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.

My Birthday!

I've been torn about wanting to post a tribute to Micky before posting anything else. But I'm not quite ready to do that and everyone has been chomping at the bit to see the masterpiece that my husband made for my birthday. So,

Let me present, the newest Cake Boss in town!

Craig and his single tiered, fondant covered Recycle cake! Under the superior tutelage of Brandy, Craig

made and colored the fondant from scratch. Filled and crumb coated the cake. Then covered it with fondant (not always an easy task, mind you!). He also made the template for and cut out the recycle sign and did the puddle dot border. I think he did a pretty incredible job (although I didn't doubt that he would).

Brandy, thank you for taking him under your wing . . . and the cake was so yummy!!

(Brandy baked the cake)

As far as my gift, Craig scored another big hit with my retro bubble gum pink beach cruiser.

The kids are giving me a basket and a bell to go with it. I love it. I've been using the same bike for the past 8 years so I was due.

Dawn came out to see my new toy and we quickly noticed we matched . . . yet again.
Right down to our nails.
She had hers done at a salon and I did myself and we still managed to end up with the same exact color.

So then we decided to end the night at El Palenque's.

A local Mexican restaurant with, as I soon learned, a very heavy handed bartender.

After 1 1/2

(yes, that was only one and a half!)

Margaritas, I was feeling no pain and apparently the life of the party.

The waiters felt I would look good with whipped cream and a tortilla chip stuck to my nose. I didn't mind because they also brought us some yummy Soppapillas (is that what they're called?)

It was a great night. Right up until the time when the room began to spin.

As a final birthday present, my angel of a husband made sure my children had their jammies on, teeth brushed and were safely tucked into bed while I held a close intimate conversation with the toilet downstairs.

(I was also thanking a higher power that I had decided to clean it the day before!)

He then brought me water and eventually helped me upstairs to bed.

Did I mention that I had didn't even finish two whole margaritas!?!

So, for the most part it was a really great day. And I have my darling husband to thank.

Ladies, all this and he bakes too! Yes, I'm a pretty lucky gal!

Craig, I guess you're off the hook for not taking me dancing!

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I was surrounded by my wonderful family, good friends and yummy food. What more could a girl want.

Knee high black leather boots and a new Coach purse?

Yes, I got those too!

And just a few more shots of my beautiful children . . .

Yes, I know. I'm blessed.

We lost Micky. Congestive heart failure. Monday morning. I've tried to post this many times, only to remove it. One day soon I'll post a fitting tribute, but I can't yet.

My new classroom

So, while I'm killing time waiting for Brothers and Sisters to get far enough along that I can fast forward through all the commercials (whoever came up with the DVR is an absolute genius!), I thought I'd update our blog. Many of you have asked about my new class room. It's not 100% done, but it's coming along pretty well, so I thought it was time to share some pictures. My class is the Super Stars and the church just built a beautiful new wing for the preschool. And since we had to add so many new classes, those of us who just started got to pick out all new furniture, it was so much fun.
Considering I started from scratch, I'm pretty proud of the materials I've put together. I'm still hitting up garage sales looking for building blocks and such. But I've got enough to keep us busy for awhile.
Above is my recycling station. Nothing too major, but it works. I have been so impressed with my class. On the first day of school, I explained what we recycle, what we throw away and showed them how to wash their hand without wasting water. They have been awesome about it. In fact, they have even asked what they could do with the items they can't recycle instead of throwing them in the trash. I'm going to have this whole damned state of Texas hugging trees before you know it. Just you wait!
Craig hung my bulletin board and clock today.
And behind the easel is our kitchen center.
(we have to share these rooms with Sunday school and they are supposed to get two walls to decorate, but as you can see, I'm slowing taking over . . .Sure, it's starts with my little tree hugging sign and before they know it
BAM! It's all mine!
We even have granite countertops!
I'm really having a blast and, other than needing to work on my time management skills, I think it's going pretty well. I keep saying, if nothing else, these children will leave my class knowing how to bake a wicked cake and knowing exactly what you can recycle. So that's something, right?

Craig's hockey game!

Craig skated in a play off game tonight, so the kids and I headed down to the rink to cheer him on. (Before you get too impressed with my undying display of support, I feel it only fair to admit this was the only game I made it to this season) But surprisingly enough,

They won.
No doubt because of Craig's mad hockey playing skills.
Of course, I have very few pictures because . . .

well, to be frank, I don't what the hell I'm doing with my camera.

So these are as good as you're gonna get.

And that's all for now! Have a wonderful week!