Spring crafts!

So wow, it's been a bit busy lately, but I did manage to get a few crafts done. I have a bunch of things I wanna share, but won't be as fast as I'd like, so please be patient with me for a bit. :)

I don't know about you, but I'm soooo ready for Spring. Winter, once again, has overstayed its welcome. ;) Here's some fun Springy these I made:

This cute lil pomander flower ball. So springy and go well with my cherry blossoms!

My sister and I made some fun easter eggs! Get some styrofoam eggs (I like the smooth ones, got mine at Hobby Lobby), paint (optional, but so cute!), dry, spray with adhesive and sprinkle glitter evenly all over. Poke hole in top and hot glue ribbon on. Show off wherever you want, I hung mine on some branches I spray painted white with white glitter and stuck in a tall vase. Love it!

Aren't those boingy carrots so cute?! Got them at Tai Pan.

Chocolate ice cream wraps

When I went on my little excursion to AZ, we visited my favorite shop there called The Orange Patch. I think I love about every store that ends in "patch". :) Just a cool word!
We noticed some chocolate wraps and thought what would you use those for?! The awesome owner shared an idea, making us very eager to get back and try it out. We cleaned them out of their last 2 packages... I sorta felt bad for the lady behind us who was eyeing them also, but not bad enough to give them up :) It's not like I can go there everyday.

mmmmm Yum, right!

What you need:

* Chocolate wraps (recipe at bottom)
Ice Cream (your choice of flavor)
Whip cream/cool whip
Fudge/caramel sauce
Strawberries

Thaw ice cream. Smother ice cream on wraps
Roll up, wrap the wrap in saran wrap....HA :)
Put in freezer for a couple of hours til set up.

Slice the rolls, top with fudge sauce, whip cream and strawberries. Better yet, skip the whole cutting part and eat the whole thing yourself! ;) FYI, do more than one wrap, trust me, one is not enough!

I don't know where you can buy chocolate wraps around here (bummer!) so I found a recipe you can use to make your own!

* Chocolate Tortilla

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (get high quality cocoa like Ghiradelli)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut, melted (or vegetable oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 dash salt
• 
  

Combine ingredients until smooth.

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Pour 1/4 cup tortilla mixture in center of pan and tilt to spread batter into a circle.

Let cook for 2 minutes then flip to cook other side for another 1-2 minutes.(Be careful not to burn or else the tortilla will be too stiff for folding.).

Let cool to prevent ice cream from melting during assembly.

Thin Mint Truffles

Everyone get their girl scout cookies?!? I definitely got stocked up with mine :) Everyone's favorite is Samoa's right! ;) Thin mints is a close tie.
I couldn't resist trying these thin mint truffles and they are as good as they look! Great treat for St. Patty's..... and every other day :)

Thin Mint Truffles

9 oz box of Thin Mints
4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
Dark chocolate almond bark or dark chocolate candy melts
Nonpareils

Crush the Thin Mints very finely. You can do this by placing them in a large Ziploc bag and rolling them with a rolling pin, or use your food processor, which is what I did.


Once they are crushed, pour them in a large bowl and add the cream cheese. I would like to say that you can just mix it up with a wooden spoon, but if you want to do things properly you are going to have to get your hands involved. Squish them up real good until it's thoroughly combined and the cream cheese is no longer visible.

Roll into 1 inch balls, place on a wax paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Melt almond bark or candy melts and using a toothpick, dip truffles completely and twirl to allow the excess to drip off. Place back on lined baking sheet and sprinkle with nonpareils before set. Refrigerate until firm.


*Makes about 24 truffles.

St. Patty's cookies

Faith and I spent half the day baking up some fun treats for St. Patty's day. I thought these rainbow and shamrock cookies were super cute! Definitely a fun one to include the kids in! More fun than play dough cuz you can eat it! :)
Recipe found HERE.

For some reason, the purple looks blue in the pix...hm

"Despicable" party!

Given a few choices, Faith picked Despicable Me as her theme. Not surprised, as she watches it at least 3 times a day. It was fun to plan though and it was gender friendly too, not just for girls. The best way to plan a Despicable Me party is to play off the minions with the color scheme of yellow, blue and black. Those little guys are my favorites.

These are the invites.

For treats we had:

• Minion Goggles (mints)
• * Girl Scout Cookies, named from the movie (Coconutties, Choco Swirlies, Minty Mints, Lemon Cremies, Berry Munchies) turned the boxes inside out and wrote names on.
  
• * Minion twinkie cakes (aren't they the cutest things ever! Thanks to my sister Tam, I didn't have to spend all day doing them by myself)
  
• * Anti gravity Serum (Lemonade)
• * Dr. Nefario's juice (where he says "Do you want to explode?" favorite line in our house)
• I found some test tubes for cups and flasks for pitchers, after the longest search ever found them HERE. They worked out perfect!
• Vector's crazy straws
  

hahah what more can you say about the Box of Shame :)

• For favors, I gave every child a balloon attached to Moon Dough. Went along with the theme of Gru stealing the moon. Tried to redeem myself from sending them home with loads of candy last year from Faith's sweet Candyland Party.
  

Games played:

• Gru Says (like Simon Says)
• Knocked Over (3 tries to knock over "spaceship" with ping pong balls.)
• Annoying Sound Contest (based off part in movie where Gru says 'No annoying noises' and girl says 'Does this count as annoying'.) We got a movie of this, pretty fun.
• Carnival game (throw big ball through moving hula hoop.)
• Steal The Moon (someone hides 'moon' [spray painted styrofoam ball] and the rest try to find or "steal" it.)
• Watched Despicable Me movie after gifts and cake.
  

I love my sweet girl she was so excited for her party and to see everyone. Thanks to all you who could make it, wouldn't have been a party without you!

Lucky charm shirt

I'm not all that big on St. Patty's, but I will wear green so people don't think they have reason to pinch me (although I'd just pinch them back no matter what I'm wearing haha). This holiday's usually so close to Easter that it's not worth decorating for, Easter's way better. I do love to have fun with the food however! (recipes coming up!)

When I saw this tutorial, I thought what a fun, different way to do a shirt! I had fun trying this out...and nearly passed out from all the bleach fumes. hah Best to do this in the garage/outside.

Now my little sweet pea can ward off all the pinchers out there in style! :)

If you want to use the pattern I made, download it over at My Pookie Designs!

Happy Happy birthday Faithy bug!!

Sweet Faithy bug,

I can't believe you are 4 years old today! Life was even more happy when you came into our lives. It is no coincidence we named you Faith. My faith grew right along with you from the very day I found out I was pregnant with you.

At 4 years old your favorites include:

COLOR: Pink (it changes every day so I think it's all the bright colors!)

MOVIE: Despicable Me, Cars, Veggie Tales

CEREAL: Lucky Charms

SONG: I love to see the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

FOOD: Chicken nuggets

FRIEND: Mikkie (duh! :)

TOY: Ponies, flowers, Mikkie frog

BOOK: The Mercer Mayer Little Critter stories

THINGS TO DO: Preschool, games on Zoodles, dance, violin, play with Kuzco (aka chase him around with things that scare him), memory games (SOOO good at these!), road trips (hehe as long as you have the iPod).

You are an extremely smart, bright, fun, funny, talented little girl. Or should I say big girl! You amaze me every day and bring daddy and I so much joy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!!

I took advantage of the amazing weather in AZ, got a fun birthday outfit and went to the Mesa Temple for a photo shoot. We came back to the cold, depressing weather and I thought how glad I was we did her pictures there! Faith was excited about her cowgirl boots! The only thing that would have made the pictures even better is a cowgirl hat and our little rocking horse. Darn it. Oh and a pro photographer of course, I'm not pro by any means but I think they turned out pretty good. Faith did very well after continually being bribed with a yummy treat after or in my exact words, "Whatever you want!" haha How's that for a bribe?! I said that knowing very well she would be completely content with a cookie. :)