And the peanut turned three!

Well, it's nothing like taking Christmas card photos to motivate me and catch me up on some photo editing.  I'm here today to share (and not too terribly late, I might add) some photos from Havi's birthday celebration.  We figured that we would eat out and have cake on her actual birthday, which was a week ago Sunday.  Unfortunately, Caleb's tennis tournament was pushed to Sunday from Saturday because of all the rain we had. I ended up baking her birthday cake on Saturday and then made the frosting and decorated it Sunday morning.  We were able to eat lunch, sing Happy Birthday, and open presents before heading out of town for the tournament.

I originally was going to use the same swirl decorating technique that I used on her cake last year but using pink and white this time.  Due to not knowing our actual departure time for the tournament, though, I ended up tinting the whole batch of frosting pink and just doing a simple ripple effect along the sides of the cake.  I did a small ripple effect on top too but ended up covering it up when I decided to add the sprinkles.  I used traditional American buttercream, which I do not like but my family does.  They say my Swiss Meringue buttercream isn't sweet enough, and compared to American buttercream, it isn't.  But I am going to try modifying the recipe to make it a tad sweeter for them.  It's just so much nicer to frost a cake with, in my opinion.  Oh, and I made a mini 6 inch cake so we didn't have too much uneaten cake sitting around, which worked out pretty well for our little family. 

 Well, we eventually made it over to the tennis tournament.  Caleb was half way through his first match when my sister and her family showed up.  He won that match handedly.  We are so proud of him.  Because of the weather, the rest between matches was shorter.  Consequently, we chose to hang out at the facility rather than head over to my sister's house, which we often do when he plays at that particular site. The cousins had so much fun playing together.  Caleb also hung out with a few of this tennis buddies.

 I wanted a portrait of the birthday girl on her actual birthday, but she wasn't too interested in posing for me, unless you consider acorns on your head a pose.

 After snapping a photo of the birthday girl with her brother and sister, I asked my sister to snap one of me with her.  First I stole a kiss while my nephew photo bombed us, and then she gave me a gigantic bear hug.  Oh, my heart melted.

 I had to get a photo of Baba with his little girl too.

The sun was setting when Caleb got around to playing his last match.  And so I had to snap a quick photo to show proof that it really did try to shine, even if it was ever so brief.  Caleb ended up losing his second match to the highest ranked player he's played to date.  And although he lost, he played pretty well.  We are just so proud of him. 

Anyway, fortunately for Havi next year, her birthday falls on a Monday.  So she shouldn't have to celebrate her birthday on a tennis court three years in a row. lol  We love you little Hav Hav!  

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

Christmas fun- Part 2!

First of all...

Happy New Year!!!!!

I plan on doing a 2013 recap of my favorite moments, but that will have to wait until after I finish wrapping up our Christmas fun.  The day after Christmas, we waited for my sister and her family to head over.  Caleb couldn't wait to build his new castle Lego. 

 Madeline couldn't wait for me to finish making Jesus's birthday cake.

 After crumb coating it, I realized I forgot to add peppermint extract to the frosting.  Oops.  I used a frosting recipe that called for a larger batch because the last chocolate peppermint cake was too skimpy on the frosting.  Unfortunately, I forgot to look back at the original recipe.  So chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream was what it was.

My sister and crew finally made it over late in the afternoon because she had been nauseous and vomiting all morning.  No fun.  She promptly made it into the house and went to sleep.  That was all we saw of her all day. :(

After a delicious dinner of short ribs and sides sans sister, it was time to open presents.

 Books, roller skates, camping gear, shoes all made the gift giving list. Then it was time to sing happy birthday to Jesus.  We put 5 candles on the cake for all 5 kids to blow out, but somehow, Madeline managed to "help" her siblings and cousins out with their share of candle blowing responsibilities.  Sneaky girl.

 Well, the next day my sister was pretty much back to herself. So we piled all 5 kids in my minivan and headed down to South Florida for a little Winter Carnival fun with my cousins Ed and Eileen.  

Face painting and airbrush tattoos were a huge hit.  So was the slide.  I was so happy that my sister and her kids finally had the chance to attend the carnival (my BIL Andy had to work.)  After the carnival, we hung out a bit, ate pizza, and just enjoyed each other's company.  We stayed late and as soon as we hit the road, all 5 kids passed out in the car.  Having that much fun sure is exhausting!

Oh, the one thing I really enjoyed about the carnival was using my new Fujifilm point and shoot.  I kept it in my hand all day, just like I would my phone.  It was so convenient to shoot with, and I can't get over the quality.  Lisa, I will share more about it when I get the chance. ;)

Anyway, hope you all are looking forward to a new year and reflecting back on all that 2013 was for you with joy in your hearts.

Happy New Year friends!

And the birthday celebration continued

Golly gee, I wish there were more hours in the day to get done what needs to get done these days.  Since that's not the case, I have gotten a bit behind in my blogging.  Anyway, to pick up where I left off last time...

Michele, John, and Lydia came down for a quick visit after Thanksgiving.  As such, we knew we would wait until the week after Havi's actual birthday to throw her a little party.  We spent the first few days of their stay just relaxing and enjoying the warm weather.  One afternoon, we headed over to our favorite park by the river.

Sunday afternoon was when we had her little party, just family.  My sister came with hers and her in-laws.  It was so cute to watch Caleb show Havi how to open a present.  Once she figured it out, she went to town. lol

For her birthday cake, I knew I wanted to make dark chocolate with a whipped vanilla buttercream and decorate it with a watercolor swirl effect.

The cake had sat out at room temp for a while.  So that's why the cutout slice in the photo above looks a little rough.  Although I love my swiss meringue buttercream to pieces, I knew that some people at the party prefer the sweeter traditional buttercream.  And since I only like to use that one sparingly when decorating (because it's so sweet), I chose to frost it using this simple watercolor swirl effect technique.  It was a winner.

Well, we did end up visiting the Mouse like I had said.  But those photos will have to wait because we have another busy weekend planned.  We had such a great visit with Michele, John, and Lydia.  I only wish it wasn't so short.  We love you guys!