Happy 80th Birthday Poppy!

Today we celebrate a very special man’s 80th birthday, my grandfather’s! My grandfather always brings so much joy and laughter into our family and we are blessed to have him in our lives.

This past Sunday night, we celebrated Poppy’s birthday at Ippolitio’s Italian Restaurant with the family. Amy got to the restaurant early and decorated the table with birthday confetti and balloons. When Poppy showed up, we had him put on a birthday hat and a button that said “Happy 80^th”.

About 30 minutes into dinner, the hula girl singing telegram showed up. She gave him a birthday hat, grass skirt and a lei, and made him dance with her. She also had him hold a lava love gauge to see if he could be crowned the Big Kahuna and sure enough, the gauge he was holding started to bubble so he was crowned the Big Kahuna. She also sang him a birthday song and had him make noise with noise makers. The whole restaurant enjoyed the show, they were clapping and singing with us. After about 10 minutes, she left the restaurant and we got back to enjoying our family dinner.

After dinner, Poppy opened his presents…he got a nice sweater, an Amazon gift card, a watch, a birthday newspaper and a Remember when 1931 book and a TV! We had a fun night spending time with family and celebrating my grandfathers birthday! I love my family! 

Poppy and the Hula girl!

Poppy dancing! 

The Birthday Boy! 

Singing Happy Birthday!

Poppy blowing out his candles! 

Our entire family after dinner! 

Football is finally here!!!! Part 1

Football season is finally here! I have been waiting for it all year and it is now that time again! I love the fall weather, tailgating, watching Auburn play, spending time with family and friends and eating delicious food!

AU vs Utah State

We played Utah State the first game of the year. We ended up winning 42-38 in the last seconds of the game, it was crazy! Our friends Scott and Emma Kate came down from NC to visit and stayed in the RV with us. Emma Kate had never been to a game before so we spent a lot of the day showing her around the campus and of course had her roll Toomer's Corner after we won the game.

Toomers!

AU vs Miss. State

We played Mississippi State the second game of the year. This was our first SEC game. Once again, we won in the last seconds of the game when we stopped Miss. State on the 1 yard line TWICE! We ended up winning 41-34. SO that makes us 1-0 in the SEC!!! Both games were really close and practically gave me a heart attack but I'm so glad we pulled it out.

My best friend Leigh Anna and her fiance Bagby came down for the game. It was so nice to see them because it had been a while. We also got to hang out with another one of my good friends, Emily and her boyfriend Chris. We all have a great time when we are together!

I made Fruit Salsa for one of our appetizers. This was the second time I made it and both times it was a hit! It's a quick and easy recipe and tastes great with cinnamon sugar pita chips. You can make your own pita chips but I prefer to buy mine because they are stiffer and hold the fruit salsa better.

Fruit Salsa
(adapted from Annie's Fruit Salsa Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 kiwis, peeled and diced
• 2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
• 8 ounces raspberries
• 1 pound strawberries
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
• 2 tablespoons strawberry fruit preserve

Directions

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserve. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes. Serve with cinnamon sugar pita chips.            
2. Enjoy!

Last Cake Decorating Basics Class!

This past Tuesday was my last Cake Decorating Basics Course. In this class, we learned how to write letters and words and how to make a ribbon rose. We also received a certificate for completing the class!

Believe it or not, the letter writing was actually challenging. You have to make sure you have enough pressure when squeezing the icing at all times and also make sure your hand doesn’t shake. We practiced lots of letters and words in both regular print and cursive. Writing ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ took a lot of effort because it has so many letters in it so I may just have to stick to ‘Congrats and Happy B-day’ when writing on cakes. It definitely looks easier than it actually is.

 Practicing letter writing!

 The next thing we learned was how to design a Ribbon Rose. I tried this over and over again and still had trouble with it. You have to make sure every stroke is in the exact right place so it turns out looking like a rose. You also have to change the angle with every stroke so that the edges fit together. No worries though, I will not be putting these roses on very many cakes…mine just didn’t turn out very good.

 My 'not so pretty' Ribbon Rose :(

The last thing we did was decorate our cake with all of the techniques we learned in the class. I chose the shell border, PomPom flowers and letter writing!

Me with my cake, after the last class!

Me and my friend April with our cakes! 

I can’t wait to take the next cake decorating class! I can choose either Flowers and Cake Design or Gum Paste and Fondant. Stay tuned to see what I pick!!!

Leaves, Shaggy Mums and Pompom Flowers, OH MY!

Last night was my third decorating class and let me tell you, it is getting more and more challenging every week. Some of the techniques we learned last night included drop flowers, rosettes, shells, Pompom Flowers, leaves, and Shaggy Mums. We also learned how to fill a cupcake and use a flower nail! We used a lot of different colored icings too so it definitely got messy.


We first practiced making the drop flowers and rosettes….I must say, the rosettes were actually harder than they look. You have to make a circle that overlaps a little while also making sure the center is not hollow. I kept scrapping it off my practice board and trying it again so that I could get it right. I think I am almost there.....

Practicing drop flowers and rosettes!

Next we learned how to create the shells, leaves and Pompom flowers. Lots of bakeries use the technique of creating a shell border to line their cakes because it looks nice while also covering up the rough edges. It took a little practice, but I finally got the hang of it!

Practicing shells and leaves!

 The Pompom flower was my favorite! It is super easy and really pretty on top of cakes and cupcakes. It was also fun to mix and match the different colors for the interior and exterior of the flower. When creating the Pompom flower, we first created it on a flower nail which is basically a handheld platform that rotates in your fingers so that it is makes it easier to pipe roses and other flowers. Once the flower hardens, you scrap it off of the wax paper and place it onto the cupcake and volia'!

My Pompom flowers!

Another one of my favorite techniques to learn was leaves. I am starting to realize that the techniques I really liked were the ones that I did the best, haha! I guess that is my perfectionist side coming out.  We learned how to create a basic leaf, a stand up leaf and a ruffled leaf. The leaves are fun to create because you can make them all different sizes and they can be added to any flower. Another pretty easy flower that we learned how to make is the Shaggy Mum. You use tip 233 which is a round tip with multiple holes and you make lines from the center to the outside of the cake, and go all the way around the cake and keep repeating the same step until it looks like a Shaggy Mum. You may want to use your imagination a little bit though because mine came out looking more like Cousin Itt from the Adam’s Family. All in all, I am proud of my cupcakes!

Shaggy Mum! (aka Cousin Itt)

Pompom Flower! 

More flowers!  

          Lots of leaves and a drop flower! Isn't it pretty? 

 My finished products!  

 

Leigh Anna’s Bachelorette Weekend!

In just a few months one of my very best friends is getting married! And what better place to celebrate Leigh Anna’s Bachelorette party than in Nashville, TN! After work this past Friday, I drove up to Nashville to meet up with all of the girls who were already up there and eating at the Hardrock Cafe. After dinner, we went to Tootsie’s Famous Orchid Lounge where lots of famous singers perform.  As soon as I walked thru the front door of the bar, I was pulled up on stage. I had not even put away my money and license yet; needless to say, I looked completely shocked and not to mention, I am not a country music fan and the singer wanted me to help him sing the song he was singing which I had never heard before. I would have totally broken it down if they were singing Michael Jackson or something I knew at least. The bar was packed and had live performers both upstairs and downstairs; all of the performers were really good! After we left Tootsies, we went to some karaoke bar....Disclaimer: I know I am not a good singer and I just do it for fun - but some of the people up on the stage were totally serious. They were all singing super slow country songs and were totally killing the fun atmosphere. I, of course signed up to sing to lighten the mood a little but since there were so many “aspiring” singers who had signed up, I never got to sing. After sitting there for about 30 minutes, we decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest because we knew Saturday was going to be a long day.

At the Hardrock Cafe!

Fun at Tootsies!

Saturday morning, we woke up, got some breakfast and then decided to shop a little and walk the downtown strip. We went into a bunch of cowboy boot stores and tried some on…they had a lot of cute ones and I was really contemplating whether or not I should get some, until I saw the price tag…lets just say I am happy with my pleather (faux leather) ones for now:) For lunch, we ate at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville and enjoyed a great meal and margaritas. A lady on stilts was there passing out balloons and making balloon animals for the customers, and we all tried to make our own…

We made our own hats!

@ Coyote Ugly Bar!

After shopping some more, we headed back to the hotel to rest a little and get ready for dinner and to go out. We all laid down on the beds and watched the movie ‘Bridesmaids’, perfect movie to watch for the occasion we were celebrating:)

After getting ready, we had a taxi pick us up and take us to Cabana Restaurant. We ordered some fun martinis and a bunch of small plates that we could all share. After eating, we then went to a bar called “Tin Roof”. A friend of Leigh Anna’s was playing there so we hung out for a few hours dancing and singing to the music. They played a variety of songs from country to alternative to some oldies rock and of course MJ! The bar was packed but we made sure to be on the front row right next to the stage. At one point, the band played “Jessie’s girl” and pulled Leigh Anna up on stage! We had a great time and I am pretty sure we were all hoarse when we left the bar around 1:30am.

Cabana Restaurant

Auburn girls! War Eagle! 

Me with the Bride-to-be!

After leaving Tin Roof, we decided to go back downtown and try out the Wild Horse Saloon that everyone was raving about. The bar was not very crowded but the instructors taught us line dancing. After leaving the bar around 2:45am we walked back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning we had to wake up early and head home, we grabbed breakfast and started the trek back to Atlanta and Birmingham. It was such a memorable weekend with great friends! I can’t wait for Leigh Anna’s wedding in November!

Cake Decorating - The Basics

I have found my calling! Well I’m getting a little ahead of myself…but I did just start taking cake decorating lessons and I love it! I have always enjoyed baking and creating sweet treats so this class will help me make those sugary creations into something beautiful. There are 3 Wilton Cake Decorating Courses – Decorating Basics, Flowers and Cake Design and Gum Paste and Fondant. I am in the Basics class now but I hope to take all of them! Each course consists of 4 classes that gets more challenging as the weeks go on. Each class requires you to buy supplies and kits so I am happy that I finally get to build up my stash of supplies! The class consists of all different skill levels; I would consider myself a beginermediate (higher than beginner but not quite intermediate, I just invented that wordJ).

Last Tuesday was my first class and we learned the basics of icing a cake, ways to smooth the icing, tips on how to pipe a gel pattern transfer and how to create simple designs using the #18 star tip. The star tip can be used to create many designs and can also be used to frost a cupcake (depending on the size tip you use). We decorated cookies with different designs – and of course I had to create an Auburn cookie!

Practice!

My decorated cookies!

Tonight was my second cake decorating basics class. This class was definitely more challenging than my first class because we actually got to decorate a cake tonight and free hand the designs. We even got to use different colors on our cakes which you can imagine got very messy.  We also learned how to hold the icing bag, create curving lines, tight zigzags and dimensional dots, and how to color our icing. Every class has us practice on a board before decorating the actual food item, which is good in case we mess up – which is not uncommonJ The cupcake drawing was one of the designs we practiced tonight using a template, but it became more difficult when we had to free hand it. Although the cupcake is not completely centered in the middle of the cake and I got a little carried away with the polka-dots (my mother always says less is more), I am still very proud of my first decorated cake!

Practicing curving lines and tight zigzags

Dimensional Decorating 

TA-DA! 

Family Fun in Gulf Shores!

This past weekend we spent time with Kevin’s family at the beach in Gulf Shores, AL. The vacation was packed full of exciting adventures and great memories! On Saturday, we drove down to Gulf Shores and met Kevin’s family at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo called “The Little Zoo That Could.”  We spent  our time walking around looking at all of the animals - Alligators, Goats, Monkeys, Tigers, Lions, Kangaroos, Snakes, Lizards, Spiders, Parrots, etc. We even got to feed and play with the Lemurs!

After the zoo, we went to the beachside condo and unpacked. The view from the balcony was beautiful; we could see both the beach and the bay on either side of us. After we freshened up, we got ready to go eat at Lambert’s Famous Restaurant. We ended up waiting for over 2 hours but it was worth the wait! Lambert’s is the only home of “Throwed Rolls” and literally they throw huge yeast rolls at you from across the room. They also offered “pass arounds” at no extra charge. These "extras" were brought to us by servers carrying pots of fried okra, fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, black eyed peas, and sorghum and honey – all you can eat. We were stuffed when we left the restaurant but the wait was totally worth it. I wish there was one closer to us because I would definitely go again!

After dinner, Kevin, Taylor and I decided we wanted to ride go carts (well they decided that, I went along for the ride – no pun intended:) The track went in circles and consisted of sharp turns and hills, I of course was the slowest on the track (I know, that's not a surprise) and felt the wind blow thru my hair as people zoomed by me. As I was going around the last corner, I saw that Kevin was completely flipped around and stuck…..I passed him with a big smile on my face, but all of a sudden he raced up beside me and went ahead to finish before me, leaving me to finish last (again, not a surprise). We had so much fun and laughed about it the whole way home.  

When we got back to the condo later that night, we decided to go crab hunting. This was my first experience “crab hunting”. We got a flash light and all went down to the beach to see if we could find anything. There were a ton of people doing the same thing but no one seemed to be having any luck. The reason people look for crabs at night is because the crabs come closer to the shore to feed and end up getting washed up with the tide. After crab hunting, we watched some TV and then headed off to bed.

On Sunday, we got up early and went down to the beach so that we could get a good spot. Majority of the morning was spent laying out and swimming in the ocean. After lunch, we got ready to go on a Dolphin Site Seeing Tour in Orange Beach. The Dolphin cruise was so much fun, we saw lots of Dolphins and even got to watch them play with the boat we were on by jumping in our wake. They are such playful animals and seemed to be having a blast. Later that night, we went to a local restaurant to get some good seafood and then went to get TCBY for dessert. Once we got home, we were so tired we all crashed.  The next morning we headed back home, we were sad to leave but had a great trip with family!

Before the Dolphin Tour!

Dolphin!

You can call me Captain Mandy!

Family Pic!

(Kevin and I did not get the memo to wear a white shirt:)