Turning 5 is Grrreat!

“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

Speaking of dandelions, I made a dandy of a lion for Gavin's birthday today that I'd love to share!  After it was set that he was having a jungle theme this year I started looking for ideas everywhere, and the Wilton circus cat cake looked super easy, just what I needed for his pre-school cake seeing as I needed to bake and decorate it on Valentine's day, the easier the better!  Though I opted not to purchase a whole box of ice cream cones just to use one for his party hat, maybe if he had a summer birthday, but I don't foresee us using the rest of the cones before they go bad.

Using my Mother-in-Laws petal pan, from 1980 something, and a half of the sports ball pan I have for the face, I dirty iced the bottom with homemade super rich chocolate butter cream and yellow icing for the face.

I then iced 2 oreo cookies for ears and it's started to look like a Lion in no time!

Then the fun part with tip #21 and making the mane, you can't make mistakes with this, the more layers the better!

I rolled out a tootsie roll for the nose and decorated the rest with butter cream

Happy Birthday Gavin!  And even though he's 5 he knows he'll always be my little guy!

Now tomorrow I start to make his cake for the party on Sunday.  So glad next week Lent starts, I'm gonna need to fast to make up for yesterday and this weekend alone! 

You're the coolest, Valentine

Penguin cookie-pop Valentine

Made from a Double Stuff Oreo, melted chocolate and heart sprinkles for the beak.

Was the hit of the pre-school party!  Gotta love edible cuteness!

Lined paper for Kindergarten

A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring. ~The Collected Later Poems of William Carlos Williams


Ahh, this quote speaks to a lot of things, but I'm so grateful Mothers were born with these qualities too!  When it comes to doing homework with my preschooler I need all the gentleness and endurance I can muster sometimes :)  Practice and making it fun is the key... well, even bribery works wonders too (ie: after you complete this assignment then we can have snack).

I've been noticing it's a difficult task trying to find lined paper for Kindergartners.  I remember having tons when I was younger ( and oddly enough I remember the thin quality and discolored appearance too) and of course it was carried in typical stores back then, not like today's stores.  So until I'm enlightened on a store other than Education Etc. that charges an arm and a leg for things I'm going to try to print my own.

I came across this photo that I right-clicked and saved in 'My photos.'

Then I went to Microsoft Word, opened the photo, pushed 'Copy' and pasted a ton of them until my page looked like this.  Easy peasy as they all went right below each other on the page, so no work of lining everything up!

Ta-da!  These will tide me over until the Fall when I"m sure we'll go thru tons of it and I'll need a pad of lined paper; or stock up in erasers :)

To help my soon-to-be 5yr old get used to writing his name at the top of the page, I used 'Word Art' and slid 'Name:' on the top line to get him used to seeing it on everything he'll be writing on.  Now I'm on my way to making this writing letters thing a daily occurrence, wish me luck!

No Sew Blankets

Feels like it's been forever since I've made the boys anything, craft-wise I mean, since making beds, making meals and making it to school on time doesn't really count!

I've wanted to make pillowcases for them but found a great Pottery Barn sheet set I had to have; which btw, I think their catalog pages are sprayed with special scents to make you want at least something each season!  So seeing pillowcases were out of the picture, back in November a neighbor showed me a no-sew blanket she made one of her boys and I knew that would ease my mind and fingers of making something and it seemed easy enough to pull for a Christmas gift with no sewing involved... wellll, it may have been easier/faster sewing the fabric, but I don't think it would have been as cuddly.

I did let them go to the fabric store and choose their own fabrics, something I might not do until another year or so, meltdowns over wanting several patterns ended up in purchasing expensive dinosaur fabric I hope I can use before it's un-cool anymore.

I got 2yrds of two different patterned felt for each blanket so they would fit a twin size bed when the time came, though it looks like my soon-to-be Kindergartner may need a big boy bed sooner than I thought, he's got his Mommy's height for sure! 

For the process all I did was line up 2 pieces of material, cut off the excess fabric seam if they have any, cut a 4"x4" square from each corner, cut 4" strips along each edge, and finally double knot the two strips together, easy peasy!  You just need the floor space to lay all the material out and back strength to lean over about an hour for the cutting and tying process :)

Very snugly if I do say so myself!

Holiday Cookies

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.  ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

I love that quote above!  And I feel the same goes for having cookies around at Christmas, wouldn't be the same without them and they bring such smiles and warmth to a table! 

Between both the boys school parties, teacher gifts, neighborhood functions, family gifts, and our own personal stash at home I think I lived in the kitchen the past week!  I totally enjoyed every moment of discovering new recipes and decorating each batch, but if there's weren't other holiday things like wrapping presents, cleaning and entertaining my children all day I could have enjoyed it much more!  Next year I'm defiantly evoking help from the kids, I don't care how they turn out, just so long as I get help!

Molasses Gingerbread Men




Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies



Sugar Snowflake Cookies



Melting Snowman Cookies

                   Saw these cuties on The Decorated Cookie and had to try them out myself!

Baked blobs out of sugar cookie dough

Coated in Royal Icing, watered down version so it was a little runny (melty)

Added mini marshmallows while icing was still wet.  The marshamllows were puffed in the microwave for a few seconds to get them mushy looking, and just a tip- I had to use a buttered knife, and buttered fingers, to get them off the plate and onto the cookie without sticking to me.

Added details with the rest of the Royal icing that I tinted with food coloring,

but you could use regular icing too

I'm sure they'll be a big hit at Carter's Christmas Party tomorrow!



Santa's Elf

We have been blessed with the presence of one of Santa's elves thanks to one of our wonderful neighbors who went to a book signing and thought of us!  I had heard about the Elf on the Shelf but never saw it anywhere to purchase or knew anyone who had one so never looked into it.  And to tell you the truth I wasn't too sure I like the idea of a little doll staring at us all day.  But I am so thankful Chip's here now, not only is he adorable but we have so much fun with him... and the kids do too :) 

 

Registering online is a must, the kids enjoyed the virtual visit to the North Pole and after we registered Chip there are so many neat games to play!

Chip's been hiding in some great spots but after a few weeks,  and if you have a small house like us, you might need some extra creative ideas and that's when I was on the look and found these:

http://www.complicatedmama.com/2010/11/return-of-elf-on-shelf-25-creative-ideas-to-hide-elf/

This will be such a great tradition for us, it's even helping to keep the boys in line with always saying 'Chip's watching, you'd better be good so he might tell Santa you've been naughty.'  Last week has been an exceptionally difficult week for the boys and getting in trouble so I used Chip as a helper to deliver letters from Santa in hopes that it'll encourage better behaviors.

If you don't have a Santa's helper yet in your home, I would certainly recommend one if you have children who still believe.  The magic of believing will only last so long and I'm looking forward to keeping the vision of Santa alive as long as I can!