Cupcakes and Haircuts and Good Friends

Last weekend was pretty busy. I had a cupcake competition that I was entering, a haircut appointment, and one of my best friends, Genni, was home from her six week vacation in Indonesia so I had to spend some time with her, too. It was a really fun weekend, but it went by too fast!

Cupcake competion:

I work at a library and for the past few years we have been doing some sort of baking competition for the patrons to enter. The first year they were asked to read a mystery that had a recipe in it and I chose to make a cake that won first place in the staff competition. The next year was cookies, but I didn't enter. This year was cupcakes. I have never made cupcakes from scratch before, so I really had fun! My mom got Ben and I a KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas last year and I've been using it every now and then. I really got to use it for the cupcakes I made. I made everything from scratch, including the frosting. I found a recipe for Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Icing from Brown Eyed Baker which was actually pretty easy to follow and make. It was a really fun process! It was really messy, too. They were really tasty!

Oh, when I was taking the photos of my cupcake I took one outside for the good lighting and I was laying on my stomach on the front porch trying to get a good shot. A neighbor from across the street saw me lying on my porch and thought that I had fallen. She came over to see if I was okay and I couldn't help but start laughing because it was funny looking! I was so focused on taking the photo that I was oblivious to my surroundings. That's dedication! :)

Here is a photo I took of the finished product:

I also got my haircut between having to make/drop off the cupcakes and when they were judging. I wanted a shorter haircut, but I think she may have cut it a bit too short. I wasn't super happy with how the cut turned out, but luckily hair grows back.




Before



After

 After getting my haircut I rushed over to see Genni. We caught up and then she and I and her oldest boy went to the cupcake competition to try all the entries. The winning patron cupcakes were peanut butter cupcakes, and they were so tasty! My co-worker won the staff competition with turtle cupcakes. They were good! I was a little bummed that I didn't win, but I just had so much fun baking them that it really didn't bother me. Genni and I went to Target after and tried on hats and looked at things. I really missed my friend a lot!


Genni looked cute in this hat!





















Later Ben and I went on a date to Chili's. Ben forgot his wallet at home and I didn't bring mine so we had to call his dad to come help us out! It was definitely embarassing, but it's nice to have family around to come help you when you need it! Ben's dad ended up ordering something and then Ben and I went to his parents house to play Settlers of Catan with Gerald. It was fun. :)

Sunday we took Eliza and James and Gerald to see Wreck-It Ralph at the Rave. The movie was...okay, but it wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it was going to be. Sarah Silverman is not one of my favorite people and she was one of the voice actors.

After that Ben and I went out to eat at Senor Tequila's with Genni. There was a guy who was playing live music who was really talented and we had a fun time laughing and talking about travels we've been on. Two of my favorite people makes for a fun time!