Cupcakes and Birthdays!

      Every year for my birthday, I go over to my Grandma's house and bake my birthday cake/cupcakes. 

I absolutely love it! We get to try out new recipes and fancy decorating skills. Sometimes it even works like we think it should! This year - due to my addiction to Pinterest - I wanted to try this recipe: The Perfect Cupcake Using A Mix.

So, on Friday morning (my birthday was on Saturday) I headed over and we tried it out. 

It worked wonderfully! The cupcakes were so much richer. Almost like a pudding. 

We ate way too much batter.  

For garnishes, we made chocolate Gs, 18s, and treble clefs.

I ate too much melting chocolate. That stuff is really good! 

I decided I wanted to get difficult and make icing from scratch. I also wanted to use Nutella...

This stuff is chocolate HEAVEN in a jar! No joke. 

Anyway... I found a recipe for nutella buttercream frosting on Pinterest and it was awesome!

 We both ate a ton of that too... 

We got sick of slowly sifting powdered sugar for the frosting so we improvised! And made a giant mess. Ah, well. It was fun! 

I chose a cream-cheese raspberry frosting for the vanilla cupcakes. This frosting was great as well! It was so light and creamy. 

Man... Now I want some. 

The finished product! After only 5 hours of work...

Later that evening, it was time for the party! My Grandpa had to have hip surgery a while back, so he's been staying in the hospital. We've been having family party nights on Fridays to celebrate each week he's made it through. So... birthday party at the hospital! Fun, right?? 

In all honesty, it wasn't too bad! The whole room was decorated, and my mom had planned a bunch of games. 

Grandma Candy got me a rubber snake to commemorate me saving them from the real snake! I loved it. Maybe Ally will even let me hang it as a trophy in our future apartment... 

We played a game where you had to sneak weird sentences such as: I got mad cause Mom wouldn't let me get a stuffed animal into regular conversation. 

Both of the Grandmas were on a team, and they won by a landslide! 

I was so surprised by Ally's present! She and Mom had spent all day making me this beach towel with a built in pillow that folds into a tote! I'm going to use it all the time this summer. 

 

Once I finished opening all my presents, it was time for Mom and Dad's present. This one had been a huge secret for a while, so I knew something big was coming.... 

They bought me a real recording session in a studio! Yup. This is my face when he said it. 

I was SO EXCITED! 

It's the best (and scariest) present ever! 

                          This blog is a lot longer than I thought it'd be... so I'd better end here. 

Thanks for reading and have an awesome week! 

The Snake Killers

        Usually, killing a huge snake wouldn't be the highlight of someone's day, but it was mine! 

Here's what happened... 

     Our grandparents needed us to come over and help clean their house for a day, so we (Mom, Aunt Lauren, Aunt Kristen, Ally, Emma, Kate, and I) agreed to clean for a couple hours.  Once we had finished tidying the upstairs, we moved to the basement. My mom and Aunt Lauren were in the storage room moving boxes of Christmas decorations when I heard it. 

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH! WHAT IS THAT?!?! AAAAAAHHHH!" 

     I immediately turned and bolted into the storage room. Knowing them both, I expected a dead mouse or maybe a spider. 

     NO. 

     There was a huge, coiled, black snake under a shelf! I was so surprised I started to scream. Not a good idea. This just caused more panic and screaming from my aunt and mom who were already clawing at me to get out the door.  After I finished screaming, I ran out the door yelling, "Don't worry! I'm gonna get a shovel and kill it!" (Looking back, I wonder what exactly I was thinking...) 

     At this point, my mom has collapsed on the floor as far away from the snake as possible and is screaming. (She told us later she doesn't remember doing this. That was her level of panic.) Aunt Kristen and Grandma were hollering about calling someone to come kill it, but I just continued up the stairs to get a shovel. By now, the snake had unraveled itself and was stretched out under the shelf. I almost lost all my resolve right then. But I knew that no one else (except possibly Emma and Ally) was going to kill it. So, I started swinging away. 

     I guess the thing didn't want its head chopped off, because it kept moving. I started yelling, "I CAN'T GET ITS HEAD!" (Which caused more sounds of extreme distress from my aunt and grandma waiting outside.) Bravely, Emma grabbed a broom and started herding its head in my direction, while Ally ran upstairs to find a saw. 

  

      After some horrific thudding and neck crushing, the snake stopped moving. Sort of. It began to twitch, which was awful. 

      Emma grabbed a box and I scooped up the snake. At this point, my mom and Aunt Lauren escaped upstairs where they were hiding in the family room - shrieking and holding each other. 

I proudly carried my prize upstairs to dump it on the golf course. 

I should also note, that I resisted the IMMENSE urge to scare them all with the dead snake. 

I'm not quite heartless enough to do that. 

Aunt Lauren was already crying from screaming and laughing... It would have caused a nervous breakdown. 

And here we are! The ruthless snake killers. 

I'm sure this story will be told for years to come. 

No joke, it was the bravest moment of my entire life. 

Ski Trip - Part 3

     In the last blog, I mentioned that a kid in Jackson's class had come down with the stomach flu. This is where that becomes important to the story. On Friday morning, we were all a little sore, and a little tired, but we were still excited to ski. All morning, Jackson just laid on the couch and complained that his stomach was bothering him. I was in the kitchen when I heard, "GLYNNE! GET A BOWL!" 

    Yep. He threw up. Twice. 

     Now... I do not handle vomit well. Instead of giving the bowl to Dad, I just stood there and plugged my ears. Needless to say, Jackson threw up on the floor of the cabin instead of a bowl. Dad wasn't happy with me. Anyway, we continued the process of getting everyone ready and out the door. Jackson insisted that he get to ski on the bigger bunny hill because his instructor had promised him that he was ready. 

     By the time we got to the ski lodge, I was not feeling well at all. I thought it just might be car sickness from the winding road, but it wasn't. Dad gave me some anti-nausea medication - then informed me that it causes sleepiness. We all really wanted Mom to be able to ski, so I said I'd just watch Jonah instead. Finally, it was time for Jackson to hit the "big" slopes! 

     After a few runs down the hill, he crashed. And crashed HARD. No, he didn't fall down. He took his coat off, laid on the ground and didn't move. People were staring. It was great. At some point, we stopped watching the kids ski long enough to head out to the car to eat lunch. Afterwards, Mom drove Kate (who was tired of constantly falling over), Jonah (who was tired), Jack (who was sick and tired), and myself (who was feeling better but still tired) back to the cabin. 

Jonah and I had so much fun hanging out together. It doesn't really look like he enjoyed it in this picture... but I promise he did! 

     The next day, we woke up and started the packing/cleaning process. Surprisingly, we only left an hour later than planned! We're making progress, people. 

Mom has decided that we have to take a family picture in front of the places we stay during vacation. This picture included me setting up the camera on a timer and running through snow (which was concealing big rocks - perfectly placed for me to kill myself), and dashing up the stairs. Multiple times. I'm pretty sure my eyes are closed in every single shot. Eh.

We were all SO HAPPY to be home! We girls agreed that we missed our bathroom almost as much as we missed our rooms. 

Have a great weekend! 

Ski Trip - Part 2

     On Thursday we all woke up early (for us anyway) and scrambled to get everyone bundled up and out the door. We kids were signed up with a ski instructor for a 3 hour lesson that morning. Except Jackson. He went to a kids daycare at the lodge where they skied for a bit and then got to watch movies and eat snacks. I was a little jealous of his day - it sounded like fun to me! Until we discovered that a kid in his class had gotten sick and thrown up... we'll hear more about that later. Anyway, we all finally got through the ski rental process and were ready for our lesson. I did expect the boots to be uncomfortable, but not the agony that they were! Emma and I both suffered greatly from the boots.

     The lesson started out awkwardly for all of us. Several of us fell while trying to get on the conveyor belt that took us up the tiny little hill. I have never felt so clumsy in my life. When our instructor told us that we were finally ready to hit the bigger bunny hill, we were so excited! For a while, Landon had been telling us that he didn't feel well. We just assumed that it was because he was overheated, so we made him drink lots of water. That didn't help. About halfway to the bigger hill, he said he was going to pass out and sat down. None of us were sure if it was his *ED, asthma, or simply altitude sickness. We tried finding Mom and Dad, but Mom had left to take care of Jonah and Dad was somewhere on the mountain. (None of our phones had service.) Eventually - after a big hullabaloo with several ski instructors trying to help, we decided that one of us girls would take turns sitting with him until he felt better. He was anxious to ski, so his recovery didn't take long. Soon we were all skiing easily down the hill. Isaac was AWESOME! He picked it up so quickly and never lost control. He was the best of all of us.

     After a couple runs down the bunny hill, Dad found us and our instructor suggested that we all try a real slope.

     You wanna know what I think? Skiing is pretty easy. The hardest part is getting off the stupid lift! It freaked me out every time. And yes. I fell down. Lots.

     After a couple good runs, and a couple good spills. We girls decided to call it a day. Emma had quit earlier on account of a bloody nose, and Kate was having a rough time staying upright. The boys and Dad were having a good time though, and wanted to try a blue run before the day ended. Later, Dad told us that they barely made it down. Landon had a relapse and had to be practically carried down the mountain. Poor guy.

     That marked the end of our first day of skiing. I was complaining about my sprained thumb and aching shins, Ally had somehow twisted both of her wrists and her boots were too small, Emma didn't get to ski much because of a bloody nose, and Mom said that Jonah was NOT happy until she took him all the way back to the cabin. We didn't get any pictures that day... so this blog is going to have to be a boring picture-less blog. I did take lots of the pictures the next day! Keep an eye out for the next post.

Have a great day! 

Ski Trip - Part 1

 * I wrote this blog while in Colorado. Our internet wasn't fast enough to upload pictures, so I waited until we returned to post it. I may be wrong, but I think pictures make a blog so much more fun to read! 

     Right now, I am in Colorado - sitting in front of a blazing fire with my slippers on and my feet up. I have wifi (albeit slow wifi...) which makes me happy. And I just ate two peanut butter and chocolate kiss cookies. Life is great.  

Until...

      Mom tried to put Jonah to bed, which caused him to scream. Then Dad and I decided to hide in the back bedroom. Not quite as picturesque as the fire, but much quieter. Until Jack and Isaac decided to start jumping on the bed next door while yelling. All the while, Landon is whistling. I hate whistling.  It's really hard to find peace and quiet cramming 10 people into a little cabin.  But, it's only for 4 days so we can make anything work. Wish us luck. 

We left yesterday morning true to Davis fashion. 3 hours late. Here are some pictures showing the chronological order of our trip so far. 

We figured that we had about 8 hours to drive the first day before stopping in Denver for the night. 

Of course, Mom HAD to go to IKEA while we were so close. 

We girls had fun walking around and picking out our favorite rooms. 

Ally and I decided that when we live together in college, this is what our apartment will look like. Wouldn't that be great?!  

Mom takes forever in IKEA. It's understandable since it's pretty much her favorite store and she only gets to go every two years or so. But she does take forever. We all got bored.

 Finally.... We arrived at the cabin! Mom was worried because there were no pictures of the kitchen on the internet. This is probably why. The thing was TINY. This picture makes it look bigger than it actually was. I'm talkin' miniature kitchen, ladies and gentlemen.

Here is our dining room. We managed to fit all 10 of us around this table. Practically magic. 

The living room was really cozy - almost too cozy. The fireplace made everything ridiculously warm. I had issues sleeping because it heated the whole place so well. Ally and Emma both got mad because I kept them awake complaining about it. Well, that and Dad's snoring from the room below. 

Mom and Dad gave up the master suite so all of us girls could share. Instead, they took this smaller room next to the boys. 

This is where 3 of the boys slept. We moved Jonah's playpen up to our closet due to the fact that the boys were very rowdy the whole trip. 

This is the girls room. A few hours after this picture, our room was transformed. A trundle bed was set up for Kate, and an air mattress was blown up for Emma. The entire floor could not be seen at all. 

Mom said I just HAD to take a picture of the boot lined up neatly on top of the washer and dryer. She adores stuff like this. 

Mom had announced that we would have cookies every night after dinner. Hey, it's vacation! We get to eat whatever we want. 

And there was the end of that day. All of us crowded around a tiny table. Honestly, the worst thing about the cabin is the lack of insulation. Not because it's cold - but because it is SO LOUD. There is no place to go that's quiet. That's really the only bad thing. 

Tomorrow is a big day for us! We will all (with the exception of Mom and Dad) be skiing for the first time. I'm hoping no one will return home with broken bones. Unfortunately, I'm expecting that Landon and Isaac will surpass us older girls on the slopes before long. Sometimes having talented little brothers is tough on my self-confidence.  

Just kidding. I'm awesome. 

Also kidding. Haha! 

Wish us luck on the slopes!