Double Birthday!

Here are some photos of the girls' double birthday a couple weeks ago. Both sets of grandparents came down for the big party as well as Eric, Christi and Tim (uncles and aunt). Elsie wanted a Cookie Monster cake and Grace wanted an ice cream cake (see post below for video on ice cream cones). My mom made the Cookie Monster cake above (way to go Mom!) and I made the ice cream cone cakes (with help from family). If there is one thing I learned from the ice cream cone thing it's that I did NOT get my mom's talent for decorating with frosting. As I was attempting to decorate the cake cones I was having very strong negative feelings toward the lady in the video. They have got to have some special effects going on in that video because it was NOT as easy as it looked! The cupcake would fall apart as you tried to spread the frosting on. I think more cake and frosting ended up in my tummy than on the cone :) We did find out, however, that both Christi and Eric are quite talented at ice cream cone cake decorating (I'm sure this talent will come in handy quite often in their lives)!

Cookie Dough!

Elsie and I made some chocolate chip cookie dough today. You can tell she made herself right at home on the counter licking the beater. I'm going to try to make homemade cookie dough icecream. We purchased the icecream maker attachment to go on my Kitchenaid mixer and it works great. So far we've made vanilla, mint, and strawberry and they've all tasted wonderful!

Elsie is 2!

Happy birthday to our big 2 year-old girl! Elsie's birthday was the 15th of January. We celebrated by have a little party on Saturday with my parents and the Rasmussens from next door. My mom made a "Hello Kitty" cake and we bought a few balloons and decorations from the dollar store (2 year-olds are easy to please!). We had a great time and Elsie seemed pleased with all the activities. You can see her pictured above and below with her new "Hello Kitty" bee-bee (this is how she says "baby"). Our gift for her birthday was to go to the Build-A-Bear store at the mall and let her pick out a stuffed animal. Once she had her baby safely in the cardboard box house she insisted on carrying it out to the car herself. This was quite humorous as the box was as big as her and she had to drag it along the floor. We've found 2 year-olds can be quite determined! How these past 2 years have flown by!
Mike's 31st birthday was on Sunday, the 18th. To celebrate, Mike and I went out on a date night, I made him his favorite chocolate cake (his mom's recipe), and then my parents treated us to Flying Pie pizza on Sunday. We were sad that Mike's parents couldn't make it down from Spokane for all the birthday festivities. Shirley dislocated her shoulder shortly after Noah was born and has been dealing with severe pain ever since. They are missing their grandchildren and looking forward to the day life gets back to normal. We're praying the doctors will be able to figure out what's wrong very soon.
Update on Elsie's potty-training: she seems to have lost interest for now and has only been going on her potty about once a day. We're feeling relaxed about it and must admit I'm relieved not to be starting the intense training for awhile.
Elsie and "Hello" bee-bee.

Elsie even blew out her candles all by herself after several tries!

My mom said this cake was the easiest she's ever decorated. I thought it turned out so cute!

Elsie and Her Bear Cake

On Saturday we did a small get-together for Elsie's 1st birthday. We had the Rasmussens come from next door and Elsie's little friend, Lise de Lijster, also came (she brought her parents, Guy and Becky, with her :) My parents came from Bend and my brother is also home on leave from South Korea right now. We all ate pizza and then watched Elsie dig into her bear cake my mom made for her. We decided to keep it low-key for this birthday as Elsie's not even aware of what's going on and Elsie's mom doesn't have the energy for large parties anymore ;)

Elsie liked her birthday cake and hung out on the table eating it casually for about 15 minutes. I decided I am a big fan of "low-key" parties, especially when I'm the one hostessing :)