Easter Pins

I made two different Easter-y foods that I found on Pinterest. First, this pin that is rolls shaped like bunnies. I just used my normal wheat roll recipe, and then shaped the way this blogger did to make the little ears and tails. So cute!

Then this pin of Easter cupcakes. I should have used my own recipe for the cake because they did not taste the greatest. But they were cute!

April Houses: Easter

These are the houses we made for April, and Easter. There are no Easter houses in Whimsy Studios' Flickr Photos, so these are totally made up by us.

In case you want to revisit the old ones, here are here are July, August, September, October, November, I forgot to take a picture of December and I never did January, February, and March.

Nutella Rice Krispie Treats

I found this recipe for Nutella Rice Krispie Treats on Pinterest. I have had a jar of Nutella sitting in my pantry for like a year because I didn't know what to do with it, so I tried these. They tasted dang good, but they didn't look at all like they are supposed to. I have been told that could have been from me using cheapie rice krispies intead of the name brand, so next time I won't go cheap.

They did not last very long!

March Houses: St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is not a day I decorate a lot for, but I love the way these houses turned out! I think every month, I say these are my new favorites, and that is true again! Here is the original pin from the lovely Whimsy Studios, and here are mine.

Sorry if the pictures are a bit fuzzy. I have been having trouble with my camera and I am blind as an old woman, so this is as good as it gets.

In case you want to revisit the old ones, here are here are July, August, September, October, November, I forgot to take a picture of December and I never did January, and February.

Pajama Monsters

I found this pattern on Pinterest for pajama monsters from Sew Fearless. The have zippered mouths so you can put your pajamas in them in the morning, and then they give them back at night!

I'm glad I did them with the minkee fabric. I think that gives them a "real stuffed animal" look, plus they are so nice to hug.

I let the boys pick out their own colors. Obviously, William's favorite color is red and I think the only color Luke knows really well is orange. Which is funny to me because that was the first color Will learned too.

It was a pretty simple pattern, and easy to understand, but I did make some adjustments on the second one that made it better. First of all, you don't need a yard of the main fabric at all. A half yard should do fine, I have tons of leftover. Second, the feet are too big and the legs too poofy. On my second one, I cut the soles a little more foot-shaped, and I cut much less fabric for the legs. By the way, so you can tell in the pictures, the orange one was first and the red one is a little improved.

Overall, they turned out great and the boys love them! Maybe these will help them keep their room clean... but I doubt it.

Pudding Letters

This week we did a simple activity that I thought looked like a fun idea. Wills has been really into letters recently, and he is great at recognizing them, but he doesn't really get any practive writing. This idea (pinned here) was actaully for paint in a bag, but I thought pudding would be more fun, plus we'd get to eat it.

Pick a letter...

...draw one side...

...and the other...done!

It turns out that Wills liked it for a while, as in we got through the alphabet once. But this is not an extended activity by any means. I found another think to help him learn to write that I am working on, and I'll tell you what that is later.

By the way, the letter cards are these, a Christmas present and one of the things he plays with the most. We love them.

Some Recipes I Tried

I have two recipes for ya this week. The first pin (found here) is what I did for the Superbowl. Since we always go to Eric's family's house, I though it would be fun to bring these peanut butter footballs!

As you can see by the picture, I am not great at painting on the laces. But they tasted great!

The second pin (here) is supposed to be a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's breadsticks. Supposed to be. They actually tasted great, but the texture was more like tiny french bread loaves. They had a harder crust than Olive Garden's.

February Houses: Valentine's Day

I have my Valentine's houses done, and they are my new favorite! The original pin is here from Lori at Whimsy Studios, and here are my houses!

I actually still want to write "Be Mine" on that big heart in the middle, but I can't find a good white paint pen. Any suggestions?

Hostess Cupcake Balls

Eric loves those Hostess Cupcakes, so I tried this recipe I pinned from Chef in Training. (The original recipe is from Sugar Derby) I didn't take pictures of the process, but here is the finished product!

Here, I'll even eat one for you so you can see the inside.

The recipe didn't actually have the melting chocolate for the shell on the list of ingredients, so they sat in my freezer unfinished for a couple days before I went to the store again. So if you make these, make sure you get the melting chocolate! And I didn't do the white swirls because I wasn't going to buy a whole pack of white chocolate for one tiny thing.

They taste really good. Dang close to the real thing. And I'm trying not to eat them all because now I know how much shortening goes into these.

Chicken Taco Bowls

I tried a crockpot recipe this week from Budget Bytes that I found on Pinterest.

(Not my picture, this is the pin)

This was so good! Definitely going to do this one again.

Fall Houses

Here are my fall houses! The original pin from Whimsy & Co. is here, and here are mine!

If you want to see the older ones, here are July, August, September, and October.

Homemade Playdough

This week, we made playdough! I actually pinned this one before, but this recipe calls for Jello and I didn't have any, so I used this tutorial instead. It turned out perfectly.

The recipe is great. The dough actually has kept better than real playdough so far. And even though the boys don't really look excited in these pictures, they played with that dough for at least two hours straight!

Honey Chicken Kabobs

This week I made Honey Chicken Kabobs found on this pin. I didn't even take a picture (because Eric actually assembled them, I just marinated the meat.) So here's the picture form the pin, and just pretend mine looked just like this.

They did look pretty close actually. They were delicious! Pretty much just tasted like a good teriyaki sauce, you didn't really taste the honey, but it was still great!

October Houses: Halloween

I am still loving making these houses every month for decorations. In case you missed them, here are July, August, and September. October's of course are Halloween. Here is the original pin from Lori at Whimsy Studios, and here are mine!

I put them in a different spot this month, since my usual shelf is filled with potions and poisons. I should show you a picture of those, since they are my favorite Halloween decoration. Another day!

Snapshot of Play

This week for Pinterest Friday, I tried to imitate this picture of Erin from Lemon Tree Creations's kids playing. I like how the shot is composed, where it is through the doorway. My picture is not as good.

I thought the way the shot was composed looked like a fun peek into their playtime, without being up in their business. I need to work on exposure to make the doorway darker and the focus more on the kids, but I am going to a photography class soon, so hopefully I learn how to do just that!

Laundry Room

Ok, so I skipped last week. I have been crazy busy. This week, I don't even have a full post about Pinterest Friday, but here is Part One of the Laundry Room! Here is my original pin from Sausha at Show and Tell, plans by Ana White. As soon as I saw this, I knew I wanted to make this pedestal in my house. And so far, I am loving the extra height!

We have since finished the floor and still need to add a light, some trim and baseboards, and probably put in a shelf to hold our stuff. I will post pictures when we are all done!

Pinterest Recipe Fail

This week I tried a recipe. It was crock pot macaroni and cheese. The pin is here. I didn't love it. It was kinda dry, which I think was because it cooked for too long. The recipe said to cook it for five to six hours and that was too much.

So since that picture is not too appetizing, here are some pictures of our tomatoes from the garden! We have way too many this year since the tomato plants have kinda taken over two our six boxes in our garden. We picked a bunch and piled them and the boys in the wagon and went around to the neighbors to give them away (tomatoes, not boys). Eventually we found enough neighbors who don't have gardens of their own to give them away.

Anybody else need some tomatoes?