Finale Cake

My friend Brie and I signed up to take Cake Decorating II this month. The entire month we made flowers and then saved them to put on our final cake. The last class we learned the rope (on top) and the basket weave (around the sides) and then added the flowers we'd made the other weeks.

I gotta admit I'm not really a fan of flowers just because they're pretty time intensive but I do like my cake and it was SUPER fun to take another class with my pal Brie!

Quick Shot

Just thought it'd be fun to get some pictures to send out with my graduation announcements. We stopped off at the park for a few minutes before we dropped Makayla off at preschool and shot some of these.

Shazam

Springy Fun

I saw this fun idea and thought I'd try it out. I love these fun fabrics!! It's been so much fun using my sewing machine again.

Special Plates

In our house we have 'special plates (and cups)' when the kids do something notable. Usually the kids notice it when the meet at the table for family dinner and we all take a turn guessing why they got the special plate. Generally it's because of a special day at school, a performance, and sometimes when someone is especially well behaved. The kids love this tradition!

Tarl's Entry

Sesame Street and Aniboom have teamed up to create a pretty awesome contest. Aniboom does some pretty amazing contests and is accompanied with some impressive prizes. This year Tarl, created his own entry by animating these cute creatures and got my brother-in-law Chad to get some funky music to go with it. I must say, I love it.

Go watch it. And if you wouldn't mind, vote for it! (PS If you would like to vote, you have to create a simple account—I believe to help protect from fluff votes. But even viewing it helps so go take a look.)

Go Play

Puppet Play House

After making a playhouse for my sister-in-law my mom and I started making a playhouse for me and my two sisters. Today we finished the one for my kids. We changed it up a bit to personalize it some. Here is what we did! (Click the pictures to enlarge them.)






You might have noticed hands sticking out of the mailbox in that first photo. We thought it'd be fun for them to be able to put in real mail. The flag is also on Velcro so they can stand it up or lay it down. The windows also have ribbon on them so they can roll them up and tie them in place.

Makayla has affectionately been calling this her puppet show house because when they use the one at my moms house they do a puppet show out the windows.

It's Green Day!

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Kalyana doesnt particularly like to get up in the mornings (I'm guessing because it means she has to leave for school) so this morning I went into the girls room --where Makayla was awake on her sisters bed-- and announced "It's St. Patricks day!" Kalyana threw the covers off her head and said, "Who's wearing green?" Then we all ran downstairs to see what the Leprechauns did to our house.

I want to call attention to the first picture in the second row. The kids all got TWO juice boxes yet Tyce has three AND a big wet spot on his jammies. To that boy, those juice boxes are as good as gold.

In the afternoon the neighbor kids had a picnic so Makayla and Tyce participated. That evening for dinner we had green eggs, green milk, and green pancakes. Everyone ate it all and no one was grossed out by the color. At dinner the kids thought it'd be fun to have a color day more often. I agree and think we'll try it again in the next little while.

Kim Cake

Makayla has three wonderful preschool teachers. One of them is going on a mission in two weeks so I made this cake for their class to enjoy.

I was very flattered because when I brought it in all of the teachers gushed about how adorable it was and how much they loved it. I was glad I tried hard to make a fun, cute cake.

(Even though it took me like over two hours to make it. I've never used so many different colors on one cake. Just changing colors means a new mixing bowl, new bag, new tips, etc. I thought it turned out fun though and I love all the different colors. I'm glad to add this one to my cake portfolio.)

Rex Lee Run

I have lived in Provo for 10 years and have wanted to do this race for at least a few of those years. Haha. I thought I'd miss it again this year but a week before, Heidi asked me if I wanted to do it with her.

The race is called Rex E Lee in honor of a formor BYU president who had cancer. We ran in honor of my mom Linda and my dad Jim who have both had cancer.

It was a cold morning (I would take that any day over hot and muggy) and we ended up walking quite a bit of the race because Heidi hurt her knee in her last 5k. I was ok with that this time though because I haven't trained for a race like this.

At the end, they have a huge raffle for participants. Heidi told me that in the eight races shes done she's never but this year she was counting on me and my winning streak. It worked! She won a $10 gift certificate to Hogi Yogi. The grand prize was a Scooter (like a Vespa).

Lunch Laughs

I have discovered this last year that the best thing for a 'pick me up' is a girls lunch, at least for me, it does wonders. I threw together a little meet up with some of my friends who did NaNoWriMo and my cousin Brodi who brought her fab writing group. We went to Zupa's which I've never tried before, but I got a yummy sandwich and talked all sorts of crazy topics. It's amazing to me that just the commonality of wanting a little time to chill is enough to give us all a good time. Anyone else up for a lunch out? Seriously. :)

Olivia, Heidi, Brodi , Emily (who wrote The Way He Lived), Sara B, Valynne, Bree (who wrote The Dark Divine), and me. *(We're missing Rachel who took off just a few minutes before we realized we needed to snap a picture.)

A Compilation

There's a thing in blogger land called "Wordless Wednesdays" and instead of posting any words the idea is to just post a picture you've taken. I usually do this every week on my CF blog but wanted to have a compilation of my photography here for those that dont see it. These have all been taken in the last year or two.

Edgemont Energy

Kalyana with her clogging teacher Amber Handy (they call her miss Amber)

Kalyana has been clogging after school once a week for 30 minutes since school started and this weekend was her first competition at Thanksgiving Point's The Red Barn with America On Stage. They have been working so hard and it was so great to see them all up on stage shinning! I know this was the first time on stage in front of such a large crowd for many of them and I was so impressed they all actually made it out there and danced!

Kalyana amazes me. We got the music from her teacher and often times she'll turn it on all by herself and practice a home. She loves to even try to teach her siblings the steps and they all take turns wearing her clogging shoes.


All the participants got a medal and Kaly got a 1st place pin for her freestyle** dance (pic 1). Apparently the show often runs ahead of schedule so every now and then while they're getting dancers on stage or the judges are talking they'll invite anyone up on stage to dance to famous songs like Cotton Eye Joe or Boot Scootin Boogie. (pic 2) Me and my fabulous dancer! Makayla, Kalyana and I went at 9am and stayed until 3 preparing for Kaly's two dances and then waiting for them to happen while watching the others. Her dances were at 10:50 and 2pm so we had a bit of time to hang out.


These are the folks that were able to make it out to watch Kaly dance. Even though she was literally only on stage for about 2 minutes it was great to have the support there to cheer her on! (Pics 4 & 5)Afterwards she requested that we celebrate with ice cream so we went to the closest spot called Iceburg. Their 'mini' shakes are that stinkin huge. We had leftovers for a few days. (Pic 6)

Here is her group dance,
Edgemont Energy


**For freestyle that put them into age brackets. There are about 8 other dancers on stage at a time. They come out, all dance for about 10 seconds, then take turns dancing for about 15-20 seconds then all dance together again.