Elton John impersonator?

I THINK NOT!!! But I can't help but see that flamboyant rockstar sporting his glasses jamming out on the piano, when I took this pic, so I just had to post...Payton takes center-stage with these on! Elton John ain't got nuthin' on him :)

Mom's birthday!

We celebrated my young-at-heart momma's birthday which is March 28th...I wanted to make it somewhat special for her so I decided to take the time and use my professional cake decorating kit my auntie Koo had given me years back...and I just now decided to take it out and give it a whirl!



I don't know if I was scared to use it, or just plain lazy, or I never seemed to have the time to figure it out; maybe a little of all three?

Anyway, I've just used those cake mate cake decorator tips you attach to the frosting tube if I wanted to write or add something to a cake, but WOW~ this Wilton professional cake decorating kit, literally takes the cake on decorating!! It was wonderful to be able to add the small details I wanted that you just can't get with that cake mate crap.



I know the biggest rave right now is the fondant everbody seems to be using to make their daring, creative, amazing cakes.



I just haven't given in to that dark side yet...you see, I'm a bit of a rebel and when something becomes all the rave and everybody's doing it, I have a hard time giving in and jumping on board to the next biggest thing...I like to be an original, and while decorating a cake sure isn't originial, I guess I like to use my talents of cake decorating without the perfectly neat, cut edges fondant can give to the look of a cake...there's just something more natural about decorating a cake with frosting vs. fondant, but you definitely get 2 totally different looks from the two decorating mediums. I know if I did get to know how to work with fondant, I would be amazing...maybe too amazing for my own good and I don't have time to be over-the-top amazing right now, LOL!!

Who knows, maybe one day I will give in to the dark side of decorating with fondant, but for now, my freelance maneuvering of my frosting bag and my spatula are all I am willing to give my limited time to :)

So here is the finished product!




Definitely not 'professional grade', but I'm happy...and I think my mom was pretty darn happy that I took the time to decorate it extra-special for her ;) But how could I not? She has sacrificed and put up with so much crap from me and my siblings, I wish I could financially do more for her, but a cake would have to do, haha!

Gramma with our boys, she's feelin' the love (and crying as usual)!!

Cameron turns 7 !!!

So another year, another son of mine celebrates a birthday! This time its Cameron who is 7. How can this be the little thing that grew inside of me not so long ago?? Goes by so fast, and yet so many fun memories of my little sunny-boy Cameron. He is quite the dramatic child in our household! I always joke around that he should take up acting and get PAID for his antics...oh well, keeps us on our toes, that's for sure!!

I love the thrilled look on his face in this one...



So we did a home party and he invited quite a few kids...I figured they would all show up, so for a pretty decent percentage, you gotta invite a lot of friends to begin with. We decided to do a movie theme, just without the movie theater! Our LCD TV would do the trick. I put together little bags of candy and added in a movie ticket into each one. Then I got some little popcorn box holders from the grocery store that would be perfect for the microwave popcorn I bought...too bad it was too peppery and gross, that's what you get when you try and go 'natural', I guess! lol

Cameron wanted baked potatoes for his birthday dinner, so that's what we had and I also made him a homemade cake. I can't stand store-bought cakes; they are too sweet and artificial, and just plain gross!! People have always raved about how yummy my homemade cakes are, and I have to agree. Besides, a helluva lot cheapter, too!

For his friend party we had the typical pizza: feeds many, and cheap. I made cupcakes for his friends and just had him blow out another candle from the previous cake I had made him. I noticed that most kids aren't so fond of the cake-part...they licked the frosting right off and left me with a bare-naked red velvet cupcake that got thrown out...KIDS, right?? :)






Cameron was thrilled his best buddy, Jaden Warr, was able to make it! Jason and I were really good friends with his mom and dad, but they are since divorced and so the kids stay with their dad on the weekend, so Lance was good enough to bring him and his siblings, over for the big day! If anyone was going to come, I was hoping Jaden would at least make it, so it turned out great. They've been best friends since they were 2 and are like 2 peas in a bod, really! My friend Melanie's kids, I love them like my own!! (Well, almost ;)




Cameron got a scooter from his parents and some mini wrester guys and a mini wresting ring where they can duke it out...he loved them!

V-day!

Valentines morning...here's what the boys got, great big red alien-like things! They loved them. We got Payton a big-eyed giraffe, since he is still the baby and I thought it woule be cute for him. They got a couple of treats with it and that was it. I really have a hard time justifying spending a lot of money on these silly holidays...we only celebrate it because it's about the LOVE we have for eachother, namely our sweet boys...they look a little sleep-deprived, probably because they were from a weekend full of mini-quakes out where we live! Scary, I think so! 3 within 2 days over that weekend was more than we really asked for :-/

Jaeden



Teagan




Cameron



Braxton~ yep, still asleep ;D



Payton aka Pay-Pay



This is really what our boys look like when the masks come off ;)




Later that night my sweet momma came over to sit with the boys so Jason could go out for dinner...we went out for sushi at our favorite restaurant, Blue Fish. Then we went to Red Mango for some froyo, yummmm!

Wax Museum

3rd graders do what's called a 'wax museum'. This was back on February 4th. They get to pick someone famous or someone who made a difference in this world, and do a report on them and try and dress the part.

Teagan chose Lou Gehrig. It was very educational for ME in helping him prepare, because I learned a lot about him that I never knew before and have a new found respect for him and what he went through!

I was glad Teagan picked him because we basically had all of the 'costume attire' he would need, so that made it easy...I'm sure one of the reasons why he picked him in the first place, is because he already had a Yankees Gehrig shirt anyway :)

It was cute to see all of the kids dressed up...some of their costumes were so unique and creative! I could definitely tell which kids' parents made them do their report poster on their own...and I realized I probably did way too much for Teagan's poster to make it look nice and organized and clean! Oops! He helped me in putting everything on the poster and read books on Gehrig, etc. I guess I just can't see how teachers can expect 3rd graders to put together a nice poster of their person without the parents help; guess that's my excuse anyway! lol

So here are a couple of shots of Teagan...and remember, they are supposed to be posed like a wax figure, so I can tell he was a little bugged with me asking him to pose for the camera and smile! Haha, yeah right. :)