Jay Leslie Stickley and Ivy Bulkley Stickley Buckley

I have been scanning, (very slowly), photos from my Great Grandmother Ivy's photo album. This is one of the fun ones that I wanted to share. This is a photo of my great grandparents on my Mom's Father's side, Jay and Ivy. (I wish I knew the dog's name too!)

Jay Leslie Stickley was born on 4 March 1890 in Minneapolis, Ottawa Co, Kansas. He married Ivy Bulkley (daughter of Samuel Bulkley and Louisa Ann Giles) on 3 Dec 1910 in Provo, Utah Co, Utah. Ivy was born 9 Mar 1892 in Springville, Utah Co, Utah. Their only son, my Grandpa, Howard Bulkley Stickley Buckley (Married Marjorie Lindsey Stickely Buckley) was born 12 May 1918 in Nampa, Ada Co, Idaho. Jay passed on 30 Oct 1918 when his son was only 3 months old. It is understood that he died from the flu. What an awful time for Ivy, to have a new son and to have lost her husband. Jay was buried the next day on 31 Oct 1918 in Nampa, Kohlerlawn Cem, in Ada Co, Idaho. Ivy remarried 17 Aug 1920 to William Summers Bulkley, and they changed their name to "Buckley." Yes, he was her 1st cousin, and no, there were no children to this marriage. (I'm not saying I approve but I wasn't there and I don't know what life was like then without a husband.) Ivy lived until 30 May 1947 when she died in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co, Utah. She was buried in Wasatch lawn Cemetary in Salt Lake City, Utah. This information is from the personal knowledge of my mom, and from visiting the cemetaries personally by either myself or my folks.

I am sharing this information on the off chance that one of my cousins is out there, perhaps "googling" great grandpa or great grandma, and wanting to see a photo or learn more.

Huntin' Easter Eggs

Last Sunday we had a family Easter dinner at my folks place. We were hoping Wen & her family would be there, but her son was sick so they stayed home. We had a delicious turkey dinner and then the boys very excited told us it was time to hide the eggs for the egg hunt. My guess is that we hid about 75 eggs, and this time we tried to make it a little harder....there were many hidden in the lemon tree and places that were higher than they were used to looking. For the first time they followed each other around, trying to grab each other's finds. At one point Squish ran past Mr. W not really paying attention and the older brother grabbed a large egg out of Squish's basket. Fortunately Grandma "Mayme" was watching and the egg was quickly returned. It was a really fun afternoon, sorting eggs in the backyard, divvying up the contents (one for me, one for Pop, two for me, one two for Pop.) Not really, but it was cute watching Mr. W give Pop all the candies he didn't want. It seems like we are almost always out of town for Easter and end up doing egg hunts in our hotel rooms. This year will be no exception, but it was nice to visit at my folks place too!

Happy Easter everyone!

Coloring Eggs

We're going to be gone for Spring Break, so I thought I would be really smart and color Easter Eggs early this year on last Sunday. It ended up being one of those experiences where you want it to be all fun but the kids fight over the eggs and which colors they can use and whose eggs are whose and .....yeah. Most of my pictures were out of focus, but these were a few that survived. Can we have a do-over? *grin* The final result are some very pretty eggs, mostly all green. I don't know why mostly all green, but they had "a really fun time Mom!" so that's all that matters.

School Carnival

Friday, April 3rd was our local elementary schools carnival. It had a pirate theme and as usual, we volunteered to work our class booth. This year I was able to get the first time slot so I was there before it opened to help set up. We had a great time "practicing" the "Bowler Coaster" booth and Mike worked some wood under the tracks to make it more fair....the blacktop tilted at an angle making it harder to win....no stacking the decks against our students! The room moms took pictures of the kids wearing pirate hats and then cut the heads out and stuck them on these bowling shirts that were on a bowling ball garland. It looked so cute! I've tried to upload the photo twice, and each time it comes out sideways so I guess you'll have to imagine it right side up. Sorry.

So, during my shift Mike ran around with the boys letting them play the games and go on rides, whatever they wanted. It's funny, the school sells an "unlimited wristband" for $40 that gets the kids as many rides and unlimited gaming all night. But the thing I've learned is, there is something magical about holding tickets in your hand....the power to decide if I only have "x" many, what will I use them on? The kids with the wristbands almost seem a little bored, because there is no "I only have so many chances" mentality. So our boys held a few of their tickets, while Mike safeguarded the ones that would buy our dinners. (Pizza slices for the kids, and churros,, and Mike and I had the "Mexican plate" which was 2 tacos, a quesadilla, nachos, beans and rice. My point is that we were all well fed!)

At one point Squish's friend George put their teacher, Mrs. Peirog in "Jail" . The kids loved it and she was such a good sport. (The booth worker announces over the louspeaker "Mrs. Pierog, you've been arrested! Please report to the jail!" And then who ever was arrested stands in the jail made of black pvc pipes and acts outraged. ) I am so impressed with his teacher, she's one of those teachers you wish you could keep year after year! (Although I wouldn't do that to her! hee hee) Mr. W really enjoyed riding the train ride, and we all just had a great time seeing friends and enjoying the dj's.

We had to leave early so we could go to musical presentation with my folks about Jesus and his life, at their Stake Center which was a very spiritual experience for us all. And, we got Golden Spoon afterwards, so it was a very excellent night!

Easter Bunny Cake - an update

Okay, I know you are all dying to see how the cake turned out. First off, it was easy to make the ears and bow tie once I could picture it in my head. The frosting went a little better. I made a homemade cream cheese frosting that is called "the last cream cheese frosting recipe you'll need."
Wow, it was really, really, good. Then I just for speed used a chocolate frosting from a container. I was going to use some edible Easter candy grass that I'd bought at Target to go under the bunny, but you know how there's that oily residue from a cake on aluminum foil? I didn't want to run the chance of that showing and I was too cheap to replace the foil, so everyone got it in their goodie bags instead. It worked. Mike frosted the face on for me, and did the piping around the edges. My folks and the boys, well, the boys especially, thought it was a really cool cake. And really, isn't much of what a Mom does just so her kids can think she's cool? *grin*

Next year maybe I'll let the boys frost this. They really wanted to help, but I wasn't sure how hard it was gonna be. Let me know if anyone out there tries it! I'd love to hear how it went!

Easter Bunny Cake

I was thinking about making this for Easter....anyone made one before? I've never tried it but we're doing Easter dinner this Sunday (yes, early) and I'm looking for ideas...

Easter Bunny Cake
easy way to make a bunny cake

You don't have to spend a lot of money on a fancy cake pan to make a cute Easter Bunny Cake - try this easy way to make a bunny cake that your family will love!

2 round cakes white frosting 1 large pkg coconut food coloring

sprinkles assorted candies & jelly beans colored icing in a tube small bowl cool whip

1. You will need 2 round cakes - your choice on flavor. You can use the packaged kind or our recipe for white cake if you want to make it from scratch.

2. Cover a large piece of cardboard or flat cake pan with foil.

3. Cut one cake into the bunny shapes as shown above.

4. Arrange the cake pieces onto your cardboard or flat cake pan.

5. Frost the bunny cake.

Reserve a small amount of frosting for the bowtie and color it with food coloring of your choice. I usually make mine blue but you can have any color of bowtie you like!

6. Sprinkle white coconut on everything but the bowtie and middle of ears. Color a small amount of coconut pink for middle of ears. Sprinkle pink coconut into center of ears.

7. Now comes the fun part! Decorate your bunny cake to make the eyes, nose and mouth.

You can use just about anything - from drawing out the face with tube frosting to licorice for whiskers, jellybeans for eyes and nose, etc. Just have fun and remember, there is always next year to make a new bunny in different colors.

I usually use colored sprinkles on the bowtie.

8. Now take your coolwhip and spread a small layer around the sides of your bunny. Take the rest of the coconut and color it green with food coloring. Then sprinkle it around the bunny to make Easter grass. (the coolwhip helps the green coconut to stick) To put the finishing touch on your bunny cake, sprinkle some jelly beans in the "Easter grass" coconut.

* I make this every year for my kids and they love it!!