Playing Catch Up!

So, I know I've been slacking with the blog pasts lately... SORRY!! Between cakes & kids my life is pretty crazy! I think (as I'm writing this at 12:30 am) I'm finally caught up! Thanks for keeping up with us, and don't forget to leave comments!!! :) Aly

Showers of Happiness

This past weekend I had the pleasure of helping with my sis-in-law to-be's bridal shower. (I also helped with her 1st one, but still need to get those pics:) I helped her maid & matron of honor, Brittney & Christina, plan the whole thing. We had such a blast doing it all, especially because we kept most of it secret from Gena!! I was so excited to help and felt so lucky to be able to do it for her. It was held at Christina's mom's beautiful home in the "Hills", and was a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme. We decided to stick with the Asian theme all the way around, and it turned out great!

Here was the gift table, set up with a beautiful cherry blossom centerpiece. It looked so nice centered around the plants and wonderful atmosphere.

We came up with these centerpieces for the tables. Simple, yet dramatic.

For favors, we used Chinese style take-out boxes and filled them with chocolate covered fortune cookies handmade by us:) (Sorry, forgot to take a pic of those..) We also set out chop sticks and edamame with vintage lotus flower bowls that belonged to Christina's late grandmother. They added such a beautiful touch!

Table set up

This was the food table- we had lettuce wraps, egg rolls, teriyaki meatballs, california rolls, Chinese chicken salad, and fruit skewers. The food was perfect- not too heavy, but filling!

The patio was something out of a magazine.. It was one of my favorite parties I've helped plan!

Of course, I had to include the cake- with the bride-to-be!!
Can't wait for the big day... :)

New Loo

Some other things that were taking up A LOT of our time lately were our bathroom projects. We decided to fix up the bathrooms "really quick" in case we did decide to try and sell this summer. For a modest budget we really added some well deserved upgrades, thanks to Matt's handywork! Unfortunately I forgot to take 'before' pics, but here's some 'afters'.

This is the hall bathroom after the "remodel". We decided to have the tub and tile re-glazed to cover up the old pink and turquiose lovelies that were there 50+ years ago. It came out really nice, and will work for now. If you don't remember what it was before, think pink sponge paint... YUCK! It's much better now... :)

Here's our master bath. Matt ripped some ugly tile off the walls and countertop, replaced the cabinet and countertop, painted and installed all the new fixures. Thanks to some help from our very own "Home Diva" (aka. MIL Linda) he busted it out in 4 days!

Stick 'Em Up!

Last week I got a phone call from my bro-in-law, Vinnie, asking if we were home. He was on his way home from court in Murrieta and wanted to stop by to say "hi" to Ty in his patrol car. I thought it was so sweet of him to think of Tyler! Ty had fun looking around the police car and seeing what Uncle Vinnie rides around in. He really got a kick out of it... Thanks again, Vince!



BTW... the nosey neighbors just HAD to know what was going on... funny!! :)

Happy Easter!

The day before Easter we had our annual "eggstravaganza" at our church. They always make it so fun for the kids!

They started off by decorating crosses with stickers. Even Blake got in on the action! (Well, sort of:)

Then there was a table set up so the kids could see what kinds of foods they had at the Last Supper back in Jesus' time. It was very creative, with dried fruits, juices, fresh fruit and homemade matzah bread. They loved the grapes, but wouldn't even come close to the dried fig...

Then they got a chance to make their own matzah bread! That was a really fun activity for the kids, although they weren't fans when it came to actually eating it. I guess enriched and bleached white flour tastes a little different than what they had back then...

More making matzah...

Mmm.. yum...

Outiside they had little fishing games. Ty especially liked it :)

On to the finale... the EGG hunt! Blake figured out rather quickly that it wasn't the actual egg that was important, but what was inside the egg!

"Pretty pink"

After all that I thought we could actually get a group shot... I thought wrong- Oh well! It was a great day over all!

...and the Easter Bunny came after all!

Spring Break!

For Spring Break we decided to take the kids to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. We just love it there, and haven't been in a while.

Such a 'loving' brother & sister... ;)

The kids loved touching the sea stars and urchins.

Here's us trying to touch the bat rays, although the kids were petrified..
(And according to Tyler, this is my "crazy hair". Ha ha!!)

Go figure, wouldn't touch a bat ray, but he'll touch a shark!?!?

Blakey enjoying the beautiful day (and my sunglasses:)

I think the quote was, "Bird if you bite me I'm gonna..."
The things we do for our kids. :)

Our big girl!

Blake LOVED the fish!

My new favorite picture!
All 3 looking AND smiling! Amazing!!

...and the car ride home. Great day!!

Happy Birthday Gilly Rose!

So I apologize, I haven't blogged on our family site in quite awhile! And if you've been keeping up with my cake site you'll know why... Anyhoooo.. the end of March was a special little goddaughter's birthday- Gillian Rose! She turned 11 (can't believe it!) and she asked if I could come over for her "friends" party to teach them how to make some cupcakes. I was so excited to share some decorating tips with them! I made up some frosting and Jazz made the cupcakes, and of course I had to bring enough sprinkles to cover a small country... She had about 5 friends (and Camryn, of course:) come for the fun. It was the perfect number!

Blake came along to enjoy the cupcakes, too...

The sweet 'mama hostess'!

Here's the girls with all of their beautiful (and interesting) creations. They had a lot of fun!

Me and the birthday girl :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GILLIAN... I LOVE YOU SWEETIE!!! :)