A Week of Celebrating

It's hard to believe that Asher turned 3 on March 12th! We have been celebrating his birthday in many ways over the past week. Since Asher doesn't like large groups, I had our neighborhood playgroup friends over for a lunch and firetruck cookies. On the day of his birthday, Asher wanted to eat at Pie in the Sky so just our immediate family took him there and we ended with cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection (a local cupcake shop a couple of blocks from our house!). Below is Asher enjoying the the cupcake at Pie in the Sky.

My mom and stepdad, Bruce, and my aunt Candy all traveled down this past weekend for us to have an extended family party for Asher. David's mom and his brother's family all joined us as well. We had taken Asher to the party store to decide the theme of his birhtday this year. It came down to Thomas the Train or firetrucks and he chose firetrucks.

Below is Asher asking me if we can have his birthday cake yet. So sweet! (Notice he is in his fireman boots.)

I asked Asher if he wanted a hook and ladder truck or a pumper truck for his cake. He went for the hook and ladder. David said it was funny that we even know the different types of firetrucks.
And here is the cake (my final cake for the month of March)......

We are singing "Happy Birthday" to Asher and you can tell he wishes he could disappear. He definitely does NOT want to be the center of attention.

Jonas thought that he would get into the mix of opening presents. I suppose he figures that he will get to play with them as much as Asher. Elijah (Asher's cousin)is dressed up in Asher's firejacket.

I was thankful that my mom was able to come for the party. It was nice to have her help, along with my aunt's and even step-dad's (who helped me put together the ladder for the cake) to make the party a success.

For our goodie bags, we gave everyone an iced sugar cookie of a firetruck.

It was such a special time to celebrate Asher's three years of life. I am so thankful for him and all the ways he has changed our lives!

Princess and the Pauper

My neice, Meadow, celebrated her 4th birthday this past weekend. She wanted the theme to be Barbie Princess and the Pauper. I believe it is from a video but since I am a mom of boys, I don't know much about the Barbie scene. So, last week kept me busy making this cake...

I must admit that these types of cakes are not my favorite because I have never been good at drawing (or decorating with buttercream icing) faces. Cartoon type faces I am better at, but human like faces, I am not. So, I was not as pleased as I would like to have been with this one. I did try to recover with my failure to replicate faces by highlighting some of the details of the dolls. As seen below...

I was unable to get a great picture of the blonde Barbie close up but with this cake, I even used some gold dust (edible) to create the gold in her crown, on her necklace and gown.
This is the month of cakes...next up, Asher's!

Paint and Pour

This weekend was all about letting the creative juices flow. This was my frist time to paint on canvas and I loved it! It was so much fun. My friend, Kara, and I met at Paint and Pour/Paint Along and completed the above paintings in two hours. My painting is on the left and Kara's is on the right in the above photo. Below you can see us with our paintings and see some of the other paintings they have to choose from. There are several of these painting classes popping up in Nashville and they have some really fun paintings to choose from. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. I brought us some dessert treats and Kara brought us drinks.

We both were already thinking about doing another one. If anyone would like to do this with me, let me know!

Baby boy shower

This weekend I made a cake for a baby boy shower that my sister-in-law was hosting. She gave me a napkin they were using that had a train and stripes on it. So, this was the design we decided on. This was my first time to do stripes on the sides of a cake and found them to be challenging to get completely straight. However, I enjoy new challenges with each cake that I try.

In the Neighborhood

For weeks now, David and I have been wondering why there have been so many cars at an old factory down the street from us, espcially on weekends, since it was supposed to no longer be in use. We also kept seeing a former car lot filled with cars and signs saying, "Extras" and "Catering" and "Event Parking." Very mysterious!! Just the other day we learned that Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow were making a movie in in this old factory. I learned tonight that Gwyneth was seen at a restaurant in the neighborhood next to us. I keep hoping to see her walking down the street. Ha!
Picture above from here.

Homemade Valentine's

I was trying to come up with something crafty for the boys to make for Valentine's gifts for the grandparents (my mom and stepdad came into town Valentine's weekend and babysat so we could have a date night!!). So, we decided to do more painting on canvas with Valentine's colors. Asher painted the top two (with a brush and his fingers) and Jonas did the bottom two. Now, I am wishing I would have had them make me one!

Mini Desserts

I have been plotting a new business idea. I am always trying to come up with something for myself to do other than hanging out with the boys. I love being a stay-at-home mom but sometimes I need another outlet. So, my newest idea is making mini desserts. I made some this past weekend for my friend, Rebecca. She was having a nice dinner for her entire family and asked me to make three kinds of mini desserts to serve. We decided on these three desserts: mini raspberry apple pies, mini vanilla cakes with Nutella frosting, and mini tiramisu eclairs
Now I just need to come up with a buisness name...Sweet Bite Delights, Mini Bite Delights, Little Bite Delights, Tiny Bite Delights...hmmm? Maybe someone has a great suggestion for me.