Tallen's Birthday Cake

After making this cake, I realized that I don't like working with fondant all that much.  It isn't hard to use, it is just that it is a totally different decorating process and I don't enjoy it.  I made this cake for my friend Johnna.  Her son had a party last weekend at Bounce.  I talked her into letting me make a cake for the occasion so that I could practice.  This cake looks simple but it taught me a lot of skills. 

C&E playing Kinect

Cake Wreck :(

So, the worst thing that could have happened at Hayden's party happened. I dropped the dang cake. It was sitting all nice and pretty on the refreshment table when stupid me decided to move it back a touch.  When I slid the cake stand, the table cloth caught it and the cake went over backwards off my kitchen island.  I stood there just staring at it in disbelief.  I spent hours on this thing and then it ended up on the floor.  Sigh... You know I didn't take any pictures of it before the incident either, right?  Of course not.  Clayton picked it up and set it all back on the stand but there was no saving it.  I ended up getting cupcakes from the grocery store to replace it since I only had 2.5 hours until the party.  Lesson learned.

Valentine's Day 2011

I made the boys heart-shaped French toast and bacon with pink milk.  They weren't too impressed.  Unfortunately, the day started with Hayden throwing up and then both of them developed fevers before lunch.    It totally sucked.  Holidays are a big deal in our household and they both had to miss their school parties.  

I took both boys' valentines to school for them so that they could still exchange them even though they weren't there.  After school, I picked theirs up for them.  E had made a bag and H had a box.  They were feeling good when I got back (thanks to Motrin) so I let them open the valentines up. 

On our way to Orlando's airport [2.5.11]

It took forever to get off the dang ship that morning.  I was begging for them to let me through because I was so afraid that I was going to toss my cookies right then and there at the customs counter.  As soon as we disembarked and got our car, we stopped at a Publix so that I could buy a bunch of medicine.  It managed to make me feel okay thankfully.  We stopped at an outlet mall and rested in the car. We were so tired. The boys hunkered down in the back of the rental car and slept for a little bit.

Our flight home was delayed and then they lost one of our bags when we got to Denver. Ugh. To make matters worse, Denver was freakin' cold. We found our car covered by a sheet of ice. If I hadn't of been so sick, I would have booked me another flight right back to Orlando and stayed there.

Cruise Day #7 [2.4.11]

Today was our day at Castaway Cay. Let me tell you, this is always the best day of the cruise. The island is amazing! Disney really pulled out all the stops when they designed it. I could live there forever. Unfortunately for me, I woke up with the flu (did not know that was what was wrong until I got back to Colorado). I was miserable! I luckily had a bunch of drugs with me to make me feel okay enough to get off the ship that day. I would have been sad to have missed it. The weather was awesome and the water was beautful. The kiddos had a marvelous time as well as the adults.

Clayton and Jason got into a water fight, lol.

I think my hubby may have won that battle!

Beautiful Jasmine enjoying the water

I was pouting because it was our last day.  I didn't want to leave!  BTW-That white mark on my tummy (just above my bikini) is where I put a cherry sticker when I tan.

I love this man more than anything in this world.  I took this pic while he was laying in the water.

Hayden

The view of our ship from the beach

Cruise Day #6 [2.3.11]

Today was a lazy day at sea. We had a wonderful brunch at Palo, a galley tour and the kiddos swam. It was a great day. That evening, we got to see the kids club do a little presentation in the theatre which was cute. Hayden opted out though and this is where we found him afterward:

He had fallen in love with Peggle and Chuzzle (both games that I really like).

Jason and Natascha in Lumiere's

We had watched a horrible, and I do mean horrible, magic show during our trip. Jason tried to show off his mad magical skills during dinner to try and show up the so-called professional magician. Emerson was impressed, lol.

Jasmine and Emerson boogied down during John Charles' show in Rockin' Bar D. John puts on a awesome show where he sings lots of songs with a guitar. He does everything in a humorous way. Lord forbid you get up and walk out of the room while he is performing. He will totally call you out, lol.

Cruise Day #5 [2.2.11]

You think that they like each other? Nah, not one bit! lol

Today we went to St. Thomas. We were so drained from the previous day at St. Maarten though. We ended up not going to a beach and instead did a little shopping. We didn't stay off the ship very long. Well, long enough for me to buy a couple of beads for my necklace. ;)

We had lunch on the ship and let the kiddos swim in the Mickey pool. Hayden and Jasmine seemed to stay in the pool mostly but Emerson insisted on going down the Mickey slide a million times over, lol.

They had another pajama party for the kids tonight so they insisted on going. When I went to pick up Hayden, I found him learning to play chess.

Cruise Day #4 [2.1.11]

Lovely St. Maarten

Hubby bubby

We walked a long while up one of the beaches to get away from the crowds. Once we found a location, we let the kids run for the water. They had such a wonderful time! The only bad thing was that the water was a little bit rough. There was a major drop-off if you went out too far also. It was kind of stressful worrying about it while they played but we came out unscathed. Emerson lost his kids club band so we worried about the $50 fee for it but they never made us pay for it. It slipped off his arm while he was in the water.

See how beautiful the water was? It was breathtaking!

Clayton took a photo of Jason taking his photo. These 2 guys are so silly!

Emerson on the taxi boat back to the ship

Disney Magic docked in St. Maarten

This night was designated as pirate night so we all donned pirate gear. Jason was being goofy with his eye patch so Natascha decided to get him, lol. We celebrated the special Pirates in the Caribbean menu in Animator's Palette. After dinner, we played shuffleboard and lolly-gagged until the party. Unfortunately, we were tired by the time that the party started. For whatever reason, Mickey didn't zipline across the ship so we weren't impressed. The fireworks were still cool though.

How cute is Emerson?!

Hayden decided to be a blind pirate, lol.

Emerson took this pic of us at the Pirates in the Caribbean party.

Hayden took this pic of Clayton and Emerson.

The boys were just learning to use our small camera so we let them take these last 2 shots. They think that they are photographers now, lol.

Cruise Day #3 [1.31.11]

When in doubt, pinkies out!

Hands down, one of the best places to visit while on the Magic is Palo.  It's an adult-exclusive restaurant that serves high tea, brunch and dinner.  We love it so much that we go to all 3, lol.  Reservations can be hard to snag so I always book them at the 90 day mark before we set sail.  On this day, Clayton and I went to high tea and it was superb.  Ann Marie was a delightful host.  She encouraged us to stick out our pinkies because that is the proper way to sip tea.

We didn't get around to doing the Alice tea last time we cruised so I made sure to get us tickets this trip.  The kids sat at a table all by themselves and loved it.  The tea was actually juice but they didn't seem to mind.

Alice and the Mad Hatter put on a little show.

On the last cruise, Emerson skipped out on a pajama party and regretted it.  The big reason was because Hayden got to make and keep a cool pillow case.  He made sure not to miss his chance this time.

Cruise Day #2 [1.30.11]

Our first morning on the ship just happened to be our scheduled character breakfast in Parrot Cay. You only get one per cruise so we had to go even though we were all tired from traveling the day before. I so wanted to sleep in! It wasn't the best food but it was still worth it to go.