Look who's 3!

This weekend we celebrated Riley's 3rd Birthday!  Where did 3 years go??  He is the sweetest, smartest, most fun little boy you could ever meet!  He will definitely brighten anyone's day, and Bryan and I are so happy to have such a sweet nephew.  He wanted his party to be on Granny's porch in Bradford, so that is of course where we had the party!

He had a farm themed ice cream cake that his mom made, and I made sugar cookies and had lots of fun decorating them for him!  He is SO into Toy Story this year, and loved his Buzz and Woody watch we got him.  He also loves tractors, and was really into tractor books.  Last year we were totally into Elmo, but Elmo is old news now...:)

Partying on the porch!  I love the big old tree's!  This one's a beauty.

Riley noticed I was out taking pictures and came running.  He has one speed.  Fast.

Ice Cream Birthday Cake, Riley's sweet and talented momma made!

Cookies I had so much fun decorating! 

Boat at the pond at Granny's.

Yummy stuff.

Bryan and Riley!

Bryan loves his Riley, and Riley loves his Uncle Bryan!

A sweet kiss from the birthday boy...someday he'll be too old to give me sugars, so I steal them while I can! :)

Looking at the moo cows! 

Bryan is still getting over being sick, but when there is a sweet boy's birthday, you have to tough it out!  We can't miss this stuff!  We are so thankful to live close enough to our family to be able to make it to these things.  Riley loves Benihana's just about as much as Bryan does, so Friday night we met Riley and his parents at Benihana's in Little Rock before heading to Searcy....and Riley kept us entertained!  He love with the cook would do the "egg wolls!"  He got so excited about shrimp and fried rice...he's definitely related to Bryan! :)  They brought him a birthday cake and sang to him, he was so excited!

Finishing off our evening playing around at Sam's Club, we found all kinds of things we needed!  

Baking-Mania

When I was in college, (which is starting to seem like a long, long, long time ago, in a far away land) I worked in a coffee shop. I loved my coffee shop job! And part of my job other than being an excellent "barista" was to bake things to sell at the coffee shop! Everyone that knew me thought that was funny, since I had NEVER baked before...and I was baking for the general public! HAHA. Now, I am so glad that I had to learn how to bake a few things during my time there. And now, when Bryan and I aren't busy running all over the place, I really like to bake!

With football season coming up, birthdays, and tailgating...I wanted to try and bake some razorback themed stuff. We are celebrating my mom's birthday tonight, and I thought this would be a good chance to practice.

Exhibit A.- Razorback Cupcakes! I think they turned out pretty cute, I have to get some better icing tools to do the details, but overall I was pleased! They weren't too much of a pain, so I think I will make them again for tailgating! These are amaretto cake with almond buttercream, per Bryan's request.

Exhibit B.- The razorback cake. I'm not too pleased with my cake pan, because of how narrow the tail of the razorback is, it's get's overdone while the middle is barely done. But, it looks almost like a razorback...so I am happy.

PS I had NO idea how much food coloring it would take to turn white buttercream into razorback red icing! TONS!