My *Sweet* Family Tree

...or The 3rd ALFBE (Annual Lamb Family Birthday Extravaganzzza)...or Christmas in July, because that's what it looked like.

So, if you've been around long enough, you can remember that the inaugural year of the ALFBE was disturbed by whooping cough (You can read about it here...at the bottom of the post).  The following year, the party went on as planned with the theme of Star Wars, inspired by the Williams-Sonoma cookie cutters I found.  It took me some time to come up with the theme for this year's soiree (yes, I'm seeing how many different words I can use for party).  As the official cake and cookie baker and decorator of the ALFBE (I just made it official, just now. It's in print.), I get the pleasure of determining the theme for the get-together.  I have that power...and I kinda like it (insert ominous laugh here).  I take suggestions, but this year, I more or less kept it a secret.  Even when my sis-in-law had my sweet little niece call me on the phone to pry it out of me, I told her it was a surprise! 

So, the theme this year was family.  I know, it's kind of a weird theme for a birthday(s) party, but go with me on this.  I'm not gonna go into all the details, but just know that my family means a lot to me...a lot.  And I love them more than words on a cake can say. 

So, without further ado...our family tree.  Cake style.

This is what it looked like before it made the 3.5 hour trip.  Thankfully, it still looked like this after the 3.5 hour trip.

The presentation. 

The part where I actually made it a family tree!

Fuzzy pic.  Whoops.

And then there were the personalized cookies for each of my 15 family members.  (My last name is Lamb...in case you didn't catch that.)

That's a magic wand on my dad's lamb cookie.  (He's a magician...I'll leave it at that.)

Mom, obviously, is a musician.

My sister's flock.  (Though technically they're not Lambs.)

My brother's flock.

Me and my flo...well, me. ;-)

My little sis and her husband.  (The symbol is for the Appalachian Trail.  They're avid hikers.  And cyclers.  And runners.  And, well, pretty much anything outside.)

My sweet nieces (all but the littlest) patiently waiting for the cake cutting.

There's the littlest!

The damage.

The fam! (Minus Betsy and Kyle...who were in a TRIATHALON!!)

All thanks to these two...

All in all, a fabulous ALFBE! 

I've got some exciting things coming up, I'll keep you posted.

As always, think cookies.

~B~

C is for...Caterpiller?

To those of you that thought I might say C is for cookie (that's good enough for me) or even C is for cake, here's a surprise.  Around here, when I'm icing a cake, C is for caterpiller.  Just ask any of my nieces or nephews and they'll tell you what that means.  It actually all started when I was decorating the cake for the FBE.  I was at my brother's house with 3 of my beautiful nieces and 1 of my 2 handsome nephews.  If you've decorated a cake around kids, you know they swarm you like vultures - mouth's just-a-waterin'.  Now, I don't mind you tasting whatever I've got going on, but one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is double dipping in my icing.  Makes my skin crawl just thinking of it.  It's not because I mind eating after my family that much, because I don't.  It's the fact that whoever is eating the cake is now eating after you too.  And if they're a paying customer, I'm gonna yell at you because you've just ruined my cake. 

Back to my story - the vultures were circling and I knew if I didn't give them some icing willingly, they would try to swipe some while I wasn't looking.  So, instead of them sticking their finger in my icing bowl, I made them stick their finger out and I drew a "caterpillar" on their finger with my bag of icing. 

Oh, they loved it.  And I didn't mind them coming back for seconds because their slimy hand wasn't touching my icing bowl.  (Of course, their mom might have protested seconds...had we asked her.  Have I mentioned that I love being an aunt?)

Well, I had to share the novelty of caterpillers with the rest of my family.  So, anytime I'm icing a cake in this house, my sweet princess of a niece asks for a caterpillar.

And how can I refuse?  Especially to watch how much she loves it.

Down to the last bit!

Love her!