the liefer's take the cake!

3 cakes that is. All in one weekend.

I took a beginner's cake decorating class the past 6 Mondays. Our town offers all sorts of community classes each season. This class was a steal that I couldn't pass up. It worked out perfectly since Todd has church and meetings each Monday night anyway, so it gave me something fun to do!

For my final class we had to bring in a round cake and spend our time frosting it and decorating it!

My first practice cake.

This is what happens when the cake sticks to the pan.

My final cake! Yay!

we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

We went to the Detroit Zoo last Saturday! We were pleasantly suprised by how cool this Zoo was. (We might even like it more than the St. Louis or Milwaukee Zoos! )

The day was a little cool, but super sunny--the animals must have liked it anyway because they were SOO active that day! Usually I leave the Zoo feeling sad because the animals look all sleepy and depressed and just lay there in a big pile, but that was not the case on Saturday! The polar bear was polaring, the anteaters were eating ants, and the monkeys were totally monkeying around! 6 chimps were climbing and swinging around their outdoor tree and screaming at each other, it was so fun to watch! The arctic exhibit was really neat, too! It kind of felt like you were walking with the eskimos!

We're still not sure what animal this is...

3rd annual pumpkin carving bash!

Just a few of the pumpkins from the night---I love the emoticon pumpkin!

Franz rightfully named his 150 lb pumpkin "Big Bertha".

Most of our young adults group from church joined in the festivities.

Todd's proud pumpkins--yes he carved three....he loves Fall a little too much!

a little getaway

A few weeks ago we AWESOME opportunity to travel "up north". A 4 1/2 hour drive took us to the very top of the mitten--Mackinaw City, MI. http://www.mackinawcity.org/ Members of our church very graciously offered us their cottage for the weekend--which was right on the water by the Mackinaw Bridge--beautiful!

The fall colors were gorgeous--the weather on the other hand, not so lovely. Our hopes of taking the ferry to the Island for the day were demolished when the strong wind and rain didn't let up. Instead we enjoyed walking around the small touristy shops in town, making t-shirts, eating fudge, doing a 500 piece puzzle, and watching movies. We kept busy by relaxing!

Even if our trip wasn't as eventful as we had hoped, we loved taking our first little vacation--just the two of us.

as if google needed more free advertising ...

I had heard a year or so ago that Google was launching something called "Google Book" -- an online database for searching for text inside of books. I hadn't heard about it since and really just forgot about it.

Until today. I spent a good half hour flipping pages for an obscure quote in Bo Giertz's Hammer of God. Then I remembered, "Oh yeah, how about that Google Book thing..." I typed in a keyword and, BAM. There it was. Page number and everything.

Google, you might be taking over the world, but you sure made my life a lot easier today.

another win for the liefer republic!

On Saturday, against Kelly's will, the Liefer Republic competed in the annual Diehl's Ciderfest 4 mile run. They braved the cold, the rain, the gravel roads, the apple trees, and the other competitors and made record time in their runs! (Look really close at who won the gold, and who won the silver ...)

Even though he only came home with the silver, Todd was most excited for the free apples and cider at the end of the race!

the case of the black squirrel