Monday, November 30, 2009

Costco Cakes - yum!

The path towards parenthood has led us in many interesting directions. Once we decided that my husband will stay at home with Max, it led us down a bath of budgeting - a task I'm admittedly hopeless at as I can't resist spoiling the little guy. But, we can recognize a deal from a million miles away and we are always looking for a good one.

Many months ago - at my baby shower - I was introduced to the glory of the Costco sheet cake. It is absolutely fabulous and my husband swears that it is irresistible when frozen (details of how we made that discovery to follow)...let me start to when we first sunk our teeth into this yummy treat.

Our baby shower was about a month before I head the little guy - so early November and my husband discovered the option of a cake from Costco. For only $16.99 that beast is HUGE. I had gestational diabetes so had to be immensely careful with what I ate but allowed myself a tiny sliver of that cakey treat. Heaven, that is all I can say. We ended up taking 3/4 of it home post shower and snacking on it forkful by forkful until we had to throw it away or turn into complete "bloaters" (as Nick says). Since then we only allow ourselves the cake on VERY special occasions. A couple of weeks ago a Wednesday became a very special occasion and Nick surprised me with a cake in the fridge. We ate far too much and when we had to get rid of it, Nick decided to freeze some just so he would be able to e3njoy a few more bites. Now he is a total convert and prefers it frozen.

Here is an example of how they look:



So..all this to say the Costco cakes are a STEAL. You can buy some pre-made on the spot or fill in the form to personalize your cake. They ask for about 24 hours notice. You then choose your type of cake - vanilla or chocolate - and then your icing - vanilla buttercream, chocolate cream, or cream cheese - and finally your filling vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry mouse. Then for a whopping almost $17.00 you get a pretty masssive cake that can feed something like 28 people.  They have several different themes for birthdays alone (we chose the clown theme for Max's big 1st birthday party this weekend) and then some other themes you can choose from (an obvious example - baby showers!).

If you aren't looking for any kind of well known theme (no Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer,  Yo Gabba Gabba) or are willing to do a little DIY decorations on the cake - I say this is a GREAT party option for anyone - especially those partying on a budget!

- Tali

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Introductions

My husband and I are the proud parents of an adorable, enegery filled bundle of trouble who is about to turn 1. He loves to explore, push buttons, listen to musc, read books, and eat dirt. Who doesn't really? In the year we have had little Maximoo (affectionately known as, of course) we have had every toy, gadget, fad - everyting we could reasonably afford - and some we couldn't. But we never felt like we had a real resource for information. So we have decided to start one.

Some background on us? We are two total video game nerds who hope that our son will one day invent the next Guitar Hero so we can retire in luxury. We are from opposite sides of the ocean but despite the geographical differences, appreciate a lot of the same things. We love sci-fi, horror movies, playing too many hours of video games (Call of Duty and Ratchet & Clank being the favorites at the moment), and video chatting with our internationally located families. I am a bookaholic and would note my two favorite series at the moment to be Game of Thrones and the Sookie Stackhouse books.

Maximoo, on the other hand - has his own set of favorites - Yo Gabba Gabba and Fresh Beat Band can hold his attention like nothing else (a fabulous distraction when changing a diaper - otherwise we end up with a handful of poo) , he loves his little ball pit which lives in the living room, his new Little People firetruck that he hasn't quite learned how to ride on, and any book - for this crazy energy ball, he can spend a very long time sitting and looking at pictures. Oh - he also likes to use his high chair as a walker. Who knew it was multi-functional?

We hope that this blog will be a resource for new and old parents alike as well as a place where other parents can share their opinions (or book or video game recommendations - we will take it all!) Hope you enjoy!

- Tali (aka BabyMomma)