Easter, Cookies and Caramel Apples

OK, just a short post for now to catch myself up a bit, at least in terms of my kitchen activity...

Here are my latest, Easter Cookies. :)

And I tried my hand at some Springy Caramel Apples for all of the cousins...

And just for good measure, I will post a pic of my St. Patrick's Day Cookies too!

As far as Easter itself goes, we all had a wonderful day with family, the kids got lots of candy of course, and the Easter Bunny even left a picture of himself for Madison because she left him a note asking for one. :) Imagine that?! Now that they know what he looks like, they are a bit creeped out about it lol. Too bad the Easter Bunny didn't take that little tid bit into consideration before leaving them an autographed pic. hmmm.

Last Batch of Valentine Cookies

Ok, here's the latest batch of Valentine Cookies....

Look for more next month for St. Patrick's Day. ;)

COOKIES, COOKIES and more COOKIES!!!

OK, so it all started with trying to come up with something somewhat creative for my dear friend's birthday. I've already given her a couple of scarves and didn't want to go that route (and be dubbed forever 'scarf lady')... so this is what I came up with....

She loved it and when I posted it on my FaceBook page, I got alot of positive feedback. Sooo I decided to post some pictures of Valentine cookies to see if anyone might be interested in ordering any. And so far, I've gotten several orders. Hopefully I'm not in over my head here ;).

              

      

      

      

Scarves, blankets, ornaments, cake balls, and such....

OMG, I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since early November... and that my last post was all about 2nd grade knife drama! lol... BTW, knife boy no longer attends our quaint little elementary school. :) Tho I think he does still co-exist within our district so Jr. High otta be fun!

OK, welll part of the reason it's taken me sooo long to post anything is that I've been crocheting like a MAD woman! Seriously! I kid you not!! I believe that I managed to crochet something to the effect of 25 scarves for a Christmas Boutique (which maybe 6 or 7 were purchased LOL, and therefore the rest were given as gifts ;)  )....

I did specifically crochet a scarf for my mom's birthday (nov 25) and my mother in laws Christmas gift, as well as my Father In Laws wife, and BFF Laura and another dear friend! Plus one dear friend is on the back burner until after Christmas (she's THAT kinda friend that doesn't mind waiting, thankGod! 

   

  

The ornaments were copied after Laura's ideas and given to my mom as part of her Bday gift :)... and the Cake Balls which are ALWAYS a HUGE hit didn't sell all that well at the boutique but we figured that they weren't 'marketed well' :) and will do better next year. Therefore they too, were given away as happy gifts! :) And this too was just my version of Christy's recipe! :)  

AND I made a "throw" for BFF Christy... but let me just say that  the word 'throw' pales to the labor of love that was put into that project LOL.... as I took it apart THREE times after crocheting 6 skanes of yarn into it. :) And what I thought might be about 7 or so skanes turned into 13 skanes of yarn that coincidentally happened to become 'discontinued' in the midst of my blanket making extravaganza! SWEET! So thank GOD for Ebay! Never mind what I ended up paying for this originally 'discounted' yarn lol... :) Sadly I did not manage to take a picture of this (I don't know why), But I did take a picture of what said BFF Christy gave ME as a Christmas present this year and it is by far my most favorite gift I've ever received to date!! :) The amount of time and effort and skill/talent that went into this/my gift still takes me aback and I am blessed beyond words EVERY time I look upon it! I have shown it off to all that I know that could possibly potentially appreciate such a work of art and have heard praise upon praise and admiration over it!!!

OK really, there aren't enough words for this.... If you could see it up close in person, you would get the full affect. CRAZY, or RIDICULOUS as my husband says..... no stencils BTW, allllll freehand, painted, paintbrushes, etc.... I know, crazy goooood right!!! Again... my most favorite present EVER!! Priceless!!! Let me just say... that my kids have been instructed VERY SPECIFICALLY that if they EVER, EVER, EVER TOUCH IT THEY WILL DIE!!! Of course, I say that in the most loving most nurturing tone possible ;). Even Greg has schooled the girls on the fact that they are not allowed to touch it and this in fact will become an heirloom that will be passed down among the generations. :) I LOVE that!! :) Thank you my sweet friend Christy!!!

OK, so blog now updated for December as far as crocheting, ornaments, crafting, gifts received, etc....

Knife Weilding 2nd Grader!

OK, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to post this, but maybe I just need to vent, and really, what better place to do so than my own blog, right?

My girls go to a small elementary school in Yorba Linda (AKA ""The Land of Gracious Living"), and we feel safe in our little community and school of 500 students. Well, at least we did until yesterday. There is something very seriously wrong with our world when a 7 year old shows up at school with a large buck/utility style pocket knife in his back pack (oh yeah, and a lighter). And let me tell you, this was no little swiss army knife. The term Pocket Knife is a bit mis leading in my opinion in this particular case. It was probably about 4 inches long FOLDED. I didn't open it up but I would imagine that the blade was at least 3 inches long. And as if this in itself isn't BAD ENOUGH, this comes just 5 days after this particular boy told my sweet little introverted, kind hearted, shy little 7 year old Madison, that he was going to "beat her up and kill her and he hoped that her blood didn't get all over his hands". I kid you not!!

ARE YOU AS SCHOCKED AND ALARMED AS I WAS???

Well, it is being handled, but I feel as though it took some aggressiveness on my part to get the principal to take the matter as seriuosly as it actually is. And much to my dismay, it doesn't appear that the boy will be expelled, but he was at least suspended yesterday and today. The matter isn't closed as they have to meet with him and his parents, so we shall see.

Madison seems fine, though she hasn't been in class with the boy since it happened. She was definitely affected by his words last week but recovered from it quite well. Now this. Yesterday she came home "sick" with a stomach ache and headache and had some issues when it was bed time. This morning she seemed perfectly fine though she knew the boy wasn't going to be at school today. So we will see what tomorrow brings. I will keep you posted.

Halloween at School and Pumpkin Carving

Today we celebrated Halloween at school. Fun class parties!

Hazel, Madison and Montana.

McKenna and her 2 BFFs at school got to carve pumpkins in class today.


















Maddie and I at her class party.


















Montana and Emily.

Christy... Room Mom, Planner of All Things Good, and BFF Extraordinaire.

Then, for some unknown crazy reason, I had 7 girls at my house for 3 hours! then.....

 .... we carved some awesome pumpkins tonight! Well.... Greg and the girls did, I just took pictures ;) That's a daddy tradition. :)













Look at that crazy look he has in his eyes as he weilds that knife...













Again, the knife appears....

















Tana went traditional on her pumpkin.

















McKenna went for stars.













Madison, my creative child, decided that her pumpkin should be a baby pig pumpkin. A first if you ask me. :)

A fun (and long) day! Tomorrow we shall trick or treat! :)

Halloween Cookies and the Fall Festival

Not necessarily in that order...

Cookies...

My latest kitchen adventure this week, since cake class is over, was Halloween Cookies. Let me just say that I will not be doing this again next Halloween unless I contract some kind of amnesiac condition (which, sadly, has been known to happen). This took farrr longer than I had remembered it taking. Then I thought, "Oh yeah, that's what I say every Christmas when I make my Christmas Cookies!"

Whatcha think?

This was the first time I've done them at Halloween. And the first time that I used a piping bag and cake decorating tip on them, which I am actually pretty pleased with! Made it easier and more accurate I think.

Fall Festival....

We took the girls to our church's annual Fall Festival and they had a blast. Rock Climbing Wall, Bungee Jump (Montana smiled as wide as I've ever seen her the entire time she was on this!), Inflatable Slide, Pony Rides, lots of candy and friends! A good time was had by all!