Another January Birthday

Yes our family has a few January birthdays, 5, to be exact. But this person is getting spoiled the most...my husband!

He does so much for our little family so he deserves only the best. We went on a fun family outing on Sunday. Then yesterday my girls and I put on our aprons and got to work! Since he is a sports fanatic, I decided to make a football cake. This was actually very simple - no rearranging cake pieces, no fancy decorating tips, only 2 colors of icing and I didn't even need food coloring since I just needed the basic chocolate and vanilla!

Here is the football cake:



 

And here is a picture of him with our girls; they are so lucky to have him for a Daddy!



 

 

I am trying out a few new recipes this week and so far I'm 2 for 2! Tonight I made Slowcooker Cashew Chicken from  {http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/2009/12/day-336-cashew-chicken.html} and it was delicious! I will share the others as soon as I try them all out. But tonight's homemade Chinese was a hit!

Happy Birthday Honey!!

We also celebrated our youngest's first day of preschool today. She fit right in and did great and told her teacher "I'll come back tomorrow, okay?" so I think that means she loves it. We're a little sad now that both girls are at "school" for atleast a couple hours during the day, but it gives me just enough free time to explore more thrifty crafty ideas, and more time to spend on my blog.

Here is a picture of her this morning all ready to go:

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad!
He has the biggest heart of anyone I know and is a wonderful father and grandfather.

I happened to see a recipe recently on Pinterest for almond joy brownie bites (http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2011/04/almond-joy-brownie-bites/)

and pinned it. Then I remembered that my Dad loves almond joy bars. So I had to give the recipe a try and they were a huge hit! Since I'm not used to making brownie bites, I didn't realize how fast they cooked so they were in the oven a tad longer than they should have been. But they are the cutest things ever and a perfect sized snack. I could hardly keep the kids away from them...until I put the coconut on...I don't know about everyone else's kids, but mine won't go near coconut. But they were worth it thanks to a fairly easy, budget-friendly recipe (a total of $7...I already had enough almonds on hand since you only need 1 for each bite). And of course they were fun to make...who doesn't love dipping things into CHOCOLATE?!

 

Here is a picture of this treat - I am realizing I need to brush up on my photography skills (ok I need to learn a lot) so that I can post great pictures of my products!  I HAD to take a bite so that you could see what makes it so delicious. The best bite is the very center, where you get brownie, coconut, chocolate, and the crunchy almond! As Rachael would say "YUM-O!"

So, Dad, ENJOY!!!

[caption id="attachment_33" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Almond Joy Brownie Bites"][/caption]

Momma's new cricut!

I don't have a lot of fancy shmancy craft supplies but I have been wanting a cricut for awhile now. A friend of mine mentioned the cricut cake and I was instantly in love. I found it on amazon for only $78! I ordered it on New Year's Eve, knowing that the price would probably jump up overnight. And I was right, I snagged a fantastic deal! This machine cuts fondant, frosting sheets, and gum paste for decorating cakes, cookies, etc! It also (supposedly) cuts paper like the other cricuts and can use their cartridges too...score! So I have a feeling you are going to see lots of new projects coming from this new toy of mine. I'm sure it will take me awhile to get the hang of it, but it is my new love right now. I even skipped Zumba this morning to stay home and play with it! Here is a link in case you haven't seen it yet...http://www.cricut.com/cake/Home.aspx
All I have to say is this thing better work because my kids have already set up a fort inside the empty boxes! Even though we just had Christmas, empty boxes are way more fun!

So I would like to hear if any of you have cricuts and if so which one and how do you like it?