Ryan's Thanksgiving Cake

I made a pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving this year (by the way - this is our family's new favorite cake!) and we had decided to experiment with using fondant. Well, Ryan did such a wonderful job - he rolled it out, spread it, cut the leaves, and decorated the entire cake! Hannah made the acorns on the top - and the whole thing was just beautiful!

Using fondant is very much like using edible play dough - this is why I think the kids like using it and decorating with it.

Ryan did an awesome job! This was a perfect Thanksgiving cake!

Deer Hunting

Here is Jacob loading up all his shotgun shells as he prepares to go out and hunt for the first time. Matt was never interested in hunting, so it was a strange feeling for me as a mom to watch my son go out and be excited about it! Killing Bambi's mother!! No, just kidding Jacob. I really did hope and pray that you would get one...

Here he is - all dressed in the proper gear to go out and shoot!

This is the view of the farm from one of the fields the guys hunted in. The hunting party included Danny and two of his brothers, his Dad, and Jacob and two of his cousins.

And the lucky one of the day was Steve! He got TWO BUCKS within minutes of each other! I know that Jacob was excited to see this, even though he himself didn't get one. Buck Fever has struck my son and he will hunt again until he gets one!!

Boys Weekend with Dad

Every fall Danny takes the boys away camping or to stay in a cabin. This year they stayed at a cabin up in the Catoctin Mountains. They seemed to have a wonderful time with Dad this year!

They went to Danny's parents farm to practice shooting a gun and scouting out the land to see where they wanted to hunt when hunting opened. This would be Jacob's first time hunting...

Grandaddy showing Jacob how to use a shotgun...

And Ryan, faithfully and patiently watching, knowing that someday it would be his turn to do this! But not for quite some time.

My own little "Jim Brickman" !!!

I finally convinced Hannah to let me record her playing my favorite song... (actually, she recorded it herself for me and shut the doors so that I couldn't hear her!!) Anyway, I am VERY proud of my little piano player! One of my favorite things in the world is to hear Hannah play for me...

A memorable anniversary...

Well, my husband did it again! He surprised me with tickets to see Jim Brickman at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. Up front, middle, I can see their faces seats. I was so blown away! Jim Brickman is one of my favorite artists - he plays piano so beautifully... but that was only the first part of the surprise.

That week, we had sickness in the house, and Ryan was very sick with the flu. I wasn't quite sure how to tell Danny that we just might need to give the tickets away, but he and the kids absolutely insisted that we couldn't miss this night! I knew something was up, but I had no idea...

He had arranged a basket of goodies....

FOR THE LIMO RIDE!!!!!!!

Now I had never been in a limo before, and I was quite surprised when I went to the front door, and a man in a tux and top-hat had a red carpet from my front door to the limousine... I just was speechless... now I understood why everyone was so insistent upon our going! And I was truly glad we were able to go. Ryan had started to feel better after MUCH PRAYER (I am sure now that Danny did some serious praying that day! haha). We rode in style and snuggled and snacked all the way to the concert, and back. We were so enjoying the ride we almost bagged the show and just rode around Baltimore!

On our actual anniversary, one week earlier, the kids and I had gone up to Danny's office to surprise him by "decorating" his office with balloons, flowers, chocolates, candy hanging from the ceiling, and signs hung all over the room meant to honor and call MUCH attention to my wonderful husband!!

This sign was on the door to his office...

Thank you Danny for such a wonderful anniversary! One of my VERY favorite ones!!!

Is this the same boy??

In the last year, Jacob's hair has gone from being straight all his life, to being curly! (incidentally so has Hannah's!!) Maybe it is the Jewish blood in them. Anyway, I asked Jacob to let me straighten his hair and he agreed - he looks completely different! It was so cute, Ryan ran away from him at first, and by the end of the day, put his hand up to Jacob's face, moved the hair aside, and said "You know what I just realized? You are still my same bubba under there!!" haha

The straight-haired Jacob

The curly version!!

Charm City Cakes

We are all fans of the show "Ace of Cakes" on Food Network - watching the laid-back cast create the most amazing cakes is something we really enjoy doing. We all gather together to see what they are making this week - and they are always really unique and special cakes. It is filmed in Baltimore, so many of their "customers" are local venues that we would recognize. We even tried to line them up to make a cake for Danny's open house but they were completely booked...

It was a thrill to drive up there one Sunday afternoon and see the building where they do all this baking and film the show. We could see lights on in the building but as it was Sunday, we are pretty sure nobody was there. After we left there we were all craving cake and so we went to a local bakery and bought several different slices of a variety of cakes to share!!