The painter's palette

Here's my latest. This makes three cakes so far for June. My favorite part of this cake is the "wood" handles on the brushes. I think they turned out pretty good. And I'm actually proud that you can't see the chocolate cake under the frosting. Getting a crumb free frost on a chocolate cake has been virtually impossible for me, so I happy to see my skills are improving. I have another cake on order for the end of the month. And this one is a doozie. If I can actually pull it off I'll consider myself a real cake decorator. If I don't . . .well, let's just say my future as a cake designer will be sunk.

Craig's birthday dinner at Crabby Daddy's.

Not too shabby for an old guy!

Happy Birthday to the man I love!

Happy Birthday to a man of many talents!
He's a mamma's boy who is a great babysitter,
(although a bit of a klutz!)

He's uber talented,

with skills far beyond measure!

He's a man who likes to be in control!

He's Super Dad! A lover a animals!

and my very own live McDreamy Doll!

Happy Birthday Babe.

A couple more cakes

I'm hoping to start making a few more cakes each month over the summer. I'm off to a pretty good start. Here are two I made last week.

For a graduate of The Woodlands High School. The hats are all fondant.

Yes, I'm sure some of you were wondering when I'd make a Twilight themed cake. This one was for A.J. 's sister Melanie, who is Team Jacob all the way. I had no idea what to do, so this is what I came up with.
Yes, I'll be sure to avoid any further cakes that take any amount of artistic ability.
I did three wolves. This one was the best. The other two resembled ferrets more than they did wolves. Luckily, Melanie didn't look much past the picture at the top of the cake. So as far as she was concerned, it was great.

What a difference a year . . .or four can make.

Well, this was the scene, four years ago as Chloe and Daisy headed off to 1st grade at Kaufman. Fast forward, 4 years as they enter into Kaufman for the last time as 4th graders.
Today, Chloe officially completed elementary school.
Good bye elementary school.

Hello intermediate school.

After the 4th graders receive their certificates, the entire school line the hall ways and clap them out. It was surprisingly emotional for me. I went to see Brandy afterwards and she teared up too. She said she was fine until she saw Chloe. Chloe is really going to miss seeing Aunt Brandy at school. Luckily, Logan will get to see her there next year.

(warning: for some reason this recorded sideways! Sorry. I know it's user error and I can't figure out how to fix it. But I had to post it, so just tilt your head and you'll be just fine. )

So wrong, but soooo funny!

Okay, So I wanted to post this the other day, but after hearing about little Dylan's ordeal, I didn't feel it was quite appropriate. However, I am happy to reportthat I saw Dylan and he is doing just fine and as good as ever. . . so I'm now posting this with no guilt what-so-ever.

This photo gave me the giggles so badly that I'd wake up at night and start laughing.

Like I said . . .soooo wrong.

(the photo is from a website Trent sent to Craig. AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. If you haven't see it, trust me, go now! Trenton, you're the man at finding good websites!)

UPDATE: My darling husband has corrected me in the sweetest of manners. It appears that it was he who found the website . . .

(although I'm still giving props to my son for Texts from Last night, a truly classic website!)

San Antonio

Chloe has been studying about the Alamo and has asked many times to go see it. Mainly because she read that it was haunted and she wanted to see ghosts. But either way, we decided to take a trip to San Antonio and check things out.

I thought this sign was kind of funny. Maybe it was just me, but seeing hours posted of when the Alamo was open for visitors was a bit ironic to me . . . you know, being that's it's famous for the attempt to keep people out and all.

I was actually a little surprised at how interested Chloe was in everything. She stopped to read most of the displays and was excited to be there.

Logan just liked the big cannons.

We all learned a few things and after about 20 mins or so, were ready to head to the zoo.

So off we went.

The San Antonio Zoo was a pretty good zoo and the kids had lots of fun seeing all the animals.

And just hanging out like monkeys.

After the zoo, we went to the hotel to rest and clean up, then walked over the to River walk.

After a looonng walk and some pictures, we settled in to Dick's Last Resort for some good BBQ.

As you can see, Logan's mood was a little sour due to all the walking,

but soon the fun atmosphere

finally brought on a few smiles.

well, sort of!

After a blizzard from DQ and a good night's sleep we headed over the the Witte Museum to see their animatronic dinosaur exhibit. .

This guy was outside in the front. He moved and roared and everything!

We actually got there a little early, so we walked over to this huge park that was behind the museum. It was an awesome park.

We walked by this beautiful gate on our way to the park. You can't really see, but it had all these bugs and reptiles woven into the design. It was very cool!

At the playground there was this huge pavilion, fashioned after the Alamo that the kids ran around in for a bit, then it was time to go dino hunting.

Our future Paleontologists.

The dinos were very cool They were animatronic and the kids could move different body parts themselves. The show was very interesting because it is one of the first to have dinos covered in feathers on display. The T-Rex fully feathered was pretty different.

But no, I didn't get any shots of it . . .

(honestly, we all know these pic's are only to show off how cute my children are . . .)

After another couple of pics in front of a HUGE cactus

(opps, I deleted the one of Craig and the kids! Sorry Hun!)

We piled into the car and headed home.

Good times, right Logan?

Ah, Logan?

Yeah, he's got the right idea!