Back to blogging? Maybe :)

I'm guessing most have given up on me blogging - I honestly had as well :) but scrolling through my blog this weekend, I have been inspired to try again. I know I won't blog often - especially since I'm not actually baking a whole lot these days (15 months in and I'm still figuring out the two kids balancing act :) but think I will still give it a try!



A year and a half later...a world of difference in my life!
(Outerspace cupcakes for a co-worker. Satellites made of laffy taffy!)

 So to catch on life since my last post in August of 2011 - YIKES! We have had another baby- a little girl, who is now not really a baby anymore. She is an all out toddler these days. Cute as a cupcake for sure, but she is definitely giving me a run for my money (think she is TOO much like me :) she does not sit still, she is into everything, she can't talk but knows how to tell you exactly what she wants! Luckily she does have a ridiculously adorable smile and knows how to light up any room. My son who was a toddler last time I wrote is now a pretty well spoken 3 year old! Everyday I am amazed at how grown up he is - and how he knows all these big words all of a sudden. When I picked him up from school on Friday - he goes "Seriously, Mommy?" Ha. That one might be my fault - but surprised me none-the-less. He keeps us laughing - and the two of them together are definitely double trouble! And they are absolutely my excuse as to why I have not been baking or writing or doing much besides keeping them happy and out of trouble, working, and running - BUT I wouldn't have it any other way :)


My All to grown up Three-Year Old! Kellan Wazowski :)



My Princess...at 15 months - definitely not a baby anymore
(wearing her Penguins Cheerleading Outfit as what else is a good Pittsburgh fan to do on a Baltimore-San Fran Super Bowl Day but cheer for our Hockey team :)
 

Speaking of running - while I have trained a lot over the past year since having my little princess, I have not raced much and the races I have run have not been anything to write-ome about. Life has just been busy and despite what I thought has been solid training, I have not been able to sleep much over the past year and honestly other things such as the kids birthday parties and Halloween Parades(which fell on the same day as my fall marathon) have been more important. And I'm okay with that - as while I am confident I will have many more marathons and races, I am pretty sure I only have a few Halloweens when the kids let me get to pick, design, and create their costumes. For the record we did win the local Halloween Costume Contest - so that was pretty cool and definitely made up for a not so great marathon. Now that it is a new year and the kids are a little older though, I do plan to try again to tackle my PRS (all from pre-kids 2008/09 timeframe still) - so we'll see what the year brings, starting with the Myrtle Beach half marathon in a few weeks!

 

Kellan McQueen

Addie Shiftwell

 

 

This Whole Cars Gang (including me as FLO still in my MCM Finisher Jacket!)

Okay and now to the real meat of the blog - a year and a half worth of cupcakes to catch up on- aghh! Although, like I said I have not baked all that much due to the juggling of kids, running, working, and trying to have some fun :) so not as many as could have been...but still a few fun ones. As a warning these are not going to be in any logical order as much of the past year and a half really is a blur :) at least time-wise! Lots of great memories - just not sure of the order!

Since I started by talking about the Cars Halloween costumes I made this year - we'll start with the Cars cakes and cupcakes for Addie's first birthday and Kellan's 3rd birthday celebration. The first of hopefully many joint birthday parties (until they are old enough to want their own :) 

Holley and Lightning Cakes

Cars Cupcakes to complete our Cars Fall!

I did a smash cake Holley for Addie and since I was in mini-cake mode, I also made one for Kellan. I ran out of time on the cupcakes so they are not my favorites - but I used grahm crakers for the wind-shields and if you have ever had grahm cracker and icing - you may know it's a pretty awesome combination - so despite not my best decorating, all of the kids and parents still seemed to enjoy the cupcakes!


Lightning and Mater Costumes Doubling as Decorations welcoming guests!

To combat all the sugar, the practical mother of two I now am gave out tootbrushes as favors
(which were actually a big hit with all the kids and parents, too!)

As you can see from the cars costumes and cars cupcakes for Kellan and Addie's birthday - we continued our Pixar theme from last year. Oh guess I did not write about last years yet - hmmm. Okay quick review. Last fall we did Toy Story for Halloween and Kellan's 2nd Birthday...

Kellan Lightyear and Daddy as Woody! People did stop them and ask for autographs!

The whole Toy Story Gang (Baby Addie is hiding under my Mrs. Potato head costume as she was born about 2 weeks later!)

My mother-in-law actually made all of the costumes but Kellan's Buzz - which I did make. She did a pretty amazing job - clearly :) and we did win the Halloween Parade Costume for the first time after taking second place the two years before. This Halloween thing has become a pretty big deal with us if you can't tell :) And like this year, we carried the Toy Story theme right into Kellan's birthday party - since Buzz light year has been one of his all-time favorites for quite a while now! 

The craft table set-up for Kellan's Toy Story Birthday - complete with real "The Claw" machine

 

Another excuse to make Toy Story Cupcakes!

 

 

The Birthday boy enjoying his last birthday without a little sister to share it with (and yes I do mean share it with as Addie decided it was time to join the party hours after Kellan's real birthday - we had the party early just in case :)

Okay - so now we are caught up on the past two birthdays and Halloweens (sorry lil more than just cupcakes), as you can see Oct-Nov are super busy times at our house. I have always loved fall though - so it's absolutely perfect in my mind that both of the kids birthdays fall at such a fun time of year!

 

Well since my favorite 15 month old just woke up and is now demanding my attention...going to do a quick dump of a few of my other favorites from the year quickly before she tears up every tissue in the house or climbs completely on the desk as she is now trying to do...

 

My favorite easy cupcakes - for teacher appreciation week at the kids school

 The chalk board cupcakes are one of my favorite go-to easy and ALWAYS cute cupcakes. They are really quick to make - as you just need to swirl on icing and then add chocolate covered grahmcrakers with icing letters/numbers on them. The final touch is the runt apples and the good and plety pieces of chalk- and done!


Nationals Cupcakes for a 30th birthday

Thought these were fun as have not really ever done baseball cupcakes. I made bats out of caramel and then used the white chocolate melts as the little balls. Then to make the hats and bigger baseballs I used the pull and peel licorice. The ball cap brims are just melted red/white chocolate. 

And last but not least (for this post at least) these were probably the highlight of my "cupcaking" last year. High-heeled cupcakes for my Aunt's 50th birthday party last spring. I had SO much fun making these FAB @ 50 cupcakes. I kept them pretty simple as I made them in my mom's kitchen in Pittsburgh (so I only had what I brought with me - not my full baking cupboard). I used the pirouette cookie sticks for the heals and then grahmcracker soul of the shoe (again remember the graham/icing combination - yum!) I did a mix of bows and other decoration out of Extra pink gum and the jumbo sized sprinkles. Also used lots of sanding sugar to make the color pop - and to save me from having to dye different colors of icing - making them easier.

 

Well that will have to wrap it up for now - hopefully more to come if I can keep on top of things, but for now Princess Adelyn has had enough of me ignoring her for the computer and keeps stealing my mouse to get my attention. So so long for now. Happy Super Bowl Sunday!