Making a cake with fondant

For Mabel's birthday this year, she repeatedly requested a 'Shaun the Sheep' cake. Shaun is from a show that Luke & Mabel watch together ... I had suspicions that Luke had suggested this is what she should have and this is where her request came from. When I asked what flavor she wanted, all she would tell me is that she wanted Shaun the Sheep. I started doing a little looking around and found a video of someone who'd make a Black Forest Shaun Cake. Mabel really, really loves fruit and it made sense to do one with fruit in it.

I'd never worked with fondant before and it scared me a bit, but I had noticed a recipe to make your own using marshmallows. We had some stale ones in our cabinet from our last camping trip, so I gave it a try. It was actually very easy and Luke loved helping. I made the cake layers and cut out the shapes for the head earlier in the week and had put those in the freezer, so when Mabel's big day arrived, it was somewhat easy to put it all together.

I used WAY more cherries than the recipe called for ... and probably a lot more whipped cream too!
It looked so pretty at this stage I really didn't want to add the "decorations" but since it was Mabel's birthday ...

Before {and after} his final coat -- the kids thought it looked like he'd been sheared!

Mabel could not stop looking at the cake to even look at the camera.  Guess that means it was a success :)

Backpacking with DAD

When Luke turned five Jason told him that they would have their first overnight backpacking trip together. September was the month that they got to do it! Luke was incredibly proud to be going out to do this favorite thing of Jason's together with him.

Luke was mostly excited about the hot chocolate and other treats to eat, but it was an overall good experience for him and he is looking forward to next time.

Day two -- heading back to the campground at their trailhead and enjoying one last outdoor meal together.

Lamenting Summer's End

The Fall season started here several weeks ago with cooler evenings, changing leaves and of course the appearance of Fall drinks and foods. I have most definitely not been ready to say goodbye to the gloriously long, warm days of summer.

I'll admit that I must be one of the few people who doesn't look forward to Fall.  I've come to realize that it's not that I don't like Fall itself, but that I really don't look forward to what it brings .... WINTER! Living in cold climates with children for the past four years has made me really not enjoy what seems to be six months of frigid and yucky weather.

With ice forming on our cars in the mornings (ahhh!) and the first official day of Fall last Saturday, I am accepting the season, but happily re-living some of our wonderful summer moments. We did have a really nice summer.

One of the things we enjoyed the most this summer was our backyard. We know we are incredibly blessed to have this space all to ourselves and we tried to enjoy it to its fullest. We are so thankful to have a yard and for the fun memories we got to make in it!

Making a FREE fort/playhouse!! Using old doors left in our basement by the previous owner.

Making backyard games ... using more of our old doors!

Another nearly free item! Found someone giving away play yard sand. We loaded up bins in both vehicles & picked up wood at Habitat. Perfect!

Loving our backyard produce & flowers!

More fun days -- and yes, Luke is wearing cowboy boots to ride his new scooter! :)

Enjoying Storybook Island

Free Fishing Day at Canyon Lake Park

Thankful for these friends - Annika & Helena, our next door neighbors from our first home here. 

Kids Day at Main Street Square

Saying goodbye to  one of our first Rapid City friends, Addison. 

Hitting up pretty much every lake in the Black Hills for beach and/or canoe days - Roubaix, Deerfield, Sheridan, Pactola & of course Angostura!

Three birthdays in five weeks! Whew! Jason turned 40, I had wonderful friends from Moscow visit for my special day and Mabel turned THREE!

Random pictures -- this was a World Cup year and games started at 6 am our time. We had a lot of family mornings in bed watching futbol!!

Plenty of midwest-style weather -- crazy cloud formations, immense lighting storms, huge hail and beautiful rainbows.

To wrap it all up -- church in the park last Sunday for a baptism service & potluck. A beautiful way to end the season.

Camping in the Big Horn Mountains

We got to go camping over Labor Day Weekend which was wonderful. We headed West to Wyoming and enjoyed the Big Horn Mountains.

Camping at higher elevation made for some very chilly nights, but we'd crammed as many extra blankets and layers into our subaru and managed to not be too cold. Our campground had gotten snow earlier in the week so we were glad that it had "warmed up" before our visit. We were thrilled to get to watch two moose meander past our campsite on our first morning there!

Jason had done his backpacking trip to the Big Horns last month so it was fun to get a taste of where he'd been in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. We also dropped over to the other side of the range and were amazed at how quickly the landscaped changed from beautiful, forested mountains to dry canyons and then just flat. We managed to come across the tensleep fish hatchery and had a great time checking out (& feeding) the growing trout.

As always, it was great to have a chance to explore a new place.

The main reason the kids LOVE camping -- the s'mores & hot chocolate!

Kids, happily drumming on an old coffee can. The simple pleasures.

Tensleep Fish Hatchery

Starting SCHOOL!

Luke officially started kindergarten on Tuesday. It is really strange to see him becoming a "big kid." Although since we made the decision to home school it feels like he get to be my little boy for a bit longer.  We hadn't really planned on homeschooling but after doing some research, decided that it would be a good situation for all of us for this year. I think it could be really fun :) I am thankful to several of my friends who generously shared their homeschooling knowledge/experience, making my planning job a lot easier.

For Luke's first day of school, we had a special breakfast, did a little table/class work then headed out for a hike. It was great and we collected a beautiful Fall bouquet to go along with our Botany lesson.

Watching hot air balloons lift off @ the Fall River Hot Air Balloon Festival

We got to do something on Saturday I have never done before - go to a hot air balloon launch! It was really, really cool! Lift-off was at 6 in the morning and an hour's drive from our house which made for a very early departure, but it was well worth it!

After the launch (& a quick stop at the beach), we headed to the festival in the nearby historic Hot Springs which lasted all day. The park was full of bounce houses for the kids, plus artists, musicians and vendors. A lovely day!

Arriving at the air strip before sunrise ... not much happening yet.

Downtime between the balloon lift off & the festival beginning = a morning at the lovely beach at Angostura Reservoir. Hurray!

A stop at the Mammoth site to go inside a hot air balloon - so cool!

Ending a great day by splitting an ice cream cone - YUM!