Ashley's Birthday Party

After much deliberations Ashley settled on a Sleeping Beauty theme party at Aerial's Gymnastics. This is the gym where she and Katelyn take classes. It turned out to be a great idea. For two hours the kids had the whole gym to themselves. The kids got to go on the trampolines, zip line, go on bars, and the beam. We got pizza to eat and I made strawberry and vanilla cupcakes for desert (per Ashley's request)

After the gym party was over, we went back to the house for a small family party. It was quieter then our usual parties and very enjoyable since we got to spend some quality time with everyone that came :)

Here are some pictures from the day:

Ashley is 5 years old!

On January 7th, our big girl Ashley turned five!

We started the morning by opening some presents. She got a Leap Pad tablet from us, a toy hair set (including a hair dryer and curling iron) and a few small gifts. Natalia got her a tinker bell bathing suit, flip flops, cover up, towel and a beach bag. She loved all of her presents!

After the presents were opened, we all sat down to a princess breakfast of Ashley's choice. She decided to go for waffles with jam, some fresh apples and orange juice.

To keep with tradition on the day of Ashley's birthday, Mike and I took Ashley to pick out her own birthday present at The Hobbymasters in Red Bank.

We weren't sure what she'd be interested it, and were quite surprised with her selection. To cut to the chase, out of all of the toys they had there, she picked out this:

We were speechless.. we tried to convince her that perhaps there's something else she was interested in, dolls, furniture for her doll house, a kite, trains, beads, dress up, but she insisted on dragging this humongous giraffe through the store, knocking over everything on the bottom shelves.

So, home we went with a giant giraffe, that now lives in Ashley's room.

She was so excited to have him, that we couldn't say no. I don't think she'll ever forget this birthday!

We brought home some cupcakes that Ashley picked out at a cupcake shop in Red Bank, and in the evening had a mini celebration for Ashley's birthday.

Ashley was so happy. It was a great day for all :)

Ashley's Dance School Christmas Show

Ashley's Dance School hosted a Christmas Show to show off what the girls have learned.

I can't say that dancing comes easy for Ashley, and being a lefty certainly doesn't help. Every move starts off on her right, and she wants to start off with her left. Plus, since Ashley broke her ankle at the end of September she missed a whole month of classes and had to catch up. Nevertheless, Ashley had improved quite a bit and she likes going to dance because Nana comes to watch her every week and drives her home.

Katelyn loves to dance more than anyone, so I can't wait to sign her up for class next September. I know she's going to love it!

Yet another cake..

My co-worker’s wife is expecting a baby in a month, so today we had a baby shower for them at work. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to make another cake, so I went all out – I made a two tier cake and decorated it with fondant using my newly acquired skills from October’s cake decorating class. The bottom tier was a 12” square yellow cake with Bavarian custard and fresh strawberries. The top 8” round cake was chocolate cake with raspberry mouse filling. I frosted the whole thing in Italian meringue buttercream and covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant. It took more time to make than I’m willing to admit but it was all worth it. Here are a couple of pictures:


Big thanks go to Natalia and Theresa for helping me make this happen, and to Mike for keeping the kids occupied while this was being put together.

Here are some more pictures:

Powder room and family room remodel

While Ellie was visiting us from Germany this summer her and I (with some help from Uncle Dan) remodeled/redecorated our powder room and family room and I just now got around to taking a few pictures (presently with Halloween decorations). It’s been on our to do list for several years and the time has finally come! I repainted our red powder room into more neutral beige with metallic stripes, we updated the vanity, mirror, light fixture and all of the accessories. This project also lead to me painting the front foyer and hallway, and replacing all of the wall plates with oiled bronze ones. I don’t have a before picture, but here’s how it turned out:



For the family room, we repainted beige walls, and replaced burgundy couch and golden oak entertainment center that housed our giant 63” rear projection TV for a more up to date look. I painted the family room and kitchen with Benjamin Moore Rhine River color, and we got everything new from carpet to flat panel TV. I’m super happy with the way it turned out. We now have a lot more seating room, and plenty of storage for kid’s stuff.

Happy Halloween!

This year Halloween was the best! We had a great time Trick or Treating on our street with Natalia and Indira. Ashley was Tinker Bell and Katelyn was Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast. After we finished our street, the kids didn’t want to stop, so we continued going around with a bunch of our neighbors to the adjacent streets, after which we went to one of our neighbors’ for pizza. Ashley and Katelyn had a blast! It was fun to watch them have fun.

When we got home, Nana, Busenka and Grandpa Chuck were waiting for us. Ashley and Katelyn were thrilled to see them, and where still super hyper from the lollipops that they ate while we were out. Can’t wait for Halloween 2012!

Snow in October !?!?!

This Saturday, October 29th, something unthinkable happened - we had our first snow storm of the season, before Halloween!! Luckily for us, we got only a coating in Monmouth County. Other parts of NJ, including Mom and Chuck’s area got a foot or more! We hope this isn’t a sign of the things to come this winter.

Tinton Falls Solar Farm

I don’t usually write about what Mike is up to, but since Mike is very proud of this project I have to mention it. Mike just hosted a ground breaking ceremony for the Solar Farm that is going to be built in Tinton Falls. It’s going to be one of the largest solar farms in the Northeast boasting 85,000 solar panels that will generate enough energy to power 3,000 homes! Mike lead the effort on this project and is super happy that it’s off to a great start! It's a great accomplishment for him personally and for the borough of Tinton Falls.
http://www.app.com/article/20111028/NJNEWS/310280089/3-000-homes-may-get-solar-farm-electricity
http://eatontown.patch.com/articles/groundbreaking-ceremony-for-solar-farm-in-tinton-falls-on-friday
Here’s a picture from the ground breaking ceremony:

Fondant and Gumpaste Cake Decorating Class

This month I took my third cake decorating class. It was the Wilton’s Fondant and Gumpaste class. I learned how to make different flowers from gumpaste and fondant, including roses, calla lilies, carnations, mums, daisies. We also learned how to make big bows and learn some techniques for working with fondant and gumpaste.It was a fun four week long class. Here are some pictures:




My final project was a pumpkin walnut cake with maple cream cheese frosting. I covered it with homemade white fondant and decorated it with sugar mums and leaves in fall colors. It was delicious!

Fall is my favorite!

The weather this fall has been absolutely awesome. We’ve been taking advantage of what this season has to offer before the winter sets in. On Saturday we went with some friends to Eastmont Orchards one last time to pick what’s left of the apples. We returned to our house for some beef stew. Ashley and Katelyn got to play with Ella and Ethan. It was nice to send them to the basement to play while we enjoyed our wine in the kitchen. It turned out to be a fun night for both the kids and adults.

On Sunday we went to Freehold to Battlefield Orchards for a hay ride and to pick our pumpkin for carving. They have a pretty long hay ride for the $2 that they charge, and the scenery from the ride was the best. It was nice to take the time to take it all in. After the ride we picked up one large pumpkin and couple small ones for Ashley and Katelyn.

We stopped at the Battlefield Orchards Country store for some fresh apple cider donuts and other treats. After the sugar boost, I took Ashley to Ellie’s Birthday party, where they baked and ate chocolate chip cookies. Ashley had fun helping to make the cookies. We returned home for some hot pasta fagioli soup with grilled cheese. We took a quick rest and tried to get the kids to nap, which doesn’t always happen on the weekend, we gave up that idea in favor of going for a bike ride. Mike pulled the kids in the trailer behind his bike. The ride knocked them out, so when we got back, Mike and I got to enjoy some hot cocoa while the kids finished napping in the trailer. If that wasn’t enough excitement for the day, we ended the day with Uncle Dan carving our pumpkin, and me making an apple pie and roasting pumpkin seeds. We ended the evening with a slice of hot apple pie with some vanilla ice cream and hot tea. Life is good!