Circus

I took my son, Cameron to the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus that recently came to town here in Atlanta. He has been fascinated w/all things circus for awhile now & had recently told me that he wanted to have a Circus Birthday party when he turns 5 in May. (Great, like I'll just whip that up!) Anyway, I thought I would get some cheap, fairly good seats & see how he liked the real deal. It was just Cameron & myself & this was for a few reasons: 1. The cost -cheaper for just he & I to go
2. The baby would never sit thru it all and 3. My husband hates clowns (yes, for real... you can't make this stuff up!). Anyway, Cameron really liked it but, more importantly, so did I! There are things that are really amazing, things are just fun to watch & then animals that are such awesome creatures. We really had good seats too & could see everything well. I was so glad we went & even though I spent $8 for popcorn, Cameron really didn't ask for anything else like a souvenir or anything. I got off really easy on that because I saw people buying tons of expensive food & stuff and I really just couldn't afford all that. It was a great experience! I even parked in the wrong spot & we had to walk a long way but, it actually kind of made it more fun. We talked a lot & saw more things walking than we would have if we'd have parked in the right place. Of course, I had to put a positive spin on that to keep Cameron from complaining about all the walking! On a side note....I'm realted to "Barnum" of the circus name. My Grandma was a Barnum & the circus Barnum is my great-great someting or other. Yes, I know, that explains a lot. I come from circus people!

Update on Mandoline Slicer

So, awhile ago I did a post about the Mmandoline slicer that my husband gave me for Xmas. I have since used it even more to not only make lots of Potatoes Au Gratin but, to make perfect tomato slices for hamburgers & sandwiches but even for making thin slices of apples or pears for my kids to top w/peanut butter or cream cheese etc. It is great & I still say it's a must have for your kitchen. BTW, my husband now calls it the Mandolay slicer. Will he ever get it right?

Boys Dress-Up

A lot of people don't realize that some boys really like to play dress-up too. They just have a different way of doing it than most girls. It's great for their imagination so, I think parents should encourage this. You don't necessarily have to have costumes (although second-hand Halloween costumes can be useful)but, maybe a raincoat can be a Firefighter's coat & rain boots can be the Firefighter's boots. Just let them get creative. It's good to have different hats (firefighter, construction worker, chef, engineer etc.) and props (flashlights, hammers, cooking utensils, etc.) My son has always loved acting out different scenarios with different hats & clothes to fit the occasion. Let your boy & girls dress up. You might want to draw the line at dressing in drag (or not, little boys in tutus probably aren't being harmed!)

Valentines

This year for Valentines Day, we decided to make Valentine's Cake Pops & send some (after eating a whole bunch of course!) to my Mother-in-Law in Florida. We sent some pictures of the kids & something cute that Cameron made at school as well. I made the decision to not put the sticks in the cake pops after contemplating all the different ways I could ship them w/out destroying them. I decided we would send them like chocolates in a chocolate box. So the pics that I posted here are of the cake pops (aka: cake balls) and the box I made to send them in w/the kid's pic on it. You can use any basic cake pop recipe & method so, I'm not posting that part. The idea is mainly to get creative with making them & packaging them. I find that chocolate candy melts are easier to use when dipping them but, a little too sweet combined with everything else. I like semi-sweet Bakers chocolate for the taste & texture but, a little harder to coat the pops with. Semi-sweet chocolate chips taste okay but, melting them to the right consistancy & dipping the pops is a real pain in the ass. Well, I digress, the Vaelntine sprinkles are what really makes them cute & then setting each one in a Valentine's themed mini-cupcake liner. Then I used a cute box that I already had which, had previously contained a really nice scarf that someone gave me for Xmas a couple of years ago. I knew that I would use that box for something one day! (I'm a secretly a hoarder) I put the pic of the kids that I printed & cut it into a heart shape & pasted on the box. Then, I used a sort of strechy cord to keep the box closed at the corners. Voila, mes amies! (BTW, I suddenly break into French at random times)

No Time

What the heck was I thinking?! I don't have the time to blog everyday!! I'm trying but, usually my only real "Me Time" is after my kids are in bed. Of course, that's when I have to watch my daily dose of reality shows & sit-coms as my way of winding down after the long day. So, I'll keep trying but, don't shoot me (those of you that are actually in my vicinity) if I don't blog everyday. Kay?

Easy Valentine Cupcakes

Here are a couple of different kinds of cupcakes that you can make for Valentine's Day to suit cholate lovers or vanilla fans. For the chocoalte ones, I just used Duncan Hines Devils Food cake mix & made Chocolate Buttercream Frosting as well as regular Buttercream tinted pink w/food coloring. My Mom had given me a silicone cupcake pan with heart-shaped cupcake molds. I don't recommend the silicone because it's too hard to get the cupcakes out without some sticking to the silicone pan. Wish they had a saline version -Ha Ha. This is why in the pic, some are regular round cupcakes & some are heart-shaped. I made these a couple of years ago & then the next year, made the vanilla w/pink & white frosting. Anyway, I spread the Chocolate Buttercream on the cupcakes & then piped various designs on them like hearts, swirls etc. I used a star tip #18 for these decorations because you can do a lot of things with the little icing stars connected & it looks cute. Ususally I would use the star tip 21 but, these cupcakes were a little bit small so, I wanted smaller stars. I fun just doing different designs & stuff. The next year was a little more simple w/the pink & white mini-cupcakes. I used vanilla and strawberry frostings from a can. I didn't have to tint any pink icing this way but, they didn't taste as great as with homemade icing. I was still able to pipe the icing w/my decorating tools but, it was a lot less work than making the icing from scratch too.

Sick Kids

At some point or another, we are all faced with being at home all day with a sick kid or kids. There are many people who think that when kids are sick, you have to let them watch unlimited amounts of TV as they lay around all day. This, I have decided, is totally correct! When they are truly sick, they just don't have the energy to get up & do stuff & they really shouldn't while they're really sick. This past week my son Cameron was home several days w/a flu virus & ear infection combined. If he were my only child this would actualy be sort of a relaxing time for me. While he would be resting & watching TV, I could get a lot done in a day. However, this is not the case as I have a toddler running around driving me crazy while also tending to my sick kid. Trying to keep Emily from "bothering" Cameron (or as he says "She keeps boddering me!") & keep her from getting sick too, is not easy. It is not fun dealing with a young toddler all day & still catering to every whim of a 4 yr old sick kid. The only way to keep Cameron happy was to let him lay on the couch & watch TV while I kept Emily busy. He ate his meals on the couch on a bed tray (although he barely ate anything) and he fell asleep & peed on himself more than once -that's fun. After a few days of being sick, I was so happy when I found him in the morning playing happily on the floor w/his Legos. I knew he was pretty much back to his normal self again & he even wanted to play in his room while Emily was napping instead of his usual TV time. And his brain seemed still in tact despite the fact that I was afraid it had turned to jello from all of the TV watching. So, no harm done.

More Valentine Crafts

Here is another easy, but cute Valentine craft. You can make your own hearts on cardstock or cardboard and cut them out or you can buy packs of pre-made hearts at Michaels craft store. You can buy a pack of 12 for about $1.50 that are thick paper ones (like cardstock) about 5 in. across. Take a hole punch & punch holes around the edge of the heart (about 18-20 holes). The kids can decorate them w/markers, crayons, glitter, stickers or whatever. Then, they use ribbon, shoe laces or other lacing string & lace-up the hearts. This time, I used pre-made craft laces that you can also get at Michaels in all different colors. They look cute & they can give them to relatives or friends as Valentines.