Siena's Grand Opening

My friend Christie from Royal Vendors asked me to do a cake, but not just any cake. A cake for the grand opening of the Siena Coffee and Bakery in Hagerstown, MD!!! (check them out here)I spent most of the week working on this and two other cakes (a lot of late nights), but here is the cake as set up at the grand opening...One of the ladies waiting gave me the best compliment. She thought is was from one of those cake places featured on Food Network like Duff from Charm City Cakes. Even better was sitting there with Tim sipping hot chocolate and listening to people talk about the cake, totally unaware that the baker was sitting right there!

This is Christie (the lovely lady on the left) with the mayor of Hagerstown, Robert E. Bruchey II, cutting the cake. After the first piece, they turned it over to me to cut and serve the rest.

Here the Mayor is presenting Christie with a letter welcoming her business to Hagerstown.

Over all it seemed that they had a good turn out, and the food was darn tasty, too! She seems to think that she will be keeping me busy with cake orders through the coffee shop, but for now, I'm looking forward to going to bed at a decent hour tonight! (for more pictures of the cake, check them out on the cake blog here)

Chloie's cut and Jammie people

I was going back and forth between cooking bacon for breakfast and practicing music for church when I saw Dougie with the scissors. After a brief conversation about how he's not supposed to touch them, he said that Chloie had them, too. Now, I'm opposed to tattling, but this time was one of those times that I'm glad he told me. Turns out that Chloie decided that her hair was "big" and needed to be trimmed. She only cut a small lock of hair, but to prove a point, I finished the job. Tim was worried that I was going to buzz it all off! I was upset, but I'm not cruel!!! She's still the bubbly little girl we all know and love, just a little shorter in the hair department. I miss the curls. Not to be left out, we decided to take pictures of the Jammie People before they went to bed...

Speaking of kids pictures - and I'm getting on my soap box here - the school had a secondary picture day with a professional photographer using back drops and such. They sent home an envelope with 7 pages of pictures ranging from an 8x10 to wallets and even a sheet of picture magnets. When I first saw them I was confused because I didn't remember ordering them, then I read the envelope... "Keep and pay for the ones you want and return the rest." I have to say here that I feel a little... what's a good word for this?... annoyed? violated? used? I wonder how many parents are guilted into buying these pictures because it would be a waste? I can't say I'm happy about the whole thing, so I sent all of the pages back. I have no problem turning down junk mail that assumes I'll drag out my check book for something, but good grief, don't use my kids against me!

OK, now that that is out of my system...! Thanks for letting me be a curmudgeon.

The New Fish Tank

We finally did it before the kids left for spring break and got a new fish tank. We opted for a 10 gallon kit and had a lot of fun putting it together. We let the kids each contribute $5.00 towards the stuff for the inside and Tim and I took care of the rest.

Audie got the rock formation, Dougie got the big green plant on the left side, and Chloie got the remaining plants in the tank.

The fish seem to be enjoying their new home, though it is hard to tell they're in there because they won't hold still for the camera. Little blurs they are, but they're in there, I promise!

Easter Festivities, Part II (The Hunt)

The Easter Bunny paid us a visit while the kids were sleeping (adults, you can read into this at a different level). He left us instructions for the kids during their hunt. To make things fair for everyone, Audie hunted for pink and orange eggs, Chloie hunted for yellow and green eggs, and Dougie hunted for blue and purple eggs. If anyone found an egg of a color that didn't belong to them, they could tell the person that it did belong to so no one missed one of their eggs. Eggs were found everywhere from the social circle to the wood pile and everywhere in between!


Here is Chloie finding a couple of her eggs...Audie almost missed this one.

He did miss this one... Chloie found it and gave it to him.

Dougie needed a little help from his brother and sister, but he still found all of his eggs!

Easter Festivities, Part I

We went to my parents' house after church on Easter with the intention of coloring eggs. I'd already hard boiled almost 2 dozen a couple of days ahead of time, so really all we had to do was the dipping. We decided to just do 3 mugs of dye, the primary colors, and turn it into a learning game at the same time.Each munchkin had one mug at a time, so we started out with singular colors...Then we started dipping them into different colors to see what secondary colors we ended up with...They even got to dip their own eggs...... with adult supervision and sometimes intervention...Here are the three Easter hams with my mother.And the spoils of coloring. In case you're wondering, Mommy did the rainbow-colored eggs.We even drew bunnies on one egg for each kid. We had a few casualties (eggs hitting the floor), but over all they had fun. We left 1/2 at Mom's house and we took the other half home for use in deviled eggs. Mmmm, yummy! In the mean time, stay tuned for Part II, The Hunt!

That sounds a little corny...

You know, I took some pictures of my newest sprouts early this week... Monday or so. I thought 'Wow, these little guys are something. I wonder how fast they'll grow...'

Let's start with corn. They started as little green spikes poking up through the dirt... OK. I can handle that. Picture #1 here is shortly after the leaves came up.

Fast forward 5 days to just a few minutes ago for picture #2. Some of them are almost 6" tall and are getting their second set of leaves!I also thought my peas, green beans (both varieties), zucchini, and pumpkin were cute little things when they started sprouting Monday... Everybody together now, "Awww!"Now I'm starting to wonder if there wasn't some kind of super manure in this soil...
I'm hoping that the frost disappears pronto because pretty soon they'll be overgrowing the house! I did read that I can plant my beans and peas in the same beds as the corn. Neither crop will harm the other, and the corn will support the peas and beans without the need for trellises, cages, or poles. I'm tempted to start some more corn after I transplant this batch and give away the crop harvested from the extra plants just so I can get away without the extra hardware.

Oh, and on a side note for Mom and Dad Whitcomb... Yes, the daffodils are growing... Yes, they are blooming, and so far there are 69 daffodils in one stage or another of growth (sprouting to blooming). Take a look...I think that after I rid the garden of the puffball infestation, I'm going to mulch these poor things to soften the bed a little.