Happy Halloween!

 I had fun taking pictures of the kids this week.  I wanted to see how spooky and moody I could make the photos!

 I liked the ghost effect on these of them moving through the shot.

Garbage Can & Recyling Bin Cake for Son's Birthday

My son doesn't like my typical chocolate and sea foam cake (usually without gummy worms and crushed Oreo's)

 

that my family has been having for years.  I'm bummed!  I love this cake, however, I realized it was not my birthday so I needed to make a cake just for him.  This year he asked for a garbage can.  I was pretty excited to try something new and different.  First, I baked the cake then cut to fit the top layers, and finally spooned out the insides to allow for ice cream later.

 I had a lot of extra pieces left over.

The next step was to frost the garbage can and recycling bin.  I did this obnoxious turquoise color since it matches our garbage cans!

 

 I filled the bins with two different types of ice cream.

 The garbage can was topped with a lid and given some 'garbage' (yogurt covered pretzels and gummy worms).  The last step was adding the licorice recycling symbol.

 Add some candles and you are ready to go!

 The hardest step was figuring out how to cut this monstrosity!

 Overall, I think the cake project turned out pretty good and tasted great.  Now I need to get ready for whatever is coming my way for the next birthday!

I couldn't resist a little crayon art!

I saw this on Pinterest a couple of months ago and finally got around to making it.  I'm so glad I did. I love how it turned out.  It was a cheap, easy project.  What more could you want?  I laid out the crayons first to see roughly how it was going to look.

 After gluing the crayons on I melted them one way then the other with my hairdryer on low.  The kids are excited to try their own version!

This was the perfect complement to their new 'art display' area.

Now if only I can stay off of Pinterest for awhile...I don't need any more projects and everything on there looks so cool!

Steam Train, toot tooootttt.....

We had fun this past weekend riding a steam train (One of only 90 ever built) in a friend's backyard.  How many people do you know who would have a backyard big enough in Colorado for a steam train?  We now know one couple.  This was a great experience for the kids to see how they get the train ready to run.  They built a fire inside first

then once it was warm enough they threw in the coal to create the steam.

 

Oh, the places you'll go...

 

 

 

 Of course, no train would be complete without a bridge to go over a tunnel to go through!

A little goes a long way when you've been dying for snow!

 

My little girl was eagerly anticipating the predicted snowfall that fell this morning.  Unfortunately it didn't do much more than lightly cover the ground.

 

She didn't let that stop her.  I had to go searching and then climbing in our garage to find our sleds.  I admit I even took a ride or two.

 

 Notice the dress, tights, and boots:  one must always be sensibly dressed to frolic in the snow!