A Bit of This a Bit of That

Our friend Jeremy stopped by to visit and had dinner with us on his way back from a wedding. This was the first time he met Dominic. We had a lovely evening and a few wonderful conversations that sparked Dear Hubby and I to now become hooked on Battle Star Galactica the TV series. We are still watching the series and anxiously awaiting its conclusion.

R's Birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, which made celebrating it even easier since we were getting together with family that day anyway. She felt like she had a huge party and feast in her honor, yet I had little to no work to "pull it off". She even chose a very simple cake for me to make. Her tastes are obviously more grown up now because she wanted me to make her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and Heath Toffee between the layers and on top. Surprisingly she didn't want a cute character cake or even a colorful "Happy Birthday", just this cake with an orange 4 on it. That was easy!

For the first time, we went to see the town square be lit up in preparation for Christmas. We let the kids turn in their Pizza Hut Book-it certificates for free pizza and then went to eat our pizza at the festivities. Live music and a reading of the "Night Before Christmas" were performed before the arrival of Santa. We counted down from 10 to 1 and then Santa threw the switch for the lights. The kids were amazed to see the lights all in the trees and on the lamp posts. We even bought a figurine for our nativity scene at a local tourist gift shop devoted solely to Christmas items.

The three oldest kids were in the play "Annie" at the local high school. M was Tessie, the whiner and most annoying orphan, C was Molly, the youngest Hannigan orphan, and T was Whacky, a marionette puppet and tourist. It was a lot of work for all of us, but the kids enjoyed themselves tremendously.

E Turns Two!

The original cake I made for E's 2nd birthday. The tractor and wagon are made entirely of cake and frosting.

Small piece of cake E ate on his actual birthday.

Second cake that I made for the real birthday party. The first cake was destroyed when my mom turned on the oven to pre-heat it. She had forgotten the cake was still inside. We had to scrape off all the frosting and redo the cake entirely. I didn't have enough cake or time to make a new tractor made out of cake, so we put his toy tractor on it instead. E didn't seem to mind.

Twin Nieces' Baptisms

On Sunday, July 31st, the twins were baptized by a deacon at my sister's parish. They are now children of God and are members of the Catholic Church! This is a much anticipated moment in their lives. I am so happy for them both!

I was very honored and blessed to be their God-Mother. I now have two sets of twin God-Daughters! How crazy is that? I have some seriously big shoes to fill in order to be a good role model for all these little girls. With God's help, hopefully I will be able to be there for them to encourage them each step of the way. May God's richest blessings be upon Maya Marie and Asha Marie, now and forever!

If you can't tell, I am 37 weeks pregnant in these pictures. That made for a very uncomfortable 2 1/2 hour drive to the baptism, but I didn't want to miss it for the world. So glad I was able to attend such a blessed occasion.

This is the cake I made to celebrate their baptisms.

Latest Happenings

So much has been happening and I haven't been able to keep up. One reason is that our computer is still not cooperating with our camera. I am having a very difficult time transferring our pictures to our computer, which in turn, makes it very hard to update this blog. For those waiting on pins and needles to see what we've been up to lately (Joe!), I apologize.

In chronological order, here is what has happened lately...

We celebrated Dear Hubby's 38th birthday and Father's Day. His favorite color is orange, so we made him a very bright orange, chocolate layered cake with 38 hearts all over it. As a combo birthday and Father's Day gift, we bought him a fire pit so that he can burn up all those assorted limb that he keep falling down. It also make a good way to roast marshmallows with the kids. We've already spent a couple of nights out by the fire pit, as if it were a campfire. It also came in very handy when about two days later a very large limb was knocked down in thunder storm. We have since been burning it bit by bit.

Again this year the three oldest kids participated in a two week long theatre workshop. They performed the play "Aladdin". Though they all had rather small parts this time, they really enjoyed themselves. How could you not love this play? The movie was so good that you just couldn't go wrong! I especially loved listening to the kids practice the songs at home and while we drove everywhere in the car. We listened to them so much that by the time the performance rolled around, even the two little girls had the songs memorized.
Grandpa came for another visit and gave M her birthday gifts. She was so happy to receive a CD player and a copy of Tangled. She loves them both so much. It has been really cute how she tells the other kids that they are going to be having music class and so they should go to her room to listen on her boom-box. One day shortly after receiving the CD player, they all decided to spend three hours straight singing and dancing to their kid music. It was a nice break for me, as well. I finally had to call them down for supper and they were all so disappointed that I had broken up their dance party!

I took the kids blueberry picking for the first time. I remember doing this as a kid with my mom and thought it was about time I let my kids experience it for themselves. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Especially E who only sat in the stroller and ate whatever anyone would give him. He was in seventh heaven.

On Friday of that week, we had planned on going swimming at a local state park, but happened to be early and decided to check out the nature center. I am so glad we did. We walked up just as a Pond Life demonstration and activity was beginning. The Naturalist on duty invited us to join them and the kids had a blast learning about the pond life cycle, exploring life around their pond, and even making their own pond life viewer out of a coffee can. We later went swimming with their Aunt Olivia and Nana, but I think the highlight of the day was that science activity!

My Baby Turns Eleven!

At the end of May, our M turned 11 yrs. old. Wow, how time flies. I can't believe she is that old already. She is looking more and more grown up all the time. She decide on a much simpler cake this year, and frankly I was glad. This was one of the easiest and quickest cakes I've ever done. Wouldn't you know it, E found a way of getting into it and messing it up. I would have been really upset if I had spent much time on it. I had just enough frosting left over to repair the damage he did to the top edge, right before the guests arrived.

The day I started making this cake, I found out I have gestational diabetes. I was very glad that it only took me 45 minutes to frost it, instead of the usual 2-3 hours I've spent doing other more difficult cakes. The temptation to eat some of that frosting was overwhelming, but I never took a bite. ( This baby will never know how much I sacrificed for him!)

M was very pleased with the end result and was extremely excited about her b-day party. She helped me to make the Hello Kitty streamers, wall banners, and window clings. This was also one of the least expensive parties, because we were able to use dark and light pink plates and napkins as our theme colors which were left over from C's First Communion party. Recycle and reuse; isn't that the motto of large families on a tight budget?

C's First Holy Communion

T used his Mass Kit and pretended to celebrate Mass on Saturday, so that C could practice for her First Holy Communion on Sunday. Grammy and Paw-Paw also attended and joined in singing and role playing. I think it helped C to better prepare for the big day.

C and the two boys who also received their First Holy Communion. Don't they look so cute and excited. This was right before Mass began.

Just after Mass, C poses with Jesus in the tabernacle and in her heart. She was so happy! My mom captured a rare picture of all of us after Mass, and surprisingly, everyone is looking at the camera.

This is the cake on which I used fondant and gum paste to create stalks of wheat and three-dimensional grapes. I was very blessed to have found a chalice cake topper that fit very well and was inexpensive. It made the cake look so much better.

This is the chocolate cake that C helped to decorate with real roses she cut from our rose bush. This chocolate cake was the first to go. It was made with the King Aurthur Flour chocolate cake mix a friend gave me. It was, by far, the best cake I've ever made. I was told this my nearly everyone in attendance who devoured it. I also made some cupcakes for the little kids to enjoy. I found the "host" idea on http://www.catholicicing.blogspot.com/; it uses the end of a large marshmallow. Her blog has the directions, though she used the idea on cookies.

We were so blessed to have family and "church family" celebrate with us on this special day. Some of our special guests included two of the priests we see most often, Fr. M and Fr. J. C was so happy they both were able to stop by and visit for awhile. It made the day even more special. Fr. M was even able to bless many of C's First Holy Communion gifts after playing a friendly game or two of euchre.

Two Peas in a Pod Baby Shower

A friend of mine taught me a little about fondont this past Thursday, so that I could attempt to make a three dimensional cake topper to fit our baby shower theme. I wanted it to match the invitations as best as I could to tie in the theme. Here are the pictures of the cake topper in progress.

Aunt Susan with the sign I made based on the invitation.

The finished cake and cupcakes with Aunt Susan.

The diaper cake my mom and I made to carry out the theme.

The three pregnant mommas at the baby shower. My cousin, my sister, and I are all due between July 7 and August 18th.

Lots of gifts and double of everything.