Life before I had kids...

So I have been thinking about my life and I got to thinking, what did I do on a typical day before I had my kids? I have some memories from school, and my childhood, etc but then what did I do? I remember my Wedding in May 2001, and that night (wink wink), but what did I do when I didn't have to get up for a feeding? What did I do when I didn't have to help someone with homework? What did I do when I didn't have to kiss a boo-boo?
April 2002, I had a little girl. She filled my entire world with happiness and love that I never knew was possible. I enjoyed being her mom for 7 1/2 years, then October 2009 gave her a brother. This little guy fixed pieces of my life I didn't even know were broken. I have the best kids ever, and I have the best memories of them. And you know what? When I try to think of what I did before having them, I just look at them and smile. Who cares? Life before them doesn't matter. I'm the luckiest person in the entire universe because I have them now!

June 22, 11: WUIW(cake pops!)

Planning Sebastian's birthday has been nothing but fun and excitement! One thing I decided to do was make CakePop centerpieces. I think they are so cute and fun, but can I make them? No clue, never tried. SO I set out on a mission. We would do these as a WIUW and practice! Besides who wouldn't want to sample some practice cake pops? Thanks Hugely to Bakerella who  believe invented these??? Could be wrong, but she is fab regardless!
here are the steps we took! hope you enjoy!!

Things Needed
*Baked cake (I made Betty Crocker's RainbowChip)
*Candy Melts(I used chocolate Kroger Brand)
*1 can of frosting (I used Pillsbury white)
*Styrofoam (I didn't have any so I used an egg carton)
*Lollipop Sticks (I used 20)

*You will need to crumble your cake up completely, removing any and all hard edges, into a large bowl
*Next you mix in the frosting. The amount you need will depend on how moist your cake is. I only needed 1/2 the can. This is the make it or break it steptoyour cake pops. Make them too wet and they won't work. Make them too dry and they wont adhere correctly to the sticks.
* after your dough is made, roll it into balls. I need 20 for the birthday party, so I made 20 balls. I realized that this created balls that were too large and heavy. Next time I will make about 25-30.
*Next you'll want to stick this in the freezer for about 10 minutes to help st them

*Once you remove them from the freezer, melt 1 square of your candy. Dip the stick into the candy nd then into your cake ball. The candy acts as a glue and will help the stick stay on. Now you have CakePops!
*Now put them in the Styrofoam

*After all your balls are turned into CakePops, pop them back in the freezer for another 10 minutes to harden the candy. don't worry. The cake will remain soft.
*At the 10 minute mark, transfer them to the fridge. About 2-3 hours should be fine, but I allowed mine to hang out in the fridge overnight and they were still good.

Day2
*Melt your candy until nice and smooth

Bonus Tip
*This my depend on the type of melts you use, but I found mine to be really thick. I added a Tspoon of shortening to the candy melt to help thin it down. Please be aware this did NOT change the flavor! I was really scared of this giving a waxy feeling or aftertaste and it didn't. The flavor is still YUM.

*Next you will dip your cake pop into the candy. Use your spoon to help coat it if needed. "stirring" the candy with your cake pop will thicken and harden the candy

Next you can decorate them however you want and enjoy!
Mine wasn't the neatest out there, but they were highly loved by everyone and the taste is so incredibly delish, who cares if some were bumpy??

Hope you all make them and let me see how the turn out!!!

 

Sebastian is nearly 2???

So the planning has begun. I can not believe it is time to plan my baby's second birthday already!! This is just pure craziness.
The idea behind "themed" birthday is to base it on what your child is "into" right? Well as far as cartoons go he only really watches Spongebob, but I can't truly even count that. He knows who Spongebob is, or as he calls him "bob-bob" and loves seeing him, but he barely ever watches the show. Maybe briefly if Sissy is watching it, but he has yet to develop a taste in TV at all.
BUT he adores animals. So, I have decided he will have a Barnyard Bash! Sebastian knows and loves all farm animals so this should be perfect for him.
I'm sure things will change as the date gets closer, but as for now here are the *plans*
The Location
* I am thinking of the basement of a local bank, but am not 100%
Menu (could change, in fact: everything could change!)
*fried chicken
*mashed potatoes
*mac&cheese
*rolls
*fresh fruit
*raw veggies
Cake
* I plan on making a large rectangle cake, not sure on flavor yet. I will decorate it like a farmland, and then Skylar will make some little animals out of gum paste
Invites
*I want to hand make these.
Centerpieces
*2 metal pails. One marked "hay" and filled with stick pretzels and the other marked with "chicken feed" and filled with chex mix
* Cake pops. (have never made these but will do a trial run first to see if I am able to pull it off, lol
Decor
*The decor will be simple. Basic balloons, streamers and "maybe" some tissue pom poms. I have made these before for Skylar's party, so I know what I'm doing now, haha. And they were a decent hit!
(to see how I did them you can click here)
Favors
*random stuff I find between now and then, haha. We all love rubber ducks dressed as stuff so maybe some farm ducks???
* Also the cake pops can be taken from the centerpieces.
Activities
* I want to make a photo corner
* I plan on getting something to paint. Sebastian loves to paint (as does Skylar) so you can be assured something paintable will pop up, ha ha.

and I think that about covers my plans. Now the trick is to execute it all, right?? I will make various post (a lot, more than likely) about where I am in my planning and prep, and as always I look forward to answering any questions and reading any comments!

Flash Cards

Sebastian turned 20 months old today!! OMG sooo fast!! ok, so anyways...haha

I had purchased him a pack of flashcards just out of sheer curiosity as to what he knew. He was no where near in the mood to focus, but I wanted to just spend a few minutes seeing what we could get done. Once I saw he'd rather play I stopped and we jumped into his play area.

I must admit, I was completely floored by what he did know considering he'd never seen those cards before! I have ZERO desire for him to be able to read the word and him calling the *cup* by the wrong thing (coffee) is completely fine by me. I want him to learn at his own pace and I will not pull these cards out again unless he asks for them. (and hopefully it won't be 20 minutes past bedtime next time, haha)

 I still think he did amazing! I just love him!

Wanna see him in action? <<<<-----Click that link to watch but please comment here cuz I rarely go there and I'd love to read what you say!

No Mute Button

Sebastian is almost 20 months old. OMG how did that happen??? My baby is growing and changing daily in terms of what he can accomplish. He talks so much now and did not come with a mute button.....and I am GLAD!
Oh goodness, he will jabber on sometimes that can only be referred to as Sebastianese. Other times  he is so busy repeating your words you just have to gush over him. Are you a fan of cuss words? I'd advise not to do that with him in the room. He now will ask what that word mean. So far we have only had "dang it"s brother come out of his mouth, but I'm sure if he hears worse, he's going to try to add it to his ever growing vocab.
I  just adore listening to his little voice and hearing him learn more and more words. It's amazing how we now have to censor ourselves and spell certain things because he knows what we are saying. Talking about a cookie? Well, hope you have one or else he won't stop asking for his.
I sat down with the hubby and tried to figure out how many words he knows now but it's impossible. He knows a lot, ha ha. He sings to the radio and while he doesn't know all the lyrics he can very easily mimic any "oohhing" and vocalizing any singer wants to toss out. He can even hit the right notes and has preferred songs!
I love hearing his voice say "night night Mama" at night and when he wakes up saying, "mama, breakfast? in kitchen?" And he knows calling me Mommy melts me so he saves it for special occasions and will bust out a "pleeeeease mommy??" with fist tightly clinched and face all pleading if I say no to something.  He has me so wrapped.
I am just completely infatuated with this boy. I highly recommend toddlers! Go get yourself one! Yes they are terrors and destructive and will constantly keep you on your toes, but when you kiss them and they look at you and say "love you mama" it's just a slice of heaven.
So no, my little monster did not come with a MUTE button, and as I may regret it later, as for now I couldn't be more happier about it.

Froggy Friends

So Skylar likes taking walks with her daddy after dinner. Skylar also likes bringing home creatures that she finds. Now take those two facts and add in a downpour of rain the night before and what's the result?
FROGS. LOTS OF FROGS.
Skylar came in the house carrying a big plastic ice cream bucket saying, "wanna see what I found?" Now coming from her this is never an easy thing to answer. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and brace myself. She will bring back anything from weird looking bugs to snakes to salamanders. You just never know. Today however she found baby frogs. Probably the smallest frogs she has ever found. She found so many we couldn't count them. (I know be logical and remove all frogs and count as you add them back to the bucket but who feels like doing that? lol) After allowing me my photo OP (because according to her I view the world as how it'd look on film, haha) she put the tiny creatures into a Planet Frog aquarium she has. She will admire them for a few days and then let them go.
I really love her gentle nature and love for all things around her. Although I could really do without having various creatures in my home at any given time, who am I to squash her passion?
Guess when these guys leave, I will just brace myself for our next house guest.

Rainbow Cake

For Skylar's Celebration, she said she wanted a Rainbow Cake. I had never done this before, but thought it'd be really cute so I gave it a go. Here was the steps I took and our outcome!

Step1: choose your top 6 food colors.

Step2: Choose your favorite white cake recipe (I was easy and used boxed!)

 

Step3: If you choose boxed, you will need 3 boxes. if you are making homemade, keep this in mind to alter your recipe!

Step4: Make you batter

Step5: divide into 2 bowls (1 box makes 2 9" rounds, you may need to adjust your homemade recipe accordingly)

Step6: add your food color

Step7: Once it's mixed well, pour into cake pan and bake

Step8: Bake all 6 cakes and let cool. (I allowed them to cool overnight)

Step9: Shave the rounded tops down with serrated knife so they layer easier

Step9: Choose your fav white frosting. You will need 4 cans if you choose store bought. (as you see here I only bought 3 thinking it'd be enough. It wasn't)

Step10: frost the layers between and outside, as you can see I was out of frosting and didn't get the coverage I wanted

Step11: (hopefully you won't need this step) Thankfully discover you have an extra can of frosting and recover the outside of the cake! HAHA

THE FINAL RESULT: