We visited the Wildlife Safari on Ella's First Birthday.
Between the animals, the butterflies and feeding the birds some nectar...
we had a fabulous time!
As you can see...
Ella had a blast! She is very happy to be... ONE!
A few weeks before Ella's birthday Jannene saw a Hugs and Stitches Theme cake and wanted to try to make it. She wasn't sure if she could do it and considered having the cake made. After a few minutes (Jannene says; "it was more like an hour.") of talking to the staff at the bakery Jannene was fairly confident that she could make it herself. After purchasing some fondant frosting, food coloring and getting some other supplies...
The cake making had commenced. From beginning to end, everything was done... by hand, with love of course. Jannene started with dying the fondant frosting each of the colors that she wanted while Johnathan started on the frosting. The bakery had butter cream frosting that Jannene really wanted. However, Johnathan really wanted to avoid using frosting with high fructose corn syrup in it so he offered to make it himself. Jannene was very reluctant at first, as she really liked the taste of the frosting at the bakery. After talking to one of the staff at the bakery Johnathan acquired a recipe and set out to make the butter cream frosting... from scratch! He had "permission" from Jannene so long as it tasted "the same as the bakery's." The frosting had to be made as soon as they got home as if it flopped, Johnathan would have been driving back to the bakery to get the good stuff. To all of their surprise (except for Johnathan's of course)... the frosting was excellent! Jannene said the frosting tasted JUST as good or BETTER than what they tasted at the bakery!
Jannene made the main cake while Johnathan made a personal size butterfly for Ella... which is what she was given to dive into on her birthday.
Yummmm.... Ella had a great time! A lot of friends and family were there to celebrate her special day! Which was a fun filled day for sure! :-)
Some Random photos: Top left: Connor climbed into Ella's crib. He wanted to sleep next to his sister.
Top Right: Jannene loves putting bows and things in Ella's hair. This cute picture was taken BEFORE Ella removed it.
Bottom Left: Connor is a happy and little boy and is growing up so fast!
Bottom Right: Connor and Ella ran into Pluto at Disneyland! As you can see... they liked him.
Easter this year was a fun one. We spent time with Grandpas Dave, Dennis, Jan and Grandmas Lois, Lu and Cheryl. All of which had a great time with the kids! Above is just a sample of the photos, as tons were taken.
Top Left and Right: Ella found her first egg. And discovered it well.
Bottom Left: Jannene, Connor and Ella all dove into a Lightening McQueen "egg" that Connor found.
Bottom Right: Connor discovered chocolate bunnies and chocolate carrots.
It has been weeks since Easter and the funny thing is Connor now frequently asks for carrots. However, he wants the chocolate carrots, not the real ones.
We'll wrap up this post here and will try to post more frequently.
We've heard it said before that "no news is good news." Our six months between posts is longer than we would have liked, but all is going well.
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