2013-2014 year in review

Shawn graduated

 Lucy turned 4

 Scott turned 32

Strawberry cake and icing, made with strawberries picked from our garden that morning.

 Aimee and Marley turned 5

 8 kids under 8 made cupcakes all by themselves!

 Toby turned 8

Hello Kitty Katie turned 3.

 Aimee helped decorate.

 Princess Lucy turned 5

Katie-Cats 2nd Birthday

My daughter Katie turned two this weekend.  Hard to believe.  Its been a crazy two years!

 Katie is a cat.  

Always into mischief...always climbing the furniture...Cunning...Smart...Super cute...but look out, cause those "claws" come out fast, and they are sharp!  = )

The cakes I made last night

 I know a couple of very cool boys who were born on December 28th.

One of them is Isaac.  He turned 9 today.  And he LOVES the Reds.

The other one is my Toby.  Born 7 years ago today.

Toby loves baseball too.  He wanted to go to the batting cages with his friends for his birthday party.

So I made cupcakes and we all went to the batting cages.

 (Toby also loves Mario Kart, Super Mario etc.  After planning a baseball themed party, Toby informed me that he wanted the cake to be Super Mario)

^That is a teeny tiny Goomba on his cupcake.

 After the batting cages the whole family came over to celebrate.  So I made a cake for the family party.

Turns out making Yoshi out of fondant (at 3am) isn't easy.

 I cheated a little.  No, I did not make Mario or Luigi.

 He is so cute, and old!

This place is a zoo!

This place is a zoo, with 6 kids 6 and under,

so we had a "zoo" animal themed party

for our 2 foster kids whose first and third birthdays were a week apart.

Each of us picked a favorite "zoo" animal to make out of fondant to decorate the cake.

Apparently my kids don't pay enough attention at the zoo, since 3 of them insisted on making 

white kitten "zoo" animals.

From the top:

white kitten by Z who turned 3

frog by me, to represent baby X who turned 1

lion by me

little white kitten by katie age 1

penguin by toby age 6

big white kitten by aimee age 4

giraffe by scott

panda by aimee age 4

butterfly by lucy age 3

bird by me

Solomon turned 2.

And like all 2 year old boys, he is obsessed with trains and cars and trucks.

 I went a little non traditional on this train cake...but the effect was good.
Solomon choose a train car, drove it around the table, then ate it.  I will call that success.

My princess is 4!

How is it possible that my baby (oldest!) girl is 4 years old? 

She is a princess...destined to be the queen = )

 Aimee, with her royal court, and her castle cake.  (She also requested cupcakes, and I had ambitious plans for them, but then the flu descended upon the kingdom...so maybe for the next girl with princess aspirations)

 A minor brawl broke out when it was revealed that the castle towers where made of oreos.  Luckily there were 3 towers. (Note my 91 year old grandpa in the background, totally amused by his crazy family)

Happy Birthday Mom!

We celebrated moms 29th birthday again this year.  She is truly amazingly youthful, and a fabulous mom and grandma.

 Solomon enjoyed at least a few cupcakes, while we weren't looking....  = )

Miranda and Connell

I gotta say, I LOVE these cupcakes.  And I can't usually say that about things I make.  Maybe I am entering a purple phase, or maybe I am just hungry... =)

 Miranda, you did a beautiful job with reception details, and you looked beautiful!

And I love that Toby went with me to set them up.