Zander's 4th birthday

We had Zander's first friend birthday party on Saturday! He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse right now so of course he wanted a Mickey Mouse party. There are so many kids here in the neighborhood and I didn't want to leave any out so I went ahead and invited all 17. Yep , crazy, I know but its ok cuz only 13 showed up hahaha! Good thing I had some help here.  I had it all perfect in my mind how I wanted everything to be,  I was up until  3 am. the night before and up early again the next morning but I still ran out of time!

And, I ran out of black food coloring! I thought i had plenty but it had started to dry up. Dang! So the bottom and top layer of the cake turned out gray.There were also a lot of other details that I wanted to add to the cake, but like I said...I ran out of time. But oh well its still cute right??  I also wanted to fill the front yard with helium balloons in mickey mouse colors....black and white polka dot and red and yellow ones. I figured on about 40, stuck into the ground with golf tees at varying heights. But apparantly there is a shortage of helium right now (who knew?) so Walmart would only fill 10 balloons for me. I cheated and had Baylie get 10 for me too. But still I only ended up with half as many balloons as I wanted.

My fabulous sister-in-law made Mickey and Minnie ears for all of the kids. They turned out so cute!

We also set up a backdrop and took pictures of all of the kids. Unfortunately we got all of them except my own kid! GRRRR ARRGH! Im not sure how that happaned!

We made Mickey Mouse shaped sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them, had a cake walk and played toilet paper bowling.

And we busted open a pinata! You gotta have a pinata!

All in all, I think it turned out pretty good and the kids had a blast!

MONSTER CUPCAKES

*For the Frankie cupcakes.....
-Insert a pretzel stick into a flat end of each marshmallow. Using a clean paintbrush, lightly coat marshmallows woth corn syrup. Immediately roll top and sides in green colored sugar; allow to dry for 20 min.
-Meanwhile tint vanilla frosting purple and spread over cupcakes. Toll edge of cupcakes in nonpareils; set aside. (I couldn't find any purple nonpareils so I used nerds.)
-To decorate face, press candy-coated licorice into each side. (for the bolts). Use frosting to pipe eyes, add red hots (or red nerds) for eyeballs. Pipe chocolate frosting onto faces for mouths and stitches.
-Carefully insert pretzel stick into the center of each cupcake. Tint remaining chocolate frosting black and use  to make hair.(with a pastry tip)

*Green-eyed monster
-Trim a corner from one short end of each large marshmallow. Attach the marshmallows, cut side down, on teh top of the cupcakes with a dot of frosting.
-Spoon 2 tablespoons of vanilla frosting into a small resealable bag, set aside.
-Tint the remaining vanilla frosting neon green. Soppn the neon green frosting into a resealable 2 qt. freezer bag. Snip a very small corner (1/8 in.) from bag. Pipe dots of frosting along the outer edge of the cupcake with a pipe-stop-and-pull action to create spikes of frosting. Continue piping all over the cupcakes to completely cover all but the flat side of the marshmallow.
-Snip a very small corner (1/16 in) form the bag with vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of vanilla frosting in the center of each marshmallow and attach a junior mint. Pipe a small live to add as the sparkle in the eye.

 *ORANGE YOU SPIKY!
-Spread the tops of the cupcakes with a small mound of vanilla frosting. insert chow mein noodles into cupcakes to look like spikes. Place in the freezer for about 15 min. to firm up.
-Spoon 3 tablespoons of the vanilla frosting into a small resealable bag and set aside.
-Tint the remaining frosting bright orange and spoon into a glass microwave safe bowl. Microwave the frosting, stirring it frequently, until it is the texture of lightly whipped cream.
-Holding the liner of the partially frozen cupcake, dip the top of the cupcake up to the liner in the melted frosting to coat. Use a spoon to add more frosting if necessary. Allow the excess frosting to drip off. Invert and transfer to a cookie sheet. Insert one end of a pretzel stick into the side of a mini marsmallow. Snip a corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of frosting on one flat side of a marshmallow. Add a brown m&m candy as the pupil. Pipe a dot of vanilla frosting on the brown candy for the sparkle in the eyes.
-Insert two marshmallow eyes on top of a frosted cupcake about 1 in. apart. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Halloween traditions

Wow!!! I cant believe it has been two years since my last post! Wow I am such a slacker!  I have had a few people asking for my Halloween recipes so I thought I would post it on my blog for you all.


      MUMMY CALZONES

2 loaves(one pound each) frozen bread dough, thawed
6 oz.  shredded mozzerella cheese
1/2 cup pizza sauce
50 slices pepperoni
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 pitted ripe olive, sliced and cut in half

*roll out each piece of dough into a rounded triangle shape, about 14-in. high by 11 in. wide at the base of the triangle. Place each on a parchment-lined baking sheet with the tip of the triangle toward you. Lightly score 4-in. wide rectangle in the center of the triangle 2-in. from the top and bottom.

*On each long side, cut 1-in. wide strips at an angle up to the score line, leaving a triangle in the top center of the wide end for the head.

*Inside the scored rectangle in the center layer the pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni and green pepper. Shape the top center triangle into a head. Starting at the head fold alternating strips of dough at an angle across filling, stopping at the last strip on each side. fold the bottom dough tip up over the filling, than fold the remaining two strips over the top; press down firmly.

*Brush dough with egg. Cover and let rise for 15 min. For eyes, press 1 olive slice into each head.

*Bake at 350 for 25-28 min. or until golden brown. Let stand for 5 min. before slicing.

** You can put whatever you want inside the calzone. It doesn't really matter. I also add red onions, olives and mushrooms. Its super yummy.

Today was the first day of school for Baylie and Kylie. Kylie will be going to middle school and Baylie will be going to high school. I can't believe how fast they have grown. They looked so beautiful! I am a proud momma!

So tired of my kids being sick!!

I am soo frustrated and starting to feel like I am just a horrible mom! It seems like my kids are always sick! Especially Zander! Ever since August it seems like he constantly has a cold. He will have about two weeks of feeling better and than he is sick again! I do not know what I am doing wrong... I make sure he eats either fruits or vegetables with every meal and he definitely gets plenty to eat. I always dress him warm and when we go out he always wears a coat and hat. When he gets over a cold I wash all of his bedding, sanitize all of his toys and everything he may have touched and still he gets sick over and over again! This last time he was better for 5 days and now his nose is way yucky again. Any one have any advice?? It's so weird.. for the first 10 months of his life he was hardly ever sick and now he spends more time sick than healthy. Thank goodness he is not prone to ear infections or we would really be in trouble!

Baylie's first competition

Saturday Baylie had her first competition. They did so awesome! They took first place in their division!! I was so proud of her and the rest of the angels!!