During the month of June I took one of the Wilton Courses @ Jo-Ann to help sharpen some of my cake decorating skills. The class was pretty much based on how to make flowers out of royal icing and some fondant. We did learn a few other skills such as basking weaving and a few other borders. I had a great time in the class and it just cont. to make my love grow for cake decorating. I would LOVE to one day be able to make a little bit of money off of it, but I have more learning and practice before I even think of that. I think my cookies are awesome and my cupcakes are pretty good too, but my cakes need more practice. So far I have Cristiana's tent cake I made for her 2nd birthday that came out pretty good and Toya's birthday cake that I think came out great except for the immense amount of red coloring I added to the red velvet which you could totally taste. My final cake for this class did not turn out as wonderful as I would have liked it to, I was sick with a fever the night I was making and frosting the cake. I over mixed my frosting which gave it a very porous look and I didn't feel like adding a crumb coat which caused me to have crumbs, but the color was fabulous (it was a beautiful green and the flowers were a beautiful rose pink, ivory, and light purple/pale blue). The border (beaded), as well as the leaves and vines came out great as well. Though the frosting was porous looking, I think the cake, overall, came out pretty good for the fact that I was not feeling well. The pics don't give it any justice of course, they were taken with our camcorder since we are still w/out a camera.
Earlier this month, we had a pretty quick but very windy storm, that to my surprise knocked down our wonderful big Oak that was sitting on our front lawn. I was looking out the window as it fell and though I was sad to see it go because it gave our house a huge amount of shade as well as it "framed" our house (as I like to say) I was relived that it decided to fall onto the street rather than on the house. Please excuse the bad photos since our camera is still out of commission.
On Tuesday we took a trip out to the beach (my sister needed a tan). Luckily we had beautiful clear skies, while Jaime called me from downtown Orlando telling me it was storming. Cristiana had a blast in the water with her Tia and enjoyed a nap in the car on the way back w/her Lela. It was a wonderful day!
On Monday, I took my mom and sis to Cranes Roost to walk around and watch Cristiana feed and chase the ducks. It was bit on the hot side so we didn't stay too long but my sis did get a few good pics of Cristiana w/the ducks.
This Father's Day was spent @ the Lowry Park Zoo. My mom and sis were in town and dad's got in free that day, so it was a wonderful way to spend Father's Day out and about. We enjoyed everything the zoo had to offer, except we missed out on some of the perks. We unfortunately didn't get to feed the birds because when we got there, the birds were all "full," I guess from their previous session (strike 1). Then we went to feed the Giraffes, and wouldn't you know it, all 3 Giraffes were as stubborn as could be and decided to ignore us while we stood there with a giraffe cookie in our hands (strike 2). We headed to the kids area so that Cristiana could ride a pony, and though the sign said the pony rides were open until 4:30pm, the keepers had them in their stalls and bathing @ 4pm (strike 3). No luck for us that day, but we did still have a great time and the Cristiana ended a fun trip with time in their splash area, which was also met w/tears when the water was turned off as the zoo closed its doors for the day. We did enjoy some yummy authentic Cuban food there in Tampa (as we always do), Lord knows not many places here in Orlando have real authentic Cuban food (even though they say they are), and drove home.
Thanks for the pics sis!
Here are some pics of the crazy girls (Cristiana and Ava) having fun @ Birthday World. These girls LOVE doing everything. They Love the rides and the inflatables and running a muck in their glow in the dark mini golf. It's always a great time! Thanks for the pics Kristin!.
We made our first trip out this summer to the beach w/Kristin & Ava. The weather was beautiful (not too hot but sunny) and the girls had a blast running around and being silly together. This was our first trip to New Smyrna which everyone who knows me, knows I always love the Gulf but it's only 1hr. away and you can park on the beach so you don't have to lug all your stuff along w/your toddler. Kristin got some great pictures of the girls, thanks Kristin for sharing! We look forward to having more beach trips to New Smyrna now that we know how convenient it is for us.
Here are some pics of the fun we've been having this summer. Short trips to Sea World and enjoying their small Splash Area, lots of "swimming" in Ava's pool, meeting new friends, and of course the weekly fun @ My Gym where Ava and Cristiana seem to really like to hide together (see pics). Thanks to everyone who have been gracious enough to e-mail us pics, since mommy finally broke the camera!
For Memorial Day we went over to the
Grant's hou
se for a yummy b-b-q. We had a great time in the pool and having yummy drinks (Thanks for the wonderful appletinis Joe).
