Good News about Great Girls

Last night we had the privilege to attend an awards assembly with Gabrielle. She was honored for being a cooperative, respectful, and responsible learner. She was chosen by her Honors Block teacher. In the program she wrote this testimonial: "Gabrielle Runnels is a model student. She is thoughtful, inquisitive, and genuinely interested in our class and raises good questions to challenge her thinking and the understanding of her peers. She is thorough and timely with her work, and respectful of herself and her peers. Her diligence and zest are wonderful additions to our block class."

She received a certificate and some candy. Better yet, she received the good feeling you get from doing your best! Yeah Gabrielle! We are proud of you!

I haven't written about this yet, but have been meaning to do so--I should also mention that Madison has been attending early morning seminary. They start at 6:15 and go to 7:05 am every school day. After seminary she goes straight to school where she practices her flute before school begins. She gets herself up everyday and is ready to go on time. She has 100% attendance at seminary so far. Keep it up, Madison! We appreciate the effort you put into this.

It is indeed a privilege to be the mom of these two girls! They teach me everyday and make me smile, laugh, and grateful I am their mom! Keep doing the very best you can girls! You are wonderful!

Zebra Stripes Redux

I revisited the zebra motif today for our friend Marge-- she saw the zebra striped cake we did this summer and just had to have one.  And well, I think she deserves it! She had the superb idea to do a vanilla buttercream with only the stripes in fondant. I loved how this looked. Best of both worlds, really. It's striped on the inside too since it was a marble cake-- clever, huh? She had all kinds of good ideas. This cake just makes me smile! Hope it survived the ride home, Marge!

Here's a few photos of the process and the finished product : 

The bottom tier-- 10 inch round

both tiers getting their stripes

Bright yellow border--totally sunny!

Bow topper

 

 

Maybe the cakes need their own blog!

If the Tiara Fits…

I am sorry! This was a hand out the girls got in class on Sunday and well, it was just the perfect size for the little princess here…Long may she rule!

Dinner Music

Saturday our church had a Humanitarian Aid workshop and dinner in conjunction with the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was a great day with lots of service projects going on. There were quilts, school kits, toys bags, baby books and baby clothing being made. I worked in a room that was made greeting cards to send to soldiers so they will have cards to send home to their families. It was so much fun and so much work was done in a short period of time. Prior to the broadcast, the Stake Relief Society Presidency provided a warm dinner (not just a salad!) while we got to listen to several of the young women from the stake play background music. This included Madison and Gabrielle on flutes! Another two girls played violin and cello and another girl did piano. They played both classical and church music. This was in front of over 200 women! Several of them came up and thanked the girls and told them how much they enjoyed hearing them play. It made me so happy that they participated in this event, for when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are really in the service of our God. Wonderful job girls!

Gabrielle's Birthday

 So, you saw the cake. I probably should note what went on for the rest of Gabrielle's birthday. Unfortunately, Gabrielle had to go to school on her birthday! On the bright side, a friend bought her a cookie at lunch! How sweet! Her new young women's leader dropped by with a cute gift to welcome her into the 14 and 15 year-olds class at church, the Miamaids. We had her dinner of choice (penne alfredo, salad, and french bread) then opened a few gifts. Madison gave her the cutest little owl earrings, pop tarts and gum (the gum was left for her as a morning gift!).

I gave her this jean jacket I had been hiding in my closet since the 4th of July.

 I was afraid she was going to out grow it before her birthday.
Then we had cake to top off the night.

We had to make it an early night that night, but on Friday we got to go see the new owl movie The Legend of the Guardians--the Owls of Ga'houle.

Gabrielle has read most of this book series and was excited to see the movie in 3D! It was pretty cool! We liked it a lot.
Overall, I think she had a pretty nice birthday. 14 years already!

Owl Cake Inspiration and Execution

Gabrielle wanted an owl cake for her birthday this year. This is always a process, even once you get the idea. I love to see an idea go from inspiration to the finished product. Gabi's cake was no exception. Here is how this idea "took flight"…

 I first started by trying to force my opinions on her! "Let's do a cute little whimsical owl-- showing her daily images of trendy owlets in green, blue or orange. She likes crazy colors! They were all so cute-- But no! "I am leaning toward a more realistic looking owl!" Ok, show me what YOU want! She sketched her idea out :

We also got a book at the library with photos of all kinds of owls
(are you sure you still want realistic?) I learned more than I ever wanted to know on the subject!

Once I could wrap my brain around it, I made my own sketch.







The night before I baked one round and one rectangle dark chocolate fudge cake. Into the freezer they went. I also made a couple of batches of fondant. I went to bed dreaming of how this owl would take shape!

I wish I had taken more photos along the way, but my was racing against the clock as it was. I was hoping to finish it before I had to pick the girls up from school. I took out the frozen cakes and split them and filled them with a dark chocolate frosting filling. I carved out the body and log pieces, and used the round cake for the head. I frosted the body as one piece and then did the log separately with white butter cream. It should have actually been called oreo because there were so many crumbs in it! Oh well, it was getting covered with fondant! Which was the next step. Light tan over the whole birdie. Then I did brown fondant for the wings and head accents over. I marbeled in some more brown into the brown to make it look more wood grain-y. I should have done more, but I just went with the first batch. The cake, of course, came alive when the feather accents went on and then the face. I had to put on false eyelashes, realistic or not! And the black ribbon! I thought the feathers on the chest looked too hard edged, so I softened them up by brushing on some cocoa powder. Love the effect! Loved it so much I brushed it over the face  and cheeks, as well as the tree branch.  I finally pulled it all together by placing the leaves around to make it look like it was in a tree.

And since we couldn't really put the candles in the owl (why would you want to?) I put candles in mini cupcakes.

 

It's always a shame to cut into the cake you've slaved over, but we went for it head first:

Your cake is watching you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was fun, Gabrielle! Thanks for the great idea! 

Praise Google!

Ok, I remember when I was little and would ask my mom some random question I needed answered she would point to the bookshelves filled with history books, encyclopedias and dictionaries and say, "Look it up!"

Today we just say "Google it!" Seriously, the most uttered phrase at our house is, "I'm Googling it!" and then when we find something out that we needed to know, we appropriately "Praise Google!"
(You could say we use Google religiously).

The other day the girls were looking on a list of ingredients on a nutrition facts label and were wondering what phosphorous was. We proceeded to Google and about three seconds later had everything we ever wanted to know about said mineral. Yea, even more. What would we do without Google? Probably get a lot more paper cuts turning the pages of those crazy big dictionaries.