Goodbye Twenties

I turned 30 last week! And celebrated in style… in Lake Tahoe… at a family reunion.  I’ll post more on that later, but I have to say I had a great week of celebrating.  First we celebrated with the Kinnersley family, then my mom took me shopping, then we celebrated in Modesto at my favorite steak house, with WAY too much chocolate cake (did I really say that?) and then @ Tahoe. It was a fabulous week.

My best surprise? WICKED tickets from my hubby! I AM THRILLED. Cannot wait for that! He also had many people say nice things about me and typed it up. (You know the things people would say to be nice at a funeral.) It made my day. He also surprised me with cake and ice cream (and so did his parents) which we shared with the family reunion. (Anna was funny, around lunchtime she said, “Mom we have to make you a cake!” then proceeded to ask me what kind I would like. knowing that Dave had gotten me a white cake with balloons on it, that is what I told her I wanted! sly devil, eh? She was pleased to see I got the cake I wished for!)  Dave bought candles and had my name on the cake, but unfortunately it was cut before we could do the candles or take pictures. oh well.

We went to HEIDI’S for breakfast! It was delicious I got yummy crepes with an H on them (they did it special for me I am sure… acutally they didn’t know until the end that I was HEIDI and it was my birthday.) When they did find out they brought me a muffin with a candle and sang happy birthday in about 5 different keys… at that same time. It was beautiful! (;

Anna and I having fun in the bathroom…

We headed to Camp Richardson for Lunch. Dave was thrilled. ha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna and Chelsea had a fabulous week together, every morning Anna asked when we would see her! Can you believe Chelsea is actually a year older than Anna? She is the cutest little spitfire! They loved exploring camp Richardson and even found frogs in a tree stump and a “snake with fangs in the tree-actually that one was made out of bark!ha)

Maddie and Kendra are just a month apart and love to play together or get into mischief, whatever you want to call it!

It was gorgeous there today! Rich and Heidi showed up at the end to eat lunch and say hi.

Baking and the Learning curves..

I am a wanna be baker. I admit it. I want to take courses to be better, but until the day I can take professional ones I will do my own research and try try try to get better.  I could spend hours (oops and I do) looking at cakes, cookies, blogs, books, pinterest ideas, etc. I love art and I love eating sugar so it just makes sense to be in love with beautiful and yummy creations.

Here are my latest “experiments:”

I was a Young Women Girls Camp Assistant Director this year.  Our theme was “Amazing Race” so for camp kick off I made these World Cookies….

I learned that my hand is not so steady and I probably should take the time to make a template or use a projector something. I thought they were okay for being freehanded!

The HEAVY fondant Popcorn Cake! My dear friend, Natasha, asked me MANY months ago to help her with her daughter’s 4th birthday party.   It was a carnival party and needed some popcorn! I LOVED researching this cake, it was a lot of fun.  It was a crazy week to try to make this cake, plan for girls camp, help plan the nitty gritty of the family reunion, see friends visiting, pack for two weeks worth of vacations and keep up with my family. However, I didn’t want to pass this opportunity up.  So here you have it….

So I  didn’t cut my cakes perfectly and it was a little crooked in the back to start, then adding all that HEAVY fondant make for an unbalanced cake.  It was okay for a little bit, then with the travel and heat it had had enough! I was so sad to watch it all night long and see it slowly falling. I am still an amateur at this stuff so I didn’t put in any supports and by the end of the party it was VERY droopy.  I was so mortified!  Needless to say, I will use a support system with my next one and do more research about types of cakes and fondants work best.  This was my go to fondant recipe and it was really stretchy on this cake. It was way too moist, despite my efforts to add powder sugar.  Those little popcorn kernels were a fun headache too. (:  The birthday girl had asked for a pink cake so I made strawberry on the inside. 

The day of Rhiece said she wanted an elephant cake, so I added a fondant elephant to the top. I worked perfect wit the theme.

She was pretty happy with it! Anna loves her friend Rhiece! We all do. Especially when she makes faces like that! HA!HA!

MORE“falling” photos… ):

The inside…  This cake was SUPER sweet and a major sugar overload, but nevertheless yummy!

Roses are Purple…

I was asked to make a fun cake for my friend’s birthday party.  I wanted to make it elegant and fun at the same time. 1st off I have to say, my photography doesn’t do this cake justice, I need some lessons in “food-photography.” I really liked how it turned out and how easy it was! Seriously.  I take no credit, besides the fact that I used the color purple in honor of the birthday girl who this cake was made for! For a great tutorial and some fun ideas check out this blog!

 

…and yes, it is on my {clean} floor because my counters are an ugly green and I didn’t have time to set up a whole photo booth!

Summer Please Stop

Please stop going so quickly! I have too many fun things that we haven’t gotten to do yet! boo….

Here are a few things we HAVE enjoyed!

Eating homemade popsicles with friends. And don’t we all look lovely! I love it when they dress themselves (which is most days.) These are Anna’s two best neighborhood friends, Rhiece and Charity. They are all so silly together, loving dress ups, princesses, dancing, and seeing who wins the Bossy contest!

Swimming.  We’ll we haven’t gotten on the ball to do swim lessons, (insert hand slap to Heidi). But we love swimming anyway. This was our adventure to Grandma’s hot tub! We also love swimming at Rhiece’s house, the Curtis pool, The Evergreen club, and in our little pool in the backyard. Anna was afraid to get splashed and hesitated getting into pools at first.  She is lots better now, but still avoids getting too wet!

Did I mention we LOVE popsicles!?  Especially when teething!

Maddie’s faces were hilarious! I love that girl!

This one is pretty cute too! Attitude and all.

THIRTY

I have less than 30 days until I turn 30. 30!! WoW.  For some reason that seems so old. yet, I feel so young.  I keep thinking back on things and I’m like, “oh that was only… wait a minute that was 10 years ago…or more”! look around at all my friends and neighbors and they seem so young (even being 40 or 50) and I look at teenagers and feel so out of the loop. geez. Growing up is weird.  How does time go so fast?  I have now known my best friends from junior high longer than I lived without them. Glad for that!(: I have driven for almost longer than the life before a license.  So many little, dumb, random things, but it’s an odd quirk I have to think about them.

I am excited for my birthday month! I have always loved July, it seems to be packed full of family events, holidays, pool days, summer activities, and vacations (I hope to sit down this month and figure out all the places I have celebrated my birthday-most have been outside of Utah!-including this year.)

Bring on July.  Bring on the heat. Bring on crazy summer plans.

And Bring on 30!!!

What shall I do in my last few weeks in my twenties? Seems like there should be some sort of ritual to say goodbye!?

Purple Sand

Maddie LOVES playing outside and loves digging in the dirt.  So now knowing how long we would be in this house I put together a mock sand box.  Maddie loves it.  At first I bought BAD sand, which was grainy and thick.  Then I saw this stuff at Walmart.  PURPLE SAND! Yep, better believe it.  It gets in hair and everywhere, but doesn’t stain.  This was our first day exploring and let’s just say when it is purple it hides nothing, unlike regular sand that you probably wouldn’t see. Ha!

Isn’t this hair do awesome?Curtsy of her bed… (:

Summer means…

Relaxed mornings

Wearing PJs extra long

More time for breakfast

More popsicles and treats (especially homemade ones)

Less time focused on routine meals

Dirtier house

More projects and crafts

Gardening (or trying to, but failing miserably)

Less clothing (my girls always prefer that anyway, but when it’s hot just wear what you have to…right?)

Sickness (what… that is not supposed to be in here, but this week it is)

Scout Camp (and planning & shopping & organizing it all and sending it off with a cute hubby @5:30 a.m.)

Trips to the pool (or to a friend’s pool… or Grandpa’s hot tub)

Cousin sleepovers

Late nights

Walks in the neighborhood that end up with more talking with neighbors and less walking

Sand (at our house it is purple! Yep!)

New bikes (though two trips with the jogger in tow and I got burs in the wheels and they are both popped…geez)

Girls Camp planning

Friend play dates

New Church calling (beehive advisor-score! so excited)

Swim lessons (oh wait, not yet, but I am teaching Anna to get splashed in the face… a huge step for her)

Less internet time

Less TV time

More sunset watching

More dishes (which I am avoiding right this minute)

Cabin trips

Snowbird condo trips

4th of July and beach décor

More Air conditioning (which makes my feet cold, but doesn’t cool our bedroom)

Trip planning

More sunscreen wearing

Sandal wearing (which I love for the girls, but my feet hate me for it)

New house dreaming (slowing looking, but not very intensely)

Life choice making

No change in long work hours for Dave (boooooo)

Painting nails (and sneaking it onto daddy’s toes)

hummm… what else?

 

What does summer mean to you?