Oreo Cupcakes

These are some new cupcakes that I tried (recipe via Pinterest).  I thought they were pretty good....the icing was my favorite :)  You place an Oreo in the bottom of the cupcake wrapper.  Put crushed Oreo's in the fudge cake batter and pour on top of the Oreo in the bottom.  Bake.  Ice with a cream cheese icing that, of course, has crushed Oreo's in it.  Finally, top with a mini Oreo.  I think the things I would do differently next time is not put the Oreo on the bottom and use my regular chocolate cake recipe and instead of the chocolate chips use the crushed Oreo's.  It's fun to experiment, though!

Baby Girl Butterflies

This is a cake I did for my friend, Dana.  She is having a baby shower this weekend and the them is pink / green and butterflies.  So, naturally this is the direction I went with the cake.  The cake is vanilla with rasberry filling and buttercream frosting.  The cake has a very simple look.  There is a baby made from fondant/gumpaste on the top (my new favorite way to top a baby shower cake).  Then, I made just a couple of 3D butterflies to accent the cake.  Hope she likes it.....

A Few Pix of the Pumpkins

These are just some pictures I wanted to share of my little pumpkins.  We have been so busy lately and I just wanted to share....

The Park

My cousin, Cantina, and her family were supposed to come back by our house for a visit on their way home from the beach.  Well, Cantina ended up sick with a fever, sore throat, etc so they had to cancel their reservation at the Hotel Roughton.  My girls LOVE their cousins so needless to say, they were devastated!  So, I tried to have a fun day to make up for it.  We went to the park and played and fed the ducks, went to the library, back to the park for a picnic, and ended with an ice cream from Dairy Queen.  

Last Day of Dance Class

The girls have so enjoyed taking dance this past year.  They take tap, ballet, baton, and gymnastics.  These are a few pictures of their last day of classes...

Look at Leah's perfect backbend :)

See Leah next to the pink pole?

A group pix with their teachers

Ella is in the corner between the windows

See Ella?  She is close to the pink pole.

Dance Recital

We were not allowed to take pictures in the dance recital and I videoed the rehearsal so I don't have pictures of it, but here are a few pictures of them in the parking lot before we went in.

Such Monkeys

These two are such climbing monkeys.  They will even climb the light pole out front!  This is a picture of them after they climbed as high as they could on their playset in order to talk to our neighbors.  I tried to catch a picture of them without them knowing, but Leah saw me and told Ella.  They will often climb up here if our neighbors are in their backyard and just have conversations with them.  They are so funny.  They are such social little bugs and thankfully, we have very sweet neighbors who adore our girls!  What a blessing!  I just pray they don't fall!!!

Gift Giving

 These are some gifts that we are giving out this week.  The biggest one is for my friend, Amanda, for her birthday.  The three smaller ones are for the kids' dance teachers as an end of the year "thank you."  I took plain terra cotta pots and painted them purple with spray paint, then used my Cricut to cut out their initials with vinyl, then planted some wave petunias.  We think they are cute and hope the recipients will think so as well.

More Cricut Fun

The girls have a dance recital coming up on Saturday.  Ella's tap number is to the song "ABC, 123."  She is a 123 so I had to make her poster that she would hold up during the dance number.  I wanted consistency....either all pink or all polka dotted numbers.  Ella insisted, however, that she wanted both so this is what we came up with.  Of course, we used the Cricut to cut out the numbers and the polka dots and then hot glued them to the poster board.  Then I took sequin trim material to make a border around the numbers.  She loves it!!

A Fun Surprise :)

So, I'm taking a shower this morning and the girls come running in screaming, "Mommy, Mommy, guess what we caught?"  I immediately cringed and asked them what it was.  "A frog!"  They were crazy excited.  They said they had put it in Daddy's workshop to be his pet frog since his pet spider had died and they couldn't wait for him to get home and see it.  So when I got out of the shower, I went outside to investigate this little capture. I couldn't find it in the habitat of water and grass they had made so I inquired where it was and Leah came running in with this frog IN HER HAND!  This is my child who is literally scared of a fly.  Of course, as she stretched out her arm for me to see, I started screaming how I didn't want it to jump on me.  Then, I realized ole' Hoppy wasn't moving.  I told them I thought he may be dead.  "Oh no he isn't," they insisted.  I told Leah to put him back in the water and there he laid....belly up.  It really took some convincing to get them to believe he was dead and not just sleeping.  Then they wanted to hold him even though he was dead.  I told them they had probably already held him too much and that is why he was dead.  Anyway, I'm sure Daddy will be very surprised and excited to come home to his dead pet frog in his workshop!

Seriously....people that don't have kids by choice don't know what they are missing.  These two are the sunshine in my day !!!!

A Mother's Day Cricut

I've been wanting a Cricut for a long time.  Then, when we moved here and I saw all the things my neighbor was doing with hers, I wanted one even more!  I said to Charles that maybe that could be my birthday or Christmas present this year.  He said, "Mother's Day is coming up."  I was shocked and excited.  One day last week I was looking at them online and he said, "go ahead and order it."  So, I did!

This is my first creation.  I bought a cup to personalize for my friend, Michelle.  She works with me PRN at Baptist but full time at Jackson (where I just had my surgery).  I was so nervous, but she was so sweet to look out for me and I just wanted to get her a little something to say, "Thank You."

This is one of the things I got my Mom for Mother's Day.  She is a stationary freak.  So I got her this clipboard with super cute paper inside as well as a matching calendar, posty notes, and pens.  I am definitely in a learner's curve right now.  I had trouble getting the 'K' really straight and then there were some air bubbles under the letter too.  But, luckily Mom is pretty easy going and won't mind, I'm sure :)

This is what I made for Janet (Charles' step-mom).  I found this bowl at Hobby Lobby on clearance and added her initial to the middle.  I thought this one turned out super-cute.  I'd like it myself!

So, these are my first Cricut projects.  I can't wait to get more practice and craft myself silly :)

Mickey Mouse Cake

This is a cake I did for my next door neighbor's grandson.  His party came on the heels of his first visit to Disney World so a Mickey cake just made sense!    This was a chocolate cake with buttercream icing and fondant accents.  The topper is a Mickey head made out of rice krispie treats and covered in fondant.  This was my first attept at this, but it turned out okay...I learned a few things for next time, though.

Stacy, my neighbor, wanted to also do some Mickey pops.  This was our first attempt but turned out pretty well...I would probably use smaller sprinkles next time but these were fine, too.  You start by taking a double stuff Oreo and taking off one side.  Bury a lolliop stick in the creme and put the other cookie part back on.  Next, take mini Oreo's and take them apart and scrape out the creme.  Dip a little of it in some melted chocolate bark and put in the top of the double stuff Oreo for an ear.  Repeat for the other ear.  Let the ears harden (can place in fridge to expedite) and then drizzle entire pop in melted chocolate.  We found that if we dipped the whole thing in the chocolate, it would break apart.  Finally, sprinkle before chocolate hardens.  Allow to harden completely.  How else could an Oreo possibly get better but by adding more chocolate, right?  And they were super yummy!!