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!

Final Band Concert & Awards

It's been a busy week so far. You can tell it is the end of the school year! Last night we enjoyed Madison's final band concert of the year. It was combined 8th, 9th and Jazz Band. 8th Grade played U.S. Field Artillery March, Farandole, Danny Boy, and Selections from Indiana Jones which included The Spell of the Skull, Raiders March, Call of the Crystal and Journey to Akator. They also combined with 9th grade for the finale playing National Emblem (which is what they will play when they march in the Memorial Day Parade in downtown Columbia on Monday.) Madison continues to enjoy and excel in band. She received one of the few awards given out. She received an Outstanding Musician Award in recognition of outstanding participation and significant contributions to the Oakland Band Program! Here are the pictures. I will e-mail the videos if anyone wants them (Grandma!).



Flutes Rock!


Awards

Chautauqua

Monday night was Madison's Chautauqua presentation for school. It was for her Honors Block class which combines English and Social Studies. They had to choose a historical figure who impacted American History, from 1400-1875. After researching and writing about their chosen person, they had to present their life story in 6 - 8 minutes (while dressed as their character). Madison became Sacagewea for the evening. She did a wonderful job on her presentation. Here she is in her costume :





We would not have been able to pull this look off without the help of my friend who had the dress and shawl to go with it. We also borrowed her little girl's baby doll to play the part of Sacagewea's infant son, Jean-Baptiste, or "Pompey". Thanks, Emily! Our cradleboard is actually made from a pizza box, pillow cases and yarn, decorated with beads. She also carried a fur lined satchel and included showing the dollar coin which honors Sacagewea. This took a lot of courage to get up and speak and all of the kids did such a great job! There was everyone from Queen Isabella to Annie Oakley. In our room, we got to watch presentations of Meriweather Lewis, Francis Scott Key, Sacagewea, Samuel Morse, Santa Anna, Dred Scott and Nat Turner. I enjoyed learning about all of them, but especially Sacagewea!

Graduation Ceremony

After dinner and cake we were on to the football field for the graduation. Don't you just love pomp and circumstance? This was the 101st graduating class! Lisa is such a great girl with a bright future ahead. We are proud of her and her accomplishments so far. Lisa will attend Northeastern State in the Fall after getting married June 5th! Busy girl! Congratulations!

Graduation Party

Friday, May 21st was Lisa's graduation. We drove down Friday (with cakes all boxed up) to the celebration. We got a hotel in nearby Muskogee. We went to Lisa's house first to give her all her graduation gifts. Then we went to dinner at the Pizza Hut where she works in Checotah. It was good to see everyone! Everyone enjoyed the cake (including all the other employees).