3 Things

1. New Blog Header

Did you notice? Did ya? Did ya? I did it all by myself!!! I used this awesome tutorial (just liked I used to make this header) and it was really easy! I find myself checking my blog just to look at its beauty and happy colorfulness.


2. Rainbow Cake

Do you remember when I first made a Rainbow Cake and it totally rocked it out?

The holiday season is crazy for everyone, of course, but it's a little extra crazy for us because Peyton's birthday is December 17th (he turned 8) and Ella's birthday is January 9th (she turned 6). Oh, and our wedding anniversary is December 15th (we made it 10 years!), but that's beside the point.

The point being: Rainbow Cakes are awesome!

Usually we do cupcakes for our birthday parties because they're so easy, but ever since The Rainbow Cake came into our lives, things have changed for the better. Peyton wanted a rainbow cake for his party, Ella wanted a rainbow cake for her party, and we were Rainbow Caking it up all over the place this winter!

The best part ever is when you cut into the otherwise-normal-looking-cake and suddenly everyone realizes that there's something special going on in there. Oh man! Kids are amazed, parents are amazed, it's all kinds of awesome. And I loved watching my kids bask in the glory when their friends saw the uniqueness of the cakes. Peyton and Ella LIT UP when they got to tell everyone how they picked their own colors. I loved that!

But really, what I wanted to do here was to peer pressure you into making a Rainbow Cake of your own. And this is why: No matter how imperfect your Rainbow Cake is, people will still think you are a Rainbow Caking Rockstar.

Example 1 - My first Rainbow Cake - Didn't even have enough frosting to cover all the sides. See all that side-cake sticking out? Didn't matter - Rockstar! (When I said side-cake did you think of side-boob? Admit it - you totally did!)

Example 2 - Peyton's Rainbow Cake:

Not even a real Rainbow Cake. He wanted blue and green stripes. Look at how uneven the frosting layers are - fail! Doesn't matter - as soon as the party kids saw the inside...

Rockstar!

You'll notice these pictures are a little messier than my First Rainbow Cake. It's one thing to carefully slice a cake when you're at home. You can make your family wait on the sidelines for five minutes while you get a good photo. It's a completely different situation when bunches of loud and crazy party kids are sitting around a table at a bowling alley or Chuck E. Cheese's waiting impatiently for their fair share of sugar intake.

Example 3 - Ella's Rainbow Cake

She chose her colors, too, and she wanted them in a very specific order. Look at that huge layer of frosting in between the purple and blue layers - fail! I didn't actually cut this one, the host from our Chuck E. Cheese party did. As soon as she cut into it, she said, "Whoa! Is this rainbow striped!?! Cool!" And you know she cuts into all sorts of homemade cakes for a living, soooo...

Rockstar!

What I'm saying is this: I'm not a baker, I've made lots and lots of Rainbow Cake mistakes, but it doesn't matter!

So, go! Go forth and make a Rainbow Cake! If I can do it - ANYONE CAN DO IT!


3. Family Portrait

Yesterday, I gave Ella a canvas, some paint, and paintbrushes. She grabbed some paper craft hearts that I was working on and some glue. Then she disappeared for a while to create her masterpiece.

She's obviously very talented - I mean, C'MON with the mixed media fantasticalness! - but just in case you have a hard time recognizing us, from left to right we have: Peyton, Ella, Mommy, and Daddy.



Seriously, I love it so much!!! Drawing with actual paintbrushes rather than markers or crayons is difficult - I think it's pretty impressive for a just-turned-6-year-old!

I framed it and put it on our Valentine's Day mantel and I'm going to keep it forever and ever.

Happy Valentine's Day decorating!

3 Things

1.  My Blog Got a Make Over

Did you notice? Viva la Violette created it for me. She's so wonderful and now my blog is so pretty! (I won the makeover in a giveaway. Because as much as I adore fancy blogs, I'm WAAAAY to cheap to pay for one. And that's why I feel so lucky to have won!) And now it has all sorts of fancy buttons and backgrounds and stuff. My blog is so high class. Now it totally thinks it's better than me. It doesn't matter. I will not be changing out of my flip-flops this summer just to impress my blog. Forget it BLOG. I'm still the boss of you.

But I have a question for you, Best Blog Readers in All the Land -
My old blog header had some pictures:

Should I add some new pictures to my new header (that match the color scheme) or do you like it simple and without pictures? I kind of like the extra splashes of color that pictures add, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!


2. Homemade Magic Shell

I think I might have had the real Magic Shell ice cream topping only once or twice when I was growing up. At a friend's house. And because we never had it in our house, I always thought it was extra delicious and fantastical. Isn't that always the way it goes?

When I had my own kids I really wanted them to enjoy the fantasticalness of Magic Shell. But that's before I saw how much it costs. One bottle, sure, I can afford that. But that's just like a free sample from a drug dealer. Then they're hooked and I'm at the grocery store 3 and 4 times a week going broke getting them their Magic Shell fix.

Sucks to be you, kids. Enjoy your Magic-Shell-free childhoods.

But then I saw this and our lives changed forever. It's so easy!

Two ingredients:

Coconut Oil (Did you know it has all sorts of health benefits? Check it out here!)

 Chocolate Chips

Measure out 1/2 cup coconut oil (in solid form) and 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips.

Microwave until the chocolate chips are just starting to melt (about a minute). Stir it all up until it's nice and smooth and melted.

Pour over ice cream.  

Wait for it to turn that magical waxy shade of hardened chocolate. 

This was my kids' favorite part: "It's changing! It's changing! It's changing!"

And then they cracked into it with their spoons and were so amazed! 

Add another mental point to my Coolest Mom Chart. 

It's a mental point because it's a made up chart that doesn't exist. 

*note to self: make a Coolest Mom Chart. Like a Potty Chart, or, say, a No Whining Chart, but for all the cool things I do for my kids. And then whenever my kids whine about something ridiculous I will simply direct them to the charts. And then they will know for sure that I win because I will have more stickers on my Cool Mom Chart than they have on the NO FREAKIN' WHINING CHART.

ANYWAY! What were we talking about? Homemade Magic Shell! It tastes just like the real thing! But if you want, you can go check out the ingredients for the real Magic Shell here. See! Almost exactly the same!

You can store your Magic Shell in a microwave safe container. I refrigerate mine, but I don't think it's necessary - the Smuckers site says you don't need to refrigerate the real Magic Shell.

And then whenever you are in need of some chocolate fantasticalness, just microwave it until it turns into its liquid state (I'm soooo scientific), pour it over ice cream, and crackle away!


3. Possibly the Coolest Kitchen Gadget EVER.


I love cherries. Do you? And how do you do you feel about the whole eat-the-cherry-and-then-spit-out-the-pit-nonsense? Not the best thing, but you have to deal, right?

That's what I thought. Until my sweet cousin, Rachel, bought me this:

That's right! It's a QuickPit. It's so fun to use! You stick the cherry in, pull the trigger, and BAM! Out pops the pit! 

See that hole? Yep, it's where the pit used to be until I BLASTED THAT SUCKER RIGHT OUT! 

Watch the how-to video here. Notice how she does it all calmly and slowly. And then picture me doing the same thing with some gusto. Dang! I aim my cherry gun at a white bowl and shout BAM! BAM! BAM! as I shoot those cherry pits out! And then I get to make myself a beautifully pristine bowl of pitless cherries. Now THAT is some fun delicious snacking!

Awesomeness. What's your favorite fun kitchen gadget?

5 Things

1. Squirrel Bird Gets a Vase

I spent $2 on a Michaels' grab bag. I'd like to say that it was money well spent. But really it was money spent on a bunch of crap I gave immediately to Goodwill. So I guess it was like I donated $2 to charity. Do I get karma points for that? Probably not.

Anyway, one of the things inside the bag was this cute little vase. We'll call it the $2 vase, shall we?

I'm not the biggest fan of Words in the Home, if you know what I mean. So I primed it, painted it, used some leftover supplies from my Kitchen Memo Board to fancy it up a bit, and gave it to The Keeper of the Cook Books as a peace offering.



Everyone needs a little kitchen mascot! Mine just happens to be a fat little squirrel bird. I love him.



2. A Happy Meal Tradition.

Is it a tradition if this is only the second time I've done it? Anyway. My kids love Happy Meals. We very rarely go to McDonald's, maybe once every couple months, so Peyton and Ella think it's a super special treat.

So here's what I did. I packed Peyton a lunch, like usual, and sent him off to school. At lunch time, as his class walked out of the classroom to get their lunches, I was standing outside with a Happy Meal and a chocolate shake. When he saw me, I said, "You don't need your lunch box today, kid!" His face lit up and his friends gathered around, "You're so lucky!" "What toy did you get?" "So cool!" and he was a ROCK STAR! It was so awesome. His happiness totally made my day.

But here's where I'm really patting myself on the back. Before Peyton's lunchtime, Ella and I went to the McDonald's drive-thru and ordered two Happy Meals - plain hamburgers, french fries, chocolate shakes please, one is for a boy and one is for a girl, thank you very much. We paid for them, got them, and headed off toward Peyton's school. Halfway down the street I thought, maybe I should just double check the order. I looked inside the Happy Meal boxes and they had given me two girl toys. My heart races just thinking about it. Can you imagine? My son's friends all gathered around him and his Happy Meal to see what toy he got and he pulls out a freakin' Liv Doll? Instead of turning my kid into Rock Star For A Day, I could have doomed his whole educational career. The horror! Say goodbye to him having friends and play dates. Say goodbye to good grades and self-esteem. Say goodbye to college. Say hello to jobless 40-year-old son living in my basement. So we rushed back to McDonald's, exchanged the loser-making doll for some sort of Pokemon dragon thing, and still made it to Peyton's school by lunchtime. Score! I dodged a bullet on that one. Lesson learned. ALWAYS check the Happy Meal.



3. She's Hilarious:

4. Bad Words in 1st Grade

Peyton: "Gavyn, in my class, calls his brother bad words!"

Me: "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Peyton: "He calls him the F word and the ST word!"

Me: "Shut the front door! What?"

Peyton: "You know, Freak and Stupid."

Sweet sweet little sweet.

5. Rainbow Cake

I'm not a baker. I bake on occasion, but it kind of bores me. When I bake I feel trapped by the recipe because I'm supposed to add Exactly This Much of something and Mix the Dry Ingredients separately and Bake At This Magical Temperature. I think measuring is for sissies, I mix all the ingredients in the same damn bowl, and I don't like being bossed around by a 3 x 5 card with a picture of Fresh From The Oven Pies on it. I want to punch those pies in the face.

I like regular-non-baking-type cooking because once you get the basics of cooking down, you are totally the boss of whatever recipe comes your way. Recipe? I don't need no stinkin' recipe!

HOWEVER! I will be making THE Rainbow Cake to celebrate the last week of my kid's school. This Rainbow Cake had better look awesome because I've been planning on making it for months. I decided to make it for the end of school because that seemed so far away at the time. Now that far away time is tomorrow. You know when you feel like you need to do something just to say that you did?

Some random person will say, "Yeah, so, I'm going to make a Rainbow Cake for my kid's birthday."
And I'll lean back all nonchalant-like and flip my hair back without even using my hands and say, "Yeah, so, I totally already made one. Because I'm more awesome than you."

I'm pretty sure it's going to be exactly like that.

This Fantastical Rainbow Cake had better Rock. It. Out.

Squirrel Bird, lead the way!