I'm back from my mini-blogging vacation!

I've been absent from blogging for a while, and I apologize!!!  I have been so busy with work, home, baking, and cheer that I haven't had much time for my beloved blog world.  I'm back though! 

A few updates on what I've been doing:

Cheer practices, a funeral, AND I bought an amazing book!

I've been baking like a crazy person!  I finished up Course 2 in my cake making class with a cute little basketweaved cake.  While I don't see myself basketweaving in the future, I'm happy to have learned.  Plus, that means I get to start my next class which is what I've been looking forward to!  FONDANT and GUM PASTE!  I'm excited!!!  The picture's kind of crappy...I had to use my phone.

And last, but certainly not least, we were wrapping up cheer season!  The girls had their last competition of the '09-'10 season and did a fantastic job!  I was a proud mommy, as always.  Now we get a bit of a breather, no more running 4 days a week to mandatory cheer practices!  The next 4 weeks are easy, they have optional clinics and practice times, and then they have try-outs for next season.  Our hope is that they will FINALLY get their back hand springs so they can move up a level, keep your fingers crossed!

I guess that about sums it up!  What have you been up to? 

Maddie's First Breakup

Considering Maddie is only 6 and in Kindergarten, unless you knew her, you'd never imagine that she would be going thru a breakup, or even talking about a boy being her boyfriend.  That's because you haven't met Zachary.  He is, in my opinion, the male version of her.  They are SO darn cute together!  He was a savior when she first started Kindergarten.  She would cry every day I dropped her off, and heaven forbid she saw me walking around the school (I'm on the PTO Board, so I'm ALWAYS there).  When she cried, he would hold her hand and pat her on the back.  He is seriously, the sweetest little boy ever. 

Last week however, they broke up.  Let me walk you thru our week:

Monday:

Doug:  Steph, Maddie hasn't talked at all since she got home, will you see what's wrong?

Me:  Maddie, what's wrong, you seem sad?

Maddie:  Nothing (with pouty face)

Me:  Honey, what's wrong?

Maddie:  Zachary and I broke up.  He's not my boyfriend anymore, we're not even friends.

Me:  (with shocked look on my face)  WHY NOT?!?!?!

Maddie:  He kissed Katie on the playground. 

Me:  (Holding back the laughter) Kissing isn't good Maddie, did you tell him that he's not supposed to be kissing girls?

Maddie:  (Yelling) He's only allowed to kiss me!!!  He used to hold my hand and kiss my cheek, I told him he can't anymore.  He kissed her, like, 10 times!

I have a feeling her teen years are going to give me gray hair.  On the other hand, she informed me last night that they're good now.  He promised to never kiss Katie again.  I'm going to let my husband explain that kissing boys isn't something she needs to make a habit of.  Especially at 6!

Another Sleepy Monday!

There is just something about Daylight Savings Time that bugs me.  I don't mind "falling back" every fall, but something about the "spring forward" part annoys me!  It seems like it takes forever for me to catch back up.  I didn't go to bed until midnight, because I wasn't tired but at 4:30am this morning when my alarm was going off, I was CERTAINLY tired. It's going to take the entire week to adjust to the time change.  Ugh...

But enough complaining!  I had a wonderful weekend!  I baked cookies like a crazy person!  The first batch was okay, not exactly what I was hoping for...

See how the icing is running off the cookie?  That's NOT supposed to happen.  LOL!

And then there was my attempt at making an Easter shaped cookies...

Yeah, eggs are probably something that should be one color, maybe with a few dots?

The kids were VERY excited to show me how it's supposed to be done though.  I've said that I'm not good at writing on cookies and cakes, and they both had to make sure I saw that they can write letters (the M's on the cookies) and let me know that if I ever need help, they're available. 

The final batch of cookies turned out much better though.

Tonight is cake making...one of my best friends has a birthday tomorrow!

I hope you're having a FANTASTIC Monday!!!

Party Time!

Finally!  I have a party to plan!  I love planning parties!  Lately, I've seen so many amazing ideas, I couldn't wait to have a party to plan to use some of them!  My sister is getting married in May, and it's finally time to plan her bridal shower.  Lucky me, when I logged onto my blog this morning, I saw a giveaway, so obviously, I have to enter.  It's on one of my favorite party sites, Half Baked - The Cake Blog.  If you've never been to that site, make sure you check it out, it's amazing!  Several of my ideas for the shower will be coming from that site, and if I'm able to win her current giveaway, I'm certain I'll be using it toward the shower as well. 

Look at some of the cute stuff!!!

Aren't the cupcake kits AWESOME!  This website has everything you can imagine for party supplies.  I've already bookmarked it, I'm in LOVE!

Flower Making!

I've been a flower making fool lately!  I'm half way thru my second Wilton course and I'm LOVING it!  My friends aren't loving the flower phase, because unfortunately if I'm only making flowers, I'm not making cakes.  For some reason they LOVE being the guinnea pigs for my "test kitchen."  Haha! 

A few pictures of my flowers, and yes, I apologize in advance for the poor quality, it was dark and all I had was my phone for pictures. 

I also got to use Royal Icing for the first time to flood an area.  I've been dying to learn how to do that because I want to make those SUPER cute sugar cookies that always have super smooth looking icing on the top.  It didn't turn out as well as I had imagined (I had a disaster with my piping bag) but after testing it out, I know what I did wrong and I'm prepared for next time.  Hallelujah!  I think there may be a day of cooking baking in my near future!  Here's the bunny I created to put on my class finale cake:

I will be creating lots of goodies this weekend, thanks to my lovely 40% off coupon for all Wilton products.  I can't wait! 

Word to your Mother...

Another CRAZY weekend!  We were in Kansas City, MO for a cheer competition.  Coach Amber is hilarious and this weekend, she didn't disappoint.  While trying to keep our kids entertained (they had quite a while before it was their turn to compete) she taught them "word to your mother" (see above picture) and poker face.  LOL!  It's one of those things that you MUST see, because it's hilarious to see all of our darling little girls, acting like lunatics. 

Poker Face:

But on to the competition:

All of the Pride teams were fantastic!  Here are a few pictures, only one (maybe two) more competitions until the season is over and it's time to tryout for next season!  I can't believe it's gone by this fast!

My beautiful baby is the one in the middle with her leg up in the air.

I couldn't get any good pictures of Mackenzie, because she's a base.  It's harder to get shots of her when she's facing sideways holding another girl up, but I tried my best.  She's on the far right in both pictures. 

After they performed, they were promised snow cones...NEVER AGAIN.  LOL!  How on earth we managed to only get red on Maddie's shoes, I will never know.  They're currently pretreated.  Pray that they turn white after I wash them. 

A Giveaway YOU MUST SEE!!!

One of my absolute FAV blogs is giving away not one, but TWO Kitchenid MIXERS!  If you know me, you know how much I need this.  Even my husband has decided that my poor little hand mixer isn't cutting it with all of the stuff I've been mixing lately.  Don't even get me started on how crappy it does with mixing cookie dough. 

If you'd like to help me win one AND WIN ONE FOR YOURSELF, head on over to She's Becoming Doughmesstic and leave a comment letting her know that I sent you to her site.  If you're chosen, BOTH OF US GET ONE!  How cool is that?  Plus, if I'm chosen, I get to pick someone to give the other one to, but I can only choose you if you've commented saying I sent you to her site.  So what are you waiting for?  GO THERE!  It's a win-win, you get a chance to win an awesome prize, AND you get to see one of my favorite blogs.  She's hilarious, you'll be hooked.  Promise.

Cake Baking & Rock Band

Cake baking and Rock Band have consumed our house.  Maddie and Doug LOVE Rock Band!  We didn't have anything planned this weekend (a rare occurrance in our household) and I think 50% of the time they were playing that game.  With arms full of groceries, I stood in front of our door knocking, and no one could hear me.  Why?  Because Doug was singing YMCA, while Maddie played the guitar.  It's not pretty, trust me.  He's certainly NO musician, and definitely not a singer. 

I made three cakes this weekend.  I have to master the art of making flowers!  Course 2 starts tomorrow night, and if I can't make a rose, how am I supposed to be able to make anything else?  After all, practice makes perfect, right?  Well I practiced...and practiced...and practiced.  The kids were thrilled, every time I messed up, they ate the mistake.  Haha!!!

I only took a picture of the first chocolate cake I made, the other one was similar, but without the dots on the sides of the cake.  After adding the dots, I decided I didn't like them.  LOL!  Both my dad and my father-in-law LOVE chocolate cake, so I made one for each of them. 

I also made a rainbow cake.  In my head, this was BRILLIANT.  The execution took a lot more than I thought it would though.  I pictured 6 layers, and figured I'd just cut them down to be the appropriate size.  The outside would have pretty flowers, and bright colors.  Well...I got the layers, but even after cutting them down, it was HUGE!  I had to make last minute adjustments to make it fit in my cake carrier.  Then, I didn't account for needing 4 batches of icing, so I had to make 3 batches work.  I now know what to do differently next time, but all in all, I'm still pretty happy with the results.