Do It Yourself Baptism Cake

We recently baptized number 4. For these ceremonial celebrations it is definitely etiquettely correct to serve cake right? Well I didn't want a plain old sheet cake, so I went for one of my classic chocolate recipes and added a dove stencil. I downloaded the dove from the silhouette store and then cut it out on some pretty heavy card stock... also printing the baby's name at the bottom. I laid this over the cake and sprinkled my heart out. I carefully lifted the stencil and tahdah!

Fence to American Flag Tutorial

Hello blog... it has been awhile since I published anything that I was excited about... until today:) I finished this flag months ago but hadn't gotten around to posting about it until this morning! Hurray... the older two are at school and me and the girls are enjoying this overcast morning. This lovely little flag was made out of our old and rotting fence.

I saved three pieces of the wooden fence.... the metal gate was another project I may never post about... sorry!

I began by using a crow bar and removing the slats... one by one

Using the old and rusty nails I found a new place to hammer and placed the slots much closer together.

When I was finished it looked a little something like this.

Definitely needs some paint... spray paint was my first choice for primer, but this old wood needed a brush for sure... FYI... if you do something with old wood or barn wood... spray painting on primer will take forever and so just go straight for the can and a brush.

So after the paint and a sealer and a few post holes with a little sand for back filling, I stuck this beauty in the back corner of my backyard. Love it!

My sweet little two-year-old made such a patriotic little model!

For the love of blogging!

I'm so sorry to anyone who is looking for new content on this little blog. Summer is busy and so is this crazy house. I look forward to blogging many new projects this fall. I got to go to Hobby Lobby last week and loaded up with supplies for some fun new stuff once the kids go back to school. Remember my Flower Ball Post? These cute little things are super easy to make but very time consuming. Well right before we were gonna have company for the weekend I couldn't find the two I had in the living room. Both the 7 year old and 4 year old swore they had no idea where they were... and I believed them... silly me! In an effort to prepare for more company this weekend I was doing a little cleaning and guess what I found tucked away in the toy cupboard...The sweet little 4 year old looks at me and says, "oh, I guess you found them."
What a stinking little liar... and no remorse or fear or anything... not sure what I'm gonna do about this. Still laughing at that little boy, put still pretty peeved... maybe at myself because I absolutely believed him. Advice on 4 year old boys is always welcome! And so that it appears as though I have posted something of substance I'm re-posting this pretty flower ball picture... Now that they are Found!

Tuesday's Recipe... Kit Kat Cake

OMG... Crazy busy week, but in the midst of all the craziness... I stumbled upon this picture while I was searching new recipes. My little guy doesn't have a b-day until January but his two favorite things in this world are probably Kit Kats and M&Ms. He will love this!!! Some of the measurements really crack me up, since I'm so used to my "American" cups and teaspoons. The creator is Australian. Check out her POST... it is fun. Thanks Dunnn to Perfection for the great idea!

Tuesday's Recipe...Beef Enchiladas

Yikes... don't gag after you look at the first picture:) Haha... this is more of a kid friendly enchilada casserole... and I must say, my kids love it... the picky hubby will eat it hot, but not leftover:( Actually the only thing he eats leftover is steak... his mother is so proud!

Combine browned ground beef, onion, enchilada sauce, cream of mushroom, milk, and green chilis in sauce pan... heat till bubbly.
Next, you will layer like a lasagna. Start with a little of your beef mixture on the bottom, then tear up tortillas, then more beef mixture, then shredded cheese... do this until the beef mix is gone. Top with remaining cheese and bake. Recipe at the bottom.
Recipe

1 pound ground beef
1/2 onion diced
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of mild enchilada sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 can diced green chilis (or fresh)
1 package shredded cheddar cheese
4-6 tortillas

-Bake at 375 for 30 minutes (This makes a 9 x 9 pan, if you want a 9 x 13 you should double everything, except I think one package of cheese is plenty even for the 9 x 13)
Serve with corn chips.

Homemade Play Dough made with Kool-Aid...Kid Craft

It feels like the summer is flying by and the kids are a little restless some days because playing outside when it is 106 isn't all that much fun... unless water is involved. Yesterday we decided to make our own fun with homemade play dough using kool-aid. This was fun and it smells sooooo good. We did lemon-lime and orange...

And look... finally a practical use for these lovely little cutters from the Pampered Chef, which have just been taking up drawer space for the past 5 years:)

Fun was had by all and it was something we did together and there was no fighting, or tattling, or screaming, or anything except laughs and good times.

Kool-Aid Play Dough
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
3 Tbsp. oil
1 pkg. Kool-Aid powder
1 cup boiling water
Stir together the flour, salt, and Kool-Aid powder in a bowl. Add the bowling water and oil. Stir and stir and stir until the mixture forms a ball. Gently knead a couple of times then set aside to cool down. We used empty cottage cheese containers for storage and tomorrow the kids want to decorate those... so we now have another project:)

Potty Training Ideas with Potty Treats

I am loving this idea I of course found in blogland. My 2-year-old is really getting the hang of it now. Right before she turned two she was doing great with the potty training thing, except I was nine months pregnant and didn't put my whole heart into it... and I'm a softy with this child because she is just so sweet. (every family has the "sweet one") This is probably why she also still has a pacifier, even though I swore my kid would never have one past one and totally shamed others that had older kids with them. (life and kids usually make you regret saying... "my kid will never..." trust me your children will live to prove you wrong if ever utter those words, I promise!) Anyhow, she started and then totally stopped after baby number 4 came. Once we tried again, 6 weeks later, she was just a little more stubborn.
Plan B... the bribes pictured below. My little one loves chocolate and so instead of asking her to pee, because that is an instant "no" I say, "do you want a potty treat?" and she heads for the bathroom. We are not 100% but we are getting there day by day. (To my sister-in-law, Katie... for Lincoln, your gonna need a jar filled with either icees or tractor stickers...lol)
To make the beauty pictured below I used an empty pickle jar, some ribbon, scrapbook paper, paper flowers, and hot glue... as well as M&M's:)

Just to keep real here in blogland and prove that I'm human, and hypocritical I would love for you all to see my 2-year-old and her pacifier, which she calls her "assy" sitting on the toilet. (She can say pink and she can say please, but still prefers to say assy... sounds lovely in church)