Yay!

I'm SO excited! I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control and I think... I think I better stop before you start to question my sanity.

In a week and a half my cousin M, who is living in NYC is coming to LA! M is one of my favorite people in the whole world.

At Bryant Park fashion week with M in NYC last year

If we would have had a wedding party she would have been the MOH. She is incredibly smart and beautiful and SO well dressed. I went to visit her last September in NYC and had a blast. And now she is coming here. I definitely think we should keep this trend going.

Anyway, we are going to have so much fun. I know you are jealous. I have all kinds of ideas for stuff to do like: the Hollywood walk of fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater, drive around the crazy houses in Beverly Hills, visit the Getty, eat at C&O's, 3rd Street Promenade, Disneyland, a Dodger's game, go to some of the swanky hotels, the Huntington Botanical Gardens, the Hearst Castle, LaBrea tar pits, the flower district in the morning, Rodeo Drive, and of course go to the beach. That is a given. And of course M can choose anything and everything or nothing. As long as we hit the beach I'll be happy.

Then, a few days after M leaves T and I are headed to Iowa for a family reunion!

I actually took this picture in New Jersey. They must love Iowa, too!

I LOVE small town Iowa. It is one of my favorite places in the world. Ever since I was little I wanted to live in my grandparent's Iowa lakehouse. I love the green, the corn, the fireflies, the houses, and that it is still close to Des Moines.

We are going to hit up the JK Nature Preserve, of course, and the Iowa state fair (I heart the butter carvings!), and maybe Adventureland and Amana.

Family reunion two summers ago

I haven't been able to stop smiling and saying, "I'm SO excited!" since we decided to go.

It's going to be a great two weeks!

Can anyone think of anything else we should hit up in LA or Iowa?

Cake part 2

My fabulous cousin M put the finishing touches on the cake.

I wanted our cake to be tall-ish but we didn't need the extra cake layer, so the solution was a tall cake stand. Our cake stand was actually a plant stand from the Home Depot.

When T and I tried to cut the cake...

the cake would not cut. No matter how hard we pressed.

Then I said, "Oh, NO! The cake is frozen!"

I had a valid reason for thinking the cake was frozen. Rachel (our baker from Bayshore Cakes) told us that the buttercream frosting on our cake had a very good chance of melting if it was above 90 degrees. I was worried about this because May is an unpredictable month weather wise. Rachel said she would freeze the cake overnight and thaw it in the morning. Then the cake would be chilled and thawed and would last longer if it was hot outside.

I really did think that the reason we couldn't cut the cake was because it was still frozen. Actually, we just had the luck of trying to cut into a dowel that was supporting the cake.

When we finally got a piece of cake cut (brownie with carmel, heath bar and whipped cream filling)...

we played nice.

My amazing Aunt J cut the rest of the cake. Wedding cake is not easy to cut!