Carrot Cake!

 Probably like most people, I get really excited when I see something that looks really cool and that I'd like to do....and then actually do it! This cake was one of those great situations where I loved something in a magazine and it was the right mix of easy, cheap, and fun to make it happen :-) 

Start off with a nice, frozen Sara Lee Pound cake (unless you're an overachiever and want to make your own)

Cut off a couple inches from one end and then 2 wedges off the sides.

Add some yellow and red food coloring to white icing until you get an orange you like

Use icing to "glue" on the wedges to make a point at one end.  Let your husband eat the flat end you cut off (at least that's what I did :-) )

Ice the whole thing

Gather your orange jelly beans-sooo pretty!

Start laying 'em on (and if you're me, let go of any hopes of perfection)

Ella had fun helping with almost all of the steps but the jelly-beaning was the easiest for her to help with :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lay out some green candy for the stem and...Ta-da! It was a hit at our Easter Celebration and a fun project with Ella.

Belly Buttons!!

 Christmas time means belly-buttons!  We've been making these for years and they're a really good kids-can-help project.  And, they're SO tasty when they're done :-)

1.Start with some Hershey Kisses.  Almost always on sale around this time :-)

 

 2.Employ a small child to unwrap the kisses.  Ella chose to wear gloves "just in case" she had germs (they were later abandoned once she realized her dexterity was minimalized). 

 

3.Try to move quickly to the next step before the bowl of kisses empties as people mill around and distract you while sneaking your chocolate out of the bowl.

 

4.The small child can be put to work again spreading out square-shaped pretzel snaps (or round ones if you can find them, they tend to elude me in the stores lately).  Then place 1 kiss in the center of each pretzel. Use an oven safe container with sides (they slide off too easily on a baking sheet sans edges).

5.Bake the kiss/pretzels at 200 degrees for 5-8 minutes.  When they're ready they'll be shiny and soft enough to easily press an MnM into it.  DO not let them cook too long.  If they're burnt they'll start to crack and get hard and smell really bad (can you tell I've made this mistake in years past?)

6.Gather some MnM's.  Peanut are the ones I originally learned to make them with but do whatever you like.  This year I tried Peanut Butter along with some Peanut and Chris loved 'em.  I prefer the crunch of the peanut but, to each his own :-)

 

 7.Carefully press MnMs into the softened chocolate!  Let them cool and enjoy the sweet, chocolatey, salty, crunchy, smooth goodness.  Mmmmmm.

Careful what you start...

Recently I found a bookshelf/dollhouse I've been wanting to buy for Ella on clearance so I was excited to buy it and build it! Chris was out of town so I got help carrying it and then thought it might be a fun project for Ella and I that afternoon.


It started off well. We were both excited, we gathered the tools we needed and Ella was very helpful in laying out all the pieces and piling up the trash and handing me tools. Then...it became clear that this was too complex and time consuming for Ella to really stay engaged the whole time.

Then, it became clear that at 8 months pregnant, I had no business thinking this would be a quick or easy project. Reaching anything in front of you is much harder with a basketball strapped to your midsection. Try it some time.

Then came our search for the drill which we could NOT find anywhere.

Ugh.

I made some progress....
While Ella sat in a chair behind me eating snacks and watching our new favorite Ella-Mommy show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

I was determined to finish but it took 2 1/2 hours and my thumbs were numb from screwing in dozens of screws with NO drill. I bit off a little more than I could reasonably chew but the result was definitely cute. Next time I'll wait for the drill and Chris :-)

Valentine's Card Project

Step 1: Obtain 1 excited kid and supplies


Step 2: Have kid cut out names of kids in her class while you cut out hearts and daddy cuts out leaves. Let kid tape names to back of hearts


Step 3: Give in when kid begs to make one for herself too.


Step 4: Attach leaves to lollipops. Let kid ride her trike around the house and sing for awhile cause this takes a while and is too hard for the kid (at least this was the way it happened in our house).


Step 5: Let kid tape lollipops to front side of hearts


Step 6: Repeat 16 times




Step 7: Lollipop break!


Step 8: Clean up :-)