Cupcakes

One of the things I enjoy the most about being a baker is baking for the holidays. It gives me a reason to be festive and creative. My favorite holiday to bake for is Valentine's Day, there are so many possibilities and the colors are edible. I mean, a pink cupcake is pretty and looks delicious, but a green or blue cupcake just doesn't have the same effect. Of course, all the holidays are fun in their own ways and it's fun to have the changing inspirations. Today I got to make pink strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting and mini heart sugar cookies on top, too much fun.

Disneyland!

On Wednesday Jaime and I got an early start to a great day. We were on the road by 5am, heading to Disneyland! The Grapevine still had snow on the mountains, but the road was clear. 

We made great time and arrived at Disneyland around 9:15am. We met up with Jaime's friend, Ruth, and went into the park. To kick things off, we went on Space Mountain; then we headed over to the submarine ride.

 It had been redone and is now "Finding Nemo" themed.

Ruth and Jaime were very intent on watching their windows.

We went on a couple rides in Fantasyland before getting fish and chips for lunch.

After lunch it was time for one of my favorite rides: Pirates of the Caribbean!

Waiting in line for Indiana Jones.

About this time we decided it was time for an ice cream break, yum. 

Another favorite, Peter Pan.          

      

Next, we took advantage of our park hopper tickets and went over to California Adventure. We went on the swings and Soarin' Over California, walked through the Bug's Life section, and checked out the animation area where we got to talk to Crush (the turtle from "Finding Nemo") and see a zoetrope of Toy Story characters come to life.

By this time, it was almost 8pm when the parks closed, so we decided to get dinner in downtown Disney. There was a crepe stand that quickly caught our attention. We got a couple savory crepes and a dessert crepe to share. The dessert crepe was especially delicious, with strawberries, nutella, banana, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Ruth and drive home. We made good time again and arrived home about 1:15am.

Christmas

It's a little late to be posting about Christmas, but I snagged these pictures from Heather's blog and wanted to put them up. The day started with a beautiful sunrise, followed by a Christmas morning service and waffle breakfast at church.

After a little break while the Nickells and Trevinos opened presents at their houses, everyone gathered at our house. We sang in front of the tree (a Chandler tradition) before opening presents. I was excited to get lots of baking stuff and a new sweater.

These are quilts I made for Heather and Michelle (and myself) with fabric from the flannel pjs Mom has made for us on one side and our childhood fabric box fabrics on the other.

This was actually the kids LEGO set, but we had fun building stuff too.

Delicious ham dinner with all the fixings. Heather made the ham this year and it was so good.

Trying out Jonah's new Settlers of Catan game.

Zoo Lights at the Chaffee Zoo

 

The Chandler/Nickell/Trevino family had an adventure last night, we went to the Chaffee Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. We stopped for dinner at Bravo Farms on the way to Fresno. We felt like we were on vacation with the unique atmosphere.

Then we continued on and arrived at the zoo.

First, we checked out the reptile house, this viper was huge!

A cute newt.

There were lights all over and it was pretty, they were also giving away hot chocolate and cookies at the treat station.

It started raining on us, but thankfully it didn't last long.

They had a touch pool with rays and sharks.

This tunnel was at the end of our walk through the zoo, it was cool!

 

We had a fun time and enjoyed the lights. We didn't see many animals besides the reptiles and rays, but it was still cool to be there and see all the lights.

Rain, rain, rain

It has been raining at our house since Saturday. Things lightened up tonight, but the rain is supposed to continue through Wednesday. This is our flooded walkway, the low part in a flooded back yard. We have been running a pump off and on to try to drain the water.

Our pool was filled to the brim and later started seeping over.

The creek is swollen.

Back on the walkway, the water covered my shoes.

Although the flooding isn't good, particularly in places where they got more rain than we did, I have been enjoying the rain the past few days. It's so cozy, especially with 2 new books to read.

Sunny Day

It was a beautiful sunny and warm day today and I couldn't resist going outside to take some pictures.