A Parasailing Adventure

When I was growing up, my grandparents loved to travel. Now you know where I get it! They couldn’t do it often but when they did, it was an event. I can remember brochures and catalogues with beautiful pictures of far-away places. They spent a lot of time deciding where to go and what to do. I loved every minute of it even if I wasn’t going on the actual trip.

As the time drew closer for them to leave, we’d go up in the attic and pull out their yellow hard-shelled suitcases. I loved those suitcases – they smelled wonderful, like unknown worlds of limitless possibilities. I scoured the Internet looking for an image of one and guess what? I found one! The Internet is amazing! Thank you Recultivation.

Aren’t they beautiful?

One of their trips was to Mexico. They packed their things in those suitcases, kissed us all goodbye, hopped on the airport shuttle, and were whisked away to their tropical destination.

When they returned I couldn’t wait to hear all the details of their trip. Their big story was about their parasailing adventure. My grandmother didn’t go but my adventurous grandfather couldn’t refuse – so off he went.

Here he his all rigged up and heading up toward the skies!

Remember this was back in the ’70s before adventure sports were household words and seen on multiple TV channels on a daily basis. It was a big deal. Luckily, my grandmother caught it on film because…it was a short-lived ride.

Everything was going great until they lost the wind, which funny enough is  essential for parasailing. My grandfather dropped like a stone.

Unfortunately, he was wearing some type of weird shoes. This was again, before Nikes were the norm and don’t ask me why he didn’t go barefoot. It seems when the shoes got wet, they turned to two blocks of cement. When he dropped into the water, the shoes dragged him under and he couldn’t get his head above water!

People started swimming out to save him. They pulled him onto the beach coughing up water. My grandmother was going crazy. They rushed him off the beach for medical attention. It was mayhem! Thankfully, he was fine.

But guess what? The story doesn’t end there.

In the panic, my grandmother had left their belongings on the beach, including my grandfather’s wallet. Yep, all their stuff gone.

They were devastated but happy he was alive. As they walked back into their hotel, the front desk clerked stopped them. All their stuff was returned! It seems one of the parasailing guys gathered their things and brought them to the hotel.

Isn’t that awesome! They were so happy.

The world is a wonderful place – just waiting to be explored!

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Princess Castle Cake (That You Could Make!)

I previously mentioned that I made my own pinata for Leah’s birthday party. Well, I also made my own castle cake. Most people would just go buy one, I get it. I feel the same way…almost.

What happens with me is, I’ll see the price of something and I’ll think, I can do that myself for that amount of money. But, it almost doesn’t matter what the price even is.

If I think I can do it myself, I feel like I should. Even though, I might spend more money (which doesn’t usually happen). Even though, I might annoy every one in the house while I’m doing it (which usually does happen). And, if I feel like I should do it, I usually do!

So, that’s how I came to trying to make the princess castle cake for Leah. Here’s the instructional video I used as my guide. Seemed easy enough. Onward!

• I used two boxed cakes in two square cake pans.
• Baked them at the same time and let them cool.
• I used one full cake as the bottom level of the castle.
• I cut the second cake in quarters.
• I stacked two cake quarters on top of one another for the second level.
• I cut the quarter into two smaller squares.
• I added icing in between all the layers and stack them up.

Here’s what it looked like:

• Then I did the dreaded crumb coat. I’ve been burned so many times with crumbs in my icing, I decided it was a necessity. To note, I didn’t water the icing down at all.
• I spread the icing I had on very thinly.
• Then I let it dry for a long, long, long time. I think I used too much on the very top because it was difficult to ice that one.
• I iced the whole thing in pink frosting.

Here’s what it looked like:

• For the decorations, I coated four ice cream cones with icing and then rolled them gingerly in tiny pink sprinkles.
• I put those on each corner of the bottom layer.
• I bought pastel color candy, like Smarties and Watermelon Sours, and placed them throughout the castle.
• I used those vanilla sandwich cookies as the doors and windows. I’d advise against this one. They were a pain to cut and didn’t even look that good.
• The bottom looked sparse with just the silver platter so I added rainbow sprinkles all along the bottom. It’s kind of wasteful because nobody eats those but it made it look so much prettier.
• Then I cleared everything in the fridge and popped the cake in there until party time.

And here’s Leah with her Princess Castle Cake!

Leah loved the cake! She loved the process too. I was glad I made it for her. The main problem I had…I kept it in the fridge until we were ready to sing ‘Happy Birthday’. It was a warm day and I was afraid the icing would run. However, it didn’t turn out to be a good eating experience since the cake was really too cold to enjoy. Oh well, lesson learned!

What do you think? Any castle cakes in your future?

l

Photo of the Week: Plymouth

A few weeks ago, I wrote about our trip to Plymouth. Read all about it here! I wanted to go to Plymouth because when I was younger, my family took a road trip through New England and we stopped there. We saw Plymouth Rock and went to Plimouth Plantation.

Now, I’m a bit dorky and was even more dorky back then but I loved visiting Plimouth Plantation. I loved the people pretending to be from the time of the Pilgrims. No matter what you asked them, they stayed in character. I thought it was so cool and really interesting.

When I just recently found this picture of my grandmother going into one of the Pilgrim houses on Plimouth Plantation, I had to share it! I wish I could find some other pictures of the trip. I know there were more but when I was little parents didn’t keep scrapbooks (at least mine didn’t) so all I’ve got is random photos that have mostly gotten lost over the years.

I still think it’s cool that I have one picture of evidence we went and that I’ve gotten to revisit the Plantation again – and, it was just as cool as I remembered it!

Photo of the Week: Too Cool for School

This is my Uncle Bud – my grandmother’s sister’s husband. In my mind, he was uber-cool. He didn’t talk a lot. He always dressed nicely. He drove a Volkswagen Beetle, which of course had a stick-shift. He smelled wonderful. He didn’t smile much but when he did flash his pearly whites, you felt special!

He could draw the best Indian chief with a big headdress and feathers. Every Sunday, when he and my aunt came over for dinner, I would beg him to draw it for me! He always had some type of cool facial hair, like a goatee or fun mustache.

My Uncle Bud reminds me of the Dos Equis beer commercial guy – The Most Interesting Man the World. I’m not sure if he was that “interesting” but he was cool!

Photo of the Week: Smiles

The three women above are my grandmother, mother, and aunt (left to right). These three women were hardworking and headstrong. They didn’t laugh a lot. Maybe times were different, maybe it was their personalities – I’m not sure.

Here’s one thing I am sure about…there are not many pictures of them all together and even less of all of them smiling while together. That is why I love this picture so much.

They are all together and they are all smiling. If only for a minute, they were all having fun together. I like that image. I wish I’d seen more of it when I was growing up or even in old pictures. Either way, I’m glad I have at least this picture!

It’s also something I’m going to remember when I’m taking pictures. I want my kids to remember me having fun. I don’t want them remembering me worrying about what I’m wearing, how bad my wrinkles look, if I’m smiling too big – the list goes on…

I want them to remember us laughing and loving life. I want them to see that in pictures so when I’m gone, they’ll never forget it. That’s more important. Don’t you think?

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Photo of the Week: Dancers

This is my mom (on the right) and my aunt – ready for their dance recital. My aunt was a great ballet dancer. She even danced professionally. She gave it up in her late teens. I think that is so cool. It might be the closest our family has to someone famous!

I took all kinds of dance lessons when I was younger. I loved it. I was nowhere near being a professional dancer of any kind. My daughter took ballet for the first time this past school year. She was adorable. It’s still early but I don’t think she’ll become a professional dancer either – although, who knows. She does look cute though, don’t you think!

Photo of the Week: Is That a Waist?

Here is a picture of my grandmother (on the right) and my grandfather (on the left). The couple in the middle is their friends. They got married and my grandparents “stood” for them. Obviously it was a small wedding.

It’s a very nice picture.

Here’s the thing…check out my grandmother’s waist. You may have missed it because it’s barely there, except for that huge red belt. I can’t believe it when I look at this picture (and believe me, it’s not “photoshopped”). Her waist is really that tiny.

One thing I did NOT inherit from my grandmother, her tiny waist.
But, hey Nanny, thanks for the big nose!

Photo of the Week: Swimming

These young ladies are enjoying a great afternoon swimming at Clementon Lake Park. My mom is included in the picture with her sister and cousins.

Today Clementon Lake Park is Clementon Park, an amusement and water park. Back then, it was just a lake people from the city would visit on a sunny day. If you drive around there now, things have obviously changed but you’ll still see rather small houses in the area closest to the lake. My grandmother used to tell me these were vacation houses for the more well-off. Um, my family didn’t have one of those.

I imagine that visiting the lake for my mom and her family was a fun adventure! I imagine the ride home was less fun with the sunburn, sand, and tiredness.

Whatever you decide to do today – enjoy it. It’s summer!!
Even if it means the ride home might not be as fantastic as the ride there.

Photo of the Week: Birthday Party

This photo is of a child’s birthday party (circa 1945). My mother, her sister and cousin are in the picture although it’s not a party for them. You might be able to pick them out because they have matching dresses (all made by my great-grandmother). I’m assuming the birthday girl is the one in the middle with the wearing white dress and grin.

I thought this picture was fun and the timing appropriate for me. My daughter is turning four in August and I’m trying to decide what to do for her in terms of a party. I really don’t want to have a “friend” party but she’s been to a bunch this year and can NOT stop talking about her party.

In fact, when she is mad at anyone in the house they are officially uninvited to her party. This suits me just fine. She can have the party without me. It turns out though when I say ‘okay, fine’ – she tells me I can come. Darn.

I want to take her to Dutch Wonderland for the day. She will love it but I’m afraid the day after we come home, she’ll say, “When’s my birthday party?” (even though we will have discussed at length how the trip counts as the party). And then she will proceed to have a complete breakdown (leading to years of therapy) when I remind her there is no party because we went to Dutch Wonderland.

It’s a dilemma. Yes, a ridiculous dilemma – but for me, a dilemma none the less. It’s getting close to make-or-break time though. It may be one of those times I procrastinate just enough that the decision has to roll my way.

Photo of the Week: Bathing Cap

First, let me apologize for the quality of this picture. It’s tough to see but I love it and wanted to share it with you anyway.

It’s a picture of my mom’s cousin. Don’t you love how she is posing? So proud of herself, it makes me smile. I want my daughter to always have that look on her face – proud of herself, no matter what.

This picture also makes me happy bathing caps are a thing of the past (unless you’re an Olympic swimmer, of course – then you need two on at one time). When I was about 10, my family went on vacation and stayed in a motel. You know the kind where the swimming pool is in the middle and all the rooms open out onto the pool.

Well, this was a very popular motel on a very hot day and everyone was at the pool or sitting by the pool. Yes, everyone – at least that’s how I remember it. And, my family was old-school and thought I should wear a bathing cap.

After a huge fight in the room, I finally relented and put it on. After 30 minutes of trying to get all my hair under the bathing cap, I didn’t even want to go to the pool. But my family wasn’t having any of that.

I know that feeling now – after getting my kids ready to do something for almost an hour they decide they don’t want to do it…oh no, they’re doing it! But, at the time, I didn’t know that feeling and I was devastated that I had to go to the pool – with that stupid bathing cap!

So, I slowly ventured out. Every eye turned toward that opening door to watch me make my way to the pool. All of them whispering to one another about how ridiculous I looked! Have I mentioned, I’m a bit dramatic. To be fair (to me), nobody else was wearing a bathing cap – really, that part is very true.

Thinking back, I’m sure nobody even noticed me. At the time though, I was mortified. I got to the pool, I jumped in, I got out, and went right back to the room.

It was done and nobody was happy about it.

Today, I’m just thankful bathing caps are no longer required and just wished I could have pulled it off with as much confidence as my mother’s cousin.

Bathing caps?
Anyone?