Consuming the Cake for Kake

Since yesterday was Karen's birthday, we had a party for her in Utah while she celebrated in Arizona. Unconventional, but it was the best we could do.

Ready to eat cake! 

Cutie pies!

Laura decided a new version of the old cake was in order.
We are calling it "moat cake." 

It still has the required pudding and strawberries inside a chocolate cake covered in whipped cream. 

The cake's creator (she baked it from scratch, including the pudding and ganache).
 All I had to do was assemble it. 

We had two more guests coming, so we had to save a little bit for them. Just barely. 

I'll post the recipe later this week. 

Happy Birthday Karen!

Here's to celebrating a sweet daughter and her celebration of another year and another candle on her cake. We're having a surrogate party for her here, while she's eating Nothing Bundt Cake in Arizona. And as an acknowledgment of how much she loves the Cheesecake Factory, they have cheesecake at half-price every year on her birthday. How appropriate!
I love you Kake (or Ren, or French, or Raivyn-Rose)! Happy, Happy Birthday!

Little Ollie-Lollie

Let me show you a sweet little girl.

She loves to swing. 

Yep, she pulled off the whole roll. 

Because today is Pioneer Day, Laura whipped up a bonnet for the girls, but found Olive's was a little small. 

So, just like that Laura whipped up a new one. 

There are no words. Karen, recognize the wig?  

I'm loving this little baby doll visiting my house. Her favorite thing with me is that she will come over to me and back up against my legs. That's my cue to pick her up and swing her in my arms. Awesome!

Spaghetti and Breadsticks

This is Agnes and Eliot's favorite spaghetti sauce! Eliot's plate was empty in record time, which is unusual for him.
You can find the spaghetti sauce recipe here and the breadstick recipe over here. The breadstick recipe is the same as the recipe I use for pizza dough. After the breadsticks come out of the oven, I rub them with some butter and lightly sprinkle a bit of kosher salt on them. You could use garlic salt, but I have a non-garlic eating husband, and while I can sneak some in here and there, I can't put it on his bread or he'll know immediately!

Floats

While Samuel's family was here we went to look at the floats that will be in the Pioneer Day Parade.

Some of them were quite spectacular. 

This one was my favorite. 

This was a bean bag toss game. I loved the sturdy construction of it. 

The other side of my favorite float. 

I wonder if this was the one that used 15 pounds of glitter. 

I think this one might have been LynnEl's favorite had she come with us. 

It's the 25th anniversary of the book Charly. I've never read the book or seen the movie. 

I missed getting a picture of a huge replica of Jesus who was holding an apple. On second thought, perhaps it could have been a bearded Adam. Samuel, do you remember if the float said anything indicating who it was, or did we just assume it was Jesus? Either way, it was one really bad looking float. Sorry, Mama's Temple Choir Church. It's just my opinion. Who knows, maybe it will win the people's choice award...but I doubt it.

Family Reunion

Last weekend we had a family reunion. It was great. A few pictures are on Facebook showing what a good time we had.

Laura set up a movie night for the kids on Friday evening. These were the cupcakes she decorated which are supposed to look like popcorn. They were lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting. The popcorn is made by snipping a miniature marshmallow in half and dipping the cut side into yellow sanding sugar.

Why I Haven't Blogged Lately

I don't even need words on this post except to say these kids (among others) are the light of my life. Cute factor overload coming up.

It doesn't get much better than that. Amen.