1st Day of Preschool 2010

I have been so busy this past year, that I've completely neglected our blog. The longer I neglect it the worse it gets, because I can't just skip over all this time. I feel the need to fill in the gaps, so the next several posts will cover some of the major events we had over the past year.

And this is a major event, M's first day of preschool! Love that little girl and miss her when she's in preschool. What am I going to do when she starts kindergarten? This year (2011) she's in her second year of preschool, but this is a picture of her in 2010.

Over the Hill

After having our humble family party, Mike got a big surprise! I made this cake for his real over the hill party. He thought we were just going to my brother's for a relaxing evening. Little did he know there were lots of people ready to yell surprise. We had 80's music and some old pictures of Mike from the 80's. The kids had fun on the slip and slide and in the sprinkler.

Some of the guests.

The cook aka my brother. He grilled up some fantastic burgers.

Mike....after he got over the initial shock of it all.

The pinata line.

Madeline hitting the pinata (dinosaur to go with the ancient over the hill theme). She's hitting it with a walking stick:)

Zachary turns 11!

Wow, time flies! So Zachary actually turned eleven about 7 months ago!.........but I am still catching up, so this is better than never!

Zachary loves to be funny, as he is above in this picture:)

Since Zachary's birthday is in the summer, we seem to have a hard time finding cousins and friends who are not on vacation! Several of Zachary's cousins came over for Zachary's birthday. Zachary requested a baseball cake, so I made the cake and then I decided to add cupcakes.

Can you guess that Zach's favorite sport is baseball? Zachary also loves school and that might sound a little crazy, but I count my blessings every single day! Right now I won't worry about whether or not it is normal for a child to love school, come home and get right to his homework with hardly any persuading from mother, and continue to make straight A's in GT classes. I'm not going to worry, just count my blessings!

Zachary is a tremendous blessing to our family. He is certainly the peacemaker amongst his siblings. He is also the caring child, who always seems to know when someone needs something. He's the young man with the common sense too. He doesn't usually worry about much, he simply does whatever needs to be done to fix anything that's going wrong. Zachary is a GREAT guy to have around when things get stressful. He really knows how to help and how to calm us all down! We absolutely love having Zachary in our family. It is so much fun to have all these different personalities around to contribute to our family in such fun ways!

We LOVE you Zachary!

Some of Summer 2010

Madeline really improved last summer in swim lessons. She's always been fearless around water, so that scares me a bit. I figure I'll feel a bit better if she becomes a strong swimmer, so I signed her up for more swim lessons. I took these pictures of her last summer.

Another cake I made for the 2nd cake decorating class that I took. We were strongly encouraged to put a basket weave on the sides of the cake.

I made a fondant/gumpaste blend to create the flowers and leaves for the top.

After the first cake decorating class that I took, I decided I wanted to make a ton of cakes! We had a cousins birthday party with all the cousins who live here! Madeline had a special request, a princess castle cake. Cousin O also had a special request, a worm cake! So the worm cake looks a little funny, but it tasted good! Cameron and several others requested a fish cake. We all had a great time playing, talking, and eating!

We took a trip to Flag Pond with some friends. There were tons of jelly fish! The kids were very careful to not touch them and thank goodness no one got stung! They were, however, fascinated by them and had a great time fishing for them with little nets.

2010 Spring Recap

We've had so many things going on in our family that are blog-worthy and I have FINALLY made the time to blog about a few highlights!

Madeline and her cousin, O., love to play together. They are so funny to listen to and to watch when they play. I couldn't resist snapping this picture. They both decided to dress up. O looks super important talking on Madeline's pink phone and Madeline obviously thinks she's a beautiful little ballerina.

I took a few cake decorating classes during the Spring and Summer of 2010. These are my very first cakes. It was really fun to learn several different techniques and my family all loved eating the many cakes I baked!

An Orioles game with great seats, fun friends, cousins, and great weather!

Madeline and cousin O. love the sandbox. What child doesn't love to play without shoes and get sand all over and inside their clothes?

This also brings back some of my own blissful childhood memories:)

Joshua is still in band, playing the saxophone. Here you can see him a bit, even though this picture was taken from the very back of a dark auditorium, so not the best shot. Nevertheless, he is doing really well and is 1st seat this year!

Orioles game! We had great seats for this game, but the weather was a little chilly, not what you expect during baseball season! We still had a really fantastic time!

Mike brought Zachary on a fishing trip to the Chesapeake Bay during the Spring of 2010. Zachary had so much fun that he talked about it for weeks afterwards. These are the fish they caught. Here in Maryland we call these Rockfish. This year Joshua gets to go!

Our kids absolutely love to roast marshmallows and hot dogs with Opa in the backyard. Such a simple, yet enjoyable and relaxing thing to do!

Washington D.C. Cherry Blossoms!

World War II Memorial in Washington D.C.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C.

Madeline with her cousin O. at one of the many fun parks near our house.

Nest like a Heron....Madeline with cousins O and M at the Baltimore Zoo.

Baltimore Zoo with cousins.

Our Boys Sing an African song

African song from the Olivier boys

We were all thoroughly entertained with this song. Zach and Cameron learned it in school, then taught it to Joshua. Fun times.

End of Summer 2010 and Into Fall

Last year Mike turned 40. We had a family party. I made the cake, which was also my final cake for the cake class I was taking. Mike thought the partying was over with a very humble family party.....little did he know:)

First Day of School..all dressed in Ravens gear!

Joshua hiking on one of his many Scout hikes/campouts.

Six Flags! We ended the summer with a wet and wild bang. We went to Six Flags. Here we are soaked after going on a wet boat ride....so fun! The Six Flags here also has a water park, so we were able to enjoy water slides, wave pool, lazy river, and roller coasters all in the same day. I'm not a fan of roller coasters and I get frightened every time my children go on one. I'm always super happy when they step off those rides, but I still let them have fun:) I love to hang out with Madeline on the little rides. We all had a great time!