i really want to eat these

Our babysitters birthday was today, and she graciously gave us 3 hours of her afternoon so that I could go out, so naturally, I had to make her cupcakes :)

I used Amy Karol's recipe from her cheat sheet and judging by the response from the kids (even my non-cake eater ate two) I think they were good... Addie definitely liked them :)
It is taking everything in me right now not to go help myself to one (or two, or more). Hopefully they will last through the night and our bible study peeps will eat them tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

Kindergarten here we come, here we come...

Yesterday was the last day of Preschool and tonight is Graduation. I can't believe my little girl is ready for kindergarten already!

I forgot to take picture before we left the house of the teacher gifts, so I quickly shot these in the parking lot before dropping Lu off.

Jess, I ended up going with your idea and made apple shaped sugar cookies. It is impossibly hard to get lemon frosting to turn red, so they were pink apples :)

Here is Lu with her teacher. We have had such a wonderful time at this school over the last 4 or 5 years! Although I am looking forward to not having to drive to and from 3 times a week, we will miss everyone there!
Congratulations my little Kindergartner!

some days require cupcakes...

today is one of those days

and then there were 9

Today 4 of my friends 5 kids came over for the day so that she and her hubby could go Christmas shopping. I decided at about 8:30 this morning that it would be fun for us to decorate Christmas cookies while they were here, so I ran to the store for more butter before my hubby left for work and before our friends arrived. They spent the morning playing while I baked the cookies and after lunch we were all ready to decorate... except one thing- our favorite icing for sugar cookies is a simple lemon glaze, only we were out of lemon juice! Luckily my neighbor saved the day with just enough lemon juice to ice our batch of cookies... the kids were ever so grateful!

Here are some pictures of the kids hard at work... Aren't they beautiful?

And after all that hard work it was time to snuggle up and watch a movie (while I cleaned up the cookie decorating mess and folded that pile of laundry on the floor next to them).
Think there is room for one more on that couch?
All in all it was a fun day and not as hard having 4 more as you would think :)

mini apple tarts

this is a fun, easy snack to make with the kids on a rainy afternoon. I adapted something I had seen in Family Fun- making it a little more healthy (they filled there's with chocolate and peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows).

All you need is:

1 package of refrigerated pie crusts
One granny smith apple diced and mixed with cinnamon sugar.
One egg beat with 1 tsp of water
Cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top
A large cookie cutter of your choice

Roll out the pie crust on a lightly flowered surface.
Cut out your shapes and lay half of them on a parchment paper lined pan
Put filling in middle, leaving 1/2 inch border around the edges (amount of filling will depend on the size of your cookie cutter)
Brush edges with egg wash
Place another pie crust shape on top, pressing the edges together to seal
I guess the picture gives me away- I filled some of my hearts with mini chocolate chips too :)

Brush tops with egg wash, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until their edges begin to brown.

Place on a cooling rack for a few minutes and enjoy!
Even my pickiest eater at these without complaint!

rainbow brite

At about 9am today (a day that I knew was to be filled with shuffling kids to Dr. appointments and attempting to make our house presentable for bible study) I decided I need to make this.
I've been seeing the cake all over the Internet for a year now and admiring it's beautiful colors and today I just couldn't wait any longer, I had to make the rainbow cake.
I really only eat chocolate cake, so making this was purely for aesthetic pleasure, but it sure was satisfying! (I did eat a piece, because I could not make a cake and not at least taste it! But that will be the only piece I eat, I will save the rest for those sugar loving kids to devour tomorrow.)
Oh, and I used this recipe for the cake, but cheated on the frosting and used Duncan Hines, whipped white frosting.

baking buttons

My friend Jess posted this link Monday and I knew I had to make these as soon as I saw them- how could I resist the cuteness of button cookies? Here is my conversion for the recipe if you want to try yourself:

3 2/3 C Flour
4 tsp Corn Starch
1 1/3 C Butter
1 1/4 C Powdered Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean

traditions and surprises

We had a little surprise this evening when the door bell rang at 5:15pm and I found this sitting on our door step with no delivery elf in sight!
Let's take a look inside...mmm, smells delicious!

While the big kids hid out in the play room working on a last minute Christmas gift Lu, Max, Phil and I enjoyed a game of memory (which, of course, I won).

Then it was time for an annual tradition...

One present opened on Christmas Eve...

New pajamas for all the kids- this year mama made instead of store bought.
Tallulah- a bit over tired - did not like how big her night gown was (I actually did another quick 3 " hem before taking this picture)- I made the smallest size the pattern came in (which should have fit) but in the end it was big enough that it probably would have fit Regan! I altered it the best I could, but she was still not too happy :( Luckily she came around after some wild rumpas with daddy and kids and when I tucked her in she said "I think Santa will like my dress".

We finished off the evening with a Christmas story...

and of course setting out cookies for Santa (and an orange too, Regan is really concerned with Santa's health after all those cookies he gets!)
Wishing you a Merry and Magical Christmas, from our family to yours!

happy birthday, Micah!

Micah turned 7 today! Where have the years gone? We started the morning with donuts and presents and the fun (and junk food) continued from there.

We had a beautiful day- finally some blue skies!

There were many hours spent at this table building all sorts of creations with the new Lego's.

And of course a birthday would not be complete without cake and a trick candle.
The cake is an ice cream cake of my own creation- I used my spring form pan and layered Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream followed by a layer of crushed Oreo's (double stuffed, of course), then Cookies and Cream ice cream topped with ganache and sprinkles- yummy!

pumpkin goodness

Saturday morning instead of our standard chocolate chip pancakes I decided it was time to pull out a fall favorite. I got this recipe out of a Martha Stuart Living magazine years ago and everyone loves these pumpkin pancakes. I am giving your the doubled recipe- cause that is what our family of 6 eats.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2.5 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 pinches of ground cloves
2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups milk

Whisk together dry ingredients in mixing bowl.
In separate bowl combine eggs, pumpkin, butter and milk, fold into dry ingredients.
Heat a buttered (must use butter it makes the flavor irresistible) skillet over medium heat and pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook about 3 minuted per side (these are thicker than regular pancakes and take a bit longer to cook.)

When I was done with the pancakes I had exactly enough pumpkin puree left in the can to make these pumpkin chocolate chip squares that my friend Jen posted about a couple weeks ago. They were SO good, you absolutely MUST try them- they were soft and moist and oh so yummy- wishing I had one to eat right now, but unfortunately the kids and I polished off the last few after lunch today!

it's been one of those days...

where it seems like everything takes WAY more time than you think it should. I am feeling a bit harried with all that we did not accomplish today, but wanted to post a picture of our cupcakes.
They are not quite at cute as the ones in the book (see below) and I am not crazy about the frosting recipe I used- but then again I don't really like frosting- the ultimate test will be when the kids eat their's later :)

my list

So, this is what I got done from yesterday's list...

41 paper leaves glued together and taped onto floral wire (this project is turning out to be more time consuming than I anticipated!)

5 pieces of card stock bought for our new chore chart.

36 cupcakes baked, but not decorated.
6 napkins cut...

1 sewn.

3 pumpkins made and hung

early birthday

My parents came down to visit for a couple days and hook up our new dishwasher for us (thanks, Dad!) and while they were here, we decided to celebrate Max and Regan's birthday's a bit early. Regan wanted a Tinkerbell cake and we searched everywhere for something Peter Pan so that it was not totally girly but could not find a thing! So, my mom, being the expert cake decorator, decided to draw Peter Pan on the cake instead.

It turned out great and the kids loved it!

Make a wish!

Grammy and Poppy got all three of the big kids new backpacks from LL Bean. No more $7 Walmart book bags with broken zippers and ripped lining!

Everyone was happy with their packs and we can't wait to break them in!