Trick and Treats, Birthdays, and Baking Lessons..

This weekend was a busy one for us. Actually just Saturday.. We had Halloween at Metamora State park with the whole Hill Family. It is a great time for all of us to get together. If you remember last year we did this BUT we were at Holly State park. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a whole group picture this year but I did try to get around and get pictures of most of the kids that were just wee babies last year and can't see in the picture last year. Everyone had a great time despite the FREEZING temps.

The Twins (Dave then Dylan)

The twins were Pirates like JJ was last year. But they had a good time before the Trick or Treating. I actually got pretty good pictures of these mover and groovers above looking at the camera. (since my dear sister wont give me any pictures to scrap I will get my own) There was a Bubble Fogger that all the kids just LOVED.. actually a lot of the adults also thought it was awesome also. You can see little Davey playing with the bubbles... Look at that excitement.

Then I have been holding off showing pictures of Jaemen in his costume until this point so the surprise wouldn't be spoiled. Jaemen is the UPS Man!! I LOVE this costume!! It is SOOO adorable!! He wasn't so good about pictures this time but below the collage of pictures this time is a picture I got of him in August when he went Trick or Treating before.
This little girl has the most GORGEOUS blue eyes ever and is just starting to walk. Don't mind her jacket but is was also the Michigan vs Michigan State game and unfortunately her Daddy went to State. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of those eyes though. She was a tiny little pumpkin last year and this year she was a bumble bee for Halloween. Which complimented the little guy below...

Who was celebrating his 1st birthday!! This is Cameron, my cousin missy's baby. He was Winnie the Pooh even though for some reason I didn't get a picture of either of them... weird. Anyways.. Happy Birthday Cameron. Just a year ago you were just this small.


Other then that, I was baking again for the first time in a LONG time and learned a good lesson. Taste test EVERYTHING before putting everything together or you will be doing this on more then one occasion.

YES that is my WHOLE cake in the garbage!!
It is a Peanut Butter fudge cake. Or at least half of it! The cakes were sooo good I almost couldnt wait to eat before putting the icing on. And that is where everything went WRONG. The recipe calls for Dark Chocolate... Whiped in boiling hot whiping cream. Not that hard right?? WRONG when you use 8 oz of UNSWEETENED Chocolate. It didnt look right before I but it on the cake but I just told my self you went exactly to the recipe and it will come out alright. So I frosted it. When I put it into the fridge to set up a little frosting got on my hand so I figured you are all done just lick it off! Glad I did before anyone tasted that cake it was the GROSSEST, NASTIEST cake ever and it took a cup of milk and candy corn to get the taste out of my mouth. So needless to say I will be rebaking this cake!! Two questions...
1. Should I just buy Hershey's Dark Chocolate candy bars for the dark chocolate?
and
2. Is heavy cream the same thing as Heavy WHIPPING cream??


Ps. For the family members... If you want the pictures you can go to the link at the right of the blog it says Jaemen's Pictures.. Click on Karidan's Gallery at the top and it should lead you to all of my web albums and you can print them right from there!! Let me know if there are any problems!! There are a lot more pictures then I show here!!

Love,
Karidan