Another Birthday!

 This time it was Mia!

This amazing little lady turned 6 today.

 We had an afternoon party that began when everyone came home from school and ended around 7:00 this evening.

 I made 3 kinds of pizza, but most importantly we had lots of desserts.

 Pretty little cookie dough truffles and cake....

This cake started out as a complete disaster. It broke and fell to pieces when I tried to take it out of the cake pans. I decided to make it into a trifle and layered it with chocolate whipped cream, but Mia really wanted a cake! I took the trifle and dumped the whole thing into a springform cake pan and pressed it down. I let it chill to set and then covered the whole thing with ganache. It was actually amazing!

 I love all of the pink in this picture! Mia and her good friend Emma.

Waiting for the guests!

Mia is a wonderful girl. I am so happy to have her in our family!

Mia right now:

loves chocolate,

pistachios,

ponies,

movie night,

art classes,

singing,

clothes,

pink,

and her friends!

Looking forward to....

OCTOBER!!!

1. Mia's birthday is this Friday. We will be celebrating with a girl's movie night with large amounts of candy and cupcakes. (She can't wait to be 6! She is one of the youngest in her class and everyone else is 6 already.)

2. This next weekend will be General Conference. I am super excited to break our our King Benjamin tent. All of the direction and guidance will be pretty awesome too!

3. In 2 weeks the kids have a four day weekend. Ty took the time off and we will be heading to Lake Arrowhead for a weekend in the mountains. (A weekend in the mountains was on my fall to-do list this year!)

4. I think it is officially time to break out all of the pumpkin everything.....pumpkin/fall decor, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin roll (for Ty and Max!).

THESE pumpkin spice monster cookies

5. Caramel Apples!

Also....Honeycrisp Apples

and....caramel in general

6. We took our first look at the costume stash this weekend. Mia, Max, and Zoey have all picked out costumes for Halloween. Zackary is as yet undecided. Halloween is such a kid friendly holiday. It has become more fun for us each year.

Lots of good things coming up this month!

Chick Flick

 The boys ran away with Ty to Home Depot.

The little girls got cozy on our big chair and watched Brave.

Saturday afternoon chick flick.

Love this sister set!

More Birthday Fun

 Zac was in the kitchen eating oreos (leftover from Max's pie!) when the doorbell rang. It was a birthday package for Zack from Ty's parents!

Zac was completely surprised and so excited!

It's all about planes now.....

Unexpected birthday surprises are the best!

Max vs. Pie

Max brought home a list of creative homework assignments he could choose from for this week.

One choice was to make a pie and document the steps involved.

 Max picked out a recipe for a triple chocolate cream pie with an oreo cookie crumb crust.

 We pulverized the oreos in the blender and them mixed them with butter and cocoa powder.

Max is a serious dark chocolate lover so he was all over this.

 For the filling we heated cream and poured it over bittersweet chocolate.

 When the chocolate was melted we added the rest of the ingredients.

 Again....Happy chocolate loving boy!

We popped our pie in the oven and 25 minutes later....

Homework is done!

Now the pie needs to chill and we still must make some chocolate whipped cream to complete the triple part of this chocolate pie!

Shouldn't homework always result in a ridiculously chocolate dessert?

The Bobcat Badge

 Max finished all of his work for the Bobcat Trail in cub scouts.

Last night he got his bobcat badge.

Ty and I thought it would be funny to "not" explain what was going to happen. He was very surprised to be held upside down so that the pin could be pinned on right side up but end up upside down.

To turn the badge right side up, Max will need to do a good deed. We have plans to make that happen this afternoon!

Max is loving scouts. He says he wishes every day could be Tuesday so that he could go every day!

Zac is 4!

 Our little Zackary turned 4 yesterday.

He is an amazing little guy and we are so happy to have him.

 I always set a birthday table themed with whatever the birthday person likes.

I made a little road all around the table and Zac helped me decorate with his cars.

 He was pretty excited about the whole thing.

 One thing I love about Zackary is how excited and happy he gets over small things. He was thrilled about the table and kept talking about how much he loved his balloon.

His attitude never leaves any room for disappointment.

A few things the newly four year old Zackary is into right now:

strawberries

nutella

Chima

Minecraft

butter

pancakes

preschool

writing his name

reading No David

riding his razor scooter

and the color green!

 Zac wanted a cookies and cream cake.

I used THIS recipe. It was super easy and delicious. Especially when we covered it with homeade chocolate sauce :)

 Zac actually blew out all of his candles immediately after I lit them. I had to re-light them so that we could sing to him and get a picture!

Zack had an excellent birthday.

He got lots of cars, legos, and loves.

Happy Birthday Zac!

Picnic Weather and Weekends

 The temperatures last night were perfect for an impromptu picnic dinner in the backyard.

I made a BBQ chicken pizza that we ate along with some crispy roasted garbanzo beans. (The best way to eat garbanzo beans!)

 Our little backyard is so enjoyable when the weather is nice!

Everyone filled up and then we played outside until the kids were nicely coated with dirt.

We came inside and cleaned up. Everyone put on pajamas and we settled in for our Friday evening movie night. 

This morning the house was so nice and cool. The kids were cold enough for hot chocolate first thing! Weekends are the best :)

A few Things for Thursday

1. Max went to his first official scout meeting on Tuesday night. We have been working with him at home and he has earned his Bobcat pin! He is so excited to be a part of scouts.

2. Mia has decided to sing in the school choir again this year. Her friends were doing it and Mia loves anything social!

(I am also hoping that she might develop a love of singing!)

3. It is finally cooling down!

My windows are open and I can think about turning on my oven again :)

THIS cake looks amazing. 

A Candy Corn inspired cake by I Am Baker.

I think it must make an appearance for Halloween or Thanksgiving!

4. THESE cookies.

Salted Nutella Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies.

Everything I love and all things Ty doesn't on one delightful package.

More for me!

5. We are entering that time of year when time speeds up. We have birthdays, and holidays, and so much coming up. I always try to enjoy it as much as possible because so quickly it will be over and a new year will have begun.

Happy Thursday!

10 years and Catalina

 We spent an amazing weekend on Catalina Island celebrating our first 10 years of marriage!

 We were able to stay in a beautiful place.

 The weather was perfect! Such a relief from the desert back home.

We ate some terrific food, walked for miles, drove along the coast in a golf cart, and spent most of the time holding hands :)

Here's to the next 10 years!