This year's Blue and Gold Banquet had the theme "Safe on the Sea".  The fathers and sons are supposed to decorate a cake according to the theme.  Well, Russ couldn't get off work early enough to decorate with them, so mom was left to do it.  This is what we came up with, after much searching for ideas on the internet.  After we made Ethan's cake, "Safe on the Sea", we decided to make Matthew's cake very similar, only opposite--hence, "Unsafe on the Sea".  It's also a slight commentary on their personalities as well.  :))  Their cakes ended up taking FIRST PLACE!!  Unfortunately, they only had one first place ribbon, and two boys, neither of which would give it up for the other, so they ended up pinning the ribbon on me (Val) instead.  I just looked at an old blog from 2010 and Matthew's cake had also won first place that time as well.  It looked like cars on a Pinewood Derby track.  Russ did that one.

 There are a few sharks chasing a marlin and a sea turtle, and headed toward a boat with pirates in it.  There is also an octopus down in the corner.  The seaweed is actually licorace.  The rocks at the bottom are made of jellybeans, Jelly Bellys, and Nerds.  There are a few Swedish fish on there as well.

Ethan and Matthew preparing to serve up their own cakes....Everybody had a blast and way too much cake!  We still have too much cake left over but we're making it disappear.

Rodeo Day

 Lizzie got dressed up for rodeo day at preschool.

 Isn't she adorable?

 She borrowed her pink hat and boots from her friend, Talia.

This is Lizzie with her friends Talia and Cooper.

Russ goes TDY

 Ethan is wearing Russ' helmet.  Notice Russ' new Major's insignia.

 Matthew takes his turn with the helmet.  Russ left the next day to go TDY to Ohio for some training for 3 weeks.  Then he'll be back for a month before he deploys for a year.

Little Lizzie in her BDUs with Dad.  Aren't they cute?

Kid's Birthdays in 2011

Well, since I haven't blogged since last May (other than the wedding blog), I sort of missed out on the kid's birthdays.  So here is a quick run-down.  In June we celebrated Matthew's 10th birthday with a pool party.  He invited a bunch of his friends, and it was a lot of fun.

 I did not make this Transformers cake--it came from the store.

 Matthew polishes off a big piece of birthday cake.

Matthew is the one wearing the goggles.  They had a blast splashing and warring in the pool.

Next, in September, we had a fantastic princess party for Lizzie, who turned 4.  We had six other little girls come over in their princess dresses.  It was a hoot!  They were all so cute in their princess gowns.  We did some crafts, like princess photo frames, and played a few princess games, such as musical chairs, complete with princess music.  Then before they went home we loaded them up with a bagful of princess stuff.  Stuff like blowers, beaded necklaces, bracelets, etc.  I bet their moms were thrilled about that.

 Lizzie the morning of her party, holding her balloons.

You would not believe how long it took me to make this cake.  The towers and windows come from a kit.  The towers kept falling over and messing up the cake, and then I'd have to reset them.  But, it turned out nicely for an amateur I think (as long as you don't look too closely).

The girls coloring their princess pictures while waiting for the party to begin.

 Lizzie is dressed as the Princess Tiana, and she is holding a picture of Tiana that she colored

 Charly, Lizzie S., Talia, Lizzie B., Sari, Ruby, Emma

Princesses!

 Lizzie and Talia, holding the movie and Barbie Talia gave her.

 Lizzie and Ruby, holding the dolls Ruby gave her.

Lizzie tries out her new princess bicycle

All in all it was one heck of a party!  I think they all had fun.

 

Then in October, Ethan turned 8 and he chose to have a small party and get a big present.  So he had one friend over, also named Ethan, and he got the Nintendo DS that he's been wanting so badly. 

 Matthew, Ethan and Ethan check out one of the new Nintendo DS games he got for his birthday.

 Ethan F., Ethan B., Matthew and Lizzie

 I made the Jack-o-Lantern cake!

That's it for the birthday run-down for 2011.

Deanna & Steve's Wedding

 On December 30, 2011, my younger sister, Deanna Nielsen, celebrated her marriage to Steve Dickson here at my home in San Antonio, Texas.   We got up early and went to my friend Diana Hoelscher's house, where she and her sister, Linna Rowell, fixed our hair.  As you'll see from the pictures, Deanna looks just like a princess, so they did a good job don't you think?  Russ and Steve set out to get the wedding flowers and cake for later on.  We all met up for lunch at Maggianos restaurant over by the Rim.  The food was delectable.  After lunch, I took all the parents and the bride and groom out to the Japanese Tea Gardens in downtown San Antonio.  It was a beautiful December day, with clear skies and temperatures in the 70's.  In that beautiful and popular setting, we took lots of pictures.  Then we hurried home for the ring ceremony which took place on our new patio.  Bishop Kent Gottfredson said some nice words for the ceremony and then Steve and Deanna exchanged rings and kissed.  After the formal stuff was out of the way, Steve and Deanna celebrated with the kids by jumping on the trampoline!   They cut the cake and everyone enjoyed eating and talking, with a lot of Dance Revolution competition going on after awhile.  It was altogether a great day and a lot of fun.  My parents, along with brother Seth and his wife Sarah, drove all the way out from South Carolina to attend.  Steve's parents flew out from Utah to be with us.  We had a great time with everybody here, and enjoyed laughing at each other's hilarious dance moves.  Little Ethan was the star of the show, as he really got into all that booty shaking.  Well, on to the pictures...

My sister, Deanna, and her fiance, Steve, came out to San Antonio to get married, much to my delight

Deanna looked gorgeous in her dress--people were stopping to stare at her and even photograph her themselves

We took these pictures at the Japanese Tea Gardens in downtown San Antonio.

The happy couple. 

Steve with his parents, Steve and Carmen Dickson

Deanna with her parents, Kriss and Peggy Nielsen

Deanna and Valancy (the sister & photographer)

Steve and Deanna with my kids, Matthew, Ethan and Lizzie (shivering)

The cake had white swirls and curly-ques on the sides, with purple satin ribbon and purple flowers on it.  Simple and beautiful.

Sarah & Seth Nielsen, Steve & Deanna Dickson, Russ & Val Bastian

Deanna and Steve celebrate by jumping on the trampoline

You don't see a bride do THAT everyday

Deanna really wanted velociraptors on the top of her wedding cake, so when we were done with the other pictures, we put these guys up there.  Hilarious!

Current pics

 Here is my little soccer player.  Isn't she cute?

Ethan loves playing on the computer.  Here he is animatedly telling me something about his game.

 Matthew just being silly.

 Lizzie loves playing with her Barbies.

 I got my hair cut today.  I just stopped by my friend Diana Hoelscher's house, and she said "Let's do it" and she did.  She's awesome like that.



Lizzie baby

 Here is my little baby.  She's not so little anymore.
When we say our prayers at night, everyone first says what they are thankful for, so the person praying knows what to say.  Lizzie is always "thankful for preschool and ballet".  She attends a preschool co-op twice a week (5 other ladies and myself trade off teaching weeks), and loves it!  As for ballet, she's gone a few times, but still seems too little understand what's going on or to get much out of it.  But she still loves it anyway.  Now she is starting soccer season, with her first practice and game this week.  Russ and I looking forward to watching a pretty funny game, with all those 3 and 4 year olds running around.  She's got shiny little pink soccer shorts to wear.  I can't wait to see her all dressed up to play.

We got SNOW in San Antonio!

 School was cancelled today for "inclement weather".  We got about a half inch of snow.  It melted by 11:00 a.m. but we went out to play around 8:00 a.m. and had fun sliding down the "hill" next to our house.  This might be a joke to other places that actually get a winter and enjoy snow for a whole season, but it is a rare thing down this far south in Texas.  Even the big kids were out playing in it!

 We used our laundry baskets as sleds and it worked pretty good.

 We saw other kids using anything from boogey boards to plastic tables or plastic garbage bags.  Our idea was the best.

 Russ swung Ethan around in a circle, which worked well the first time...but the second time he fell out on his head.  That was the end of the fun for Ethan, poor guy.  He is always the one to get hurt.

All in all, we had a great time.  Russ even got to stay home for the day!