A Glimpse at the Gilpins: January 2013

When I was still in high school, my mom and another woman started a candle selling business. They would go to people's houses and sell their candles and they would also go to places like Tannehill and Mule Day. I've been to Mule Day twice in Gordo, AL, but this was my first time attending Mule Day in Winfield, AL. It was a very warm day so we didn't stay long but it was nice to get Brody and Karlee out for a while and my mom and dad decided to come too. We got there right around lunch time and were starving! We found a place that sold sausage sandwiches with onions and peppers and Brody found his favorite food - CORN! His corn looked really good and he loved it! It was that roasted corn covered in yummy butter, haha!

I went back and forth for months about whether Brody's 2nd birthday party theme should be Barney or Elmo. He won't remember and didn't care either way so I'm not sure why it was such a hard decision for me to make! I just wanted it to be perfect for him! I finally just bought something Barney themed and that decided it. We decided to have it outside at our house so there would be plenty of room for kids to run around and we could put the food in the garage and we wouldn't have to decorate much. The day before his party I started making the cakes and his chocolate sucker favors. I ended up staying up all night finishing them. :/ Around 6am I thought I heard thunder. I then realized it was, in fact, thunder! Ugh! If I can remember correctly it was supposed to be in the upper 60s with a 20% chance of rain when I checked it the day before. I grabbed my phone and opened my Weather Channel app and it had gone up to 60% chance of rain. I guess you can never predict the weather. We decided instead of moving the party into our house we would just move the party up to the fellowship hall that is only a few yards away from our front yard. Brody had a great time! We had hotdogs, chips, pasta salad, and cole slaw for food and cake and cupcakes for dessert. My mom and dad came along with Brody's Uncle David, Aunt Kim, and cousin Haley. Brody's grandparents from Gulf Shores were able to come up and his cousin from Birmingham, too. Teresa and Hannah Box also got to make it up. His Uncle Kirk and Aunt Kacy weren't able to make it but they got him a super cool new bike! He loves to ring the bell on it! Kyle's parents weren't able to make it to the actual party, but were able to come down the weekend before for a visit. Dwayne and Beth Butler were able to come to the party, too, because they were staying at our house while trying out at a congregation just down the road (where they are now working and living! Yay!).

Brody's cake that I spent a lot of time on. I made the cake the day before and I now learned that I should have also made the icing and colored it before hand and then should have frosted the cake the night before the party. Separating and coloring the icing took the most time. I loved making this cake for him and I really want to make all of my children's birthday cakes. It's something I really enjoy doing.

This is Brody's awesome invitation! I edited it so our address is blurred out which makes it not look as good, but we LOVED it! Thanks to Denise Skelton for taking that cute picture of Brody and allowing us to use it for the invitation and also thanks to Queen Mab Designs for designing the invitation (as well as our 2011 Christmas cards and Brody's 1st birthday invitations!)

"Stormy" the pony was able to make a visit! What a great surprise!

Brody's smash cake I made for him. I think all of his next birthdays he will just have one main cake instead of having his own smash cake. I was so proud of myself for making that Barney and balloons myself to put on top of his cake!