Happy Birthday Vince!

We celebrated Vince's Birthday that was last Tuesday by going camping. We had such a good time. Vince was able to do some fishing, we saw 5 moose, Abbi spotted 3 deer all by herself. It was perfect during the day, almost a little to hot in the sun. But the evenings were freezing! That heavens for heat! We also got to have a much loved unita thunderstorm. Abbi and Vince went exploring, we played Bocce ball, Abbi loved that game. We were camping a secluded area so both dogs got to run to there hearts content. Aspen was actually worn out

What do you mean this is not a ball?!?!

Michael LOVES balls. He like to roll them, throw them, hit them. It does not necessarily have to be a ball, if it will in some way roll down the hall. He will chase after it, utterly enjoying every moment of it! So when Vince's dad brought over a watermelon and honeydew the other day and put them down in the living room. Michael curiously went over to it and pushed it. And to his excitement it rolled! So he entertained himself forever rolling the honeydew around the living room.
I love these pictures because you can see all of his adorable chubbers that we love so much!

September Birthday's !

We have 5 Birthday's in our family for September. It seems like every weekend there is a party. I made a cake for Annette's Birthday and forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to her, but it was light yellow with Lilies, and petunia's. I made this excavator cake for Jim's ( or as he likes to be called Uncle Cool) birthday. I still have not made a Cake for Vince's Birthday, we were out of town but, shh! maybe he hasn't noticed that I did not get to it yet! The big cake is coming up this week! Michael's 1st Birthday! Everyone send some good thoughts my way in hopes that this one will not be a disaster!

Fondant Cake

Here is the fancy fondant cake that we made in class tonight. You would all be so proud, I even made the fondant myself. I have only attempted a fully covered fondant cake once, that dreaded lady bug cake. And this one was so much easier with the instructor standing by to help.

Abbi's first day of Pre-school

Abbi was so excited to go back to school today! Last week she received a card in the mail from her teacher, saying she missed Abbi, and was looking forward to the new school year. Since then Abbi has not been able to contain her excitement. Every day she asks, do I go to school today? Is it the 2nd yet? She was so excited to go this afternoon, I think she was all dressed and ready 1 hour early. And just waiting.... is it time yet? Is it time yet? She had so much fun, and talked about all of her new friends the rest of the evening.

Labor Day

No need to have your eyes checked, that is SNOW!! It was a very cold labor day. We had planned on going camping, but then the forecast told us to rethink that idea! So we went for a day trip instead. On the Mirror Lake Highway. It was a balmy 28 degrees, with gusting winds. Most of the snow had melted, But there was still about 4 inches in the Bald Mountain area.

We got to see 1 deer, and two hawks, they kept swooping down to the river. No moose, boo! Hopefully we will get to see one on our trip planned for Vince's Birthday, in a couple weeks.
But we got to see a different animal this trip, one that Vince and I have never seen so close. As we were headed home, just making to last turn to the top of Bald Mountain, there was a herd of Mountain goat. Probably 10 of them. Vince had to make a very quick stop, to miss them. They darted up the mountain, as I was fumbling for the camera they were nice enough to take a little stop, so I get get a few pictures.

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!