!Pinata Cookies!

Are you kidding me?  How insanely adorable are these Pinata Cookies from She Knows?  The tutorial makes it sound like a piece of cake (or piece of cookie?).  I'm going to attempt to make these for my nephew's birthday party this weekend.

Since it's so close to Cinco de Mayo, I knew I wouldn't have time to order a donkey-shaped cookie cutter online (without paying undesirable overnight fees), although Amazon had these available.  I recruited my dad to go to the local cake supply store that confirmed they had them in stock over the phone.  Double whoop for retired parents!

Maybe I need an elephant cookie cutter also so I can rock some political cookies when November is a little nearer.  :)

I'll let ya know how they turn out.  !Viva la fiesta!

Cinco de Mayo: Olvera Street Inspiration

Getting ready for our Cinco de Mayo celebrations!  We thought we'd hit up Olvera Street 

to get some inspiration.  

My big crafting realization this weekend was I need to start making tons (TONS) of paper flowers.  Perhaps I'll frame the front door in them.  If nothing else, I want to place them in vases around.  The puppets kind of freak me out, so don't expect to see those anywhere I am ever again.  I bought the girls mini-guitars in their signature colors, purple and pink, but I might also say don't expect to see those around for long as they might "disappear" soon.

Georgia liked the kittens in this mural.  

iPhone Cake

iPhone cake

How fun is this homemade iPhone cake?!?!  It was made by my awesome friend Chris French for his 12-year-old daughter Sarah.  Let's start with why this is so rad.  Reason #1:  It was like a month ago that Chris told me he made his first layer cake.  Reason #2:  They came up with the idea yesterday and executed it immediately.  Reason #3:  He made it with his daughter.  

So how'd they do it?  They made a double layer sheet cake and frosted it.  Simple enough.  The apps were all made by using sugar paper from ABC Cakes in Orange, CA.  They are also available from Wilton.  Sugar paper is exactly what you'd think it'd be...edible paper.  Using Wilton FoodWriters or a similar edible marker, they drew the various apps from Sarah's new iPhone.  

Super rad cake for a super rad girl (made by her super rad dad).

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!  Our celebration was camping out in the backyard in our Taj Mahal (actually a Coleman tent).  We bought it when Harper was a baby, so we needed one big enough for our inflatable air mattress and a playpen.  It's the best tent ever.  Maybe it is the immense size or perhaps the closet.  Yup, the closet.

                                                  

Before it got too dark to take pictures.

I accept the irony of entertaining ourselves in our Earth Day backyard campout by watching "Muppets Treasure Island" on the laptop.  In the morning, the girls decided they wanted to play Hide and Go Seek.  So it's a 6-person tent which is big, but not so big that's there's anywhere to actually hide.  Whatever...they were happy AND it didn't involve using any electricity.

Earth Day also happens to be my brother's wedding anniversary.  Check out this awesome shot of my siblings, the bride Amy, and her sister Becky.   

1990 Earth Day

Time to get off the computer and back outside!  Hope you have a great day full of recycling, hiking, and composting.  :)

Cinco de Mayo Invites

Two parties, one theme!  My quesadilla-loving family is having two Cinco de Mayo-themed parties next month.  Thank goodness because it lets us cut down a little on the decoration making.  Here are the invites for the upcoming events:

I can't believe this handsome little man is turning one already!  His birthday is the 6th which accounts for the Seis de Mayo-ness.  The invite was made by my super talented brother-in-law Patrick Carrie.  Every family needs a doctor, a lawyer, and a graphic designer.  

This invite I ordered from Vintage Babydoll on Etsy.  The neat thing about Etsy invites is you get emailed a pdf of your invite and then print them yourself (either at home or through your regular photo-processing place like Costco).  Super inexpensive and personalized.  

Hope you catch my Fiesta Fever the next few weeks as we get ready for the fun!

Ballet Recital Reception

Too early to think about Father's Day?  Probably.  Our plans have been set, however, as we'll be attending our daughters' dance recital.  My sweet husband said it's exactly how he wants to spend his day.  I think he'd rather be at a brewery and watching sports, but pink tutus and tap shoes are on the agenda instead.

My three favorite ballerinas...not looking all that thrilled about waiting for dance to start.

While planning, I came across some cute baking supplies from Fancy Flours and around the web.  This stuff is almost as cute as my ballerinas.

Ballet Slipper Cookie Cutter $16.50

Sugar Ballet Slippers $5.50 for 6

Twinkle Toes Cupcake Liners & Picks $15.00 for 24

Cupcake wrappers from Beau-Coup $9.99 for 12

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

Carrot cake is health food...carrots being a vegetable and all.  If you can accept that, we are friends and keep reading.  If you can't accept the high nutritional value of carrot cake, decide this looks too good to skip and keep reading anyway.

Whoopie pies are fun in their ambiguity.  Are they sandwiches?  Cakes?  Cookies?  They are most certainly not pies.  My trouble in making them was how to get the cakes to end up the exact same size.   Here's my big cheat: bake the cakes in cupcake tins to make more uniform cakes.

Here's how I made mine...

Happy Easter Eve's Eve

It's two days before Easter, but why wait to start consuming baskets full of sugar? 

Our house is having a "Hop" viewing party and snacking on some Bunny Bait.  Now, there's some background info you need.  First, I'm on spring break (WHOOO HOOOO!) so I've had more time than normal to check out my favorite blogs.  Earlier in the week, I entered a contest on Babble.com.  The spring break fairies sprinkled their magic upon me, and I won a free copy of the movie "Hop."  We took Georgia to see it in theaters last Easter so she was extra excited with the news.

Bunny Bait is a new sugar-coma inducing snack in our house, but it kept popping up on Pinterest boards and blogs.  Essentially, it is a candy trail mix....but that feels like I'm underselling it.  I did confuse my children by titling it "bait" because that led them to believe we are going to try to catch the Easter Bunny.  

My clever mom-ness kicked in and I weaved a tale of how eating Bunny Bait brought out our inner-bunniness.  That was believable since after eating some, my girls began hopping.  

Want our recipe?

Pine Cone Chick Craft

My sister Carolyn made this cute little chick with her kindergarten class for years.

What you'll need:
* Pinecone
* Yellow paint
* Cotton balls
* Orange craft foam
* Yellow feathers
* Googly eyes
* Easter grass
* Glue

To make, find pine cones that stand well, paint them yellow, and let dry.  Pull cotton balls into thinner strands and stuff cotton into pine cone gaps.  Using the orange craft foam, cut feet for your chick.  Attach Easter grass to bottom of feet and then attach feet to pine cone.  This chick also has rounded foam rectangles under the feathered wings which helps the feathers stand out more.  Attach feathers and eyes with glue.

Easter Candy Pie

Easter is a week away, and I was assigned the dessert portion of the meal (horray!).  This gives me an excuse to spend the next week baking up a storm.  One thing that's on the dessert menu for sure is Candy Pie.

My mom found the recipe at the grocery store years ago, and it is reserved exclusively for Easter in our family.  Why if it's so ridiculously amazing?  Because it takes a year for your cavities to fill after eating a piece.  The pie filling is made up of melted Hershey kisses and Cool Whip, but not to be ignored is the peanut butter cup layer.  Oh my goodness, it's sweet!

The recipe is on the Hershey website right here.  This is a great thing to bake with little helpers because the hardest part is unwrapping all of the candy.  Actually, the hardest part is unwrapping the candy and not eating it.

Now, I've got to figure out what everyone else will be eating.  What are you making for Easter?