soccer party

We had Cole's birthday a little late this year.  Poor kid, with Christmas and New Years, there wasn't a free weekend until January 8th.  I hate that he has a birthday so close to Christmas.  I envision this being an issue for years to come.

Lucy and I started the cake on Friday night, and worked until the wee hours of the morning.  You'd think, after how many birthday cakes, we'd be speedy.  Nope!  It always takes longer than we anticipate.  I had a vision in my head, but wasn't sure how it was going to come out.  We had never worked with fondant before so I wasn't sure how that would go.  Jon gave us a huge pan, that took 6 cake mixes to fill (yes, SIX!).  I ran out of eggs while attempting to bake the cake (Lucy brought some).

We frosted the cake in buttercream, courtesy of the bagel shop and then added the grass, with an awesome grass tip (who knew?).



Next came the fondant.  It was white and we needed it to be black.  We added the dye and kneaded and rolled until we finally got black.  Fondant was super fun to work with and much easier to manipulate.

The finished product!  We had enough cake to feed an army!  For our first time, I don't think it turned out half bad.  

Since the party was at the soccer center, I wasn't able to go wild and crazy with decorations and such, BUT, I still managed to throw in a few things I made here and there! 

The birthday boy, enjoying his day!  He had a ball (literally) running around!

Nicolette had a lot of fun too!

The lighting on the field was awful, but I still got a few pics!

It was a great day!  And, MUCH easier than having the party at home!

new years eve/day

I used to love celebrating New Years and needed to go out and do something.  This year all I wanted to do was stay home.  I had no desire to even go out to dinner like we've done the past few years.  And, after Jon lost his wallet at Coppertop last year, maybe it was good we didn't go out! 

Instead we had a little celebration here. We got some wine, some bubbly for the kids, aka fancy juice and some party crowns and counted down right in our kitchen.

We practiced counting down and singing our happy new year song (to the tiune of Happy Birthday).  It was a blast!  CHEERS to 2011!!!

New Years Day morning we had our annual name and year pancakes.  I hate the way the pancakes look on my griddle but they taste yummy!

New Years Day was spent at my parents with friends.  We had my mom's favorite lasagna, macaroni and broccoli, cheese fondue and greek dip.  After dinner we played games and enjoyed the first day of the new year!



2010 in review, picture style

We had such a great year!  Each month brought new and exciting things to do. 

IN JANUARY, Nicolette started dance class.  Their class was small, only 4 girls, but they are so darn cute!  We visited the Museum of Play again, but this time Cole was old enough to PLAY!  We celebrated my last year of my 20's... so sad!

IN FEBRUARY, I had my first "photo shoot".  Little did my poor kids know, it would be the first of many!  We played outside for the first time.  I know, I know... I'm a bad mom... I never took Nicolette out before 2/2010.  Both kids weren't too sure of it.  Nicolette started swimming lessons.  We could only have one child participate because Jon wouldn't go in every week (poor Cole).  Nicolette got her first real pedicure and we had our first (of many) tea parties, complete with pink milk and fruit snacks.  I practiced more with my new camera and Nicolette got her first haircut to get rid of the baby mullet.  We celebrated Jon's last year in his 20's and we all helped to fix up the bagel shop!

IN MARCH, Nicolette got to visit the dentist in preparation for her first checkup.

IN APRIL, we celebrated Easter, in purple and green! We colored eggs and searched for them outside.  Uncle Chris visited us to go to basketball games with Jon.  And, we danced in the rain!

IN MAY, the second bagel shop opened up downtown.  I took her first weekend away for Meghan's bachelorette party.  We celebrated Mother's Day at my parents.

IN JUNE, Nicolette had her first dance recital.  We finally got our graden in!  I (nervously) took both kids to Orlando to meet baby Mattie and visit Aunt Mary and Uncle Chris.  We did a whole lot of swimming and eating ice cream.

IN JULY, Jon and I celebrated 5 years of marriage.  Nicolette and Jon went to see Toy Story 3.

IN AUGUST, we all went to our first baseball game.  Nicolette and Ethan walked down the same aisle Jon and I did just 5 years before.  We had a picnic at the park and went to the Outer Banks for a week!  Nicolette turned 3 and we completed (most of) our summer to do list!

IN SEPTEMBER, Nicolette started prek.  Cole caught his first fish! 

IN OCTOBER, the kids became Woody and Jessie for Halloween and we had a major photo shoot to get a good holiday card picture. We went to Niagara Falls for the first time (well, the kids first time).  We also went through the corn maze and got lost.

IN NOVEMBER, we helped my friend Carrie fight cancer.  We prepared for the holiday season and made gingerbread houses.

In DECEMBER, Mac (short for macaroni and cheese) paid us a visit for the season.  We got to see old friends and had a ton of fun.  We had another photo shoot.  Cole celebrated 2 years of life- whoa!  Santa came and spoiled us all!