Pre-Snow Photo Shoot

I LOVE it when the weather cooperates just long enough for me to take some really fun pictures of a really fun family! I also really love it when I get the chance to hang out with an old friend and her family! Today I went to Wheeler Farm at 9:30 in the morning (yes, that is right, 9:30 a.m.!) and took pictures of a really great family! They are adorable! We shot pictures from about 9:40-ish until about 10:40-ish...and then I hopped in my car and went to work. By the time it was time for lunch, the clouds had parted and the beautiful fall morning had turned into a winter wonderland! It was crazy! I am so glad that we were able to take pictures this morning before the weather turned nasty!

Here's a few samples of what we got this morning:

Henry's 3!

Yesterday my boy turned 3! Can you believe it? (Unfortunately, he is in the stage where it is hard to get good pictures of him, so please be forgiving of the craziness!) Like his sister he put in an extensive and detailed order for his birthday cake. He wanted a train on a bridge. And not just any bridge...a trestle bridge. And not just any train...Diesel 10. And, Diesel 10 needed to be a toy. Hopefully, my adult brain understood his 3 year old brain, because this is the cake I came up with:Kinda cool, I thought. I used my mom's chocolate cake recipe, and let me tell you...it is the only chocolate cake from scratch recipe that I have made that isn't horribly dry! It was tender and yummy! It is definitely going into the recipe stash!

Well...it looks like Henry's pleased! That really is ALL that counts, after all!

My very creative and interesting 5-year old

Today is my daughter's 5th birthday. Here she is:


So sweet, so cute, so innocent. Right? WRONG!!!

This girl is so dang creative and cranks out such a volume of "art" and "crafts" that I can barely keep up with her. This year for her birthday she put in an extensive and quite detailed "order" for her birthday cake. I thought it was quite funny until I realized she was completely serious.

So, this is what my sweet, cute, INNOCENT girl came up with for her birthday cake:
Yes, a beach scene...but not any beach scene! This is how she described the cake to me: "I want a round cake with sharks. And a girl on the beach. And a 'no swimming' sign". The execution was left entirely up to me. The girl is made of fondant, laffy taffy (thank goodness it was just Halloween!) and Tootsie Roll (again, thank you Halloween!). The sharks are made of twinkies, fruit roll-ups, mini-chocolate chips, icing and a funny cracker for the fin.
Here's a little bit of a close-up shot...and yes, those are feet coming out of that sharks mouth! That was Daddy's idea, and she loved it! She said, "Yeah, because there's a 'no swimming' sign and you're not supposed to swim with sharks". Where does she get this stuff??


Well, at least the birthday girl was pleased. When I finished the cake I laughed so dang hard! It has got to be the funniest cake I have made to date and probably will be the funniest for a while! Way to go, Baby! Your cake idea was fabulous!