Cupcake Wars!

 

So, after a 2 hour tv viewing marathon of Cupcake Wars - Disney edition this past week, Riley Catherine and I were hungry and inspired.  With our creative juices flowing and our mouths watering, we decided to have a little cupcake war of our own.  Well, not really.  We weren't warring with anyone in particular.  Just pretenting to be a set of bakers on the show vying for the postion of Cupcake Champion.  Obviously, to really express your cupcase creativity you need a theme and lots of batter and icing (more than we could    should eat all by ourselves.)  So, with our neighborhoods annual back to school bash coming up in a day or two we decided to make cupcakes with a little academic flair.  Here are the results.

 

 

 

 We started out with two pretty basic cupcakes - chocolate and vanilla.  Wait, though, the vanilla cupcake had a little surprise inside.  In the center was a sweet little dollop of strawberry preserves.  You'll see why in a minute.

Then we added frosting to each, a basic buttercream frosting tinted pink for the chocolate cupcase, and a rich peanut butter frosting for the vanilla filled. 

After coating our pink icing with red sprinkles and adding a pretzel stick for a stem and a fruit rollup leaf, we had our "apple a day" cupcake.  For the other one, we drizzled on a little strawberry preserves and added an A+ made from candy bark to create our "PB&J" cupcake. 

 

The Grand Prize: Doing something fun and delicious together as mother and daughter

Snapshots of Summer 2012

I love summer.  I love having my kids at home with me, mixing up the routine a little - not having to have a routine at all if you don't want to - and just enjoying being together.  Here are some snapshots of some of the thing we've been able to do.

 

 

Attending several GBraves games!

 

Getting to raise the 10th man flag during one of the games was especially fun.

Spending lots of days at Sierra Creek pool.  The waterslide was of course the highlight!

 

 

Celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary with Bo and An at Leon's in Dacatur.

Cheering Papa on for his ride-along at the racetrack.

Not sure this is on the kid's list for fun activities, but it's one of my favorite things that we do in the summer - writing journals.  Will and Ty were especially faithful to get up in the morning and get it done first thing.

Lots of fun in the neighborhood and exploring the great outdoors.  Here they are displaying their wristbands from a scavenger hunt.

REAL MEN

Case 2

 

Last year I posted about the "Real men" in my life - chopping wood, conquering the great outdoors.

 

Well, I happened to mention to my Will (a real man of 11 years) that the reason his ceiling fan was making those noises was probably because the blades needed to be tightened.  10 minutes later, I go into his room to find the fan disassembled and Will standing on a stool on his bed screwing it back together.  I LOVE IT!!!   This is a boy (I mean, a real man) who is going to make some girl real happy one day - which will bring the count to 2.  He's already made his Momma happy!

 

 

I just have to point out the leg weights that he's wearing.  That's right, real men aren't afraid of a little extra weight when getting a job done!  Just makes him that much tougher, that much stronger, that much more "real".  Gotta love it!

Horsing Around . . .

Riley Catherine received the most wonderful Christmas gift from her Papa and Mimi this year - two horseback riding lessons! She had to wait several months before she could enjoy the gift, but I think it was worth the wait.  Miss Carli did a wonderful job of teaching Riley all about how to brush a horse and care for it, how to put the bridle on, proper technique for guiding the horse, trotting, and posting in the saddle.  Despite the heat, it was a great experience for this little lady.



G.I. Ty - turning 6!

We celebrated Ty's 6th birthday this year military style! 

Roll Call with Sargeant Warbington

This was a motley crew.  Sargeant Warbington had to break'em down at first!

Training Exercise #1:  Rescue Mission (wounded soldier relay)

Training Exercise #2: Clean Sweep (no pictures

Training Exercise #3:  Bombs Away (water balloon fight)

Training Exercise #4: Recovery Mission (covert operation involving the abstraction of an important package from enemy territory)

 

Looks like they found it - and didn't leave any men behind. 

 

 

At ease soldiers - time for presents and refreshments!

 

The Birthday Boy!  Love you, Ty.

One last hoorah - per Ty's request.

First Day of Summer

Now, if you follow the seasons closely, or are an avid reader of the Farmer's Almanac, then you have been trained to think that summer officially begins on June 21st. If you're a child, however, you KNOW that the first day of summer is that first glorious day that school is OUT!  Here is a glimpse of how we spent our first day. 

Big fun at the Papa Ron and Nonna's pool with cousins!

      

 

 

 

 

And, Jarrett, too. 

This child is in desperate need of a summer vacation from school.  His brain is obviously totally fried!

So glad that summer break is finally here!

5th grade promotion ceremony

I have now put two boys through Elementary School. I realize we're not talking college here, but nonetheless, it is a momentous occasion in the life of a child and his mother. Not only does this signify the first of many academic accomplishments to come, but it represents in some small way (my eyes are getting moist real quickly) the end of childhood. No more hugs from teachers, no more sitting on the floor in the classroom for circle time, no more cute art projects coming home in the Friday folder - no more recess!!! It's a BIG DEAL!

So, for this blog post, I want to honor the second son who has made my heart so proud and has left his mark in a wondeful way on Mulberry Elementary school.

 

 

This is my graduating 5th grader Will.  When he entered elementary school 5 years ago, he was a sweet, shy little boy with the happiest smile and the kindest disposition.  He is still sweet, and kind, and has the best smile (I mean, look at it in this picture.  It just doesn't get any cuter than that!), but he has grown into a confident and capable young man who represents his class in Student Council, sings in the Chorus, helps run the school store, leads the news on the tv in the mornings, and is a leader in the service club, Be The Change.  And . . . he was just voted this week by his classmates and teachers as  "The Most Likely to become President",

"The Best Leader/Role Model in the class",

and "The Best All - Around".

 

Well, I couldn't agree more.  I'm so glad he's mine. 

 

 

 

Here he is entering the auditorium for the 5th grade awards ceremony.

 

 

 

 

With his teacher, Mrs. Julie Bailey, and all of his academic medals of achievement.

 

With friends, Andy Spain and Austin Barnes. 

 

 

 

 

 

And, with his biggest fans of all. 

We love you, Will, and are so proud of you!