Ice cream sandwich cake--easiest summertime dessert ever!

Sometimes there's a good reason to pull together a yummy summertime dessert--but sometimes no explanation is necessary at all. Surprise your kids one day out of the blue with this sitting waiting for them when they get home from school. Invite some friends over to dig in. Turn it into a birthday cake for a party--no baking required. Make it for the long weekend--because, well, it's the long weekend. Seriously it's delicious and amazing---and I promise you, it's ridiculously easy to make. For the person who can't even imagine making a cake, this one is for you. You can impress your guests with a home made ice cream cake, and it will literally take you minutes to pull together.





I've made ice cream cakes in the past (click HERE and HERE for other recipes), but then my sister told me about a recipe that her old neighbour told her about (thanks Krestena!)...so we just had to try it.



It's ice cream cake. Made with ice cream sandwiches. Filled with whatever ice cream you want, whatever decadent chocolate bars you want to chop up and put inside and whatever favourite toppings you want to add. You can't mess this up. You can't go wrong. Just add whatever you love and it will turn out amazing.

I had made this one awhile ago and decided that I'd go with chocolate ice cream, Reese peanut butter cups chopped up, chocolate sauce and melted peanut butter drizzled in between. But you can choose whatever chocolate bar or treats or combo that you prefer.

So, here is how I did it:

Line a dish with parchment paper (keep the edges sticking out so you can use them to pull the cake out of the dish in the end) then lay as many store bought ice cream sandwiches down flat as will fit to cover the bottom completely.

Add ice cream on top and smooth it down carefully, making a layer of ice cream about an inch thick.

Drizzle chocolate sauce (or whatever sauce you like) over top of the smoothed out ice cream. I added melted peanut butter over top of mine as well. But do whatever you prefer!

Place another layer of ice cream bars on top.

Then add another layer of ice cream, chocolate drizzle and chopped up chocolate bars or Smarties or whatever you choose. If your dish is really deep, keep layering until you reach the top (but make sure to end with ice cream and drizzle and chocolate bars on top as a garnish).

Then pull the parchment paper up and out of the dish and place the cake on a serving tray. Or dig right in--whatever works! Instant ice cream cake. Try it..you'll love it!

Happy long weekend everyone!
Hope it's amazing.

Erica xo

When Mother's Day is still as exhausting as any other day

All that I want for Mother's Day is a picture of me with the kids, I told Terry. Just a picture, please.

Because I'm always worried that since I'm the one behind the camera most of the time that our kids will one day look back on our family photos and wonder why there are so few pictures of them with their mom throughout their childhood.

So, as we hurried the kids through the morning trying to rush over to mom and dad's for our traditional Mother's Day brunch, we stopped for a moment to try to get that picture that I wanted.

So the flash went off, as we stood on those stairs, and everything was good for a moment...

then in a flash--literally--things went downhill fast.

Because babies will cry without warning...

And the words "Just keep shooting Terry" will come out of my mouth--because a few seconds of shooting something that resembles a photo is better than nothing at all.

And as I ultimately gave up on this little photo shoot moments after those baby tears fell, and then snuggled my girl until she was calm again, I took a look through the images that Terry caught that morning and it made me laugh. Because THIS is what Mother's Day really looked like in our house yesterday.

A simple photo shoot that ended in tears and a missing boy who gave up and left to get his truck part way through it--this is what motherhood sometimes really looks like.



So as much as I'd like to claim that my Mother's Day was relaxing, refreshing and calm (as it's apparently supposed to be)--the true reality of a mom with little ones is that you never really get a day off. You never get to sit back and hand the baby over for the day and pretend that no one is going to call your name a million times or need a scraped knee kissed, or their food cut up, or their clothes changed or another drink. Because motherhood is something that doesn't stop for a holiday.

And you know what?
That's okay.

All the moms and their kids (including adult kids!) at our Mother's Day brunch that we have every year.

Because this moment in time that we're living in right now--this moment where babies need you constantly, where kids still cling to your leg, wake us up at night and cry over the simplest of things...well, these are the days that we'll look back on and pine for one day. But these are also the days when we need a Mother's Day the most--because these are the days with little kids when we're in the thick of parenting. When we're living a life where every inch of us is spent raising our family and caring for everyone else around us, most times, instead of ourselves. So the dream of a day where we get catered to completely, a day where we can relax, a day where we don't have to lift a finger--well that's the ultimate dream for Mother's Day, which to most of us just isn't reality.

So as I was prepping the brunch details, nursing a baby, tying ponytails in hair and convincing little people to please go pee, the words "I just want to at least feel like I'm getting some sort of break today" came out of my mouth as Terry equally took part in the busyness of the day. And then, that night after the kids went to bed, as I fell into the couch exhausted from the day, Terry put out his hand to me and led me to our ensuite where a warm bubble bath was waiting for me. A bubble bath with soft music playing beside me and dimmed chandelier lights glowing above me. A bath where I could just lay there alone--in peace and quiet. Where the only interruption that I had was Terry coming in to ask me if I'd like another sip of the drink that he had put beside me.

So no, at this stage in our life, Mother's Day is just not going to be a fairy tale day of peace, quiet and relaxation. And that's okay.  Because I got my moment. And if I've learned anything from being a mom it's that you need to enjoy the moments that you get--the good ones, and the tough ones...because ultimately those moments will tell the story of your family and your life.

So the moments when big sisters write little brothers sweet notes when he is away for the day...

or the moments when big kids find Sophia's extra soothers and I find them set up in the living room looking like THIS... (remember it wasn't so long ago when the Soother Fairy came and visited Carter??) ...this soother went into hiding again SO fast after we had a good laugh at these two...

or the moments when time stops as a little boy inspects worms...

or when he gets to live out his dream and sit in huge cement trucks that pour cement onto our new walkway...

or moments when babies remind you every day how lucky you are to be their mom...THESE are the moments that we need to remember on Mother's Day.

We'll save the spa days and full days off for when the kids are a bit older.

So although I'm not exactly at a point in our life where a complete day of pampering and relaxation is my reality, I'll take the moments that I get. I'll take the hugs, the kisses, the "I love yous" and the home made gifts made at school that I'll cherish and hold onto forever. I'll take the moments where I'm told to sit down, the moments when my plate is served for me and when I'm told to eat first--because these are the little things that make Mother's Day, to me, feel almost as good as a full day at the spa.

Almost.

And a bubble bath? Well, I'll take that any day. Thanks Terry.

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to my most wonderful mom and mother-in-law. We love you!
And Happy Mother's Day to the rest of the moms out there in the thick of parenting alongside us, and also to those who are done raising their families and who get to now step back and admire the great job that they have done.

Love Erica xo

Milk and Cookies party: Sophia's 1st Birthday!

I had a moment the day that she turned one where it hit me. Where I had flashbacks to that amazing day one full year ago when our baby girl decided to make her grand entrance into this world. Where I had the most out of body experience that I've ever had as I gave birth to her, as she shot into this world in a matter of minutes, almost in the hospital hallway, almost before anyone was there to catch her. I scrolled back through to that blog post that I wrote that day--her crazy birth story (HERE) so that I could re-read it and remember all of the details, because I just don't ever want to forget it.

Our third baby. Our sweet baby Sophia. The most perfectly adorable baby girl who was placed in my arms that early April morning, and who I have been holding close ever since.

And so for a full year we have been learning how a family of five works. We have been learning how to parent when we're clearly outnumbered. We have had days when we feel like we're nailing this whole parenting gig, when we have looked at our kids and feel so ridiculously blessed and when everything is going perfectly right. Then we have had days when we feel utterly defeated and completely exhausted, questioning if we're doing things correctly, questioning what we could do better. Because parenting is designed to teach you as you go, to force you to make mistakes and learn from them, and to steal ideas from others who have done this before, and to love on your kids like you've never loved before. Because although everyone has different ways of parenting, although everyone approaches their children and their needs in different ways, the one thing that I've learned is that everyone's intentions are the same: everyone is just trying to love their kids. Our approaches might be different, but our intentions are the same.

And loving them we certainly are.

But the true reality of having three kids is that although it is the most incredible thing in the world, and the best thing I've ever done in my life, it can also be absolutely exhausting. So with Sophia's birthday quickly approaching, I decided that we would do a family party for her, but we'd pass on the big party with friends. Because just thinking about the effort of putting a party together made me want to crawl into bed and take a nap.

But at the very last minute, I decided to just go for it. Because you only turn one once.

So we decided to invite our group of friends who have been there with us from the beginning--a group of friends who were from our original mommy group from way back when Mya was a baby. A group of friends who have been there for babies being born, for first steps and then first days of kindergarten. They have been there for devastating losses of babies, and for joyous celebrations of new birth. We have laughed over the funny things that our kids have done, cried over the hard times, comforted and encouraged each other with zero judgement when our kids at different times weren't behaving like angels, and ultimately just been there for each other. So what better way to celebrate the year that we have just been through than with a few of the people who have been there with us from the beginning.

So, as I quickly tried to throw some sort of plans together very last minute, I decided that a milk and cookies theme would be super cute and relatively easy to pull off.



And these milk bottles? Well, they were my inspiration. Because a milk and cookies party just isn't complete without adorable little glass bottles.



So we had chocolate milk, strawberry milk and regular milk...



and a table full of cookies.

And when people asked how I pulled this off with such short notice? Well, the answer that I gave them was the truth--I had a lot of help.



The day before the party my parents helped out with the kids while I made the cake, put up the decorations and got things organized.






And myself along with Jen and my mom baked up a storm, while my mother-in-law Judy bought and plated other food for our guests.

And I stayed up late, worked through nap times, and ultimately threw it together as quickly as I could.

So we played circle games where a detective had to find the person who stole the cookie from the cookie jar...

and decorated cookies with icing and candies...





and had cookie races on spoons...

where everyone got to eat their cookie and pick from the prize bucket regardless of how many cookies ended up on the grass.
 

And they played on our playground...

and ate lots of cake.

And just as the sugar high kicked in, we headed out onto our court, got their helmets on and let them burn off some energy. 

Just in time to be sent home with some more mini cookies to nibble on, from the birthday girl herself.





Happy birthday to our sweet Sophia.

We love you more than you'll ever know.

Love mom and dad xox