Kansas City Zoo

The kids and I were lucky enough to get to visit the KC Zoo with some friends of ours that have season passes. We had a great time, and although a lot of the animals didn't cooperate we had lots of fun riding the train (Aubrey's favorite!) and watching the polar bear show off for the crowd.

The girls at the polar bear exhibit...I'm pretty sure that polar bear is not to scale, but remind me to not take Aubrey to the artic anytime soon just in case!

Cutie girls

Polar Bear exhibit...it was packed!

Riding the train

Aubrey would have been happy riding the train all day! : )

Thank goodness for double strollers for tired 3 yr olds! 

Feeding "bambi"

Watching the seal show

Have my cake...and eat it too!

I graduated! : ) ...from cake class that is. So this is my second attempt at taking Wilton Cake Class Course 1. The first time around...Aubrey interrupted my lessons mid-way by being born (how rude of her, right?) so I never finished the course. I took it at our local Hobby Lobby this time with my sister-in-law and it was a lot of fun. It's also a lot of work too to have all the prep done for each class!

I've made (and eaten) a lot of cake and icing this past month thanks to this class and Aubrey's party!

Here are a few pics of my efforts. Please don't judge to harshly...the class time is so jammed packed we don't often have but a few minutes to try each technique and precious little time at the end to decorate before class is over. It's fast-paced but I'm supposed to be practicing this all at home so if I get around to that, I'm sure I'll improve! : )

Also a little disclaimer on the photography: unfortunately its an evening class so I've got lovely indoor fluorescent light pictures, oh well, everything tasted good at least!

A few techniques on cupcakes....I may of had to taste test one on the way home : )

Otherwise my little "taste-testers" get them all!

A little post-bath/pre-bed snack

My SIL making ribbon roses

Our Final Cakes ( I made a small one on purpose...and we're still struggling to eat it all!

Thoughts...

Fishy Face

We met some friends out at Blue Springs Lake Marina to feed the fish last week. There is a HUGE school of carp there that wait around the marina dock for handouts. We bought bags of "fish food" for a quarter and let the girls go at it. They loved it!

The girls kept throwing in the whole baggie of food at one time to watch the fish go crazy.

It was kind of chilly, and here's Asher looking a little unsure about the whole thing.
Yuck...their open mouths kind of gross me out! : ) The girls kept saying..."They're still hungry!" I'm pretty sure they're always "still hungry".

( PS...there is no fishing off the dock for pretty obvious reasons) : )

ME vs. Bambi

So...the deer won.

I was driving home with Aubrey down a back road by a wooded area Saturday night and hit a deer! I've never hit an animal in my life. I saw something in the road ahead ( there are no streetlights on this road btw) and it looked like a large dog. When I got closer I saw it was a deer and I slowed down to let it cross the road and while I was watching it go across a second deer slammed into the front passenger side of the car!

It was really jarring, to say the least, although I'm sure much more so for the deer and after a quick check to make sure Aubrey was ok we went ahead and drove home. The car was drivable but the passenger door wouldn't open and it mangled the front pretty good.

(Pics Steve took for the insurance company)

I was pretty shook up by the whole thing and poor Aubrey couldn't stop asking about what happened to the deer. She said she would go back and get it and help it into the forest. Then she said she could let it come in her room and she would give it a bandaid...sweet. Anyway, we finally got a hold of someone at animal control and just got the car towed in yesterday because of the holiday weekend.

We're currently cruising around in our '09 Dodge Grand Caravan rental for about a week while the body work is getting done. Aubrey's favorite feature are the "magic" sliding side doors that close automatically. Of course we have to say "bibbity-boppity-boo" everytime to make the magic work though. She loves it! : ) and I feel like a total soccer mom...but love all the space! Definitely will need one of those once the next kiddo joins our family. ( Speaking of...my sister just found out she's having another boy! ) We're so excited for them. Anyway, so moral of the story is, eyes peeled on back roads at twilight....you never know!! : )

Give One Million

I just wanted to let everyone know about this amazing project called "Give One Million" that our good friends the Feldman's have created to raise money for St. Jude's Children Hospital. I'll let their video speak for itself....

Help make a difference!!

= = = = = = DONATE HERE! = = = = = = = =

Emergency Preparedness Fair

Our stake hosted an emergency preparedness fair a few weeks back and these are a few pictures from our little outing...

Aubrey was a little nervous in the firetruck...

Apache helicopter

My little firefighter