First Sand...

We let Calla play in the sand for the first time last weekend. We have a sand park close to us, but the sand is really course/rough/painful, so I've never let her down in it. It was a beautiful day, so we loaded the girls up and drove over to the park that is by our old house, and then- turned them loose! Here I am showing Calla the sand while Leslie teaches her how to dig and lose(bury) body parts...

Unlike Leslie, Calla really enjoyed eating the sand. We had to keep a close eye on her, but she still got a bits in her mouth that were stuck to her wet little hand...

I had to fight Barry a little on the slide situation... He seems to think Calla's old enough to go solo, but I don't think she's quite there yet. With Daddy's help, she still really enjoys the slides...

There's a little pond at this park, and here is Leslie making one of her several laps from the playground down the dock and back again...

We really enjoying the nice weather we've been having lately. Usually Midland gets about 2 weeks of nice Fall weather, but this year, Fall is lingering around, and we're loving every second of it!

Halloween Fun...

As you probably know, Leslie was "Ariel with fins" for Halloween. I was really happy with how well her costume came out. Here's the best picture I got of Leslie in her costume. We just did red and orange ribbons in her hair instead of a wig. She got to wear her costume Monday for a Halloween Party in her Dance class and again on Friday for trick-or-treating around Daddy's work. It was nice to get a little more wear out of it than one night...


She's trying to give up her naps, but as you can see, she still needs one most days. This is only the second time she has ever fallen asleep in the car (except big road trips,) and the other time, she was only 18 months-ish! Trick-or-treating around work was too much fun...

Here we are with the finished costumes before we headed out...

Calla even left her "halo" on all night without any trouble. Just got to keep her distracted!

Here's a shot of Calla's wings. The fact that they were so tiny, made her costume even more adorable I think...

We went to First Baptist's Trunk-or-Treat. Leslie went to maybe 5 cars for candy, and then ditched that mess for the real fun... the jumpers! She jumped and jumped in every one they had. This is what Halloween is all about for her...

I tried to get a couple of them together, but they never like to take good pictures together, so this is the best we managed...

I was letting Calla crawl away so Barry could get a picture of her wings, and she turned around right as he took it. This is such a good picture of Calla! I love it! My sweet little angel...

I love dressing them up! I'm going to have to start making more of their clothes. Where is the line between costume and regular clothes if they wear "costumes" everyday? We had a great Halloween! I can't wait until next year!...

Pumpkin time...

The weather was gorgeous here all day, so Daddy and Leslie went out on to the driveway to carve their pumpkin this year. Leslie was TERRIFIED of any and all things Halloween last year, but somehow, this year, she LOVES "kooky-spooky" things. So she wanted a scaaaaary pumpkin and picked out a ghost picture we found online. Here Daddy is scooping the top off...


Leslie would not stick her hand in and help pull seeds out because they were slimy. Barry scooped some out for her and made her hold her spoon of "pumpkin beans" so I could take a picture...

This was Leslie at her most helpful... drawing with her chalk and leaving Daddy alone...

Ta-da! Look at the "kooky-spooky" pumpkin Leslie "helped" Daddy make!

Here it is at night all lit up and displayed...

Childhood lost...

Leslie is now throwing a tantrum because I just ruined her life... I had to explain to her that no matter how much fairy dust I bought at the store, she would never actually be able to fly.

Calla at the Pumpkin Patch...

Mom and Mitch took Leslie to the Tech game last weekend while Barry and I stayed home with Calla. We made a special effort to go do some things with just her. So we put on her Halloween dress, and off to the Pumpkin Patch we went! This is a little one in town that we took Leslie to when she was a baby, not the big farm one. She was so happy and smiling the entire time. It was easy to get alot of good pictures of her...

It was such a blessing to have a day with Calla as an only child. It makes up realize that maybe Calla isn't such a high maintenance baby compared to Leslie, maybe it's just that the addition of Leslie in the mix makes everything more... intense. We had alot of fun at the Pumpkin Patch and then went to play on some slides at the Red Playground and even out to eat- followed by a shopping trip! She could not have been any easier the entire day. She did give me a bit of a struggle leaving that ribbon on her head, but luckily, the Pumpkin Patch was way more distracting than the craziness going on on her head! It was a good day! I love my baby!

My First Fondant Cake...

One of my friends asked me to make a cake for for her mom's 50th birthday party. I was immediately concerned because the colors for the party were black with red accents, and nobody wants to eat black and red icing and dye their mouth. So, I decided to try something new... fondant.


Fondant is a sugar dough that is rolled out and laid over the cake. It makes a smooth finish that you can pipe or paint on, or cut out pieces of fondant and stick it to itself. I looked on-line and found a marshmallow fondant recipe that was easy to make and tasted pretty good. It's a fine line between too little and too much powdered sugar, so Barry had to come in and help me get it just perfect. Once we got the right consistency, it was pretty easy... although a super mess. Here's the cake covered and one of our disaster areas...




I would have preferred coloring the fondant for the base of the cake red or black, but adding that much color to anything is always a challenge, so I decided to do a white cake with black and red accents. Here I am kneading some red into a ball of fondant and a look at another disaster zone...

And pretending like I'm mauling an animal...

I'm glad I decided to make a white cake because the red and black were really difficult to work with after I colored them dark enough.

I wanted to make a sugar ribbon to go on the cake, but decided to live to fight another a day instead. So, I attached some real ribbon on it to jazz it up...

And, here is the finished product! The circles I cut out of fondant and stuck them on. Then I piped all the writing. I was super happy with how it turned out for my first attempt at fondant. I look forward to making many more cakes!

I started another little blog to follow my cake adventures. Check it out if you have a chance to see all my other cakes and help me pick a clever name for my cake venture!

http://brauchicakes.blogspot.com/

Extra Calla Moments...

Calla had to wear socks and shoes to start the day off because it was cold outside at the farm. She just couldn't figure these things out...

Leslie got her baby trike out of her closet, and Calla ended up pushing it all over the house...

So, I told Daddy to give her a little ride. Her legs just aren't quite long enough yet...

So I got out her baby scooter/walker. She didn't want to ride it, so I made it into a walker for her. She pushes big toys and chairs all over the house, but I still have to watch her with the quick wheels. She's growing up too fast...

Calla trying to wave neighbors down to help her escape. Sorry baby- you're stuck with us...