Thursday, February 28, 2013

St. Patrick's Day

This year for the first time I decided to put together a St. Patrick's Day mantel.  I LOVE how it turned out!  I had most of the things on hand but I did pick up a few things to finish the look.
The printable is a freebie from 5M Creations.  This is what I based the whole mantel on.  Then my mini cake stand with some fun green argyle ribbon and some green cupcake liners that I had on hand.  The little gold coins were given to the girls at Christmas and I thought they would be cute.

The little vase is full of green yarn poms from a local store.  Then I filled my apothecary jar with about a million gold cupcake liners.  In that small little jar there are actually 800 cupcake liners!  I had got them for super cheap for Melissa's party and never ended up using them.  I made muffins in some once but since they are foil they greatly speed up the baking process and led to very burnt muffins.  So, they are now for use in my St. Patty's day mantel and I think they look perfect.

Will you decorate for the day o' the Irish?

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

So Sorry

I got a not-so-subtle reminder today from a family member (you know who you are) that I haven't blogged in a long time.  I KNOW already, and I'm sorry!  We have been in a weird in-between place in our lives lately.  First of all there's not a whole lot of anything new going on.  School, ballet, work, church, etc.  My kids are past the age of posting weights and milestones, so nothing new there.  Chris and I have been battling with Savannah at bedtime for the last few months which has been brutal, so we drop into bed exhausted each and every night whereas I used to write on this little ol' blog after the kiddos went to bed.  Nothing like a two year old to really take it out of you, it's such a charming age.  Plus I've been dealing with some crap lately (nothing big, so don't worry), so it hasn't left me in a "let's post all sorts of fun things on the blog" kind of mood.  All in all: not a lot to report on the homefront.  During my blogging hiatus the kids remained adorable, Chris and I are more in love every day, and I know this season of life will bring us all the more closer together.  But, here's a few little tidbits from the past few weeks:

1.  I made this amazing cake last weekend.  It's called a banana poke cake but I think that sounds almost naughty so Chris re-named it a banana pudding cake.  You take a regular yellow cake mix and bake it according to the directions in a 9x13 pan.  After you take it out of the oven, don't wait for it to cool but poke a million holes in it.  I used the handle of a wooden spoon and you want to really make a ton of holes.  Then take 2 small boxes of instant banana pudding and whisk them together with 4 cups of milk until it just starts to thicken.  Pour it on the cake and really push the pudding down into the holes.  Put it in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, top it with a slightly thawed container of cool whip.  Crush 20 Nilla Wafers up and sprinkle on top and voila, a fabulous, fresh dessert!

2.  Savannah always misses her sister when Sydney is at school.  She loves to pick her up at the bus stop and this is how she usually looks:

What a cheese-ball.  She is so cute!  I remember this adorable little face when we're battling it out at bedtime.  Sigh...

3.  Once the bedtime issue is conquered we are moving Savannah into a big-girl bed.  I'm going to get a few things to make her room a bit more grown up and while that is a completely separate post, here is this little piece of inspiration:
This little beauty is from Hobby Lobby and oh my goodness, I am in love.  I REALLY need them to open one of those here, the closest one is Seattle and that really isn't convenient. 

4.  Stay tuned for my St. Patrick's Day mantel!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

It's the Day O'Love

Happy Valentine's Day!  We have a full day of fun activities going on around here but here are my little valentines all dressed up and ready for their day.

A friend of mine did this heart braid in her daughter's hair and it was so cute I decided to steal the idea and do it for Sydney's hair, too.  She wore it like this to ballet and school and she thought she was pretty cool.

My mini-valentine.  She is so cute!  She keeps saying "Happy Tines Day!"

Sydney got to take valentines to school and I made a few extra for Savannah to give to her little friends, too.  I love how they turned out!