Happy Birthday Tyler - 5 Years Old

Happy Birthday Tyler - 5 years old today.

Check out my cool cards

See I told you I could blow out my candle

Halloween Cupcakes

It is Halloween and Tyler's Birthday!! We signed up to do snacks from Cody's class and i thought i'd just make some cupcakes for that and at the same time make them for Tyler's class!

It's not often that i use my class disgustingly sweet buttercream, but it is the safest as it does not contain any cheese or milk product. I wasn't sure how long it was going to sit out and and kids seem to love it!

Buttercream with fondant witch hat

Buttercream with fondant pumpkin

This is arranged for Tyler's Birthday celebration in class

Trick Or Treat - Its just like herding cats !!

Cody's class did a trick or treat field trip today, and Cody quite willingly asked for candies which is better than his normal shy self !!

The hardest part was finding somewhere to park, and then getting the kids to line up for a picture.  Never did get one good one, but we tried our best.

Three pictures, not one
 of them has all the kids
 looking forward

Ready for candy

Tyler's Bowling Birthday Cake

Tyler's been invited to many of his friends birthday and they seem to have so much more fun doing stuff together. So, we thought we'd throw him a bowling party, which of course requires a Bowling Cake!!

As i needed more practice on fondant work, i thought i'd do a fondant style cake which also allows me to finish the cake the night before, so that in the morning, i don't have to do any finishing touches!!

I made the bowling pins a few days ahead of time so that they are dry and stiff for when i put it on the cake. So that night i only had to frost my cake, put the fondant sheet on and add on some little decorations. But i messed up my frosting and had to spend about an hour "fixing" it! grrrrr.. Note: use really soft butter when beating cream cheese frosting!!

But despite that, i managed to go to bed at 2 am(which includes cleaning up)

And for once i managed to remember to take pictures of the process!!

Successful team effort with Alan to put the fondant on

Cut off the excess and trimmed and smoothened

Bowling pins and ball closeup

Pins are on the cake!!!

Some balls and cut out later.. voila!!!

Our last Harvest Party

We had our first Harvest Party in 2004 and since then we've had one nearly every year. I think we missed 2 years. We've gone from a 4 person party to a group of 25+. Every year, i try to incorporate new faces and thru the years, it's been a fun event for us! I remember Halden was the person who invited me to my first pumpkin carving party and it was sooo fun that i wanted to share this fun experience with as many newbies as i can.

But with the toll of two crazy kids and the proximity of their birthday to this party, as i was racing around getting stuff ready, i decided, that i would give this party up for somebody else to host. :)

Anyways, this year's party we had about 25 people again and to make my life easy, i decided on a Panini and Soup party thinking that if i can get the guests to make their own food, i could go to bed early!! It was relatively effortless but not as easy as i thought it would be! :) And what would i have done without my best helper Diana!! 

Panini party turned out to be quite fun and i learned to make chicken noodle soup and tomato soup!! We managed to get 11 carved pumpkins that night and once again a first timer won the competition. This is what usually makes it fun because the first timer are usually quite excited to win! 

My best helper, who by the way, is my only punctual friend! 

Managed to set up a craft table which interested the bigger kids

The spread

Sapna and her fancy wild mushroom pesto panini

Jim and his mayo on the outside idea

Melting deliciousness

So Asian!!!

My panini

The boys helping daddy out with pumpkin cleaning

Our lovely little princess(luckiest little girl on earth)

Tangkwa with her winning design

The little ones making their mini pumpkins

Some of the designs

More designs

One of the Marker boys. Will work on differentiating them next year!! 

I was happy with the way the party went and this was the first year we didn't do the corn maze which was a good idea now that there are so many little kids in our lives. I know i felt more relaxed for sure!!

With that, i think it was a good conclusion to The Millsers Harvest Party series!

Fireman Cody and Captain Tyler get ready for trunk or treat

The boys finally got a chance to wear their Halloween costumes tonight.  The first of many such opportunities I am sure.

Here they are just before the party

Hurry Daddy, its cold !!

First snowfall and snowman of the season

Not sure it counts as a snowfall as didn't leave any snow on the road, but there was just enough for the boys to make a small snowman.

Snowboys with their carved pumpkin in the background

Domestic Bliss?

Here are the two boys carrying the shopping.  Tyler volunteered to carry it, then I had to listen to Cody complain that he wanted to carry it.  When he finally got to do so, he then complained it was too heavy, so we compromised and I made both boys carry it.

We are big boys now, we can buy our own chips !!

Cody rides the big boy slide

Cody was excited to ride the big slide today.  He was rushing around the park, wanting to be chased by Daddy, and then going down all the slides..

Look out below !!

Easier than I thought

Harvest party Cake

It's been quite a few months since i last baked a cake. I've been giving my other project of the year a little more attention.

But I have been itching to do a chocolate ganache top on a cake for some time and since i recently bought 2 kilos of good chocolate, i figured, it was time and my Harvest party provided the opportunity for it!

The whole decorating process probably took about an hour and it apparently tasted pretty good but i didn't have a piece. Got to work on my ganache finish.

Marble cake with cream cheese raspberry filling and chocolate ganache

School pictures.. decent ones finally!!!

Our kids have been in the "school" environment for many years(5 yrs for Tyler, 2 yrs for Cody) which means they have been thru quite a few of school pictures session. But i've never liked any of the pictures. They are usually quite hideous and have horrible cheesy background. I'm a sucker for such scams, if you can't even convince me.. you got a problem!!

But the last round of school pictures have been released and i have to say, they are pretty good! Maybe because i got to choose non-cheesy backgrounds or maybe because i bribed them with slushy if they show the photographer a "handsome smile".. hehehe....

So, there you go. I think they look pretty good, don't you think?

Such a school book pic!

The photographer had to be good to get that smile!!!

Double miracle!!!

Welcome to the 21st century

After years of endless ridicule by my friends, i finally decided to give the fancy phones a try. So, when iPhone 5 was released, i made my move.

OK fine. IT IS a lot nicer and i love my new phone. And OK fine, i don't know why i took so long to do this!

Alan seemed super excited that his wife is also embracing newer technology and wanted me to remember this moment, hence the picture and the blog entry!

I am actually really using my phone much more, not sure if that's a good thing!! My relationship with Siri is still in limbo and i seriously think she needs her ears cleaned!!

So, without further ado, here's to my new phone!!!

That's me and my fancy phone

Tyler's swim team videos

This semester we were quite pleased to know that Tyler qualified for the school's swim team because he's gone quite a way from a kid who was terrified of sticking his head in the shower to a water loving kid. His confidence in water is truly heart warming for me. But, of course this is only because I'm his mom! hehe..

Anyways, i did ask the teacher what swim team is all and she said, oh they are too young to race, so we just practice strokes. And each time Tyler has "swim team" he's always very happy and he says "I love swim team because i get to swim SOOO much!"

I never got the chance to go watch his practice. So, i was so glad when Alan showed me these videos. Thought i'd share them.

I find it so funny to see him willingly practice doing strokes and he is so proud that he's the only "Little kid" in the team. Check it out, he's so tiny compared to the rest. 

This is free style, but he changed style halfway.. hehe..

Butterfly stroke!!!

Breast stroke

Tyler and Cody help with the leaves

Tyler and Cody helped me clear up the leaves, which basically consisted of them running and jumping into the big pile of leaves, then trying to fill the gutter with as many leaves as possible.

Cody was quite the jumper, perhaps he is more athletic than we thought?

Can you spot Tyler and Cody?

Circus Time

Ringling Bros were in town again and we thought it's time we made another visit to the circus. Alan managed to get us some seats near the front at the last minute we were off to the circus with the Heides and Contos.

It was the Dragons tour that were in town this year and we thought last year's tour of the Fully Charged was much better. Nevertheless, the kids enjoyed watching the animals and the adults got quite excited about the motorbike in the globe cage!!!

We also found out that the space in front of the stage is not the best of place to sit!!!

Tyler getting his tattoo

Cody mesmerized during the pre-show

Elephant painting.. it was bad... haha!

Take a picture of the elephant, Mummy!!

Tyler and his clown nose

The Heides

I am Rudolph

The Contos

The Ringmaster

Elephants!! Cody's favorite

The Dragon...

Tyler upgrades to face painting from arm painting

Tyler normally gets his arm or hand painted when we go to the clubhouse for 'free hotdogs for the kids', but this week he decided to go all out and get his face painted by Leah from facefiesta.

Here is his chosen design

I refuse to smile, this is serious you know !!