My Favorite Four Letter Word

What is your favorite four letter word?
Mine is F-R-E-E . . . FREE

Did you know Shutterfly is offering a promotion this year to bloggers?

It is amazing. Simply blog about how wonderful Shutterfly is and receive 50 FREE Christmas cards. FREE! It is my favorite four letter word. For more info on this promotion, go here.

Every year Shutterfly comes out with gorgeous designs for Christmas cards. This year, their designs are nothing short of exceptional. They are very simple to use as well. All you have to do is go to their website http://www.shutterfly.com/, chose your design, upload your photo, add your information, order your cards, and voila . . . a beautiful Christmas card!

Here are some of my favorite designs . . . .

I love how simple and elegant this one is.

I love how this one has multiple photos (for those of you out there who are actually able to get more than one photo of your children without funny faces, mutual nose picking, etc.). The colors in this one are striking as well. (And p.s. - I'm secretly jealous of you non-funny-faces-non-mutual-nose-picking photo obtainers.)

And how cool is this one? It is kinda like a Christmas newsletter but I guarantee your friends won't roll their eyes when they open it up. You could include things like #10 - Both the kids made the honor roll at their exclusive, private school and #9 - The baby now speaks four languages, blah, blah blah. But let's keep it real folks. If you are like me, your top ten could possibly include #10- Finally finding the kids at Walmart after they were hopelessly lost for a half-an-hour. The options are endless.

If you want to buy one of these beautiful cards for yourself, simply click here.

Did you know Shutterfly also sells desk calendars where you can upload all of your non-mutual-nose-picking photos? Everyone needs a calendar. What a great gift idea! Click here for more info on these calendars.

And for those of you planning on having a baby in 2011 . . . Shutterfly also sells beautiful birth announcements. Click here for more info on these.

So now you've learned two things about me that you may not have known before. One, I have a hard time getting a picture of my two kids without mutual nose picking going on (eww, I hope you're not eating) and two, I'm not above shameless promotion for free stuff. Not above it one bit!

Now quit reading my blog and go check out http://www.shutterfly.com/.

Can I have my free stuff now?

And Now You Know Why

Or I guess I could title this "Why No one's Heard From Me in a While."

This cake was a challenge for me. My customer wanted Handy Manny's toolbox and all the tools to be edible for his son. Just one problem - I had never even heard of Handy Manny and neither had my little sidekick Megan. A quick internet search and we were off . . .

Handy Manny's toolbox was carved from rice krispie treats and covered in fondant. All the tools were sculpted from fondant. The cake was classic white with Bavarian cream filling, iced in buttercream. I really like how it turned out!

Megan went with me to deliver the cake and was BEAMING when the customer was complimenting the cake. He asked how I got the brick impression on the sides of the cake and Megan started explaining it to him. I was so proud!

The same weekend (which happened to be the weekend after Thanksgiving), I had to make this little cake for my niece Austyn. She wanted a gymnastics cake that was pink and purple. I don't think she asked for the thumb print on the front border but I threw that in for her at no extra charge.

Now, if you drive by my house (which you shouldn't be doing unless you are my neighbor or a creepy stalker) you will still find a wooden turkey on my front porch, my beautiful fall wreath still perched on my front door, and my mums collecting a dusting of snow in their urns. I think I'm the only one in the neighborhood not yet decorated for Christmas . . . .

and now you know why.

Overachievers

Every week in Megan's Pre-K class, they study a letter.

For extra fun, they have show-and-tell at the start of every class.

Students are tasked with bringing something in that begins with the letter of the week.

Before we were used to this routine, it created some scrambling in the morning.

It went something like this . . .

"Oh no!!!!!! Mom, I forgot I need a b-thing. "
This, in turn, led to a wild, sweaty, frantic search for a b-thing*

Cat. Nope. Elmo. Nope. Guitar. Nope. Farm. Nope.

Princess. Nope. Puzzle. Nope. Dog. Nope.

Seriously?

Needless to say, we now plan ahead.

We have our show-and-tell item all ready to go in the morning to prevent last minute scrambling.

This week, we lined up our G-thing with great anticipation.

Thanks, GG, for visiting Pre-K.

You were the best G-thing ever!

(And much more appropriate than a G-string . . . not that I have one of those or anything)

My Cake Workshop

A while back, after answering the fifty-thousandth email I had received from a friend/neighbor/acquaintance/sister of a brother's-uncle's-mother-that-I-went-to-high-school-with with a cake question, I decided to have a cake workshop. I figured it would be totally fun and much faster than answering fifty-thousand cake question emails.

I created a little website for my venture and decided to use the cabin in NY to host the event. I thought I would be lucky if one or two people actually signed up and was shocked when I had to sell out the workshop just days after I opened the registration.

Our cake extravaganza was this past weekend.

We had so much fun!

Let's play a little game.

Remember the song . . .

"One of these things is not like the others.

One of these things just doesn't belong."

Yeah, that would be my dad who showed up at my fancy, girly cake workshop dressed in his deer slayer clothes hoping to grab some quick lunch. (The only thing missing from this picture is the giant bow and arrow he was carrying.)

I guess you are never too old to be humiliated by your family.

I moved past my embarrassment and created this simple, little Christmas themed cake.

Everyone left with a ton of new skills and a cake they decorated themselves using my techniques.
I honestly can't wait to do it again,

only this time perhaps without the deer slayer as our special guest star!

Quit Whining, Start Blogging

So I finally thought of a solution to my "poor-me-I-am-so-behind-in-my-blogging-I-just-can't-sleep-at-night-problem." The solution . . . quit whining and start blogging.

So here goes . . .

Halloween 2010 began with the annual pumpkin carving contest.

Megan got into the action this year making the contest a three-way race.

She carved this pumpkin all by herself (with the use of a template and a non-sharp pumpkin carving thing-a-ma-jig. (technical term)
Still, quite impressive for such a youngster!

I think she has her momma's competitive gene.

John and his spooky spider provided some tough competition.

My spooky pirate skull thing was definitely a contender as well but the top prize ended up going to the four year-old. I mean, seriously, who has ever heard of a four year-old carving her own pumpkin? She must be destined for greatness (or at least we think so.) And I'm destined to lose this pumpkin carving contest so long as she is all cute and little and such.

And since I was unable to come up with any new, creative Halloween snacks this year we recycled the Frankensnack idea from last year. This, by the way, is how meaningful traditions are born.

So now our meaningful, Halloween traditions include these green headed pudding cup things. Then we made mummy dogs . . .

Caution: Megan's scary mummy dog face ahead.

If you frighten easily, stop reading now!

No Halloween is complete without the annual door-to-door quest for candy.

This year, Megan said she wanted to be a bowl of spaghetti, no a cupcake, no a princess. no a cupcake, no a bowl of spaghetti, no a cupcake. She also has my gene for decisiveness I guess. ha!She finally settled on the cupcake and I was excited. I figured, how hard can it be to make a cupcake costume?

Then I spent 48729037532 hours making, remaking, and fixing this costume, I decided next year's costume is coming from Walmart. (yeah, right)

Here is my little cupcake cutie. I think her costume turned out adorable.

Megan said, "I look so good I want to take a bite out of myself." ha!

Here is my superman, wearing a costume that is a size 3t-4t.

Remember folks, he just turned ONE!

He looks like he's ready for kindergarten.

Our neighborhood friends.

And that's all I have time for today folks.

Quit whining, start blogging. How's that for a new motto?

Hopefully you'll be hearing more from me soon.

Perhaps

I am so behind in my blogging it is interfering with my sleep.

Seriously.

I lay in bed and think of all the blog posts I need to do just to catch up with the here and now.

For example, I need to do posts on Laura's wedding, our trip to Niagara Falls, the Delaware County Fair, Leed's Farm, our trip to Disney . . . I'm sure there is more in there I am forgetting. Perhaps I'll get our Halloween photos up before the Fourth of July.

Perhaps.

First Day of Pre-K

Megan started Pre-Kindergarten after working very hard last year to make it through the rigorous Preschool curriculum, with honors! (Ha, just kidding about the "with honors" part . . . but if they had honors in preschool I'm sure my sweet Megan Kate would have received them.)

Here she is with her cousin Colin who is in her class again this year.

There they both go running ahead, excited to start another school year.

Another school year begins and the most boring blog post ever concludes!