Cruises, Cookies and Costumes

For our anniversary in September, Jody booked us on a cruise for the Bahamas that we went on over the weekend. It was great to have some time to ourselves. We've been on a cruise before and I got seasick SO I was prepared with "the patch" to help with the motion sickness. Apparently I am in the 25% that the patch does not help. I felt OK when we left port and we went and ate lunch, but as dinner neared, I felt worse and worse. Jody even went to the lobby and got a motion sickness tablet for me to take. Surely the two of them together would help. Unfortunately they did not. As we entered the dining room, I KNEW I would not make it though the meal. I did make it back to the room though before getting sick. Another motion sickness tablet didn't help either. I spent the rest of the night in the bed. The next day in port was MUCH better! We found out later it was so bad they cancelled the show that night because they were afraid of the dancer's safety.

We'd been to the Bahamas twice before and it was good that we were not intent on sightseeing because it was raining. YUCK!! It did give us a chance to get back and take a nap. The water was so gorgeous and blue. I always forget how absolutely breathtaking it is.

The rest of the trip was wonderful. Our steward was an adorable fella named Nelson. He reminded us SO much of our local Dr. They could have been brothers. On the last morning of the cruise, we found out that the children's pediatrician and his office were on the cruise with us. What a small world!!


We came home to Homecoming week, Red Ribbon week and Halloween festivities at school. The children dressed up yesterday in Halloween Costumes for school. Linds is a Pirate, Micajah is obviously Superman and Heyward is Gabriella from High School Musical. Lindsey Kate won best costume for her class. Last night we got with our church group and ate dinner and went on a hayride while Trick or Treating. It was cold but SO much fun.

Every day this week they have dressed up in a different thing for Red Ribbon Week. It supports saying NO to drugs. Today was wear your pajamas day. I forget how that relates to saying no to drugs. Anyway, Heyward was SO funny. She wanted to wear mis-matched clothes and wore her hair half in rollers and the other half sprayed all over like a TERRIBLE case of bed hair. Hope she wins!!!

We laughed at Breakfast yesterday when Jody said he wanted to dress up like Barak OBama for Halloween. We told him we had seen a Barak mask at Rite Aid. He got the last one. He had the most fun of ALL last night dressed as Barak and harassing the children.

I don't usually make things for the children's teachers for Halloween, but found some adorable containers at the Dollar Tree on a recent visit. I baked cookies on skewers, iced them and arranged them in the containers. They turned out SO cute and smelled SO good. We have 9 teachers this year, so this was quite a feat in itself. Sorry the picture isn't better. It was the best I could do as I hurriedly tried to get the children out to school yesterday. We even forgot Lindsey Kate's assigned contribution to the Halloween Party. I had gotten them, we just forgot to take it yesterday morning.

Dora the Explorer

I was asked to create this cake for a birthday party this weekend. They were having a Dora the Explorer birthday party. I was fortunate to go to our local dollar store and find the Dora the Explorer birthday figurines for the cake. How great is that?!?

I tried a new fondant this time. I think it gave me a smoother finish. It is called Satin Ice. I plan to get a 20 lb bucket of it soon. I really liked it, but I felt like I was kneading bubble gum as I added color to it. I guess it will be a good arm workout. :)

Happy Birthday Heyward!

Yesterday was Heyward's 11th Birthday. ELEVENTH!! WOW!! Where does the time go? She is officially a "tween". WOW.

Yesterday started with Heyward coming to get in bed with us and Micajah following not far behind singing "Happy Birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey....." Well, you know the rest of that song - followed by phone calls from Mimi, Laci and Bami all before school. Jody was home so he and I went to school to eat lunch with Heyward. You wonder at what age mom and dad coming to school is no longer cool. I guess for a 5th grader it was still cool. I got several compliments on my purse while waiting in line and we were greeted with "Hey Heyward's mom and dad" as we went down the hall. I think Jody even got a Hi-5 from someone. Lunch was pretty good. Catfish nuggets, cheese grits, slaw, cornbread and baked beans. As we sat down, Heyward's grits dumped on the floor right next to her seat. Jody covered them with a napkin and before lunch was over, they had congealed enough that they came up in one glob. That's cool, huh?

Right before school got out, we went back up to the school and took cupcakes for Heyward's class. They were such good kids and SO well behaved. Things like that will give you reassurance that the future generation is NOT hopeless as the media would have you believe.

Our present to Heyward was some money AND a razor and shaving cream. She's been asking since summer to let her shave her legs - something I was not ready for. Anyway, I told her we would talk about it on her birthday so I went ahead and caved. She was SO excited and didn't even cut herself the first time - which is not what I could say for myself. Granted I think I was only about 8. I think the hardest part will be keeping the razor away from brother and sister. Maybe it won't be too much temptation.

Her birthday was capped off by the SWEETEST rendition I have ever heard of Happy Birthday. 2 year old cousin James called and left it on the answering machine. We listened to it several times last night and saved it to hear again today. ADORABLE!!!