Spiderman cake

I thought I would be creative and make a birthday cake for my neighbor's son this week. They are always so generous and give my kids nice gifts for their birthdays. I found a picture online of Spiderman (the birthday boy is REALLY into this superhero) and copied the look onto a dome shaped cake. The idea was to have Spiderman climbing up over the dome. I used a big stainless steal bowl for the cake mold. The cake was an Applesauce Spice Cake.

I liked how it turned out. Though, I had to laugh, since we don't own a TV at our house and none of us really know much about Spiderman. Despite my lack of superhero knowledge, thinking of who this was going to, I had a lot of fun doing it!

First Day of School

Here is Tanner on his first day of school with a "go get 'em" look!

My little Tanner started Kindergarten this year. When I brought him for his assessment, the teacher took his hand to lead him into the next room. He looked at her as they walked out the door and said, "I already know how to read". To which the teacher replied with a laugh, "You do? Well, what am I going to teach you then?" In many curriculum criteria for the school district, Tanner places at the end of a 1st grade year.

This was a HUGE decision for me to send him to school. One which I will not go into now. But so far, it has been a good one. We do spend time each morning learning together at his level, but he LOVES the experiences he is having at school. I feel very fortunate we are in one of two top schools in the school district and extra lucky Tanner has an LDS teacher. (Actually, she is Primary president in her ward.)

I am also finding some wonderful associations with two other women on my street who are also sending their firstborn to kindergarten. We carpool together and look to each other for encouragement and support.

The first day of school was a doosey, I'll confess. I took Tanner a few days earlier to show him the ropes and get him aquainted with the different rooms in the school. "yeah mom, sure mom, okay mom, got it MOM!" But that first day...I took him into the gym where all 400+ students meet to say the Pledge of Alegiance together. We found his class all seated in a row on the center court line. It was mayheim and chaos. His classmates all looked wide eyed and stunned. Deer in headlights might be a good description. Then there was my Tanner, 100% excited. A smile broadly worn from ear to ear. I kissed him good-bye, turned around and took two steps away, then burst into tears. Pregnancy really didn't help with this one. Lexie asked me in the car why I was crying. I wanted to say, because it was JUST YESTERDAY he was born! But, I told her it was because I was happy. And I suppose I was.

D is for...

Dots! Dolphins! Daddy! Darling! Dancer! and Door!

The other day Lexie and a couple of her friends made Dogs out of Dough. Here are the results! We all had fun with this one!

Sweet Service

Every 1st and 5th Sunday Derek and I both attend Welfare meeting at 7:30am. It is the only time where we are both asked to attend the same meeting. You can imagine what this entails. I have to get myself and my three children dressed and ready for the day with breakfast and leave the house by 7:15am. All without a hubby. This is not impossible!

I asked two young women in our ward who are sisters if they would help me acomplish the task. If I get everything ready the night before, I can pull the kiddos out of bed at 7am and put them right into the car. Pajamas and all. We pick up the two YW and head for the church. There, they dress and feed my kids while I attend the meeting from 7:30am to 8:30am. Amazing huh! Honestly, on these Sundays, I feel royally spoiled! It feels more like a break for me than a gruesome task. The YW claim they'll call it "Personal Progress", but I just can't thank them enough.

This last time we picked them up, they were putting a clean diaper on Colin at the church to help get him ready for church. It nearly takes a professional Sumo Wrestler to keep him pinned down and well, he got away. Which wasn't a big deal until he urinated all over the floor. Those poor girls! This is not like him, in fact, I think the last time he pulled a stunt like this he was 2 weeks old. Nevertheless, they found the janitorial closet across the hall and cleaned everything up.

That afternoon Derek made them a big plate of zuchinni brownies and I made this card for them. I don't really see them smile much when I pick them up at 7:15am, but they sure had smiles on their faces when they saw that plate of brownies!

Grandparent's day

My mom was here this last week visiting. It marks her 5 year anniversary with her company, so she thought she would celebrate with grandchildren. We went to Tanner's school to have lunch with him. When we got there, the kids were all out at recess. Here's Tanner first in line to come back in. I think he was pretty excited for his visitors!

We got to the school a little early so grandma could check out his classroom. Mrs. Webber had Tanner introduce his family.

Then the kids did some coloring.

Colin, was of course a darling handful. Gotta love this age! At one point I was out in the hall with him. The Kindergarten teacher from across the hall came out of her classroom to tell me what a spittin' image Colin is of his older brother. Then she said, "The ENTIRE kindergarten grade knew grandma was coming today. Tanner told us all that lunch was going to be FUN!"

Here's grandma and Tanner at lunch!

Right after lunch the kids go out for recess. As we were leaving, we saw three cute boys waving us a big good-bye and a throwing us kisses! I'm so grateful for my 20x zoom lens so I could catch this one!

Sunflowers

Here's what my drive to Tanner's school looks like right now. Sunflowers for as far as the eye can see. The last time I saw something like this was more than a decade ago driving across Kansas. You can see the honey bees were out too! There is a big hive shed I pass each morning near this field.

Back to School

I am SO excited about this next Enrichement Meeting! We are doing a back to school theme with some FABULOUS mini classes! Can you see my "school bus" theme in the poster? Our guest speaker will be the Stake President's wife and we will have a yummy lunch too.

Afterwards, we will do Super Saturday Crafts! Here are some of the goodies we are making...

Bath Salts and Specialty Soaps. The soaps are made from my father-in-law's honeybee products. All natural and ooooh so wonderful!

Paper Pumpkins. These store flat too!

"Give Thanks" Door Hanger. April and I created this one and oh the fun we had doing it! I can't wait to hang it up! We designed two different kinds, Classic and Trendy.

Paper Bag Luminaries

Christmas Jars

Days to Remember Book
Apple Basket