Our 1st veggie garden

"It will never rain roses. When we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses." -George Eliot

It was a great Mother's Day earlier this month, the start of my very own vegetable garden!  I have wanted one for years but with the kids being so young and demanding of my time I never got the chance to tend to anything other than them and my many flower gardens. 

Mike graded a patch of the yard with the tractor and the boys helped when they could, mostly getting the large rocks out of the way and making piles of dirt like any boy would.

I had purchased some seeds late April and started the tomatoes out in an egg carton as they needed to be established before being planted.  Needless to say now that they are in the ground the plants should have been started in something deeper, after a weeks time only a few of the 12 survived being transplanted.  But it's okay, it'll give me another excuse to go to the local nursery and do some tomato plant shopping!

I did mix in bags of garden soil with the land and made rows of mulch so I knew where I could walk and wouldn't disturb the seedlings.

I'll see how these signs hold up this summer, I saw them at Michael's craft store in the Wedding isle and knew I had to get them b/c of the cute factor.  They actually have chalkboard paint on them so you can write table numbers or names on them.  The crafty side of me opted to use my paint pens and draw on them, but if they don't last I'll stick with my Grandfather's easier idea of sticking the seed packet on a stick and poking it into the ground!

Not expecting too much with it being the 1st, it's definatly a learning experience!  Especially not knowing what type of soil we'll find, some spots are pure clay, some stony and others sandy because of having to bring the grade of the land up when we 1st bought the house.

Next year I may have to buy tons of bags of soil and try it out again fresh, for now it's just a waiting game to see if any green pops up.  I think I'll be more excited than the kids if this works!

Bird's Nest Treats

This week I needed some fun Easter treats to make for a pre-school party but didn't have much time for prep.  Thus, these were super easy to make with things I had around the house!

Rice Krispie Bird's nests

Make cereal treat as directed on box

 Press into mini muffin tin to make nest and add some chocolate eggs, that's it!

For an extra treat I added a dollop of Nutella and stuck 2 mini eggs inside.  This helped so the candy wouldn't fall out of the next while transporting to the school, as I knew Carter would want to help carry the goodies in to his class :)

Today I'll try my hand at Chinese noodle bird's nests for family to try tomorrow, also something I have on hand and looks super yummy!

Bird's Nest Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies
12 oz. package chow mein noodles
12 oz. package butterscotch morsels
Bag of egg-shaped chocolate candies

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
Pour the butterscotch morsels in a microwave-safe bowl and place them in the microwave.
Heat for 30 seconds then remove to stir. Repeat again for 30 second intervals until melted. 
Mix in the chow mein noodles until combined.
I used a mini muffin pan but you may also use a 1/4 measuring cup to scoop out the batter onto a wax lined baking sheet. 
If the mix gets hard to mold just reheat it for 15 to 30 seconds.
Place the egg-shaped candies in the center of each nest.  Let set for a few minutes so it won't be sticky or stick them in the fridge.


But first up is baking the annual bunny cake we'll enjoy tomorrow and thanks to another great blog I can't wait to try Ressurection Rolls now that the boys are older and understand more about the true meaning of Easter. 

Easter blessings to everyone!

Swirly button tree

The best place to seek God is in a garden.  You can dig for him there.  ~George Bernard Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, 1932

I've been thinking of an idea for a friends baby shower coming up and was so happy that I was able to get creative this week... for a girl!

Sketched out the idea and did a light pink wash to complement the swirly theme tree branches- so girly!

Added buttons to the final design and it looks ready for a nursery!

 

Can't wait to use the rest of my button stash in making some awesome teacher gifts over Spring Break!

Jungle theme cake

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

In February it's supposed to be winter... tell that to the dandelions sprouting already!  Maryland weather never ceases to amaze me, I love experiencing each season to it's fullest so I feel kind of jipped with no real snow this winter!  But, if it's not going to snow, I'll take weather in the 60's any day!  It's lifting my spirits to see the Spring flowers ready for bloom already, and what better way celebrate then to make a 'dandy of lion'cake for Gavin's jungle theme birthday.

Glad we saved the Noah's Ark figurines, they came in handy so I didn't have to make anything out of fondant!

How fitting for a jungle theme party than a zebra slice of cake too! 

Make one batch each of chocolate and vanilla cake mix, box or scratch, and drop 1/4 cup vanilla batter in the middle of the pan, let it spread and repeate with dropping 1/4 cup chocolate batter ontop, and alternate until pan is 2/3's full.  

I did this using one large Wilton petal pan (that I also used for the Lion cake in prior post) plus two regular 8" round pans for the second layer.  If you're making a sheet cake or using just 2 round pans you can make a vanilla batch of batter, divide in half and add cocoa to the divided batter.  

And what a surprise to guests when there's zebra stripes inside!

I covered the bottom layer with dutch chocolate buttercream... Mmmm!

Then piped on thick swirls on the sides with tip 21, thinking of the chocoholic adults at the party like me who would appreciate the extra indulgence :)  Then a simple scroll for decoration with added candy leaf from Wilton that came in a jungle set.

Then the same swirls with the top layer of vanilla buttercream.  This was my first time trying something other than flat sides to a cake so if and when I try again it would work better if the buttercream was thicker.  I was worried about consistency and added a little too much milk so gravity took hold instead of it staying in place.

It ended up yielding about 50 slices.

There was so much fun at the party, from creating jungle sticker scenes to Pin the Nose on the Lion.  It also looked as though some other worldly orbs joined in on the fun too as I caught them on camera throughout the day :)

And I HAD to frame some artwork for display that Gavin created days before the party.  I sat with him and drew an animal on my piece of paper and he drew one on his paper...ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!  Which if you knew him is totally unheard of, the drawing part or actually sitting still long enough to make anything at all :)  I was super proud of him!

Happy 5th Birthday! 

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!