Little Baby! :-D

...of our friend the Castros! Kellie and Emanuel Castro had their little baby Joseph this past December, and in October I had the pleasure of making Kellie's cake for her baby shower! Sharline Queen hosted it for Kellie and it was really nice to get to spend the afternoon with her, her mother and sister, friends from the branch, and some of Kellie's friends from work. She is such a WONDERFUL person and her and Emanuel are really, really nice and we are SO excited for their growing little family!

As of yet, we have no pictures of Jospeh, (but he is pretty stinking cute). I also have no pictures of the shower, BUT! I did take pictures of cake and preparations, so that is all I can post here

It was a lemon cake with raspberry cream filling. If I were to do it again, I would just have it plain raspberry filling, no cream, since it was TOO sweet and the raspberry cream didn't set up the way I would have liked. Another thing I may try is to make a white chocolate mousse and put raspberry extract (if there IS such a thing) into the mouse, and maybe fold in some fresh or frozen raspberries for the color, that would be pretty :o)

Here is the final product!:

....awww.... :o)
I made the baby about 3 days before I made the rest of the cake so that he could dry. I wanted the blanket to dry draped over the edge of the cake, so I thought to myself, "oh! I know! I will let it dry on the PAN! that is the PERFECT exact shape of the cake!" I was so excited about my brilliant plan...until I realized that I had to MOVE the baby to comething else to cook the cake. OOPS! Doing it again I am going to cook the cake first, then let the baby dry on the pan. I had to move the baby to a different bowl, and the blanket dried with a different arclength, so when I laid him on his little perch the blanket cracked :o( But! Have no fear! The beauty of fondaynt I just balled it up and threw it in the microwave for a few seconds and viola! It was as good as new to reshape!
I am a big fan of the little rubber duckie. It made me think of my sister the teek and my nephew alex. I love the picture of him with the rubber duckie suctioned cupped to his forhead. I contemplated sticking the duckie on this babies forehead but figured the reference would be a moot point and lost on the people at the shower ;o)
look at the babies cute little cubby arm rolls! and his little pacifier! When I had to move the baby to dry, the head also fell off and the arm fell off (it was a really tramatic move for the baby) so I had to stick him back together. He was cuter the first time, his face looks pretty flat now, but i think he still looks cute :o) Toy blocks!
A little Tonka Truck!

I don't have a rolling pin, so I had to wash off and use my baking spray bottle as a rolling pin for the fondant :o) I felt pretty official. I also used one of the jam jars also to roll out the fondant (the jam jar was heavier so it was easier to roll out). I had some pretty ghetto lines in the fondant from the lid of the jam jar and the spray bottle that I had to strategically roll out. Made things more interesting :o)


I love fondant! here is my favoirite recipe I found online (http://thecookduke.com/category/cakes/birthday-cake-ideas/):

"Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp of unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup of cold water
• 1 tsp of almond extract
• 1/2 cup of light corn syrup (If a corn syrup is not available, you can substitute it with a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy)
• 1 Tbsp of glycerin (some recipes say it’s optional, believe me, it’s a must)
• 2 lbs 10X confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp of white vegetable shortening

Directions:

• Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and let it rest for 2 minutes to soften
• Place the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds on High, until the gelatin dissolves
• Add the Almond extract
• Add the corn syrup and the glycerin and stir until the mixture is smooth and clear (if the mixture is not turning smooth and clear, microwave it for an additional 15 to 20 seconds on high and stir again)
• Sift 1 1/2 pounds of the sugar into a large bowl
• Make a hole in the sugar and pour the liquid mixture to it
• Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes sticky
• Sift some of the remaining 1/2 pound of sugar onto a smooth work surface and add as much of the remaining sugar as the mixture will take
• Knead the fondant, adding a little more sugar if necessary, to form a smooth, pliable mass
• Rub the vegetable shortening on your thumbs and knead it into the fondant
• Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and place it in a tightly sealed container to prevent it from drying out
• If the icing dries out and harden it can often be revived by popping it into a microwave oven for a few seconds and then kneading it back to life"


Here is the little baby! He has no legs under the blanket :o)










Here is a before and after shot of my kitchen (poor mark, I am SO lucky that he is so patient with me) I can make a pretty awesome mess when I put my mind to it ;o) Actually, I am pretty sure the kitchen mess factor is directionally proportional to the fun factor of the baking project :o)

I also made cupcakes for the baby shower. They are dark chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting:

we put them on top of little cardboard squares lined with foil and the wrapped them in plastic paper and tied it with ribbons and but little bangles on it :o) So cute!! :o)

All in all, it was really really fun and I had a great time cooking and decorating. The shower was really great and was a lot of fun. It was fun to spend time with the other ladies and Kellie's friends and help to welcome in her little baby boy!

*one final note: On the way over to kellies party I was loading everything into the car and Mark was like, "Teandra! Your pants!" yep! I had accidentally ripped the pocket of my jeans. oops! I went over to my friend Heathers house who lives by Kelli and she let me use a long sweater wrap jacket :o) Then, we drove together to the shower :o) How silly!

Mr. The Hawk

Mark and I were contemplating one day that in feeding the squirrels we were also feeding our friend Mr. The Hawk.

Mr. The Hawk is our friend that lives near Purdue Village; he circles around in the morning making hawk cries. It is pretty interesting and Mark and I like it a lot! He is a very pretty bird.

Mark was leaving to go to AFROTC one evening and told me that Mr. The Hawk was on our neighbors roof and that I should go take pictures! :-D So here he is!








Mr. The Hawk flew down onto the lawn and was walking around so I decided to take a MOVIE of him ! :-D

I was trying to solicit hawk noises from him so there is a meager "Mr. The Hawk" imitation at the beginning of this clip... enjoy!

FEEDING THE SQUIRRELS!

HOO-RAY!!! I LOVE PURDUE VILLAGE!!

Purdue Village is home to international grad students, married students, and...SQUIRRELS! and BUNNIES!! :-D it is SO great!



In the day we have squirrels, and at night the bunnies come out. :o) Me and Mark bought a few bags of raw peanuts with their shells on to feed to the squirrels :o)

It is a pretty good thing that Mark doesn't feed the squirrels like I do or else Purdue Village would be overrun by exceptionally chubby squirrels. Here are some videos of our escapades:







I loved feeding the squirrels! There was one that came back over and over and over to get a nut and then run and hide it, and get a nut, and run and hide it :o)

and who knows? Maybe because of our efforts and the forgetfulness of squirrels in re-finding their buried snacks we will have a large peanut crop in the vicinity of our apartment! :-)

Indiana Skies

Growing up in NM I was spoiled with BEAUTIFUL skies :o) I really, really REALLY love wide open skies with lots of clouds and beautiful sunsets. Indiana has its own sort of beautiful skies, and living across from the big green fields, it gives Mark and I ample opportunity to enjoy them :o)



there are definitely no mountains, but beautiful sunsets and gorgeous clouds are breathtaking however you look at them :o)

Some Purdue Students...

...have waaaaay too much time on their hands:



I have no idea what these students are studying, but for some reason, I am doubting that this particular construction project was for school credit...
it is pretty cool though :o)

They had water that went from the top level down a "water wheel spillway" thing into the moat. That ramp above is going over the moat, across a bridge that does between the Giza Sphinx arms, I am assuming to the front door. The moat is made from bails of hay that are lined with plastic to retain water.
here is the water that went from the top level down a "water wheel spillway" thing into the moat

pretty cool. I wish that we could have some of that there 'free-time' for mark and I. That would be GREAT!

Boilermaker Football

SO! Mark loooooooooooves boilermaker football. Well, Big 10 football. Well, college football. And basketball. But ESPECIALLY Purdue football. :o) We got to go to one of the first football games, and it was a lot of fun! People here reeeeeally get into boilermaker football.

Here are some of the people that bring their motor homes and school buses and camp in the field in front of our house, for example:

Here is me and mark decked out in Black and Gold (I am ashamed, it should be silver and cheery...but when in Rome... ;o)

Mark let me pick my FAVORITE of his Purdue shirts to wear :o) He is so great! Thar she 'b, Ross-Ade Stadium... oooo...
This I really liked. At the beginning of the game they presented the American and Indiana State Flag and we had the national anthem, and then they had this spoken devotional thing that everyone said that was about being american, and ended 'I AM AN AMERICAN' I really liked it :o)
This is during half time. They have the marching band come out and this guy stands on 'The World's Largest Drum' carrying a flag and they spin him around on it really really fast and run him up and down the field and beat on the drum. Still trying to figure this one out...
There is the cute little train! :-D




The game was really good, and we had to go into over time. I really thought we were going to win the game, then we missed the one point kick thingy and had to go into over time...

then it was 23/23 tied...

and then...:o( We LOST :o( Very very sad!

But! To cheer you up!! Here are some videos of the event!


here is the cute little train! :o)


here are people doing to "Boiler Up! " Cheer


Here are people doing people push-ups. In the student section, when they make a touchdown, some people grab other people and throw them up into the air for the amount of points Purdue has. I don't know why all the movies loaded so poorly, but, if you sortta look in the lower right hand corner you can see it, (if you squint)

And here, here is the play. If this had been GOOD, we would have won. As is...well...see for yourself *sniff sniff*

It sure was a lot of fun to go to the football game though! We hope to have more time to go next season, so I will keep you posted on it!

The Many Faces of Everyday Life

SO! Here are pictures of some faces Mark and I have encountered in our travels. :o) Enjoy!Organic Mr. Potato Head. (We never did end up eating this guy)

Dumbo in the clouds :o)


An alien, cyclops porpose with really long fins

This IS SO a face, I found this on the floor of the bath room in a rest stop. Yes. I went and got my camera. Yes. That is really yucky. It was so good, I had to have proof to show the goose. Mock me, but admit, there needed to be evidence.
Balding Pinocchio beginning to fib.


This little leaf has eyeballs! This is gus. He is our door man. Meaning he lives in the bottom stair of our apartment :o)
Cesear Muppet eating a fly.
A tiny brain.
A ...well, a face! It kinnda looks like he is sticking his tongue out and trying to eat jello in space.

Hope you liked them! :-D

The Many Faces of Teandra Pfeil

I was informed it would not be fair to not put the pictures of me up here too, :o)



as I usually have control of the camera, mark does not have as much opportunity to take candid shots of me. I think I am ok with the satus quo ;o)

The Many Faces of Mark Pfeil

What can I say? I like taking pictures of Mark! The majority of these are taken during the many trips we have taken together (he is WAY funner to take pictures of than the scenery ;o)



I am so lucky to be married to one of the greatest guys EVER. I am so lucky to get to know all of his many faces :o) It is such an adventure and a joy to be sealed forever and I am looking forward to what lies ahead on our path! :o)

Squirrel Park

So! There is a park in Purdue Village called squirrel park :o) We really like the park since it has swings, (AND squirrels!) but there are signs on it that say "for PV residenceonly"....I hate to admit it, but we did, one conference between sessions, go to squirrel park and have lunch BEFORE we moved into PV. OH THE GUILT! But! its ok that we go now since it is where we live. :o)

We take walks or ride bikes there and swing and feed the quirrels. We tried to take a picture of the pretty sunset one night, but it was really blurry, so we took a movie of it instead:





we never did find the squirrles that night :o(