5 Things To Do With Leftover Frosting

When I make cakes for the kids' birthdays, I usually end up with some leftover frosting.  Sometimes it's leftover homemade frosting, sometimes it's from a can of frosting, and sometimes it's a little leftover from a tube of decorating frosting.  No matter what kind it is, I firmly believe that frosting is the best part of a birthday cake, and that the cake is pretty much just a carrier for the frosting.  No way am I throwing frosting away. 

Here are 5 things you can do with leftover frosting:

1. Eat it straight out of the bowl/can/tube. 

2. Make graham cracker or saltine cracker sandwiches.  The kids love this.

Princess enjoying a graham cracker frosting sandwich

3. Feed it to the kids right before they go to Grandma's for a few hours.  Call it sweet revenge.

4. Make cookies.  This recipe is genius!

5. Melt it in the microwave for a few seconds and drizzle over ice cream.

What do you like to do with leftover frosting?  Which do you like better...the cake or the frosting?


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Tuesday Topics - Five Songs That Bring Back Memories

This week's Tuesday Topic is 5 songs that bring back memories.

1.  "If You Could See What I See" by Geoff Moore and the Distance
My husband's aunt played the guitar for and sang this at our wedding.

2. "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas
My great-grandma had a little figurine that played this song and every time we'd visit her, she would play it for me.  I'm not sure who got the figurine after she passed away, but I managed to find another one just like it on Ebay.  It may not be the original, but it reminds me of her whenever I see it.

3. "His Cheeseburger" sung by Mr. Lunt
My best friend in high school and I had an addiction to cheeseburgers back then.  Therefore, this kind of became our theme song.  Ahhhh, good times!

4. "Mmmbop" by Hanson
My sister and I LOVED this song when we were younger :)

5. "Horse With No Name" by America
My dad plays just about every stringed instrument there is, but when I was a kid, it seemed that he played accoustic guitar the most often.  I loved it when he would play and I remember falling in love with this song because he played it quite a bit.

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Random Monday-June 24, 2013

Little Man went to the Mayo Clinic last Monday to have an orthopedic surgeon check his feet.  He's very pigeon toed and often trips over his own feet while he runs.  As I suspected, the doctor didn't think we needed to do anything for his feet except for keep an eye on how he handles being pigeon toed as he gets older, but I feel better knowing that. 

Little Man was given a sandbox playset by his secret Kid Kare person at church.  The set included a rake, shovel, bucket, and a few fun shaped molds.  We don't have a sandbox so I figured the kids would just have to pretend.  Apparently I underestimated the kids' resourcefulness; this is the area under the deck on the second story of the house we live in.  The kids decided that the gravel would be perfect for digging in.      

Last Wednesday night we were at the Bible study and prayer meeting at church.  When I say "we," I mean me and the three kidlets since Hubby was working.  I don't know what came over 5 year old Princess, but her behavior that evening was appalling to say the least.  From a young age, we expect our kids to sit quietly in church, and the two older kids are usually pretty well-behaved.  Princess was sitting on my dad's lap and was goofing around with a little girl in the pew in front of us so my dad gently tried to get her stop.  She responded by elbowing him in the stomach so I pulled her over to sit by me.  An out-of-character fit ensued and I stood to take her out of church to deal with the behavior.  The next thing I knew, she was running across the church away from me.  I followed her and tried to catch her, but she ran around and between the empty pews on the other side of the church.  Naturally, everyone was watching our little game.  I finally caught her and dragged her kicking and screaming downstairs where a 10 minute screaming tantrum followed.  Finally, she was calmed down and ready to go back upstairs.  She sat on my lap (I was afraid to let go of her at this point!) and for some reason kept grabbing at my chest.  In church.  While everyone was watching to see what she was going to try to pull next.  Did I mention that I also uncharacteristically chose a seat near the front of the church that evening?  Ugh.

I found the cutest outfit for Star on clearance at Target last week.  I've always loved the nautical theme for kids' clothes and am thrilled that it's in style right now.  It's kind of hard to see, but the top is navy blue with white anchors printed all over it and an attached yellow rosette.  The skirt is three layers of white eyelet ruffles.

"I just don't know why you insist on taking so many pictures of me, Mama."

"Oh that's right. It's because I'm so cute!"

I just finished designing the first draft of my latest pattern for my shop, Little Owl Patterns!  It's an easy, quick sew project that kids love to wear because it's so comfortable!  It's made with knit fabric, but you don't need a serger or any special tools to make it.  The pattern hasn't been released yet and is still in the testing stage.  If you're interested in testing, you can request to join the Facebook testing group here.   

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How to Avoid the Hair Brushing Battle

You can read an updated version of this post on my new blog, Sunshine and Spoons! I hope to see you there!

It's Hard No Matter Where You Are

My sister and I, with our four and three kids respectively, occasionally think back to our one-child or two-child selves.  "Remember when we each just had one baby and we thought that was hard?!?"  "Hahaha, remember when we only had two kids each and we though that was hard?!?!"  *incredulous laughter*

But you know what?  It was hard.  When I think back to when I only had one child, I think about how difficult it was to adjust to life as a mom, how new everything was to me, and how much I worried.  It was hard. I think back to when I just had two kids and they were the same ages as my youngest two are now, and it was hard because it was JUST me ALL the time.  Now, my oldest child is able to help out in small, but valuable ways that make taking care of the younger two just a little bit easier.  
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You can read an updated version of this post here on my new blog, Sunshine and Spoons! I hope to see you there!
 

Tuesday Topics-Six Favorite Products

This week's Tuesday Topic is 6 of my favorite products.

1.  My favorite lip balm is Burt's Bees.  I have super sensitive skin so there aren't many products I can use that work for me.  I literally have about 10 tubes of Burt's Bees laying around my house.  

Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm Tube, .15-Ounce Tubes (Pack of 4)

2. Sticking with the sensitive skin theme...this is my all-time favorite lotion.  Most lotions I've tried felt greasy or left my skin feeling weird plus they didn't work with my dry skin very well.  This lotion is kind of expensive, but it's the only thing that works and feels great on my skin.  It's worth every penny.

Melaleuca Renew Intensive Skin Therapy 20oz (Single)

3. If you've been hanging out on my blog long enough, then you know I'm ridiculously slightly addicted to chai lattes.  We don't have a coffee shop in town so I had to find something that allowed me to make a chai latte at home.  I buy this Mystic Chai Tea Mix at Sam's Club to allow me to do just that.  It comes in two flavors; vanilla and spiced.  Because I'm somewhat of a chai snob, I prefer to mix 1 part spiced chai mix in with 2 parts vanilla chai mix to create my own perfect blend.

Mystic Chai Vanilla Tea Mix - 2lbs
  

4.  I have a large micro cooker from Pampered Chef that I use to for many things in my kitchen, but my favorite use for it is cooking hamburger in the microwave.  It's so much easier than doing it on the stovetop.  I just dump the frozen hamburger in the micro cooker, and microwave it for a few minutes.  I take it out, drain the grease with the super handy holes on the snap-on lid, and microwave it a little longer until it's browned.  The Pampered Chef Mix n' Chop is great for chopping up the hamburger too.   

Pampered Chef Large Micro Cooker for Microwave

5. Cheating a little as this one isn't technically a product, it's a brand name.  I LOVE the Carter's/OshKosh brands for kids' clothes.  If I could dress my kids in them all the time, I would, but alas, neither of them have a store even remotely close to me.  My sister-in-law lives across the road from a huge outlet mall that includes both Carter's and OshKosh outlets.  And yes, I'm insanely jealous.

6. Another cheat...I heart Riley Blake fabrics.  Super good quality and the cutest designs anywhere.  Go browse the website-you're gonna fall in love too.  

How about you? What are some of your favorite products?


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Old School Blogging-Alphabet Awareness

I was tagged by one of my favorite blogs, So Not Organized, in this Old School Blogging aphabet meme!
The hosts of this Old School Blogging Linkup are The Miss Elaine-ous Life and Jennifer P. Williams.   




Alphabet Meme
A. Attached or Single?
Attached to my awesome farmin' hubby!  We started dating when I was 17 and got married when I was 21.  Fun fact: Neither he nor I had ever dated anyone before each other.  It's so sweet to say that my first kiss was with my husband and it's nice not to have baggage from previous relationships to complicate things.

B. Best Friend?
I have several best friends.  My sisters are definitely my best friends.  I've also been friends with Lisa since we met at summer camp when she was 11 and I was 14 (I'll save you the effort of doing the math...that's 14 years that we've been friends).  We've been loyal penpals ever since even though we've only seen each other in real life 4 times.

C. Cake or pie?
Pie.  Unless the cake is from the local bake shop and then I'll stab with a fork anyone who gets between me and that cake.

D. Day of choice?
Sunday.  We have dinner after church at my in-law's house and then relax the rest of the afternoon and spend time together as a family.

E. Essential Item?
My inhaler.  I don't leave home without it!  And if I do, I seriously regret it later.


F. Favorite color?
Blue.  I love every shade of it.

G. Gummy bears or worms?
Yuck, neither! 

H. Hometown?
My hometown is where I live now and I don't like to put that info on the big ol' scary internet, but I was born in Florida and lived in Golden Valley, Minnesota until I was 3.  

I. Favorite Indulgence?
Chai lattes

J. January or July?
That's a tough one.  I hate bundling kids up in a thousand layers just to walk to the van and I realllllly hate driving in snow.  But, I get really sick in the sun and the heat so I hate summer too.  Apparently, I'm very hard to please.

K. Kids?
Yes.  Princess (5 years), Little Man (3 years), and Star (8 months).
And now, the obligatory picture of cuteness:

L. Life isn’t complete without?
My family.  And chocolate.

M. Marriage date?
September 23, 2006

N. Number of brothers/sisters?
I have 1 older sister, 2 younger brothers, and 1 younger sister.  It was awesome growing up in a larger-than-average family.

O. Oranges or Apples.
Apples, preferably dipped in caramel.

P. Phobias?
Spiders.  I really hate spiders. 

Q. Quotes?
Philipians 1:21 For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

R. Reasons to smile?
Happy kids, a good book, a funny movie

S. Season of choice?
Spring, even though my allergies are terrible. 

T. Tag 5 People.
Paula at Beauty Through Imperfection, Country Bunkin' Mama, Dara at Not In Jersey, Not Inadequate, and Victoria at Smiles N' Snuggles

U. Unknown fact about me?
I'm 28 years old and I can't swim.  
V. Vegetable?
Not big into vegetables, but I love spinach.

W. Worst habit?
Procrastination.  I'm currently using this blog post to procrastinate cleaning my kitchen.

X. Xray or Ultrasound?
I've had both and they're no big deal, but all of my ultrasounds so far have been to see a little human growing inside me whereas my x-rays have been asthma related so I'll take ultrasounds over x-rays.

Y. Your favorite food?
Pepperoni pizza.  I could eat it every day of the week.

Z. Zodiac sign?
No, thank you!  I'm not into that stuff.


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Tuesday Topics-7 Things About Your Job

Today's Tuesday Topic is 7 things about my job.  The question for me is what job?  Let me run down the list for you...

Job #1: Mommy to my 3 littles.

Job #2: Owner of Annalie's Baby Boutique where I sew kids' clothing.

Job #3: Owner of Little Owl Patterns where I design and write pdf sewing patterns for kids' clothes.

Job #4: Freelance writer for a local newspaper.

Job #5: Babysitter for a preschool teacher/friend during the school year.

Job #6: Substitute librarian assistant at the local library.

So yeah...one more job and I could count my jobs as my whole Tuesday Topics post.  Instead, I'll write one thing about each of my jobs and then a bonus fact to get me to seven.

1. (Job: Mommy) This is the hardest, most rewarding job ever.  Even when I'm miserable because the baby has refused to nap all day, the 3 year old is throwing his 19th screaming tantrum since getting up 7 hours ago, and the 5 year old has had an attitude that rivals the moodiest 15 year old, I'm still happy.

2. (Job: Annalie's Baby Boutique) I started the boutique in August 2010.  It's been the greatest outlet for my creative side and although it can be stressful sometimes, I have no regrets and no plans to ever shut it down.  If all goes as planned, I'll still be hanging out at my sewing machine when I'm 95!

3. (Job: Little Owl Patterns) I just started this one in January 2013 because I've been writing most of my own patterns for the clothing I sew for Annalie's Baby Boutique and decided to take the leap into turning them into pdf's and selling them.  It's WAAAAAAAY more work to write a pattern than I ever imagined, but I love it.

4. (Job: Freelance Writer) Writing for a newspaper has been my dream since I was in elementary school.  When I was a kid, I wrote and distributed my own newspaper up until I was 18 and thought I was too old for it.  I missed the writing outlet which is essentially why I started blogging.  I was ecstatic when I got a job writing for the local newspaper in April of this year!

5. (Job: Babysitter) I was working at a job I hated because I couldn't be with my kids, but needed to find something else before I could quit.  Someone I'd only met a few times called me out of the blue to ask if I'd be interested in babysitting her kids while she worked.  3 years later, I'm still babysitting for her and we're now good friends.  My babysitting job was literally an answer to prayer.

6. (Job: Substitute assistant librarian)  When I was a kid, I put cards in the front of our books and tried to convince my siblings to check them out when they wanted to read something.  So working at the actual library is a completely awesome job and I love it!

7. Because of all of my jobs, I'm insanely busy most of the time.  However, every single one of those jobs is my dream job.  Who else can say that they have 6 jobs and love every single one of them because they fulfill a dream?


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Star-8 Months

Age: 8 months

Weight and height: Not sure since she doesn't have a doctor's appointment this month, but I think she weighs around 17 pounds.


Wearing: Size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes.  The 3-6 month clothes is getting too small for her so as soon as I get around to picking up the box of 6-9 month clothes from my sister's house, I'll move her into that size and give the 3-6 month stuff back to my sister to use for her little girl who will be moving up to that size soon. 

Likes:  Rolling all over the floor!  She LOVES playing with other kids now too. 

Dislikes: I hate to say this, but she's really not crazy about Little Man.  He loves her so much and shows it by getting in her personal space and squeezing her hands and arms too hard. 

Eating habits:  Star eats about 6 ounces of formula and 4 ounces of baby food in the morning when she gets up.  Around 10:30, she takes another bottle followed by another 4 ounces of baby food.  1:30 is another bottle and then she has one more bottle and 4 ounces of baby food at 5:30. 

Sleeping habits:She sleeps from 7 pm to 7 am and wakes up to cry for a few minutes pretty much every night at 11 pm.  She will usually go back to sleep without any help from me.  Now that's she rolling over onto her stomach, she likes to sleep on her tummy which is super cute.  Naps are good/bad.  Good because she'll usually fall right to sleep as soon as I lay her down.  Bad because she won't stay asleep for longer than an hour.  She sleeps from 8:30-9:30 in the morning and is supposed to sleep from 10-1 in the afternoon and then 4-5 pm.  However, her 2 hour nap is usually just a 1 hour nap which throws off the rest of the day. 
 
Milestones/Accomplishments: She finally learned how to roll over from her back to her stomach and now she's unstoppable!  She goes backwards while on her stomach, but hasn't figured out how to go forwards yet which is a huge disappointment to her when there's a toy just out of her reach.  She squirms, rolls, kicks, and spins enough that she's able to move all over the living room.  She just hasn't figured out how to move purposefully yet :)

Miscellaneous: One of her top teeth is ready to pop through the gum anytime now!  I stopped swaddling her this past month.  I'd tried stopping that earlier, but she wasn't ready.  Instead of wrapping her in her blanket to sleep, now I put it next to her and she grabs it to hold while she sleeps.   

Comparison pictures from 7 months to 8 months:

7 months

8 months

Little Cutie!

 I took this picture of Star wearing a bonnet before church one Sunday:

Star

I kept thinking it reminded me of another picture so I (figuratively) dug through my Facebook albums and came up with this picture of Princess taken when she was around the same age Star is now.  The funny thing is that if you look closely, you'll see that Princess is wearing the diaper cover that matches the dress that Star is wearing in the picture above.  

Princess

What do you think?  Can you tell they're sisters?  


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Random Monday-June 10, 2013

First, a weight loss update...I didn't drink any pop (or soda, depending on what part of the country you're from, lol) this week and I ran out of the chai latte mix on Tuesday so that's been pretty easy to stay away from, haha.  I exercised on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Thursday, we spent the day walking all over the zoo and Ikea so I'm counting that as exercise.  Friday and Saturday were kind of slough days because the kids and I were off of our schedules from being at the zoo all day on Thursday.  I'll only be weighing myself and measuring my waist for the first Random Monday post of each month so no numbers this week!

Okay, on to more fun stuff!  Did I mention that we spent Thursday at the zoo?  It was an awesome day, and the first thing I can cross off of our Summer Bucket List!  Hubby had to work so I went with my older sister and her four kids, my parents, and my little sister.  It rained almost all the way to the zoo and we were pretty worried that we were going to get rained out again like last year when we attempted a trip to the zoo.  Right before we got there, the rain stopped and, although it was cloudy all day, it didn't rain again the whole time we were there!

We started out the day with a picnic in the park and then walked over to the zoo.  The kids LOVED seeing the different animals.  The giraffes were definitely the favorite animal of the day though.           

Little Man watching one of the giraffes eat grass

Of course, it's obligatory to take your kids' pictures sitting on Toby the Tortoise when you go visit the zoo, so we piled on as many kids as could fit and snapped some pictures.  The three youngest kids (Star and my sister's 20 and 2 month olds) didn't quite fit on the tortoise with the older four.

From left to right: Little Man, my 3 year old nephew, Princess, my 5 year old nephew

I tried to get a picture of just my three kiddos, but Star needed a little help staying on the tortoise as evidenced by my dad's phantom arm and my little sister "hiding" beside Toby.

The other kids hopped off as soon as the pictures were done to go look at the flamingos, but Star was a captive audience for my camera.  

Star was fascinated by the tortoise's head

 

"This is fun!"

Princess---awesome Veggie Tales skirt by BumbleMonkey

Little Man holding his light-up giraffe he picked out at the gift shop

Star was a happy and perfect baby all day long!

 

On the walk back to the vans, Star passed out in the stroller.  Going to the zoo is hard work!

After the zoo, we headed to Ikea to meet my grandparents, my brother, and my cousin for supper.  I bought 10 Ikea chocolate bars while I was there and they may or may not be almost gone already.  I'm not telling.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Little Man piped up from the back of the van:
"It's a boo (blue) store! I wike a boo (blue) store.  Mommy, we can go dere?"
He was so thrilled when I said yes.  The kid loves music, chocolate, and Ikea.  Yup, he's definitely mine!

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Little Man's SECOND 3rd Birthday Party

Little Man's second 3rd birthday party was almost a month ago and I'm just getting around to writing about it.  That's me...late as always!

Because Little Man, my sister's son, and my brother's daughter were all born within just a few weeks of each other, we've found that it's more convenient for relatives if we celebrate all three of the cousins' birthdays at the same time.  The theme this year was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" from the Eric Carle book.  Being the awesome mom/aunt that I am, I made Brown Bear themed outfits for the birthday kids to wear for the party.    

Little Man, my niece, my nephew--this was the only good picture I got of my nephew.  Poor little guy was having a bad day and wanted nothing to do with most of the birthday celebrations.

Little Man, my niece, my nephew--the expression on his face exemplifies his attitude towards the whole party.

 

My niece's dad and my little brother.  I asked him to smile for the picture and this is what I got.  In all fairness, I did warn him that it would go on my blog.

My grandpa playing with Star

The way the light from the window hits her hair in this picture make me laugh!

LOVE this picture!  This is my grandma holding Star.  In the background is my mom holding my sister's newest baby and my other grandma.

Hahahahaha!!  Star's expression is hilarious!

Little Man enjoyed his birthday cake!

My niece was a little neater than Little Man and opted to use a fork instead of her hands.

Now that's how you eat cake!  This is my cousin's cute little guy.

My favorite musicians-Little Man with the mandolin and my dad with his beloved banjo

Here are some better picture of the birthday kiddos' outfits.  I'm currently working on a pattern for the dress which will be for sale in my Etsy pattern shop later this month.

The shirt with the blue dot background was my nephew's and the one with the yellow chevron background was Little Man's.

My niece's dress--I used the accent fabrics from the dress for the boys' shirts so they all coordinated. 

 
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