St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes - Adults Only!

When I saw these cupcakes I knew I had to make them!  Superdad is a HUGE fan of Guinness, and add some Bailey's icing to them?  Irish Car Bomb in a cupcake!  Being that I am Irish, I try to fulfill my duties as a good lass and host a proper St. Patrick's Day party - this cupcake was a perfect addition.  Here is the original pin linking back to her page with the recipe - they are amazing!

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Icing

 I also finally got to use my awesome cupcake holder that my mom got me for Christmas from Crate & Barrel.  VERY easy to put together, and super sturdy - I would highly recommend one if you like to bake cupcakes.

If you feel the need to own one too - here is the link :)

My cupcakes sure didn't turn out as pretty as the ones above, but mine did at least have a fun beer on the top!  We needed a way to make sure that everyone knew they were adults only, and it was the best I could come up with in my time crunch.  They are Royal Icing Beer Mugs made by Wilton and I got them at Party City.  Everyone thought the cupcakes were delicious, and will definitely be on the menu again next year. Here are a couple of pics of how they turned out:

and a close up

Valentine's Day Craft

I was browsing Pinterest in search of a cute Valentine's Day idea for Abby to give out at preschool this year.  I found really cute silicon muffin tins in the Dollar Spot at Target, not to mention she loves coloring, so I thought that this craft would be a great idea:

Valentine's Day Heart Crayon via Pinterest

Here are the silicon molds that I got at Target - I believe they were acutally $2.50 for the set, but still very cheap none the less.  They worked great, and cleaned up very well!

First I bought some cheaper crayons, but I will say that they are VERY hard to peel the paper off of, and that I quickly gave up on them.  I had to go to Target anyway, so I bought some boxes of Crayola, and man I love those crayons.  The paper slid off very easily - so Crayola is my recommendation for brand. 

Once I got them all 'naked' as Abby says, I chopped them up into about 1/4" size pieces.  They actually cut up surprisingly well!  Now, this is where it gets sad - somewhere between camera and computer the rest of the pics were lost!  I followed the rest of the directions, and they turned out very well.  I used my Cricut to cut heart shapes and then I wrote the words "Happy Valentine's Day for CRAYON out loud" on them.  Abby signed the back side, and then I just used double sided tape to affix the crayon to the heart.  We were in Disney World for her school party, but I got a ton of compliments on them when we returned - I would highly recommend for an easy do-it-yourself Valentine's project!

Poor Neglected Blog!

I have been so bad at updating the blog :(  The sad thing is, when I read back I remembered how much I LOVED writing it.  SO - I am back, and will be doing a lot of back posting, we have done some fun things this year so far!  Lots of updates on the kids, and I have some vacations to blog about too.  Stay tuned friends!

Our First Live Christmas Tree and Buddyzilla!

Let's get Buddy out of the way LOL.  Today we awoke to find Buddyzilla taking over my Christmas village.  At least he looks friendly while he is tormenting my poor villagers :)

Next on the docket: Our first live Christmas Tree!!!

I have never had a real tree before, but have always thought about getting one.  Last year, we donated our artificial tree to Goodwill after the holidays.  It was too big for the room we have, now that the kids toys and things are taking over the house.  The type of shape/size that I want was going to be really expensive, and I felt like I was being too picky - so we decided to get a real tree.  If I was going to get a real tree, we were going REAL...

So, tonight Superdad and I loaded the littles up in the Pilot and drove up to the Big Tree Plantation in Morrow, OH.  It was only about 15 minutes away, so very reasonable for a weeknight.  Plus - I had a coupon LOL.  Hey, every 10% off helps right???  So, we bundled up and headed up to the farm - because we were cutting down our own tree!  When we arrived, Jeff went to ask what we do - because we have never done this - and the littles and I went and hung out by the big warm bonfire....the kids were being hams for the camera:

Sweet Abigiail...

Handsome Ryan - I LOVE him in this puffy vest!

Once Jeff got our instructions on what we were supposed to do, we headed out into the big field of trees on our hunt for the perfect one!  It was a little challenging in the dark, but we didn't really have any other time this weekend - and well, I was being impatient (and a little tired of hearing Abby ask when we were getting one) so we decided to go tonight.  Thank goodness for the flash on our phone's video camera - it makes the perfect flashlight! **Note to self - bring flashlight if ever tree hunting at night again - or better, go during the day**   We walked for a little while, and then saw it - our tree!  It was perfect.....

Abby and Ryan with our tree!!!!!!

Here is Jeff with the first (of hopefully many) fresh cut by himself S Family tree....

The kids of course, had to help their Daddy pull the tree back - LOVE them!



When we got finished getting the tree to the people that shake it out (to get all of the chipmunks out per Abby) and wrap it up, we went to the gift shop and to explore a little.  The kids got to see live reindeer, and we even bought an ornament so we can always remember our very first live tree.  After we were done with that, we took a horse drawn carriage ride through the field of trees.  I will say that we were very impressed with the experience in all.  Here is a cute pic of Abby and Ryan and a very good, but SUPER dark family picture - which bums me out because it is a great one....

AND FINALLY - PRESENTING OUR TREE!!!

Yes, it is bare - we will be decorating it tomorrow....it was too late tonight.



Elves Making Coffee and Happy Tappers!

Today, we awoke to Buddy making coffee!!  I don't drink coffee at all, but it was a sweet thought on his part.  Maybe he can make me some hot chocolate tonight instead......



I finally started pulling the Christmas decorations upstairs from the basement today.  One of the kids favorite parts of Christmas is playing with the Happy Tappers from Hallmark.  They are basically snowglobes that have little figurines in them, and they dance to songs.  They can all be linked together, or seperate.  Pretty cute little things if you ask me!  Abby was at school, so I was enlisting the help of Ry-man.....he was helpful for about 5 minutes until he saw the tappers - then it was over!  He had so much fun, and played with them for about an hour consistantly.  It was so nice!!  Here is a cute picture of him with them, and if I can get it to

upload, there is a video of him dancing with the tappers :)

 



Wednesday Nov 29 - S'mores Anyone??

Apparently Buddy got hungry overnight - we found him roasting s'mores over a candle this morning!  What will this crazy elf do next??



Tuesday Nov 28 - Do You Know Where Your Elf Is???

Today we awoke to find Buddy hanging upside down from the blinds in the family room.  The kids are pretty convinced that he was swinging and playing - and when when came downstairs this morning we scared him and since he doesn't move in front of them, got stuck that way......yup - ok - sounds good!  Silly Buddy......