monster cupcakes

I found this article in a magazine for making monster cupcakes about 2 months ago and I knew I just had to make them for Halloween this year! So I shopped every store and finally found all the candy I needed to make these little creatures. After spending 30 minutes on the first cupcake I enlisted the kids to help decorate the other 59 cupcakes.

If you know me you know I take pictures of everything and wouldn't you know it my battery was dead on my camera so I had to use the kids' camera for the first few pictures. But that's OK cause it gave me more time to actually decorate with the kids.

They turned out great! However they don't travel very well so next year I'm going to have the Halloween party at my house :)

granola-to-go bars

Gracie found a recipe for granola bars in a magazine and just had to make them! So I thought I would share it with you.

Combine 3-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats and 1 cup chopped almonds in a 15x10x1 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until toasted, stirring occasionally.
In a large bowl, combine 1 beaten egg, 2/3 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup honey & 1 tsp vanilla extract. Stir in 1/2 cup sunflower kernels, 1/2 cup flaked coconut, 1/2 cup chopped dried apples, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Stir in toasted oat mixture.

Press into the baking pan coated with cooking spray again. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack. Cut into 36 bars.

They tasted very good but I think I needed to bake them a little longer cause the ones in the middle fell apart. Jake put all the broken parts into a bowl with milk and said it was the best cereal ever!

1st grade here he comes

OOOPS! So it looks like I forgot to post Ethan's first day of school pictures. I'm not sure what happened but here they are. He loves 1st grade and I can tell he is really learning a lot. His teacher Mrs. C is a dream to work with and I am very excited to begin helping out in the classroom.

Gracie woke up early to say goodbye to Ethan and I must say she is doing very well without him during the day. Unlike last year when she cried almost everyday for him this year she gets a little sad in the morning and then talks about picking him up for the rest of the day.

ethan's new desk

A few weeks ago I bought Ethan a desk for $15 dollars at a resale store. The wood was in really good condition and all 4 drawers opened easily. The only problem for Ethan was the color. I guess white is not a good color for boys furniture according to him. So I asked him what color he would like to paint it and of course "Air Force blue" was the answer. We have our old dining room table and chairs in the garage that Jake uses to do projects on and Ethan thought one of the chairs once painted would work great for his chair. He said it was a "big man's chair". We worked on it for a few days sanding, cleaning, priming and painting....and some more painting. The humidity was unusually high for our area and I had to redo a few sections but after all was said and done we had a nice little addition to his room. Now he has a place to do his homework and secret drawers to hide his spy gear in but shhh don't tell him I told you :)

My next project is to decorate his room. After Gracie was born he begged us to get rid of his full sized bed and buy him a toddler race car bed. I don't know why I did it cause now he wants his old bed back. Anyways his room has no real theme just a few leftover sports things from his nursery and a race car. Maybe we will have to do a little online window shopping at etsy for bedroom ideas.

sick baby girl

Oh what a morning we have had so far.......Gracie woke up at 4am and said she didn't feel good and wanted to sleep with me. That lasted 30 mins before she started getting sick in my bed. So on to the couch where she got sick again, this time her hair took the most of it. In the bath she went and back on the couch with new sheets. Fast forward 3 hours to #8, YES the 8th time and 6 count them 6 sets of dirty sheets on my floor. As you can see things are starting to get a little messy and I'm trying to get Ethan ready for school but the poor little girl is a silent one and if I'm not right next to her it gets all over everything. So I do my best with him and just as I get back inside after walking him to my mom's car here comes #9.....all over me! So here I sit at 9:20am after wiping up #12 I think to myself I have spent the last 5 hours cleaning puke off my bed, couch, floor not to mention Gracie and myself. I have a pile of laundry higher then ever and I wouldn't have it any other way! Crazy, Yes! But it's days like this that I am so thankful I get to stay home and take care of my babies!

"my nose thinks you are busted!"

Last night after I put the kids & Jake to bed I sat down on the couch with a little bag of skittles. Gracie must have heard me opening the bag because she poked her head out of her room 2 different times. Finally she came out and said "my nose thinks you are busted!" BUSTED is the new word in our house, the kids use it everyday and for everything. So I told Gracie to go back to bed and she quickly replied with "you give me candy and I go to sleep by my own" I said no of course who does she think she is trying to blackmail me. She crossed her arms with a big "humf" and muttered under her breath as she walked down the hall "then I will go see daddy!"