CUPCAKES with an IRON MAN twist...

Whelp here I go again planning another party. This time it’s a birthday party for a special girl turning 5. As you all know my little princess loves Iron man. She has made special requests for her upcoming party and I am putting my party planning skills to the test… again.lol

Her request list is as follows:
Iron Man cupcakes
Strawberry flavor cupcakes
A baby shark
Party at ChuckE.Cheese (that has been a request since she was 2)
A trip to the ocean/beach

Here is a look at my to do list to make this super girl’s wishes come true.
Invites-check *ordered and should be here for me to mail off tomorrow*
ChuckE.Cheese reservation-check
Iron Man décor –
Goodie bags-
Chose a good “STRAWBERRY” cupcake recipe
Find/make cool Iron Man toppers-
Make the Cupcakes-
Get the rest of her gifts *Dirt bike riding gear*-
Get the camping gear organized-
Pack for 5 people to go on a 5 day camp trip to the Ocean/Kalaloch-

My daughter’s birthday shin dig is set to occur in 11 days!!!

How am I going to find the time to get my to do list all done? With the fourth of July coming up, work, taking care of 3 kidlets, maintaining a clean environment for my family (home) and taking a mini trip to Oregon this weekend, it seems all overwhelming at this moment. Eeek! I feel a panic attack coming on...

Oh I am also making tons of foody to bring over to a 4th of July BBQ. I am making a whole bunch of  special treats which I will post about tomorrow. I am still trying to decide on a yummy side dish/salad, something new and exciting.

Here are some sights/blogs I found to help me out with some strawberry cupcake flavors…
Gimmie Some Oven has a great strawberry lemonade cupcakes w/fresh strawberry butter cream frosting. Sounds dreamy huh?

Ooh ooh oh… and then there is Love & Olive Oil, this site also has a splendid recipe for Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes.

Sounds like I am settled on the cupcake flavor, now to chose a recipe… Any suggestions?


I wish I can make them cute like these ones….

These Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes are so elegant.

 Or this one…

These Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes are literally adorable and perfect for a summer girly party.

But they are going to look more like these ones…

These cupcakes are pretty much how my Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes are going to look like.

                                    Hey my daughter has a certain request and a love for Iron Man!

Just picture them with Pink/Red and Yellow frosting/cake.lol

I have been pondering lately and thinking I may be a control freak…

Is this some kinda control issue I have?

I tend to plan things out a head of time, make my to do lists and if things don’t work out as I had plan my whole world becomes a tornado.My goal is to do these many tasks with as much patience as I can maintain. If something doesn’t work out it’s NOT the end of the world Andrea!

I need to print that and post it all over my fridge,calendar, desk and end it on my to do list. *wink*

~A LIFE WITHOUT CUPCAKES IS A LIFE WITH OUT LOVE~

My Tiny Jazz Dancer

This weekend was busy right from the time I clocked off Friday at 5pm. Mazie had rehearsals for her dance recital that took place Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning I had to get all my weekend duties done. I cleaned the whole house, and made a much needed trip to Costco and Walmart. Then the rest of my weekend was consumed of dance recital......

Just for Kicks

Presents

"INTERGALACTIC"

Mazie and her dance trophy, after her 1st performance.

 The dance academy Mazie attended for the 2nd time is huge! So they have to do the show into two separate shows. Show A and show B... Mazie starred in show B at 5pm Saturday. T, Me, Ryder, Isaiah and Papa went and watched our Tiny jazz dancer perform. She did awesome! We were all very proud of her... The boys left with Papa at intermission, and T and I stayed since the show still had another 2 hours to go. It would of been pure torture to have the boys stay for the second half of show B. There were 57 performances and Mazie's class was # 20 in the line up. Did I mention there was a show A that had the same amount of performances?  We didn't get out of there until 9:15! I had a very tired dancer by then.lol

Mazie getting ready on day two for the 2nd show.

 Round two was on Sunday... This time I was backstage getting the girls ready and we had the earlier showtime at Noon. I had a blast doing Mazie's hair and make-up. I could totally see myself being one of those pageant mom's... If my daughter had the personality for it.

Mazie was being a HAM with the camera. Must be the make-up.lol

Ahh there is my Tiny dancer's signature pose.

All the Tiny Jazz Dancers-"River Deep, Mountain High"-2011

 For the 2nd show Mazie's daddy, Step Mom and baby sister Emery came to watch. I am glad she had family in the audience for both her shows. She is such a lucky little girl. I got to watch them perform from backstage and was told by their teacher it was the best one yet! The girls danced to "River Deep, Mountain High"- The Glee version. I have had the song stuck in my head for 3 days now. lol

Its Showtime!

Flowers from Daddy and step Mom, after her 2nd performance.

Still silly even when she is all dolled up.

Mazie had a great year in Jazz class... Next year after soccer ends she will be doing Hip-Hop! I have a feeling my daughter wants to be a Bgirl. Just sayin!

Baby Bump-2011

The cutest baby bump of the year goes to..... Drum roll please......

My best friend Bee- Brittany!

Bee's perfecto belly! 4/27/11

 I took this picture on Bee's last day of work.... I literally tracked her down with camera in hand to get the final belly shot just for this post... True story... You can even ask Bee... I swear her co-workers thought I was a weirdo.lol And Bee just knows me way too well to expect anything different then my quick photo shoot.

Bee 6 days before baby Cee arrived. 4/27/11

 The after picture is priceless......

Me holding Sweet Cee~ 6/3/11

The cutest baby bump is now the cutest baby girl!

Froggy Style (overdue update)

Remember back in February when I was planning a froggy style baby shower for my Sweet Bee? Well I finally got with it and did a post on it. Its pretty much just pictures of the days event, my first time making Gluten Free Fondant Frog cupcakes and the mommy to be. Enjoy!

All this for my best friend Bee! 3/5/11



Froggy Cupcakes ready to be transported to the shower. 3/5/11

These are the only pictures I could get to upload... Grrr! Having tech difficulties indeed...
Hannah (T's baby sister) made ALL the froggies. Didn't they look GREAT? I made all the pink Cream Cheese frosting, lilly pads and gluten free chocolate cupcakes.



The cupcakes on display... along with some other goodies.

  Everybody at the shower thought I had these specially made from a professional cupcake place. They were amazed that it was all done from scratch. Hannah was a big help in all this cupcake madness... I couldn't of pulled it all off with out her.

Bee and Me~3/5/11

I can't wait to throw another successful shower/ party. My daughter is wanting Iron Man cupcakes for her birthday.... Hummmm... Do I even dare to try fondant Iron Man decor?

sneak peek-SUMMER PLANS!

My favorite thing to do is plan stuff, it could be anything, a party, an event, a road trip and my most favorite... vacations!


Summer time at my house means trying to keep three children entertained with fun activities, so they don't die of boredom while T and I maintain our full time day jobs.lol

Since T just started his job at Safe Boats International he has a limited of time off until he puts in his 90days. So I am trying to make most of our family fun plans on the weekends.

Our most recent plan that is in the works is taking a road trip to Astoria, OR. That is where Isaiah's grandparents live and we want to take him to see them while he is here visiting from TN. I am pretty excited about this mini trip. Unfortunately my kiddos will be with their dad on the weekend we are going, so it will just be us three going.




One of the places I would love to explore while in Astoria.

  The plan is to leave next Friday right after T gets off work and hit the road to Oregon... We plan to stay the whole weekend... Yippie for three day holiday weekends!

The biggest plan of all is my little princess's 5th birthday! Yep time to plan a princess Iron Man party. My daughter has had some special requests for her birthday this year... She wants an Iron Man themed party, wants to party at ChuckECheese and go to the Ocean.

Kalaloch- Our ocean camping destination. Beautiful!

I have her whole bday week off, so I am going to try my best to make all her wishes come true. So far we have a 5 day camping trip to the ocean planned... As for the other requests I haven't even began to start.


I just hope to get her invites out in the mail by this Friday... *fingers crossed*

I do have a special little surprise for her bday that I am super excited about.... We are going on a day trip to Wild Waves amusment park. It will be Mazie's first time there and I know she will enjoy it just as much, if not more then the boys.
I do have another special family weekend surprise for the kiddos.... Shhhh.... its a SURPRISE trip to...


THE GREAT WOLF LODGE!

I figured what a great way to spend one of our last weekends with all three kids this summer. They are going to love it!

On the adult side of my summer planning I am still trying to figure out where T and I should go for a romantic getaway to celebrate our 4 year relationship together. I already have the time off in August (4day weekend), now I just need to find a cool place to go.

Any ideas?

Weekend update

Lets this say this weekend was full of celebrations!

I started mine attending a co-workers baby shower right after work on Friday. It was a joy to get the whole office together to celebrate the upcoming birth of Kim's baby girl and to say our good byes to her since she has decided to become a stay home mommy. LUCKY!
Meanwhile T and Isaiah were hanging out with Andrew (T's best friend) doing boy stuff.lol

Saturday afternoon Isaiah and I attended two BBQ/birthday parties. Our first was to my friend Ali's daughter's 1st birthday shin dig. Isaiah had fun playing with Ali's boys, while I chatted with the adults.

Then after that party I took Isaiah to his two cousin's double birthday party. He had a blast! They could of played dart guns for hours... oh wait they did. It was nice to see all the kids having so much fun... I had fun too!
After that we went shopping for a father's day gift for T.

T took us out for a Chinese food feast Saturday night!

Sunday.... FATHER'S DAY!
Isaiah was so excited to give his dad his father's day gift... He brought it to T right when he woke up. Its was so cute!


He gave T Sudoku books and word searches... T's favorite! Can't get the guy away from them now. I told Isaiah "we created a monster".lol

I made a big homemade brunch... Eggs, Bacon, Stuffed hash browns and toast. Of course it was a hit! *wink*

The rest of our day we just chillaxed.... Watched some movies and ate junk food/sweets. Both T and Isaiah have a love for licorice I have recently discovered.

T with our crew (Mazie,Isaiah and Ryder)

I just want to thank T for being such a good daddy to all three of our kids... They are all very blessed to have more then one daddy to love them. I appreciate all the daddy duties he takes on with my two kids, and he understands when it comes to parenting ALL of our kids we are in it as a team.


Way to be a team player T!

We love you!

Day and Night....

At this point I am seeking out for any help or advice on parenting. I have a sweet little girl, she will be 5 years old next month. When I was pregnant with my daughter her big brother wanted nothing but to have a little sister. I found it odd since most little boys wish for a little brother. Not my son from the moment we told him I was having a baby his exact words were "I want a sister". Even though his father and I both were hoping for another boy. The day of the ultrasound my son was present, as soon as the tech told us its a girl... tears welled up in my eyes, and dad sat in silence. My son on the other hand was thrilled and pretty much said "I told you so". I have to admit my tears were not of joy, but they were of fear... I was scared to have a girl. Boys just seemed easier, per my own mother whom raised 3 girls and 1 boy.

* Aug 2008*

 Of course when my beautiful daughter was born it was love at first site. I couldn't imagine my world with out her.

My son was born to be a big brother, he loves and adores his little sister. He has always been eager to help out in anyway he could. He protects her, is very patient and understanding with his sister.

*July 2010*

 My children are so loving to each other, every night they give each other kisses and hugs good night.If one is leaving to go somewhere and the other is staying they always make sure to kiss and hug good bye. Its really sweet the love they have for one another.... *sigh*

Sideways!!!

Then there is a whole other side to my sweet little girl... You see she has some "anger" issues, and she has good and bad days. Lately she has been having more bad then good. She tends to be violent when things don't go her way. The violent side of her is only acted upon her big brother. My daughter is a rough and tough little girl. She fears NOTHING... well she told me the other day the only thing that scares her are ghosts. Huh? Last night she bit her brother on the stomach, hard... I mean real hard. So hard it left a bruise and my son was crying so hard that I had to remind him to breathe. When I looked at what she had done I was furious. A "punishment" was given right over my knee, then she was sat in the "time out" chair in our bedroom. I asked her why she did that to her brother and all she could do was shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know?" Lord help me! My daughter seems to show no remorse for this... I had her sit in the chair until she could tell me WHY she bit him. She is lucky her brother is so forgiving and loving...


This was just an example of how extreme she can get with him. She punches, scratches and sometimes uses objects to harm her brother. I just don't know what else to do about this violence. I know she loves her brother, but there has got to be another way for her to show her anger.

The other issue we have been discovering is her lying. Yep my daughter can be a little liar liar pants on fire! Just this week alone she has been caught telling a handful of lies. I am beside myself on this issue... I finally talked to her dad, step mom and T about helping me with this issue. Our next step is going to be with her counselor. If I didn't do some investigation or questioning with some of her lies she has told she would of gotten away with it scott free. It bothers me that she would be okay with that. It seems no matter what we do to punish her it never seems to affect her in anyway.

My children are like DAY and NIGHT (which most are). I have my son whom is a gentle, passive, laid back, emotional and loving kinda guy. My daughter is hard headed, determined, strong willed, and fearless. Both have a wonderful sense of humor, style, a love for music and sports.

As of now I am finding myself in a state of confusion on how to deal with this misbehavior.
I have started to do some reading and research to educate myself more on these subjects in this post.


****I would love to get some feed back, advice or just a simple prayer to help our family get through this rough patch my little one has developed.

SOUND TO NARROWS-2011

I did it! Or should I say WE did it!

This year was my 2nd time doing the Sound To Narrows 12k Run again. Last year I ran with my old co-worker/friend George. He convinced me to become a runner... I had my doubts while we trained last spring and prepared for the longest run of my life. I always had every excuse NOT to run, but once I found my pace I was unstoppable. After finishing 2010's Sound to Narrows 12k run, I felt GREAT!
I began making running part of my lifestyle, especially on a nice sunny or overcast day. Which can be rare here in Washington.
This year I talked my life long friend of 20 years plus to join me. She was just like me, had the same attitude as I did before I started running. My little brother got the word that we were signing up to do the 12k run and of course wanted to join. I was excited to have them “eagar” to join me since my partner from last year was unavailable to make it this year. Either way I was going to run the 12k, with or with out them.

Here is my little Brother Greg "Greggie" and my bff Charlyne before the 12k.

 This was both my brother and Charlyne's first race ever. Charlyne was so nervous, trying to back out and talk me into to just doing the 5k. My brother had only 3 hours a sleep the night prior and was focused on getting a good time. He is extremely competitive, in EVERYTHING.

Charlyne and I before the race. We have been bff's since 1990... Wowza!

 We ran the "RED" 12k race hence the red bib's we are sporting... Yes RED is for the "slower" runners. Hey I never said I was a pro or a fast long distance runner. But I have a mean stride for sprinting *wink* I was so proud of Charlyne for keeping a good pace. She did awesome for her first 12k run, this girl didn't even train for this. What I did to train was run (2.5miles/weather permitted), do my p90x and ZUMBA.

My brother Greg and I before our run.

 My brother is extremely athletic in every which way... He loves running, basketball and lifting weights. This was his first race since he was a senior in high school, and now he is going on his senior year at UW. He is a runner, so of course he ran the "YELLOW" race, which is a step up from the red. I think he should of done the "GREEN" race for the really fast pace runners. Not to brag but my bro is awesome and he finished this 12k along with some of the "green" racers.

Our after running a 12k picture... Still smiling.

Words can't describe the feeling of crossing that finish line. We can't wait to do it all over again next year, right Charlyne and Greg?lol
All I know is WE DID IT and now we are recovering... Hahaha! Stairs are my enemy right about now.

*Nearly 5,500 people ran, walked at crawled at this annual summer event.*

My Obsession...

My favorite channel to watch is the ID channel, which stands for Investigation Discovery. I love it so much it literally is the ONLY channel I watch. I guess you could say I am a little obsessed or addicted or simply both!


T doesn't understand why I like to watch shows about real murder mystery's and investigations. I like the cause and affect parts. Most of all I love it when they catch the predator /the person who thought they could do something so horrible and get away with it.

I am hooked from the moment they start the story telling of how the crime all began, then when,how and why the crime is committed (most cases they don't know why?) down to catching the bad guy and then there is the best part the TRIAL. I love it all! Not that I think people who commit homicide are cool, its the whole fact of knowing the evil doing of what some humans are capable of. The plotting, planning and trying to justify their wrong doing or just plain denying they even did anything wrong. The guilty or not guilty. There are some cases where I think;hey maybe they didn't commit this crime? Most of all I am so relieved at the end of the story to know that our justice system has worked.

Lately as I have been running and preparing myself for the Sound to Narrows 12k run I find myself being very cautious of my surroundings. I am feeling uncomfortable in places I use to have no worries. For example the other day as I was running my usual 2.5 mile run I was starting to feel panicky and anxiety... Which is not how you want to feel during a run on a great Pacific Northwest Spring day... I found myself looking over my shoulder at every sound I heard, I kept thinking about the what ifs. As I approached my turn around spot there were two men sitting on some rocks. They looked like they were either taking a break from selling stuff (door to door) or waiting for a ride. I thought it was a awkward place to be hanging out, but I just keep running on by. Of course one says"Hi"... Grrr! Me being nice I replied with a "Hi" back and kept moving, but I had to turn around and run back by them (up hill). As I passed by my second time one said "Keep it up, what you are doing is working for you girl". I replied with a out of breathe "thanks" and I kept running by, I don't think I have ran up hill so fast before... As I was finishing up my run, I kept thinking OMG these dudes are going to come after me... I have seen so many cases of girls on their daily run/jog and get attacked. That is when I realized my obsession with the ID channel has spun out of control. I was now seeing everyone as a threat or a potential predator. Everywhere I go I make myself aware of all my surroundings and start obsessing about if its safe or not?

I have even been warning my kids about these kinda things, my poor kids are going to be little worry warts cause of me. In a way I think its good to be prepared and cautious of dangerous surroundings and people. I find it taking a toll on me in so many ways. My anxiety level is sky high, I started having nightmares of horrid things happening to me, my kids and my family.

Maybe T is right maybe I shouldn't be watching those investigation shows all the time... When I say all the time I mean when I get up for work at 5:00/6:00am I don't turn the TV on to watch the news like I use to or jam out to music... No! I put it on the ID channel and watch "Deadly Woman" ... I find my self watching this channel for hours. I will clean my house during commercial breaks and watch it while folding laundry. Some days when I am not on mommy or girlfriend duty I just veg out curl up on the couch and watch marathons of Disappeared, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, I (almost) Got Away With It, Wicked Attraction, 48 Hours, On the Case with Paula Zahn…. Ahh my list goes on and on. Those are just a few of my favorites.

T doesn’t understand why I like to watch these shows… He thinks they are depressing and that I am a weirdo to be so addicted to them. I try to explain to him that its interesting and educational and I love the story from the crime, investigation and out come of catching the perp (unless its unsolved).

I have always been interested in topics like this, I would love to get in the career of CSI… But it takes a whole lot of schooling and tons of experience in the police force. So I will just settle with my obsession with my shows.

Other familiar shows I find interesting before I found the ID channel were “Snapped” on the Oxygen channel and First 48 on the A&E channel. T use to get worried when I watched “Snapped”, he thought I was watching the shows and getting ideas from the crazy women who would just SNAP. He didn’t get that one either. Lol



Am I alone in this obsession or should I say interest?

How my babes got their names

I have been thinking of names... How we come up with them... How well they fit our personalities... and how they are so unique in so many ways.

When it came down to picking names for my two children we stuck with unique and different names. Names you don't hear very often... Since my children's grandparents were so unique when picking out their father and uncles names I was very excited to carry out the tradition.
The tradition actually started with Ryder and Mazie's Great Grandmother Marilyn (R.I.P). She was a mother of 9... yep nine children. They all had five letters in their first and three letters in their middle names. The tradition was carried on with their grandpa and Grandma when they had their boys (Basil Ash,Miles Oak and Trent Jet). Super cool huh! *Hippies*

My name planning first started when I was a Sophomore in high school. I took a early childhood education class where we had to cut out a pic of a baby, name them and list their characteristics. My baby was a boy, and I gave him the name Jonathan Rider. I always loved the name Jonathan... all because of the show “Who's the Boss”... Remember that show? Tehehe! The name Rider I had heard one time before... I thought its was so cool and I had never met a Rider before.
As time went on I met my ex Miles my junior year in high school... We would talk about our future together and names for our future babies we planned to have. We both were huge Beatles fans... I fell in love with the name Jude...(Hey Jude) I wanted to be able to sing that to my "future" son... I had the idea of naming our children after names in songs so I could sing it to them as they grew up. Thinking that it would make their name something extra special ;).
Miles on the other hand liked the name Rufus for a boy... Eeeek! So for his graduation I got him a puppy... and he named him Rufus. Few whee! Thank god we got the puppy before we started having babies.*wink*
After we were married and found out we were expecting our first child my mind was already set on the name Jude for a boy... Miles agreed too... We had the name Aubri Rae picked out for a girl. I racked my brain everyday trying to figure out how to spell Jude with 5 letters... Judde... um no... Judus (Jude for short)... Nothing seemed to make sense. As soon as we found out we were expecting a boy... the name game started! Miles all of a sudden wanted a Miles Oak Jr. Noooooo! I mean I like the unique name but I wanted my son to have his own name, his own identity.
So we purchased a baby name book... I was suggesting any unique name that could be spelt with 5 letters. My mother came up with Jaxon (my maiden name is Jackson) and said you can call him Jax for short. I loved it... But every name I suggested and liked Miles would shoot it down with a big NO! This man was stuck on having a Junior...lol
I suggested Rider... and got a huge N-O!
Finally one day as we sat in his mother's living room thinking of names... I said the name Rider again.... I could see the wheels turning the brain thinking and I finally got a OKAY! I also remember getting a big kick from the baby, I figured he liked the name we decided on or was telling us NOOOOO! Either way we had finally agreed on a name for our son and we were going to stick with it. As for the middle name... I had nothing to do with that one, I left it up to Miles to pick it out since I chose the first name. He went through that huge baby book picking any "boy" 3 letter name... Ali (pronounced Ah-lee as in "Muhammad Ali"), Ere (pronounced Air) and then there was Ion (pronounced I-on). I said yes! There we had a unique 5 letter first name and 3 letter middle name.
RYDER-Knight, Mounted Warrior

ION-God Is Good



Its funny cause my son loves to RIDE dirt bikes, quads and anything with wheels. He started his dirt bike riding when he was just 28 months old… The name fits perfectly!

 Picking our daughter's first name was simple as a dimple... One evening 2 years before she was even thought of *wink*. Her dad and big bro were watching a classic 80's movie "Uncle Buck" you know the one starring the late John Candy. The two little twins in the movie names were “Miles and Maizy”. I came home after they watched it and was greeted with "Hey I have the perfect girl name." This was out of no where since we were not planning on having another one for at least a few more years.Then he had also suggested Mitzy, I thought it sounded like a stripper name lol (I secretly really like it now).


I liked the name Maizy even more…
So about two years later when I found out I was pregnant our girl name was already picked and set. As for the boy name I liked Tytan… I wanted to have a Ry and a Ty… Cute huh? Okay well I certainly think so… Plus I liked STRONG names warrior names.


As soon as the ultrasound tech told us we were expecting a little girl we were very surprised (we both wanted all boys). Ryder on the other hand was estatic… He was praying for a little sister. Now we had to figure out the spelling of her name and a 3 letter middle name. There are so many ways to spell Maizy… At work one day a older retired school teacher asked me if I had a name for my baby yet? I told her the name we had picked out, she was excited to hear it. She told me it was a old fashion name, and there is a old southern song from 1901 that was called “Maizy, my dusky daisy”.
She also gave me ideas on how to spell the name. MAZIE, she wrote it in beautiful cursive handwriting and said this way its flows and starts up and then goes down. I loved it!


Now picking her middle name was a challenge… Miles was stuck on having her middle name be Lou… I liked so many different ones. Blu and Aly where my two fav’s. We couldn’t agree… I just kept thinking Mazie Lou sounded so country. My co-workers even got in on the 3 letter name game. Finally on our way to the hospital for my scheduled C-section, Miles said he really wanted her middle name to be Lou… So I agreed as long as it was spelt differently. So he came up with LUE, I agreed and that is how my daughter got her name.


MAZIE-Pearl
LUE-Famous warrior

My sweet Mazie Lue at age 1 she has always loved the camera!

***I guess I wrote this post today cause I have been having baby fever major lately… Maybe its cause I am about to turn thirty one soon, maybe its cause my baby girl is turning 5 and starting kindergarten this fall. Or maybe I just have a certain clock that has been ticking non stop… Whatever it may be writing this post either helped or it made me want one even more. I love picking out baby names… So for now maybe I will talk T into getting me a kitty or a puppy, maybe that will hold me over until his clock starts to tick… Wait do men even have one of those? Baby fever? Get back to me on that one… *wink*