I found this shirt at Walgreens the other day and got such a kick out of it. Of course, I had to buy it. I got some cute pictures of Ella wearing it. She makes the cutest faces!

Leah needed a haircut in a bad way. We went to Studio 11 in Covington. My friend, Brandy, owns the place and did the cut.

David & I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese this past Wednesday. I found a few coupons online, printed them out and brought them with us. David’s brother, his wife and their 2 kids, as well as my mother-in-law, came with us. David & I bought 2 pizzas, 6 drinks and 50 tokens for a grand total of $32. I was really impressed by the price. We can’t even got to Chili’s and get food for everybody for that price, not to mention the games. And if we decided to go to the movies it would cost us way more than that, especially if we got popcorn and drinks. I’m not sure what the price would have been if I didn’t have the coupons, but they are very easy to get on the internet.

Jacob & Leah have been involved with children’s theater since January of this year. There is a local theater group called CAST and they put together plays & musicals for kids by kids. So far, Jacob has been in The Apple of Contentment and Stuart Little: The Musical. Leah also did both of those plus a showcase full of Broadway tunes. In June, Jacob will start rehearsals for Into the Woods in which he is cast as Rapunzel’s prince. Leah will be starring as Duchess in AristoCats. I can’t wait to see both of these shows! The kids love it and I love watching the shows!

A little stray cat we adopted turned out to be carrying 6 precious little babies. If you are interested in giving a loving home to a sweet kitty, Let me know! They are 4 weeks old right now. We have 3 girls and 3 boys.

I’m sitting here with my kids and a friend’s kid watching Disney Channel. Handy Manny is just coming on. I realize that this is one of three shows on tv that introduce children to the Spanish language. We’ve got Dora the Explorer and her male counterpart (and cousin), Diego and then Handy Manny and his talking tools. I’ve also noticed we’ve got Kai Lan, who teaches kids some Chinese words. I’ve only seen Kai Lan twice. One episode was about riding bikes instead of driving cars and the other episode was about giving people choices because it makes them happy. Political children’s programming…. ??? WTH… I’m just sayin’.
Gone are the days of great cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Popeye the Sailor Man. No political correctness there. They’d beat each other with frying pans, shoot guns, drink alcohol and whistle at the pretty girls, and of course, you’d have the occasional racial stereotype thrown in for good measure (can you say Speedy Gonzales?). Gotta love Cartoon Network for continuing to show the old gems from back in the days when Cookie Monster still ate cookies at lightning speed instead of calling them a “sometimes” food.
Ah, the wussification of America. Indoctrinating our children with tolerance and political agendas before they can walk. And here I thought I had to worry about the dvd’s I rent. LOL I’m being over-dramatic… but not very.

The good news is that the cake came out cute. The not-so-good news is that the pan is a pain in the butt.

I also made those cute matching RR Crossing cookies.

I just popped a little something into the oven. My Wilton 3D Train cake pan came in a couple of days ago and in about 40 minutes, I’ll see if it worked like the directions say it should. I have my doubts, but I’ve yet to be disappointed in a shaped pan from Wilton.

This is the stock photo from Wilton’s website:

The directions say to fill (to almost overflowing) the bottom half of the pan. Then, I placed the top half on and tied a ribbon around the entire pan set to keep it from popping open during baking. The idea is that the batter will expand into the top half and complete the train shape. I am interested to see if it will work or not. If it doesn’t work, I’ll simple have to make the train engine out of a few small square or rectangles of cake.

The Wilton Giant Cupcake pan worked brilliantly last October for Ella’s 1st birthday cake.

That cake is still one of my favorites that I’ve done!

I will share my success or failure with this cake endeavor when i pull it from the oven and cool it off. Wish me luck!

And, on a side note, today is my son’s 13th birthday. So today I embark on a new chapter in parenthood…the teenage years. God help me. I love you Jacob! Happy Birthday!

Leah & I just got home a little while ago from her auditions for the musical she’ll be participating in, the AristoCats. Of course, she’s hoping to get the role of Marie. She sang the song from Alice in Wonderland, “A World of My Own.”

She was told she did a good job. I didn’t actually get to see her audition. This will be her 4th play, her second musical. She & Jacob just got finished performing in Stuart Little: The Musical. Jacob may or may not be auditioning for You’re a Good man, Charlie Brown. He’s still deciding. I’ll keep you guys posted.

We threw Jacob a surprise party today for his 13th birthday (which is actually on May 5). My mom took him shopping and to lunch & a movie to get him out of the house so I could prepare everything. We had a good turn out and when he walked through the door, you could tell he was genuinely surprised. He looked downright terrified! It was very funny. I have a picture!