Look Whoo's One

Grandpa's girl

 Here are pictures from Adycen's big birthday party with friends and family. I wasn't sure if she would like her little cake, but she did!

The cake on the stand I made to match

Singing happy birthday to Adycen

Mmmmmm!

I think I'll get some more!

Oh this feels nice!

The damage

I like cake!

Lounging- post cake and clean up. What a day!

Spring Cake, I mean Break

There was a lot of cake involved in Spring Break this year! We had lots of birthdays to celebrate including Adycen turning 1 year old! We went to Tulsa Wednesday - Sunday and managed to squeeze in all this:

We went to Linda's house first. We brought red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for her birthday and angel food cupcakes with berry butter cream for Adycen. She opened her presents from us that night.

Oh Goody! A farm for me! Hurry Grandpa ! Set it free!

Gabrielle gave her some soft bowling pins which she loved!

We visited my dad in the nursing home (no cake there, too bad!) and spent time with my mom. It was also her birthday on Friday and she wished for cheesecake. I phoned up the pros for this one and we enjoyed Ludger's Bavarian Cheesecake- I love their logo.
They make a very unique cake with two layers of sponge cake and a luscious layer of bavarian cream cheesecake in the middle. It is all frosted with a light whipped icing. They did a beautiful job decorating!

In the midst of all this, cakes for Adycen's big party were baking, being frosted and covered with fondant. We drove up early Saturday morning to Linda's house to finish decorating the cake. Lisa did the cute little owl on the front! Sooo sweet! It was a "Look Whoo's Turning One" theme.

and this was her little cake we made just for her to smash/eat at the party:

Then we carefully drove it all to the community center in Checotah where the party was being held. I will post those pictures on a separate post, but that is all the cake for Spring Break!

Programs!

This has been a while back now, but Madison and Gabrielle both had school programs to watch before Spring Break began. Gabrielle had the We the People project in her English/Government link class. She was the group leader (the rest of her group was 4 boys) and they had the topic of judicial review. They had to write a speech and deliver it to the audience and a panel of judges asked them questions. They had to respond accordingly. They did an excellent job. I think it was hard for Jared to sit and watch all the groups and not answer the questions himself!

We also had music going on as usual-- Madison performed with her symphonic band at Hickman (the winter concert was cancelled due to an incoming storm). They did a great job. Both girls worked hard preparing to participate in district competitions where Gabrielle performed a solo piece and Madison performed in a trio. Both received a "2" rating. Nice work all around!

Relief Society Anniversary Cake

Here's the result of a lot of mixing, baking, frosting and fondant-ing last week. The Columbia Missouri Stake celebrated the 170th anniversary of the Relief Society organization. There were many classes, demonstrations and humanitarian aid projects to do all afternoon. I was happy to make the cakes- We made a variety of kinds of cake. I made 3 sheet cakes- one fudge marble with chocolate frosting, one carrot spice cake with cream cheese frosting, and a red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The main cake was a four tier cake covered with fondant with tiers in lemon, strawberry and white cake with butter cream fillings. It was topped with the Relief Society seal. We also had a deep dark chocolate cake that was just for our gluten free friends. It was so nice to be there serving cake and talking with all the women in attendance that day. It means a lot when someone takes the time to come up and tell you that they enjoyed your work! Here's some photos:

Kristin's Wedding

Here's some photos from this weekend's wedding cake. Kristin and Zack were married on Saturday at Arrow Springs Chapel in Broken Arrow. It was a beautiful venue and day. We were happy to be a small part of it! The cake was 4 tiers of fondant covered white cake with vanilla butter cream. The cake was accented with pink roses and black satin ribbon with crystal square slide buckles. The cake was topped with more flowers and their last name initial. Congratulations Kristin & Zack!

I also have to mention Zack's amazing groom's cake and cupcakes- a sparkling keeper of a fish cake plus cupcakes with gummy worms on the hooked. I don't know who did them, but it was a yummy chocolate cake that didn't taste fishy at all!

I think he's "hooked!"

A Lovely February

Happy Leap Day! Here's a look back on February around our house- I really do love February. It started with the Super Bowl. We had a dinner group over the Saturday night before the Super Bowl and called it "Souper Bowl Saturday Night" It was a lot of fun. We made 5 different kinds of soup and everyone brought a bread or soup go-along. We had a Super Bowl trivia quiz and finished with cake. We had a great time watching the Super Bowl on Sunday and all the commercials, too. Here's the cake:

Of course we had a sweet Valentine's Day…The girls made cut out sugar cookies a couple of days before, some with some very funny sayings on them! Jared came and picked me up for lunch and brought me roses. I gave him the Adelle CD. We had fondue with the girls that night. Love was in the air all day!

Let's see, what else? The girls have been busy practicing - their flute studio had a "practice-a-thon." Gabrielle participated in her last year at Central Methodist University's music competition in Fayette, Missouri. She did a solo this year and received a "1" rating from her judge. Madison completed all her personal progress goal and projects and received her Young Women Recognition award and medallion. Way to go! We are so proud of these girls! They had a couple of days off from school in February, too, which is always nice!

Last Sunday the girls and I held our annual Oscar viewing party. We filled out our ballots then hoped for the best. I had actually seen a few of these movies this year, so that helped! I loved Hugo, and The Iron Lady. Every time you got the category right, you got to pick a prize from the basket- It was great! We also did Oscar Bingo with fun categories like "Tom Cruise presents an award" "Someone puts on glasses to read" and "Orchestra cuts off acceptance speech" BINGO!

 This is my ballot with 15 correct categories. I think I got a little lucky!

So February has come and gone. The wind was blowing like crazy today, so here comes March. Warning- there's lots and lots of cake coming soon!

All-District Band and all things music

This year Gabrielle was able to participate in the Northeast Missouri All-District Band. She tried out in November and made 4th chair flute (out of 12) in the honorable mention band. This was with all high school kids, so she was very happy that she beat out a lot of other kids that are older than herself. They met together to rehearse all day last Saturday at Moberly High School. She got to work with a wonderful director from Stockton-Culver College. We drove up to see the concert that evening. They played "Liberty Bell March," "Trail of Tears," "As Summer was Just Beginning," and "Vesuvius." Each piece was introduced by a student telling story behind the music. Trail of Tears was amazing- and the "Summer" piece was about the life of James Dean. We enjoyed seeing Gabrielle challenge herself in this playing experience! Now it is ensemble season and the girls are both working on solos and ensemble pieces for upcoming festivals. Madison is even taking piano lessons again- music is all around!