Book group

On a well thought out limb a month ago I asked on facebook if any of my local friends would want to do a book group and guess what, a lot of people where interested! I was really excited , the last book group i was in lasted for ... it want to say a little over 2 years??? It was a good long while and I loved it. I am happy to have a new and different group now- the other one kinda fell apart as people moved and them the remaining 3 of us all had babies one after another and book group ended. haha.  I have been so excited. We had our first meeting last night. I hosted (I was super nervous-silly) The book was Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. For dessert I made that yummy cake Micheal liked that I decided to call Michael cake.
I felt like it went pretty well I am so excited to keep this up every month, I have missed having a book group and this seems to be such a wonderful mix of nice people! There was so good disscussiong- admittidly i did not find good topics from teh book to really delve into but i think it was okay- as it was the first month alot of time was spent kinds introducing ourselves.

Recipe for Michael cake (so I don't forget it later)
For cake:
Chocolate cake recipe-I have been using the kind arthor flour gluten free dutch chocolate cake recipe)
2/3-3/4 cups toffee brittle bits
1/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
caramel ice cream topping (homemade or the good stuff-not that cheap syrup)

For filling:
3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 small package cheesecake flavored pudding mix (or vanilla or white chocolate)
1-4 TBS powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Mix cake as recipe says then add in toffee bits (retain a few for sprinkling over the top of cake)
bake -I like to use my 6 in rounds for this since they are more fun.
when done remove from oven let rest for 5 min in pans and then place on cooling racks.
Meanwhile prepare filling and heat up caramel
Now make the filling using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer place heavy whipping cream in bowl. With the mixer on low or the "stir" setting slowly add in the dry pudding mix. Whip until it is just shy of a buttercream consistence and add in vanilla and mix add powdered sugar to taste but you probably need at least a little bit to take away from the pudding flavor. Should form into a very light fluffy buttercream consistency. If you beat it too stiff add a Tbs or so of milk and mix on high for a min -it will soften back up.
when cake is warms but not too hot to handle carefully with a bread knife slice each round in 1/2 so you have 4 round layers. Place bottom layer on pan poke with fork or toothpick and poor warmed caramel (a few Tbs) over top of the layer.
Next top that layer with a generous amount (1/4 of the filling mixture)- eyeball it.Then add the next layer of cake and repeat for all layers.
You are done. You should have a tall yummy looking cake that is beautiful left "naked"- in other words you dont really have to "frost" the cake- but I guess you totally could I did that once and used plain whipped cream on the outside it was yum.

Eli's 5th birthday Party!

Each year we do celebrate birthdays and sometimes we invite friends and family.
But this year was Eli's 5th.
A Big deal in our family circles.
5 is the end of preschool years and the hello school and testing and more responsibilities and more complicated social interactions and ..... I am getting emotional. Anyways in our family the BIG years are 1,5,8,12,16,and of course the year they graduate 18.
 So we threw a BIG party! (well big for us)
Eli choose a theme and we sent invites to everyone in his preschool class and some other friends and family.
It was a very busy weekend (Easter weekend) so most people could not come but Eli had so much fun and we had a good turnout! I would have loved for him to have more people there but truth be told , I think anymore would have stressed me out!
We got decorations and Eli requested a Store bought cake, we played a few games and had a pinata we opened gifts and sang to him.
He told me later that pin the hat on the minion game was his favorite part of the party. Kayden liked aiming the foam rockets at the minion posters best.
I always love watching the little kids get the pinata (that is probably why my kids get pinatas at so many birthdays!). I was SO glad that my parents, brother and sister with her family could be there. it really felt special for cousins to come since cousins live so far away.
We love our big boy and hope he had a great time!

Bridal Shower

Saturday evening was Jessica's Bridal shower.
We had a ton of fun!
 The "theme" was basically pink.  We had a really fun time putting things together for the shower. We had quite the turnout. It was basically standing room only.

My mom and aunt and good friend Holly and I got everything ready. Thank you to everyone who helped in anyway and who came to help Jessica celebrate!

We had Chicken salad sandwiches and parfets , and delicious lemon bars (thank you for those Holly).

We had everyone sign in in a little book we requested for them to write advice etc. also when people signed in they could fill in a blank for mad lib's.

It was chaotic at times but we had the game where you try to make tissue paper dresses in teams and the best one the bride picks as the winner.

We also had asked her Fiance Todd to answer some funny/ sweet questions for s about Jessica. He was great! His answers where hilarious, and sweet.
We also presented her with specific snacks from him, chips and salsa, a chocolate pie and cookie dough. She also got flowers and a letter from Todd- the letter was just for her- no one else read it-.

the winning gown!

Aunt Marla's Birthday Candle!

After most people left Jessica found a corner to read Todd's Letter. 

running and cute pictures of my boys

I wanted to post this with an amazing shoot of me running looking all tough but , really that will never happen. But the great news is my awesome friend and running partner Rylee and I ran 5 miles this morning! We can totally do this! We have been running in the mornings (5:30 AM) and have done the evenings a few times, I am so glad I have a running friend! Thanks Rylee!!! We will rock that 1/2 Marathon in September!
In other news- possibly more exciting to almost all of you friends and family, Kayden is talking a bunch more and we are soooo proud of him! Eli is really learning his numbers, and both the boys have decided in recent weeks that they love spinach- as a salad in smoothies (I have bee tricking them with that for a LONG time) and in food (like pasta). Awesome!
We had a play date this week and the kids had so much fun playing and swimming with their friend... I am writing about this but realized i took 0 pictures, that's right zero, none... I feel like every blog post needs a picture so here are a few cute ones.
The first three pictures are from when we played in our kiddie pool in the back yard and the last two are from when we played int he "kiddie pool" at the Nobles house (its really a blow up raft they fill with water- best pool idea ever!)