Cake Happens

As it turns out, Brent and I can't possibly work all the time.  Every weekend and many week nights, the kids watch as we tinker around on some sort of project...sometimes big, sometimes small.  It keeps us off the couch and engaged with an activity we can all learn something about, but it's exhausting.  The kids are usually right along side us, either helping out or playing nearby.  They do such a good job making up imaginary games and inventing stories while Brent and I keep busy that we wanted to reward them for being such good kids.  So without telling them, we planned a surprise day trip to Omaha, Nebraska to visit the zoo and our special friends that just had a new baby.  

Even though Owen is just about ready to turn 5, we still brought our stroller because we know our child and that if he has to walk too far, he will complain about his legs hurting.  Plus, this way, we didn't have to carry our snacks, camera bag and jackets!  WINNING!

In this photo, Emma and Owen's faces are actually saying, "hurry up, mom - the last thing we want to do right now is stand still for a photo!"

I'm not sure what happened here, but it looked like this gorilla just tipped over and fell asleep.  Kind of like Brent on a Saturday night.

His guy appears to have a pleasant demeanor.

The best part of the day came after we left the zoo.  Conveniently, we needed to pass by my favorite cake store on our way to visit our friends.  That's a lie...we took a detour to pass the cake store.  But you must understand, this is a special cake bakery.  The first phone call I made after our daughter was born in Omaha was to the Cake Gallery to order up two cakes.  That probably didn't help with the whole "shedding the baby weight" deal.

I always always always order 2 layer white cakes with white buttercream frosting.  This time, I was determined to get a chocolate cake for Brent and the kids, because I'm generous like that.  So we walk in the doors and drool over the selections for a few minutes and decide on the Oh Ho cake.  It is basically an inside out ho-ho covered in chocolate ganache.

Brent and the kids went off to a different side of the store to look at the other cakes as I waited for the clerk to finish boxing up the cake for us.  When done, she politely asked if there would be anything else today.  And I froze.  Mind reeling.  And my finger pointed at the small white cake you see below.  She boxed it up and I turned, holding two big cake boxes to tell Brent we were ready to go.  His jaw dropped and he said, "Heidi, why are you holding two cakes?"  And I shrugged and made my way out to the car, snuggling the cakes safely in my arms.

We were then headed over to our very good friends' house to snuggle their new baby and play with their adorable toddler.  Unfortunately, the cakes are supposed to be refrigerated so as I was holding the baby, I heard Amber in the kitchen trying to clear out like, half of their fridge to make room for all of my cakes.  Sacrifices.  As I was telling Mike about my cake store debacle, he simply said, "cake happens."  Some people just get me.

Spring Parade of Homes

Our Spring Parade of Homes is currently going on in Sioux Falls and man o man - am I glad we went, for a few reasons.  This is cheap entertainment for us.  The kids pretty much thought touring these homes was the best thing ever.  We only had an evening to spare so that gave us time to tour 6 houses and the kids were begging to go to more.  This doesn't surprise me as HGTV is Emma's new favorite network to watch and she just brought a piece of paper home from school that said she wanted to be a builder when she grows up.  My heart was literally in a puddle on the floor when I read that.

So here are a ton of photos of some of the amazing things we got to see.  Still can't believe that people get to actually live in these homes that look like they are straight from the pages of a magazine - or Pinterest.

House #1 built by C-Lemme Companies:

Brent works for the company that built these cabinets, so there's a pretty high likelihood that he helped build the cabinet doors.

House #2 also built by C-Lemme Companies.  

Love the finish they applied to the sliding barn door.

Can't decide what's to love more here - the backsplash or the gray cabinetry and corbels.

Ahhh....reclaimed wood mantel?  Yes, please.

House #3 built by Zome's Construction, Inc.  This next house stole my heart and a little of my soul.

This is the master bedroom CEILING!

I wish I would have recorded the kids' reaction when we walked into this bathroom that is the size of our living room and had a bathtub inside of the shower.  Priceless.

This is by far the most beautiful bed I have ever seen.

Look closely at the back wall of the stairwell - it is covered in white tongue & groove paneling.

This is the bathroom in one of the children's bedrooms upstairs.

Beautiful light fixtures were everywhere you turned.

That's a little kids playhouse built in under the stairs.

I couldn't take a great picture of the living room and kitchen because there were too many people milling around, but I did manage this one on the way out the door.  That's reclaimed wood up inside the coffered ceiling.

House #4 built by Mettler Construction: