A Garden Center Wedding Shower



Matt's cousin is getting married at the end of August. I made these matching pillow shams out of linen for her gift. I wrote on them with sharpie marker. Write carefully but make quick strokes because the pen did have a tendency to bleed a tiny bit. 

My sister-in-law and I got flowers from the Farmer's Market

 These cupcakes were chocolate, filled with raspberry cream cheese and frosted with chocolate buttercream frosting.

Baby Shower

Yesterday we had my sister-in-law's baby shower! I was in charge of the cake, cupcakes, and punch.  Fall is a busy time of year for teaching, but it's also a busy time for my in-laws business. However, we did manage to get everything done in time. I even finished Baby Lincoln's crib quilt. I had a lot of problems with the cake but it worked out in the end.

You can hardly tell but I used a silver spray on the yellow frosting. It matched the theme and added character to the cupcakes

Blueberry cream cheese filled

I used Wilton's silver Color Mist spray

I used wilton tip 1 M for the cupcakes



I used a half-sheet cake pan and cut out the onesie shape. This cake ahd Heath toffee frosting

 Luckily the only part that people could notice was that the silver spray I used came out unevenly at the top of the cake. Thank goodness for frosting that hardens in the fridge because this cake was in about 7 pieces on Friday night. 

Happy Halloween!

It was a fun-filled but tiring week with Halloween. Our teachers and local Lion's Club put on a "Monster Mash" to raise money for the American Cancer Society on Tuesday. Then we had all our normal Halloween festivities on Thursday. One of the most unique costumes I had in my classroom was a homemade peacock. SO cute. Here are the cupcakes I make for my students each year.

We had many trick-or-treaters again this year because of where we live in town. We are partial to this one because he's the only one we knew . . . and of course because he's Yoda. How can that not be your favorite? Especially with my husband's love of Star Wars.





Heidi got him with the light saber and he "fell dead"

Eagle Scout Cake

I made a cake for my coworker's son. He finished his Eagle Scout project last spring and they had his banquet this fall. I'm still working on getting my letters level and centered but it will do. I don't love making the "shell" border on cakes, mostly because I stink at it. I stick to a zigzag type pattern and dots on the bottom. This way when I make a mistake it's a little more difficult to notice.

90 Years Old!

Matt's grandma turned 90 at the end of May this year and we had a big party to celebrate. Many people came and she was so excited. I made a double layer half-sheet cake with blackberry cream cheese filling. I also decorated a smaller cake that we didn't have to cut into right away.

What an amazing milestone in life - praise God!

Saying Good-Bye

We said good-bye to a couple great teachers at the end of the school year. One of our 4th grade teachers is beginning a new chapter of his life as a principal. As it turns out, his new school has a hornet as a mascot too!  One of my fellow 1st grade teachers left us as well. She retired after many years of teaching - all in 1st grade!



Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!


Happy Birthday Matthew! Despite the horrible weather outside, we had a wonderful weekend for Matthew's birthday. He is one spoiled man - 2 cakes in 2 days. One with homemade whipped frosting and blackberry cream cheese filling. The other was lemon and blueberry cake with a lemon curd filling.

It has snowed or "flurried" pretty much every day for a couple weeks now. I've never experienced spring fever before but this year is pushing me over the edge! By Matthew's birthday we are normally cooking out and installing docks and lifts on the lake with his parent's business. This year I'm wondering if the ice will ever budge on the lake. Today it was rainy and misty most of the day. We'll take what we can get as long as it's not snow! It's supposed to snow 2-4 inches again tonight. My poor tulips!



Lighting the candles

Dinner with our bible study

The Maiden Voyage

 We broke out the KitchenAid mixer for the first time. I had to be sure that the first recipe used would not be lacking in chocolate!

I got this recipe while watching the Food Network at my dad's house. The Pioneer woman came on and I thought WOW! I'd love to be her with the beautiful house and awesome kitchen! I don't think I'd survive in the middle of nowhere though. After growing up as a suburb girl it would to be hard to live more than 30 minutes away from Target or the fabric store. Well anyways . . . we tried this recipe for Valentine's
day and it was AMAZING!

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/big-chocolate-birthday-cake-recipe/index.html

Alisha's Grad Party

And the preparations begin . . .

Mom's classic high school symbol/college symbol fruit bowl



This was Matt's photo . . . he likes to catch her in funny acts. Not hard to do :0)



Dry ice in the water cooler

It was a hot day but it was fun anyway.  The last child of the family has graduated!