Unbirthday Party!

My girls have chore charts and if they complete 50 chores they get to pick a reward.  One of the rewards is an unbirthday like in Alice and Wonderland.  We made cupcakes today and the girls made/picked out presents for each other from their toys. Here is a pic with their "presents". It was fun to see them get excited about toys that we already had around the house. The girls were having a sleep over with their cousin so he was able to come to our unbirthday party!  

10 Min Turn Around.....It really works

So I have been frustrated with the little and not so little messes that my girls make for me.  Some days I feel like I clean all day and left off where I started. As much as I hear "you shouldn't stress over a clean house" or "excuse the mess, memories are being made", I LIKE, no LOVE a clean house and feel a little more relaxed when it is clean.  I have tried many different things but this one came to me today because I can always get the girls to do me a favor when it is about a race.  So I called it "10 min turn around". I came to the toy room where the girls were playing and told them they had 10 min to turn around the room to make it clean again.  I told them I would set the timer on my phone for 10 min.  If they were able to clean up in 10 min they could have a few chocolate chips before lunch, which is a huge treat especially before lunch!  Miraculously it was done and in 10 min we had a clean toy room again.   Next time I will take a picture so you can see the difference 10 min can make.

I am back...........and cupcakes!

So I cannot believe that is has been over 2 months since I posted anything :( We found out that we are expecting again! We are very excited but it has taken such a toll this time. I am hoping that I am coming out of the 1st trimester joys. So these cupcakes were made a while ago. The first one was made for my daughter Ava's preschool class. She still has 2 years of preschool but all the other kids were graduating to kindergarten. I found them on a blog and feel bad that it has been so long and I do not remember the blog. All that is needed is cake mix, frosting, reeses peanut butter cups, Ghiradelli chocolate squares, mini M & M's and food gel. To make the cap place a reeses peanut butter cup upside down on the frosting. Place a little frosting on the top of the peanut butter cup and stick a chocolate square on top. make a dot with the food gel on the cap and place the mini M&M on top. Draw a tassle with the food gel. Super easy and they look really cute.


The next cupcakes I made for Hanna's birthday class party. I found these here and instantly fell in love with them. According to Hanna they were a hit! I don't have ANYTHING from Hanna's 6th birthday party :( The day of her birthday was probably the worst day I have felt throughout this pregnancy so no SheRa pictures.....yes she wanted a SheRa party!

Cupcakes for dinner!!

I love April Fools! My husband always forgets so I am able to fool him! This year I filled his lunch full of candy and a soda. (made him a real lunch too) then I stuffed his car full of air fresheners..........still stinks oops! He is a good sport so he makes it fun. This year for dinner I made cupcakes for dinner! Well they were meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting and red salt sprinkles. The girls thought it was fun I even tricked my 3 year old to eating mashed potatoes for the first time. She was very disappointed though that it was not a cupcake. Here is how I did it: I took my meatloaf recipe which sorry I just eyeball so I do not know the exact measurements. Bake if a cupcake pan, I used paper liners but I think foil liners would work better. I filled the liner about 3/4 ways. While they are baking make mashed potatoes. Once meatloaf is done there will be some fat on the top, I soaked it up with a paper towel. To "frost" the cupcakes I first tried to use my cake frosting tool but it was not working properly so I just used a knife. For the "sprinkles" I took some coarse salt and put in 1 drop of food coloring and used my hands to mix. Then sprinkle on top of potatoes. I put them back in the oven for 5 mins just to make sure they are nice and warm for serving. Then my friends you have yourself cupcakes for dinner!

Helping Hands-A Teacher's Valentine Gift

I love Hanna's teacher and think she is really great with kids. So anytime we have a chance to show our appreciation I like to make her something special. I have been wanting to do this gift idea found in the Family Fun magazine for a while now.
I traced out Hanna's hands and cut them out. I wanted to find some nice lotion but ran out of time so bought some hand sanitizer. I had Hanna write:
Mrs. Rule, You deserve a hand. Love Hanna

Hope she likes it!

Valenties Day Cards

I love Valentines Day!! It is a time to get crafty and show the people we love how special they are. I love making homemade Valentines for my kids. This year I found a great Valentine idea from one of my favorite blogs made.

Teacher's Christmas Present

So I have been a little behind on blogging but ready to go for 2011. This is something I have been meaning to post but the holidays consumed me and I have had little to no time for blogging. I did get this idea from A bushel and a peck and loved it. I am all about homemade gifts and it all cost under $5. I did have the teacher's name in vinyl on the apple, just did not get a picture of it. The cirlce wreath part is a wooden embroidery hoops. I used a 10" for the outer ring and an 8" for the inner. Each embroidery hoop comes with 2 so really you could make 2 if you have 2 kids in school. I just glue gunned the crayons to each of the hoops. I also glue gunned the apple to the crayons and the ribbon to the back of the hoops. The wooden apple was from Joanns wood craft section for .50 cents. I also bought a 64 ct Crayola crayon box from Joanns and used a 40% off coupon so they were under $3. Hopefully her teacher liked it!