Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Ice Cream Tall Cake


We had seven March birthdays
to celebrate this Sunday and 
I decided to give my brother's 
Ice Cream Tall Cake idea a try. 


This enormous cake has been 
a family tradition in his home 
for years and I finally 
decided to give it a try.


It consists of a layer of cake 
topped with three layers of 
ice cream.  Over the years 
as he has told me of how they 
made it, it seemed daunting, 


but I figured out a way 
to make it easier.  

I lined my cake pans with 
plastic wrap and then 
topped the plastic wrap 
with a round of parchment 
paper cut to fit.  Then I 
spooned the ice cream in, 
starting along the edges.  I 
used a whole container of 
ice cream for each layer. 
I finally pressed the layer 
down with the back of 
my metal measuring cup 
and did a final smoothing 
with a knife. 


I left the ice cream 
layers in the freezer 
overnight, as well as 
the baked cake layer.


It was so easy to lift 
the layers out using 
the plastic wrap and 
then removing the 
parchment paper.  


My brother Fritz always
frosts his with another 
container of ice cream, 
but I decided to use a 
large container of 
Cool Whip.  I liked 
that I could pipe the 
Cool Whip out.  


Of course, with that many 
birthdays, we had to top 
it with sprinkles.  My SIL 
loved the cake so much he 
said we needed to make 
this a weekly dessert!


From top to bottom the 
flavors are 
Mint Chocolate Chip
French Silk
Cookie Dough


The birthday drinks 
were made by frosting 
the edge of the goblets 
and then dipping in 
sprinkles.  We placed 
some cotton candy in each 
glass and poured 
Cherry 7Up in. 
Everyone loved watching 
the pop melt the 
cotton candy and 
turn the pop 
different colors. 


Thanks for stopping by 
to help us celebrate 
lots of birthdays.













Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Tales of the Traveling Tote 34 and a Giveaway


Welcome to our March 2023 Tales of the Traveling Tote!
I haven't been blogging much because I have been 
traveling so much!  I was hacked on Instagram and 
haven't been able to resolve that, so a little discouraged 
with social media at the moment.  

But travels go on and we want to take you along
to all of the places our group have been!

We have spent most of the snow laden 
winter down in Cabo and I was able to spend 
my birthday here with friends and Valentine's Day,
and we have done some entertaining.  


We have friends who have purchased a lot 
close to our home and they are coming down 
to work on plans for their home.  They invited us 
over to the Garza Blanca Resort, and we and Miss Madi K 
spent the day with them.  The picture above is out 
on their deck overlooking the pools.  All rooms have 
a hammock!  Everything was so luxurious. They were 
ready to open and then Covid hit, so they weren't able 
to open right away, so the resort is like brand new. 


The bedroom and bathroom were like from a movie set.


Look at this bench in the shower. 


When you enter the suite you think this is just a 
mirrored wall, but it is a huge sliding door that 
leads into the master bedroom.  I want one of these!



I brought my new coordinating tote that 
Deb gifted me.  I put my makeup in it as we 
were heading to dinner after the pool.  


We had shrimp, shrimp, shrimp poolside.  This was 
quite the place.  Miss Madi K carried all of the necessities 
to the pool!  I do worry a little when I take her to a pool, 
as she is quite valuable, and it would be horrible 
if someone walked off with her.


My friends surprised me with a 
sunset sailing adventure for 
my birthday 
through Cabo Sails, 
 complete with 
a birthday sash, crown and 
even a candle.  


My smaller tote came along for this adventure, 
filled with a shawl in case it got chilly. 


They paid extra for a special occasion cake and had 
even been asked how to spell my name, so we all 
had a good laugh when they brought this out.  I 
think they forgot about the cake and improvised. 


Despite the cake, the rest of the food was delicious 
and we had a wonderful time.

Valentine's dinner was with friends at 
Marea at the Montage Resort.  They have the 
most amazing lobster.  They had a special 
heart shaped chocolate mousse for dessert 
and then gifted everyone strawberries and 
cake pops.  Marea is situated ocean front and 
is one of our favorite special occasion places. 


I am blessed to have such wonderful and 
fun friends who love to travel too.  This group 
photo was taken at a lovely restaurant called 
Secret Garden. 



We always have to take an iconic pool photo.


Later we had another group of friends come and 
we did the sailing adventure with them.  The water 
was a little rougher,


and although the food was amazing again, people 
got a little seasick and didn't eat much. 


I brought my smaller tote along this time too. 


We still had a great time, 


and the sunset out on the ocean was fantastic. 


This is a sunset from the house.  We try to 
go to dinner after sunset every evening 
so we can watch it from home.  

While we are 
enjoying the sun and fabulous weather, the 
kids are being dumped on with record snows 
and it is supposed to snow again all week. We 
need the water, so that is good, but we are 
worried about the snow load on the roof and deck
of our Sundance home.

Thanks for coming along with me, my totes and 
our friends.  

Now for the giveaway:



Please visit my MacKenzie-Childs friends to 
see where they have been off to.

  Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney ChildsThe French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader



See you again in June!

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Tales of the Traveling Tote #33 and A Giveaway

Welcome to our 33rd edition of 
Tales of the Traveling Tote.  I joined
this wonderful group of MacKenzie-Child's 


loving ladies in December of 2017.
My tote has traveled all over the 
world, but today it returns 
to the world that lives on a 
snowflake - to Whoville!


Miss Madi K's first Tales of the 
Traveling Tote was also to 
Whoville, but things were 
bigger and better this year.



She already has had two parties 
and it is only December 1st.



We invited the Relief Society ladies, 
our church group, over for a 
party to make our hearts grow three 
sizes this year.  Everyone brought 
needed supplies for refugee families. 
The supplies were dropped off in 
the Grinch's sleigh out front and 
we had so many that the sleigh and 
porch were overflowing.
 

We had about 50 ladies come for dinner, 
all Grinchy food of course. 




Miss Madi K and I are so enchanted 
with Whoville that we have decided 
to make that our theme for our 
Christmas Eve dinner, and we even 
found some plates that The Grinch 
approved!


We have lots of Dept. 56 villages, but 
only some pieces have increased in 
value and they are the Original
How The Grinch Stole Christmas 
houses. This is Cindy Lou Who's House, 


The Town Hall, 


and Farfingles Department Store.  I had 
purchased Cindy's house for all of my 
kids years ago, so it was so cute when 
my youngest son who is 28, said this 
year that he would like to inherit the 
Town Hall and Farfingles!


They are all displayed on my 
Whoville kitchen counter.  

Thanks for traveling to a place 
that is special in our hearts, 
Whoville!!!

Now for the giveaway, 
which all Who's would love, 


Visit Linda and leave a 
comment to be entered in 
for this darling keychain. 

Then hop on over to our TTT 
friends and see where they have 
been off to.


  
Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney ChildsThe French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader


Join us again in March for another 

Tales of the Traveling Tote.



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