Easter Stuff!

We were busy this afternoon! Derrick has an EQ activity this afternoon, so the kids and I crafted for a couple of hours. I LOVE spring and fall. So we do the most crafty decorations those times of year. We used a cookie cutter as a pattern for paper rabbits. I grabbed some cotton balls, glue and googly eyes and showed the kids how to put a little bunny together. It was fun to see what they came up with on their own. Neither one of them copied my bunny.

Dallin's favorite bunny was the one that he made look like an "old man". Instead of putting the bunny cheeks on the side, he put them on the bottom for the bunny's beard. Aaron made an alien bunny, actually 3 of them, that had 3 or 4 eyes. I am going to string these up and hang them in our entry way.

We also made little crayon sun catchers. We've made these the past couple of years and the kids like seeing how they will blend together.
Crayons, sharpener, wax paper, and an iron.
Peel and shave the crayons.
Arrange on waxed paper. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper.
Place between 2 paper towels or inside of a dish towel that has been folded in half (one that you don't care about...because it will stain), and iron across,
Cut into whatever shapes you want, we used eggs.

Tape to your window!

Dallin's Great idea!

I had bunny garland wrapped around the staircase and was going to go upstairs and get some string to hand eggs with.

Dallin said that he had an idea and snapped an egg on one of the bunnies. Genius! :) He was very proud of his idea and it saved us a lot of time! Aaron helped him snap all of the eggs on the garland. Festive!

Here are two more ideas that we are doing this week, for ourselves, and with friends on Friday for the Easter party.

Eggy Easter Characters

Fluffer Bunnies

Alphabet Book & ID Cards!

I made this little alphabet book when Dallin was around 2 years old. I filled it with pictures of him with different objects and in different places. Z was for "Zebra". I had a picture of him at the Sacramento Zoo. He still likes looking through the pictures and reading the book to Aaron. I thought that since he loved it so much, I'd make him another one. This time, using all lower case letters. He is still working on "q", "g", and a few other lowercase ones that look similar to each other. I filled it with superhero pictures. He helped me choose which ones to use and after preschool, he helped me laminate the book. It's small enough that he can take it in the car and browse it whenever he wants. I asked Aaron if he'd like a photo alphabet book of him and he said NO! I asked him several times and it was clear that he didn't want one. Hmm..I may make him one anyways, because knowing him, he'll freak out in a day or so wanting one. He did say he'd like another Elmo book that is laminated. He made one when he was 2. He said he'd do an Elmo alphabet one. Not sure what we'll come up with for that but we'll figure it out.The hardest part was finding all of the characters! I did Queen Amidala for "Q", Young Avengers for "Y", and "X-Men" for "X". Those were the hardest ones. There are superheroes for every letter of the alphabet, but it was hard finding the ones that Dallin knew/recognized and that weren't bad guys. All of the ones in our book are the "good guys"! I used my cricut for the letters. I didn't have a cricut when I made Dallin's first book and cut out all of the letters by hand! So this saved a lot of time.
Justice League and Optimus Prime. We opted for Wildcat instead of Wonder Woman for "W" since she wasn't very modest, but then I noticed that she is there in the Justice League picture. Oh well. ;)

Since I had the laminator out, I also made ID cards for the kids. Dallin's preschool sent home a form for these a few months ago. They were $7 each! I wasn't going to pay that if I could do them at home. I'm just irritated with myself that it took me this long to get around to it! It's a great idea, especially with how often we are in public at parks, the library, grocery stores, etc. I am very cautious in public with them, but with three kids heaven forbid I got separated from one and didn't have a current photo of them with me. So I took a wallet sized photo, put it on card stock, then printed out all of their information on the computer. I also added a right-index fingerprint from the boys on the back of their cards, laminated them, and put them in my wallet. Peace of mind.

Another Jumper!

I posted a little jumper that I made for Kaylee awhile ago. I made it with the intent of making her some more, but have been so busy! My poor sewing machine has been used almost every night for the past month and a half. I was excited to have a little time to sew for Kaylee after the kids went to bed and Derrick was out visiting families with the EQ presidency. I had it all cut out a few weeks ago and sewed it up tonight.

I liked this pattern because it was simple, but I learned a couple of new techniques at the same time! #1, scalloped edging, and #2, small puckered folds. I've done darts and pleats, but these were different. Having a baby girl is so much fun! Baby boys are awesome and I sewed things for them too, but there are just more options for girlies!

Tiered Wedding Cake!

Here is my final cake from my cake class! I made Easter lillies in three different colors and iced the cake in buttercream frosting. The bottom tier is yellow cake and the top is chocolate. I may take a fondant/gumpaste class in June, but for now I am done and am happy to have a break!

Wall Hanging!

My friend, Brooke, is very crafty. Too bad her blog is private. But here is what I made after seeing an idea from her blog. I made this for my good friend, Janelle, in Alaska for her birthday. Their last name is Wilson, hence the "W". I went to JoAnns and bought the wood cutouts, painted them to match her house, glued it together with wood glue, then added a frame hanger on the back! I had a couple of coupons for the wood cut outs, so I think all in all, I spent around $3. She really liked it. Thanks for the idea Brooke! I think she used ribbon to hang hers and used "Home" instead of "Family". They have lots of different wood word cut outs like "Inspire", "Hope", "Faith", "Friends", etc. so there are lots of options!

Sorry the picture are so small lately, my computer/camera won't download the large size anymore without having Blogger shut down on me, oh well.

R.S. Birthday Cake

I didn't think this cake turned out too bad, considering the first time I ever worked with fondant was Monday at my cake class! It is a small 8 inch cake topped with a 6 inch. White cake torted with vanilla pudding.

I made this cake today to bring to the Relief Society Birthday luncheon tomorrow. The green fondant on top is covering up a mistake, but I kind of like it that way. It's all a learning process, for sure!

I was pretty discouraged after my class with fondant. I covered a square cake and didn't like it. Circle ones are definitely easier, but still....my polka dots could only cover some of the mistakes. I am looking forward to getting better at this.

Tonight, I am going over to a friend's house to let her use my frosting tips for her cake. Several of us were asked to make cakes as centerpieces. Decorations and dessert all in one.

Ice Cream Pie

My mom used to make ice cream pie and it was always so good and sooo easy! We had company over last night so I thought I'd make dessert. Dessert in our house is usually brownies or cookies, but I thought I'd make something a little more impressive, lol.

Ice Cream Pie

1 quart ice cream (I used Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip)

1 graham cracker crust, regular or chocolate

1 1/2 c. Cool whip (fat free makes it even better!)

oreo crumbs (leftover from the dirt cups we made a week ago)

Let the ice cream sit out until it is soft enough to spread. Spoon it into the crust and spread evenly. A half gallon of ice cream will make 2 pies. Spread cool whip on top, or if you have frosting tips you can put the cool whip in a bag (frosting or ziploc), and use a star tip to add Cool whip. That's what I did for this pie. Sprinkle with cookie crumbs, then freeze for 3-4 hours.

15-20 minutes before serving, take the pie out of the freezer and let sit until ready to cut. This serves 8!

Dallin loved it so much that we made another one with the extra ice cream in the half gallon this afternoon. I wish I would have remembered this over the holidays. It would have been really good with peppermint ice cream in a chocolate crust with cool whip and crushed candy canes on top! There's always next year ;)

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

This is my own creation...one of the few. Usually I just snag other people's recipes!!

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can green enchilada sauce

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 packet taco seasoning

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

8 flour tortillas (small taco size)

pico de gallo

Mix together soup, 1/2 of the enchilada sauce, beans and taco seasoning. Add chicken. Fill tortillas with 2-3 T of the chicken/soup mixture, roll up, and place into a small casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Fill casserole dish with all 8 tortillas. Pour any remaining chicken/soup mixture on top. Drizzle the rest of the enchilada sauce over and top with shreeded cheese. Bake @ 375 (uncovered) for 3o minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

Top with pico de gallo. Enjoy! Serves 4.

Tortilla Pizzas!

Last night I was going to make homemade pizza for dinner. I put all of my ingredients for the dough into my bread machine and came back when the timer went off only to see that the dough, um....didn't turn out. LOL. I've used that recipe before and it was fine! I went over all the ingredients again on the recipe and I know (or think) I did it right, but it looked like it was alive. Bubbling when I poked it, in fact.

I was irritated because it was 7 o'clock and we were already eating late and now I needed to find something else to make for dinner. Derrick suggested that I just let the kids make their own pizzas using tortillas. Whatever, they'll have fun but it won't taste that great. So I let them, and we all LOVED them! The boys said it was their favorite pizza ever, lol. Derrick and I liked them too, so I made them again for lunch today. So my mistake turned out ok in the end!

We just spread a thin layer of sauce on a tortilla, layered it with cheese and pepperoni, sprinkled it with italian seasoning and parmesan cheese and baked on a cookie sheet @ 350 for 10 minutes or until the cheese was bubbly.

The boys call them pizza chips or pizza quesadillas.

It won't let me post a picture right now, so I'll try later :)

Cheesy Potato and Corn Chowder

I love this recipe because it uses a country gravy packet, it makes it nice and creamy. It is also so versatile, I always change it up depending on the ingredients I have.

2 tablespoons margarine
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
3 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1 (2.5 ounce) package country style gravy mix
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded Mexican-style processed cheese food

In large saucepan, melt margarine over medium high heat. Add celery and onion; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes.
Add chicken broth; bring to a boil. Add potatoes; cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally.
Stir in corn and chiles; return to boiling. Dissolve gravy mix in milk; stir into boiling mixture. Add cheese; cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted.

Source: allrecipes.com...the photo is from the site. I didn't even try to take a picture of it because it doesn't look as appetizing as it smells and tastes!