The Cake!!

Matthew's cake for his party is just fabulous!  Kynda did such a wonderful job with it.  I asked her to somewhat copy the invitation I used for the party.  It is a banana cake, with two layers of banana cream filling and one layer of a peanutbutter/fluffernutter filling in each tier of the cake.  So adorable!

Harvest Women: Worship

Last night was a fantastic and fun night at church for our Women's Ministry event.  The theme for this one was worship.  There were over 120 women who came!  I spent the better party of Thursday making 5 double batches of a broccoli cheddar soup for the event.  Also served were a chicken corn chowder soup, and a shrimp chorizo soup.  Of course there were yummy appetizers, and a choice of two different cheesecakes for dessert.  There was also an awesome time of worship that lasted for quite awhile.

The ladies practicing to lead worship...

Pearl, the mastermind behind all the food....Love her apron, it reads:  "Will cook for shoes".

The table settings...

Inger and I...

The soup ladies!! Michelle, Sara, and myself...

Worship time...

Party Decor

Almost finished decorating for Matthew's party.  Will add some balloons, but that is about it.  I think it turned out pretty cute!  The cake will go on top of the "box" in the middle of the table.  I covered it with some cute fabric, and placed baby bananas on each side, along with a sock monkey (made by Chris's mother Char), and the cute sock monkey lunch box my Aunt Jean gave Matthew.

The awesome banner my friend Megan made...

Toddlers...

Now it is the middle of February, and Matthew is in some Santa pajamas (a hand me down from a sweet friend!), his good black shoes, eating cheese at the kitchen table, all while standing on one of his chairs.  Just why is this?

20 minutes earlier...

 Matthew decided to take another dip in the tub with his pajamas Chris had just put on him for the night.  (This all happened within 10 seconds of him leaving his bed room after being dressed...)  Just look at his expression, he knew he did something naughty, even by the time I was able to get the camera.  Chris was with him laughing and shaking his head.

Valentine Festivities

This past Saturday, we spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen making a heart shaped cake, heart shaped cookies, and a nice meal to celebrate Valentines Day.  Matthew loved getting in on the action of making the cookie dough.  You can see him crying in one of the photos since we told him "no touching" the blender when it was on.  He wanted so bad to dip his little fingers into the dough.  For dinner I made chicken au poivre, rice pilaf, and roasted asparagus.  Everything was yummy!

Chef Matthew!

Dinner...

The cake...

The cookies, which I am excited to say that I submitted this recipe to Tasty Kitchen, a part of The Pioneer Woman website.  Here is the link to the cookie recipe.

 

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Party

We had another fun Valentines Party this year!  Our 2nd annual!  This year I served two different chilis.  The kids and the chaos were a blast.  We also took family pictures in front of our fire place again.

Having fun...

The Tobin's

 

The Schmidt's

 

The Branum's

 

The Doherty's

 

And I couldn't resist not posting this funny one of some of the kids...