Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Took the kids to the zoo on Saturday for the first time this year. They were celebrating the triplet cubs' first birthday. When we woke up that morning it was so cold and windy that I decided that we weren't going. Michaella had a dance performance at the local Home & Garden Show in the morning, so we headed there and then we were going to go get her volleyball shoes since her first tournament is this Saturday. Apparently her current shoes have no grip left on them and she keeps sliding around at practice. After she was done dancing we headed to town to get her shoes. When we finished our lunch at Culver's I decided it wasn't to bad there and the wind was blocked much better there than it had been at home. So we headed to the zoo. When we got there we went right to the building by the tigers to wait for the zookeepers to let the cubs into their enclosure. The zookeepers had made the cubs 3 cakes covered in meat with the number one on top. They also made a few additional number ones to set around the enclosure. The cubs went right for the cakes when they were let in and started batting them around a bit. The kids had a great time watching the tigers interact with their cakes. From there we decided to go check out the baby monkey that had been born a couple weeks ago. The kids had fun interacting with the little spider monkeys, here. The one kept following Michaella's birthday hat she had gotten when we were by the tigers. Then it was on to the baby rhino that was born in Oct. We hadn't made it to see him yet and the kids were so excited we were finally getting a chance to do it that day. It was also our first time getting to see their new habitat, too. Unfortunately our first time though he was just laying next to him mama, so we went to the giraffes to see how big the baby giraffe had gotten. The last time we were there it was only a couple weeks old. They were still in the winter view building, so it was a nice break from the cold once again. We managed to get from one building to the other just as we were just starting to get a little chilled. The little giraffe kept watching Kailee in her stroller. It was so cute. The kids decided we should see the baby rhino one last time before we left. This time he was up and walking around. The kids were glad that we had decided to stop again. :)

For the second round of ScrapMatters Design Star contest the requirement was to make a paper pack with 8 papers (5 patterns & 3 solids). I decided to go with a zoo theme since I have so many zoo pictures to scrap and plan to keep adding to them. I really like how they turned out.



For the third round we had to make the elements. Fifteen of them to be exact. I had so much fun making the little animals for this kit. I ended up making more than I needed so I have a few that may end up in an addon at some point. :)



I'm currently working on my kit for round 4 and can't wait to show it to you. We had to do 12 papers, 25 elements and an alpha. I have a little way to go with it before it has to be posted on Monday.

I have another cupcake for you today, too. :) I made this one for my grandma to take to their church group meeting the other day. It's a mint chocolate cupcake with a creme de menthe buttercream frosting sprinkled with gold glitter and a chocolate shamrock on top. Unfortunately the mint flavor didn't come through as well as I was hoping, but they were still very good.



Until next time...

Happy Scrapping!

Cakes and cupcakes!

Over the last few months I have really gotten into cupcake and cake decorating. I think I've mentioned it before that I started doing them to practice for my kids' birthdays since my youngest can no longer have bakery cakes. It's always been one thing I'd like to learn how to do, too. In January my sister and I also took the first Wilton cake decorating course. Would really have liked to take the one that starts in March too but with Michaella's activities schedule it's not possible at this time. Hopefully I can take the one they have in June, though. Not only have I been practicing for the birthday cakes, but my little sister got engaged in November and is planning on having me do cupcakes and their cake for the wedding. So my kids (and everyone else) have been enjoying eating all my trials. lol.

For Kailee's birthday, I decided to go with a Princess and the Frog theme. She loves frogs and that seems to be her favorite movie at the moment. Whenever you ask her is she wants to watch a movie that is the one she will dig out. I was very happy with the way it turned out. She liked it too because every time she seen it she would go "ooooooooooo". :)

Michaella wanted to have an animal print themed party. So for her's I went all out. Everything matched from the invites to the cupcake wrappers. Even the cake matched. ;) She had also been looking over my shoulder when I was looking at different cake designs awhile ago and spotted the topsy turvy style cakes. She decided that was what kind of cake she wanted. No small orders for this one. It took me forever to get the decorations done on her cake, but it finally got done. I even used two colors of frosting on the cupcakes. Love how they turned out!

Hunter's already got his thinking cap on trying to decide what he wants me to do for his birthday. We'll have to see if he comes up with a more complicated design. lol. At least I have until May before I have to do his. Right now he is talking about wanting a Super Mario themed party.

So along with all the birthday cakes I've also been trying out different cupcake combinations. Whenever we have a family get together I have to try a new combination. I tried to take pictures of them but forgot a few.

In October I made a pumpkin spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting (decided I didn't care for these) and chocolate cupcakes filled with dulce de leche frosted with caramel buttercream (so yummy). For Halloween, I made purple & orange colored vanilla cupcakes with the left over cream cheese frosting from the pumpkin cupcakes.





For Thanksgiving, I did another chocolate cupcake with dulce de leche and whipped cream frosting. Christmas was chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream and vanilla cupcakes with Oreo buttercream (both of these went over very well).

This one was a chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow cream filling and a whipped frosting.



Also gave making cupcake wrappers a go, too. I used my Tea for Two kit to make these.



I had never had red velvet cake before but after seeing it used about every week on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network  I decided to give it a try. So what better time than Valentine's. :)



Of course, how can you make so many cupcakes and not have a little taste tester. lol. Kailee was definitely up for the job! Now whenever I get the mixer out she is right there at the counter with her little mouth open pointing at it, waiting for me to hand over the beater or spatula. How can you say no to such a cutie? ;)



Can't wait to try some more cupcakes (and neither can my family. lol. ;) )

I also decided to give the Design Star contest a try again at Scrap Matters, but unfortunately I didn't make it past the first round this time. :( But have decided to continue to play along to work on my designing. You can find my first round mini here. Tomorrow the second round gets posted and I'm so excited to show you what I came up with.



Until next time...

Happy scrapping!

Check out all the Speed Scraps

DSD is coming!!!

Unfortunately the Zoo Boo last Friday wasn't near as good as we were hoping. I do not plan on going back again. Hardly any of the animals were still out when we got there and we got through the door right after they opened. They had a lot of the paths blocked off to the animals that were not on the treat path. There were only 10 candy stations and they were only giving out a piece or two of small candy. It was very disappointing. :( We were through the door, around the zoo and back to the car in about 1/2 hour. Even the kids said they were bored. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was free but we had to pay $5 a person. Next year it's time to find somewhere else to take the kids for a fun Halloween treat.

Another one of my butterfly pictures from the Como Park Zoo this summer. I used Creations by Rachael's Wings & Wildflowers.

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When we went to Disney World in 2005 we were able to attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. When I seen Wendy's Double Double Toil & Trouble kit, I knew it would be perfect for the pictures I took of the decorations there.

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I'm so excited to be hosting my first challenge at ScrapMatters this month! If you want to check it out it's the 10/25 Word Up challenge. The only requirement I have for it is that you need to use the word family somewhere on your layout. You have until the end of November to join me. Here is the layout I made for the challenge. I used Graham Like the Crackers and WM Squared's Family Matters kit.

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I used The Design Girl's Stars and Stripes kit to scrap these pictures from our annual family 4th of July get together.

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Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

My kids have had the last couple days off of school for state wide teacher conferences. Paul was home the first part of the week because all of his loads had been falling through. He was first supposed to leave on Monday afternoon, but thankfully that got changed because he was still working on his truck. Then he was supposed to take a load out to Pennsylvania and load it on a ship going across the ocean. He was really looking forward to it. He had just talked about how he had taken loads over there that were supposed to be loaded on a boat had never gotten all the way there before. Unfortunately the boat never came in, so that was another load that fell through. He finally left on Wed afternoon just as the kids were getting home for a couple days. So Kailee and I really had a different week than we normally do with just the two of us.

Thursday the kids and I headed over to my grandparents' house for them to play with my cousin's little boy who is only 6 months older than Hunter (He's the baby in the layout below). It also meant I got to see my cousin's baby girl, too. :) She is such a cutie. I think I spent most of the afternoon holding her. ;) Kailee was pretty taken by her, too. When we got there, she was sleeping on the living room floor. Kailee tried to cover her with her blanket. As soon as she started to cry, Kailee grabbed a hold of my shirt and pulled me over to her to pick her up. I thought Kailee would get jealous of my holding the baby instead of her, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Tonight the kids and I are headed to the zoo for the Zoo Boo with my sister.

With everyone around this week I only managed to get two pages done. As I mentioned earlier this is my cousins' little boy who is a little older than Hunter. I used Graham Like the Cracker & Bella Gypsy's Love that Boy kit. Mark one more page off the list for my grandparents' photobook. Woohoo!

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These pictures of Kailee are from when she stayed at my parents' this summer. I used Erica Zane & Denise Beatty Original's Eat Your Veggies kit and Erica's new EZ Date Bits V. 1.

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Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Michaella had her first ever volleyball game yesterday. She did so good! She is really loving it and wants to go out for JO Volleyball this spring, but Paul and I have been undecided of whether or not we would let her go out for it. We were worried that she wouldn't put much effort into it. With as much of a time commitment we would have to put into it, we wanted to be sure that it was something that she would actually do. After watching her yesterday I think she would do very well in it and am leaning toward letting her.

Another new venture we have decided to take up this year is 4-H. Paul decided that it would be easier to have both kids in the same club instead of one (eventually two) in girl scouts and one in boy scouts. This way we only have one meeting to attend. So last Sunday the kids and I went to our first 4-H meeting. It was combined with another local club. The kids played softball and then we had a potluck dinner. The kids had a really great time and are looking forward to all the different things they will get to do throughout the year. Michaella is especially looking forward to the fair. She wants me to teach her how to bake. Paul said that this first year she won't be doing any animal, so she was a little disappointed about that.

Apparently my scrapping mojo still hasn't quite come all the way back yet because I only did 4 pages in the last 2 weeks. :(

First up is this page of Hunter from Oct. 2005. I used Jady Day Studios' Harvest Happiness kit. He looks so small in these pictures. My how time has flown by.

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I'm loving this new Autumn Falling kit by Stolen Moments and Kristin Aagard. I also used Stolen Moments Scraps by Number: Just Call Me Jordan templates.

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geniaBeana also has this hauntingly beautiful kit, Haunted, out this week. This is the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. I love how different it looks from the one in Disney World. I think I like this exterior better of the two.

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Yes, I'm another page closer to finishing my grandparents' anniversary photobook. :) This page is of my parents' wedding. My mom threatened me that I was not allowed to put their wedding picture in the book. So I didn't...I just used snapshots. lol. She didn't tell me I couldn't use those. ;) The colors of LDrag & JennCK's Love is kit matched the colors of their wedding so perfectly, I just had to use it to scrap this page. I also used Stolen Moments Scraps by Number: Just Call Me Andrea templates.

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Well that is it for now. Until next time...

Happy Scrapping!