Sweet Success

Let me start off by saying that I hold a whole new level of respect for cake decorators. My plan for Mattox's birthday party was to make my own cupcakes (with an idea in mind), my own cake pops, and my own food of course. Well after 2 attempts at cake balls, I broke down and ordered them already. I wanted them to resemble golf balls and mine looked more like... well, nasty schwetty balls. Plus they didn't even taste good. So onto the cupcakes. Matt's co-workers are loving me because I send my practice cupcakes at least once a week the past few weeks. I wish I had taken pictures of the "lil errors" because it has definitely been a work in progress. Icing/Frosting was a foreign language if it didn't come in a can. I had never heard of couplers or nonpareils. I started off with this and was determined to find the best recipe for what I needed:

Trial 1: Icing came out very runny/watery... so the 'grass' just ran together. I might as well have just used a knife to spread it on there. After 1/3 jar of green food coloring it still came out mint green - not grass green.

Trial 2: Tried different recipe. Forget the food coloring and just practice with making actual grass strands. Again, too runny and didn't like the taste of the icing at all.

Trial 3: Back to my original recipe minus the milk and vanilla. Used 1/2 jar of food coloring... AND... PERFECTION!!!! Ahhh! Success!

It's the little things I love.

I ordered brown wrappers, but I didn't want to waste them on my practice round, but here's the final product minus my white wrapper. If the cupcakes in March don't turn out like these, at least I have proof that I reached my goal.

Grass is not as easy as it looks. Seriously. A rose or a flower (like on a wedding cake) would absolutely blow my mind. New found respect. I know yall don't care about frosting, but it made my day today!

Mermaid ZhuZhu

What a week! Whew. I am exhausted. I am so glad things are back to a normal routine and everyone is feeling better! We thought Mattox had RSV, but whatever it was is gone now. I celebrated turning 32 this week. Ugh. Could my week have gotten any worse? Oh, wait... a stranger told me "You look just like Miranda..." I was so excited because I was thinking about my sister-in-law, Miranda... then she said "you know, from Sex and the City Miranda." Yeah... hm. not so much. Really? Someone please tell me no. Really? Then I decided to start my diet and exercise routine back. Been off that wagon for almost 2 years now. So yeah, it can always get worse. Especially when Matt threw the Oreos in the garbage for me. Ugh!

On a brighter note, we have NO plans this week! I'm loving that. We plan to spend every minute

doing things like this: Playing mermaids in the tub and with zhuzhu's til we drop.

Got one for you

We have had zero sleep for awhile because Mattox has cut 4 teeth in less than a week. So I'm already 'on edge'. My breaking point. whatever you want to call it. Going to vent here and 'keep it real' as my friend Erin says. I began yesterday with a PLAN. Yeah. right. whoever has 2 kids under the age of 3 does NOT have a plan. Plans go out the window in a second.

I PLANNED to have an organized day and do all the things we have been procrastinating. Well the weather called that off. So decided to spend the day inside cooking and practicing the cake pops for Mattox's party. Those didn't go as well as hoped...or planned. I may be looking into BUYING those instead. After being covered in chocolate, decided to give both kiddos a bath to get a head start on the night routine. Yay for me. I decided MC needed at least a 1 hour nap before ballet and church (day 1 of our revival). Woke both my kiddos up at 3:30 to leave. I had to get them dressed, pack for ballet, change of clothes for church, dinners for both, milk for Mattox, jackets, and diaper bag all in 30 minutes. I knew we wouldn't have time to come home again. So we're running late to ballet. We met Matt for dinner and by some miracle my kids actually behaved in a public restaurant! Yay for them! So we head to church. Matt has to leave early to go to work, and I wanted to leave early so I could get them in bed at a decent time. I really shouldn't let a rude person get the best of me. But boy did she put me in a bad mood. So Mattox falls asleep in the car = BIG MISTAKE! But there was no keeping him awake for a 15 minute drive.

I usually base my decision on who I put to sleep first on who is the sleepiest/fussiest. When am I going to learn to put MC down first...no matter what? So I'm nursing Mattox hoping he'll go right back to sleep. If I stop in this very moment, I would've become Grace in Will and Grace when she squirts the art painting with her leaky water bra. Remember that one? So I'm in the middle of nursing him, when I hear shuffles coming down the hall. MC is screaming and crying coming down the hall with her pants--soaking wet pants--around her ankles. "I tee-teed in the floor! I tee-teed in the floor, Mommy!" Great. (Sidenote: this is her first accident in a long time). So I cut Mattox off and therefore he is WIDE awake now. So I put him down in the kitchen. MC had a major accident in the bathroom --couldn't really get mad at her because obviously she was trying to make it to the toilet. Just a few inches off. So I'm cleaning up the floor but I'm still falling out of my bra so I decide to sit on her step-stool next to the potty. Yeah...now my pants are soaking wet. Ooohh gross. As I'm taking my and MC's pants off, Mattox decided he wanted to join in the fun and he's crawling in the bathroom floor. Yeah...so he's soaking wet too. And the most disgusting of us all. So we're all 3 walking around naked and I'm trying to figure out what to do FIRST. Do I finish nursing him? Do I give them a bath? Do I give myself a bath seeing as I skipped mine today and they've already had one? Do I clean up the floor first? Not to mention that its 9:00 by this time. I left church at 7:30 so I could get them to bed at a good time to be prepared for today. So! They both get bath #2 for the day. I put MC to bed and then work on getting Mad Man to calm down again. He falls asleep around 10pm. I walk out of his room and hear MC STILL talking over the monitor. She eventually fell asleep around 11:00... yeah you read that right. So I flip my phone to FB as I'm getting myself ready for bed. Oh that's right, there was a football game on tonight. Watched about 2 seconds of it before I fell asleep. MC woke me up at 5 AM yelling that she needs to go potty. Why does she have to have my permission to go to the bathroom? Someone please explain that. So I stumble upstairs to literally watch her go. (I've quit helping her with her pants lately). I even bought walkie-talkies for Christmas so that I could grant her permission without having to go upstairs. Lazy? No...just sleep deprived. I explain to her for the 100th time that it is NOT time to get up (I usually have to wake her up at 8:00 on school days). So I listen to her play or talk til about 7 am...then she falls asleep...oh wait now I hear Mattox awake...

gotta love it. and it was only Monday....

Party Projects!

I am SO excited about Mattox's first birthday and party! I chose a golf theme. Have to say that it is one of the easiest themes to come up with ideas. I wish I could take a picture of everything I've got and planned, but it will have to wait until the party so you can get the full effect. ha! I got this idea from howdoesshe.com. And I must say it is so cute!

This is my first project that I'm working on: balloon wreath! Maybe yall have already seen these, but I hadn't. I loved her 'rainbow' wreath, but I decided to go with the party theme colors (then I realized its also my alma mater's colors - go Gators!). I was going to add yellow balloons, but then it became very John-Deere-ish or Green-Bay-Packerish. Bear in mind, that I am NOT through with it!!!! The 'recipe' called for 144 balloons, and I ran out!!! I need way more than that. But this nasty weather will not allow me to make another trip to PartyCity for the right color balloons today.

First, you need a straw wreath (keep the plastic on to keep it from shedding). I'm glad I got the smaller wreath because it takes ALOT of balloons:

Then, you get your 144+ balloons and greening pins (Hobby Lobby didn't know what those were so these are called Floral pins):

Then, you start attaching! Put the pin around the balloon half way and start pushing:

Obviously, I'm not through. But you get the idea. I'm actually adding a dark green balloon into it. and then putting a yellow flag in the middle with the number 1 on it. You'll see the finished product in my March pictures! ha!

Now. Who needs a green and white balloon wreath after March? I can add yellow if you're doing a John-Deere party! ;) Maybe the Jets or the Eagles will go to the Superbowl and I can use it then too.

A Good Start

I am so blessed to be married to a deacon! Matt had the privilege of being ordained last night, and we thank God for the opportunity to serve Him. Matt had been looking for a way to serve in the church (after I decided to volunteer in the preschool department) and God found a way! I know God has big plans for us this year and I am so excited!

Congrats to these servants!

2011 has started out pretty good. Mattox got tooth #3 and is working VERY hard on #4&5. I also found him standing up in his crib for the first time this morning. Mom and Dad are here visiting for a few days so I get some help (and Dad always does things around the house for me! Thanks Dad!). And since I'm in birthday party planning mode, I decided on Mati Claire's 4th birthday party theme (with her input of course)!!! ..........................Drum roll........................

ART PARTY! Mati Claire dearly loves to color and draw. She would rather do that than open her Christmas presents. Actually, she would rather color than do ANYTHING...even eat. And I figured that most parents (or at least me) do not like to let their children paint very often. So I'm going to let them finger paint, color, make crayons, draw, chalk, or do whatever their inner artist feels like. Easely Amused prefers children's parties to be ages 6&up, so I thought I could create my own easel here with some massive sized paper. Wish me luck that my entire house is not covered in graffiti.