Summer Band Concert

Last night was the Finale Concert for the Columbia Public Schools Summer Music Camp that the girls have been in for the last 3 weeks. They participated in Music Theory (which included guitar, piano, and world percussion), Flute Class, and Advanced Concert Band. They played Legend of the Eagles, Shaker Variants, The Big Circus March, and Highlights from the Wizard of Oz. It was nice for the girls to play side by side in a band together. What is amazing is this is a free program! Here is a video of The Wizard of Oz:

BBQ, Bday Cake, and the Big 4-0

Friday was Jared's 40th birthday, so we had a few people over to help us celebrate. I mean, somebody had to help eat all that cake, right? I would hate to see another fondant covered cake go in the trash!

Thanks to Jared for doing all the meat-- smoked brisket and pulled pork. It was delicious! It was well worth the alarm going off at 3 in the morning! And thanks to everyone who came to help wish Jared a happy birthday. It was so nice to be surrounded with all you younger people! It turns out that all three members of the bishopric have birthdays in July-- and our new bishop is so young that he brings the average age of the bishopric members down to a little over 37!

Jared you are fabulous at forty! Have a wonderful year ahead!

Happy Birthday Jared

Jared, I Can’t Believe You’re Forty!


John Glenn said, “There is still no cure for the common birthday”
…but you, my friend, are no common man!
Here are just a few of the things that make you so extraordinary:

You’re a…
Weed whacking, Frisbee golfing, guest lecturing, lawn mowing, house painting, deck staining, cancer surviving, Mario Kart racing, two putting, wife complimenting, golf club swinging, muscle toning, weight lifting, headline reading, Oklahoma Sooners cheering, history buffing, water drinking, team managing, movie watching, conference calling, example setting, non-smoking, healthy snacking, head shaving, bass fishing, carpet vacuuming, scripture studying, bike pedaling, sunglasses sporting, ladder climbing, food measuring, household repairing, kid coaching, family leading, sugarless gum chewing, finger snapping, fast moving, test taking, goal setting, text messaging, character building, daughter hugging, prayer saying, calorie counting, pound dropping, hurricane responding, ball shagging, dog petting, clearance rack shopping, container gardening, Yoda quoting, NASCAR viewing, money saving, armchair quarter-backing, problem solving, bill paying, power washing, hand shaking, promise keeping, e-mail checking, GPS navigating, fire lighting, NPR listening, ipod shuffling, never aging, awe-inspiring,

Oh why don’t we just say it?

dragon slaying knight in shining Under Armour!

Happy Birthday
From me,
Mrs. Incredible

Summer So Far

So far we have enjoyed lots of Summer activities. The girls got to go to grandma's and their cousin's and do all sorts of fun things in Tulsa. They each made a super cute quilt. While they were gone, Jared and I spent a day in Kansas City to celebrate our anniversary. We shopped, ate, and went to see Michael Buble in concert at the Sprint Center. It was so great! While at home we grilled a lot since the weather was so nice. So we could enjoy the outdoors even more, Jared and I worked on staining the deck. It made a huge difference and looks so nice. We also added a new fire pit. We used it for the first time on the Fourth of July cooking hot dogs and s'mores! The other patriotic thing we did that day was to watch the wimbledon finals (ha! ha!) Jared gave the girls a couple of lessons over the weekend, then they went to go play tennis and frisbee golf with him on Monday, since he had an extra day off. Now the girls have started Summer Band and we are about to celebrate Jared 's 40th birthday! Here are a few pictures of what's been going on!

Cute Quilts:

Michael B:

Working on the deck:


Grill Action:


Enjoying the deck:





Working on their swing:

cakes for dad

Yesterday we drove down to Tulsa to deliver Madison and Gabrielle to their grandparents house. Since Father's Day is coming up I decided to bring my dad a cake. We did three six inch three layer cakes, each with a hand-cut letter, spelling out dad. They were very cute and I loved the color scheme.




Happy Father's Day, Dad! Have Fun Girls!

Netflix

We've been Blockbuster members for a long time. We've rented from the Redbox. Now we are doing a free month trial of Netflix. Our first movie came in the mail box today as well as our disc to watch movies instantly through the Wii. What a great idea! There is everything you could ever want on there. We are filling up our queue!

Our first movie?


I think that says something!

It's a…Wedding Cake!

This is it! The first real wedding cake! It started last Wednesday with me making 4 batches of fondant (about 12 pounds!), wrapping them in plastic wrap and zip-loc bagging them. Thursday was baking day-- 3 twelve inch chocolate layers for the bottom tier, then the 10 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch white cakes that would later get split into two layers each, then another 3 layer 6 inch cake for the bride and groom to cut standing alone. That is a lot of cake! Not to mention eggs! I had quite the little baking system going that day. The cakes were all loosely wrapped and boxed for the trip. I also had to pack up all the other paraphernalia that goes with being a mobile bakery-- all the cake decorating supplies, tools, frosting ingredients, mixer, cake boards, stands, etc. Plus we were bringing the punch, frozen in zip-loc bags. Here's all the gear for the kitchen waiting to be loaded up. (Our suitcases had to go on the roof!)


Friday we traveled with everything to Oklahoma. Everything survived the six hour trip, which was great. We were greeted with 100° weather, which was not great! After unloading everything at the hotel, we went to the church to do a dinner and help decorate for the reception. Jared made a dutch oven peach cobbler to go with dinner. It was awesome!

We stayed at a Marriott property in Broken Arrow about a half mile from the church. Luckily, we had a suite with an oven, full size microwave, sink, garbage disposer, and fridge. So we decided to do almost the entire cake at the hotel. After a quick breakfast in the morning, we were ready for our all-day cake challenge. I started making buttercream and just kept it coming all day!

Jared is the king of the crumb coat-- especially good with the new dry wall knife he picked up before we came!


All of the cakes had to be frosted first and then refrigerated.



Then the covering with fondant. Jared is also a whiz at kneading and rolling the fondant. I am taking a co-pilot role at this point!


We had cakes everywhere in the hotel room. It did smell really nice though!



After taking a break for lunch and once all the tiers were covered with fondant, we boxed everything up and took them to the church to finish decorating them.

Jared cut and put in all the dowels and got the cakes all stacked. Then I did the ribbon and pearl borders while he went to get the flowers from the florist.







Jared came back with all the flowers, including the ones that were going on the cake. We put those on and breathed a big sigh of relief!


The finished product: a four tier, fondant covered, ribbon bordered, pearl accented, rose crowned, labor of love. We also made them an additional 6 inch tier on a stand by itself for them to cut into easily. It was really special to be able to do this for Lisa and Brycen.







Here are just a few more photos of the cake cutting and of course, the adorable Zoe, showing us how cake is supposed to be eaten!





P.S. Sorry for the excessive amount of pictures-- it's like we had a baby or something!