Cake Boss

For Avah's 6th birthday party, she decided on having a "Cake Boss" theme. It is one of her favorite shows on t.v. according to her mom. She also decided she wanted a 3 tiered birthday cake to go with the theme. Challenge accepted. I figured that if I can make fondant cookies, I can make a fondant cake. Well, I made it but it was nowhere near as easy as the cookies.

Here was the process. My sister and I had to bake six different cakes - two for each tier. That we started on Thursday and finished friday.

Then we had to fill them with buttercream and stack them. We did bottom layer vanilla, middle layer chocolate and top layer white cake.

Next was icing each tier with buttercream to keep the cake moist before you put the fondant on.

Here are the tiers with fondant. This was the hardest part. As you can see - they are nowhere near perfect but it is harder than it looks on t.v. I don't know how they get the fondant looking seemless. I figured that the decorations will cover the mistakes for the most part.

Starting to decorate and adding some bling. She wanted purple polka dots.

She also wanted zebra print middle tier but I was exhausted and didn't know how I was going to do that. So I left is as it is.

I think she liked it!

Here are all the kids decorating their own cupcakes so they each had a candle to blow out.

Our nephew, Christopher, loved eating up all the leftover icing.

Happy Birthday Avah!!!

And Duke got a buzz cut from his daddy. He is still carrying around the balloon from the party yesterday.

The party is over and I can tell that Avah had a great time with her friends. I hope next year she just wants brownies or something easy like that. She is always cooking up something big though so I am getting nervous :-).

Kiss Kiss

Thanksgiving is a week away, which is just unbelievable to me. One week from today, we will be feasting on yummy food all day long and enjoying time with family. I can't wait, but I can because it too will all go so fast. Then the chaos starts with decorating, parties, birthday's, and shopping!!


As the time is flying by, Duke is growing up and mastering walking. He is actually jogging, not walking. He is learning to kiss and so many more things. He is trying to form words and he LOVES to look at our pictures in the house. I really really hope he doesn't destroy the Christmas tree. I am getting very nervous because he gets into EVERYTHING!!! He eats EVERYTHING!!! He spill EVERYTHING!!!

Sweet Avah is growing up too. She turned 6 years old today!! I made her monkey bread and Duke and I took it over for her this morning. Within 30 seconds, Duke spilled her hot chocolate (luke warm at this point) and then spilled a plate of monkey bread carrying a handful down the hall and taking bites on his way to Avah's room. Happy Birthday Miss Moon. I hope we didn't make your birthday morning more chaotic than it needed to be.

Look Who's Walking

Everyday he gets better and better. He prefers to walk over crawl, which is nice but it also means lots more bumps and tears. I have to give him credit for his determination.

Laughing Mickey

I have some short vids from Halloween and one from breakfast this morning. Duke was ADORABLE in his Mickey costume. I love that he let me paint his nose. Halloween is so much fun with little kids to dress up. We didn't get any trick or treaters but we did walk around the neighborhood with cousin Avah.



Duke's First Halloween Parade!




Duke's little cousin, Gaia is helping push the wagon in her cute little sheep costume.



Duke is laughing at his daddy fake sneezing at breakfast. We'll do anything to get him to open his mouth as you can see - it's not easy. We have to work hard for every bite.

Happy Halloween!

Mickey Mouse!

Duke's first Halloween! I was hoping to find a stink bug costume but Mickey Mouse was much cuter. He did good. We went over to the Rhoads' for a Halloween parade and then went trick or treating with cousin Avah!!

Cousin Avah as a 50's waitress.

Duke and daddy's first ride on a horse.

The end.

I Have a 10 Month Old!

Duke was 10 months old on Sunday, which means that Christmas is two months away!!! A first birthday and the holiday's coming up!! We had a full weekend with visitors and fun fall activities.

Saturday we went to Merrymead Farms to get a pumpkin and caramel apple and to run through the corn maze. Lots of fun and lots of people.

Family day ;-)

On your mark, get set, GO!

Dad and Duke running through the corn maze.

Crazy cousins

Someone is getting a little tired of taking pictures.

Sunday, Grammy and Pappy Wood came to visit for the night. We went out to lunch and played in the yard and had a fun day. We love company.

Two weekends ago, Matt and Kim had the first "Horganfest" at their house. They had hayrides, pinata and lots of fun stuff for the kiddies. Duke had fun playing in the corn.

Digging through the corn at Uncle Matt's and Aunt Kim's.

Getting a little taste of the dangerous life from Uncle Brian.

Skills

This morning I woke up at about 5:15 am. I wish I could get up even earlier than that but I just can't crawl out of the warm comfort of my covers earlier than that in the fall. I woke up hoping to accomplish a year's worth of cleaning in about 2 hours before the dried snot nosed little "angel" woke up. He's been sick with a cold and not the happiest or most independent little camper around town. Still, I love being home with him and not working.

This is the sum of his attitude after he woke up at about 6:15 am. I think he has a sixth sense to when I am awake and wanting to get work done. On a normal day, I am waking him up to drag him out the door to Aunt B's house in the morning. Not today and probably not tomorrow.

This is his reaction to finding out the cupboards have all been "Duke proofed" in the house. Not happy.

Through the past few days he's been starting to walk, point, and do all sorts of fun things. I just can't even keep track of his mad skills.

"Peek-a-Boo"!!!! "Wheeeerrrrrrreeeee's Duke?"

Here he is pointing at me. Now I think this is pointing. It could be "no, no, no" too because when I say "no, no, no" I am pointing my finger.

These are the stills of him taking some steps. He's been taking up to about 8-10 steps on his own and without our encouragement. It is only a matter of days before he is tearing through the house.

Yes, mother of the year was snapping pictures as her child came crashing to the floor. Mom-mom, Gramma and Grammy - he was just fine.

Duke is showing off his ripped abs in this photo. I actually don't know what he was so excited about in this picture but as long as he is smiling - I don't care.

I had to put him in the living room while I folded a basket of laundry because it really shouldn't take 45 minutes for fold one basket of laundry. He is always trying to find ways to escape and he's a climber!

And FINALLY! Aunt Megan and Uncle Marc came to visit!!! At first Duke played shy guy but he gave Aunt Megs hugs and then it was back to his normal self.

Early Birthday Present for Duke

Playing with the wheel - he is so excited.

"Can you put it together dad?"

For some reason he kept kissing the girl on the box. Heh! As if she is the one who got him his new wagon. What's a mom gotta do to get some love?

Okay, so I found a good deal on a Radio Flyer wagon online Friday. I decided to cash in on the deal and order it for either birthday or Christmas for Duke. I ordered it by noon on Friday and it showed up at my door Saturday!!! That was the fastest free shipping EVER!!! So I got really excited and had to give it to him right away. I know, I am going to be one of those moms who get more excited than the kids. Now I have to come up with something else but I have a few ideas. Plus, it's good to have when the weather is still nice to cart him around outside (convincing?). Duke loves it and helped his dad put it all together.

Going for a ride in the house with Rose.

Time to take it outside!

Going for a ride with BF Rose.

And Rose makes her escape!!

Time for a bottle and a nap - long day of assembly and riding. He cozied up in his wagon and chilled for a bit.