Kennedy Swimming

Our little one swimming! This actually was a long time ago, but I'm trying out Blogger, so needed to upload a picture.

Family Day!

So I just found out that today is Family Day, A Day to Eat Dinner with your Kids! Did you not know about it either, well whew, I thought I was the only one. Well apparently it is recognized as a National Day of Observance the last Monday of every September. I found a great website called e-mealz that is taking it to a full week and they are providing a "Family Week" menu, so you can just go shopping and poof have a great dinner on the table. I'm going to try it out on my two little picky eaters to see how they like the food, then that will determine if I subscribe to their pre-planned menu. I generally put my own menu together, but if I can pay a small fee to have someone else do that for me, then by all means I will do it.

So more to come....

Wedding Cupcakes

I offered to make 125 cupcakes and a 9" cake for a friends wedding. They decided to go with a Red Velvet cake and a cream cheese frosting. I ended up finding a fantastic Red Velvet ckae recipe on the New York Time recipes that was adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss. The Cream Cheese frosting was pretty much your typical Cream Cheese recipe, but I did use the one from Paula Deen. I also add a little something extra in the middle a Cream Cheese Mousse filling, which I adapted from the JELL-O/Kraft Foods website for their Firecracker Bites. I also went with a finishing touch, the chocolate double hearts, which I think turned out great.

Cupcakes complete with dollop of cream cheese frosting a double heart on top.

The finished product, presented at the wedding along with the 9" four layer cake.

S'Mores Cupcakes

I decided the other day that I wanted to attempt the S'mores Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. I'm not sure why but my cupcakes were more of a blonde color then a dark chocolate as shown in her book. I wasn't a complete fan of the cupcake and maybe it was because I used the only Graham flour that I could find which was Bob's Red Mill Graham Flour, which was a whole wheat variety. Well after all is said and done, the teenagers that I made them for ate them all, so overall I think they were a success.

Creaming the butter and sugar together

Yummy, I think this is always my favorite part of baking.

See in the picture, they appear to have cocoa in them, but no where in the directions does it call for cocoa. I'm using the pampered chef big scoop, which I love for cupcakes.

All pretty and ready for the oven.

Making the chocolate ganache for the filling.

So sily smooth, yum...yum.

Now making the marshmallow topping. This was real marshmallows after it setup, I think I'm more of a marshmallow cream fan for S'Mores Cupcakes.

Filling with the fabulous Chocolate filling.

I let them set up for a little bit before adding the marshmallow topping.

Done! I couldn't find my husbands torch so I couldn't make them with the brown edges.

Pretty Flowers

A friend of mine brought Kennedy over a little treat last night, these darling flower head bands and clips. Kennedy was so excited that she was trying to wear two at a time. My friends says they are so simple to make and I can't wait to try making them myself.

We got 4 different headbands and 1 clip

Kennedy in her favorite.

She loves pink!

First Day of School

Well Kennedy and Colin were off today on their first day of school. Actually in about 10 mins I need to go meet Colin at the bus to see how his first day of 1st grade went. The kids had their clothes all picked out the night before and Colin was so excited that he wanted to wait for the bus almost an hour early.

Finally

Finally made a decision on which fabrics I'm going to use. Decided on two Robert Kauffman items.

Monaluna Metro Cafe

Caleb Gray Groove Dot - Licorice Fabric

Apron Ideas

So I think I may have found the fabric for my Apron for the Back to the Future Apron Swap. I'm excited as my selected partner wants a 50's style full bib apron. Looking at her blog I can see that she herself has a hip 50's style, just laid back and really cool looking, so with that I fell upon this new line called Metro Cafe from Robert Kaufman. I LOVE IT!!! I really have fallen in love with the Mixers in Creme, but since her favorite color is Red and this apron is for her, I guess I better go with the Red, or maybe I'll go with the creme and do Red Polka Dots as she says she also loves Polka Dots...Hmmm, the decisions.

Toasters in Creme

Blenders in Red

Mixers in Red

Mixers in Creme

I'm back!

Yep, you heard me right, I am back to blogging. I know that I have been missing for over a year, but figure why wait any longer and what a perfect time to start blogging again as I've joined another Flirty Apron Swap. This time the theme is Back to the Future, how fun will that be.

Oreo Truffles

While I was looking at my long list of favorite blogs I came upon this recipe for Oreo Truffles by Becky Higgins. I have been a fan of Becky ever since I got into scrapbooking, so I thought I would give her family recipe a try. The recipe is so simple, but with a little chocolate and a few sprinkles this can become a lovely holiday treat.


Becky Higgins Oreo Truffles topped with Mint Chocolate and Christmas sprinkles

You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread House??

Almost 2 years ago I purchased a Gingerbread house that had everthing included and for one reason or another we never got around to doing it until tonight. Colin had so much fun and as you can see from below Kennedy did as well.



Colin getting ready to decorate the house.

Kennedy decided to take this time to play with Daddy.

But would take a quick candy break...

over and....

over again.

Colin was so into every part of it. So careful to put just the right piece of candy.

The finished master piece.

O Christmas Tree

So weekend before last we decided to head to our favorite tree farm in Damcus and pick out our Christmas tree. We all climbed into old blue and off we went.


Here is Colin all excited to get the Christmas tree.

Daddy and Kennedy

Kennedy leading the way

Oops, watch out for that stump.

Colin helping out Kennedy

Playing around while Mom looks for that perfect tree.

Daddy showing Colin how to cut down the tree

The boys and their tree.

The finished tree.

It's already December 17th....

So it appears that I have missed a lot going on in December. Firsts things first I forgot to post a picture of an apron that I made for my friends birthday, which was in November. This apron is called a Twirl apron and I really fell in love with the fabric colors and the pattern.

Alright, next in line was the news about Colin's first official black eye. He got a good switch in the face by a tree branch while playing in the woods when Mom and Dad said not too. There is always a reason why you should listen to Mom & Dad. His black eye lastest for about 2 weeks. It was pretty knarly, which these photos don't do justice.

Let's see we had to redo Colin's 5th birthday party since he got sick on his actualy party date in November. I think I took the news worse then he did. One thing is that I wasn't really ready this year. I spent way to much time thinking about his invitation and then when that didn't work out I spent even longer trying to figure another option. Either way we ended up having his party the first weekend in December and he loved it.

First lego man that you saw when entering the house

Another lego guy in the family room

Little chocolate lego men for the kids.

2nd and final invitation for his party.

First attempt. This was made using the Lego Digitizer program.

Then of course I had to create a redo party invite, which I came up with this one.