"then you roast the 'mallow"

"When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then cover with the other end. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good!"
Name that movie.
If you can't, I'm ashamed to know you.
Just kidding! (Kind of.)

I wanted to share with you something I discovered the other day, it's really quite genius and I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner! If you own a heat embosser, prepare to have your mind blown.

I was baking cupcakes and wanted to use the trick of putting marshmallows on the last few minutes of baking so they'll melt on top, eliminating the need to frost them. Well, I got distracted and waited too long and they didn't have time to fluff up and melt on the cupcakes. That's when, somehow, a light bulb went off in my head and I pulled my heat embosser out of my scrapbooking stuff. Eureka! You have to get it pretty close to the marshmallow, but it totally worked! Who needs a flame torch in the kitchen, huh?

Primary Singing Time: cookie match up

This was a simple singing time activity that the kids enjoyed more than I thought they would. I used it to teach "Seek the Lord Early" (CS 108), but you could use it for any song. It worked out perfectly for "Seek the Lord Early", because it breaks into six parts really well.
I had six "cookies" on a cookie sheet with pictures behind them to represent all the parts of the song. All of the sheets of paper with the words on them were up on the board in order. I'd call on a child and have them come up to pick a cookie. Once they revealed the hidden picture, I would ask them what it looked like was happening in the picture ("a little boy is saying a prayer", "those are commandments", etc). For junior primary I would then stick it on the appropriate word page, for senior primary I let them figure out where each one should go. In junior primary we waited until the end and then sang it through a few times, but in senior primary, since I knew I'd have plenty of time, I had them sing through it after each picture match up.
This would be great to review a song too, if you put the word sheets out of order and had them first match up pictures, then put them in order.

{Here} is the PDF file with the words and pictures. I'm not thrilled with the quality of the pictures though and you could probably find better ones online.

BBW: first birthday present sneak peek

Today I have a little sneak peek of my little Miss' first birthday present, which I'll reveal next week.

Ohhh... so nice, right? Don't worry, it doesn't look anything like that anymore. :) I'll let you guys make some guesses as to what it is. In keeping with what we did when my son turned one, the hubby and I made something that both the kids (and future kids) can play with and can still grow into. I'll be back next week with the final product! Have a great weekend!

BBW: let them eat cake

This post is just barely getting up in time, it's been such a busy (but fun!) day! The hubby, kids, and I are exhausted!
Also, I never thought I'd say this but I think I'm a little sick of cake.
I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth; or rather, out of my keyboard.
But I mean, seriously, cake two weeks ago for my husband's birthday, cupcakes for the kids' party on Saturday, cake yesterday for my little dove's birthday, and cake today for little Miss.
It makes me a little sick just thinking about it.
Not everyone feels the same way as I do though; I told the hubby that I thought we should freeze some of the cake. All I got in response was a look of shock and outrage.

Anyway...
The hot weather resulted in some droopy buttercream, and me spreading myself to thin (as always) resulted in some less-than-perfect outcomes, but I'm still pretty pleased with how both cakes turned out. Both were Pinterest-inspired and it was fun trying out some new stuff.

First up, for the little man in my life:

This kid LOVES sprinkles; when we go get ice cream, he gets the sprinkled ice cream cone and eats all the sprinkled part of the cone before the ice cream.  Knowing that we would have a plethora of cake I did only make it a 6-inch cake, but it's nice and tall with 3 big layers (after all, he is three years old).

For little Miss, something a little more girly:

For my first attempt at a ruffle cake, I think it turned out pretty cute. I attempted an ombre effect by layering the icing in the bag: white, pale pink, lavender, and purple. It would have worked out really well, but then the bag split and I had to scoop in into another bag. Sigh. Just can't catch a break. Oh well, it mostly worked, and my little birthday girl didn't complain once. :)

Linked to: 52 Mantels, Somewhat Simple

another birthday bash week

Welcome to the third installment of birthday bash week, the week a year where I celebrate my fabulous kiddos and share birthday-related goodness. To start off  I'm going to share some eye candy from their combined cowboy/cowgirl party that we had this weekend.

Find the frame wreath post {here} 

We had chicken chili, little smokies (lil' doggies), watermelon on sticks,  cool ranch Doritos  cups with trail mix, ranch dip carrots, and peanut butter and celery. For drinks we had water, lemonade, and diet root beer. Of course we also had cupcakes, devil's food and funfetti. A Kraft paper runner on the table allowed me to label all the food easily.

For the goody bags we had tootsie rolls, mini moon pies, yogurt covered raisins  cowboys and Indians, plastic horses, and Twizzlers. There was also a hobby horse for each guest and they seemed to like those; it's always nice to see your hard work was worth it. :)

It was a pretty hot day so we ended up spending more time inside than outside, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with how everything turned out and all the little kiddos (more than a dozen) seemed to have a good time.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures outside before guests showed up, but the decorations outside were pretty minimal. For activities  we had a "train depot", which was a train table and mega blocks to play with; we had a "jail", which was a  Little Tykes outdoor play set and a coloring table with Wanted posters for the kids to color (get the PDF {here}); and we had "gold panning" in their water table, which you can find all over Pinterest. :)

*****

Hobby horse tutorial found on {Dandee}

Watermelon inspiration found on {A Pretty Life}

Pie tins and wooden utensils bought {Here}

Bandannas and Cowboys & Indians bought {Here}

*****
For Birthday Bash Week #1 click {here}
For Birthday Bash Week #2 click {here}



Linked to: Skip to my Lou, 52 Mantels, Somewhat Simple