Celebrating 24 (And How to Make Your Own Edible Arrangement)

Dalin turned 24 today and we have had (if I do say so myself) an awesome day.

We began the day with gifts (like running sneakers from me, a Red Sox hat from Tenley, and a heart rate monitor from both of us, plus a few small things) and a home-made edible arrangement for breakfast. I had been researching arrangements online the last couple days and could not bring myself to spend $35+ on fruit on a stick, so I decided I would attempt to make my own. 

And let me just say, it's a lot harder than it looks, no matter how crafty you are. 

For your own, start with some kind of vase, container, or decorative bucket. I learned the hard way that, before doing anything, you need to put some kind of weight at the bottom like a few rocks or marbles or something. The fruit really throws things off balance and if you forget to add weight, you'll probably have to take your arrangement apart like I did. 

You also need a foam piece. I got mine from the Dollar Store in the fake flowers section. I was going to get wooden skewers there, too, but apparently they are seasonal. 

Next you need a selection of fruit. I got an orange, grapes, strawberries, pineapple, honeydew, cantaloupe, kiwi, and bananas. 

Then you bust out the cutting board, knife, and small cookie cutters. As you can see from the disaster below, the fruit was not cooperating the way I had imagined. 

The pineapple and kiwi especially broke apart too easily when I attempted to cut it with a cookie cutter. I also started with irregular shaped pieces, so it's hard to know if I had cut my own fresh full-sized pineapple or whatever, if things would have been a little easier. But, I was lazy and clearly didn't do the math in my head, otherwise I would not have bought the packages of cut fruit like I did. 

Basically, the project was kind of a disaster even though Dalin still loved it, but here are the cons that I would be more cautious of in the future:
Cons: 

• The fruit is really sticky. The more you mess around with it, the stickier things get. I would have a better plan beforehand so you aren't just playing around with the fruit. 
• I didn't go by a model. I just winged it which would probably have been fine if I was a professional but clearly I'm not. Find a picture of a bouquet you want to copy. 
• When inserting the skewers into the foam with fruit on them, I did so haphazardly. I should have started from the middle and worked outward because once I had the ones on the outside in place, it was really difficult to carefully put the middle ones in. 
• The fruit slid down the skewers and tore on them. Cut thick, (cold) pieces of fruit and if possible, use melted chocolate or something similar to be a barricade. Otherwise the fruit softens in the room temperature air and loses its grip (kind of like I did during this project). Once it slides down the skewer (or especially if it tears), the piece is pretty much useless. 
• I bought pre-cut pieces. This made the project even more challenging because I had to kind of squish the cookie cutters on the piece trying to make the best fit possible. If I had had one large flat piece, cutting would have been a breeze (at least comparably--the pineapple would still be tricky). 

Later, someone gave me a tip saying that freezing the fruit is helpful and then refrigerating the whole thing after it's completed. 

Here was my final result, which doesn't look altogether terrible, but is nowhere near the professional appearance I had been hoping to end up with. 

Other notes: 

The front center thing is a peppermint patty with green tube frosting on it. The grapes, oranges, and the bananas (when inserted through the side as shown in the back) were the least slippery and easiest to do. The plain strawberries and the chocolate-covered strawberries weren't bad either (though the longer they were on the more they started to slip). Everything else sucked and was horrible to work with.

If you try this out, I want to hear what your experience is!

As for the rest of our day after presents and breakfast, well...

nap time for my babies ;)

Took a quick walk to check the mail 

Baby girl loved daddy's balloons and it was so cute watching her play with them.

She kept staring up at dad. So stinking precious. 

My cutest girl, Tenley "bowling" for the first time.

The birthday boy man!

The pro-bowler (jk ;)

In action.

Well, at least I sucked less than the birthday boy ;)

Shooting some hoops at the Provo Beach Resort arcade

She all of a sudden just fell asleep. 

At the movies (we were the only ones there like usual) watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Momma and baby

She loves touching Dalin's face

At an infant massage class. It was fun!

Tenley didn't know how she felt about it. 

We rested and Dalin's sister Shaina came over with a sweet Puma hat for her brother. Then we went to Costa Vida for lunch and ate really delicious burritos. Even though they don't do anything for birthdays, the girl gave us a free cookie which was nice. Then we bowled a string next door at Fat Cats. After that, we went to the Provo Beach Resort at the Riverwoods and played a few arcade games (I beat Dalin at Connect Four, yes!) and Dalin beat me at air hockey (but only because I was holding Tenley in one arm...). We got candy and three stretchy lizard toys with our tickets. 

At four, we walked over to the theater and purchased tickets to see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. We were the only ones there. We walked into theater 9 which was pitch black. We thought maybe they hadn't started the movie because they thought no one was coming to see it. So I called the front desk and was like, "Hi, we just walked in like a minute ago and we're in theater 9 and it's completely dark." The girl was like, "Oh sorry, we'll start that for you." A minute or two later, the previews come on and we watch all of them. Then the previews end and the screen is gray. We were like, "Oh crap" and were laughing at our luck. I called the front desk again and said, "Hello, I'm not sure if it was you I spoke with before, but we are in theater 9 and just watched all the previews and now the screen is gray." The girl apologized and said someone would fix it right away. We kept laughing about the situation and then the previews music comes on again and then suddenly the movie comes on--but the previews music is still playing. We watched the whole first scene thinking it was going to be fixed then we were like, "Maybe we're not meant to watch this movie." So after I failed to convince Dalin to call this time, I walked out to the lobby (only because they ignored my calls twice in a row so I figure they knew my number by then) and told them (laughing) that the movie was playing but the preview music was playing over the sound. The girl nicely told me sorry and that they were just waiting for the digital thing to re-set. Finally, I returned to the theater and the movie had restarted and the sound was on. And I'm glad we stayed because we loved the movie! Ben Stiller is hilarious and the movie was so cool. We laughed a lot during it and would definitely say it's worth seeing. It really exceeded my expectations. Also, it's hilarious and clean, which is awesome. 

After the movie, we drove to the Provo Public Library to attend an infant massage class with my friend, Hillary. It was only like forty minutes long and I thought it was fun! There were a dozen other babies there and it was fun to see so many babies around the same stage as Tenley. 

We finished off the night at home watching a show in bed eating fruit snacks. Dalin said that he had a really good time celebrating his birthday. Little does he know about my little surprise for him tomorrow!

Have you ever been to an infant massage class?
Or have you watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (and if so, what did you think)?