Cake Decorating

When I was getting ready to be a stay-at-home-mom I made a list of things I wanted to learn/do to keep busy and continue to stretch myself. On that list was cake decorating. Nothing too fancy, just the basics so that I could make a decent cake every now and then. My sister, Deborah, is really good at this kind of thing and makes cakes for every occasion. She was kind enough to give me a few lessons. I hope I can get her to give me some more lessons. hint hint Deb!!

The first of my lessons was a cake that I made for my friend's baby shower. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't turn out well but it sure did. We put little pink baby booties on each slice of cake. I thought it would have taken forever to do every single little bootie, but it went fairly quickly.Once I did such an awesome cake (with a lot of help)... I was ready for more. My cousin just had her baby and we were bringing them dinner their first night home from the hospital. I made cupcakes for desert with their sons name on it. If you can't see it very well it says Patrick.

I went back to my sisters for another lesson and I made a little individual cake for Rick. It didn't turn out quite so cute as the others because I got carried away on the lettering which ruined it. LOL.

Uncle Andrew and Aussie Outfit

Levi had a blast playing with uncle Andrew the other day. All he needed was someone to make noises and smile at him... the ride was just a bonus! LOL.

My friend from Australia gave this to Levi... he was sporting his new duds and looked super cute; minus the drool ring around his neck. Thanks Char!!! Xoxo

New PJs!!

Crazy Coconut Night

I finally participated in Bountiful Baskets! It was awesome to see all the produce we got and it's great quality. As you can see below we got grapes, cantaloupe, bananas, nectarines, apples, AND.... three coconuts! We also got beans, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, potatoes, and broccoli. So yummy! Well.... what do you do with coconuts?
Well apparently they only last a week so we both jumped online to find different things we could do with them. We first punched holes in them to drain the coconut water.

Then we went outside to act like monkeys and crack these things open

It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be to crack it open.

Levi even liked playing with them!

We tried to peel the "coconut meat" off the shell but that we just too hard. We tried a theory that if you bake it (or freeze it) just a bit before hand, the meat will come off easier.... that was a lie. So I asked Rick to go outside with his hammer and smash it to smithereens for me. Then I can rinse them and take each little piece and grate them with a cheese grater.

Which worked perfectly by the way.

We ended up drying most of it (200 degrees for 90 minutes on a baking sheet) and some of the fresh shredded coconut I made into cookies. Not really cookies. It was whipped egg whites with honey and a pinch of salt. I'm not eating sweets for 2 1/2 more weeks so that is why I made that recipe. They turned out more like chewy lumps of coconut, but it was still good. Rick is going to use the coconut water and make it into a cream sauce for chicken. He also used some of the coconut to blend up with pineapple juice and milk to make some weird version of a virgin pina colada. All and all it was a fun night. Way too much coconut for one day though. I dreamed of coconut last night.

Memorial Day

Every year for Memorial Day we go to Larkin Cemetary to visit the graves of my brother, Jefferson, and my sister, Elizabeth. Also buried there is Grandpa and Grandma Gray. We clean the graves, adorn with flowers and get a family picture. We really missed Amelia and Catherine and Kris and Richard. I was really moved when Rick and I got there before everyone else. Or so we thought. As we walked up to the graves I saw this: Andrew had been there all by himself and was edging and cleaning the graves. It really showed his dedication and love to our family members and their memory. Without anyone asking or any direction he decided to do this service. Before he knew we were looking I took this photo. I love Andrew. Thank you for your example.

Jason and the girls continued to polish the graves and put up flowers.

The nieces getting a little silly.