Gavinisms

Gavin: "Look Mom! We are close to the Draper temple!"

Me: "Actually, Gav that is the Oquirrh temple."

Gavin: "Oh, we are close to the yogurt temple."

Me (laughing hysterically): "Silly, it's the Oquirrh temple."

Gavin: "That's right, the ogre temple."

Gavin turns 4!

I can hardly believe that I have been a mother for 4 years. It's amazing to me to think that he is getting so old, but at the same time, I can't remember what it was like to not have him. I'm so very proud of Gavin and all that he is. He is so creative, fun, silly, sweet and just plain PERFECT.

He wanted to have a pirate party this year. Well, I'm still exhausted from last year's "Up" party so this year really wasn't much of a party! His main request was a pirate ship birthday cake. It sounded really challenging to me and it was. I had a lot more plans for it, but his birthday was at the end of one of those weeks where I just had so much going on and his cake didn't turn out nearly like I wanted it to in my head! I guess the important thing is that he got what he wanted, even if it was a little sloppy!

Keith had to work that day so it was just me and the boys for the majority of the day. We played and worked on the cake. Max took a 4 hour nap and it was so nice to spend so much time with just Gavin on his special day. He loves putting up decorations so it was fun to see him be so excited while we were hanging up streamers and balloons, etc. We also painted him a cool pirate shirt and he dressed up in some pirate garb. My sister in law called to wish Gavin a Happy Birthday and he told her that he had "All the right ingredients to dress up like a pirate." What a cutie!


I love that he is hugging him with that play knife in his hand...

Isn't he a handsome 4 year old???

We made him a pirate shirt...he thought it was pretty fun!

Happy about the cake!

Had I actually used my brain I would have frosted it in chocolate frosting before adding the fondant wood planks. I'm just not a big chocolate frosting lover so I never use it...

Dressed up in some of his pirate "ingredients" :)

Happy Birthday, sweetie! Love you!

Fast Food Fantasy

Those cute neighbor boys I posted about earlier needed some help with a cake for the cub scout cake auction. Actually...they probably didn't need my help. I have a lot of faith in their mother (more than she does in herself in fact) and I'm pretty sure she could have made a perfectly great cake. I, however, may have demanded volunteered to help. And voila...a giant hamburger that is completely sugar! The fries and sundae are also cake and frosting. It was so fun, and a shout out to the Purple Turtle for the props :)

The help

Just be "cuz"

I don't know that I ever shared this picture on my blog. It is one of my all time favorites of Gavin and his cousin Kenna. They can be such stinkers, but this was such a cute moment! I love you, Gav and Kenna!

Cake. Again. Who hates reading my blog????

I know...lame, I'm posting another cake. But I think my cake posts are here to stay. I love cake decorating. I'm seriously a bit surprised by this, but it's become something I truly enjoy.

My cute sister Tristin called me the other day to ask for help with decorating a wedding cake for a mock wedding in her teen life class. Of course I was happy to say yes, but in the back of my mind I was kinda thinking..."What the heck are schools doing these days having mock weddings?" I'm still kind of thinking that, but maybe I'm just getting old... Apparently in this class they had sign ups for the "postions" of this wedding. It sounded like a lot of people didn't sign up for any of it so the teacher randomly assigned people to spots. Tristin was fortunate enough to get cake maker rather than "bride". :)

I was mean and made her help me. She made most of the flowers for the cake and it was a really fun afernoon. When Tristin was little she used to really like me (at least I like to pretend that...). I think it was probably only because I carried her almost the entire time we were at Mt. Rushmore when she was little. Or maybe it was because I would stay up late with her every night so she could play baby. Luckily she doesn't seem to remember the time I hit her head in the ceiling fan... In any case, I don't get to spend a lot of time with her now that she is grown up and "cool", so I really enjoyed our afternoon together.

Gray Family Road Rally

This past year, Amy and her sibilings gave my grandparents a different Christmas present. My grandparents (who rock by the way...) have 4 children and each of them decided they would plan a fun family get together for each quarter of the year. Amy was up first and she planned a "Road Rally". It was SERIOUSLY one of the MOST FUN activities we've ever done! She split us all up in teams and each teams had secret envelopes that sent them on missions around the town. Pleasant Grove has been her family's (families? I'm not sure which one you would use here...) home their whole lives and there are lots of family memories around the town which she incorporated. Your team accumulated points for answering questions and for getting a picture of the place while wearing your "nose". (Each team was a different animal.) You got extra points if you had a stranger in your photo, or if you got a picture of another team. At the end there was a secret list of things you could earn bonus points for. I know I'm not doing it justice with my description, but it was so fun and wonderful to goof around with everyone! I have a very tender spot in my heart for this family that I was lucky enough to become part of when I was 9 years old. I love you all dearly and hope I demonstrate that enough. I can't wait for the next activity!