We spent A LOT of time this summer at the pool. How I managed to do it with all 4 kids is beyond me. The girls LOVED it. So much so, that they taught themselves how to swim and dive-well jump-off the board.

As much time as we spent at the pool you’d think I’d have more pictures, but watching 4 kids AND taking pics is probably borderline DCFS material.

No pictures of Abby, but she was there jumping and swimming too.

Now that Jared works in the city we know more of some of the fun stuff going on. Like the filming of Transformers 3. They wouldn’t allow any pictures, but we snuck a quick one. Albeit  a poor one. You get the idea, lots of destruction.

Met some famous people-

Hung out at some cool places

Ate  a lot of cupcakes during CupCakeCrawl Part2 with my friends Kris and Christina (this is worthy of many pictures).

Sugar Bliss                               More                                          Sprinkles

Sweet Mandy B’s                    Molly’s                                  Swirlz (no pic)

Do you love that shirt my friend made? Cupcake or Die? I wear it all the time. Thanks D!!

And because swings in cupcakeries are cool

An eyeball. Could it be the next “bean”?

Met my family in Nauvoo for some prairie time fun-

Some more fam . . .

Pioneer BriBri                    Bubby, in an apron hat    Leeshie-watch out Ma Ingalls

Started school-

All smiles. For now.

Then reality hit. Once the got in their lines Abby was NOT thrilled. The tears started brimming and she had to hold her teachers hand and walk in together.

Emma was all “been there done that”

Grew a garden-

Gear up for round 3.

Reading of this post by Weight Watchers participants is strongly discouraged. Blog owners can not be held responsible for readers who fall off the weight loss wagon.

Our day off cupcake binging was weeks ago. I held on to writing this just so I could keep up the tradition on this blog :p

Our first stop was Molly’s. 10:00 on a Saturday and the line was already long. Thank goodness these people move fast! I tried the Ron Bennington. What, pray tell, is a Ron Bennington? That would be a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter filling, chocolate ganche on top and bits of crushed butterscotch on top.  Jared had a the peanut butter nutella cupcake. The man could survive on nothing but nutella so it was an obvious choice-peanut butter cupcake with nutella filling and buttercream nutella frosting.

In my haste to try this hand held piece of heaven dove right in, forgetting how rich ganache is! I think that first bite kind of ruined me on the finishing the frosting portion The cake part was incredible! Super moist ( Alysia )  Jared’s was super yummy too, but nothing out of this world.

Besides amazing cupcakes, Molly’s has the best atmosphere. It’s a large bakery with plenty of seating. Including swings. That’s right swings, hanging from the rafters. Cupcakes and swings ! Lots of board games for the weary traveler looking for a place to revive and, hold the phones, a sprinkle station. Nice.

Molly’s set the bar high, as we headed to the  next one on the list -Swirlz . Coming from Molly’s, I was hoping for another spacious building with lots of seating. Not the case at Swirlz. I think I spotted 2 chairs-occupied chairs mind you. Swirlz also has like 1/10 the number of options Molly has.

I ordered the surprise flavor-Dreamscicle. Yum! While the cupcake was denser and the frosting not as fluffy, the orangy vanilla taste was de-lish! Jared got the chocolate on chocolate. When we actually looked at the take out menu the only chocolate on chocolate we saw was a vegan gluten- free cupcake. Let me tell you if this really was, in fact vegan gluten free and all vegan gluten-free desserts were this good I would convert and never think about another animal again. I wouldn’t even go to a zoo, that’s how good it was.

While, overall, not as wonderful as Molly’s it definitely has potential.  And hey, they sell t-shirts and coffee mugs that say, “Cupcakes Make People Happy”. Couldn’t agree more.

Next stop Phoebe’s.

Two thumbs down on Phoebes. Okay so we didn’t even eat there, but still. Relatively new on the scene, they popped up on our list of cupcake places a week or so before we engaged in such diabetes inducing behavior. Their website talked all about how fantastic their grand opening was and their online menu looked yum. After going out of our way to stop there, low and behold, they weren’t open. The guy perched at the doorway was handing out “thank yous” for stopping. Um, how about an I’m sorry you wasted time and money on the ‘el’

Whatever. Next stop Dinkel’s. How Dinkel’s got on our list I’ll never know. Clearly not a cupcake joint. There were 3 kinds of cupcakes. Banana with a buttercream, chocolate with buttercream and sprinkles, and some with Elmo on top. Now I’m sure Dinkel’s is a perfectly lovely bakery and does fine work on their other projects, but cupcakes aren’t their forte. I tried the banana one. Dry banana bread with frosting. Even I make better banana bread then that. Their sprinkly ones were cheap and the girls LOVE sprinkles so we took some home for them.

Last on our stop was Sensational Bites. Having come from a disappointing stop I wasn’t too excited about Sensational Bites. I’m soooo glad we stopped though! What a cute lil place. Very friendly employees, and lots of options. Better prices than the other places too!

By this time it’s pouring down rain, and parking is a mess so I go inside to order some for us. Not knowing exactly what the Mr. would like I take it upon myself to order lots. A lemon, Boston creme pie, strawberry oreo and a plain chocolate one. More for the cute lil flower than anything.

They were all incredibly delicious! Jared devoured the strawberry oreo one. The plain chocolate was probably my favorite. Simple cake, simple buttercream, oh so yummy in my tummy!

Jared was such a sport, that on the way home I agreed we could make one last stop for him. Superdawg. About the furthest thing from a cupcake, but after consuming such large amounts of sugar, a fatty ole dog was just what we needed. Place was a madhouse, thanks to the Food Network doing another special on them.

But back to cupcakes. Will their be future cupcake crawls? Absolutely. Got one in the works right now. Future spots- Bleeding Heart Bakery, Sweet Honeybee Bakery, Luscious Layers Bakery, and Sweet Mandy B’s.