P is for a 2nd year Preschooler

I cannot believe how fast Anna is growing! I tell her all the time to STOP, but she simply tells me, “I can’t, because I have to eat or I will die, and eating make me grow!”  Okay, then little miss smarty, I’ll let you go to school and learn! This girl keeps me on my toes! She is too smart for her own good …. and mine. I cannot keep up, nor do I know how to help enhance her skills, something I need to work on this year!

Anna is at the same Preschool as last year, but has Miss Sonya.  Also, her best friend, Rhiece, is in her class and they will go to tumbling and dance afterwards.  I am excited to carpool and have an extra hour to get things done… or spend time with Maddie. (:

We were at the Cabin the weekend before school started, but I had been researching fun things to do to start each new year.  I found a cute idea about making a big, giant cookie. So I wanted to do it.  Too tired after the weekend I almost gave up, but then I found a big ball of cookie dough in the freezer and I had left over icing from a project last week….PERFECT!

So Anna woke up to her cookie and couldn’t have been more happy to take photos in her new outfit! She posed herself and I snapped.  I couldn’t decide how to cut these out so there is a slew of photos- most of them her hugging herself…

Cutie, Maddie and I will miss you while you’re away! Maddie was a little sad that she didn’t get to go sit down and play too! We’ll see how this year goes!

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!