How to Make A Diaper Cake

Kaylin and I made a diaper cake for my cousin Sarah's baby shower. If you've ever tried to make them you probably know they're trickier to put together than you would immediately think. Here are some easy pointers:

1. When you roll up the diapers, use a construct of cardboard to give the cake structure. We cut strips from a pizza box and a cereal box and taped them together to make a circle that we fit the diapers inside.

2. We wrapped a receiving blanket around each diaper layer. Tuck the excess portion of the receiving blanket in between the diaper and the cardboard. This will make it tight and also give it a nice ruching (is that how you spell it?) around the edge. I thought it gave it some nice flair.

3. Wrapping the ribbon around each layer proved to be the most challenging thing because the ribbon kept slipping and not staying tight. I recommend using small pins to keep them in place. We just used small pins you would use when sewing which were able to stay inconspicuous.

4. Our initial plan was put the goodies we bought for Sarah on the diaper cake but we had too much stuff! A quick solution: using one of those baskets you put in the dishwasher to put it all in. I think it turned out really cute. If you look, there is a green receiving blanket on the bottom, we also used a flat piece of cardboard to wrap the green receiving blanket around it to give the cake something sturdy to sit on.

5. Use real flowers. This was Kaylin's genius idea. It looked so fancy.

Farewell

My Grandpa Phillips passed away in early June. Such a bittersweet moment. He was ready to move on and be reunited with my grandma who had passed away more than ten years ago. But, oh, what a sad good bye. I miss him, he was such a good man.

One of the funny things about traveling to Oregon for the funeral was we all stayed at my grandpa's house. We haven't slept there in years. Imagine ten adults camped out in my grandpa's living room. My cousin Tracy was pregnant and was a champ--she took the couch but I can only imagine it was uncomfortable.

My grandpa served in WWII and as a veteran we had a five-gun salute for him.

My little cousin Chloe. What a cutie.

How much I miss you, Grandpa.

A Quick Recap

England wasn't the only big adventure I had this summer.

My youngest sister graduated high school and Kaylin and I traveled up to Washington for the big day. It started out great, until the clouds parted and rain descended. It poured for about ten minutes and ruined any chance of straight hair I had for the evening. I have to admit, it was kind of fun.

Camping in Cache Valley up some canyon--the name has escaped me now.

Waterskiing on East Canyon. A picture of my roommate Carrie and me.

My first time wakeboarding--talk about intimidating! I was able to stand up which I was quite proud of but wasn't able to do much more than that. Ah, well, I'm not complaining. The lake was beautiful and the company great.

The End

Saying Good Bye

Inside the London Temple Accommodations--they have a kitchen! We made microwave dinners that last night there. After eating out so much, it wasn't too bad.

Inside Asda, which seemed a lot like Wal-Mart only cleaner. This is the trick when you buy chocolate and treats for your friends and family--buy it at a grocery store. Much cheaper. We got a lot of looks because we had a grocery cart filled to the brim with candy. As if they couldn't already tell we were tourists.

Holding up one of my favorite English treats--lemon curd! Sounds gross, but it's delicious. It mostly tastes like the lemon filling you'd find in a lemon meringue pie. So imagine that on top of bread, a muffin, or crumpets which is one of my other favorite foods I tried over there.

Check out our conveyor belt overflowing with chocolate. No, we were not popular. We held up the line and got some ghastly death glares.

More candy.

Saying good bye. This picture kills me. Look at Kaylin, she really looks like she's going to cry.

And then in this one, she looks like she's about to laugh.

The London Temple Experience

After our experience in the Nottingham hostel, we had the privilege to stay in the London Temple Accommodations. I say privilege because I think anytime you can be on temple grounds, it's a privilege.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, the temple accommodations happens to be the old London MTC converted into dormitory-style housing for members to stay in when they visit the temple. It's a wonderful thing. It only cost us ten pounds a night per person, or roughly $15 or $20 for one night. If I ever go back to London I'm just going to go straight to the temple accommodations. Of course, the London Temple is like an hour outside of London, but they have public transit to get you there!

Check out our sweet bunk beds.

Here's the thing about staying at the temple, as soon as we arrived we were home. We were halfway across the world and I was at home. I mean, wow. I wish more people understood that. All during our trip we were the recipients of some of the nicest people I've ever met who gave me so much without any thought to themselves, but there is such an amazing feeling at the temple. I felt so at ease. It's one of my favorite memories of the trip.

Our last morning there, Carrie, Mindy, and I did a session in the temple. Great times! Kaylin did baptisms and Allyson had every intention of doing baptisms as well but discovered that her recommend was expired. Oops!