Crazy hair day

Today is crazy hair day in Sarah's class! Each morning I attempt to make Sarah's hair look fancy. No matter my intentions, Sarah always makes her own crazy hair by the end of the day. So I can't wait to see how much crazier this look will be at the end of the day.

Sarah's first day of school

It is back to school time! Sarah was excited for the first day if school. She is in a new classroom this year. I have high hopes for a successful year, with many accomplishments for Sarah.

Course 2 complete!

I am now a graduate of course 2 in the cake class! Aren't you proud?! I now can make a basket weave something that I actually could do. I also can make almost very flower from your garden out of royal icing. Here is the "finale cake"!



I have now started course 3, the tricky class, fondant and tiered cakes. You just wait, one day you will see me with my own food network show :) Can you see it now... Once just a boring stay at home mom of 3, now cake phenomenon!

Where have I been? And whats coming up?

Vince is working late tonight, so I finally took the time to make the posts that I am so far behind on. We have been really busy. Abbi celebrated her 4th birthday at the end of July, the next day I had surgery and then we headed out of town for our long awaited week camping trip. Now I am getting ready for back to school. Sarah starts next week and Abbi starts pre-school in 2 weeks.

Abbi had her 4 year appointment last week. She is just a growin'. Her Dr. was amazed by how smart she is and called her exceptional! A new word for Abbi's enormous vocabulary.

Can anyone else believe that Michael is going to be 1 at the end of September? I guess I better get planning his party!

Vacation!

We had such a nice trip, camping in the mountains. This is the first year that Abbi has been independent enough, to enjoy camping. She was covered in dirt the whole trip. She loved going on a hiking "adventures" with daddy. And would try and con someone to take her exploring multiple times a day. I did not get to do much, since I just had surgery 2 days before we left. So I stayed in the trailer and made hair bows most of the time. But Jim was nice enough to take me moose looking each evening. While Vince would finish up with Michaels dinner. We saw 5 moose, and lots of deer. Michael was a great camper, well except for nap time. To much to do, who needs sleep! Sarah has had better camping trips, just to much going on. She was glad to go home, as I am sure Jim was glad for her to leave. He seemed to always be the one within striking distance. And got the brunt of her anger.
I really wish we could of stayed longer. I just love it there so much!

Sit back and enjoy the pictures, because there a lot of them!

Abby Cadabby party part 2

What lucky girl gets two parties?! Here are some pictures from the party with Vince's family. I did not even attempt the "big" cake, in case of disaster, so I stuck to just 2 layers. It was such a relief that it worked out with out any tears, or cake on the kitchen floor.

Janessa has some serious skills and she did all of the crepe paper decorations!
Everyone was so thoughtful and brought such wonderful gifts to celebrate Abbi's Birthday.

Abbi's Abby cadabby party take 1

OK so I will just put it out there, get it out in the open right off the bat. The cake was a disaster!! I had such high hopes for this beautiful cake, but NO, it was the lady bug cake revisited :( Now don't get me wrong, it started out hopeful. That cake was actually done. Decorated, just as planned, and then it happened. I opened the fridge to check on it, and to my horror, the cake was starting to lean. I pulled it out of the fridge and it just got worse. I watched as the bottom layer started to slip ever so slowly, the flowers and bows started to plop on the floor. In my horror, I start yelling for Vince, you ask what was he going to do to stop this disaster from happening? I don't know, but it sure did not make it any better when he came into the kitchen, gasps, and runs to grab the camera! Why not document the torture! So what ended up happening is, I baked all of the cakes the morning of the party, so the house was so hot, and it did not help that it was almost 100 degrees outside. So it was just to hot for my precious cakes and it melted right off of the bottom layer. So in my tears, I improvised. I was able to save the top 2 layers so it was not a total loss, but what a way to crush my dreams of the perfect cake!


Now on to the party. Abbi loved all of her gifts, and we are so thankful for everyone who came to help her celebrate the big 4!

Abbi's Birthday invites photo shoot

I thought I would share some of the pictures that I took for Abbi's Birthday invitations. There were so many cute ones, but 1 stood out as my perfect choice. The first one is the one that made the cut. But the others were a close second.

Redeeming the fish cake

So awhile back I attempted a fly fishing cake.....Well it was bad! I made some wrong choices in color for the fly. It looked like I squirted a can of cheese whiz all over the top. Well dad said he wanted a fish cake, so I thought I would redeem myself and make one for his Birthday. So here is my attempt with fish cake number 2! Much better~

Making Grandma June proud!

Abbi loves to cook, and I know that Grandma would be so proud of her and the skills she has. Today she made her first recipe all by herself. "Max's Strawberry smoothies". She did all of the measuring and pouring, I did have to turn on the blender for her, because it is difficult to do that when your fingers are in your ears to cover the noise. Abbi did a excellent job, and the smoothies were yummy!

cake class

So I decided to take a Wilton cake course. Abbi's Birthday is coming up, and I really want to make her cake. Now some of you know the cake horror of '05. It wasn't pretty, I really could break out in tears, just thinking about it :) For Abbi's Birthday last year I had someone make the cake for me, and she did a amazing job. She offers classes at the Roberts, so Candi and I enrolled. So far we have completed course 1 and have 2 more to go. I am not sure if I passed course 1 because of my skills, or because the instructor felt pity on me, and well everyone passes:) Thank heavens! I am a pro with the star tip. So if you need a cake filled in with a bunch of stars, then I am your girl. I have been making a lot of cakes lately, because frankly I need the practice. So if I show up at your door with a cake in hand, don't be surprised. I have Abbi's cake all planned out, so be on the lookout for a picture.

Bike Mechanic

Abbi is enjoying the carefree days of summer, using her imagination to the fullest. I often wonder what it would be like to be a kid again. Your only care is to think of fun things for your day. Being able to wear a pink stripe shirt, a plaid hat, have jelly on your face. And just enjoy the day. Everyday Abbi and Madison have some creative project going on. And they do it between the fence. Making "recipe's" in a flower pot with the ingredients of mud, water and leaves. Playing red light green light, hide n' seek, and sharing Popsicles, and juice boxes.
But I think the is the ultimate of imagination. I was feeding Michael and Vince told me I needed to come now, bring the camera! What a sight to see Abbi with her bike peddle, handlebar and push handle through the fence. And she is off the ground. And she is sitting on the bike like it's no big deal. When I went out to take some pictures. I see Madison with a popsicle stick. So I ask the girls what they are playing. "Bike Mechanic"! That's when I realized that Madison's popsicle stick was a wrench and she was doing a tune up. I asked why the bike was off the ground, immediately both girls say, annoyed that I would not know, so we can tune up the underneath!

Uinta 4th of July

We went for a day trip to the Uinta's on the 4th of July. It was the perfect day. We took some family pictures in a meadow. Abbi caught her first fish, a brook trout, on a fly rod. We saw a bull moose in Christmas Meadows. Aspen got to run free like the crazy dog she is. And Abbi was so surprised that her best friend Madison was also there. I was so sad when we had to leave that evening. Since Vince's new job, I miss that we don't get to go camping every weekend like we used to. But I am looking forward to our big trip coming up.