Puppies: 5 days old

The pups are now 5 days old and everyone is doing well. It's amazing to see just how fast they've grown in these few short days. Their bellies are nice and plump and for the most part the litter is all growing at the same rate. There's one female that is a little smaller than the rest, but not by much. Enjoy the photos!

(Female)

(Males)

(Female)

The Puppies are here!!!

Dharma Whelped 7 puppies today... yes, 7! That's a big jump from her last litter of.... one. There are 6 surviving pups (the first one didn't make it). 4 females, 2 males all black and silver in color.

Mom and babies are doing GREAT!

Cake Mania

I think this is the first post that's NOT been about Wyatt. Sarah Nafziger, Emily Baer and I took a Cake Class in Toledo for the past four weeks. We learned all kinds of things, like how to properly frost a cake to piping. Before all of this I just figured you opened a can of frosting, slapped it on the cake and called it good. In reality decorating a cake takes time, lots of time... sometimes a few days in order to let your decorations dry correctly.

The above photo is of some cupcakes we had to do. We learned drop flowers, figure piping, how to make a clown out of frosting (and let me tell ya, it takes A LOT of frosting) as well as some writing techniques.



Ah, the "Wilton Rose". The crowning glory to any cake. ha ha. Let me tell you it's not all that easy at first. Who knew that the consistency of the frosting would play a big part in making our decorations. It was crazy. After practicing a few times though, all three of us got the hang of it. My roses started off looking like cabbages, then transitioned into carnations and finally started looking like roses. Whoopie!







I wasn't too keen on the color of my cake, but the taste... oh my. It's dark chocolate fudge cake with a layer of chocolate mousse in the middle. The frosting was espresso butter cream with dark chocolate decorations. I added some dripped chocolate ganache to the outer rim. mmmmmmmmm... heaven.

So all three of us passed the class with flying colors. I'm planning on taking the 2nd course once I get some free Saturdays again.

I've been itching to put my newly learned skills to use, so with some help from Wyatt (he helped mix the cake) I made a Good Luck cake for their forthcoming tournament game.

It's a white cake with white buttercream filling and frosting. The blackbird is dark chocolate that I piped and filled. The stars are also dark chocolate.

It was delish! - They forced us to stay and have a piece of cake and some icecream. :)

I'm really enjoying making cakes, so if anyone has a birthday or special event and you'd like a cake, I'm for hire!

The next American Idol...

I'll let the videos speak for themselves; but I have to say, my son is a bit of a Ham.

The "Girls"

Dharma, resting on the couch after a bath.

She cleans up pretty good!

Hazel decided to tease Dharma by squeaking her ball, and it didn't take long for Dharma to jump in on the fun and start playing with Haze. This lasted a good half hour or so. We were starting to get tired of hearing the "Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"

Hazel taking a breather after her bath and playtime with Dharma.
She has a different coat than Dharma, it's coarser which I kind of like.
It dries faster and seems to be resistant to matting around her elbows and legs.
She's such a cute pup! We're still debating on cropping her ears, but we'll probably end up having them done. I don't think they really look like a schnauzer until their ears are cropped.

Bowling Fun!

We decided to have a family night and took Wyatt to the "Bowling Alley-gator" (that's what he was calling it). He's never been bowling before and we had a great time. We played two games and each time he ended up scoring a 73. Not bad for a 2 year old! And we didn't even use the gutter bumpers - although I think Adam's and my game would have greatly improved if we did!

Lucas' biggest fan

Little did Lucas know, but he has a fan club!

About once a week I get asked "Mom, we go watch Lucas play basketball?" So we've been attending some of the home games to watch our cousin's son play (and to support the rest of the blackbirds of course!). Wyatt, with some assistance from mom or course, typed up the sign he was holding. He hunted down each of the letters on the keyboard and found almost all of them by himself!



I'm really impressed as to how well he watches the basketball games, I was afraid this year I'd have to miss them because he wouldn't sit still, but he's really surprised me. Sure we have to bring some toys, and he goes from lap to lap but he really does enjoy watching them play.

And of course Wyatt has a fan club of his own! Here he is with Kate. (Thanks for taking him for a stroll Kate!)