Easter, park, beach...

The weather has finally warmed up after a long winter! Time to hit the beach!

Joey was terrified when we set him down in the sand. He didn't remember the beach at all and he hated the sand. He clung to us and turned his little feet into balled up fists. Finally I had to set him down and walk about 10 feet away. After he walked a few steps, he realized it wasn't so bad afterall.

He actually liked kind of like it! :)

Cameron loves the beach!

Joey was fascinated by Cameron's digging abilities!

I love the way the sun caught his hair and eyes in this picture! It's hard to get a picture that shows his true eye color. It's almost a reddish brown and his hair is just the same color! :)

Cameron loves to swing from the ropes. I remember swinging from the same ropes when I was his age.

Sunset on Redington Beach

Cameron with some Easter loot at the park.

Playing catch with Papa and Joe.

Joey liked to chase the ball when I kicked it for him. He hasn't quite figured out that he could kick it back. ;)

Happy boy!

Busch Gardens!

Joe and I decided to play hooky and take the boys to Busch Gardens yesterday. The weather was PERFECT! It was about 70 degrees and sunny with a light breeze. It doesn't get much better than that! This was Joey's first time to Busch Gardens and Cameron's bazillionth time. Everyone had such a good time!

I think Joey was a little overwhelmed at first, but after a few minutes, he was all smiles!

Timbuktu!

Automatic swings... I need one of those! I could get all kinds of housework done, if we only had an automatic swing!

Bounce house!

Just so everyone knows... my sister is a very talented artist and she was commissioned to work at Busch Gardens turning Land of the Dragons into Sesame Street! I wanted to make an announcement in the middle of Sesame Street... "Excuse me everyone, my sister made this!" I'm kinda proud! :)

Cameron's only motive was to run into Joe on the bumper cars. I think he could have left a happy kid if this was the only ride he ever rode!

Cameron is such a good sport riding the baby rides with his brother!

Joey cried when the ride was over. :(

So Cameron decided that he wanted to ride a roller coaster. He has always been very firm on his "no coasters" policy, so I was quite shocked when he told me he wanted to ride this one. You can see by the look on his face that he's a little stressed.

Still a little nervous...

My proud roller coaster rider!!! Just for the record... I wouldn't ride it! ;)

Can you see the bumble bee?

Baby elephant!

Baby giraffe!

Ostrich eggs! Now those would make some serious Easter eggs!!

The train is coming!

That looks like a tired baby!

Oh yeah!

Wiped out!

D-d-d-dora!!

I made this Dora cake for one of my friend's little girl's 3rd birthday! She left the design pretty open to me and this is what I came up with. Dora is actually a candle, but the rest of the decorations are made of fondant. The cake was made from the Darn Good Chocolate Cake recipe and was filled with chocolate buttercream! Yumm!

This cake was actually a lesson learned! I knew that eventually some catastophe would happen, but I was hoping it would be far off and minor... of course that would never happen. When I took the bottom tier layers out of the oven, I just barely burned my hand, but I ended up dropping the cake. :( I dropped it right on the oven top and it broke in half. Luckily this happened before I got to decorating and I was able to whip another one up real quick. Lesson learned... two hands with real oven mitts.

Risky Business :)

I'm not a risk taker by any means. I like to know exactly what I'm in for and still err on the side of caution... just to be safe, ya know?

I'm kicking around some ideas in my head that make me nervous and excited all at the same time. I've had some interest in my cakes and cupcakes lately. I've even had an offer to give my goodies a shot in an established restaurant! The only problem is... I don't have a bakery. Food safety and certifications are a big deal. I can make all the goodies I want, but they have to have a visible tag on them that lets people know they were made in my home kitchen. A private kitchen that you can't come to and check out. I wouldn't buy food from a home kitchen! Lord only knows what goes on there! Do they have pets there? Is it dirty? What if I get sick? Who do I call?

In my crazed flurry of "what ifs" and "this will never works" I googled. I love google! Google found me a kitchen. A certified one. That I can rent! I can rent it by the hour or by the day or even by the month, if I was so incline. All I have to do is get some business cards, which my darling husband makes for a living, find out about insurance and pay for the rental. Ta-da! Certified and ready to roll!

I might actually give this a shot. It might just work... and then again, it might not, but what do I have to lose? It's not a huge investment and labor is free! I might be able to make something of this little hobby! It makes me nervous... really nervous, but I think it's about time I take a risk.

Demonstration Team

Cameron had his first performance on the demonstration team and he did excellent! The performance was held at the annual festival at the Transfiguration Catholic Church. We were under the impression that they would perform inside the gym, but when we arrived, they told us they were to perform inside a small tent with a plywood stage. Master Lee, being the master of improvising, quickly instructed the team how to change the performance to fit on the tiny stage. It turned out great and had I not known what the performance was going to be, I would've never known they hadn't practiced it before!

Cameron is on the far right breaking a board.

This is when you cringe a little bit and wonder what you've signed your child up for! Cameron is the last one on the right ducking. He is supposed to be slightly higher than the person next to him so the person jumping can see him.

Here is the jump and here is the man that decided now would be a great time to bend down in front of me. If you can get past the old man, you can see how amazing the jump was!

More of Cameron breaking.

And more breaking...

This is one of my favorite parts of the demonstration. I've seen this move several times now and it's a crowd pleaser everytime! It really looks like he's flying!! Very Matrix! :)

Pretty amazing!!

The newest members of the demo team. They're like the 3 Musketeers!

After the performance, the kids were all eager to hit the carnival!

Wedding Cupcakes!

These cupcakes were for my sister's childhood BFF's wedding (did you follow?). She is having an intimate wedding tomorrow and asked me if I could make some cupcakes for her based on her bouquet. She told me that her bouquet was filled with bright, colorful daisies and this is what we came up with! I think they turned out really cute and I really love the bright colors!

The chocolate ones were made from a recipe called Darn Good Chocolate Cake and let me tell you, it is darn good!! Joe has already put in his request for a birthday cake!

The white ones were classic white cake with buttercream frosting. Yumm!! There were more cupcakes, but the picture looks exactly the same so... you get the idea. :)