First Day of School!!

Today was Madison's 1st day of school. She was so excited! Her first grade teacher is Mrs. Leonard. She sounds like a really fun teacher - in their classroom they have a frog, a snake, tadpoles, a gecko and crayfish. One of her best friends from her kindergarten class is in her class this year too - yeah! Jordan was really sad when she left for school, and even sadder when we reminded him as he was getting ready this morning that his preschool doesn't start for two more weeks.

Craziness

We just got back from a whirlwind of a trip to Utah. In 10 days we had my birthday, helped my grandparents move, went to my 10-year high school reunion, celebrated Madison's 6th birthday, spent a day at Hogle Zoo, threw Arianne a baby shower, and had my Grandpa and Grandma Pippin's 50th Wedding Anniversary party. It was a lot of fun, but I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

I can hardly believe Madison is 6 now - she is growing up too fast! She was adamant that her cake and filling be chocolate and that there was chocolate in the pinata (a girl after my own heart). She also wanted her cake to be a Barbie cake and her pinata to be a heart, so, of course, that is what she got. Justin was amazing and helped me glue all the little crepe paper squares on the pinata.

A bunch of our big and crazy family helping us celebrate Madison's birthday!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Crazy Crunchy Filling, Marshmallow Creme Buttercream and Marshmallow Fondant.

We had a ton of fun at the zoo! Here we are (my mom, my brother Christopher, my sister Maren, Justin, me, Madison, Jordan and Joshua) in front of the Elephant Encounter. My brother Daniel and his girlfriend Amy surprised us and showed up a little later. Madison and Jordan were a kind of afraid of this big metal elephant because it made noise. It took us a while to convince them to stand that close to it to take a picture.

Posing with the cute baby giraffe.

All of us waiting to ride the zoo train.

My gorgeous sister at her baby shower. Her baby boy is due on September 12th. She is going to be such a cute mommy and her husband Dustin is going to be a fabulous daddy!

I spent 2 days in Ariannes kitchen helping her fill her freezer with meals for after the baby is born and making the cake and cupcakes for her shower. One of her favorite desserts is angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream, so I made her a fluffy white cake with strawberry filling (even the cupcakes were filled). It was a lot of fun making the little shoes and the little baby sleeping on the football for the top of this cake!

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Grandpa & Grandma Pippin!

My grandparents never got a wedding cake, so I made this cake (and 6 serving cakes) for them for their anniversary party. Dark Chocolate Cake with Dulce De Leche Filling and Buttercream Icing. Very rich and yummy!! Mike Vause took leftovers to work the next day and got me a marriage proposal. Justin wasn't too keen about that and was ready to go down and defend my honor... lol!