It was a 5/6hr trip with three children. It was a week-end away. It was a long awaited wedding. It was exhausting, exciting and well worth it.

My brother was married a couple of weeks ago. He and his bride decided to have a very small wedding in Gatlinburg, Ky April the 18th. It was not something that I could pass up, so we packed all the children and made the daunting journey to the mountains.

We got lost up in the mountains trying to find the cabin they would be married in!

The children were so excited about it all, there was a little fear of falling of the mountain but that was just kinda funny. Elijah had the shoes, Josie loved her dress and Molly was so proud of the dress I made for her. She got to watch the whole process from beginning to finish and when she got to wear it, it made her day.

The wedding was perfect. The bride and groom were very much in the moment, feeling it for all that it was. I think sometimes that is hard to do when you have a huge bash, especially if you aren't used to all the attention. Attention is not something they were short on at this wedding though. There were two video cameras I think and at least three digital cameras beeping all the way through. It will be a very well documented occasion.

My first wedding cake.

The wedding is over, the cake turned out fine. I will post more about the whole wedding when I am not so tired.

This was my very first wedding cake, I hope that it isn't my last. I really enjoy doing this. I will say that it is much easier to do in your own kitchen where you have all the tools you need and without an audience.

I baked the cakes at home and cooled them, cut them into four layers. I also iced the layers and put the crumb coat of icing on both cakes. I then froze them over night so they would stay cold all the way to our destination (6hrs away). All of this went fine. I had my icing, vanilla buttercream and mmf(marshmallow fondant), prepared before we left as well. So all I had to do once we finally arrived was to put the final coat of icing on each layer, getting them as smooth as possible, roll some fondant dots and stack the cake. Sounds easy enough.

Unfortunately I forgot my icing spatula and my powdered sugar. So I did the best I could with a butter knife and my mom and I shaped the dots in our hands because that was the only thing they didn't completely stick too. The cake wasn't the perfect gift I had wanted it to be but it was good enough and was quite tasty.

The top cake was lemon with lemon buttercream in the layers, the bottom was yellow butter cake with vanilla buttercream in the layers. Both top and bottom layers were covered with the vanilla buttercream.

I can't wait to do another one!

A cake.

This was my first attempt to make and use fondant. It was lemon cake with lemon butter cream icing. I used this simple and wonderful tool to torte the cake into six layers, I don't remember what it is actually called but I love it.

Egg time!

Eggs, viegar, warm water, litte tiny drops of food color....it must be Easter! There is no other time during the year that is so exciting to boil eggs. Today, we dyed eggs. It's so simple! The kids loved every minute of it too. I let them color on some of the eggs so they could personalize thier little egg masterpieces. My son wanted to make some with two colors and my youngest desided to dye her hand. We had a fun time together and that is what was always fun about making easter eggs.

Making a tutu

For anyone who has a daughter, I highly recommend this project. Making a tutu is much cheaper than buying one, it's not hard and it only takes an hour or so of your time. I had my daughter help pick the colors and they enjoyed watching something being created.

Now, here is what you need: about 2 yards of tulle (I did 1yd. of two colors) and enough elastic to fit around your little girls waist (I suggest thicker elastic).

To get started measure you child's waist and cut the elastic a wee bit longer so you can sew it together.

Next you'll want to cut the tulle in in long pieces that are twice as long as you want the tutu to be. You can make them thin or thick depending on what look you want.

When you are all done cutting you'll take 1,2 or 3 pieces together and fold them in half around the elastic and tie a knot. Keep doing this until the elastic is thickly covered all the way around.

Tada! You have just made a wonderful fancy pants gift for your daughter.

The red shoes

Who knew a old knock off pair of sneakers could bring so much joy to a little boy. They wouldn't I'm sure of it, if it weren't for the fact that these shoes look similar to a pair my brother wear. My son enjoys his uncle so much and this past year has gotten to spend more time with him. Of course the natural tendency for any child who admires someone is to want to be like them in any way they can and that is what these old, red, knock off sneakers represent for my son.