the turkey cupcake

with inspiration from my friend Kelly, Gregg's nieces, Jackie, Maddie, and I made turkey cupcakes this afternoon. they were very fun and a big hit! can't wait to serve them tomorrow!

we used the idea from Kelly along with some inspiration from the web...

and we're proud to say that they're just beautiful!

yellow cake mix, chocolate icing, chocolate sprinkles,
candy corn, and some pasty bags did the trick!

moloka'i

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
when I started reading Moloka'i, I honestly wasn't that interested. I didn't catch the cover with a lot of intrigue, and unfortunately, I do judge books by their covers.



anyway, book club decided to read it, and i finally finished (late, as usual) today. i loved this book.



Moloka'i, a Hawaiian island, was home to a leper colony in the late 1800s and into the 1900s, where many people were exiled to live with "leprousy" which was actually something later to be called Hansen's Disease.



the main character, Rachel Kalama, is torn from her family and sent to live at Kalaupapa on Molokai'i.



the book is the story of her loneliness, her love, her hope, and her life. it's a great book because it shows how much a person adapts to their surroundings when they have to.






View all my reviews.

i'm kind of obsessed with cakes

some photos from El's 2nd birthday in September...the caterpillar cake I made for her birthday:

if i ever doubted my betty crocker talents

so, i had an official welcome into the Cavaliere family with an invite to Gregg's brother and sister-in-laws' house in Hillsborough for Thanksgiving. for one of only 2 times out of 26, i'd be spending Thanksgiving away from my family in Greensburg, PA...

SO...with that, i started asking some questions about Gregg's two nieces, Maddie and Jackie. since Jackie's 12th birthday was coming up (it was this past Sunday, Nov. 23rd), we recieved an email from Rose, Gregg's sister-in-law about Jackie's latest interest: robots!

SO, we had the idea to make a robot cake for Jackie's birthday and bring it with us to New Jersey. and that's what I did...I make a robot cake. I'm kind of proud of how it turned out.

making the cake involved making a yellow and chocolate box cake, using a 9x13 pan for the yellow cake, and then a 9" sqaure, a small 4" round, and a dome cake out of the chocolate cake.

after baking, i used the chocolate dome cake for the head, a portion of the 9x13 yellow for his chest/body, the 9" square for his legs, pieces of the rest of the yellow for his arms and feet, and the small 4" circle cut in half for his shoulders.

the gray icing, (mixed white icing with Wilson food coloring paste, NOT food coloring...because it's less liquidy and therefore affects the icing's viscosity less) was made from adding red, green, blue, a little pink, and then a little more green...

the rivets on the edge of the robot are chocolate chips turned upside down.

the buttons and eyebrows are M&Ms...the mouth and outlining is just black gel icing.

the cake was a huge accomplishment:

and this is Jackie's reaction to the cake...we had a lot of fun!

V-O-T-E! again! click here or on the apple below!

my friend, Laura, is on target to try to win for the best "New Homeschool Blog 2008" and I'd like to give her at least a few more votes. If you could, (even though you don't know her), just click on the apple above or on my title link, and go to "10 Million Miles" to vote for Laura, that would be awesome! :) I would forever love you! And it's a chance to vote again if you did or didn't particularly feel like your vote mattered earlier this month!

friends through THICK and thin

I love this group...a shot from last night's bunko...this group includes people who:

• I've taught with.


• I run with.


• are Ohio State fans.


• are Penn State fans.


• are in a book club with me.


• I've babysat for.


• share the love of blogging with me.


• are still teachers.


• are pharmacists.


• hash with me.


• have gorgeous children!


• play Bunko!

spreading myself beyond the PSU lines...

so, i've NEVER, in my entire life, been a fan or patron of the Ohio State Buckeyes. i grew up in a small town, Jeannette, Pennsylvania, until i was 4, where we had a buckeye tree growing in our yard. my only real influence of buckeyes was with that tree, collecting them in a small plastic swimming pool and playing with them. they weren't edible nuts (though a relative of the chestnut) but they were kind of fun to play with because they were hard, made a cool noise when knocked together, and were especially fun to run your hands through if you had a huge pile of them. but i digress...

the OSU Buckeyes have always been an enemy of mine, consider the following facts:

• I am a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University.

• PSU and OSU are both in the Big Ten.

• OSU usually beats PSU in the season. They didn't this year.

• I am from Pennsylvania and have some family and friends from Ohio...forming a natural rivalry.

• A lot of Ohio State fans I know, have always been a little negative toward my boyfriend, JoePa.

However, with all of this against me ever doing anything positive in the light of the Buckeyes, i've turned over a new leaf. i present to you:

YES! You are seeing what your eyes are telling you. I did bake a cake and make it into an Ohio State "O." if it weren't for the cold, hard fact that a friend from Bunko, Carrie, was a HUGE Ohio State fan, this never would've happened. however, carrie, who has been a part of this group since it started (3+ years), is moving to Ohio in January and we're all very sad to see her go. last night, at her last bunko, we gave her a little sayonara with a "Virginia-themed" gift and an Ohio State cake. Carrie, we will miss you...and you've seen another side of me that may NEVER happen again...but should be cherished in all of it's Ohio State glory.

Hope you enjoyed the other side of my leaf. I will be returning to my usual buckeye inspiration (the nut) for the rest of time.