Uncle John and Uncle Ernest's visit!

Uncle John and Uncle Ernest came for a vist last week.  Uncle John arrived on Wednesday and Uncle Ernest came on Thursday.  All the kids were sooo excited to have their Uncles visiting. While we were waiting for Uncle John at the airport, they couldn't even hold still!

   We had a fun time with them!

Jared, James, and Annie relaxing with John and Ernest

James and Ernest playing with the doodle pad!

Annie, Peter, and Kathleen playing soccer with Uncle John!

Uncle John was our hero and fixed the broken door handles on the camry!  Yea John!

Jared playing in his car while the camry is being fixed!

Annie and Ernest playing catch

Ernestand  Annie giving Uncle John a hand with the handle repair.

John is finished!  The door handles are working!

Uncle Ernest and Annie enjoying a popsicle after the car repair!

Of course, what family get together is complete without a family game of basketball!

Another tale of frosting!

Since I've decided to learn how to decorate cakes, the next step was to actually decorate a cake. So on Saturday, I made a cake and copied a design from the lesson book.  It turned out pretty well, but I learned a lovely lesson about stiff frosting!  It makes your hand ache from all the pressure you have to apply to the frosting and rips parchment bags.  Stiff frosting also makes your petals raggedy on the frosting roses!  

But David, being the gentleman he is told me, "Mom, I like the ruffly edges on your roses.. It makes them more NATURAL, more real." 

Thanks David!  

Peter was just disappointed that this cake only lasted 2 days at our house.  I'm impressed it lasted that long!

James trying to sample the pretty cake!

Speeder Repair

The kids had been riding their speeders (bikes) on our beautiful spring day.  Than they decided that their speeders needed tuneups!  So they all pumped tires, etc... Jared was especially helpful with his hammer!

Baby Bookworm

Well, as you know, we all love to read!  I am proud to say that we have passed this lovely skill on to baby James!  Last night I went into tuck him in and found him asleep on his book.  I had put him to bed awake with his book and he happily read himself to sleep!  

Dancing

Dancing partners!

Follow me, Jared!

The best things happen while you're dancing!  

David's first Fishing Trip

On Saturday, David went fishing with the 11 year old scouts!  Oh such excitement was in the air.  They went in a boat on a lake and had a fabulous afternoon.  David came home with his first fish!  Crappies!  They had cleaned the fish on the dock, so we didn't have that delightful chore..  We cooked up the fish and buried the remains under the bushes in the flower garden for fertilizer!  They were yummy!  Great fishing David!  

Dad and David cooking crappies

David eating his catch

Roses and Shells

After Jared's birthday, I had a little cake decorating desire, so I went out and bought the first cake decorating book from Wilton and a rose nail and decided with the leftover frosting, I would practice my cake decorating skills!  I made my first ever Roses!  I thought they turned out really nice.

Of course, no lesson in cake decorating would be complete unless the other girls tried their hand also!  The girls picked up the art of making shells very quickly!  It took me 2 rows to figure it out!

But the best part of our lesson, was eating our efforts on Graham crackers!  Yummy!

Jared's birthday!!!

Jared William Aldrich turned 3 years old on April 9, 2008!  We had a fun little family party culminating in his birthday cake.  Jared loves Blues Clues right now, so we made a Blues Clues Cake.  

When it came time to blow out the candles, Jared almost fell off the bench trying to get the flames blown out.  It was very funny, trying to walk to the table while he is trying to blow out the candles!  The next day while we were finishing the cake, Jared ran to get out the birthday candles out of the drawer, saying, "Happy Birthday... Happy Birthday!"  I think he got the idea!

Happy Birthday, Jared!  We love you!