Vieve's Place...Enjoy Your Visit
Well, we have recently introduced Epfianio to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He loves it. So today, they were running errands and stopped by for a bite to eat. He was grump grump grumpy and screaming and crying. Until I turned on Joseph.
He couldn't have picked a better musical to love!
My peach tree has been plentiful this year. And I'm not sure what to do with the peaches! So what did I decide? Can them! I have never ever done this before, but armed with a helpful internet page and canning supplies from my SIL, I was ready to get going. Epifanio came to help, and he was hype.
If you want the recipe I used, here is the site: https://fountainavenuekitchen.com/canned-peaches/
So first we weighed the peaches to see how many pounds I had. (6!) Then, we had to peel them. The website said that I needed to put them into boiling water and then a cold bath to shock them, and stop them from cooking. Okay.
They had to sit for 24 hours, which is how the finish the sealing, with the cool down. Now! I have 3 whole jars (I only did a small batch because of it being my first time) and in 3 weeks or so, I'm going to open a jar, and eat myself some peaches and see how they went. And if they're gross, I'm only out the cost of ... nothing, actually. The peaches were from my tree, so, free, the jars were from my SIL's house, and she got them from her parents house, so, free. So, yeah! Hopefully they worked, I will keep you apprised!
Y'all, I had such a good time making the vanilla extract for Christmas that I decided to try a homemade mint extract. So I picked a lot of mint from a friends garden, grabbed some cheap booze, and got to work.
First I removed the leaves from the stems, washed them, then put them into a jar. Then I filled the rest of the jar with vodka.
Ooh la la! After I made 9 of these jars (which will translate into 18 gifts, yikes), I still had an insane amount of leaves. So I decided to make some tea!
I laid out the leaves on a paper towel to dry out. Tomorrow, I'll put them into an infuser and then drink it! Wish me luck that it works!
Every time Husband and Epifanio get together, they have a little fist-fight. Today, Epifanio showed for us how he fights, and I almost died at the cute.
Isn't he just the dang cutest?! I just love him so.
Today was Darth's final soccer game for his soccer team. Seems like we just had a final game, because WE DID but hey, we we're used to this. Anyway, they did an all right job, it was HOT (because last Saturday was just raining on us the whole time, yikes) and they ended in a tie, which was garbage, but at least its over. Afterwards, we snapped team pics and that was that. Sadly, no medals for everyone this time.
But look at all these cute tiny guys, so nice.
Today is frosting day! We started it off by dropping off my sisters car at the mechanic, Epifanio was in high spirits.
Then, it was time to rock and roll. It took significantly less time to frost than it did to bake them, but, of course it did haha. When I was finished, 450 beautiful cupcakes were looking back at me.
Y'all, I have been hired to do the cupcakes for a wedding this week. They've asked for 450 cupcakes. Yes, you read that right, in these Covid times, they ordered that many. So today was prep day - I baked all of the cupcakes today, to be frosted tomorrow, and then delivered on Thursday. Yesterday was spent acquiring ingredients and decorations. Phew. My sister and the fellas not in school came to help with all of the baking. Epifanio wasn't as big a help as he thought he was.
Literally he is right behind me at my mixer with all of these pots and pans, what an absolute lunatic. Luckily he's cute, so we can't get too mad.
As I was about 1/3 of the way through baking the cupcakes, word came from the governor of Utah, they were turning Orem/Provo to orange level for the pandemic. That meant, no groups of people larger than 20. Uhhhh.... okay. So I texted the mom of the bride to ask her what to do. She said they were formulating, and would get back to me. After about 2 hours, she wrote back to say that they were just going to do a drive-by wedding, so to keep making the cupcakes. All of them, I asked? Yes, all of them. So, I kept on. And I baked. And baked, and baked. I lost my helper buddies around 5:00, and baked and baked until 9:30 (having started around 10:00 AM). Needless to say, I was exhausted. Looking forward to tomorrow!
And now, you can know what 450 unfrosted cupcakes look like!
(the flavors here are pumpkin chocolate chip, carrot cake, and chocolate)
I don't know if I've mentioned it on here before, but Gecko hacking loves dinosaurs. He can name so many, he watches Jurassic World over and over again (he watches only certain parts - anything with the Dinos. if it's related to plot, he's not interested) and is obsessed. Recently he got an Indominus Rex giant Dino. After he got this toy, he kept showing us how the final fight between the Rex and the water dinosaur (nope, don't remember the name went). I think I saw his reenactment like 9 times.
What a great fella, I legit hope he grows up to be a paleontologist.
Today I got to babysit Epifanio whilst the fellas were in school. We started off by popping some popcorn, which he was a little afraid of. Epifanio seems to be afraid of all kitchen machinery.
Then we just spent some time eating the popcorn, taking photos, and playing with toys, his favorite thing to do.
We had such a fun time, he thinks taking photos is the best.
My nephew was baptized this last Saturday, but I only got the pics today. Being during a pandemic, there weren't many people. (except, it sure seemed like there were a ton of people) and we were supposed to wear face masks in the church. People mostly did a good job with that, but most of them took it off and that was frustrating to me. You see, because my sister is currently pregnant, she has to be extra careful with all this pandemic stuff, it could affect her and the baby if she gets it. So she has been taking extra precautions, and since I help with the fellas, we are also cautious. We are still quarantining hard core, and don't see anyone. But we made an exception for the baptism. Of course, that meant we had to stay away from people as well as keep our masks on the whole time. Nobody on my SIL's side of the family kept their masks on, but that's their business, not mine. I can only do what I can to protect myself and my family. But we got the pics today and I just think it's so funny to look at haha.
You know what, it's fine. I don't regret keeping the face mask and while it's not ideal for pictures, I would rather be safe and healthy than make sure a picture looks good. I think we look fine anyway, it's just a great time all around.
Y'all, I got some pics today from my sis and I was DYING at them! I couldn't control my laughter.
Why are these fellas so cute?! I can't even handle them.
6 full days before my next card swap, I actually did my cards hahaha. I followed the template, and it was a freaking beast. They are definitely not that great of cards, but honestly, I just was like, whatever, I did what I could.
The triangles are wildly uneven, but at least it's hidden by the center thing. I probably could have done a better job, but honestly, I don't care. I did the best I could do, and that's where I'm at. Next month will probably be better, eh?
Yesterday I got the stitches out from my gum graft! Of course I wanted to see them when they were out, and of course I took a pic.
They look so small, but they felt like a lot haha they definitely dug into my mouth and gave me canker sores! And I was so happy to get them out, hopefully now I can eat on that side of my mouth!
I was hired this week to do some treats for a bridal shower. It's a drive by shower, so they had to be individually wrapped, and I had to make between 80-90. They requested 3 things - Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and Rice Krispy treats. Easy to separate! So I spent all day making these treats and then wrapped them all up.
I was so proud of all the work I did, and it felt so great to be hired for baking again, it's been a dang minute.
Today I went to Darth's soccer game (he scored again, they won again!) and afterwards we all dinner together. After dinner, Epifanio and I were chilling at the table (with my mouth surgery last month, I take a very very long time to eat right now haha) and he started to hand me apples. My sis recorded it, and I think it's just about the cutest thing I have seen.
I just loved it so much, what a tiny cutie.
This morning Husband and I took the fellas on a walk. Darth showed up ready to party.
We can't really call it a hike, despite being in the canyon. We went to Vivian Park and then walked down to Bridal Veil Falls. The walk was supposed to be 2.3 miles. And by supposed to be, I mean, it was. Gecko of course thought he was dying before we got to the falls, we were concerned about making the walk back. But we made it!
Gecko kept insisting that the walk that took us an hour to get to the falls would take us "into the night" to get back. Oy. So on the way back, we had to do many things. We had him walk a bit, we carried him on shoulders, we pulled the baby out of his stroller and out Gecko in it. (yes Gecko is too big for the stroller, but we were desperate) and then he finally finished the walk on his own feet. Epifanio was so tired from being pushed and carried he conked out as soon as we got to the car.
But we made it and that's the important thing!
We were at Darth's soccer game tonight (And he scored a goal! His first goal in this new league, and so far the only kid on their team to score in three games) and we were of course in the sun. As per usual, as the sun is everlasting and beats down on each of us all day every day for eternity. Husband stood up for a second, and Epifanio took the chance to steal his chair.
It was hard to get a good pic of him, but you get the idea. What a cute thief, always stealing my heart.
I got these pics tonight as I was just chilling and honestly, I was so pleasantly surprised by these cuties in their pjs.
They have the perfect pajamas for their personality, and they are just the cutest.
