February

 

Honor roll! All the kids made honor roll last semester. They love seeing us wave from the crowd and cheer them on!

Due to John's....noise levels...I only got a few pics. But it's the same deal. Except Michael bows when everyone claps.

 

 

 

Valentine cupcakes

 

We drove up to Boone after an early release Friday. They make snow on the mountain and on a free community sled hill. We put the oldest four in snowboarding school all day and then took the little two to a sled hill and just played!

 

Boone has just a handful of small shops, these are the steps from the grocery to the diner where we had hot cocoa and a big cinnamon roll.

 

Mike loved his cars he picked out.

 

And Katy chose Cheetos for her snack!

 

Katy got more and more brave each time she went down the hill. We really enjoyed relaxing with them at their pace.

 

The drive home after the kids full day of snowboarding was much more calm. We got home by dinnertime, it was a quick but very fun trip!

 

Diana has lost 3 teeth now! One she swallowed, one her teacher pulled out, and one she pulled out.

 

Macarons on a cake are awesome!

 

Teacher gifts

 

Valentine Cookies! Katy's teacher has discovered my baking and now requests cookies (kindly) for all class events. haha.

 

My kids happily enjoy the extras!

 

John's cheesy grin saying "please more water"

Lemon cake order. This is an all-time favorite!

 

Peanut Butter Cup cake is out of this world!

 

Hard to see, but we spent a holiday Monday with our cousins playing at the park for a long awesome all day playdate. I love having Marian close!

 

Oreo Cake. Good as it looks.

 

Snickers Cake. Takes cake to a whole new level with the peanut nougat! (And caramel drizzle, chocolate ganache, chopped peanuts, and caramel buttercream)

 

Jim surfing in Puerto Rico! I love seeing his joy at spending this time with his brother and friends doing something he loves.

 

Jake's basketball season ended, he grew his ability a lot this year and really enjoyed it!

 

Sunset from Jim.

 Diana had a slight fever the Sunday Jim was gone. Since the previous week only 8/30 students showed up on Friday (the teacher and all others had flu/cold) I decided to keep us home. Thankfully, she didn't get worse, but we had a wonderful Sabbath at home.

 

Mike was a such an awesome singing time teacher. He hid things around the room, had "helpers" and talked about what the words meant. He is a star!

 

Katy with Jim and Luke. She loved spending time with her uncle while everyone else was in school. We brought them lunch before Luke left and they had fun feeling so special to eat with him.

 

Mike had a wax museum. He told all about Bill Gates and when it was done, there was John hanging off him like a dead weight.

 

The teacher placed him next to Steve Jobs. They kept one-upping each other on accomplishments, charity work, etc.

 

Beautiful flowers with a Caramel Toffee Semi Naked Cake

 

I planned a cake tasting and made 7 different awesome cakes. It was a lot of work and there were some snags but it all turned out!

 

20 friends came over and ate cake then gave me feedback.

 

When they left the kids each got their own platter for being so awesome!

 

7 flavors, listed below left to right.

 

The final tally (I had everyone list their top 3) showed Caramel Toffee Crunch on top, then Lemonlicious, then Chocolate PB Cup. I didn't have a Chocolate lovers cake on there, but at that point I thought 8 cakes was too many haha.

 

That night some friends took us to dinner after knowing about my long day, it was so sweet. The wives were full, but the husbands shared a romantic heart-shaped sticky rice. I appreciate the laughter and thoughtfulness of good friends and want to be more like them!

January- escape from the polar vortex and lots of cakes

 

I made a cake for New Beginnings. It was so tasty!

 

Working on our figures to go on a map of Palestine in Christ's lifetime.

 

 

I played around with different designs on cakes. This was hand painted butterflies and roses tipped with gold.

 

Classic roses on white

 

 

Henna inspired designs

 

Roses and textured buttercream

 

Palette knife painted buttercream flowers

 

Jake is awesome at basketball. He has totally become a point guard this year and is doing awesome. His coach said Jake is the one player he never has to tell to get physical. He gets tons of rebounds and jump balls. So fun to watch him play!

 

Playing Bible Jeopardy on Sunday is fun, we all learn stuff!

 

We took a break from the polar vortex at home and went to Myrtle Beach to our favorite hotel that has an indoor waterpark.

 

Our room was ocean view and the room was more like an apartment- 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, washer/dryer. The prices are rock bottom this time of year and we loved it!

 

Wonderworks! Lots of interesting science stuff and games.

 

And one of our favorites- laser tag! Nicole did better than all of us, although I wasn't too far behind!

 

Jim and Mike on a ride that takes you spinning and all over on a rollercoaster simulator. They were funny to watch (and hear).

 

John could play all day with bubbles.

 

Trying fried alligator

 

Mike was the only one who would not dare to try it. This was him watching John eat some haha.

 

Nicole saved fries from her meal and fed the birds on the way back. The kids all had a blast as a the birds attacked.

 

She was dying laughing and was totally grossed out by the birds touching her.

 

More swimming!

 

After bundling up for temperatures in the teens it felt so good to be in bathing suits and playing around!

 

John and shuffleboard was a hoot. If the puck got too close to the wall, he couldn't back up enough to get it with his stick and he was SO confused, like a dog trying to fit through the doggy door with a big stick. He did eventually figure out that he could move the puck with his hands haha.

 

Ripleys Aquarium has a new WWII exhibit. With no fish. We spent about 30 seconds here.

 

We paid a few bucks for each of the kids to feed the rays. There were 3 other people in the whole place so it was so fun.

 

 

Jake was leaning WAY over, feeding a ray and smiling, when all of a sudden it splashed water with its fin into his mouth, eyes, nose, everywhere! He was laughing, turning red as he was grossed out, and then coming within an inch of crying as the smell set in and shock wore off. He was a really good sport. And totally soaked! One of the divers brought over a shirt for Jake so he'd have something dry to wear, it was so nice of them. The back says "I swam with the rays" haha

 

Myrtle Beach is a ghost town this time of year, but most places are still open so we have the whole place to ourselves and have fun walking around.

 

We decided after going everywhere to eat at Joe's.

 

Nicole ordered a huge steamer pot.

 

And ate it all.

 

She also got super lucky when we went to the boardwalk by the shore and hit the jackpot at the arcade.

 

Super happy :)

 

After getting little toys with the tickets we had ice cream on the beach.

 

The sea foam drew them closer to the water.

 

And then they were two steps from getting in.

 

 

So we went back to the hotel, and while John napped and I watched from our balcony, Jim took the kids to play on the beach while Mike boogie boarded in his wet suit.

 

They were in and out of the water like it was nothing! The temps were nice, but not hot and I would have made a sand castle only. They were all in the water and thrilled about it!

 

We drove home to do this cake for Brandon. I had decided to try a new, less sweet frosting, Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I'd made it once long ago. I learned it is practically impossible to color (we tried gel coloring , candy coloring and it didn't work great). Then learned it didn't take airbrush color well either. Ahhh! I used a bunch of tricks to get the colors right (started the black as a chocolate frosting, etc) Took a while to figure out the airbrush too. One of the shelves of the fridge fell and dented a corner of one of the cakes and I had to fix that also.  The pacman pieces were tricky because I couldn't color the chocolate, it had to be colored that way from the start. Another trip to the store. And my piece de resistance, the ruibks cube I'd planned for the top- after 4 hours of many different ideas and efforts- was a no go. It just looked too tacky. I would have to use fondant. Since I'd already spent 20 hours on the cake (yes that made a long night), and the cake was a gift anyways...it went without that. But overall, the cake was awesome. Chocolate Nutella, Caramel Toffee, and Orange Dreamsicle layers of cake. The paint splat cake had a paint-type marble affect inside that matched the outside. The zebra stripe cake had orange tiger stripes on the inside. It was a wild 80s cake and nobody but my sister knew all the drama :)

Good thing I'd just come from vacation haha.

 

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream was a HIT and so light, fluffy and doesn't pow your face with sugar like American Buttercream. So I made some valentine's cakes. Layers of chocolate cake, strawberry buttercream, chocolate ganache, then macarons and chocolate ganache drip on top.

 

I replicated the same idea but with vanilla cake and vanilla ganache. I didn't like this as much, it seemed less interesting to me. It was still good, but next to the chocolate one....

 

My nephew got baptized this last week! The kids sang a musical number with their cousins, it was sweet and although not incredibly amazing (Diana and her cousin were more interested in linking/unlinking arms) it was great to see them all together! We are so happy for Devin!