Couple o' Cakes

If you're a facebooker, you've likely already seen these, but for those of you that haven't taken the facebook plunge (ahem - Lynn), here are a couple of the cakes I've done recently.

I actually just showed this one in my previous post, but here it is again anyway.

And, this last one is a pie. In case you didn't notice. But I thought it was pretty enough to photograph, and it turns out it tasted just as good. Mmm....

McLeod Family Fun Day

Last Saturday we had a family get-together that was dubbed the "McLeod Family Fun Day." It was my dad's side of the family out at my grandparents' house in Ranburne, Alabama. I don't know about everyone else, but I wasn't expecting such an amazingly fun time. It really was the best time I have had in a while, and definitely the best family function we've had out there in a very long time.

My grandparents owned a good bit of land around their house and sold a lot of it to my dad and his siblings several years ago. So now you can stand outside my grandparents' house and look one way and see Nancy's land, another way you see Judy's land, across the street is Daddy's land, and so on (there are seven of them total).

All of the siblings have been working on their land, whether it's planting trees, installing a windmill, growing a garden, etc. But I think the success of our 'family fun day' can be attributed mostly to my uncle Tommy. I can't even imagine how much time and effort over the last few years he has put into making his and grandmother and granddaddy's land really shine. He built himself a nice country cabin and a pole barn, cleaned up the lake and surrounding land, hung a swing and a rope swing (it's actually hung with a chain, but have you ever heard of a chain swing?), built a bridge... it's just a fantastic area down there now, when before we just didn't even go down there because it was so grown up and probably rather dangerous.

This view is from my grandparents' back porch. You can see 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', as my cousin Tammy put it, and in front of it is the rope swing at the lake that the kids (and adults) played on all day.

Also enjoyed at the lake was the paddle boat.

There were several four wheelers, dirt bikes, a gator and a golf cart roaming around all day.

Josh and Cici took Bennett and Elizabeth for a ride on a four wheeler, and Josh and Greg and I had fun taking the golf cart on a joy ride across Daddy's land.

Elizabeth looks like "Forget about the pictures. Let's get this bad boy out there and see what it can do."

The roar of those recreational vehicles did. not. stop. all. day. There's no telling how much gas was burned that day.

If you look at those first pictures, you can see a motorhome parked behind a tree down at the lake. It belongs to my family that came up from Florida to join us (which was SO wonderful), and in front of it was where the volleyball court was set up.

We used to go out there every Sunday afternoon and play volleyball with the family. I remember this well, even though I was too young to play. Jeff and Greg and I either swam in the pool (that is now covered with grass) or sat with our aunts in the swing next to the court and watched the games.

The rest of the day Saturday was spent eating, visiting with family, and enjoying the newest members of the McLeod clan (even though one's a Thomas and one's a Gibson - it's still McLeod blood!).

Part of the reason for the gathering was to celebrate two of my aunts' birthdays. When Aunt Judy sent out the e-mail informing us of the event, she mentioned having a birthday cake for them. I wrote her back and asked if I could make the cake. I love any excuse to make a cake! It turned out nice, but I would be lying if I said this is what it was meant to be. It was supposed to be two tiers. I kind of had a last minute disaster and could only salvage the top tier. Had it been a paying customer, of course I would have gotten busy and made another, but this sufficed for our family day. Oh, and there was a "J" on the other side to represent Aunt Joan. The "N" was for Aunt Nancy.

These are the two folks responsible for the whole gang (all 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 34 great grandchildren)! When you count all the spouses, there were 72 of us there Saturday!

I think we can, so very honestly, say that a fun time was had by all. And I mean ALL. I don't know of anyone that didn't seem to be having a blast. And I know facebook was full of us the next day, talking about it, sharing pictures, and itching to plan the next one!

I love you all and can't wait to do it again!

My Happy Boys

(thanks to Camille for this adorable onesie!)

A Comparison

Some people say that Cannon looks "just like Bennett!" Well, while he does have some traits that are similar to those of Bennett, he is SO very different.

I thought it would be fun to go back and compare photos of Bennett when he was a wee little one to photos of Cannon.

You tell me - do they look the same? (Bennett will always be the first picture)

Day 1:

Day 4 (first day home from hospital):

Week 2:

Week 4:

Week 6:

Week 8:

Week 10:

Week 12:

Week 14:

Week 16:

I'm in Love

... with this blog! I could spend all night looking at this woman's cakes! Wow, oh wow. If only I could make a cake half as beautiful as what she does I would be thrilled.

I happened across her blog tonight because I am doing a cake next weekend for my two aunts' birthdays. My dad's side of the family is getting together at my grandparents' house in Alabama for a 'McLeod Family Fun Day.' My Aunt Judy sent out the e-mail with all the info - including the plans to have lunch meat and fixin's and a cake to celebrate their birthdays. I e-mailed her and asked if I could make the cake. Any excuse to get to experiment and decorate a cake! She obliged.

So now I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what to do. It's not a matter of not knowing what to do, it's having to choose between all the great ideas I want to try! Mama brought over a Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes book yesterday and oh my gosh, are there some gorgeous cakes in there! You can count on ol' Martha to produce a quality collection of cakes.

So after looking through that book for a good hour I came to the computer and searched Google images for "Martha Stewart wedding cakes" to see if there were additional cakes to be seen. Of course there were, and one of the photos listed was actually this woman's cake (of the blog I'm in love with) that was based on one featured in Martha's book. I'm pretty sure I like her attempt better than the original.

I've definitely still got a LOT to learn. Some cakes are easy for me to turn out, but others take a lot of time and effort. Lots of trial and error. Mama gets called often and will make a trip over (a whole 5 minutes) to either coach me or help me fix a boo-boo.

I can't wait until we have a nice commercial kitchen with all the right equipment at our fingertips. But until then, I'll look forward to making a huge mess of my kitchen next week working on this next cake.

Mr. Independent

Oh, I just can't get enough of the lake this summer. Neither can Bennett.

Last weekend he rode in the tube for the first time with me. Bennett was very indifferent about it. I thought he'd be afraid to do it - nope! But he wasn't overly excited either. He just kind of sat there like that's what he was supposed to be doing, no big deal. While we were riding, I asked him if he was having fun. He said, calmly, "Mm hmm."

We were back at the lake this past Thursday to visit with some of Josh's family, and Bennett wanted to ride in the tube again. He had been playing in the it, just while we were swimming near the dock. He fits so nicely in that little hole that Josh decided he should try it by himself.

I was a little nervous about it, but there was absolutely no one on the lake that day (it was a weekday and school had started back), he fit nicely down in that tube, and Josh's dad and I were both in the boat with Josh, all prepared to jump in if we needed to (I was not in a swimsuit, but you better believe I'd have been in that water in a heartbeat if I needed to).



I apologize for the camera work. I was trying to watch him -not through the camera lens- and lost him a little bit.

At the beginning of the summer, Bennett would jump into the pool or lake to Josh, Pop, Poppa, whoever. But he hasn't wanted to jump the last several times we've been at the pool or the lake. I don't know why. But I guess after tubing all by himself he had a newfound confidence and was ready to do it again - this time, not even needing Josh to catch him. As he says, "I'm gonna do it all by myself!"



I can't believe he's getting so big. He's an actual 'little boy' now. It's so much fun to watch him growing up. I'm trying to really take it all in and not let it just zip right by me. But try as I might...

Photography by Bennett

Bennett is fascinated by our camera as, I'm sure, most 2 year olds are. We usually just let him go to town with it and enjoy looking back through all of his photos.

I thought I'd share some of his best work:

He's a child prodigy, I know.