Yum!

I decided to try my hand at strawberry pie a few days ago, but then decided it would be even more fun to do little tartlettes in the mini cupcake pan. They are so yummy and pretty easy. Topped with a little whip cream - delish!

In other news... Griffin popped a top molar out a day or two ago! What a big boy!

Old Pictures

I just realized I never shared the pictures I took when the kids and I stayed at Kim's during Apple Cup last fall. Abby was a brand new tiny baby, and Griff hadn't had his first haircut yet. They both look so big now compared to these pics!

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Kora's Bridal Shower

My Sister-In-Law, Kora, is getting married this August to a great guy. It is so exciting to have all the wedding festivities going on finally. All of us bridesmaids threw a shower for Kora a couple weekends ago. It was beautiful. Kimberly was gracious enough to have the shower at her house and she did all the decorations. It looked so festive!

Here is the Bride-to-Be

Sophia and Claudia (Nick's mom)

helping set up

My pretty girl

Kora modeling a new apron

Kora and cute little niece, Abigail

Claudia, Kora, and Deniece

The cute decorations and setup

Kim is so good at this!

The cake I made to match the invitations

Marisa, of course, took all the great pictures. Here is her album on Kodak (you'll have to sign in to view the slideshow):
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It was so fun and I am so excited for Kora and Nick's big day. They seem like such a perfect match!! The wedding is going to be amazing!

Silly Boy!

Sophia Turns 4!

Sophia turned 4 on May 29th.

It was a great party with Ariel (Little Mermaid) as her theme.

Her cake turned out really cute and
didn't take much time at all!




Griffin had quite the setup... Kind of like a buffet for him.
He would just walk around the crowd with his mouth open
until someone gave him a bite of cake or ice cream!



OOOOHHHH the motherload. All she talked about all week was
Barbie Mermaid Merleah doll! We put in a special request to
Aunt Risa, who of course delivered!



Mommy and Daddy thought it was time for our
big girl to have a big bike. She picked out the blue one
while her and Daddy were browsing stores the
week before her party.



And the time finally came that I was dreading,
she asked for a pinata! I just get so nervous with a bunch
of preschoolers swinging a bat around... Luckily, I found one
with pull strings, but she still wanted to have a whack at it.
Sophia, Lauren, and Carson each had a few turns
before we finally pulled the strings.

And you know what, it was still just as exciting and much safer.

Thank you to everyone for all of her great gifts.

She is always so excited to host a party, so that

really is the best part for her. As she would say,

"Let's invite everyone... All Our WHOLE Family!"

Fishing at Great Grandpa Dick's

Mid-May we got out to Granpa Dick's house to fish on the lake. Sophia reeled in quite a few and had a great time. Griffin made me a nervous wreck the whole time as he has no fear of the water, or fish hooks, or ingesting bait, or anything like that. The funniest thing happened after Griffin and I left. Sophia was playing with some fishing line with a hook on the end - no pole - no bait. And she caught a fish by just bobbing it up and down in the water! She pulled it up and told the guys she caught a fish and they couldn't believe it!

Random Cute Shots

Do I have something in my teeth?

Ha! He had a huge piece of spinach between his bottom two.

Recent (and not-so-recent) Cakes

This was the cake I made for my niece Abigail's baptism.

I don't remember if I ever did a post or not with a picture of it.

I loved this cake! Simple white cake with buttercream.

This was a cake I made for a baby shower.

A baby girl name Cori was expected.

I think i did one tier French vanilla and one tier

chocolate, all with buttercream.

Here was my original plan for Griffin's 1st Birthday Cake.
It didn't work out so well... The cake was too flimsy,
even with support dowels.

This was the final product. Chocolate cake with chocolate and buttercream frosting, the filling was graham cracker crumbs mixed with marshmallow cream.

Evan turned 7 this year and went with a Simpsons theme.
Homer is his favorite, so I highlighted him.
Big Boys' cakes aren't quite as pretty,
no flowers or embellishments...

And our little mermaid turned 4 last mo,nth.
She wanted Ariel for her party. This was actually a
very easy cake. I didn't have to smooth out the frosting
since it was supposed to look like under the sea.

She requested rainbow chip cake.

So I love to make cakes for special occassions. It's a hobby and in no way do I think they look "professional" but I like the task of making a cake to match a party's decor. It's funny that I don't really even like cake. I would much rather eat pastries or pie, but that doesn't give much of a focal point at a party!

The baby shower cake with the 'C' on top was a first for me - someone paid me to do it!! That made it nerve racking! I did not ever see the decorations for the party, but was just told turquoise, pink, and orange for a baby girl. It turned out cute and I think that the shower hostess and the mommy-to-be liked it. Echo's friend, Heidi, was the one who asked me to do the cake (See her blog link on Echo's page, C-Ho's... She just had a new baby of her own!!) Heidi was sweet enough to send a thank you note and let me know that everyone liked the cake. I hope so. That was the scariest part of making a cake for a group of strangers - I didn't want to disappoint!

More cake pics are in my Photo Albums list.

Wow!

I was really behind on uploading pictures to Kodak! I have added new albums to my list over on the right, so check them out (and I added pictures to the existing album titled Griffin's Birthday Dinner - so if you already looked at that album, you may want look again.)

Do I have cute kids or what!? :o) And nieces and nephew, too!

Arizona

April 18th we left for Arizona to find some sunshine!

Here we are all ready to leave for the airport.
Here is Kyle and the kids running to board the plane.

Even though we were very early, they decided to go on a walk and then had to run when they called us to board. He did the same thing with the kids on the way home, too!!

Finally swimming! The pool was great.
Horse rides for the kids. Sophia chose the smallest pony for her ride.
She is our cautious girl. :O)

Griffin had his turn and loved it!

He loved the cowgirl, too!

We drove to Sedona for the day, and silly me.... FORGOT our camera!

I had to buy a disposable for these shots!

And the classic end-of-trip shot...

Just exhausted on the way home from the airport!
Griffin couldn't even hold his binkie in his mouth.

It was a really fun trip and we all got nice tans!

Our little Cherokee babies get tan even with SPF 50.

We love vacation and are already dreaming up something for next year!