Baby Shower Cake

An old co-worker of mine asked me to do this baby shower cake for her daughter's shower. I was excited to do it because the inspiration came from one of my favorite cake decorators-The Pink Cake Box! Bottom is white cake with buttercream and top is chocolate cake with raspberry filling.

Boston Red Sox Cake

This cake is for a friend's son. This was a fun cake to do. I think I say that for just about every cake, don't I!? The hat and base area are cake. The ball is rice krispy treat. Aaron is a HUGE Red sox fan....the whole family is!

Cute little touch on the back of the hat!

Someones Gotta Do It...

Last night we went over to Grandma and Pop's house for a birthday dinner. The girls stayed over night. So, this morning I guess Jeremy thought that someone had to sit in the little chair and since the girls weren't around he had to do it! It was just so silly that I had to take a picture. A grown man sitting in a tiny chair to eat his cereal!!

So Sad...

Today we went outside and saw something very sad-the birdhouse that Hayden worked so hard on broke! We're going to let the wood dry and then we'll glue it back together. Here she is giving her so sad face for the camera!

Young Love...

Johnny & Mwende are getting married!! He popped the question this morning while they were hiking! Yeah!!

The center stone is a family heirloom. It was the diamond in our great grandmother's wedding ring. Then my grandpap got it and put it into a pendant for my grandmother. Then my mom got it and did nothing with it (guess she liked the snowflake pendant with the blue diamonds or something). And she offered it to Johnny when he started ring shopping. I love a diamond with a story!

Congratulations Johnny & Mwende!!!

Walking in Heels

Walking in Heels!

Not only has the child mastered walking, but she can do it in heels too!!

Lil' Cowboy

Fun carved cake that I did today. The icing is a really good chocolate butter cream with a few fondant accents. It's chocolate chocolate chip cake with butter cream filling.

Here are the boots together. The little one is a "smash cake" for the little birthday cowboy! He's gonna be covered in chocolate!!

Pac-Man Birthday!

One of my friends asked me to do these cupcakes for her son's birthday. She is going to take them to his school tomorrow for all of his classmates. These were a lot of fun to do! It brought back old memories of Atari and the old Nintendo!

Springlike Winter!

Today I took the girls to the park since it was such a nice sunny day. The rain clouds did move in while we were playing though.

It's so funny to see Layne walking around somewhere like the park. She's just so tiny compared to all the other kids. But she sure can hold her own!

Layne sure does have some crazy facial expressions!

Big sister teaching little sister all about things neither one of them should be doing!

Layner stopping for a minute to debate about whether or not to go down the slide.

Ahhh, swing time. Mommy knows where both girls are and she doesn't have to chase them around the whole playground!

Loving the swing!

Back to exploring we go.

For some reason Layne would not walk across this little bridge thing.

Who knows why....

Breakfast Snuggles...

This morning while Layne was eating her breakfast she decided to walk over to her dog and give it a snuggle. She is such a cuddler-when she's in the mood!

Here is the painted birdhouse hanging waiting for guests!

Tonight we made a cookie cake just for fun. Before we could start baking we had to get all dressed for baking!

Hayden loves to help out in the kitchen.

She takes it very seriously and she does a great job!

The New Apron

I have been looking and looking for an apron. Like a nice one that I could wear if I did a show or baked a cake in a public place (when will that happen? Not sure, but it's a good idea to be prepared, right!). So, I found a pattern for this one. I think it took me longer to pick out the fabrics that all matched yesterday than it took me to make it today. Not really, but it did take me a long time to pick out the fabric. So now when they ask me to guest star on Ace of Cakes or The Cake Boss or maybe even be a contestant on Food Network Challenge....I will be prepared with my apron! Or should I start making a chef coat!?

I have only ever had one slice of this cake but I have not forgotten it. Back when I was the director at HHBC preschool Karen made this coconut cake and it was outstandingly unforgettable. Jeremy doesn't like coconut so I have never tried to make it or asked for the recipe. Well, we are going to a family gathering tomorrow and I made it for the gathering since I know that there will be other desserts there. I feel like coconut is something that you either love or hate...not really an in between. While I was making this cake I had a flashback to my childhood. I remember when Johnny, September, and I would go over to my grandma and grandpap's house we would just eat flaked coconut straight out of the bag. It was like the best treat ever! While I decorated this cake today I had to take a handful right out of the bag....just for old time sake!

Girlies playing the piano this morning-well sort of-Layne was really just trying to ruin my shaving cream snowman!

Oh Little Layner...

The girls love to go back to Hayden's room and play. They normally make a mess but not like this!!

Thankfully, it was washable marker. Why, you ask, were the girls able to get to markers in Hayden's room. Well, they were these special markers shaped like animals that make noises when you take the tops off. The tops are next to impossible to get off though. So, I had them in Hayden's coloring basket because I figured they would never be able to get into them. Well, I was wrong!!

The Belly Cake

I did this cake for a friend of mine that's throwing a baby shower. The boobs are red velvet and the tummy is chocolate chocolate chip. The whole thing is iced in white chocolate mocha butter cream and then covered in fondant. Hope they like it!

Book Character Day at Preschool!

And of course, Hayden dressed up as her favorite book character.......Fancy Nancy!! She even carried her posh poodle!!

And the outfit wasn't complete without her Fancy Nancy shoes! She was so excited to show everyone at school.

Getting Some Work Done....

After breakfast this morning I stripped Layne down to her diaper because she was covered in strawberry jelly. She had to wait for daddy to finish doing a little work before they got in the shower. She decided that she wanted to do a little work of her own while she waited.

Daddy's girl...

They stopped for a smile and giggle. The whole thing was just so cute to watch.

All Bundled Up

It has been SO cold here lately-well, so cold for the south any ways! On Wednesday night we bundled the girls all up so that we could head to the Cipolla's for our Wednesday night dinner. No, Hayden did not wear her Elmo slippers to the Cipolla's. Daddy liked the idea, but mommy said no.

Ok, so this is one of those craft projects that came to my mind and didn't turn out the way I had pictured it. I thought that they could make cute little snow hats since it was cold outside. Number one-they are HUGE, number two-they are HUGE, and number three-they are just weird looking!

Not sure what I was thinking with this one!

Glue Shaving Cream Snow...

Well, the weather men are forecasting snow for tomorrow so we made these shaving cream glue snow crafts in order to get ready!!

It's just 2 parts shaving cream to 1 part glue. Mix it together and get to finger painting! It dried 3D and textured!

I finally found a use for the travel sized men's shaving cream that mom and Bernie sent us each year!!

And of course Layner had to put it on something other than the paper!!

Mom and Bernie got the girls this dual car DVD player for the long car rides. It was awesome for the ride home from Florida! But I didn't really like the strapy holders that they came with. So, I knew that I wanted to make some better holders out of fabric. I thought that I would be able to find templates on the internet but I found NOTHING! So, this is the first sewing project that I have done template-less! I sewed part of the velcro straps inside-so part of it was still useful. Can't wait to use them!!

Not Sure If You Know...But....

Our 18 month old has finally decided to walk....run...walk briskly. And here's the video of our wobbling little penguin!

There's No Turning Back...

Our little diva received a make-up gift from someone (you guys know who you are!) this year. Things were so hectic during present time in Florida that I didn't even know she had received it until I looked at her face that was plastered with lip gloss....I'm talkin' all over the face! Now that we are home the little kit is in her bathroom. Fortunately, she asks before she applies the glittery, shiny, shimmery Dora lip gloss. But she asks about 3 times a day. After she put it on she purses her lips out as if she's just had a collagen injected into her lips. Watching her try to talk with her lips pursed out is even funnier.

So, today she asked if I would put the Dora nails on. So, I did! Oh Dora....why did you create this little make-up kit?

Gotta check yourself out in the mirror every once in a while!

Toy Give Away

The girls got an unbelievable amount of toys for Christmas this year-most of it wasn't from us! When you have lots of grandparents and family members all the gifts add up quickly. We are very grateful for the wonderful gifts, but we also want to instill a giving attitude in the girls. So, this year (and for every year after) we helped the girls go through their old toys in order to decide what they wanted to give away to other children. We filled a big bag with toys and gave it to the church and big box full of toys and took it to Goodwill so that the girls would experience giving and not just receiving. Don't think that either one of them "got it" but they'll understand someday.....

Sweet Shades!

Still love these glasses!!

Grandma and Pap got Hayden this bird house for Christmas. She just couldn't wait to decorate it for the birds outside!

Here is her "concentration" face-lips pursed out....love it!