CelestialFamily

Spring has sprung and an opportunity to get together with aunts and cousins. Michael and I took the kids down to my dad and Alice's house for Easter. Saturday, the girls helped me bake and decorate a cake for my sister, Tracy's, birthday, the kids hunted eggs, and my dad grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on the Big Green Egg.


Here are Rachel and Haley's toes after a spring inspired pedicure:


Haley and Rachel made and decorated cupcakes for Easter:

They also decorated some hard boiled eggs:

Rachel and Haley hanging out:


Rachel and Haley help me make fondant decorations for Tracy's birthday cake:
Me coloring some fondant:

Rachel and Haley cut fondant to make decorative spheres:

Here are some fondant flowers drying:

Here is the strawberry and devil's food cake frosted with chocolate:

Here is Tracy's birthday cake:





Michael blows bubbles waiting for the kids to start hunting eggs:

Michael snuggles up to my dad:

Dad, you aren't uncomfortable...are you?


Aaron isn't hunting eggs, so he poses with a plate of chili. Noah, Haley, Rachel, Eve, and Tyler are ready to go:
Aaron gets whacked with a confetti egg:




Haley:




Rachel runs away from Aaron:



Tracy and Tyler with the cake:


Dig in:


Happy, slightly early, Birthday, Tracy! Happy Easter, everyone!

My sister, Katherine, called me last week and asked if I would make a topsy turvy cake for her daughter, Jessica's, 21st birthday. I said sure, so she and my stepmom, Alice, drove up and we shopped for the ingredients. We purchased French Vanilla cake and Strawberry cake mixes. We also got pink petal dust and rose gel coloring to use with the fondant. I mixed up the buttercream frosting for the cakes on Saturday. I put seedless raspberry in the middle of the French Vanilla like I did for the last cake creation. It seems to be popular.
Rachel and Eve wanted to help so they got to apply the luster dust to some of the stars and all of the fondant ball border. I spent the time quite amiably by listening to Pride and Prejudice playing on the television. Rachel wanted to watch it and I love the Kiera Knightly/Matthew McFadden version. It was great reciting lines from the movie while rolling, cutting and applying fondant decorations.
This is Eve helping put petal dust on the dimensional stars:



This one is Rachel putting petal dust on the balled fondant border:




This one is me making the pink bow to go around the top tier:


Rachel requests a slice of cake:


Michael says that it tastes good:

Jessica, Rachel and My sister Tracy:

My funny and cute niece, Haley:

Did I mention funny?

A satisfying outcome and a lot of laughs with my sisters. BTW, Katherine refused to be allow her photograph on the blog. She is beautiful, too. Her story of the homeless man that stopped her in traffic got funnier with each telling. Life is truly an adventure and isn't it lovely that cake is a part of that!

Smiles!

*edited after Girl Scouts. :::::::::::LIFE WITH NOAH::::: We, like many people, have a morning routine. Our routine puts us outside about 2 minutes before the school bus arrives. This morning the bus arrived about 7 minutes late. Noah happened to be wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, navy slacks and a tie (he would have you know that it was not clip-on)because his teacher told the students to dress nicely for their field trip to see a play at Georgia Tech. I stood with the kids as they boarded the bus. The bus driver closed the doors, then pulled forward a little and stopped to open the doors. He is an older gentleman and he looked to be laughing. He asked me, "Is the boy dressed up with a tie your kid?" I had to admit it...so I replied, "Yes." Then, he said, "Well he just checked his watch when he got on the bus and asked me why I was late. He looks like a little business man." I asked the driver if he had ever seen the show "Monk"?, and he responded, "Yes". I said, "Well, that is our Monk." We both laughed and off they went. One of the things Noah loves to do is say things really loud. Here is an example:
One other Noah story: We had Pack meeting last Wednesday. Brother Peterson, the Cubmaster, asked the boys, "Do you want to play a game?" To wit,Noah called out, "If it's for being noisy, I'll win." ::::::::::::::::Another Easter Layout:::::::: I'm off to pick up Eve from Daisy Scouts. Take care!

Hey folks! My dad always says that to tell people that times going by and you need to get to work. Well, I need to go for a walk and do housework, but I wanted to post some of the layouts I have been working on.









I still have to work on more zoo pages and the Easter pictures. We had a great time at my dad and Alice's house with my sisters, Katherine and Tracy. The kids loved the confetti, or cascarones, eggs the best. We think we might just hide the confetti eggs next year and have the candy in the house for them to get afterwards.

Eve got a tick on her neck at an Easter egg hunt the day before. The hunt took place in and near some woods. She asked me what the bump on her neck was and I said, "OHHHH MICHAEL, Eve's got a tick!" She was really brave while Michael grabbed a knife and slide the blade under the mouth part and put his thumb on the tick's head. He pulled and the tick let go after a brief tug. He hopped down and tried to wonder off, but I had Michael kill him. This upset Eve. She thinks that even ticks deserve to live. I, on the other hand, did not feel so inclined. They can play in the woods, but not on my family. From some of the tick pics I could find on line I think it was a male, but I'm not sure of the species. You may find Eve with a shirt, or poster that says, "Be Kind To Ticks Week", but I won't be at the rally.

We dropped by my mom and Jim's on the way home from the Easter festivities at dad's. The kids were refortified with bags of sugary treats. Grannies are the best!

:::::::::::::TESTING, TESTING...1, 2, 3...

Taylor kids 1, 2 and 3 are testing this week. They are taking the Criterion Reference Test. The reading portion was yesterday and I didn't hear any moaning and groaning, so I guess they felt okay about the questions.

:::::::::::::Time to Walk...
Daylights a wastin! Smiles!