Mallory's 11th Birthday

I 

For the past three out of four years Mallory has had a sleepover for her birthday. I love all her little friends and have never minded hosting the squealy lot of them. But unfortunately drama is prevalent in this age group and even though I have a degree in theatre I am no match for this stuff. For the most part things have gone fine until like 2 in the morning when the girls are all tired and emotions run high. Paul has always wanted to put them to bed by midnight but you can hardly do that at a spend the night party!

So this year we put the kaibosh on a sleepover and came up with going to a movie and out to eat instead. We've had all but two of the kids' parties at home and I have always gone a bit overboard to lead Paul to say after every party "two words, Chucky Cheese (yes it's Chuck E Cheese but that doesn't go well with "two words"...)

I did a search to see if any kid movies were coming out the weekend of her birthday found out the new Peanuts movie was. Perfect. We picked the girls up in the carline at the 3-6th grade elementary school where they all go and got to the theatre, 20 minutes away, in time to take a picture, get popcorn and get settled in our seats. The girls plus Michael took up an entire row. They moved twice one time to get closer, and another time after some people sat down right in front of some of the girls!

We all enjoyed the show. It was very cute and sweet and lasted right at an hour and a half. So far, no drama!

Next we went to Mallory's favorite place to eat in Sikeston, China Buffet. Would have been my last choice but she loves it and most of the girls seemed to as well and it really did serve its purpose. No waiting for a big order to come out. Everyone got their drink orders taken and headed to the trough.

At the end of the meal the owner lady brought Mallory a little piece of cake with a candle in it. She's really great. Always happy to see ya.

After we ate we came back to our house for cake. I had thought of taking the cakes along and having dessert at the restaurant but Mallory wanted to come back home and it worked out really well. We were at two separate tables at the restaurant but got to all be together for cake and singing. Still no drama. 😀

The girls played a bit outside. I took a few of them home and others had moms to pick them up. When it was all over we had had a good time and never had any issues with drama so the party was a success based on that alone!

I'm so thankful for all the sweet girls who came to celebrate with us and for their mommas who allowed them to come and trusted Paul and me to watch after them on our outing.

Happy 11th Birthday, Mallory Belle. We love you and are so proud of the tweener you are! Now, stay out of the drama! ha ha

On Mallory's actual birthday we did a bit of celebrating too. Here are the highlights of November 4th, 2015...

Michael asked if I would get him up early to set up a little something for Mal. So this is what we came up with.

Mallory asked for homemade waffles on the waffle iron for her birthday breakfast so I made them for her.

She read the family devotion on her special day. So sweet.

Here she is for the 11th time by 'the cake' before leaving for school.

We always have a few kids come home with us on Wednesdays so it was fun to have a little mini-celebration with the Wednesday night gang. Mallory asked for spaghetti and I made her a pumpkin pie. She's not big on icing and really prefers pie so it worked.

Happy 11 Mallory! Two year til we hit the teen years. Yikes! Drama. 

What in the world?!

I started this blog in 2008 and have never been away from

It for this long! I don't know what got in to me. But I'm gonna get back on track of for nothing else but my kids. For them it's like an online scrapbook and since they don't have any real scrapbooks with memories from their growing up I better keep this one going. 

I never finished our Cali trip. Maybe I can get those posts done at some point. But for now I'll just go from here and start simple. 

I made a Lisa Frank horse cake last night for the daughter of one of my co-workers. She showed me a pic of one online and I tried to recreate it best I could. 

This was the example. 

Here's mine:

Came out pretty close although her colors are more vibrant than mine. And I forgot the bow on the braid. I made some cupcakes to supplant the cake and used the leftover icing for the cupcakes 

A few weeks ago I made this Little Dino cake. I wasn't familiar with this character and I didn't get the color of the Dino right but it came out pretty cute. 

I made this sweet cake for a sweet 14 year old this past weekend:

This icing technique is the easiest there is and it looks so pretty. Most ombré cakes go light to bottom from the top down but I find it easier to do from bottom up. I add a little color to my batch of icing in the mixer, do the layer at the bottom, add a little more color, do the next layer, and so on. 

A neighbor called r late one Saturday a few weeks ago saying she had forgotten to order a cake for her daughters birthday the next day. She asked if I would do a cake and said her daughter wanted a dog cake. I happen to have a dog cake pan so I told her I would do it. Turned out pretty cute. 

Mallory's birthday is tomorrow. We're going to see the new Peanuts movie Friday. She picked out Thai cake so I'll attempt it on Thirsday for Friday's birthday festivities.

So I'm back! I'm going to keep posting, even if they're not great posts, just to make myself get back in the habit!

Disney's California Adventure

We loved this place! Here are a few pix. Despite what they say, it did rain on us in California!!

I love how Michael is holding on to Paul's arm. 

The theming at this peak is spectacular. It's relatively new or at least parts are so it has an updated feel to it. 

I loved these Popsicle stick benches. 

Fun big straw...

Mallory and I saw Aladdin while the boys caught some rides. 

It was awesome!

We also went to the Animation Academy where a real Disney animator walked you through drawing a character. 

We all love the big raft rides. They're always our fave at every park we visit. 

Here are Paul and me on the Cars ride, Radiator Springs Racers. 

It was so awesome to ride it at night.