Cupcake Wars

Have you seen this show on Food Network?? Laetner is OBSESSED with it! He begs every week if we can have a cupcake war. Soooo, the last two Sundays we have obliged.

Last week: RED VELVET with cream cheese icing (aka Red Velva if Laetner is talking)

We used of recipe off of Food Network from Cooking with the Neely's and baked 1/2 of our cupcakes in the regular muffin cups and 1/2 in ice cream cones.

The verdict: The ice cream cones actually kept the cake moister---although the cones didn't have a whole lot of crunch left in them. But the presentation (with a dollup of cream cheese frosting) was so stinkin cute that they won HANDS DOWN!!!

Tonight: Mom's Heath Bar Cupcakes vs. Laetner and Delainee's Reese's Peanut Butter and Caramel Cupcakes.

The cupcake itself was an AMAZINGLY moist concoction of yellow cake mix, eggs, water and instant milk chocolate pudding. The frosting was a mixture of butter, egg yolks, pwd sugar, and a cup of whipped cream---YUM! I then drizzled crushed up Heath Bar Candy Cars, for just a splash of toffee flavor and a little crunch! While Delainee and Laetner piled on chopped up Reese's PB Cups and drizzled with caramel---talk about RICH!!!!

Laetner had been trash talking me all day and CLAIMED that he was gonna squash me. I am not so sure about that! Ü

We made both flavors for Daddy to judge, and Court had us all giggling as he critiqued each cupcake with an 'OUTRAGEOUS' french accent just like the judge on the t.v. show.

I lost!

Don't suppose we have an unbiased judge out there ready to judge our throwdown???

Mr. and Mrs. Stewart

On one of our last weekends of Summer we headed up to the cabin with our good friends Jim and Jenny and their posse of kiddies that match up PERFECTLY with our kiddies. Delainee and Addi are best of buds and Laetner and Benjamin could pretty much be brothers. These 4 pretty much took care of themselves all weekend playing the wii, slip'n'sliding on the lawn, and even creating their very own bouncy ball.

With the older kids off keeping each other busy, that left our 2 1/2 year olds to their own resources. So meet the FUTURE Mr. and Mrs. Stewart!




We had an utterly delightful weekend, with PERFECT temperatures, and light rainfall nearly every day. One day we looked out the kitchen window to see this perfection off the back porch...


Do you see the double rainbow??? If you look closely, there is an entirely seperate (much lighter) rainbow that runs through the very top of the photo.

WOW!!!!

Good Face Discount

The very 1st Semester of Let's Play music is known as the Red Balloon semester and we have a fun song about a balloon that floats up and down on the staff and it 'almost' floats away at the end, but the children pretend to catch it at the last moment and exclaim "I got it!" They love this.

So as a gift, on day one of the 1st Year of Let's Play Music, each child receives their very own helium filled Red Balloon to leave class with. Very fun. This week we will have a little girl in class who could not make it to class last week, but she HEARD all about what went down in class last week, and so I figured I better get her her own balloon to take home.

Court was so nice last week to go to Party City and get 13 Red Balloons filled for me. Not normally a task my hubby would relish! And I must admit that I actually thought he would shoot me down when I explained that this week I needed one more single balloon. "No problem," he says. He is "running to get his haircut and can stop by after."

He walks in the door with his single red balloon and tells me he got a 'good face discount'. Say WHAT???? The girl helping him remembered him from last week, and told him the balloon was on the house---no charge--FREE!!!!

That NEVER would have happened to me!

She must have REALLY liked his new snazzy haircut!!!! Ü

Back to School

I am a little out of sequence with my posts as I have been trying to catch up. We made it back to school, and the very 1st Week is when Miss Naughty Pants took a nesquik bath in my bed---apparently she is bored with Delainee and Laetner gone to school all day, and mommy ignoring her while she gets ready for a new year of Let's Play Music to start. As much as I HATE getting up in the morning, I am already loving being back on a schedule!

We took our obligatory 'by the seasonal bear' photos....


Here they are 'faking' an action shot---as if they are actually walking to school---HAH!



You might notice that Delainee doesn't look so well in this photo. No sooner did I take this shot than she completely broke down into tears. I couldn't believe it! She has never cried before on 1st day. She knew absolutely NO ONE in her class and I could understand her feelings.

Only when she got home from school and I went to figure out if she was okay, I found out that the reason she was crying was becuz she was completed embarassed by my taking her picture in front of all her new classmates.

We had to have a chat.

Cuz, "the pictures aren't gonna stop, my dear!" As long as you are my baby, I WILL be there with the camera, and I WILL be embarassing you!!!! Doesn't mean I don't love you of course, but I WON'T be stopping! Ü


Now that is what I call a good looking car pool!

Last Minute Summer Fun

With school starting the next week, we just HAD to get one last swim in. We packed up our lunch and headed over to Uncle Jaron's house to swim in his pool.


Talk about TRUST!



The best for last....

The Semi-Monthly Misadventures of Miss Naughty Pants!

Man alive does the girl ever quit. She just seems to move from one substance to the next. But why, why WHY did she have to do it on MY bed?????


Can you figure out what it is this time????


At first she started to smile when I got out the camera, and I started wondering what was the 'worse' reaction? Getting all mad and yelling at the child, or getting out the camera and documenting it like it is the best thing ever??? I met her halfway and told her "NO" in my most stern voice. The smile quickly turned to unsurety and then she lost it....




There's your answer---Pink Nesquik. NICE!!!

Friday Night Fun With Daddy

"I get to have BOTH beaters????"
"
Daddy is the best!!!"

Fuller Family Reunion

So we are already gathered up north. We might as well cram all the activities in at once, right??? The Sherwood Reunion ended at noon, which gave us just enough time to rush back to the cabin in Pinedale and give Wavee a quick nap before showing back up at my Aunt Kathy's house at 3:00 p.m. for just our Fuller Family Reunion. The bumpy ride up the Pinedale rode made for some funny pictures in the car. It looks like Wavee is sleeping, when in fact she is caught in the middle of saying, "Ah--choo!"




For this portion of the 24th of July weekend, my sister Jennifer was in charge. And nothing says family reunion like watermelon and sticker wars, right?!?!?!

Who dared go after my baby???

The kids played a game of wooferball and jumped on the tramp.

As usual for MY family gatherings, Court just made faces at me...(and I will give you three guesses as to what he is saying!)

And then came time for the pinata...

Waverly didn't seem to get in on the excitement of the mad dash for the candy once it busted open.

But instead preferred to rely on Daddy for her sustenance...

We were lucky to not lose her to the main highway. That kid NEVER slows down.

We finished things off with a Mexican Horseshoe tournament---I was beat out 'promptly' in the first round of elimination! And then everyone skedaddled to make it to a showing of Beauty and the Beast. Delainee spent the night in town to see the show and we met up with her again the next morning at the parade in snowflake. Now that is what a small town parage should be. Way cute!

After the parage we headed back to the cabin to clean up and we headed back home from our jam packed week in the mountains!

Aaah, I cannot tell you how happy I was to be reunited with MY bed!

Sherwood Family Reunion

So after our fun camping adventure we headed up to Pinedale to TAKE a shower first of all!!!! But then the jam packed 24th of July weekend began. Thursday evening kicked off the Sherwood Family Reunion at the Taylor rodeo grounds. My mother is a Sherwood. One of 12 kiddies. I have 72 1st cousins--72!!!! I don't normally take the time to head up to Snowflake/Taylor for this thing since I have been married. But this year my mother was responsible, and so we were STUCK!

Thursday night festivities included dinner and a dance. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves.


Laetner, on the other hand, was merely suffering through until time for COOKIES--which we then sat and ate double fisted.

Friday festivities included a grave site prayer at Grandma and Grandpa Sherwood's gravesite, followed by a carnival of sorts. We had prizes and guessing games, and raffles, and booths of ALL sorts of crazy activities. That portion of the 24th of July Weekend ended after lunchtime, but that was NOT the end of the fesitivities for that day....