The Bailey Chronicles

We did Easter photos today. I have been dying to take her to see the Easter bunny, because Bailey is REALLY outgoing like her Daddy. I was curious to see what her reaction would be to a 10 foot tall bunny rabbit. Would he be traumatizing, exciting, unsure??? Well, she LOVED him. We sat in line for what felt like forever because the photographers had to spend about 15 minutes per kid to try and get them to crack a smile for the camera. People in line kept talking to her and smiling at her and for whatever reason, possibly nap time, she acted shy. I thought that this was a sign that Mr. Bunny would be scary, but once we set her in his big furry lap she lit up from head to toe. She explored his buttons and bow tie, clapped for him and smiled from ear to ear. Oh my gosh she was just so darn cute. Within 2 minutes they had their shot and were shocked at her reaction towards him LOL. We all were I think. It was like he was a giant Mr. Kitty that was welcoming her into his arms. Love at first sight. Totally worth the wait in line, and $20 for two 5x7.

So this actually happened last month, but I didn't get around to uploading the pics until just now. It's Mckinney ISD art show time, and of course my talented niece had a piece featured in the show. We have made it to everyone so far :) For whatever reason, Skylar's school only had 8th grade artwork presented, so I guess we won't be seeing his work again for another couple of years. Bailey enjoyed it as always, and I really love seeing all of the work from different grades. Very impressive, and brings me back to many fond memories of my own art classes. My only disappoint is that this year they didn't have much in the way of High School art, but we all had a blast on our viewing.

The second batch turned out to be a little easier. I learned to spoon the melted chocolate over the pops instead of dipping them, to prevent them from crumbling apart and ruining your white chocolate. Which is why I did blue easter bunnies, instead of white easter eggs covered in sprinkles like I had originally planned. They are blue and cute, and my cake pop project can finally come to a rest. Been planning on making these for over a week, but just finally got around to them. One of my bunnies didn't make it, so I got to sample it, and I found them to be pretty tasty. Like a cake truffle. The icing mixed into the cake makes it super moist and cakey. I think my niece and nephew will be pleased with their Easter treats.

Bree has made these before, but for me this is a first. They sound a little sugary for my taste, but are perfect treats for the kiddos. A cake ball is a mixture of cake and icing rolled into a ball and then dipped in chocolate. I decided these would be a fun thing to stick into the Easter baskets since Easter will be at my house this year. I started out making Easter chickens and they came out super cute. I then melted my white chocolate so I could do the rest as Easter eggs, but I learned something upon making these. When you roll your mixture of cake and icing into balls you stick them in the freezer to harden before you dip. After I made my chickens, the rest of my, um cakes, softened, so when I dipped them in the white chocolate for the start of my Easter eggs, they started to crumble. So either the chocolate needed to be even meltier, or I needed to refreeze, or a combo of the two. I decided to pop my remaining cakes back in the freezer to resume making my eggs tomorrow night. But for now enjoy my Easter chickens, and I will post the eggs within the next couple of days :)

Happy sweet 16 munchkin... 16 months that is ;oP not quite ready for keys to a car yet thank God! One of my favorite new Bailey feature is her Happy Feet! Have you seen that movie with the little penguin that shuffles his feet around all silly and happy, that is exactly what Bailey does. It cracks me up with her cute little munchkin body and diapered butt dancing around on her happy feet. Happy feet can happen at any given moment, snack time, Yo Gabba time, new diaper time, bath time, you name it. The more I cheer her on the happier the feet get LOL. It kills me! She's just so darn cute! I also find it funny when she blows raspberries on my arm or tummy or cheek. She's so silly and adorable, it's great! She's still on the small side, wears 6-12 month clothes. People are always shocked when I tell them how old she is, because of her size. This adds to the funniness... making up words now... to the Happy feet.

At this point she can say: Ut-ohhh, yeah, bye bye, Dada, Mama, ball, hi, Bella, and OH!

I made some cupcakes for dessert, and borrowed one to play around with for a new design that I thought could be fun. A Vera inspired cupcake dress. I think it's cute, although Disney princess cakes and Barbie cakes may have stolen the show for the whole cake dress idea. But maybe since it's a cupcake and not a giant brightly colored buttercream ball gown, it could be put to new uses such as for bridal showers or rehearsal dinners. What do you think?

One of my besties since High School, Barbara, is getting married! She asked me to be in her wedding as a bridesmaid, which I am both honored and stoked to do. She also wants to use us in making cakes for her wedding. Her main dessert will be gelato but would also like to do some smaller cakes for her guests as either wedding favors or to be served along side. We talked over her options and she is torn between mini cakes (single serving cakes that are no bigger than a cupcake but designed to mimic an actual wedding cake) and cupcakes. As I searched photos online of these adorable little mini cakes, I got inspired to create a series of my own. Unfortunately I don't have the piping skill set yet and some of the other skills that seasoned cake decorators have (thank goodness Bree does though!!)... some day I hope to take some classes or maybe even pastry school, but until then I have my art skills as my own personal specialty. Fortunately for me they don't teach drawing or painting skills in pastry school, at least I haven't heard that they do..., so those are something I have that are uniquely mine. I created a series of Van Gogh inspired mini cakes and I am really proud of how they turned out. These little cakes are the size of a round cookie cutter, maybe 2.5 inches high and 2.5 inches in diameter, cute enough to eat and would definitely be a cool statement at any wedding that all the guests would be talking about!