"Bunnies in the Grass" Cupcakes

I just wanted to quickly show you guys my newest addition on cupcake artistry that I made for my little birthday get together a couple of weeks ago. My dear mother in law gave me this wonderful book called "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Ridchardson for Christmas last year and I finally had an opportunity to try something out. I know, why need an opportunity for baking cupcakes, right?

Anyway, we had a cake but I thought that maybe the kiddies would enjoy their own cupcakes. This is what they looked like (I only made fifteen, instead of the twenty-four, so the effect isn't that great but good enough). I thought the bunny/grass cupcakes would be cute, because my birthday was the Saturday before Easter.


And this is what they looked like, being eaten by Sofia and her friends Nicholas and Zoe! I guess they liked them?


The cupcakes were chocolate, for the grass I used a green tinted, basic vanilla frosting and decorated it with malt eggs and flower sprinkles. The bunnies were first coated with chocolate frosting, and then rolled in crumbled Oreo cookies (for the fur effect). I didn't use the the Oreo filling, just the cookies. The feet I made with white fondant and chocolate frosting decor, the tail a sugar covered mini marshmallows.

It was so much fun to make!

Spot the Doves

Two lovely doves were lounging in the shady part of our dirt patch in the backyard this afternoon, and I thought it was just lovely to watch. Unfortunately, they flew off once they realized they were spotted by me, but not before I could take a few pictures of them!
I'm starting to think that maybe we should keep that dirt? Because, not only do the doves find it comfy, but we also "rent out" that dirt patch to finches and other flying friends for their nightly "dry dirt bath". Never thought that dirt would be so attractive...hmmm.

Ps. The two doves returned shortly after for more lounging ;o)

4 Years and Counting...

Joe and I celebrated our fourth anniversary yesterday! Wow, I seriously can't believe it's been four years already! We've been quite busy during that time. Some of things we've accomplished are:
* moved from our tiny appartment in Palo Alto to our rental house in Sunnyvale,
* bought a house in Nampa, Idaho (just for the heck of it)
* had a beautiful baby daughter
* visited Switzerland for 6 weeks (well, Sofia and I. Joe joined us for the last 2)
* lived through Joe's kidney stones
* and finally bought a house for us here in San Jose, CA

To celebrate our fourth year together, he surprised me, by arranging a date night, organizing a babysitter (thank you again Bigi and Angi!), making sure they had something for dinner (which is like, a huge deal for me, not having to figure that out), making a reservation at the Left Bank in Santana Row, and taking me out to the movies later on. This might not sound like a big deal to some of you, but to me, it means the world! I have been so busy digging up our backyard that I almost forgot about our special day! I mean I knew it was coming up, but did not even attempt to arrange anything...and certainly didn't expect anything!

We had a great night out, enjoyed each other's company, without the monkey's interruption (as cute as she is!) and I thank my husband for taking charge, and surprising me like that! Love you, babe!