movie, and show recommendations

• true crime chat

• money chat

• a few kid ideas

Reply to this if you want!! I see them and usually reply. ❤️ 

Talk to ya soon,

Bethany

PS thought this was silly: