Halloween Birthday Bash

Last Saturday was the big birthday party for the boys. We had talked Brennan into having a Halloween party this year. Originally, his plan was for a "dragon" party but I wasn't exactly sure how to pull that one off. So, I convinced him Halloween was a better idea when I showed him a picture of what the cake could be. He did agree. We had it a few weeks after their real birthday in hopes that the weather would be a bit cooler so all the kids could wear their costumes. It was cooler - but still did get warm...but I think everyone had a fun time. We enjoyed coming up with the ideas and decorations for the party too! I have tried to post this blogpost several times but the pictures upload would freeze it up. So I'm hoping my slide show will work and you can see the festivities that way.

We had so much fun at this party! There was a pumpkin patch, pumpkin ring toss, hayrides, paint the pumpkin and graveyard pinata. Bryan told a spooky story with touchy, feely boxes full of eyeballs, Egor's ears, witches' fingers, bat wings, and monster guts. For food we had snake eggs (grapes), mummy fingers (hotdogs in crescent rolls), fried grubs (chicken nuggets) and beetle wings (chips). The cake turned out great with help from my two partners in cake crime - Lindsey and Shannon.

Happy Birthday Brennan and Evan - I hope you had a fun time!

Randomness and more Randomness

I have a bunch of photos to share and opinions to get.

1. The boys were caught being cute outside this week. Yes, Evan does have on his pajamas with a pair of sandals...so what. I was just glad they were playing nicely together.
2. Brennan was learning how to cross his eyes this week....did he do it?3. Grandma and Gramps came over for dinner last week. We spotted a rainbow after a little shower here at the house. It was nice to see God smiling upon us. 4. Kitchen Update....Kitchen Update!!!! We finished all the painting! I still have some decorating to do (that means some shopping)! Here are only a few pictures - the plumber came yesterday to install the new sink and faucet. So, I'll post pictures of that part of the kitchen when I get it cleaned up.
5. Cake Order - I was asked to do a cake for a baby shower. This is the first "order" I've done for a cake for someone that wasn't a friend. She had come to another baby shower I did a cake for and now she was throwing a baby shower and asked if I could do the cake. She wanted it to go with the notecard she left me. She wasn't real specific in what she wanted besides fondant and dots and a vanilla cake to serve 60-65 people. Here's what I came up with....do you think it looks okay? I didn't stray too far from the original idea. HERE's the big question......what would you pay for a cake like that???? 12" round stacked with an 8" round, covered in fondant and designed to match your invitations. I charged per serving plus a percentage for fondant. Let me know what your thought are and then I'll share with you the price. 6. Waterpark - I took the kid's to the little city water/splash park the other day. Then I get home and see the TV reports about a little girl dying from a virus she got at a water park in our area. Geez. Okay, so it doesn't really prove we were at the waterpark since you can't see any water thingy and it's not the best picture of the boys. But it was all I managed to take a picture of that day.

So there you go. My randomness for the Friday the 1st of August.
Have a great weekend!

Happy 1st Birthday, Reid!

My little nephew turned 1 this weekend. My sister and her husband had a nice party for him. He scored lots of presents and has lots of friends!

Aunt Jen and her wonderful friend, Lindsey, helped make the really cute cake for his baseball theme party.

Happy birthday little man! It's been fun getting to know you this past year.

Spring Break Home S-t-r-e-t-c-h

Tomorrow is Wednesday - that means 3 more work days before Bryan and I have Spring Break. It is so needed in our house right about now! I've been the biggest blog slacker lately - but other things were bigger priorities - sorry to all my faithful readers....if I have any. :)

We have had our bouts of the sickies...Evan with weird 1x-throw-ups-but-the-sleep-all-days, Bryan and I with the stomach issues and me with my ear drama. That all started about 3 weeks ago or so....I woke up and my ear was totally plugged and I couldn't hear and it was ringing. It wouldn't pop - and it didn't hurt. I went to my Dr. and he gave me a cortisone shot and a Z-pac...nothing. He then sent me to an ENT to check things out. That Dr. wanted an MRI, 20 day steroid series, anti-viral and an audio test. The audio test did show some hearing loss - so I wasn't totally crazy. The MRI showed not much - but he does want another MRI in 4-6 months "just to be sure". The drugs are possibly helping because the hearing has improved but now the dizziness has gotten a lot worse. So I have a round of blood work and a balance test to go through. I'm just hoping the drugs really start kicking in and it all goes away. Okay, enough about me.

Brennan is totally into taking showers. It's been so nice to just turn the water on and let him jump in and do his business and towel off when he's finished. He was getting too big and obnoxious to be taking baths with Evan anymore and it was just a mess in our bathroom when it was all over with. But it's been a little sad as it shows how independent he is and not such a little kid anymore. But, thank God for independence because he is doing so well with it. So the other day Brennan's showering away and he's singing in there - "I'm Singing in the Rain, just Singing in the Rain. What a glorious feeling, I'm singing in the rain." I looked at Bryan and said, "Is he singing the song 'Singing in the Rain'? How in the world does he know that song?" Well....it was discovered later that it's on the CD he listens to as he goes to bed..huh, who knew.

I have another cake picture for you....I did another Baptism cake for our friends the Boyse's. It turned out really nice and matched everything just right. I really have fun doing cakes....I just wish I had more time to do them. Sometimes I dream how fun it would be to have a cute, little bakery. I could make cookies, cupcakes, bars, brownies, pies, breads, and decorative cakes. I've even thought about how the bakery would look and the displays in the windows. And then I realize what a beating that would be and how tired I'd be all the time just to keep my "little" bakery open - and thank God that I can just do cakes when I want to and not have to keep my family afloat financially. So I guess, when I have a overabundance of wealth, I can open that bakery and it could be my little past time. Yeah, right?

I have another picture to leave you with:

This is what happened when I asked Brennan to help fold the laundry....