James turns 3

A very full day of parties for James. We had some kids over for an earlier party with games and food and fun. Wonderful time! Then later we had family over for dinner and to share with James.

Yes, I made 2 cakes. Bit off a bit more then I can chew but, eh, it all worked out and it sure was yummy :)

Today we are resting and watching way too much tv but , s'll well.

Heres' too wonderful days filled with family and friends!!

Birthday Fun (just a few for now)

Going for a ride
Dinosaur Train Cake #2

Dinosaur Train Cake #1

Playing trains

Eating lunch

Case of the missing cupcake

So in preparations for a birthday party my mom helped me by baking some cupcakes and cakes for cake balls, yea! My dad helped me get the house in shape to have guests (D was in class but helped when he got home). So, the house is clean, ready for a family party to celebrate James' 2nd Birthday!

Upon inspection of the good my mom made we discovered 2 cupcakes missing and one eaten into:

See close-up:

Hmm, what could have happened? We don't have mice anymore and besides, cupcakes are kinda big for country mice....aren't they? Hmm..so D and I begin looking around, not even considering the following until we saw it:

What's that around your mouth James?

huh? me? *big grin

lol, we found the culprit. Guess hes gotten tall enough that we can't leave things out anymore, Oh boy. I am soo not ready for this!

Cake Truffles

My first attempt at these little yummies and I can't wait to try again. The cake I make is really moist so when you mold it down with the frosting it mushes the cake more....I need to

a) not mix so long

b) use less cohesive frosting

Also, make a mental note, Nestle Chocolates do indeed work for the melting down process but end up gooier then actual melting chocolates....eventually do dry but the consistency is just, gooier.

SpongeBob

I had a phone call about a month ago about this cake and went through various ideas of how best toi design it. It was for a 2 year old who loves Spongebob. I considered toys and what you see below. Well, obviously I ended up making the cake the character which is always fun :)

I did disciver however that I am not such a fan of the baking and prep work that goes into making frostong and colors. I can do it, but I really just love the decorating aspect. Dan tells me I should persue some other art in order to use this talent more...cakes just become a hassle.

Maybe someday I will work in a bakery and just decorate but for now...I will make cakes for family and not try to push myself beyond that. Its just not worth the time and effort like it used to be.

The cake

Cake on right, picture I was working from on left.

Not to shabby if I do say so myself.

Cakes...

Fun blog

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Yummy cookies

I assisted my sis-in-law with this cookies last week. They were for a baby shower for 3 of her co-workers. The shower for the other 3 is later this summer. She works at a daycare center...must be something in the water....

In anycase, we did blues and pinks (yes, I know), with little duckie chocolates on top. They turned out great and to my knowledge the mom's to be liked them too.

Here's a slightly closer picture....
and yes, James had to test the duckies and he approved!

Bridal Shower Cake for J- Classic!

I hope J was good and surprised by the party and had a good time!

Cakes from the past

Most recent cakes

Monday Morning

So over the weekend we did a LOT. Lol, I had two cakes I was making (will post more on this note later, hopefully with pictures), a high school reunion comittee meeting, hanging out with friends for some BSG and fun, House Hunting, and maybe some family time squeezed in there somewhere.....needless to say I did not want to wake up this morning cause I was BEAT!

So, house hunting. We saw 6 houses on Saturday and 3 or so on sunday. 3 of the houses we saw on saturday were still occupied and it amazes me that someone would put their house on the market, offer it up for showings, and then leave it a complete mess. Dishes in the sink, clothes everywhere, one bedroom door we had to shove open due to the amount of stuff on the floor!

Now, I understand if you were evicted or had at least left the property but these were still occupied houses! I suppose the one house who managed to clean up may live like slobs normally too but at least they cared enough to pick up and have the house look presentable!! And that particular house was gorgeous!

I fine on that on this outing to go see houses that I tend to fall in love with 1 each trip. I wouldn't consider myself easy to please but I think we are getting better and better ideas of what we like with every house we see....I am such a tactile person that is hard for me to judge by a website. I like going out and see-ing the houses but I think in the future I'll need to hold back and only go out one day, not both days of the weekend.

You see, D and I both fell in love with this house that would be close to work, good neighborhood, a monthly fee included membership to a Pool and Tennis Courts! Problem is it had 2 bids going on it as of yesterday(sunday) so we decided to look for similar models in the area and hope we could find more like it....we did. 2 more in fact listed at a price 60K over the one we liked. Bleh. But, while searching we found a listing for an Open House for Sunday in the neighborhood and said Hey! let's go see just to get another look at the area. We did and ended up driving around and finding some other Open Houses and Model Homes deals to take a look at. D had to stop me after I toured a Million $$ House with his sister. I had never been in a house that cost so much before!! It was gorgeous. 5 bedrooms not counting the Master Bedroom! I think there were 5 full baths and 3 half baths. 2 dining rooms and 2 kitchens!! It was just....like walking into another world. I could never imagine living in a place that big but it was amazing to see the decorations and design ideas....

So, yea, it was a long busy weekend....but a good weekend!

Musical Fun

YUMMY CAKE!!

Thats a lot of cake!!

One Years Old!

James had a great party!!!
"Surrender the Boobies"

Tearing his own paper :)

Finger painting with frosting

This just looked funny so I took a picture

James and his ducks!

I'll put more of family up soon!

Cake!!

Duckie!!!!

Another Angle

We ate half ot it....sorta (it was a lot of cake)

The Spread!