A Release Party and Have your Cake and Eat it Too!

Calling Bishop D. George Hansen

We thank you for your service and you are now officially

RELEASED!

My lovely FIL was released this past Sunday after a long, dedicated 5 years of serving as a bishop in the hubs' childhood ward. Coincidentally, my FIL's childhood ward as well. They both grew up in the same house, same neighborhood, same schools, same major, same career. Hmmm, I wonder if the hubs will follow his dad's steps and be called as a bishop some day. He says ABSOLUTELY NOT, but I say, you never know.

Anywho, the family had a dinner/party-it's what my kiddos called it, and I made this beauty for the dessert...
It's a red velvet cake with raspberry buttercream frosting covered with chocolate-covered strawberries on top. It tastes as good as it looks, trust me! I know this not only because I had some, but everyone liked it. My MIL even liked it, so much that she took a 2nd piece before we left, so she could have it later. She hardly ever does this, she's not into the sweets much(I need to be that way a lot more, but alas, I like my treats). I love to bake and love it even more when I can share at family functions. I get better every time I make something(the hub's words, not mine)and this will help me in the future when I open up my dream bakery/cafe. I like to try new things and this beauty was my first attempt at making a "pretty" cake as well as tasty one.

Bella's 1st Birthday Party and mommy's crafting bug satisfied

Our little munchkin is turning one this week, but we needed to celebrate early due to my little trip to Washington this week and my dad being out of town, so we partied into the night last night for our cute Bella. I wanted to do something special, being it her first birthday and all so I dreamed up Bella's Sweet Shoppe. We had family and family friends over with lots of kids of all ages, so I wanted to keep the kiddos entertained. Enter mounds and mounds of candy and a big backyard to run out all the sugar energy. This is the breakdown of the party...Her cute birthday invite that I hand drew(I really dream and long for a cricut machine, but alas, the moola is just not there for the crafting tool love of my life). I think it's pretty good for hand drawing it.=)
Our candy jars for the shoppe

Bella's cute sign for her shop. Again, I hand drew the cupcake to go along with the theme. The dum dum suckers were a HUGE hit!

Bella needed a entry sign for her party, so enter another craft for me, this cute balloon wreath. I can change out the card for everyone else's birthdays too. Love that I can use it all year long. It's way easy to make and was way cute. It was the kids' favorite decoration that I did.

This is the set up for Bella's Sweet Shoppe. We had suckers, taffy, rainbow licorice, pink whoppers(strawberry flavored), mini brownie bites, and mini baby rattle cupcakes.

Bella loved, loved, loved her cake. She started out being very dainty, but when she realized I wasn't going to take it away, she dove right in. She got it all over her and loved eating big chunks of it. She was by far our messiest cake eater out of all the kids. I wanted just one kid to finally dive into their cake and she certainly didn't dissappoint. I loved it and we had a family friend who took pictures for us and got some amazing pics for us. I am so jealous of his camera and want one badly. This pic above is from my little one and so did not do Bella's cake eating justice, but Jeremy's pics sure did. Thank you Jeremy for all the pics.

One of the big cakes, it was chocolate with chocolate raspberry frosting in the middle.

This was another one of the cakes, a pair of pink booties. It was an orange white cake and YUMMY! Bella had an exact one for her dig in cake.

Bella smashing her cake in her mouth. She just couldn't get it in fast enough. This is one of the pics Jeremy took. I love that we got lots of clear, cute pics.

Bella got her cake everywhere. This one just shows how much she got in her hair. She loved rubbing it in everywhere. Silly girl, she must have heard Eric say I get the honor of the birthday bath. She loves to get extra messy when I have the bath honor.

I love, love, love this one. She even has frosting caked in her eyelashes. So cute looking up though. I just love this little angel. She melts my heart each and everyday. We enjoyed having everyone share Bella's special day with us. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us, for the presents-she loves them all, and for always taking time for us and our family. It's sad to think she will be one on Wednesday, it went by so fast. But we look forward to all the fun of the many special moments in her life. We love you Bella and are very happy to have you in our family. You light up our lives and your brothers and sisters love you tons. Many joys and happiness we wish you as you grow up. Beautiful Bella, we love you tons and Happy Birthday sweet girl!

The hubs turns 36!

The lovely old man turned 36 this weekend and I just had to surprise him once again. The hubs has always, always wanted to go to a mystery dinner theater show, so that's exactly what he got. I took him to see "Godfather of the Bride." It was put on by a company called Hunt's Mysteries at Spaghetti Mama's. He had no idea until we got there and walked in. He thought we were just going to dinner with some friends and that was it. We walked in and he was stunned. Heck, I am still stunned that I kept it hush, hush for 3 WEEKS! That's impressive for me. I am horrible at keeping surprises for a long time. He had a blast, as did the rest of us, especially when he got to play a part in the show as a police officer. Funny stuff!

Here's the man of the hour ready and roaring to blow out his candles on his "36" cupcake cake.
He wanted me to just make some rum sauce for the spumoni ice cream he picked for his birthday treat, but the kids really wanted a cake, so I made these rainbow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Oh man, were they good, too good, you know I only have 4 weeks left until the big 5K, so I need to watch it or I'll have to be pushed to the finish line.

Here's what these beauties look like in the middle. The kids thought they were awesome as well as the big kid of the house. Here's to many more birthdays for the hubs. Many more happy, and healthy lifetime moments!