White House Correspondence Dinner

My husband works for Freeman Decorating and they were in charge of part of the White House Correspondence Dinner on May 1st. They allowed me to come with him to work. It was such a fun experience. We got to work behind the scenes setting up. The people at the hotel and the secret service were great to work with. It was quite eyeopening to see all the work that my husband does. He is a hardworker and constantly moving. We setup for a lot of the day on Saturday including laying the red carpet. We did not attend the dinner but we were able to see quite a few celebrities. While we were putting things in the ballroom, Jay Leno was practicing for his speech. After he was done I asked him if I could take my picture with him for my dad. He said "for your dad?" He asked where my dad was and I told him Florida. He said why don't we just call him then. I called my dad and amazingly he answered the phone (my mom wasn't home and he never answers). I told him that Jay Leno was with me and he wanted to talk to him. He acted shocked and I handed Jay the phone. He was really nice and told him that I was behaving and that I asked to take a photo with him and thought it would be more fun to call. It was amazing. He was very nice and down to earth and I still am not sure that my dad believes me. Good thing there is a photo!

After we were done setting up, we went out and joined the crazy fans outside waiting for the stars. On our way done we passed Dennis Quaid. We saw Alec Baldwin, Mariska Hargitay, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rachel Ray, Larry King, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bieber (sort of.....they wisked him in quickly), Chris Tucker and Terrance Howard. I would have to say, besides Jay Leno, I am the most impressed with Terrance Howard. He stayed and talked to people outside for a while. He was very personable. I am sure that there were other people we saw that I forgot. It was a great time.

When things were over we went to take things down. I was even able to take home the flowers from Obama's table. My favorite flowers......tulips, lilacs and hydrangeas. It was such a fun experience. I am glad I got to go to work with Spencer and see all that goes into the hard work he does. I am sure that I am forgetting things about it but you get the idea :)

Madelyn's Birthday

I am so far behind in my blogging. I thought I would start on Madelyn's birthday party. We did an owl based party with gnomes and mushrooms. It was so cute. I got alot of help with things from my sidekick Jen. I made a lollipop tree for party favors. We had a bucket full of long neck sodas tied in cute ribbons. We had a great turn out. We were at the creek park for the party. It was a great time (minus Julia Hartman jumping off the swings and breaking her arm) :) It was one of my favorite parties. I am trying to find a picture of the owl cupcakes. I will update when I do.

Halloween

Spencer and I dressed up for the trunk or treat this year. I was a flapper and he was a mobster. It was fun. The kids will get their photos on Halloween.

Fishing with my brother - the man!

I had the pleasure of going fishing with my brother and his wife and my mommy while I was in FL. He sure knows what he is doing. We had a great time. I caught a couple of different fish and here is the proof. Ok, I must explain that the fish was trying to bite me I SWARE!! He had big mean teeth! Doug said that I needed to hold my first fish and the fish was not cooperating :) Brianne caught the biggest (and the most) fish of the day. She was amazing!Mom didn't had the greatest luck catching fish but she did catch A POLE! I had a wonderful time. We were out for 6 hours! Thanks sweet little brother! PS: it was soooooooooo HOT there that I had to get my hair out of my face, hence the wonderful hairdo :)

I got to go to Florida!!

My sister and her son Porter were headed to Florida from Colorado so that she could babysit for the family that you used to be a nanny for. I have to say that I was super jealous! I talked to my wonderful grama and she bought me a ticket to come down at the same time. I was able to come the day before Barbie and Porter and surprise them at the airport. It was a perfect surprise. I had a wonderful time and I got to spend some much needed "Aunt Tori time" with Porter. He is amazing. He is a little parrot. It is so fun to me to realize how much you can love someone that you really don't know that well. We packed a lot of things into the few days that I was there. I am so happy and thankful to have the chance to have spent time with my sister and her little man.

More yummy cupcakes

I made cupcakes when Katie and her hubby were here. Michal wanted chocolate and Katie did not so I made chocolate with chocolate frosting and strawberry with creamcheese frosting. It was a new recipe for the strawberry and they were really good too. Anyhow I tried a couple new decorating tips too so here they are. The one is an elephant for Dylan. They are his favorite :)

Spencer's fun weekend.

Spencer and Bryan went with some guys from work to a place in Virginia (I think) to go four wheeling and dirt biking. One of his friends taped Spencer going over a big jump there. They came back filthy but of course had a great time. Crazy boys!