birthday weekend!!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by tara

I’m a pretty lucky girl, because for my birthday, so many of my favorite people came to visit! AND we got to eat one of my favorite foods- GREEK!!

Just look at all of these ~~boring~~ fun people I had to share my birthday cake with.

I made my own ice cream cake this year! Michael bought me one from Coldstone Creamery last year, and it was definitely delicious, but this time I needed a big cake for a lot of people who are obsessed with ice cream.

It was mint chocolate, oreo cookie crumbs, and death by chocolate; all covered in homemade vanilla whipped cream. YUM.

My mom couldn’t be there, but of course she sent me some cool stuff- like new running clothes and a horse wall hanging for the kitchen!

A few days before my birthday, Michael let me get these new shoes! They’re “barefoot” shoes, and I am loving them so far! It definitely takes your body a little while to adjust to them, but it’s so much fun to wear these and I never want to go back to regular shoes again. Thank you buddy!

happy happy birthday karl!

Posted on November 6, 2011 by tara

On Friday, Karl came over and stayed the night, so that on Saturday we could have a birthday party! He even got to play some football with Michael and other friends of a friend. I made him a special chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I know I’m not even close to becoming a professional cake decorator, but at least I’m improving!

He originally asked for a New York Giants cake, since that’s his favorite team, but this was as close as I got. We also didn’t have any candles… Oops.

This was the first birthday I was able to celebrate with my brother in about 6 years, so I’m really glad he came over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARL!!!!

After the party, he asked us if we could drop him off to visit with some of his friends. Michael willingly took him, and he knew he was responsible for getting on the bus that would take him back home. About an hour later, he called and admitted he was lost while trying to find the bus that was leaving in under ten minutes! Lelia yelled “Get in the car!”, and out we went to rescue him from his wandering. When we found him, we had two minutes to make it to the bus stop. And, of course, once we got there, the bus was pulling away! Karl insisted that we chase it down, so we did! After he had run out of the car twice on Main Street in an attempt to get on, the bus driver finally stopped one last time and he made it! It was crazy, and so many people were staring. I sure wish I had thought to take video of all that insanity!

it’s a birfday party!!

Posted on August 28, 2011 by tara

On Friday we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday! It was a pretty special one, since this will be the last year that we can buy just one box of candles to put on his cake!

This was my first attempt at cake decorating. You might think it looks like it's covered in white chocolate chips, but that's buttercream frosting! Not bad for a first try, and it tasted good too!

The birthday boy really really wanted everyone to wear party hats!

Good thing Lelia looked so cute in hers.

We had cake and played games! Everyone had a (crazy!) fun time!

bon anniversaire à… moi!!

Posted on February 13, 2011 by tara

Another year has flown by! Michael and my buddy Lelia made my birthday fantastic, despite the fact that I had to go on a 12-hour long (6 hours of driving) fieldtrip the same day! Michael and I went out to pick up my birthday food of choice- pizza!- and when we returned, Lelia was there with an ice cream cake on the table and a horse balloon floating over my presents! WOW! It was a nice little celebration.

Coldstone cake!

I don't know who was actually more excited about the birthday surprise Michael had planned. And please notice the horse balloon in the background!

The most fun card ever! It sings "Boogie Fever!"

And then my big surprise- riding lessons from Michael AND breeches and gloves from Lelia!!! I'm so excited and very grateful.

Other highlights included a horse clock from my mom and "Secretariat" the movie from Michael's mom! What could be better than a horsey birthday? Only a horsey birthday with your two best friends, of course!

SURPRISE!!!

Posted on August 29, 2010 by tara

On Friday night, Michael received what was quite possibly the biggest surprise of his lifetime…

A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

I had it all planned beforehand, and he didn't suspect a thing! At about 7:40 pm, my friend Lelia called him, "panicking" because her computer "wouldn't turn on"! She was such a good actress, tears and everything, that he left about 2 minutes after her call to go "fix" her computer.

While he was gone, our friends started pouring in! We had about 17 people total. I was so excited that I couldn't stop looking out the window for his car. Finally, at about 8:20 pm, Michael and Lelia rolled in, and we yelled "SURPRISE!!!"

I even made a cake without him knowing! It was Red Velvet, but I ran out of red food dye, so really it was "Brown Velvet". Mmmm mmm.

Where's my cake, mom?

Overall, everything went better than I could have even planned. Everyone had a really fun time, and loved my cake!

Fairy

Posted on June 11, 2010 by tara

Today, I'd like to dedicate a post to a very special little guinea pig.

Her name is Fairy, and today is her birthday! She is one year old.

She is deaf. She is blind. Most of all, she is beautiful.

Here blog is here.

Yep, I am talking about a guinea pig. Fairy is a sort of celebrity in the world of guinea- pig-lovers around the world. She was born with a genetically inherited condition, labeling her as a "Lethal White". Most of these pigs die shortly after being born, so it truly is a miracle that she is still here. Lethal whites require an extremely dedicated caretaker with an intense amount of love and care. Her mom even takes her to the "dentist" regularly to have her teeth filed down!

The best part is that her mom shares her with the rest of the world. Whenever I'm stressed out or a little sad, reading about Fairy will always give me a smile. Even if you don't think you like guinea pigs, just take a look at Fairy's blog. You just might fall in love, too =)

I drew this little present for her… it was my first time drawing a guinea pig, so don't judge me too harshly!

one week to go

Posted on February 26, 2010 by tara

Just one week until spring break!! I am SO ready for it. This week, I wrote a small research paper (but research takes me FOREVER). Next week, I have two big homework assignments due as well as a somewhat larger paper. Wow.

So yesterday was the Bone Marrow Drive for our friend Paul… 891 people came!! How wonderful is that? =) I really hope someone finds a match now.

An interesting (and freeeeaky) thing happened when I was feeding my pigs a couple days ago! I have a box of hay (originally it was 50 pounds, we're probably about halfway through it now)… I reached my hand in, grabbed a bunch and put it in their cage. There was dark spot, I thought somehow it was a piece of wood, so I reached in, grabbed it, and just held it in my hand a moment. When I looked down, I realized it was a HUMONGOUS grasshopper! About 2 inches long, and pretty flat (I guess he got crushed when the hay was baled. oops.) Anyway, it caught me off guard, standing there, holding a dead monster grasshopper. I started yelling and Michael thought I was crazy (it was about 7:30 am!). I do find it pretty strange that I can dissect sheep, chickens, etc. without a problem, but if I get caught holding a bug, it's like the world is coming to an end! In my defense, it WAS a gigantic one!

Last night my awesome cousin and some of our friends came over =) We had a fun time telling stories, and they all got to meet Maggie and Juni, finally! And I gave them brownies, which they loved. I feel so good when people like my baking =)

Today I took a 3 hour nap, and I think I could still sleep for another 12. haha! But when I woke up, I had a box to open from my mom-in-law!! She sent me some really really cool jewelry for my birthday.

birthday! more snow… etc.

Posted on February 14, 2010 by tara

Well, I am officially a year older! ….well, I guess I'm only a couple weeks older than the last time I wrote. Anyway, my birthday was a couple days ago. It was pretty fun! I gave blood, and nearly passed out. That's the first time that's ever happened to me (and I've given blood quite a few times). It was a little scary, since I started seeing a few white spots, and then almost everything was covered in white spots. Suddenly, they had my feet up, a wet cloth on my head, and an icepack on my neck. Whoa! I got better within a few minutes, so no big deal.

After all that, we went to dinner at Olive Garden! (mmmmmm). They have good food, even though it's not really "authentic" Italian (after you've been to Italy, well, you're spoiled rotten). The best part was when the waitors brought out a small cake with a candle in the middle and started singing "Buona Festa…". Fantastic!

Let's see now, this wouldn't be a REAL entry if it didn't include SNOW now would it? Last weekend we had about 8 more inches, which pales in comparison to the 30 that other areas got… nevertheless, school never cancels so 8 inches is pretty annoying. I'm ready for June! We are due for more snow tomorrow night. Blah.

Oh yeah- we won a free iPOD! There's energy-saving program that Michael downloaded, and if you get enough people to install it, you get an iPOD. So… it's our first Apple product! I'm pretty excited! And it takes pretty good videos (better than my poor old digital camera)… so, there might be some guinea pig videos soon, which I'm sure you expected!)

School has been very busy… I have a lot more on my plate than I expected. Ah well. Sometimes it's tough but you just have to stick it out and get through it.

In recent guinea pig news… Maggie and Juni have a new toy! "Fiddlesticks"! Basically, it's this section of log-shaped wood pieces all connected together, and you can bend it however you want. They LOVE it!!

happy birthday michael!!

Posted on August 23, 2009 by tara

Happy Birthday to Michael!! What an old man… 22 years old now!

Mom got him some sneakers, which I hid from him for a few weeks, right in his very own closet! I also drew him a graphic for his portfolio!

I made him his very favorite dinner- homemade chili! I also baked the cake he requested- carrot cake! My very first time making it but I think it turned out well! We also had 5 of our friends over tonight, which was fun.