sunday snapshot...

a bit of color.

a bit of sadness.

cakepops for Halloween...

My Mom called me the other day and asked me to help her with something...which I was totally thrilled and happy. She wanted to make cakepops for someone at her work as part of their BOO! game. You know, the one where you leave a secret/surprise present for someone else then they return the favor to another person... Well, a batch of cakepops yields about 40 - 48 depending on size & accident and tasting rate :) We met at JoAnn's at 1:30 on a Saturday (we won't make that mistake again) and she bought all the necessary supplies. Then she came over tonight and we got to work. She had made the cake mixture the night before and headed over. All in all it took us 2 hours from shaping, dipping, decorating and wrapping. Not TOO shabby if you ask me. By myself it would have taken me at least 3!

I also got to try out a few new things that I had bought on my trip to the The Decorette Shop last month. One was these Paramount Crystals (essentially edible paraffin) to help loosen the consistency of the chocolate. Melted chocolate isn't an easy substance to work with, it is rather temperamental. We did use Wilton but with the Paramount Crystals it was tolerable. We made a variety of orange/black/purple colored and decorated cakepops. Some pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, sprinkled and dipped ones were in the mix! We had about 22 each when all was said and done. We had about 5 accidents here and my Dad ate some of the cake before my Mom could stop him ;-) Though he was put in charge of crumbling it up... We wrapped these with little cellophane treats bags and tied with ribbon. We did this because they will be delivered in a few days and the sprinkles were a bit restless (ie. messy). I like the wrapped look when they have to be transported or the event is a few days away but I really liked the kitty ones I did a few weeks ago how they looked set up without wrapping. To each their own and to each event a different situation!

I also have recently bought two new varieties of melting chips...so expect some cakepops in the future. We have treats next Friday at school...so maybe then :-)

My Mom and I. Hard at work!

Jack-O-Lantern cakepops!!!

Divided up.

Wrapped up.

Fancied up.

PS. Some will go to my work and some to Jason's work. But don't worry...I'll be making more soon!

sunday snapshot...

wowzers.

amazing.

these are the kinds of ships my husband deals with.

efficient.

happy 'one year in our house' anniversary!!!

We have officially lived in our house for ONE YEAR! I can't believe it. I"ve been working on a photo montage today of before we bought it/after we fixed it up and moved in/1 year later montage. The biggest hurdle right now is my house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be to post pictures. Maybe I just need to get over that and do it! Check back for it this week sometime!!!

For the time being go HERE to see what we were up to last October during our marathon 19 day house streak!!! What a crazy time of life that was. I am sure glad we aren't doing it this year...and I'm sure glad we survived.

happy first birthday Crissy (family edition)!!!

As you can see from the previous post one of my favorites had their birthday last weekend! Cute Crissy seen here turned one. The "Shumaker" family has evolved over the year but they are some of our cloests family friends around, besides the McLeans :) We sometimes do Thanksgiving all together when schedule's allow and always have a great time together. Pretty much everyone was there for Crissy's first birthday celebration! Stacy had a nice munchies spread out but the hit was the desserts! And everyone was anxious to try the cakepops!

The day before Crissy (and the Kitten) helped me get things I needed out of the cupboard caused trouble in the cupboard.

Then they battled by the baby gate!

The spread at the party. Nicely done!Cake, cakepops, cupcakes by me :)

Some of the men. Don, Reed, Tom, baby Saul and Liz is squeazed in there.

Crissy and Stacy. Beatiful mother and daughter.

Happy birthday!!!

Me, Crissy and Stacy!

Jack. Jack COULD NOT wait to get his hand on a cakepop.

Tom and Reed were mezmerized by them

Jack did not want to eat the face...

Presents that entertain baby and daddy! Two points.

Mom passing out the cakepops.

Yummy! The little cake was meant to look like yarn (to go with the cat cake).

Reed and Saul :) Saul was laughing so hard!

Opening presents. This one has special meaning :)

Cousins. It is going to be trouble when they start walking!!!

Does this go in here??

go winterhawks...

Jason has a few perks in his job...but one of the funnest ones so far as getting free tickets to a sporting event!! I've been to plenty of games and events for free with my Dad...but having Jason be the recipient was fun! He got tickets from another company for the opening game of the Portland Winterhawks who are the farm team for the Chicago Blackhawks. I love hockey and Jason certainly enjoys it. We had 4 tickets and my friend from work Shelley and her husband LOVE the winterhawks so we invited them along and had a blast...even though the Hawks lost...in a shoot out.

:) us :)

Shelley and Randal. Shelley brought 2 cow bells! Randal lasted through the first score before he didn't want to participate in to cowbell ringing...so I stepped in!!

Hilarious. Baby with headphones. A glimpse into our future...???

Ice dancers. I was impressed!

We even got to see a shoot out!!! And even though we lost we had a blast!

Go Hawks!!

Can't wait to go back for the teddy bear toss in December!!

picking pumpkins...

We did make it to a pumpkin patch this year, though we drove quite the ways to get there! Once we found out we were going to Link and Addy's birthday party on the 16th we decided we'd go to a pumpkin patch up in the Auburn area. One less stop or plan another weekend... We headed out after the birthday party which in hind sight...was a lot for the 3 year old to handle. The 1 year old, she took it like a champ.

We headed to Maris Farms where we had gone two year ago when Linkin was just one! They have a cool kid area and lots of things to keep little and big people busy. We just watched other people's kids but someday we'll have our own to trot after! Linkin had a rough beginning of the trip but pulled it together after about half hour to make it to some of the events before they closed up shop.

We got two pumpkins but turns out 'mine' was rotten on the bottom...oh well. That one did not make the cut to become a Jack-O-Lantern. Better luck next year.

How many men does it take to put on a babies sweatshirt?

:) this made me smile.

Seriously, how genius. Pretty simple yet awesome.

Uncle Jason and Addy being followed by the crew!

The little kid rides!

Addy is in the 7th cow back...

Whoops! A little too small for the ride. But she was just hanging out, didn't seem to mind a bit.

Big kid at heart.

Our Canon still does self-shots, even if it is massive!

Ducky races.

Link on the horse rides.

Addy on the horse rides.

Aunt Annie wanted this photo op! And thankfully the kids cooperated.

Haha.

Link is 3 and Addy is 1!

Jason has a lot of family. Like, his Mom was one of 8 and they all have kids and most of their kids have kids! It certainly makes get-togethers on his side of the family interesting. We are closer to some of his family than others, which I suppose is natural. The best man in our wedding was Jason's cousin Kenny. Kenny married Shana and they have two kids, Linkin who is 3 and Adeline (Addy) who is 1. We call then out "niece and nephew" even though they are technically second cousins. But hey, they're babies and it seems more appropriate.

We headed up to Auburn for the weekend and the first event was their birthday party! I made two small 'smash cakes' for the party and it was a fun event. I actually got to sit and talk with some of Jason's female relatives that I don't see that often.

Enjoy some pictures!!

Cake. I made the two little ones.

Happy Birthday to you!!

Love the toes...

For some reason Link was eating it with a fork :) less mess for sure!

oh Addy. Frosting in the ear.

We got him pirate Mr. Potato Head. He went "ooohhhh" when he opened it ;)

We got Addy and Crissy (from the other post) the same thing. A jungle animal book with puppets. Seemed to be a hit with them!