Samantha Turns 5!

We had Samantha's birthday party this weekend. It ended up being a pretty busy day after attending a baby shower, going to Ty's baseball game, coming home to prepare for the party and then actually having the party.

Here are some highlights from the party:



Annalise (Kevin and Kels) gave her some heely type shoes which she is excited to learn how to use:

Grandma Stott gave her dance clothes and is also paying for some cheer classes that Mantha wanted to take. She is looking forward to starting next week.

Miss Dawn (Mantha and Caitlin's babysitter/Mom #2) gave Samantha a backpack for when she starts school this fall. She is very excited about this.

And her friends Rebecca and Jesse gave her some My littliest pet shop toys:

After eating dinner, presents and pinata. We decided to head over to the pool for a little while. I didn't think anyone would want to swim since it ended up being about 65-70 degrees that day rather than the forecasted 80 degrees, but that didn't stop the kids (and JC) from jumping in the cold water.

After coming back from the freezing cold water we sang happy birthday and ate the barbie cake:

To end the day Tyler ended up losing both front teeth. And this picture kind of says it all.......JC and Caitlin feel asleep at 9pm on the couch. We were all exhausted by the time the day was over.

Barbie cake take 2

After the practice run for making a barbie cake and fondant icing we completed the final product this weekend. Last weekend Samantha and I made the icing and dyed them the colors she wanted. They looks so springy :)

We then made the cake Friday night. I let Mantha choose the kind of cake mix she wanted at the store and of course she chose the messiest one I have ever seen, Red Velvet. Anything it touched turned red.

After baking and cooling we then starting building the cake to make the shape for Barbie. I added an extra layer this time so that it fit the shape of barbie better.

This is pre-fondant/post cream cheese icing, mmmmmm yumm:

I then started to lay the fondant on. This was the hard part. I learned the hard way that I prefer to use cornstarch rather than shortening while trying to roll out the icing. It took a few tries but I finally got the icing in place. After geting everything in place I put the doll in and that was when things started to go bad. I should have cut a hole for her legs because it pushed the cake out which in turn cracked the icing. I was just hoping the cake would stay together long enough to make it through the party:

Atleast it wasn't on the front :) Here is a picture of the end product:

Caitlin was my little helper while I was decorating the cake. It was like playing with edible play dough......not that eating play dough doesn't happen, but this is alot sweeter.

Go Toyota Go!

I just had to post this picture I took shortly after our Camry hit 300,000 miles. Thanks Kels and Kevin! This car has been so great......even if only one door handle works, the car keeps on going :)

This is Tyler shooting confetti at the car on New Years Eve. Not sure why he was, but it is the only picture I have of the car :)

Toddler Art

Caitlin decided it was art day last Saturday. Here are some pics of her creations:

1. My Cedar Chest

2. My new sheets (yeah I just bought them in January)

3. Herself :) I did not get pictures of what she drew on her self but it was everywhere. Atleast Samantha sticks with paper. :P

Samantha and the Diamond Castle

Today I was doing a trial run for making Samantha's b-day cake for her party in two weeks. I have never made fondant icing before so I figured I should practice with it before making it for her cake. Samantha and I worked hard on getting the icing the right texture/consistency and stickyness:

I also wanted to work on the shape for the cake so I tried a couple different Pyrex dishes. Here is the cake pre-fondant:And Mantha wanted to make sure we had plenty of sparkles for the cake:

And here is the end product:

We took a video while decorating:

I also tried making a rose out of fondant as well. It is hard to see since we didn't color the icing but I think it turned out pretty good:

Overall the practice run went pretty well. There are a few things I want to tweak for next time such as the shape of the top of the cake, the thickness of the icing and how we place the fondant on, but all in all it was a fun Saturday activity and we may have even aquired a new skill. Anyone have any good suggestions on what to decorate the dress with?

I love this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/socake/448091614/in/set-72157600208533098/

But since this is barbie and the diamond castle it should probably look more like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nina-pierre/3247123839/

Tyler's first t-ball game

Today was Tyler's first t-ball game. I recorded some of the highlights of the game.

He started off as the catcher:

Then he was the third one up to bat. Tyler was so nervous.......he had a hard time hitting the ball his first time up to bat.

After a few tries he was able to get a hold of it though.

And this is him scoring for the first time.

Because of the way he hits the ball his couch started calling him Happy Gilmore.

Samantha kept herself busy collecting rocks during the game.

And Caitlin made friends.



All in all it was a good game! good game guys, good game :)

We are looking forward to more games throughout the rest of the season.