Spring Flowers

So Mother Nature decided to tease us with one gorgeous day and then slap us with below normal temperatures! She can be so cruel!! So I decided to get alittle flower garden started inside. We started this last week and we've already got very nice progress.

We started with 2 little egg 'pots' that we found in the $1 section at Target. One had Daisy seeds and the other had Zinnias. The instructions tell you to only put 10 seeds in each pot so we spread the rest of the seeds into cups.

H didn't care for getting dirty much but she did like watering the seeds. Once we were all planted everything got put into the sunny kitchen window.

 

I've done most of the watering but every couple of days I have H use her little water pitcher to water them. She was amazed when they started sprouting.

After only one week the Zinnias are going crazy! The Daisies (middle cup) are alittle slower but they're starting to pop up too now. It's hard to see the Daisies but if you look really close you can see tiny leaves popping up. 

 

Here they are after 16 days. They're going to be ready for transplanting soon!!

More Easter crafting

Paper Easter Eggs

Using the center pieces that were cut out for the frames to out 'Stained Glass' Easter Eggs we simply glued yarn. You could also use markers or crayons to decorate the eggs.  I wanted this to use different textures than plain old colored eggs.  I prepared ahead of time by snipping different sized lengths of yarn in varying colors.  Then I handed over the glue stick and let her go to town.

Birthday Time!!!

I can't believe H is 2 already!!!

Last year I did a massive Caterpillar cake for H's 1st birthday. It was amazing!! Three different flavors (chocolate, yellow and strawberry).  We also had a small cake just for the birthday girl.  So how was I going to out do that masterpiece?!  Well I wasn't going to try. The party this year was going to be much smaller than last year so 1/2 a sheet cake would be fine. I decided on trying something new. I found my inspiration here http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/toy-story.html#c6 (which is actually the same site I got the inspiration for the last year's cake!). 

Now to decide on the subject......Dora! That's it! H loves Dora and Boots right now so she'll love it.  

Here's how I did it.

I've never done anything like this before so I was a nervous wreck!!  I started by printing coloring book pages that I found on the internet. Dora, Boots and some balloons. I taped the images to a cutting board, then stretched plastic wrap across the cutting board and secured it with tape. It's very important to make sure the plastic wrap is very secure and pull it tight so you don't have any wrinkles!! Also make sure to free up some space in your freezer before you begin.

Mix up your buttercream icing. I used Wilton Icing Colors
and colored small batches of icing as I needed it.

Begin by outlining the images using black or another dark color. Put it in the freezer for 15 minutes or so to set.

I used milk to thin the remaining icing down a bit before I continued (you could also use corn syrup but I thought that would make it way too sweet!). Don't worry about it not being perfect. Remember you're looking at the back side of the work! The plastic wrap side is your finished side. I piped the icing in to color each area then went back with a small rounded knife to smooth everything out. You want to be sure you don't leave any air pockets on the plastic wrap side! I popped it back in the freezer for a few minutes to set after each color.

Once all the coloring was done I left it in the freezer over night. The next morning I finished putting the final coat of icing on the cake building little mounds where I was going to put my images. Then one by one I CAREFULLY placed each one on the cake and pealed back the plastic wrap. Boot was alittle hard to handle because his arms and legs were so thin. I saved the left over icing for just this reason. So I was able to go back and repair Boots.

For my first attempt I was pretty happy and my daughter loved that Dora and Boots were on her birthday cake!

Last year's cake

Last year's caterpillar cake