In an attempt to once again get a good picture of the kids, Possum decided he wanted to try his hand with the camera. He was very careful with my camera and actually didn't do a half bad job-for a three year old! We have not had an overly exciting week, but it is starting to get busy around here now. Last night was our adult Christmas dinner at church. We had a fun time. Tonight we are attending a party. Next week is the ladies cookie exchange here at the house and Friday is Joel's birthday. On Saturday we will have dress rehearsal for the Christmas play and Possum and Squirrel will have their Sunday School party that afternoon. That Sunday will be the play with a fellowship following and on Monday we will host the teens for their Christmas party. Sometime that week we will leave for Christmas in Alabama followed by Joel's annual duck hunting trip to Mississippi with his best friend from college. Wow! I am tired already. Hopefully during one of these functions I will get a decent family picture.
Joel tries to spend some special time with Possum and Squirrel by taking them hunting for a little while. Today was Possum's day to go. They were successful and harvested a rabbit. Notice the feather in their hats! I was taking Possum's picture alone and he said "No. I want Daddy in the picture with me." These pictures will be very special one day. 
Just another attempt of getting a good picture of Possum and Squirrel while they are dressed up. I took many pictures and these were the best out of all of them. I'll try again next Sunday!
The kids and I bundled up and went to the Christmas parade last night with Poppy and Marshie. Possum loved it! Squirrel was a little tired from the trip and wasn't in the best of moods. She just wanted the candy. Imagine that! The Girl Scouts were handing out cookies and she thought she had hit the jackpot! Poppy taught Possum who the Grinch was and he had a ball telling the Grinch to get away from us. The highlight of the night was when Mickey Mouse (as generic as he looked) came and hugged the kids. I can't imagine what would happen if they actually saw the real Mickey Mouse. We ate a funnel cake and plenty of candy and watched the pretty floats come by. Thanks Poppy and Marshie for taking us to the parade!
Maddie's birthday was this past Wednesday and so Possum, Squirrel, and myself traveled over to help celebrate. The party was Saturday morning. Originally, Maddie wanted a Dorothy the Dinosaur cake (from the Wiggles). Then she decided she liked Dora the Explorer better. Cricket and I searched the Internet for cake designs that we liked, but we just weren't happy with them. We finally narrowed our search down to about 3 cakes. Cricket showed Mike the pictures and he like the topsy turvy (think Dr. Seuss) design best. I had been wanting to try one of these cakes so I was game. Cricket and I made the cakes Thursday so we could get them in the freezer so they could be carved. Friday came and I eagerly got to work. I learned really quickly that me and topsy turvy don't mesh. It was awful. I don't know how these bakers do it. They have to have a special pan/cutter or something. We tried to salvage the cake, but you can see what ended up happening. Cricket took a layer got two forks and said dig in. It killed me to not be able to use the cake. I tried to think of anyway to be able to use the mess that I had created. In the end I just couldn't let my niece have such an ugly birthday cake. So at about 6:00 that night we started all over with the cake. I took a very safe way out. Even with the second cake I had problems though. The kitchen got too warm, because of the stove and dishwasher and my fondant started melting. Cricket gave me a break and rolled fondant for a little bit while I caught my breath. We were just glad to have a finished cake at the end of the night. On Saturday morning before the party Maddie and Squirrel decided they needed to check out the cake and started playing with Dora and Boots and the top layer started caving. This was before the party had even started! I guess all that matters is that Maddie liked her cake and it did taste good! 
