CITO

CITO stands for "Cache In, Trash Out". Geocachers are encouraged to practice CITO by picking up trash laying around when we go geocaching.

Tomorrow (April 30th) is International CITO Day. Did you know?
Tomorrow also is going to be the first time we participate in a geocaching event. We plan to go to one of the parks in the city (Munroe Park) and meet some other geocachers and together clean up all the garbage in the area. I'm sure my kids are going to be thrilled when they find out what I've got planned.

Tomorrow also is the start of another CCARS event (CCARS - Calgary Cache and Release Spring). I've always wanted to join in the fun and I think we will for a while. CCARS events are a 24 hour marathon event, where some people geocache for 24 hours straight... even going all through the night. There's a start get-together (CITO event we'll be attending), a midnight get-together and a close get-together (bummer it's on a Sunday). Along with the get-togethers with other people, there are also a multitude of new geocaches that are released specifically for the event and people are not to go find them until Noon on Saturday. Most of these new caches are also in different categories (micro, holiday, in plain sight, Monty Python) and then those caches compete to be the best in their category and geocachers vote on which they like.
Sounds fun..... doesn't it??

So, today I'm spending some time looking up the new caches that have gone online and deciding which ones we'll go look for tomorrow and also, which caches in the surrounding areas we'll look for too.

It's absolutely amazing to me, just how many geocaches are all around us. Take a look at this small section of Calgary on this map... Crazy! I bet there are a couple thousand hidden within Calgary. Good thing about that.... you don't have to drive or walk very far to find a new one.

So, I'm hoping for no more snow and a pleasant day/evening tomorrow.
I've also convinced Cam to arrange babysitting tomorrow night, so we can go out together without kids and call it a date night. Cheap and fun. What could be better?

Another Day of Competiton

Today we were at competition again. This time, it was Emily's turn to perform in the group "Magic Show". A Character ballet number. I hadn't seen it before hand and I thought it was so cute. Emily was one of the bunnies. (sorry, no pictures of the actual performance since they don't allow pictures in there)


Emily waiting to get her medal with the rest of the other dancers....


Their performance earned Emily another gold medal. Way to go Emily!!

Yes, Emily's bunny ears are backwards in this picture. She had taken them off and I asked her to put them back on for the picture.

Much better. Good job Emily!! I know you were hoping for a high gold, but I think a gold is something to be proud of.

No more competitions.... until May 8th.... in two weeks we'll be downtown at the Jack Singer. And we get to do it all over again.

Calgary Temple

We're very excited about the LDS Calgary Temple that is being built in Royal Oak.
We love the fact that we can watch it's progress daily and have a good view from our home.
Here's how it looks right now, a view from the large window in our stairwell....


I was also pleasantly surprised to find this new picture on my fridge yesterday. A beautiful drawing by Emily (age 8). I love it! I love that she thought to draw it.


We feel very blessed to live where we do and that one day, in the near future, we will be able to live so close to the House of the Lord. It's a beautiful thing. If you're not a member of our church, you will have the opportunity if you'd like, to view the inside of this new temple before it is dedicated. The Calgary Temple is scheduled to be completed in a year or so from now.

Birthday Cake

It's my sister, Heather's, birthday tomorrow. She loves cake. Okay, not just cake.... she loves icing!! In fact, she might not like cake at all.... she might like the icing only! One year, I should make a big pile of icing and pretend it's a cake. She'd probably love it. Maybe next year.

Although my younger sister, Fern, made Heather a fabulous cake yesterday, I still wanted to make a small cake for her.
I saw a cake online the other day. It was a cake by "I am baker". It looked very easy and looked like it would have lots of icing. Perfect for Heather. If you'd like to see the tutorial, click here.

Here's a picture of her cake....


She took one look at it and did this....

I made her do it again, so I could catch a picture of her doing it. So funny. I take that as a sign that she liked it.
Heather was complaining about looking bad. Whatever. I don't think Heather ever had a bad hair day or anything. She always looks good.


Along with her cake, I also made a cupcake bouquet for her. She's going to have it at work tomorrow to share with her coworkers.

(see the cute terra cotta pot?? I bought it at the dollar store. I think it's super cute!)

Happy 45th Birthday Heather!!
Love you lots Sis!

Dance Competition

Well, we've entered dance competition season for Abigail and Emily (Elora's not interested in competitions)

Today was our first day. Abigail had two dances and Emily had one. They both did fantastic!!
Abigail's group tap number, "Rain" got a High Silver medal.
Abigail and Emily's group jazz number, "Don't Stop" got a gold.
Proud of my girls for all their hard work.

Here's a couple pictures I managed to get of the girls while they were in their "Don't Stop" costumes. They weren't too interested in me taking their pictures, but one day they'll thank me for hounding them to cooperate for a few minutes.

Easter Fun

Yesterday, Good Friday, was the start of our Easter activities.
We went to the zoo for their Easter Eggstravaganza. It seems that we've gone every year for the last 8 or 9 years. This year we went with my parents and two of my sisters and their kids. There were 15 of us all together. The zoo was crazy. Ridiculously crazy! I don't think I've ever seen it so busy. It was hard to keep track of all the kids. But, despite the crowds, we had a great time!! I love spending time together with my family! As usual, I forgot to bring my camera... but my Dad remembered his, so when I get some pictures, I'll post them.

The Easter Bunny always comes to visit our house Friday evening, after the kids go to bed, so we can have our hunt Saturday morning. It's been that way since our oldest was a baby. We decided Saturday was a better day for many reasons. Our two biggest reasons being....
A) It's less hectic on Saturday, particularly when we have early church.
B) We can spend Saturday doing the whole Easter Bunny thing and then on Sunday we can focus on the true meaning of Easter.... our Savior and the resurrection.

Matthew has been counting down the days for the Easter Bunny's visit. He's so excited. I love it! We had a little conversation the other day about the Easter Bunny....
Matthew - "I'm going to stay up and see the Easter Bunny"
Me - "Then what?"
Matthew - "Nothing. I just want to see him."
Me - "What if you were to catch the Easter Bunny"
Matthew - "Oh, we CAN'T do that!! If we caught it, then no one else would get any candy for Easter and that would make other kids sad."
What a good kid.
A little while later....
Matthew - "Mom? Does the Easter Bunny poop candy out his butt?"
Me - "No, I don't think so. I don't know where the Easter Bunny gets his candy".

Along with all the excitement of the impending arrival of the Easter Bunny, there comes a lot of letter writing. Here's the letter that Emily wrote to the Easter Bunny... and his reply.


Here's a few pictures from our Easter Egg hunt this morning.


I'm looking forward to tomorrow. A chance to reflect on my Savior and all that he's done for us. A chance to teach my children about the true meaning of Easter.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Smarty Pants

Matthew. My Smarty Pants.

Being so young, having just turned 5, I'm amazed at how smart this kid is. A.M.A.Z.E.D. I tell you.

The other day, Matthew and I went to play some card game called "Blink". He wanted to count his cards, so I waited. After he was finished, he announced that he had 29 of them. I was surprised. He did have 29. I asked him how he figured it out and he said he just counted them (in his head I might add).
I knew he could count, but I always thought he only knew how to count to 19 or 20... and even then, the few times I had heard him count in the past, he would quite often get confused once he hit 13, 14, 15....
So, for him to get to 29 and be correct, I wondered how he managed it. So, I asked him to count and see how high he could get.

1, 2, 3, 4.....13, 14, 15.......28, 29, 30......60, 61, 62..... and on he counted without a single mistake....77, 78, 79..... pause (tv can be distracting) "what number did I say Mom?" "79 Matthew, know what comes next?" 80, 81, 82........ 97, 98, 99.
"What comes after 99 Matthew?"
"I don't know"

This kid amazes me. He's a total Smarty Pants. And here I am, totally oblivious to the fact that he picks up on things that I'm not even aware that he knows. None of my girls could count like that at 5. He takes after his Dad I suppose.

Trying to get a nice picture of him can sometimes be such a challenge. Oh well. Makes me love him even more!


I'm going to really miss him when he goes to kindergarten in the fall. Who will be my buddy to hang out with during the day? I'll be so lonely. But already I can tell he's going to love going and learning new things each day.

Cakes = Busy Weekend

It's been a crazy weekend. What's the saying?? When it rains, it pours?

It all started Thursday.
Thursday I had a request to make a birthday cake. A mock-wedding cake. Yup, they wanted a birthday cake to look like a wedding cake..... for two 17 year olds. The two families have been friends forever and since the two kids have birthday only a day apart, same age, and are such great friends, it's been a long time joke that one day these two would get married.

I thought and thought about what I would do for them. In the end, I thought a cake with a figures of her and him sitting on the edge of the cake. She likes basketball, so she'd have one in her arm. He likes books, so he'd have one in his arm.

So, here's a look at the cake I made for Ryan and Emily!! I hope they enjoyed their birthday cake!

The banner "Congratulations Ryan & Emily" actually isn't attached to anything.... because if you flip it around, it says "Happy Birthday" too.


Does that bow look familiar? Yup, that's the one I did that I posted about in my previous post... so now you get to see the whole cake now that the Surprise party is over.


Okay, Thursday is done with.
Onto Friday's projects..... which was ridiculously crazy since I had to have it all done early because I was going to a scrapbook conference with some friends that started Friday night.

Friday morning consisted of another missionary cake (minus the top decorations since they were being reused from the week before), 200+ mini cupcakes and another mini cupcake bouquet. Sounds like a lot? Take a look.....

Oops. I don't know why this picture is flipped. Oh well, it looks all the same anyways....


Phew! Now that is a lot of decorating in one morning!

Then it was off to "Camp Croppin" to spend some time with some great friends! A big thank you too, to Liana, Kelli and Serena for driving me to and from the conference so that Cam could have the car for family errands (yay! he survived taking the girls to dress rehearsal on Saturday). Serena was nice enough to send me a couple pictures from our weekend together.....

Fondant Loopy Bows

It's been another busy day of cake decorating. Sorry, you'll have to wait to see the finished cake that I did today.

But, I thought maybe I'd post a little tutorial for any of you who are looking for an easy way to decorate a cake and make it look impressive.

Fondant Loopy Bows.
Anyone can make them! Even you!

First off, you need some fondant. Any kind of fondant. I'd even say, you're fine to use the gross Wilton fondant... cause it's more for looks and less for eating.
Next, stretch and play with the fondant til it's soft and workable. The, roll out on a lightly greased surface. Then, you'll want to cut it into thin strips. Thin, as in 1/8". And it doesn't matter what you use to cut the fondant. Sometimes I use a knife, sometimes I use a pizza cutter. Whatever.

Then, you're going to want to pick up each strip and wrap it around a skewer or a paintbrush handle, chopstick or something else that's thin and long. Twist it around like this...

Then, slowly slide it off and let it dry. Repeat with the rest of your cut strips.

Next step is to make the bow loops. I usually like to make these in advance. That way they're nice and firm and they're not going to lose their shape when you build the bow. Sometimes I'll make this the day before. Anyways, roll out some fondant and cut into thicker strips. Thicker as in 1", give or take. It's very flexible and you don't have to worry about them being all the same width. Oh, and the length will depend on how big of a bow you want. I usually make mine around 5" long. Like so....


This is a handy tool. I think I picked it up at Walmart for a couple dollars. Or you can find it at Michaels. This can make stitched looking lines. This part is optional. Make stitch marks along both sides of the strips....


Next, pick up each strip, shape it into a loop, pinch the ends together and leave on it's side to dry.


You'll want to make 15-18 of these. When you're done, set them aside for now.


Okay, when your loops have dried enough that they'll hold their shapes and not collapse, go ahead and start assembling your bow. You'll be surprised at how quickly it comes together and how pretty it looks. Start by arranging the bottom layer of your bow, like this....


Now, start making a second row. Ideally, it's nice to have the second loop fit kind of between the bottom ones, but it won't always work out since you'll be using less loops. Use a little icing to help hold them in place.


Ignore the fact that you can see my lovely nail polish totally chipped and coming off. I rarely wear polish, and this is why.... cause it usually looks like this. Anyways, focus on the bow. We're done the second row, now go ahead and fill in the remaining top gap with a few remaining loops. If it doesn't seem to fit very good on the bottom, go ahead and cut some of the corners off the attached part to help them fit better.....


Looks pretty good, but just wait. Now, add some of the curly strips between the loops, to help fill in some of the empty space....


So pretty!! You can make this bow on any cake.... butter cream covered cakes or fondant covered cakes. Doesn't matter. Seriously, give it a try on your next cake.

Oh, and for a different look, try coloring your fondant two different colors, rolling out each seperately, layering them and rolling out again. That way you have one color on one side and a different color on the other side. It'll look more like this....