Margarita Madness and Sponge Bob Silliness :)

So life has been busy - between craziness at work, trying to up my running, baking away, and of course keeping up with my boys - just trying to stay on top of things lately. Thus not much time to write this week...but did want to share a few new fun cupcakes

First, just in time for Cinco de Mayo...Margarita Cupcakes topped with Lime buttercream Frosting!

(and yes in case you are wondering...there is tequilla in them :)

Then...for a two-year old birthday party this past weekend - had fun making Sponge-Bob Square Pants cupcakes! Half of the cupcakes were actually crabby patties :) and the other half were topped with mini-Sponge Bobs...both ended up pretty tasty and were well received by the kids (of all ages :) at the party!

Mini Sponge-Bob's! :)

 

The Many Faces of SpongeBob - in cupcake form!

Actually the SB faces are decorated chocolate covered graham-crackers (which i had leftover from the Graduation cupcakes and realized they were the perfect Sponge shape and size!! ;) Worked out pretty well!

 And here are the hamburgers (crabby patties in Sponge-Bob land!) one of my favorite cupcakes to make!

Like I said...life is busy so gotta rest up for another crazy day ahead - the 5am run seems to be coming faster and faster lately! In any case, look for more fun cupcakes this weekend: 2 more little boy birthday parties coming up (should be really ready for Kellan's first birthday in the fall!) as always should be an adventure!

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A Tough Race...but an Amazing Day!

So the race was...hot, humid, hilly, super pretty (think 4 different bridges with AWESOME views of the city), rainy (rained from mile 2 on...) hard, long, hmmm what else, an adventure, and yes, it was fun (a little at least - especially when I finally finished and they had Eat n' Park Smiley cookies for everyone - best post race treat ever!!!). Needless to say the race was a lot of things - my best race it definitely wasn't - not even close. But I have been super spoiled in my races to date - usually having perfect weather and a super flat course, so suppose I was due for a tough course and a less than ideal day. It was challenging from the first two miles when it was super hot and humid to the following 11 miles in the rain. At about mile 4 my Garmin started going crazy in the downpour - beeping non-stop and refusing to show me my pace. At this point I had already realized there was no way I was going to make my goal time so the Garmin was just in the way - so just gave it to my dad when I saw him and my super fans (cheering me on out in the rain!) at mile 6. Speaking of the super fans ;) It was pretty awesome to have so many of the people I love standing there smiling in the pouring rain - proud of me even though I wasn't running my best race - realizing (even though I sometimes forget) that just being able to run 13 miles regardless of time is still an acomplishment.

And I did it. I ran the 13.1 miles - not sure I have been so glad to be done with a race in a long time - as I was definitely struggling, but bottom line I finished. Like I said I was less than thrilled with my time, but my number one fans found me immediately and gave me big hugs and it made it all worth it. Then we found my uncle who finished shortly after me and gave him a big hug as well! All of us soaked at this point - but all still smiling...just enjoying the day and being together surrounded by the excitement of such a great race. Wierdly for me - before we even made it home I was over the race. Usually I think and rethink what I could have done better or how I should have pushed longer for that last mile or so - but by the time I had gotten out of the shower I was no longer even thinking about the race. Just not sure I am into racing right now - think I really am in a cycle of my life where running is just not a top priority - and strangely to me as well I am totally okay with it. Please don't get me wrong, it's not like I am going to stop running, I am definitely going to keep up with my 5am runs with my best buddy Colleen, and hope to try to keep up with my other running buddies, Shelly, Kathy and Karen (when she is back from having her baby girl - due any day!) among others, but think I am going to take a break from real racing for a while. I may get suckered into a few local 5 and 10Ks over the summer - but nothing big for a while until I am mentally and physically ready and rearing to go again.
That said, plan is to just keep my focus on my family, on work, my house and yard, and of course on cupcakes, then fitting in running with my friends as much as I can!

Back to the real event of the weekend though - I have to say my mom's graduation was simply AWESOME. I knew it would be a special moment and definitely knew I wanted to be there - but I never imagined how cool it would really be to see her be hooded for the PhD she has been working on for so long. She actually started working towards this degree when my bro and I were little but put it on hold to focus on us. Then a few years ago she picked it back up full-time and now has finally completed her thesis and is officially Dr. Mom! :)

Dr. Grandma and her Number 1 Fan!

Mom being hooded for her PhD!

We are just so proud of her and seeing her beaming smile up on the big-screen at the Peterson Events Center at Pitt was just one of the coolest moments ever. Making it even more special my grandparents and my Aunt Sally and my cousin were all there along with us cheering her on. Just was a really fun afternoon - at the ceremony and then at a fun celebration dinner at Max and Erma's one of our fav Pittsburgh places! YUM! Sadly we had to hit the road back to VA but think the rest of the fam continued the celebration back at my mom's house with the cupcakes I had brought for the big day! Haha....you didn't think I'd miss the opportunity to try out fun graduation cupcakes did you??? Just simple Vanilla and choco cupcakes with white frosting - but topped with pretty fun graduation caps :) they didn't travel quite as well as I would have hoped - and were a bit rushed - but word is they tasted yummy and still looked pretty cute. Take a look :)

A little messy...and wish the grahm crackers were a little more square...but worked out pretty well!

And really, good cupcakes or not, good runs or not, at the end of the day how could everything not be right in the world when my little man smiles :) :) :)

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Officially Nervous...

For the Pittsburgh half marathon this weekend. Actually realized how nervous I was after finishing an "easy" run on one of my old "long" runs (when long used to be 3.5 miles for me that is :) from my parents house earlier this week. So should have been an easy run for me - but it wasn't. It felt hard. I was lonely without a running buddy or my ipod (which was intentional to help prep for the race), it was hot, it was hilly, I forgot my good running socks, etc my list of complaints goes on and on. So when I got home I told my mom that I after that run, I was now definitely nervous for Sunday - her response - very similar to my husbands, "Ash, can't you just forget about your time run it for fun." Aghhh. If only it was so easy :)

So yes while, I am certainly going to try to just have fun and not let the predicted heat, lack of sleep, or the 20 thousand other things happening in my life that are trumping running these days get to me, but try is the key word here. I am just too competitive - for better or worse as I told Jeremy this weekend - that's who I am. So being the competitive me whether or not I want to be, the fact that I know that if I was running at my pre-pregnancy pace I would have a chance for being in the top five in my age group added to the fact that I am a bit of perfectionist and always want to PR, is making it hard for me to simply forget about my time.

Thus, I have reached (or rather am still trying to reach :) a compromise with myself. Worry about time - but be realistic. Realistic about what I can do in my life now and not dwell on what I did before being pregnant or even what I originally thought I would be doing 6 months after have Kellan. So instead of shooting for sub-1:30, I am going to go for a post-baby PR and aim for under 1:40 or maybe even 1:45. And while this deal with myself is for this particular race it is really bigger than that.

The deal is really about embracing and enjoying my life every day - even if every race isn't a PR. It's about finding balance.  A balance that works for me and my family. And it's not that I am not going to stop training in hopes of obtaining new PRs, it's just that I know (or am very, very quickly discovering) that with a 6 month old keeping me up most nights, work keeping me on my toes all day, dinner to make and bottles to wash filling up my evenings before finding time to spend with my favorite boys, and of course still making time for baking, I am not in a place to really ramp up my running like I would like right now.

So for now, I need to be better about enjoying every run I do sneak in and be more patient with myself and my body as I work it back into shape. I need to better understand the cyclic nature of life and realize that some weeks aren't going to be good running weeks - but maybe those weeks will be priceless Kellan weeks, or maybe fun baking weeks, or family focused weeks.  Case in point - this past week: it wasn't a great running (runs were hard and tedious) or baking (cupcakes tasted good but were rushed and thus not as fun as I would have liked) week for me - rather the focus of this week was getting to Pittsburgh Wednesday night so that Kellan could see his Uncle Matty for a second time and finally meet his Aunt Azizi both who were home from deployment for a few precious days!

To that end, even this weekend, while yes it is the half marathon I am all nervous for, really the true celebration of the weekend and our main reason for going to Pittsburgh this weekend occurs after the half-marathon is over. At 2pm to be exact when we will be proudly cheering my mom on as she receives her PhD and become Dr. Wesmiller! So this is what I need to remind myself when I start fretting again over how "not as fast as I would like" my last trainig run was or how I am not feeling nearly as mentally prepared as I would like for the race, etc. And yes I know, this is sooooo much easier said than done...it's going to take LOTS of time and practice.

Clearly lots of work to do on setting up and implementing this little deal with myeslf - but I am trying to get better every day and for now that's all I can do. So with that I am going to go outside for a walk with my little guy and enjoy this amazing Friday afternoon and TRY not to stress or even think about the race on Sunday as why should I right, :) the deal is I am going to try to be realistic and most importantly have fun! (haha...r...i..g...h...t! We'll see how long it lasts...but deal is to try!)

For now I leave you with a few pics of my rushed and thus not overly exciting cupcakes that I made in Patriotic red-white and blue and Army green and yellow for our favorite soldiers...

And more importantly (remember even though this is a cupcake blog...this week was about FAMILY! :) here are a few pictures of Kellan hanging out with his Uncle Matty and Aunt Azizi!

Playing Cards with Aunt Azi!

 Loving all the attention from the coolest Captains he knows!

Hanging out with Mom and Uncle Matt!

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First Cupcake for a Cause Cupcakes!!!

So I'm sitting here trying to talk myself into getting going for the 12ish mile run I really need to do today to make myself feel like I'm somewhat ready for my half marathon in two weeks...so far not having much luck :) I mean clearly I am still sitting here, right?!? It is somewhat justified though as we did yardwork ALL afternoon yesterday so my back and legs are super sore (mainly in muscles I forget I even have until it's mulching time each year!) and then K was up ALL night coughing and crying...etc. Poor little guy is struggling with allergies or some kind of cold. Just a tough combination making it hard for me to find much motivation at the moment. Thus for now, going to continue to sit here and have a cup of coffee...maybe that will help!!!

Since I am still sitting here and not running quite yet...figured I'd post some pictures of the cupcakes of the week...

First and foremost, I have my first Cupcakes for a Cause order! I know, exciting, right?? :) :) The order was for 3 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen vanilla and 1 chocolate; half princess and half trains. I was hesitant to actually commit to the order as only had a few days to pull it off, but since I have not done either princess or train cupcakes I was immediately tempted to give it a go. So spent a day looking for princess/train ideas and brainstormed it with my favorite cupcake buddy at work and felt like we had come up with some pretty good ideas for both, so said yes to the order. Still was definitely tight on time but ended up baking the cupcakes Friday night before going to a couples night wine-tasting at Wine Styles (so fun btw!!!) and then spent Saturday morning decorating the cupcakes and hanging out with K, which is why I wasn't at running club. (well that and I may have just had a tiny bit too much wine for the first time in over a year, too!)

The princess cupcakes were all PINK! Found a fun carriage idea on http://www.wilton.com/ and Christy (my cupcake buddy) found me a great idea for pink turrets made out of ice cream cones dipped in white (pink) chocolate - then added a few basic pink swirled icing cupcakes topped with what else, little tierras! All together they ended up looking pretty cool (think I might even want princess cupcakes for my birthday too now - haha!) when set up on the cupcake tree - so suggested Shannon borrow my tree for the party!

And here's a close up of the tierras and carriages...who doesn't want to be a princess now?!?!

After finishing the princess cupcakes, I found myself super nervous about the train ones. I had to make them super cool too - as didn't want this little guy (turning 2) to feel slighted that his big sis (turning 4) with her princess cupcakes. And while I had an idea for the train cupcakes I had NO clue how they would turn out. Luckily they actually ended up way more fun then I had anticipated!! Here they are being built...

For the train cupcakes I used a combination of ideas, the first based on an idea from http://www.familyfun.go.com/ where they made "I Choo-Choose You" train cupcakes for valentines day out of tootsie rolls along with an idea from the cover of a new book (that I don't have yet but plan on putting on my First Mother's Day ever gift idea list :) Super Duper Cupcakes. For the Train Engines I used tootsie rolls and reeses cups then M&Ms for the wheels and an upside down Dot candy for the smoke Stack. The cargo cars were then simply made out of now&laters and m&m wheels. Painted on the tracks first and added sprinkles and wha-la we had little trains. Thought they looked pretty good on a cupcake tree too...

The only thing left now was hoping Shannon was able to get them home okay...I boxed them the best I could. See below - they are all packed up and ready to go....but even so there were definitely lots of little pieces and icing...so had my fingers crossed all day. Luckily last night she sent an email (thanks Shannon!) letting me know they were a hit - so they must have made it - woohoo!

So all in all a REALLY good cupcake day - kind of like a good hair day I guess - hehe - somedays it just happens! I mean even my extras/left overs ended up pretty cute - and were pretty yummy :) and most importantly to me at least my little man was super sweet and kept me company the whole time I was decorating away! Couldn't have asked for a better day (well at least until I was dragged into the mulching!)

Okay...suppose it's time I finally get myself out for those miles - especially now that my MIL (who is down from PA for the weekend) is up and will enjoy hanging out with K. Have to take advantage of her being here! So gotta run...

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My Favorite Smile is Back!

So today has been a long but overall pretty good day and my little guy just made it ten times better by flashing me his simple smile. Yes, he usually smiles ALL the time, I know and I love it, but this morning he actually had an MRI and had to be put under anesthesia so he has not been quite his smiley self today. (The MRI was just a routine follow-up to an ultra-sound he had done when he was born due to a sacral dimple in his lower back. The doctors do not think there is a problem as he is developing pretty much perfectly, but because of the dimple they wanted to play it safe, hence the MRI) I am unbelievably relieved and excited it is over as it has been weighing on my mind more than I had even realized. We will get the results in a few days but for now I am just enjoying the evening with K and soaking in each and every smile he shares with me!!

Other news in my world is that my mom successfully defended her thesis and is now, officially Dr. Wesmiller - pretty crazy, my amazing Grandmother turned 84, and last but definitely not least my little brother left Afghanistan for his mid-deployment leave this morning (so at least for the next 2 weeks we won't have to worry about him!). So, like I said overall a pretty good day!

Okay moving onto the previously promised details of the second shower from my whirlwind weekend...

Shower #2: Karen's Baby Girl shower! Karen is one of my running buddies (who has been still running even 8mos preggo btw!!) ane her shower was hosted by her sister in-law, who is actually another running buddy of mine, Kate. The theme for Karen's shower was based on the AWESOME Dwell bedding Karen has picked to decorate the new little chica's room. Check out how cute (lucky little girl :) !!

Once Kate sent me the pic of this super cute bedding and told me she was going with a Spring/bird theme for the shower, I did my usual Google Image search again and came accross a really fun picture of baby bird cupcakes on the Martha Stewart web site: http://www.marthastewart.com/ The picture showed blue baby birds, but figured would be pretty easy to make the birds pink and thought the brown nests coordinated well with the Dwell bedding colors as well - so I was definitely excited to find this.

                                              

Of course, being from the Martha Stewart page the birds looked absolutely perfect, so was nervous to see if I could even get close! :) But gave it a shot and they actually turned out pretty okay in the end (well at least after tossing out the first batch of icing as it would not stay hard enough and the first few birdies I made melted within ten minutes of being created - oops!)

The cupcakes were the same doctored vanilla cake-mix ones I used for the first shower and the icing was a standard buttercream tinted pink for the birds and yellow for the beaks. The toasted coconut we made by throwing sweetened coconut in the oven for 15 mins (yes, I had to google this as well - hehe - as I had never toasted coconut before - it smells soooo good though!!! YUM!). The hardest part of putting these cupcakes together for me was putting in all of the little eyes. I ended up using chocolate jimmies for the eyes instead of the melted chocolate Martha suggested as that sounded super tricky!

And here finally is the finished product: 

All packed up and ready for the trip from PA to VA!

Luckily they made the trip well!

And Kate put them together as a super cute center piece - loved it!

So overall they turned out pretty cute and word on the street from the shower crowd is that they tasted pretty good - of course, there were SEVEN pregnant women (yes SEVEN - I actually felt out of place not being preggo :) so may have been a biased audience as I know when I was pregnant last year just about any sweet treats tasted pretty amazing!! The one thing I would love to figure out for next time is how Martha Stewart's team made the birdies so round looking and how the coconut stayed in longer, more nest like pieces. Martha magic I suppose :) 

Well now that the litlte guy is sound asleep for the night...guess I better follow suit so I am ready to be up at 3 or 4 with him (hopefully not sooner!) More cupcakes and fun to come this weekend! :) :)

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A Whirlwind Cupcaking Weekend!

YAWN...so haven't been this tired on a Monday for a while. Actually, suppose that is not quite true as for some reason my adorable little 5 month old likes to wake up, stay up, and fuss more on Sunday nights than any other night of the week, meaning Mondays lately, are even harder than normal! In any case, today has been an especially rough one as we had a SUPER DUPER busy (also super fun!!) weekend!

The busyness came in the form of 2 baby showers- one for a little boy in PA and one for a littlle girl here in VA and I was invited to make cupcakes for both!!! (to make this work I had to make the PA cupcakes in VA on Friday night before driving to the shower in Somerset Saturday and then make the VA shower cupcakes in PA Saturday night and then drive back home Sunday morning. Needless to say was a crazy two days, and I was very lucky that my little guy decided to sleep the whole ride both ways, the cupcakes survived the trip both ways, and my husband was supportive of the whole venture :) In the end, both showers were absolutely delightful and I was happy to help make the showers extra special!

However, to keep this from becoming a short novel...will save the details and pics of the second shower for an upcoming post so make sure to check for an update :) Hehe...have to keep you coming back for more somehow anyways, right?!?!

With that said...onto the first shower!

Shower #1: The theme was based on the nursery decor...Safari animals! While I had an idea of what cupcakes I wanted to make, as I have made both monkey and lion cupcakes before, I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to do, so I did my usual google image search for inspiration. From the search I came across a great picture of jungle cupcakes on the betty crocker website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/ complete with exact details and a video (this was great - think I watched it at least 5 times :) on how to make cupcake lions, tigers, zebras and monkeys! They actually weren't too hard...just VERY time consuming :)

Here is my version of the Betty Crocker zoo:

The monkeys and zebras were chocolate cupcakes while the lions and tigers were vanilla. The vanilla cupcakes were pretty AWESOME! To make them, I followed a simple doctored cake recipe from one of my favorite cupcaking buddies. Basically you just use a box of white cake mix, and then add 1.25 c milk in place of water, up the oil to 1/3 cup, add a tsp of vanilla and use 3 entire eggs instead of just the whites - and just like that you have home-made tasting vanilla cupcakes. Magic if you ask me - thanks Christy!! :)

To decorate, I followed Betty C's instructions pretty much to a T although I improvised on the eyes and noses. The recipe called for chocolate baking bits - which sounded and looked great in theory but in reality I could not find them anywhere! Thus, I went with black jelly beans for the lions and zebras eyes and ready-made candy eyes (which my Mother-in-law keeps me stocked up on from a great local PA bake shop!!! :) for the monkeys and tigers. The noses I just drew on with chocolate icing when I added the mouths. Here are a few close-up pics to see the details:

Think the zebras were the hardest to make - as to give the cupcakes the horse head shape, had to cut the cupcake and insert a cookie before icing (although the recipe called for vanilla wafers, I actually used thin-mints since we had several bozed on hand so figured Jeremy would not even miss them!). They actually turned out pretty fun when all was said and done!

Finally, here is the finished product on display at the shower (along with the coordinated filler cupcakes ordered by one of the mom-to-be's aunts) Think they looked pretty cool, and most-importantly, Jessica, the mom-to-be, seemed very happy with them so I consider it a definite success!!

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Peer pressured into blogging :)

So here we go. We'll see how and/or if this will work. I will say I was definitely peer pressured into this by a few of my running (and apparantly very active blogging :) buddies, who told me I need to start blogging about cupcakes - since as it is well known I might just have a little cupcake problem :)

In any case, suppose I will start with a quick introduction - as  you can probably tell by the title - I absolutely love both running and cupcaking, so for the most part that will be what the blog is about. When not running or baking, I am a working mom with an amazing husband of 2+ years an absolutely adorable (of course I'm somewhat biased) little 5 mo old boy - who has taken over my world to say the least.

Okay - so enough about me for now :) time for a few cupcakes!! Since Easter was this weekend...as to be expected we'll have to start with a few bunny, Easter Egg, and Easter Basket cupcakes!!! Not my best batter, I will admit, but I definitely enjoyed spending Easter morning chatting with the little guy and decorating these ones for Easter Brunch!



The baskets were inspired by one of my friends at work - and we actually shared a bag of multi-colored twizzlers for the handle. I have yet to see how hers turned out, but I am sure they were super cute! The eggs were not planned, but as I was playing around Sunday morning decided that decorating "eggs" sounded like the fun Eastery way to go. And the bunnies are straight from the Disney Family Fun website: http://familyfun.go.com/ one of my favorite go-to site for cupcake inspirations - check it out!!! :)

Also, this weekend, a few of my Twilight addicted friends and I had a New Moon Movie night! As the movie hit the theaters right after my son was born, I never had the chance to see it. Thus, we had a girls night complete with quesadilla, chips and guac as well as, of course, Twilight inspired cupcakes!




The Twilight cupcake "stickers" I ordered online somewhere and the werewolf cupcakes were inspired by a picture on another fun cupcake site I have recently found http://www.easycupcakes.com/. Pretty fun - though the werewolfs in the movie were definitely MUCH better looking (hehe)! These were yellow butter batter cakes with chocolate frosting - which is not one of my strengths as I don't like chocolate so I steer away from making chocolate icing as much as possible - but as it was requested by the March birthday girl in the group - gave it a go for her! Word is it turned out pretty good - at least I didn't get any complaints about it!

Okay - think that's all for my first blog post. Will do my best to keep this updated when I find time or have new and exciting cupcakes or running stories :) to share!

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