In honor of Papa: Colorblind Cupcakes

It's definitely been a long weekend for the Page family. My grandpa suffered a stroke on Friday morning, and I don't think anyone was prepared. Nana was so brave as she sent him off the hospital, and everyone was very hopeful that there would be no permanent damage. But things haven't been going well. Since I've been just staring at this computer and not able to write more than a couple words at a time, I'll probably have to post about what all has happened later. But today was really a special day. Almost the entire family was together at some point or another to support Nana and show their love for Papa. He's such a great man. He loved his family more than probably anything. And I am so glad that most of the Pages were able to be in Park City this summer and share some great memories. I love how happy Papa is in all of the pictures from that week.

I've been thinking a lot about how to make Papa proud, especially during this time. Even though I usually never say the right thing when there is any emotion or stress involved, I loved how our family was able to find ways to be together. And Papa loves when we are all together. He always wants everyone to be enjoying each other and sharing with each other. I've always felt that he loves to talk about everyone individually and what we are all doing in our lives. I know personally, he's been so supportive of everything I've done with music. I can only think of one orchestra concert he's missed since I've been in Utah. And throughout school, he was always making sure that I was enjoying it and doing well. And ever since I've started this cupcake craze, he's always been excited about whatever I'll bring to our Third Sunday Dinner. So I decided with all the family together tonight, I'd bring some cupcakes in honor of him. They're black and white because he's colorblind, a fact we often joked about :) And even Nana said tonight how proud he'd be of me for bringing some to share. But I think this is about all I'll be able to get out tonight, so here are Papa's colorblind cupcakes:

The Frogs' First Day of School

Since we decided that it wasn't practical to take a tank of frogs across the country this winter, we found a new home for the little guys. They are going to live in a first grade classroom with my college friend Jessie. She was so excited to have them, and we were glad to have found them a home they'd obviously love :)

Today we took them to their first day of school. Marcus insisted I be in a picture with them before their day started.

One last picture of "the fat one" so we can say bye. It's such a happy/sad moment. I'm gonna miss those guys...

But honestly, I think they'll be very happy in school. Marcus calls it the School of Croak-craft and Ribbit-try. Ha.

Marcus wanted to add his goodbye to them too: "Fare thee well, friendly frogs."

Mesa Temple

The Orem Bed Bath & Beyond is selling beautiful temple pictures right now. So for my birthday, we ordered one of Mesa, and we finally put it up today. I love it!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

This time, I made snickerdoodle cupcakes in cute leopard print liners for Juliana's birthday. And I loved these :) They were cinnamon cupcakes with cinnamon frosting. Yum! And they even looked cute this time. Or at least cuter than the last time for just simple frosting. I always make Marcus choose the ugliest cupcake and try that one. That way, no one sees the ugliest one, and I know for sure if they taste decent. He approved of these :)

I finally got a little better at frosting them!!! Hopefully next time around they're even better :)

Chicago was sad that I wouldn't let her get close to the cupcakes.

And I had these really cool candles that have different color flames. So I used those on the birthday plate for Juliana.

You can kind of see it in this picture.

YAY CUPCAKES.

I think I have a cupcake problem. Haha.

Our No Good, Very Bad Day

Our No Good, Very Bad day apparently started early, but I only heard about it as I was driving home from work. At that point, Marcus was not a happy camper. He had a rough day and then my phone call distracted him, which caused dinner to burn. No good. I tried to cheer him up when I got home, but it didn't really work. So instead, we dug through the fridge to make something else before we both had to leave again. We found cheese and salsa. So we decided on omelets. You'd think that has nothing to do with a very bad day, but then as Marcus is flipping his omelet, yes flipping like without a spatula to turn it safely over, it misses half the pan and goes all over, including the wall behind the stove. Very bad. Luckily, this time he's laughing a little more about having two failed attempts at dinner. So he makes me flip the second omelet. I warned him it was a bad idea, but he insisted I try. Not only did my dinner fall all over the pan, it hit the stove, the fridge, the floor, the ceiling, my pants, my arms, well, everywhere. Very, very bad. At this point, we feel there's no hope for dinner and just laugh. But now, Marcus has eaten most of his first omelet, and I have splattered dinner. So I insist he makes me something, since I had the idea for his dinner. So with cheese and salsa, he decides to make me a quesadilla. Great idea. And he had one successful little guy. Except somehow as he's heating the second little tortilla in the pan, it burns. The stove wasn't even on very high. It hates us! So I put the burned tortilla on my head and dance around the kitchen like Monica does with the chicken (with the little hat and sunglasses) in Friends. We have another good laugh. At least I laughed this time :) So I make the quesadilla, and again, it burns, even though I turned the stove to basically low. Oh, and I still have egg everywhere. So Marcus leaves for class, I jump in the shower and then run off to orchestra rehearsal, and now our crazy evening is hopefully about over. Rough evening :)

My collegiate baby brother

Trevor started college last week, which seems crazy. Since sometimes I still think of him about this size:

Well, probably more this size actually:

And sometimes when I need a laugh, I remember this day (Halloween):

But here Trevor is all settled in his dorm:

And loving it:

And proof he's enjoying college:

It has been fun seeing him occasionally-- I'm glad we'll live close this semester.

Taste Challenge

I've decided it's time for me to learn how to really frost a cupcake. I didn't want to just decorate the little guys, so I found a great recipe in one of my cookbooks and crossed my fingers. I wanted them to look simple but taste great. It was a cinnamon apple cupcake with cream cheese frosting. And they tasted pretty good. Sadly, frosting them was more of a disaster. So some of them just got sprinkled. Marcus said they were the best tasting cupcakes I've made, so we call it the Taste Challenge. :)

The frosting madness...

Getting closer to a pretty cupcake:

One day I'll make some truly cute cupcakes. But until then, I'll stick to the fun, colored liners. :)