The Barn Cake!

All righty then....I've been catching up so that I could show the BARN CAKE!!! Ashley has been asking for months to have a 'cow birthday.' Hm....what on earth could I do for it? I did a minimal amount of research and found an adorable idea -- complete with DIRECTIONS!! (I can follow directions....)

  Step 1: bake a cake mix in 2 rounds, cut a chunk out and piece them together. Trim a pound cake to shape the barn, stack three cupcakes for the silo.

 Step 2: frost the base green, with a white spot that will be covered with blue food-gel for a pond, frost the barn and silo white. Stick pull-apart licorice to the barn and silo. Use cereal (Life) for roof shingles.

 Skipping ahead a bit. Lay pretzel sticks flat and use melted chocolate chips to 'glue' cross-bracing for fence sections. Coat 'pond'. Pipe white frosting door and windows, add pretzel details, add fences to cake. Add cupcakes for even more cuteness! The cupcakes were great!! The pigs were frosted pink, chocolate chip eyes, pink starbursts cut in half for the ears, then a marshmallow cut in half and dipped in pink sprinkles for the nose. The chicks were frosted yellow, chocolate chip eyes, yellow sprinkles (because I can't stand coconut, which is what it said to use), then jelly fruit slices cut up for the wings and beaks. The cows were frosted white, chocolate chip eyes, same marshmallow nose as the pigs, but then piped chocolate detailing.

 Aren't they cute?!?!?

 The finished product!

So cute, if I must say so myself....

 More details....

 Janna found candles that spelled 'Ashley' and we added a number '4'...

   Happy birthday to you!

 Happy girl!!

Ashley's Piggy Bank

One of the requests for this birthday was that Ashley wanted a piggy bank. Danielle and I found one, and it was a paint-it-yourself!

 Such concentration!

So happy and proud of herself! (She has since painted 4 coats of paint and 1 coat of glitter glue...this is going to be a masterpiece!)

Princess dance

The girls wanted to dance the other day. But they didn't want to dance alone....

 Posing for the camera with her bear....

 Whirling and spinning...

 Smile!

 Showing me their dance partners!

What a good Daddy!

So what happens when the girls get a beading kit for Christmas? Daddy sits down to help, of course!

 Seriously, how many Dads would help figure out how to make necklaces from hundreds of little tiny beads?!?!

 I am so thankful for such a wonderful man!!

The yearly snow bet

Each year, sometime around the beginning of November Bob and I make a bet. It's a simple one: will snow stick before or after December 15th? This year Bob took 'before' and I got 'after.' Of course, we got ONE random storm prior to the 15th....it rained the day before and it rained the day after, but that day the snow stuck -- and the girls even got to go have a bit of fun in it!

 So excited to have a shovel full of snow!

Look at mine, look at mine!

 Ahem. Yes, we are trying to train them early.....

Some of you might be wondering about that bet -- as in exactly what was the bet for? It varies each year, but this year the winner won $100 to spend completely guilt-free on anything they wanted. Just one other note -- Bob was out of town the week of this micro 'storm'......I had to remind him that he'd won!

Windy night....

Most of the time, I like the wind. At night however.....I am afraid of the wind. Guess what? It's windy tonight -- thus I cannot fall asleep. I am constantly plagued by fears that the trees will fall on top of us, or a branch will rip the power line off the house (again), or any lovely myriad of sleepy-time fears my brain invents. You might ask where Bob is when this happens to me. The answer is simple. Snoring. How it doesn't bother him, I have no idea. Therefore I will do what I have done for years when I am afraid at night: I will sing through all of the Sunday School songs I can remember from when I was little. I sing those same songs to my girls when they wake up afraid, or when they're sick, or when they just need some extra cuddle-time. So, starting with the 'A' songs.....

A certain man of whom we read

Who lived in days of old,

Though he was rich he felt his need 

Of something more than gold.

Oh, yes oh, yes there's something more,

Something more than gold!

To know your sins are all forgiven

Is something more than gold!......

(I will now try to continue, but from my bed. Good Night!)

Thanksgiving

Um....so....yeah, it's been a while. This is me trying to catch up a bit.

THANKSGIVING!!!!

We made our annual trek down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving again this year! We got to see Dan and Gretchen's house....nearly empty, as it's on the market. Tanner greeted us:

 

What a good doggie!

Aunt Gretchen wrapped the girls up for a movie...

 How cozy do they look?!

Then we drove out to Bill&Kate's house for the main event.

The girls danced....

 The kitchen was busy and smelled oh-so-wonderful....

The boys were boys....

 Did I mention the kitchen was busy?

And FINALLY it was time to EAT!!! 

The 'big' girls sat up at the bar...

 The kiddos sat at the kitchen table (yes, Gretchen and I were honorary kiddos)...

 And the big people sat in the dining room. The food was fabulous and a great time was had by all......until....

 ....then next morning Danielle, Ashley, and I were sick. The NEXT day Bob was sick with us. Poor Bill, Kate, and Harper -- we weren't very lively house guests.