4th of July!

We went to church 4th of July morning, and came home to Darryl's sister visiting us for a couple of days :) We got a fam pic, and then Darryl had to head to work.

So Julie & I watched some wedding & cake making shows, and 

we felt like having something sweet...

I had seen this pillow cookies on Bakerella, and really wanted to try them.

I mean chocolate chip cookies & brownies, how could you go wrong?

Deliciousness.

After the boys woke up from nap, we went to visit Darryl at work!

The boys love seeing the airplanes.

We went back home and did some fireworks!

It was a fun night :)

The next day we hung out & did some shopping, specifically to Target

for Caleb to spend his $5 from Juji for his bday.

It was too cute watching him go down all the aisles, trying to figure out what he could buy.

He even checked out by himself and was amazed he got change back! :)

He got a bubble gun, and so I got Ay one too so they could play together.

They are really neat and shoot tons of bubbles. Perfect for my boys :)

Caleb's 5th birthday party! Fighter jet style.

When Caleb said he wanted a fighter jet birthday party, I was stoked. The last

TWO have been Thomas the train, and I was burnt out. LOL

Two days before the party I made these sugar cookies & used this amazing sugar cookie frosting recipe.

It took a few hours, but they turned out SO cute. 

The only pics I took of that process were with my phone..

SO sorry in advance for the quality. 

Here's the baking part! These are amazingly tasty, and PERFECT for decorating.

I highly advise using parchment paper too!

Then the outlining of the cookies, and letting them dry.

Then the flooding..

And voila! The entire process took about 3 hours.. but that's with kiddos needing things too!

The boys loved these. And Darryl even came home from work, tasted one, and said they

were awesome. They tasted sooo delicious!

Caleb was just stoked it was an airplane AND it was a cookie! haha

That night I got a picture for a stencil of a fighter jet off of the internet for the freezer paper shirt 

I made for him to wear on his party day! And the next day, after I baked the sheet cake, and was looking at how I would free hand it, my hubby got the genius idea to use the stencil as my guide! 

Ahhh, what a smartie! He says it's because he's an air traffic controller... LOL

So here's the stencil on the cake.

And here it is after we cut it out!

Then, I iced it, and added more cake & icing for the cockpit, 

per my hubby's design.. and help from Caleb's toy jet. LOL

Can you tell who else is infatuated with airplanes?

The next part was TIME CONSUMING. Fondant!

I made it myself using the recipe here.

We originally had talked about covering the entire thing, but with all the crevices

and the different shapes it became complicated.

So, I used about 6 different pieces, and then added the designs after.

Everything is edible, except for those vertical wings on the back.

I loved how it turned out!

Caleb said it was his favorite cake ever and that he was so happy I made 

him a jet cake. :)

Now for the setup!

Here are the cookies on the table, there were 2 platters of them, and half a container full of deliciousness!

Getting things organized..

Better!

Favors..

Darryl's parents arrived the night before the party, and mine the day of.

We we so grateful to have family at it!

The kids started arriving right on time, and started playing right away!

While Darryl was filling up the pool, Dixie decided she needed to take a dip. haha

There was jumping on the trampoline, burgers & hotdogs, chips & dip, krab log & crackers..

a grenade water balloon fight..

I would have gotten more shots of this had the kids not been aiming at me & my camera! haha

Darryl & Brad are big kids, I tell ya.

Plenty of water fun was had! Slip & slide and pool time were a hit!

Then we had some yummy cake! I decided to put marshmellows around it for clouds, I thought

it added a cute touch!

Caleb was pretty proud of his cake, and that made all the hours put into it worth it!

Of course Ay-man had to help his bubba out! :)

Us with our big boy! 5!!

(Notice, Ayden is sneaking a few marshmellows! LOL so cute)

Then it was present time. This kid got SPOILED!

We are blessed with amazing family & friends!

Pinata time was a hit! No pun intended ;)

The kids looooved the candy, of course.

After that, we hung out & ate, and then people started leaving.

We all had such a great time! It was perfect.

After everyone was gone besides our family from out of town, and we were all relaxing,

Ayden was still out back doing this..

Who can blame him? A pool to himself? :)

Then we took some pics with the fam before they all had to go back.

We even set up Caleb's new tent, and both sets of grandparents took turns

getting in it with the kids. It was pretty funny!

Another successful birthday party was had! The very first one we've had in our home, and it went 

awesomely well. So thankful to be able to celebrate another year of Cbear's life!

Linking here!

Party animals--crafting a fighter jet t-shirt.

Caleb's birthday party was today, and it was a BLAST! It went so well!

Both sets of grandparents were there which made it even more special!

I'm so tired, and have no time to share pics from the party right now, but I did want 

to share the shirt I made for his special fighter jet party!

It was also my very first freezer paper shirt, and I can't wait to make more now! So easy!

Got my design off of the good ole' internet..

Cut it out with the X-acto knife, and ironed it on the shirt the way I wanted it.

Used my fabric paint to paint the stencil on there, and then waited for it to dry!

Caleb had actually woken up that morning saying that he didn't have a jet shirt

with a 5 on it, and when he saw this, he was tickled beyond belief!

He loved it, and looked amazingly cute in it!

More from the party later!! I blew up this same design for the shirt and used it for his SPECIAL

fighter jet cake!! Come back to see that! :)

Just a little teaser....

oh yes..that's homemade fondant in the background! ;)

Here comes Peter cotton-tail...

Grandma is an amazing lady, if you couldn't tell by now. She's always busy with a project or something special!

A couple of days ago, she told the boys they would

get to help her make a BUNNY cake for Easter!

So that's what they did today!

And I'm going to share just how to do it!

Super fun & easy. :)

You start off with a white cake mix, mixed together,

and poured into two 8-inch round pans,
and baked accordingly.

While waiting on the baking & the cooling, go ahead and grab

your shredded coconut and color it green with some food coloring!

Caleb was totally fascinated with this process.

(So was I, haha!)

Then, after the cake is completely cooled down, you slice each cake into 2 halves.

And cut one of those four, into 2 quarters.

Get your yummy, sugary white icing, and lather it on two of the halves!

Stack the halves on top of each other..

Now get your quartered pieces and use them to shape your head and tail.

To look like this!

Grandma made sure they stuck by using toothpicks to keep them together.

So genius! :)

Then take more icing and cover it!

And then pat more shredded coconut all over it to

resemble bunny fur!

Then you get some pink construction paper, and make ears!

And get those jellybeans ready!

All you need are 2 pink, and a black!

You also need a few other various ones for decoration..

Add the ears, and jellynbeans!

Then get your coconut grass, and throw some jellybeans over it!

And here it is, Our perfect little bunny cake!

The boys loved it, and had a great time helping Granny make it!

I had a great time watching and learning from this amazing woman

I get to call my Grandma. She is so talented, and most of all, so loving!

Thanks, Grandma! :)