Laugh. Love. Learn.

Could this sweet little bee be any more precious?

She was so excited to wear her wings and antenna for her party!

She wasn’t too sure what to think about the candle or the people singing at her…

She learned quickly that chocolate icing is gooood!
And poundcake! She ate a whole cupcake.

Look at me! I’m ONE!

Click here to see how we implemented the Bumble Bee theme…

For Tanner’s first birthday, we wanted to choose a unique theme…so we chose Bumble Bees! Just to clarify, they are NOT yellow jackets. Cake #1 contains six layers of dark chocolate cake with yellow buttercream icing in between the layers.

Here’s a picture of the layers in process…it was a fun surprise when we cut into it. The cake was at least 8 inches tall, and the sides were completely covered in mini-chocolate chips.

Cake #2 is a beehive cake! It’s made of vanilla poundcake with a royal-icing-type glaze on top.

Here’s a close-up of the bumble bees….lemon jelly beans with black icing stripes. (p.s. i cheated and got black icing here…the rest is from scratch, but black icing is just too much trouble to mess with.) The next picture is of Oreo bumble bees…

Vanilla sugar cookie bumble bees…
and peanut butter bumble bees, which were totally a hit!

Here’s a close up of the peanut-butter bees, followed by the Bumble Bee Treat Bags…Graham Cracker Bees, Honeycomb, Yellow M&Ms, and Chocolate Jelly Beans.

I also decorated the flower arrangements with these fun pipe-cleaner bumble bees…dusted with glitter and suspended with floral wire.

Our Bee-Day party so fly. Ha Ha.
We have the cutest bee ever!

i never knew i liked coconut. in fact, i used to think it was kind of chewy and strangely textured. but apparently i’ve been missing out my whole life.
introducing lusciousness, enveloped by crimson ridges…

reason number 4,728 to be friends with these fine folks.

The day has finally arrived.
Stoked, I tell you!!!

Things are just about to get a whole lot more fun…

My sweet friend Morgana is headed to Guatemala today. I would love it if you would pray for her safety with me, and for the effectiveness of the team of missionaries with whom she’s going. She doesn’t know any of the people she’s going with, so you can also pray that awkwardness is minimalized….that’s just like Morgan, though: She doesn’t think twice about hoping on a plane with total strangers if it means she has a chance to tell people about Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, I am so thankful to Him for Morgan’s friendship. Morgan is quite possibly the most selfless, consistent, authentic, loving, faithful person I know. She’s the kind of person who every parent wants their child to become friends with…which is probably why she has a gazillion friends. She’s always helping somebody make a cake, keeping someone’s kid, helping mentor high school girls, throwing baby & wedding showers, writing scripts for The Vine…she’s the kind of friend who volunteers to hand-wash every piece of china you own when you move into a new house. But my favorite thing about Morgan is her passion for Jesus and for His Word. She is truly burdened for people who don’t live in relationship with Him and she genuinely wants to know His specific plan & calling for her life. She might end up in Africa, or she might end up in a bakery somewhere, but wherever she is she’ll be chasing hard after Jesus and whatever He wants her to do for the Kingdom.

Thank you for praying for Morgan this week.

p.s. If my wildest dreams come true and I happen upon a million dollars, Morgan and I will have the most kick-tail bakery ever. We’d make cakes all day, and get crazy-excited about things like high quality vanilla and new tips for our decorator icing kits. We’d feed hungry people with the profits and hire all of our friends, just like Duff did on Charm City Cakes. It’d be so incredibly rockstar…. Anyone know of any grants for bakery ministry start-ups?

i have the best friends in the world. seriously, i’m not easy to surprise, but this weekend some of my favorite people got all ace of cakes on me. normal people might think, “eh, a cake,” but you’re talking to someone mesmerized by the Food Network, so…it’s a big deal. when a surprise involves smoked critters and rockstar cakes, my excitement is difficult to contain! check this out. i love pastel M&Ms… (but i didn’t know anyone realized that!!! )

mmm beefy. isn’t that gorgeous? notice the caramelization on the edges…

Tanner stuck her fingers in my cake! sneaky fox. how can you say no to those eyes?

i’m just so blessed to have such loving, generous, thoughtful people to do life with…
*thank you*

Today I met my friend Stephen for coffee & great conversation. We’ve been friends for 13 years, and it’s cool to realize God had plans for us in ministry since we were obnoxious freshmen in David’s youth group way back in the day. Stephen is currently an associate pastor at Lawrenceville First UMC, but he’s planting a new church in Suwanee called Connection Church; their first service is Christmas Eve ’08. I met with him to discuss technology, production, and worship design…and I hope to share everything I know with him so he can start out that much ahead of the game. There are thousands of families in Suwanee who are unchurched or dechurched, and I hope Connection Church will be a place where they can meet & follow Jesus. I’ve learned most everything I know by trial and error…and by networking with people who actually know what they’re doing and asking lots of questions…and how I see it, there’s no need for CC to re-learn the same things via hard knocks.

I left my meeting extremely thankful for the people at The Vine. On the eve of the anniversary of our launch date, it’s hard to believe that we’ve got more than 80 volunteers who work tirelessly each week to make everything happen. Above all tech-nerd advice, I told Stephen to pray for people. Pray for tech geeks, and band members, and audio guys, and people who love children & youth, and freakishly organized administrative types, and hospitality gurus who make everyone feel welcome and find joy in cleaning bathrooms, and small group folks with gifts in teaching, and go-getters who buy into the vision. That what’s so important: the vision. Tomorrow, for our anniversary, I’ll be talking about the vision of The Vine. That’s why I do everything I do – from the bottom of my heart, I believe in the vision of The Vine. I believe the Lord planted that vision in David’s heart, and I’ll give all I’ve got to make the vision come to life. And 95% of the time I don’t really know what I’m doing, but 100% of the time I’m going to work until I figure it out. Cause the stakes are too big to give less than 100%. So that’s my prayer for Connection Church: that God will send gifted people to be sold out to the vision – so sold out they find it a such privilege to get to serve that they can’t even believe they get the opportunity. I’d love for you to pray that as well. And pray for Stephen, that God would give him clarity of vision and wisdom as he begins this exhausting, rewarding journey. Oh, and if you know anyone who lives in Suwanee, send them Stephen’s way…

i’m serious about leveraging cake-making for Jesus. too bad i can’t find a money tree or i’d do it full time. i’m really good at making up fantasy jobs i wish i could have. wouldn’t it be the bomb if you (meaning i) could bake cakes and cook meals for people randomly & deliver them? or better yet, take complete meals to first-time visitors and be like, “welcome to The Vine”? ha ha wonder if people would come just for the free meal? now that might create some buzz. anyways, in the meantime, happy birthday Tammie! i love doing life with you!

Liz is blogging!
if you’re into babies, hairbow-making, dancing, or anything organic…she’s your expert.
homegirl defines mom of the year…

there is a reason my brilliant daughter aspires to be a Publix cashier when she grows up…
if i won the lottery (which i never will, because i don’t buy tickets…if i have a dollar i’m buying an unsweetened tea with 2 inches of lemonade from chick-fil-a) i’d work at Publix. i’d make up my own job, too. can you imagine if you got to work in the produce department and cut the fruit for the fruit salad all day long? i love cutting fruit. cutting board, rachael ray knife, watermelons, pineapples, honeydew…pretty colors…it’s like art. so that’d be the first half of my day. the second half of my day i’d work in the bakery, decorating cakes. seriously, can you think of a possibly more awesome job? the only thing better would be somehow leveraging cake-decorating for Jesus, which i have actually managed to do on a couple of occasions. for example, when i chaperoned a choir tour a couple of years ago, i got to make a strawberry cake large enough for 65 teenagers to celebrate a kid’s 16th birthday.
when strawberry cakes = serving Jesus, awesomeness has arrived.
but alas, i cannot work for Publix. so until i win the lottery, feeding my friends will have to do.

Happy Birthday, Liz! (you know, yesterday.)
Check out this fun picture from…about 1994. We’re getting old.

and, in case you were wondering, i’m encouraging Katelynn to go to business school and become the CEO at Publix. i figured it’ll be difficult to motivate her through a post-secondary degree for the prospect of 7 bucks an hour.