Gianna's 5th Birthday

When I say my baby girl is 5, a tear is rolling down my face... I can not believe I have a 5 year old!! Gianna has changed our since the minute we found out I was pregnant.  Since we had a large combined birthday party, sorry I still have to post about that, we decided to keep it small for her real birthday. It was a special day, lunch with friends and dinner with family. Breakfast was none other than this incredible cinnamon roll 5! I made one for Tommy's 3rd birthday and Gianna LOVED it, I knew I this would become a birthday tradition!! She wanted a Peppa Pig theme, you can see the cake above.. from scratch, of course! I had SOOO much fun decorating the cake, making her favorite homemade chocolate cake and frosting. Gianna loves chocolate, so this was right up her alley! I made a mud pile of Peppa and her family, added a few flowers and grass patches, and surrounded the entire cake with kit-kats. It was delicious and Gianna was in her glory!

Below are the cinnamon roll 3 & 5- super easy and a great special addition to any birthday celebration!!

Halloween 2016

Happy Halloween! Again, this is not my favorite day of the year, but I make the best out of it!! My friend and I decided to make painted pumpkins for our class party. Didn't they turn out great? We had fun making bats, webs, jack-o-lantern faces and a few with dots- so cute!!

I signed up for a healthy treat for Gianna's party, so I made this fun face out of fruit! It was fun, and the kids and I ate more fruit than we put on the plate!! Getting the kids involved was a fun activity!!

Tonight we had a Halloween party before trick-or-treating. I made cute dip holders by carving out small sugar pumpkins... super easy and makes a statement. I also attempted chocolate caramel apple slices... not as easy as I thought they would be. I suggest dipping in caramel and then chocolate to help them harden correctly. As you can see they caramel and chocolate slipped off because the apple slices are moist. I will have to work on these for next time!!

Check out our carved pumpkins this year.....Daddy was super busy so I did all 3! Each kid picked out the shapes and helped me draw the mouth for their individual jack-o-lanterns. I was inspired by the kid's party this year, Wizard of Oz, for my pumpkin. I found a silhouette online and created my template. I think it came out pretty decent for something that wasn't meant for a pumpkin stencil!!

I also made these adorable rice krispie pumpkins by adding a tootsie roll as the top, and a few even had a monster popping out.  I also made my famous chocolate pretzels because they are just soooooo yummy!! Happy Halloween everyone... off to trick or treating!

Tommy turns 3- Blaze Birthday

When I say I can not believe my baby boy is three- I SERIOUSLY CAN NOT!! Where have the last three years gone??  Tommy loves Blaze and the Monster Machines, so for his classroom and family party I went all out! Above is a picture of the cake I created for his actual birthday. I took the number 3 and turned it into a road for the monster machines. I added smashed up Oreo's as the dirt, whoppers are boulders, and homemade chocolate frosting, don't worry, cake was from scratch too, like always!! Below are the cupcakes I made for Tommy's class- aren't they adorable??

For dinner we went with true Tommy fashion and served a DIP IT party- everything you can dip was served... Chicken nuggets, fries, mini hot dogs, and chips with all the sauces you can imagine. For appetizers I got a little creative and made a traffic light out of  grapes, cheese, pepperoni and crackers (Tommy's favorite snacks). 

Finally, a cute chip and dip display... dump truck chips & salsa.  Tommy enjoyed dipping the night away, tackling his cake and is now off to dreamland... sweet dreams my sweet boy, I still can not believe you are 3!!

Teacher's Gifts (Flower Vase)

Being class mom this year has been an incredible journey! Being on the other side of the coin was unique and exciting. The teacher's this year have been amazing and I wanted to give them something they could use and treasure for years.  This was a multi-step process that the kids were part of. I painted to base blue and grass ahead of time. Then, asked each child to give me a thumbprint to create a insect/flower/animal of their choice. After, I got to work on all of the small details creating the insects, flowers, and animals and bringing them to life!! This was sooooo much fun and I must say, I wanted one for myself.  I presented the teachers with these vases, filled with flowers, at the moving up ceremony and they both cried- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! I'm already planning gifts for next year, I don't know if I can top this one though, it will be hard!!

Easter Creations (Peeps S'mores Dip & Cool Whip Egg Decorating)

Bouna Pasqua, Happy Easter everyone! We have been very busy little bunnies over here!! We have had a lot of fun creating Easter treats for the Easter Bunny and celebrations we have. I don't know about you, but Peeps are a big thing in our house, well, with everyone except me!! My children and husband LOVE LOVE LOVE peeps! So I decided as part of dessert this year to try out this Peeps S'mores Dip... what a hit!!! I served it with graham crackers and cut up fruit!

We also decided to make some yummy pretzel nests, these can also be made with crunchy noodles! I simply made them like I do rice kripsies- butter and marshmallow melted together, add pretzels and form! We then added some egg m&m's while warm and sticky!!

Gianna's class party was the other day and I made these adorable additions- Fruit Bunny Platter & rice krispie nests- always a big hit!!

Finally, we tried out making cool whip eggs! WHAT FUN and they turned out much better than I expected. These can also be made with shaving cream, but Tommy still loves putting new things in his mouth, so I went with cool whip!!

Ingredients:

*Hardboiled eggs

*Neon food coloring (regular works as well but will be less vibrant)

*Cool Whip (can use shaving cream)

*Shallow plastic pins (a cookie sheet would be fine if using shaving cream)

I thawed the cool whip over night so it would be the right consistency. I let each kid pick two colors per container. You simply add cool whip to the container and spread around, add a few drips of cool whip and mix around and twirl. Add eggs and mix around, make sure they are covered all over. I then let the eggs sit about 30-45 minutes. Take each egg and dip into a bowl of cool water and shake off the cool whip, don't run under water as the color could wash off. I gently patted each egg dry and let them sit in the egg crate overnight in the fridge to set.

The colors were vibrant and this was a really fun way to decorate eggs. You could absolutely add stickers and decorations, but we loved them the way they were!! 

Happy Easter from our family to yours!! 

Valentine's 2016 (Homemade Pop Tarts )

We had a fun cousin sleepover today for Valentine's Day.  We made our traditional heart pizza's and I wanted to try out a new recipe- homemade pop tarts.  I added strawberry slices to look like hearts.  These were super easy to make and delicious.

Heart Pop tarts-

Ingredients:

*Pie Crust sheets
*Strawberries
*Cream Cheese
*Coarse Sugar  ( I prefer turbinado)
*Eggwash
*Strawberry jam

Directions- Preheat over to 375* line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Cut shapes with pie crust to form pop tart.  Spread a few tbs of cream cheese and a dollop of jam onto bottom piecrust pieces.  Cut out heart shape with cookie cutter on the top pieces of pie crust and place on top of each pop tart.  Slice strawberries and add them to the opening on each pop tart.  Brush each poptart with eggwash and sprinkle on sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Footprint Fun

While looking back at pictures from the last few months, I came across these adorable canvas' I made with Tommy for his bedroom. Each one is a footprint that I then enhanced with details to create an airplane, train, tractor and firetruck.

There are so many possibilities for a craft like this, but Tommy's room theme is planes, trains and automobiles, so that's where I headed. I combined a bunch of different ideas that I saw and made them my own to create these.

I bought 8x8 canvas' on amazon and used crayola non-toxic finger paint for Tommy's footprints. I then used a combination of the crayola paint and my paint markers to add details.

Now that these are complete, Gianna is already requesting ones for her room, I better get looking!!

Christmas party

It's the most wonderful time of the year... I think I say this every year, but I really LOVE Christmas!! Gianna's class party is tomorrow and I made these adorable cupcakes. I baked homemade chocolate cupcakes and whipped up some buttercream icing! I found this adorable Wilton Cupcake kit at Christmas Tree Shop to make the upside down Santa's- SUPER EASY!! I will keep my eye out for more of these, they make me look professional with very little work- great for this busy mom of 2!! Off to bed...

Gianna's 4th Princess & Pirate Birthday Party

Gianna is allllllllll about the sparkle! My little girl is turning 4 and wanted a princess party. Since she has a lot of close friends who are boys, we decided to make it a princess and pirate party- encouraging our guests to dress as their favorite!!

I cleared out my back room and set the table for party time. I have been planning this party for months, of course, and now it was time to execute! I found adorable princess party containers at the Christmas Tree Shop, and ordered a bunch of princess and pirate balloons. The kids made treasure/jewelry boxes, fruit loop necklaces and more. I had a variety of snacks and drinks available for the kids and adults to nibble while we did the crafts.

I continued my cupcake cake theme for this party as well, since it saves so much time. This time a request for a princess cake was in order and it needed to be PINK!! I ordered a Wilton pink food coloring, so I could make sure it was a true pink icing. I make all my icing from scratch, as well as the cupcakes.  Gianna wanted chocolate cupcakes, so that is exactly what she got! If you're looking for a great icing recipe, look no further, Wilton Buttercream Icing, is the best! In addition to the cupcake cake, I made my famous chocolate covered pretzels and "jewel" rice krispie treats! At the end of the day, everyone went home full, happy and exhausted from all the fun!! Thanks for making Gianna's birthday a blast, the princess is off to dreamland and the queen is on her way as well!

Pajama Program Fundraiser

Hi everyone... If you happen to be free next Thursday, please feel free to come by Kidville for this incredible fundraiser. There will be raffles, playtime, snacks, and more... Wear your PJs and bring a book or new pajamas as your donation. We are hoping to make this a very successful event!!


**Update**  Thank you to everyone who came out to make our event a HUGE success!! We were able to donate boxes and boxes filled with pajamas and books, along with a great monetary donation!! The Pajama Program and Northern Westchester Community House were very grateful for our contribution!!!