Things I am thankful for . . .

My daughter's spirit. Her kindness and her ability to never let something like missing Halloween get her down.

My young son's smile. His intelligence and the fact that he never holds it against me when I tell him to "Go sit next to your father, I'm tired of you touching me"

My far away son who I admire for taking advantage of his youth, for seizing all the opportunities he can and for just being himself.

My husband, for seemingly wanting to keep me around in spite of so many things.

My family for putting up with my know-it-all, controlling ways.

My friends for being there for me whether we spoke last week or last year.

My family who are my friends and my friends who have become my family.

Happy Thanksgiving.

May your heart be as full as your belly.

Deja Vu . . .

My latest. The birthday girl wanted my zebra cake in purple, but with a little sass!
See the skull and cross bones? That's SASS my friends! I'm loving the purple (cause it's the best color EVER!) But the bow was not working and I made some real bonehead mistakes (one of which resulted in the top tier flipping upside down onto my counter top!) So I didn't have much fun with this one.

So . . . . here are two very handsome men.
Oh and remember how I said Grammy Dee and Grandma and Grandpa Streit were here for an early Thanksgiving and more pictures were on their way?
Well, my family, and I mean this in the most LOVING way, sucks big time! They didn't feel like having their pictures taken and these are all I've got!

and not that these pictures aren't fabulous
but, once again . . . said with the utmost love . . .

you guys suck!
(Grandpa avoided the camera all together by napping most of the time!)

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted.

It's been pretty boring in our neck of the woods, but here's what we've been up to.

Chloe's been working hard at gymnastics. Finally getting her back handspring.

I attempted to take some photos of her practice. Of course none came out. So here's the best of the worst.

Last week she was in her 4th grade production
A Salute to Texas.

Again, the pictures are horrible, but you get the idea.

Chloe was a line dancer and Daisy was a square dancer.

Craig took video. We'll try to get that posted . . . eventually.

Last weekend we took our Girl Scout troop to a local farm. Craig and Logan met us there.

It was dusty and dirty and there were tons of flies and I honestly hope to never have to go back.

But other than that, we had a good time.

Grammy Dee and my parents are here, celebrating an early Thanksgiving.

They were able to get a little cuddle time with Dylan.

Grammy and her helpers starting dinner.

And here's another cake I made this weekend for a little girl who turned 5.

Everything is edible. The crown is fondant and luster dust.

This was a bit challenging and I made many mistakes. But I love the crown and am SOOO glad it didn't break before I got it on the cake.

Stay tuned for more pic's of the family visit coming soon.

Halloween '09

Well, Logan seemed pretty happy with tonight's take.The girls stopped by to say hi to Chloe, before we all set off on our jaunt.
The children had lots of fun seeing who could get to the door first
Daisy stepped in to keep an eye on Logan in the absence of his sister.
You may notice his familiar costume. Mother of the year here failed to try his new one on before tonight. Turns out his skeleton costume fit tighter than a speedo on Jack Black.
So, once again, Logan was a T-Rex.
He didn't mind at all! He even wore the hood this time!
The paparazzi, as the kids called us.

Daisy did a wonderful job keeping track of Logan.

As did Dawn, keeping track of Craig.

We met up with Winnie the Pooh (aka Dylan), who was just about DONE with the whole trick or treating thing. But oh, how adorable he was, even if he was a bit cranky.

Amazingly enough, this IS his cranky face.

Happy Halloween.

Keep your fingers crossed Chloe will be off restriction before next year.

Random pictures from our week

A few weeks ago the animal shelter held a big garage sale and bake sale to help raise money. I really wanted to do something to help, so I printed up a little flier with some pictures of my cakes and offered to bake a cake for a raffle winner (In loving memory of the Mick man, of course). They made $60. and I got a chance to make my first Christening cake. The shelter will continue to raffle off my cakes every month or so at any big event they have. I figure it was a great way to help the shelter and have more opportunities to make a variety of cakes.

This one turned out okay, but my fondant bow wouldn't set up, hence the random flowers on the front on the fondant ribbons. And here is Shara, my teaching partner and I at our Halloween party.

Note to self: Fore go the chubby bear costume when your tall, slender assistant comes dressed as the Queen of the Nile. It's a bit of a blow to my self esteem.
Logan as, what else? A T-Rex, at school. This is last years costume. But he couldn't wear is skeleton costume to school (no scary costumes allowed)

and Logan, again, just looking cute.
Chloe, getting ready for crazy hat day.
I love this shot of the kids!

Logan, here with the squatter who has been living in our pool the past 3 weeks.

Craig put him out behind the yard, but I'm guessing he'll be back in a couple of days.

Cupcakes that went to school with Chloe and Logan. And Logan, dressed as Bling Bling boy (his words, not mine!)

And that's about it for now.

After dinner, we're heading out to beg for candy. (Well, not all of us. My daughter made the unfortunate choice of not doing a major assignment in school and will be missing the festivities this year) Yes, I know, I'm a shrew. Why is it that SHE made that decision and I'm the one who feels terrible?

WTH???

Okay, so let's see who can point out what is wrong with the discussion that took place at my dinner table tonight.

Me: "So what do you think about getting a family gift for Christmas?"
Craig: "Yeah, that sounds good."
Chloe: "Can we get a Wii? Please, Please!"
Logan: "Yea! A Wee!"
Chloe: "Yeah, I could get a princess game, Daddy can get a hockey game, Mommy can get an exercise game and Logan can get a dinosaur game."

Yeah, she's on my shit list.

Cagle State Park

So the kids were really excited about our upcoming camping trip. But . . .

I'm beginning to think it wasn't just because they were going to experience nature and spend quality time with mom and dad.

Now, now, don't judge. We did pack some nutritional items too.

The fruit roll ups were already in the cooler!So here's our campsite. While the sites weren't as private as we like (like Double Lake), the park was was really pretty and quiet and still really nice.We took along Logan's friend AJ and Chloe's friend Maddie and had a great trip. I took so many pictures. To try to post them in order is a bit daunting, so, well . . . , I'm not going to.

We passed the time with a lot of hiking, scootering and eating!

We didn't want to leave Sadie by herself, so we brought her along, not knowing how she would be. Turns out she's a natural camper. Didn't bark (much), loved going on hikes and cleaned up any food we dropped around the campsite.

While talking with our neighbors in the next campsite, we all looked up to see this! I was awestruck! Luckily, I had my camera. We yelled for the kids to come look. They did for about 3 seconds.

Honestly, they were more impressed by this than the eagle.

and thisand this.

After our last campfire, we took the kids on a flashlight walk.

And after our traditional breakfast of champions
(frosted donuts!)

we hiked down to the lake for one last photo shoot.

because after two days of camping, Lord knows we were all looking our absolute best!

ah yes, the whole Motley Crew.

The weather was great, the setting beautiful, the food yummy and the company

was full of laughter.

Doesn't get much better than this.

Donuts with Dad 09

Too adorable for words.