Fruit Carving

My friend Rachel has Crohn's disease and so has to follow a gluten free diet. On her birthday I had her give me a gluten free cake recipe so that I could make her cake for her. The recipe called for sliced strawberries on the top. I thought it would be fun to pretty the strawberries up a bit. I had seen photos of fruit carving, and thought it would be fun to try my hand at it. I found a little video tutorial of carving strawberry rosebuds and decided to try it. It turns out that they are very easy to do!

I totally want to try out more fruit carvings. It was fun to turn an ordinary strawberry into a rose. I wonder how easy some of the other carvings are. Has anyone else tried fruit carving? What are some other fun things to do?

Impromtu Pool Party

Aubrey had been dying to have a friend over to play in her caterpillar sprinkler. She very much wanted to hold someone's hand and run through. I promised here that the next sunny day we would have a friend over. Anyway, when I checked the weather last Monday, I discovered that it was the only sunny day we were going to have all week. So I started calling Aubrey's friends. Nobody answered so I kept calling around. Within minutes of each other, they all called back and said they could come, so we ended up with a little party. It was fun that it worked out that way!

Aubrey was going back and forth pushing Brooke and Zoe on the swings.


All of them were jumping up and down, it was too cute.


Finally Eden stepped up and was willing to run through the sprinkler with Aubrey!


Then Zoe decided to next!








We happened to have all of the stuff for hamburgers and hot dogs, so we had a little BBQ.
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And baby Clayson was there too!

The Reception

The next day was Jenny & Benj's reception. This time it was only a 2 hour drive. I was trying to get the girls hair done while they were eating dinner. Brooke was not wanting to have that bow in her hair!

We finally transferred Brooke to her forward facing car seat. She was thrilled to get to sit forward and watch a movie with Aubrey.


Here are my two munchkins sitting side by side.


Jenny & Benj picked a farm theme for the reception. I think their backdrop turned out pretty cool.


My little princess' with Aunt Tammy & Uncle Don. (Since the main wedding color was purple, I thought it would be fun for them to wear their fancy tutu's to the reception.)


The girls LOVED the cake. The cake decorator was really creative. I wanted to ask if the animals were all shaped out of fondant, but I didn't know who made the cake.






After we had our dessert, I found a room with some toys for the girls to play in. Since we had a 2 hour drive back home, I wanted them to get their wiggles out!

Here's Aubrey doing a dance with her bear.


Oh how I love my girls chubby cheeks!






Every princess needs a staff!




Giving the bear hugs and kisses. Brooke has become a little mommy these days. She rocks dolls and animals gives them hugs with pats on their backs and some kisses too. It's so cute!


I need a toy this big so that they can play together without fighting!




I just LOVE my Darling Dolls!



When we went to leave we found this rooster bolted to our van. This is a practical joke between Jeff's parents, the Tanner's and ourselves. Whoever has the rooster finds some way to sneak it back to one of the others. The Tanner's are building a house in Canada and when we left, Jeff hid it in the rafters. It's been wrapped up in presents and hidden under seats of vehicles. Anyways, it was pretty funny seeing the looks of drivers passing us when they saw the rooster on top of the van!


When you have lots of siblings, you have to expect that this is what your car will look like!

Jenny & Benj's Wedding

We left home at 5:30 a.m. on our 4 hour car trip to our niece, Jenny's wedding. We thought for sure that Aubrey would fall right back to sleep. Nope, she did not sleep at all that little monkey. But she was good none-the-less. I think she thinks road trips are exciting, so she doesn't sleep much.

Here's our family outside the temple.


Aubrey and Brooke got to take a stroll with their cousins outside the temple during the sealing.

Aubrey brought her camera to take pictures of the wedding. She started directing who should be in pictures and where they should stand. It was hilarious.

First, she wanted all of her girl cousins, "to stand right there in a line, so I can take your picture." And they were nice enough to appease her.


Then she wanted to be in a picture too!

She once again directed her girl cousins to sit together for another photo op.

Brookie was much more interested in the flowers.

Brooke was being pretty shy and just wanted Ma Ma.

The new couple emerges. Aren't they a good looking pair.

Oh so romantic.

Aubrey giving her congratulations and hugs.

Brooke coming in for a closer look.

After the temple we went to a family luncheon.

I thought Aubrey looked so cute drinking from the big fancy goblet.

Tammy had them play the cutest game. They had to take off their shoes and each held one of their own shoe and one of the others shoe. Tammy asked questions like, "who has the best sense of humor?" and then they had to hold up the shoe of the one who best fit the question. They did pretty good and most of the questions they answered the same.

You never know what your going to get with Aubrey. She can be very shy and clingy or she can be a total ham. Well, apparently she was in ham mode, because she got right up on the stage and started performing fore everybody after lunch. I love how she made her entrance!

It was a beautiful day with a beautiful bride and a beaming groom. I'm so glad the wedding was close enough for us to attend!