my happy baker

Sweet Caroline needed to make something for her class's bake sale.
They were raising money for a child in the Dominican Republic.

She decided to make frosted brownies with sprinkles.

Who doesn't like brownies?

Or frosting?

Or sprinkles?

Delicious!!

Whenever we make frosting, we use this recipe:

Vanilla Butter Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup softened butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

milk (just keep adding a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you desire)

favorites on fridays

So . . . did you watch the royal wedding??

source

I didn't get up early to watch it, but I have been watching coverage of it today.

Truly beautiful.

In keeping with the whole princess theme, I thought my "Favorites on Fridays" post should be about . . . well, princesses (and kisses)!

Favorite Book to Share with my Daughter about Purity: The Princess and the Kiss written by Jennie Bishop.
 

It tells the story of how a princess received the gift of a first kiss from God when she was born and her parents kept it safe for her while she was growing up. When she became old enough, they gave it to her and urged her to use it wisely and only to give it to the man she would decide to marry. Well, of course, several different men tried to sweep her off her feet with money, looks, and opportunities, but she chose a farmhand with a good heart to give her kiss to . . . oh my . . . I know that we have a few years before Caroline will be thinking of giving kisses away to boys (-SHUDDER-), but what a beautiful way to teach her the importance of purity.

"Love . . . comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

I Timothy 1:5 NIV

Cookie Lovin'

Caroline got an Easy Bake oven for Christmas and we finally got around to putting a light bulb in it so she could actually bake something!!

Isn't it funny that a light bulb can bake cookies?

The cookies were pretty and tasty!

Luke agreed.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
Mine is chocolate chip . . . warm right out of the oven.

Reusing Pretty Bottles - a kids craft idea

My Sweet Caroline likes to be "green". She doesn't like to throw anything away that could be used for something else.
Lately, she has been noticing how pretty bottles are.
They all have such unique shapes.

She decided to get out her acrylics and make them even prettier.

She used her Gesso first to prime the bottles.

Then she and Luke just painted away . .. so fun.

They turned out pretty cute, right??

Meet Pepper

After our last hamster died a year ago . . . I promised myself we would not get another one.

But then I noticed that something was missing in my sweet Caroline's life. 

She is so happy when she has an animal to care for.

I thought a hamster would probably be less of a commitment than a dog.

It is kinda cute.

Under the Sea

I was going through some old pictures and came across Caroline's fifth birthday pictures.

She wanted an "under the sea" theme.
This cake was super easy to make (the "sand" was brown sugar)and I loved how it turned out.

Here are the stairs leading down to "the ocean" . . .

. . . and here is "the ocean".

I taped white Christmas lights all over the walls of the basement, then I covered them with blue plastic tablecloths (they came in a huge roll from the party supply store.)  The kids made fish to hang up everywhere.
I also hung streamers and balloons all over the ceiling to make the girls feel like they were under water.

(I obviously had way more time and energy then!!)

We played a few games.  The favorite was the "fishing booth" . . . Jake was hiding behind it and when the girl's line would come down, he would attach a prize (stuffed ocean animal) on it.

I think Caroline had fun. :)

I can't believe how much she has grown since these pictures . . .she is 8 now . . . time sure does fly.

I can't wait to start planning her ninth birthday party.

What will the theme be????

Joyful Noise

Caroline was in a concert at her school tonight.
I don't have any pictures of the actual concert because pictures of concerts never turn out . . .

I did get some shots of her and her friends before the concert, though.

Aren't the tie-dyed shirts cute??

While we were at the school, we found Caroline's torn paper portrait of herself . . .pretty good, right?

On the way home, we splurged and got some shakes to celebrate a job well done. :)

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD."

Psalm 100:1

Upward

John's going to love me for posting this photo. :)

He's been coaching fifth and sixth grade girls basketball on Saturday mornings and then he coaches Caroline's Upward basketball team on Saturday afternoons.

Upward Basketball is a great national Christian basketball organization.  Caroline loves it. 

I think she loves it so much because Daddy is her coach. :)

They start every game with prayer.
Every practice with a devotion.

Jake likes to help the girls, too.

Caroline is learning a lot about the game. 

It's so much fun to watch her play and interact with the members on her team.

Organizations like Upward are a blessing to our family!!

To find out more about Upward sports, click here.

Our "Fancy" Valentine's Day Dinners

Every year on Valentine's Day, our family has a "fancy" dinner.
The kids help set the table.
Everything is heart-shaped.
I make love notes for everyone.
We go around the table and tell each other what we love about each other.
I love our sweet Valentine's dinners.

Last year, in addition to our little fancy dinner, we had a fancy lunch for my daughter and her friends.

We made favors. (my daughter even wrote everyone's names in cursive on them)

We had flowers.

We let the girls decorate their own cupcakes.

We had "tea" (raspberry lemonade) and little heart shaped cookies. (I found the cookies at Aldi .. . saw them there again this year)

We had Jell-o jigglers . . .heart-shaped, of course.

We had heart-shaped sandwiches. (peanut butter/jelly and ham/cheese)

We had red fruit . . . heart-shaped watermelon and strawberries.

Every girl brought their favorite doll . . . my daughter (and her doll) had a fabulous time.

I'm still trying to decide what our Valentine's Day will look like this year . . . I'm always looking for something new I can make "heart-shaped".

Any ideas??

I'm linking up with Debbiedoo's Newbie Linky Party . . .  http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/02/lets-get-it-started-again-lets-get-it.html

. . . and

. . . and

MIA and Bird "Cakes"

I have definitely been missing in action for the past couple of months.

There are several reasons for that:

1.  I had a bad headache that just wouldn't leave me alone,

2.  Christmas (need I say more??),

3.  I just needed more time to get some important things done around my house,

4.   and I just needed to focus on my family.

Now, I am ready to have fun blogging again . . .

I decided to start with a repost from last January because Caroline and I made these fun bird cakes again today.

Enjoy! and I will see you again real soon!!

Caroline has so much fun watching this squirrel eat from her bird feeder. She wanted me to take this picture because she just loves how he hangs on with his little feet.

Since Caroline likes watching her new bird feeder so closely (thanks Uncle Steve, Auntie Becca, and family!) we checked a book out at the library called Birds in Your Backyard by Barbara Herkert. I think it was written especially for Caroline. :) It gives so many cool ideas about how to attract and identify birds and the illustrations are beautiful. Today, we made a recipe for little "cakes" to feed the birds.

First, you hollow out oranges. We hollowed out 2 to make 4 cakes. (we used a grapefruit spoon to do this)

Then, we mixed the following in a bowl:

1 cup of bird seed

1/2 cup melted vegetable shortening

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (Caroline insisted on making homemade peanut butter . . .nothing but the best for the birds!)

Last, we scooped it into the hollowed out oranges and . . . voila!!

Don't they look yummy?

We put one outside and waited and waited for the birds to come, but they must have seen us. After a while, we looked and . . . the whole thing was gone! That pesky squirrel. :) That'll feed him for the rest of the winter.

Oh, I tried to get Luke involved in the project, but he was perfectly happy playing Jake's Nintendo DS. :)