Pink Ruffle Cake

I usually decorate with fondant.  I haven't been brave enough to tackle piping with traditional icing.  I think my problem has been using the wrong icing.  Store-bought icing never looks quite right when I use it to decorate.  This time I tried Wilton's recipe for Buttercream icing, and it made it easy.   I'm so happy I tried this out.

Of course, I had a great little helper.

When I looked at my inspiration cakes I though I would have to mess with 20 different bags of icing, each a different color, but I just kept mixing in lighter icing to my one bag.

The birthday girl loved it!!!

Little Cowboy Baby Shower

Here are some of the pictures from my little sister's baby shower.  We all enjoyed the time together, helping Amy celebrate.

Here are all of the girls in the family.

Little Cowboy Cake

I don't have any boys, but my youngest sister is expecting her first little cowboy.  I made her a cake for her baby shower.

Its actually a faux cake, with foam inside because I had to drive six hours to get to the baby shower.  But everything on it is edible, even the little boots.

Harry Potter Party

We celebrated Haley's 9th birthday Harry Potter style.  She has been reading the books and was so excited.

To start off everyone picked up a wand and some spells.  Then the magic began.  This was a hit, the girls really got into this.

We made a small cake, and lots of cupcakes for the kids.  My favorite was the sorting hats made from caramel apple wraps.  Thank you Candy Bar Cupcakes for the great idea and tutorial - http://candybarcupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/04/harry-potter-sorting-hat.html.  

But we also had snitches, lightning bolts, brooms, and Harry Potter glasses.

 

We tried to use ideas from the books for the menu, here's the ton-tongue toffee:

and Dumbledore's favorite Lemon Drops:

There were also chocolate frogs(not nearly enough) and Pumpkin Pasties.  We had some Butterbeer too, I just didn't get a picture of it.

I really liked the idea of floating candles so we made some to hang in the dining room.  

For activities we had the students attend classes at "Hogwarts."  First was Charms with the wands and spells.  They also took Care of Magical Creatures where they made a little owl craft.  There was also quidditch practice.  We had plans for Potions where they would make silly Putty, but we ran short on time.

Happy Birthday Haley!

Time to go... everyone took home treats from "Honeydukes" including Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

Halloween 2013

What a great Halloween.  Minnie Mouse started off the night reluctantly, but once she realized the point of trick-or-treating, she was all for it.

Here's my little cat, Kayla.

And let's not forget about Haley, I mean Laura Ingalls.

Go Hokies!

We took the girls to their first college football game(first football game ever actually).  They know nothing of football, but had a great time cheering on the team and seeing all the sights.

We had incredible seats, Mike and I were thrilled to be so close to the action.  The girls, however, looked way up high and said "wouldn't it be great if we were way up there?"  --- uhhh, "no."

Hersheypark

Alright, I've been a slacker.
It seems we've been way to busy lately to blog much, but here's the latest excitement: a trip to Hershey Park!

Thank you so much to my in-laws for watching my youngest.  That left the rest of us roller-coaster junkies free to pull an all-nighter, well at least as late as they let us stay.

Ready for some fun!

Here's the view from the Kissing Tower, there are quite a few coasters, and I'm proud to say, every single one was ridden by someone in our clan at least once.

Off went Haley and Mike for some coaster fun!  Haley is tall enough to ride anything this year so Mike and I each got to take her on some thrill rides.  She got a little tuckered out towards the end.  

I have to say that Skyrush is my new favorite roller coaster, loved it!!! Mike and Haley tried out the front seat for their very first ride of the day.  Kayla and I had some fun ourselves, we started the day off with the Superdooperlooper.  It was Kayla's first roller coaster loop: she loved it - just like her mommy.  

There were plenty of fun rides and the water park to keep us busy all day long.  We ended the night on a classic family favorite: The Comet.

It's been a long day, ready to head home.

We didn't plan very well though, the concert by One Direction let out as we were leaving the park.  Apparently they are very popular: I must be getting old, I haven't heard of them.  It was close to 2 am before we finally got home.  

4th of July, 2013

We visited my husband's family for this year's festivities.  We attempted some family photos....

Ok, so trying to get a shot of just the kids didn't work out so well.  Maybe next time.

These turned out better, maybe next time we should get someone else to take the picture so we can all be in it.  Maybe next time.

 We headed to a local park for some good food, good music, and fireworks!

Mmmmmm...

Happy 4th of July!