Turning Two in Texas

Kate turned two on August 6th! We were lucky enough to be able to spend her birthday with family again this year! My older brother and his family just moved to Texas, about 6 hours away from us, and my parents were there helping them move in, so we got to see all of them! (We actually celebrated Kate's birthday two days in a row, but for the sake of the blog, we'll squish it all into one day).

Kate's day started out with a "Nannerpus" breakfast. She has loved that video on youtube ever since she saw it on Aunt Becca's blog! She was so excited when we brought it out to her, her jaw literally dropped!



Her day continued with some fun in the backyard with cousins playing in the mud. Once I realized what was happening, I figured she was already a mess, no use in stopping her while she was having so much fun!

Our little ragamuffins Kate and Nicole:





After a good scrub down and an afternoon nap the festivities continued. Kate loves Dumbo "DEBO!" So I made her a Dumbo cake:



Blowing out the candles:



We opened up her presents:





She has not stopped playing with the tea set and play food set from Grandma and Grandpa Brown since we got home!

The cake was devoured:





The girls got their grove on with Strawberry Shortcake's "Strawberry Shake" (I don't know how we ended up with no pictures of that) while Blake hung out with Grandma:



The party crew:



We finished off the day with a trip to a water park. Kate loves swimming so it was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

Food Network Challenge

I have been wanting to try using fondant on a cake since Kate's birthday last year, but I've heard it tastes terrible. I recently found a recipe that claimed to taste much better than store bought so I decided to give it a whirl! It was super fun/messy to make and I was actually quite pleased with the end result. It was like playdough for adults! My cake didn't turn out super cute, but with a little more time and patience, I think it could turn out halfway decent.



Jason has been wanting to try carving a cake like they do on the food network challenge's so we had our own challenge. I am going to be making a dumbo cake for Kate's birthday this year, so we went with that theme. I didn't want to go up against him in the challenge, because I knew I would lose, so we just made one together. Dumbo? Not quite, but at least you can tell it's an elephant right?



In the end, I've decided...fondant is fun, I love the smooth look it gives, is definitely something I will do again, but still...even homemade...will never even come close to being as yummy as frosting!