The Turtle Man is officially five years old!
Once the lawsuits are settled and ServPro is paid for services rendered (it was that epic), the weekend of May 20th-22nd 2016 will be one for the record books! First though, I had to secure pick up of my most precious cargo of Sloane on Friday evening. Since the NRA (National Rifle Association) decided they needed to host their national convention and endorse Agent Orange in Louisville, KY this past Friday, a usual pain in the ass drive suddenly became borderline comical. Again, with a little co-parenting (gets weird to type that every time), other arrangements were made and Sloane and I were reunited a little later than usual but made the most of it!
To kick off the power packed weekend Sloane and Miss Madison Jr. where off to crash an eighth-grade semi-formal dance. It helps when the chaperone happens to be Miss Madison. I was unable to attend (more on that in a sec), but from all reports I received the little duo was hanging in there doing their best “Watch Me Whip/Watch Me Nae Nae” routines and gorging themselves on watermelon and snacks. Miss Madison did her job of keeping the teenage pregnancy rate down (was I that naive as an eighth grader), and all my favorite ladies returned home safe and sound. I would offer up some pics, but Miss Madison hasn’t been trained in the Jedi ways of the blog life, or she was super busy! I, on the other hand, had to make a grocery run because the fate of one soon to be five-year-old boy hung in the balance!
It’s no secret I’m “kind” of handy in the kitchen, I can cook/bake with the best of them. However, I don’t even pretend to have a clue when it comes to decorating a cake. When Miss Madison threatened to put Ex-Lax in my Diet Dr. Pepper or wash my clothes with a detergent made from poison ivy concentrate if I didn’t make the Turtle Man a superhero cake for his birthday, I quickly took notes! Friday night while my girls were creating demo tapes for Dancing With the Stars, I was attempting to build the best damn cake any young boy would be proud of!
Using a cake recipe that is rumored to have been the start of the French Revolution. I set out to make the Turtle Man a cake that would make him the envy of all the boys at preschool. A few cracked eggs and flour bombs (or was it F bombs) later, I had the cake made and created my own top secret icing for the little chocolate lover. Mental note, just turn the mixer off when adding flour, really just turn it off! I had more white powdery substances on my counters than a local heroin dealer! Throw in some All-American M & M’s, Kit-Kats, superheroes, and voila. How did I do?
I’m really hoping to get the Carol Cake Making Society endorsement for this one!
Actually, the recipe for the cake is here. The frosting was a pound of cream cheese, four cups (or so) of powdered sugar, two sticks of butter, a tablespoon of vanilla extract (I use the real stuff), and a cup of melted semisweet chocolate chips. Not recommended if you are trying to cut calories, recommended if you like watching your personal scale find newer and bigger numbers. This concludes the food blogger portion of today’s post.
The cake was Turtle Man approved, and his party was Skipah approved! I haven’t seen Sloane have this much fun since we went to Holiday World last summer. The Madison Gymnastics World is run like a military boot camp, but watching Sloane and all the other kids living it up like they had all hit the sugar lottery was well worth it. A quick note to the staff, god forbid if one kid spent an extra 45 seconds putting his/her shoes on. I don’t think Hitler ran Germany with that much of an iron fist! When my unreleased comedy sitcom hits CBS in 2025, the first thing I’m doing with my newfound wealth is building a competing venue and putting them out of business!
All of the adults were just chomping at the bit to take a turn in the foam block nirvana!
The Turtle Man turned five, and Sunday he and his sibling got to spend it with their other parent. That left Miss Madison, Sloane, and I with way too much time on our hands. While Mr. Skipah was turning down product reviews of the finest in Chinese junk via email, Miss Madison treated Sloane to a “girls” day getting pedicures and trading jokes about good ole dad. Seeing how those two bond when I’m not around is a big “puffy” heart moment for me!
Evidently it was a “toe-tapping” good time!
After they were done having strangers from Asia run their hand all over their feet, the three of us hit the links (Putt-Putt style) for some good old-fashioned miniature golf! Jokes were aplenty, as Miss Madison and Sloane have this new found “secret” code when referring to me! Since this was my first time putting at the Clifty Golf Range, I quickly lost any credibility I thought I had with the Putt-Putt Hall of Fame, but still managed to show the gals who reigns supreme in these parts navigating windmill replicas and grass colored indoor/outdoor carpeting.
Mind if I play through?
Thank you, Camelot Kitten for winning me some Lego
goodies!
My work here is done for the weekend!
About it for now, cue up the Alice Cooper this week though as School’s Out For Summer this Wednesday. We’re back on normal parenting time for dad, and that means 50/50 until August! Miss Madison and I have a whole summer’s worth of fun in the making: Back to Door County, Wisconsin for a week, a long weekend in Chicago, the Breyer Festival, and potentially a trip to St. Louis to throw rocks at Cardinals players…err I mean visit the City Museum.
Thanks :), last day of school is today we are back on 50/50!
So glad they (and you) had so much fun! And that’s an awesome looking cake!
I would say you need to get out more, but then I know you don’t let any grass grow on your feet!
Wonderful! Fab cake! Well done! I totally wanna jump in that pit of foam! So jealous of Sloane! Who wouldn’t enjoy that? Haven’t played putt-putt in a while, either…
I need s’more fun! 😀
Definitely lacking on the sense of humor at Gymnastics World!
I’m more impressed than I can say that you know how to make a cake, Gary. It looked almost too good to eat (but I would definitely still have eaten it). I’m sorry to hear that Madison Gymnastics World is now being run by the Gestapo. I mean, obviously the number of seconds a child takes to take off and put on footwear is an issue of global importance, but even so…
You girls and pedis & manis LOL. I might have to try one out to see what the fuss is about!
Thank Terri :), it was a great weekend!
What a lovely time! My daughter loves to get her nails done too. And the trampolines - there’s a park near us.
Love that cake, choco heaven! How adorable is Sloane all curled up after a long day! There is so much joy in this post, Gary, but I am still cracking up at “strangers from Asia running their hands all over their feet.” Bahahahaha! Well, I love it. 😉
I might share your sentiments if I was the standard nuclear family LOL.
That was the underlying conversation among the adults, “Do they rent this out for tea and kool aid drinking parties for grown ups?”
That cake looks DIVINE! My kids were jealous when they saw it. 🙂
Gymnastics place looks like such fun! Can adults rent it out?! Lol!
Love hearing Sloane and Miss Madison having such a good relationship!
And whoa! Summer 50/50?! YAY!!!!
We don’t sit still very long on our weekends :), you have a good week also!
Getting my yet to be hired event coordinator on this ASAP!
Wow Gary, that was a fun filled weekend! And the cake was awesome! Have a great week! 🙂
The city museum is incredible. I really wish I had met the brilliant weird-o that built it. Summer. More Sloane. That’s a plus. For me less school is a minus.
Yes, please do. We could do a bloggers meet and greet with other local bloggers.
Thanks!
Gotta love a man with his priorities straight! Carry on Mate!
Thanks Anne! It really wasn’t that hard, just a little time consuming.
Haven’t had a whole lot of time to do much blogging, softball through the week is killing my free time and when Sloane and I are together on the weekends we don’t gather any moss :).
Thanks Double T! I’d love to take her to D.C. at some point, what little time I was there wasn’t long enough!
Hopefully this becomes the norm :).
What a fun post! Congratulations on that super cake!
So that’s where you’ve been! Corrupting our youth’s diets and playing putt putt! Happy that summer is here and you get to be with your daughter!
Wow! You did an amazing job on the cake Gary. Happy Birthday to the Turtle Man! More time with Sloane is awesome. Hopefully, ya’ll will get back to the Washington, DC area this summer?
I see the word co-parenting twice in less than a month? Wow. So glad to hear that while the corner might not be turned it is at least in sight.
The foam pit was rather tempting!
Happy birthday to the Turtle Man! I’ll keep my mouth shut about the cake.
That gymnastics world looks awesome though, I’d be ready to take the plunge in that foam pit too. Glad 50/50 is back in for you, and I’m positive Sloane is too.