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March and April have come and gone....and so quickly too! Looking at my calendar, May and June promise to be the same way. So many cakes (and cookies, and cinnamon rolls, and then camp and VBS, and on it goes....). With each passing day, time seems to pass even more quickly than it did the day before. I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy the small moments. I have a pretty awesome life. I am very blessed with healthy children (though they do seem to have a stronger gravitational field encircling them....this seems to land us in the ER frequently and also keeps the Band-aid company in business--in fact, I believe Band-aid will be reporting record profits this year because of us). I have a nice home and an amazing husband that will do just about anything to make my life fabulous. He has been working for nearly four (yes, 4, that's F-O-U-R) years on a kitchen add-on for me.
Here's a picture of Mr. Amazing, himself. Isn't he great? 
In the background you can see the cabinets in my kitchen that he built. He has spent hours upon hours handcrafting everything for this room, from the cabinets to the windowsills. He installed the tile backsplash behind the cook top and even built the aluminum range hood starting with a flat piece ofaluminum and braking it to the custom shape that he designed...
He also installed the carpet in the dining room area himself. I'm not sure that there's anything that man can't do. I even made him help me ice cookies once. :)
March was especially momentous in that renovation project as he finished the butcher-block top for the island. Hooray! It is AMAZING! He is going to build cabinets to fit under it, but the legs and top are done....so in the house it came. But not without some assistance. That thing is HUGE...and by huge, I mean enormous, gargantuan, gigandamundo, massive....oh, did I mention it was really heavy? The top alone weighs about 460 pounds and is 5'6" x 6'. So when Mark said he'd have it ready to bring in one evening, I called some friends and family to come help. Kevin, my brother, and his son, Elliot came out to help. I also called a friend of ours, Jon, to come out. I asked Mark if he wanted me to call a couple more people, but he thought that 4 would be enough....that's only 115 pound apiece, right? No problem. HA! We nearly killed Jon.....that thing would have squished him like a bug! I thought we may be paying for some chiropractic bills the following week, but everyone did make it through without any major injuries! (which is unusual for our family...I mean, have you seen our children?...they always have a bruise, or bump, or scrape! We seem to be a bit accident prone.)
And here's what it looks like in the kitchen:
Amazing!!!!
The top is Oak and the trim around the edge is Walnut. The Walnut trim actually came from a tree in Mark's Grandmother's back yard. A storm blew it over several years ago and my dad and Mark hauled it out of her yard with the tractor. They let it sit and dry for a couple of years and then took it and had it milled.
The chandelier over my dining room table and the fixture hanging over the island was purchased with money from my Grandmother's estate. So, it's really cool to have a little piece of them both incorporated into our kitchen.
....and here's a picture as Mark was finishing the top with oil......looking good...
...and the island looks awesome too! ;)
My first project on the new island:
Sugar Cookies!
I cannot even put into words how much nicer it was to have an island instead of a table to roll cookies on. Those few inches of hight made my back much happier at the end of the day!
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO JON, KEVIN, ELLIOT, AND OF COURSE, MY AWESOME HUBS, MARK!!!!
Now, on to what I've been making on that new island.
First up, another Jayhawk cake....
a very popular design.
While we're on the sports theme, here's another college team cake that I made recently:
The next cake is one that I made for a Sorority. Their flower is the Marguerite Daisy. I made these from fondant.
The following cake is a Strawberry Chantilly. It is white cake iced with a vanilla whipped cream frosting and filled with whipped cream and chopped strawberries. It is topped of with fresh strawberry halves. One of my favorites...cool and refreshing. Yummmm.
Here's a picture of a "Paint Splatter" birthday cake that I made for a girl who was turning 12. I like her name [of course, since my oldest son's name is Brent, I may be biased ;) ]
That weekend, I also made another "Hello Kitty" cake.
Cupcake towers continue to be a hugely popular item and can be customized in so many ways. The following pictures are from a tower that I made for a bridal shower. The wedding colors are eggplant purple and orange. It sounded like a strange combination to me....until I got them together. I really like the way the purple and orange flowers look. The two colors really compliment each other well! The top tier was designed to look like a wedding gown with the flower-topped cupcakes on the lower tiers.
Here's a shot of the detailing on the back of the gown...
It is coated with a thin layer of buttercream and covered with fondant. The back of the gown is gathered up to look like a bustle. The bow is fondant and I piped buttercream lace and button details onto the back and bottom edge of the gown.
...and here are the cupcakes
topped with purple and orange flowers
And here's a photo of the lovely bride:
oh....oopps....maybe not.
But I did make this cake the following week.
Cinderella - always a choice with good taste.
;)
heh...literally.
A friend of mine helps train service dogs and recently ordered a cake for the teacher of doggy training school who was retiring after several years of teaching.
She asked for a cake with paw prints all over it:
My final cake for this post was made for one of my best friends. Her birthday was last month (fitting, given her name). It is chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and Gerbera Daisies made from fondant. I think it really made a fun, springy design.
Happy Birthday April! Love you, girl!
Easter also was near the end of the month of April this year. I had about 50 dozen sugar cookies ordered (along with my other baking orders). With the Eisenhower track meet landing during that week also, I knew that I would be unable to get all of it done by myself. So, I hired Elizabeth to ice cookies for me....her hand is still numb. lol She did a great job....but may have decided never to eat another sugar cookie.
Here's some pictures that I took as I was making them:
Look how much room I have on the new island! I rolled out an area just bigger than 1/4 of the surface and got about 13 dozen...awesome!
This is what they looked like after she got them all iced.
So cute!
....and look what came to live with us on Easter:
Aren't they so cute?! The yellow one is Brent's; it's name is Sunny. It is a Peking and will turn white as it gets older. The brown one is Mikey's; he named it Brownie. I believe it is a Khaki Campbell. Zackary's duck is the black one. I asked him what it's name was and he said, "ummmmmm........Chocolate!" What a great name for an Easter duckling! I think it is a Black Runner. They are soooo adorable and more than doubled in size in the first week. They quickly outgrew the galvanized tub that they were in and now live out in a fenced area near the chicken house and have a kiddie pool to play in. Eventually we'll get a septic pond dug and they'll move out there. Brent is going to use them for his 4-H poultry project. They will be at the Spring Show on May 28th and if they win, he'll be able to take them to the state fair.
As I mentioned before, Eisenhower Elementary School's track meet was April 20th. It turned out to be a cloudy, COLD day...they didn't seem to mind too much, though. Here are some pictures of the boys. They had lots of fun and brought home several ribbons. :)
Brent doing the Softball Throw
Mikey at the Softball Throw:
Mikey with his Partner for the 3-legged race
He made me eat my words over this one.....Mikey is my "Bull in the China Closet". He is clumsy and bumbly (this leads to a lot of messes to clean up after). I've tried really hard to help him become more self-aware, but have come to realize that it's just part of who he is! Anyway, when I found out that he had signed up for the 3-legged race, I thought, "oh my, this ought to be interesting....they are going to be falling all over the place!" Boy was I wrong! He looked like they had done this a million times. He and Joshua just walked along at a steady pace working together and leaving everyone else in their dust.
Here's the video (sorry about the shaky ending....I think I was in such shock that I dropped the camera!):
A.mazing! Who was that kid? lol
Mikey's team also got first place in the shuttle relay. Here he is getting the baton from one of his teammates.
Brent's team did good at the shuttle relay, too, bringing home a second place ribbon.
It kept me really busy trying to run back and forth between the two classes so that I could catch most of their events.
Zack also kept me busy. Don't turn your head for a moment when that boy is around! He'll be looking all sweet like this:
Gotta love potty training....
The good news is that he is finally potty trained...no more diapers at the Atkerson house. Hallelujah! We've traded the pull-ups in for monster truck/race car underwear.
Well, that just about does it for this post. It took me far longer to finish than I expected (what a surprise). I told you time was flying around here.
Graduation is over with now....which means I have a ton more pictures to post!
Did you know that May 16,1866 Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer?
I think I'll celebrate by taking my kids out for a root beer float after school today....well, I will drink a Pepsi float (Root Beer is yucky, but my kids seem to love it!)
:)
