Elise's Baby Shower

This past Saturday I got to go to one of my friend's baby shower!  Elise is having a baby boy, Jordan, in August and it was a lot of fun to celebrate her and the baby!  I was in charge of the food and I had a lot of fun baking and creating!

Elise and her hubby, Matt, are doing an owl theme with orange and green and brown as colors.  I got excited and tried working with fondant for the first time!  Fondant is how chefs make such cute decorations on cakes and cupcakes.  It's like edible play dough.  I used pre-made white fondant and kept adding color until I got the desired color I wanted.  I made these cute owls for the top of the blue velvet cupcakes (blue cause she's having a boy!).  Now, I'm not creative enough to do this all on my own but Google was there to help!  I followed an owl fondant tutorial from this blog Crave, Indulge, Satisfy

Here are some pictures of the rest of the yummy food!

Raspberry bars which are AMAZING!  Recipe is from a close friend of mine.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles!  I followed the recipe found on Eat Drink Smile

These bad boys were AMAZING!!! They are bacon wrapped sausages that my friend, Lindsey made.  You can find the recipe over on her blog, Bacon Wrapped Sausages

More owl cupcake shots

Cinnamon buns on a stick!  My grandmother's recipe!

Melissa, Elise, and Lindsey

Proud Mama to be!

More guests.  Sorry this pic is a little dark with the sunlight coming in.

Some of Elise's coworkers and one of her students!

Elise and another coworker.

More guests!  These lovely ladies are the mom and mother-in-law of our good friend, Mandy, who was also at the shower.

Melissa and Lindsey

Melissa explaining a game to us

Susan, our wonderful hostess! (And my Premier grandma!)

The baby Bjorn that Lindsey, Melissa, and I got Elise!

Such a cute owl that one of the guests made!

Instead of cards, each person brought a book with a note inside for the baby!  Great idea!

An owl bank.

This adorable blanket was made by Lindsey!  She is so talented and the owl is so precious!

My book gift, The Jolly Postman!  Best children's book ever!

Elise and all her goodies!  Baby Jordan is well on his way!

Happy Memorial Day!!

First off, Ben and I want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day and thank all of the brave men and women who serve our country!  I truly can't imagine the sacrifice that they and their families go through every day.  So thank you!!!!  I especially want to thank my cousin Shawn who is overseas as we speak....stay safe!!  We love you and miss you!!

Last Friday, I got to sub for my mentor teacher and it was fun to be with my kids for the day.  Everyone wore red, white, and blue for the day and I read a Memorial Day book to the students.  We talked about the importance of Memorial Day and why it was more then just having fun.  We also got to go outside and participate in a flag ceremony.  The entire grade stood around the flag pole while the band teacher explained Memorial Day and what we were doing.  He then played Taps while some girl scouts and boy scouts lowered the flag, folded it, and held it.  We then had a moment of silence and then the teacher played the raising of the flag song while the scouts hoisted the flag again.  The students did fantastic even though it was a million degrees outside.  One of my students had his cub scout uniform on and he stood at attention the entire time!!!  It was really adorable.

Ben and I enjoyed relaxing this weekend.  We went to a drive-in theater with some friends for a birthday on Saturday night.  This drive-in has the biggest screen in America!  We saw Pirates, Band of Misfits and Men in Black 3.  The special was actually 5 showings, from dusk to dawn but we could only make it through the first two!  It was really fun though!  Check out Bengies for more info!

On Sunday, we did more relaxing and went bowling!  It was a lot of fun and I even got to beat Ben for once!  This is a huge accomplishment for me since he normally bowls a 180 or so.  Here's the proof!

Today, we had a doggy play date with two couples in our bible study.  We went to a dog park nearby before it got too hot and hung out while the dogs played.  We had Riley, Yoshi the Shiba Inu, and Banner the beagle.  Banner made Riley look like a giant!!!  The dogs really had fun playing and it was a nice dog park!

Riley and Yoshi had met before but Banner was new!  Checking everyone out!

Yoshi playing with the boomerang

Riley and Yoshi running after Ben

Yoshi and Banner

Riley, the giant beagle next to Banner, the regular beagle

Such a cutie!!

Cutest dog ever!

Adorable Yoshi!

Melissa with Riley and Yoshi

Such a cute picture of him!

Love Banner's expression in this picture!

Chilling in the shade

Ben, David, Lindsey, and Todd

Melissa, me, and Lindsey!

The manly men

Riley decided she wanted to drive home

The cute red velvet cupcakes Lindsey made for us!  Delicious!

Bags of dog treats that Lindsey made!  Biscuits on the left and peanut butter cookies on the right!  Riley loved them!

After we took the dogs home and cooled them off, we all went to Red Robin for lunch.  Ben and I came home, did more relaxing and I tried out a new cookie recipe!  If it's a success, I will post the recipe on here!

How was your Memorial Day?