A new decade

We celebrated Stephen's 30th Birthday on Wednesday! Actually, the celebration began last weekend when my mom and stepdad came and took us out to eat. On Wednesday, thanks to Facebook, Stephen received lots of great birthday wishes from friends. And thanks to the USPS, my grandmother even joined in the celebration.

It's a long story, but I ended up getting Stephen a Wii for his birthday, which may very well be the present he's enjoyed the most of anything I've ever given him. And, it is quite fun! We have both had tremendously sore arms from playing it--mostly from the bowling and tennis. And true to form, I pretty much suck at the virtual forms of these games as much as the real ones. Occasionally I have to take breaks b/c being constantly told by a computer that you are a loser can take its toll. Ha! Stephen's pretty good, though and has gotten his Wii age down to 27 so far.

Here is Stephen when he first saw that I gave him a Wii!


He's super excited!


Here's Stephen's birthday cake. He wanted this candy bar cake that I've made previously. It's the best cake EVER! The batter has melted Milky Way's in it, and there are cut up Milky Ways all over the outside. We still have some of the chocolate marshmallow frosting left over and eat about a spoonful or so a day. It's dangerous stuff! And no, we did not eat the entire thing. Stephen took it to work with him on Wednesday, and I took the leftovers to work with me on Thursday.


Yesterday, Stephen's dad and his wife took us out to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Yum!! Here's a piece of cheesecake that Stephen and I shared--Dulce de Leche--our favorite!



And just for fun, here is why we don't leave toilet paper on the roll when we leave Ella in the bathroom.


Happy Birthday, Stephen! The world is a much better place because you're in it, especially my world! I hope we can celebrate many more decades together!

Big Remote

I saw this universal remote in a home store. Notice my hand on the side. I put my hand in the picture so you could see how ridiculously large this remote is. And if you needed any explanation of what it is, notice the "Really Big" description at the top.

Vacation Pictures

OK, so I've had pictures from our vacation in Breckenridge up on facebook for about a month. But loading large quantities of large pictures to blogger has been a pain and I've not been inclined to go through all the hassle. So . . . here is the link to the facebook album, if you want to look at them. You can even make comments on each individual one. Enjoy!

Breckenridge

The Karate Kake

My sister, Susan, has been seriously training in karate for over 5 years. This past January, she was supposed to test for her black belt, but last summer she tore her ACL during training. After surgery and months of therapy, she got back into full training and passed her black belt test last month! Woo hoo! When we went home for the July 4th weekend, I made a cake to celebrate her amazing accomplishment.





And for my last cake class, I made this cake. It was a lot of fun!

Big 'ol Cake

Somewhat affiliated with several people whom I work with is a non-profit organization called Reach Orphans with Hope. Every summer they bring a bunch of kids from an orphanage in the Ukraine to the States. It's great fun, and the kids are the cutest ever. On the last night, they have a birthday party for these kids (ranging from 6-15 yrs. old) because no one has ever really celebrated their birthday. I got to make their cake this year, and this is how it turned out. Everything on both cakes is edible except for the small floral wires holding the stars.



I also made this side cake. The little "plates" contain the names of all the orphans on them.