Baby Shower Cookies

Our neighbor...worlds best neighbor....Heather, is pregnant and due to have a baby girl at the beginning of the new year. We are super, super excited for her and her husband, Hugh. A while back, she asked if I could make some of my awesome-not-so-famous-yet sugar cookies for her babyshower. I was thrilled that she asked and even happier when she picked out this cute ones.

Photo from Suz Daily Blog. :)

 

 

Lucky for me, she picked out cookies from a Google search and landed on a website called:

http://www.suzdaily.com/2012/10/how-to-make-a-cute-baby-girl-cookie-for-a-baby-shower.html

 

This lady is good!! She provided a step-by-step process on how to replicate these adorable baby faces. I take no credit for the creative aspect these cookies carry. I'm a total copycat and thanks to "Suz Daily" I was able to make 50 cookies for Heather. Just for good measure, I do use my own cookie dough recipe that has been modified from a wonderful family recipe...thank you Karen!

 

Suz Daily...THANK YOU! All your tips, lists, photos, do's and don'ts were WONDERFUL!!!

 

I made, cut out and baked all the cookies a week ahead and froze them. This really helped cut down on the craziness in the kitchen. Mid week, I practiced on two of them. This helped iron out what worked for decorating and storage and what didn't.

Practice!

 

With a little confidence under my belt, I tackled the bunch. 



Just a few cookies...





Day 1 decorating ended like this.



Day 2 include cheeks and smiles.



Day 3 was perfect for final touches.

INSERT HEATHERS SHOWER PHOTOS HERE. :)

I was able to do all these cookies while these two mystery men were either sleeping or at school.
 

 If you need some cookies, you know who to call! :) Then, I'll contact Suz Daily and beg for more tips!!

Random

This is just a total catch all post.

Here's to life with the Anderson's in Florida!

1. Neighbors yard.

Axel?

2. SK8TR! I may have posted these photos already but just in case I didn't here's Axel. 

3. Cake decorating contest for the school's Green Corn Festival. Lucas and Axel got into their cake decorating this year. I put on the base frosting but after that it was all them. I give them tooth picks for sketching and numerous piping (frosting) bags for them to be creative with. All the cakes are used in the festivals cake walk. We spent over 30minutes that night trying to win one back. I finally convinced them to cake-walk-away by reminding them that we could make more at home. :) It was a good move, we got to hit all the other cool activities at this Fall Fest. I was proud of their hard work and patience. Way to go guys!!


Lucas' Minecraft Creeper



Axel's Furby



Lucas' Minecraft Cake cake.

4. Lucas' class went to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center to watch a play called THE TEACHER FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. I was picked to be a chaperone and had 6 kiddos in my group. The play was just over a hour long and the performers did great retelling 5 stories. It was really fun and what an awesome group of second graders. Thanks for letting me share in this cool field trip!

Skyler, Lucas and Gabe.



Emily, Aiden and Marisol.

5. Food experiments! For anyone not in the know, my husband is a total FOODIE now! It's great and has been so much fun to watch him learn and explore all the cool foods out there. It has definitely helped living in Florida because the food here is amazing!! Well, the seafood and Cajun food is amazing. The Mexican food is not so good so we have taken it upon ourselves to master some delicious dishes. It takes a lot of trying and adjusting but we think we are doing pretty good. Our specialties include: Fish Tacos, Chili Verde, Cochinita Pibil, Omelets, Sweet Pork Tacos and we hope to add Mole to the list soon. We have a list of other things but we are most excited about Thai chicken wings and curry dishes!

Nego Mole in the making. It's so cool how all these ingredients create a smooth flavorful sauce that is awesome on any meat.

Daddy is our expert omelet maker...this one is his chili verde version.

6. Lizards moving day. This guy traveled on our car for about 7 miles, right there on the windshield wiper. He now lives across the bridge in Destin. He's a rebel...must have been tired of Bluewater Bay.

 

7. Lucas' Literature Circle Final Project. For the past month, Lucas has been reading the Magic Tree House book called Twister on Tuesday. His final project was to build a model of one of the scenes from the book. He loves tornados so this was all him! Mommy helped glue the "grass" but other than that, Lucas took charge and made sure I didn't help too much. His next project is all about Isaac Newton! We can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Looks awesome Lucas!



Axel was great help too!

Close up!

8. Yep, I bet you were wondering about that photo! Mr. Hugh is a jokester!

 

Phew, I think I'm just about caught up!!!

Robotics Judge

INSERT DADS CAMERA PHOTOS!

 Daddy signed up to be a judge for a robotics competition at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, FL. The competition was for area middle, junior and high schools. We had 4 hours to check out the competition and the campus. The boys and I headed out to the nature trail to break things up. It was very extensive with over 10 miles of mountain bike/hiking trails and we actually found real hills! It was just what we needed.

We hit the concession stand for some popcorn then off to the nature trail we went. It starts off on a boardwalk through a swamp. Nope, no alligators!

We were about 2 miles in when we found this guy! It was the biggest spider I've ever seen that wasn't a tarantula.

Yikes!



Magic wands for everyone...they were posing while I tried to get photos of the spider. You can see it in the foreground on Lucas' sleeve...barely.

 We hiked over 3 miles and barely made it back in time for the fun part of the competition. Each team had a robotic arm that had to do different timed tasks. It was like being at a pep rally the whole time. The teams were supported by their family and friends and cheering squads. It was exciting but LOUD!!

The boys preferred the quiet room with booths set up by each school. They find out just how hard it is to use a simple robotic tool. We talked to them about how difficult it is to make a real robotic arm and making one follow commands. It was  a great learning experience. The schools have some pretty impressive programs.

Axel building a wall puzzle.

We loved watching him try and try and try.

Lucas tackled the hanger game.

He too, tried and tried and eventually got the hang of it.

Going to Joe Patti's Seafood Market is a must anytime in Pensacola. They have an amazing variety of seafood for really good prices. They also have a sushi restaurant, gourmet shop, bakery, gelato, etc. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This was Lucas' tooth walking in...

This was him walking out!! He let that loose tooth dangle literally for weeks. It was driving me crazy so I asked him to try to give it a little tug so he wouldn't swallow it eating his gelato. Out it popped! Whoot! I think he was happy to have it out too!


Love the gap Lucas. :)

HALLOWEEN 2013

 Halloween night started early with this excited bunch. These are some of the neighborhood kids which started trick-or-treating at 5pm. I'm sure they surprised some unprepared houses but boy were they ready to go. The boys jumped right in!

Crazy bunch!

Check out this awesome costume! Ha!

Only in Florida!

After round one with the neighbors, our family broke off for a second go down the street. Daddy and Lucas had scoped out some great trick-or-treating routes the day before on a bike ride. We hit some quiet areas to spread Halloween cheer which also meant LOTS of candy for the boys. People were so excited to see them and gave more than enough treats.

 MORE PHOTOS FROM DADS CAMERA GO HERE. :)

We had all really enjoyed the evening and the amount of candy was almost absurd. I love it!

Check out the loot!!! Piles and piles which will be shared with Daddy's office. :)

Happy Halloween! We hope you had a wonderful evening, we sure did. It's so nice to have Daddy home for the holidays!

Not Quite Halloween Yet

I love Halloween and was so happy that it was more than just a one night thing. Our neighborhood exploded with new families and the amount of elementary aged kids tripled. It's been great for the boys and for us. One family held a pumpkin carving/chili evening. It was a perfect way to get into the  spirit of Halloween!

 

Our boys were pretty tired of pumpkin carving but not Daddy! He got right to work on his. :)

Good neighbors and tasty food...and drinks! Thank you!!

Daddy got a jump start.

Getting the fire pit fired up!

After some tree climbing, the kids got involved.

Great job Daddy!

See the little blonde guy on the back of the cart? This is Luca and he so, so, so reminds me of Lucas when he was a baby.

Moms on the left, Dads on the right...I think we did great!

More serious business, S'MORES!! We have a new family from Britain who had never had them before. Daddy was about to rock their world! Yes, they loved them!!

Later in the week, Axel's preschool had a party. He was so excited and had a great time dressed up with all his classmates. They had cool snacks and then divided up into groups for activities.

I was the tattoo station leader but some of the others moms helped out with a rice dig, sticker decorations, bean bag toss, pin-the-face-on-the-jack-o-lantern and a pumpkin race.

Dinosaur and Chirs, aka, Gavin and Axel.

I really enjoy seeing everyone's costumes. So cute!!

The highlight was the pumpkin roll!

Go Axel Go!!!

 

What a fun day!!! Axel had a great time and Mommy loved that she could help. Halloween was getting closer...