A rocking horse open sleigh

ACA (Alpine Christian Academy) entered a parade in which the younger children could be pulled by their parents on a wagon behind the float. My mother-it-law (Debbie) really was great at coming up for ideas about what we could do and was really the driving force in Aubrey having a special wagon at the parade.
Bryan ended up making a little sleigh with sheets of plywood around the wagon then he tied Aubrey's little rocking horse to the front of the wagon. We just added a few decorations and it was ready to go. Everyone at the parade loved it!
So did sweet little Aubrey.

Spice up your Pumpkin

Aubrey and I also decided to spice up our pumpkin just lying around on our back porch so we painted a tree on it which was fun.

R2D2 Cake

I had the idea for an R2D2 cake for Bryan for his birthday so I asked Amanda Spiess to help me. She agreed and we came up with this little guy. Amanda did most of the work (thank you for that) while I took care of my kiddos. It was made from scratch and was a Southern Living recipe. We were pretty proud of the end product.

We have considered making a few cakes on the side. If you would like for us to make a creative cake for you, just contact Amanda Spiess or myself and we could give you one for a decent price.

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

This past Independence Day we made some homemade strawberry ice cream. I had fond memories of my dad (the late Howard Ray Allen Jr.) making this delicious treat for us kiddos when we were young. I didn't know the exact ingredients he used and neither did my mom but one thing I do remember is that it had Big Red in it. I called my sister and she looked up a recipe online that called for Big Red. I thought I would share this delicious blend of ingredients:

HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

YOU NEED:
- 16 oz of frozen strawberries
- 5 cups of Big Red
- 3 cups of milk
- 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 pint of whipping cream

Mix all ingredients in large bowl then pour into your ice cream maker. Add more milk if you desire it to be less sweet.
(If you own an ice cream maker, hopefully you know what to do from there :)

Ladybug Cupcakes

In thinking of a theme for my daughter's 2nd birthday party, I came up with "Ladybugs." It came to me because I always call her that. She is my little ladybug. Anyway, I had the idea to make some ladybug cupcake so I looked them up and YEP, sure enough someone else had thought of it and had instructions for me. What a relief! Now, I just needed some ingredients and trusty friends(thanks Beth & Vanessa) to help me! The stage was set...



This first little ladybug you see was our demo ladybug. We decided to half the whoppers (the dots on his back) after making him.


Here is the finished product! We were happy with the way they turned out: