Friday night, Savannah and I started decorating three cakes needed for the neighborhood’s Fall Festival and a birthday party. Now, let me start off by saying that she is naturally gifted at such things. I,however, am not. It takes me classes. It takes her just one demo, then she takes off and running with it! I admire her natural talent.
Here are the pictures of the cakes. Savannah did the Casper Cake from beginning to end. She baked, carved, crumb coated, and decorated it. Next time, I will have her make the buttercream frosting and colors. I did the Smiling Jack o’Latern one in a cake mold pan. We both tackled the Spiderman Cake. This was a challenging cake. It was for my good friends’ little boy’s second birthday party. I had several ideas for this cake. I even bought the small Wilton Spiderman cake pan. I ended up not using it and tried a varied version of a demo I saw on Youtube. I was in a bind though. I could not find a cake box and board big enough to present the cake. The board is used for extra space to add borders to a decorated cake, as well as, carry the cake on. I was unable to add bottom borders to my cake without risking smashing the cake from lifting. Once again, I was upset with Hobby Lobby for not carrying boxes and boards big enough for the cake pans they sell. I also do not have a strong free-hand style, so I struggled with decorating Spiderman. Next time, I will try using fondant for him. I have never used it, but for a small scale project, buying it from the store would be okay. Luckily, my daughter had a great free-hand, so she finished the details for me and even did the writing! I also placed the cake on an over-sized clear cutting board. Not only did it help carry the cake, but it was so easy to cut the cake on. The cake was a big hit. Not one crumb was left. I will have to get with my neighbor to see how our Fall Festival cakes fared at the cake walk.
Let me also give Duncan Hines a shout out! They really do have the superior cake mix above all the other commercial mixes.
Okay, I am over and out.
This is the cake that Savannah and I made for my friend Linda’s fortieth birthday party. It was made with Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix, a sweet cream cheese filling, frosted with chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate shavings border.
To date it was the easiest and most elegant cake to make. It was a great present for a wonderful friend.
Did I not mention that we are busy folk around these here parts?
We’ve had birthday parties, karate, a trip to Wichita Falls, AT&T TV & Internet installation for two days, PTO Meetings, Curriculum Nights, cakes to make (for the b-day party mentioned above) and a million other things I’ve probably forgotten.
We have pictures of the cake (of course) and pictures of Gabby (of course) but the camera is downstairs and I’m upstairs so I think you’re S.O.L. until tomorrow. MBM wants to show off her latest culinary creation so I’m fairly confident she’ll be updating tomorrow so you all can tell her how great her latest cake looks. I had a bite or 10 and it tasted as good as it looks.
In other news, the cake class MBM is enrolled in will start (again) tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed that the teacher actually shows up this time. If not it will not be pleasant around the Little household tomorrow night.
More importantly… Savannah went on her first date Saturday night. Her boyfriend Aaron came to meet the parents Saturday afternoon before we left for the birthday party. He seems like a nice lad. MBM talked his head off, Gabby cried, Justin bugged, and I sat there quietly and didn’t say much like a good dad should. Of course they talked about us that night and he doesn’t think I like him. I think my silent treatment did the trick. Anyway, they went to dinner and then to a friend’s house where the boys played Guitar Hero and the girls probably sat around and giggled like… Teenagers. She had to be home by 10:30 and they rolled in at 10:29. We’ve asked if there will be a date two but the Mouth of the South hasn’t decided. I’m thinking there will be. I’m thinking if there is I might have to borrow a shotgun or two from Poppa so I can be sitting downstairs with them pretending to clean’em and I do my Dirty Harry “Do You Feel Lucky Punk” routine. Should be entertaining.
Rocky the dumb dog is barking at a mosquito. Gotta go put him up for the night. Pictures and such tomorrow. I know… I said that last time. Maybe you all should start your own little sites and then you’ll see it’s not as easy as you think!
So, it’s that time of year again. Kari is one year closer to being ancient and I get to put up all these wonderful pictures that make us all laugh hysterically. You should all go to the Many Faces of Kari Manthei photoset on Flickr and post a comment below the picture of what Kari was thinking when the picture was taken.
For instance…
The Evil Stare of Death
Whew! That Was A Stinker!
So, go have a laugh at Kari’s expense. Leave some comments under the pictures. Oh, and HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY MUCH OLDER THAN ME SEESTA!
So, the house is very quiet. Weezer left me to go hang with Wanda. The kids are in school (yay!). The baby is sleeping (double yay!). I am waiting for the exterminator to arrive to rid our house of those ugly ginormous wood roaches! It rained forever here in H town and we were over run by those suckers. We even saw them trying to move their furniture in. Not gonna have it.
I am taking this very foreign and still moment to catch you all up. First Weezer made it into town on Saturday afternoon. She was immediately drawn into her grandmotherly duties and also surprised with a famous Carolina’s Potluck Gathering. My COF’s (circle of friends) arrived to welcome her, all with good eats and treats in tow. We think we amused her. We also celebrated the August birthdays and had a mini tribute to fellow Leo, Rick Springfield, whose birthday did not go unnoticed by his faithful female fans.
Weezer and I have also been making the rounds in Houston. Don’t worry, Kari. We have not hit any of the cool stores, yet, but it is nice to have another grown up to shop with and spend all of Gabe’s money with. Weezer has also been helping me keep the boys entertained and the baby rocked and cuddled. She is quite the diva. She has many arms and little helpers who want to be at her beck and call, so she is very spoiled.
Since Weezer’s arrival, I have mysteriously become the proud owner of a beautiful new coffee maker (like Kari’s) and Gabby now owns a pacifier she will take (well sometimes). She slept with it for almost 3.5 hours! I felt like I slept an entire night.
I am including a slide show of an assortment of picture taken recently. Many are of the kids and some of the big shin dig the subdivision held for the Olympian Gymnast, Jonathan Horton, outside his home when he arrived from China. Savannah also made her first Cupcake Cake solo, without mom. I also would like to thank my amigos for coming over to welcome my M-I-L. Keith, Frank, Linda, Jorge, Nadine, Shannon you are awesome!
BTW, don’t forget to scroll down and read the other recent posts by my hubby!
It has been a long few days! So much going on here. Most of our energy has been spent on baby sitting and traveling to Wichita Falls to pick up James from his summer vacation. We are now a full house, minus Dad. This was Gabby’s first road trip. She did really well. We only added an extra 30 minutes to our trip’s normal time. She must love being on the open road, even if that road leads to Wichita Falls. True to her nature, Gabby loved being around new people and was very calm and slept very well. It was not until we got home that she erupted like Mount Vesuvius! I can hardly wait for her teen years, she says sarcastically.
The kids are trying to make the most of their last week of freedom and I am trying to keep up with the house, take the kids shopping and to their intended destinations, and answer Gabby’s non stop summoning. All this madness and it will not stop raining, which makes us feel a little cabin feverish.
Here is a slide show of all of us during the trip. We made it in for my grandma’s 77th birthday celebration with some of our family. Her birthday is the same day as mine. However, she is respectfully older so it was all about her! We also had time to visit with my friends,Linda and Angie, who finally got to see the baby!
Notice in the family pictures all the dark headed people. Gabby never had a chance Also notice how many times Gabby changed hands. She was quite the hit!
Well, it’s almost 6am here in PHC which means it’s almost 12am back home which means it’s almost MBM’s birthday. It will be by the time I finish this anyway. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINA!!! I would love to say how old she is but since she’s a little peeved about the picture I put up yesterday on Gabby’s site I think it would be in my best interests to leave that part out. All I will say is that she is definitely older than me and that is something I can never take away from her.
So, happy birthday darling. I hope you have a great one. Wish I could be there to celebrate but someone in our family has to do something other than sit around all day watching TV & eating ice cream. Unfortunately that someone has to be me.
So here’s to the next 34 28 years. May they be as fun-filled & exciting as the last.
O.k. this is not my first time trying to make this Wilton Cupcake Cake. It was a DISASTER the first time I made it for Savannah’s Sweet 16. However, thanks to the lessons learned and advice from the internet and my MIL, I was able to make my friend’s daughter a cute cake, a milestone cake to boot! Here it is!
O.k., so here is the link to yet more pictures of Justin and his summertime antics. He has been my shadow since school has been out. We will soon be dumping Savannah off next weekend to go cavorting the country with her other momma, Angie, and meeting up with the ever elusive James (who started his vacation asap). Justin and I have Scout Camp next week and are Houston bound for a while. That is just more pool time for us!
So, today is Poppa’s birthday and Poppa & Weezer’s Anniversary. So, happy anniversary to both of you and happy birthday to Diddy. Why you decided to get hitched on your birthday I’ll never know.
I searched through the pictures I had on hand looking for that one special one that would really embarrass the two of you and I just couldn’t come up with anything good. So, I decided to go with one that portrays a typical day in the life of Arnie and Brenda. Hope you like it!
I’m off to bed. Sweeney Todd is putting me to sleep.
I’m tired so I won’t be typing much. But, I have put the pictures up from this weekend for all to see. There are three new picture galleries up for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
