A Visit & Some Cupcakes

This past week, my sister and her 3 boys have been visiting us from Texas!

Griffin just adores his cousins and they all have such a blast together!

Here are some pictures from our time together.

I love me some Sissy!

The boys

We had a dinner at our Grandmother's house to celebrate Griffin's birthday and Sister's visit. Here are some cute mini cuppies I made for the occasion.

Vanilla cake with Nutella Buttercream

Vanilla cake with Vanilla Buttercream

Happy Birthday, Baby (Er, I mean Big Boy)!

My boy is 2. When he turned 1, the time that passed by seemed appropriate. Now that he's 2 I feel like life has been in fast forward! It's so amazing the milestones that have been reached between the 1st year and the 2nd. The day before his first birthday, Griffin stood up in front of a crowd of people and took his first steps - right to his big sissy. Now, he's RUNNING (man, this kid is fast!), talking, coloring, & putting toys together and taking them apart. He has focus enough to sit through an entire movie and everything makes him laugh. He has amazing hand-eye coordination (yesterday I was at the bottom of the stairs and I threw a ball up to him at the top of the stairs and he caught it!) and is amazingly light on his feet. His energy is boundless and his love and affection has no limit. He knows his body parts and loves to dance. It's a breath of fresh air to be able to talk to him and he understands what I say. Just in the past two weeks, he's taken to repeating words he hears and is jumping, twirling, and clapping non stop as though he has a constant Griffin theme song in his head.
In March he started to go to a sitters house 3 days per week. This was (and still is) so hard for me but he has just blossomed. He's made so many friends and plays so well with others. Dude even picked up a girlfriend that he loves to hug and kiss! We just adore Miss Beth, his sitter. She's so attentive and loves all the kiddos so very much. He still naps well at her house and eats food there that he would never touch at home, like broccoli and cheese and ravioli!
Being a mom has been just the greatest journey. God knew what I needed to "let go" of and what I needed to pay attention to and so he sent me a little boy that allowed me to start to become the very best person I can be. Isn't it amazing what we can learn about ourselves from our children?
Happy Birthday, Griffin. Mama loves you more than Buttercream!

Griffin and Sophie

Dude loves to feed himself!
We aren't sure whether his curls will go away or not but I just love them!
Sticking out your tounge always helps you do better! :)

I still work from home 2 days per week, which is a huge blessing.

Griffin and one of his buds, Ayden.

Mr. Man got a big boy bed! The transition has been rough but he's doing pretty well now!

Always smiling!

Silly face!

Cheese!

We love to color!

Two of his favorite things: Running and Rock Collecting!

Running running everywhere!

Birthday cookies for my little Rockstar

More Patriotic Goodness!

I headed over to

www.tidymom.net

to get some inspiration for more yummies on this 4th of July!

The gel food coloring that I have really missed the mark with the red color in the cake batter.

Next week's purchase will be some Americolor gel food coloring.

I hope your 4th is just as yummy as mine!

Vanilla cake cupcakes with good 'ol vanilla buttercream

Star Spangled Cookies!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

I went out of my cupcake comfort zone and headed over to

bakeat350.blogspot.com

to get some ideas for patriotic yumminess and hit the jackpot!

These sugar cookies were super easy to make!

The 3 layer star cookie was what caught my eye. The tie dye star and rounds were the smooshed up dough that was left over after the 3 layer star cookie was complete.

I am super excited with how all of them turned out!

Tie dyed cookie with royal icing
3 layer star cookie with royal icing and luster dust

That's one stack of patriotic goodness!