Fun at Little Gym's Fall Fest

The Little Gym, where Charis attends gymnastics, held a Fall Fest members-only party on Saturday, complete with an hour of gym time per age group, face-painting, games and snacks. There were hordes of kids and they all had fun.

Dark Chocolate Goodness

I did this one as a "last-minute" decision for a Taste of Home Entertaining party, where I was demonstrating. It's a chocolate cake with dark chocolate buttercream basketweave. The poinsettias were extras from my previous cake.

13 Months

Check away another month in IBESR.

I was told a month ago that the new director's assistant said they were "specifically" working on our dossier. I believe he "specifically" said that to "specifically" placate us for another month while they "specifically" do whatever.

Maybe I should "specifically" send them a cake!

Antiquities

Our MOPS group held an Antiquities fund-raiser (you know, the old-time darling photos of the kids). I picked up our photos today. It was too hard to choose. The first one was a 10x13 that the company chose, the other two I picked (with help of friends).

Pretty Poinsettias

This is my cake for my Wilton Course 3 (Fondant and Tiered Cakes) final.

I did two 10-inch rounds topped with two 6-inch rounds. I used chocolate and yellow cakes, filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with chocolate fondant. I made red and ivory poinsettias from royal icing. I attached the flowers with green royal icing for the leaves.

Random Photos

Here are just a few pictures from the last few days. I have show off my new birthday present. Mark got me a Nikon DSLR (for birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, anniversary, Mother's Day, etc.). It has so many bells and whistles, it's going to take me a year to figure it out!


Charis with her baby doll


One of the musicians at Edelweiss. Saturday afternoon was so warm, we decided to eat out on the patio.


Ava, Charis and Olivia at Edelweiss.


Charis enjoying our "Indian Summer." It's been very pleasantly warm. It's going to drop on Wednesday, though.


Charis making my cake for my final cake class.


Today Charis helped me make chocolate fondant. "Fold and twist," she's saying.


I gave her a chunk to play with after I covered my cakes.


She covered the pieces I leveled off the cakes. She ate the flower, not the fondant.

More Treats

More Halloween Photos ... (see previous post for ones from earlier today)


Charis dressed as Cinderella for nighttime trick-or-treating. Mark's mom got Charis the Belle costume and my mom bought her Cinderella. So it's nice she was able to wear both (and of course, she'll wear them out playing in them throughout the year!).


Charis' Cinderella pumpkin. We carved them yesterday, but they collapsed during the day (maybe because it was so blessedly warm!).


Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. Yes, these were from templates. I broke the carriage a couple times carving it.

We had a ton of kids the first hour (6-7). Some of the kids' costumes were great. But it really bothers me to see little kids dressed in gory or scary things. It also really bothers me that virtually no one, especially the older kids, says "Thank you!"

At least the kids could show off their costumes this year — the last two years have been so cold, the kids had their heavy coats on over their outfits!

Our neighbor decorates with all the scary stuff — spiders, a mechanical man who pulls off his head, Chucky doll, and a grim reaper that wheels around (like he's on a Roomba). I told him I'll call him at 3 a.m. if Charis wakes up with nightmares tonight.