Purple Sparkle Cupcakes

Yesterday was my daughter's 2nd birthday! So we had a little party, or several little parties.  It was actually divided up throughout 2 days because of various schedules.  My husband is working the night shift in Labor and Delivery, so we had cupcakes on Sunday night with the family.  And then she opened part of her presents on Monday with my husband there, one of my sons had cello lessons, so he couldn't be there.  And then she opened the rest of her presents Monday evening with all the kids and minus the husband.  We have a crazy schedule around here and just do our best to get by.  :)

She wanted purple cupcakes.  So one of my boys made the cupcakes.  He did a really good job.  He added purple food coloring to a white cake mix and then made a purple cream cheese frosting.  A few purple sugar sprinkles and edible white pearls topped it off!  And if you are interested, here are a few cupcake tips when using a cake mix.

So here is my sweet 2 year old, Daisy May.  She is growing so fast and will seem so big when the baby comes next month!  And just on a side note, she got her ears pierced yesterday and loves her new earrings!

Happy Birthday Banner

We had the pleasure to celebrate 3 birthdays in our family on Wednesday, Sept 19th!

Briana, Devin (Briana's Son), and Tillison (Bridget's Son)

I had 5 minutes to make Tillison a banner before he got home. Totally a last minute idea, but it turned out great!

 In my Word program I typed "Happy Birthday". Then enlarged it to 500 font size. Then went through each letter and changed the font to something fun and a different color. I printed it out on card stock. Punched out 2 holes at the top and threaded curling ribbon through the holes. Then trimmed the bottom corners at a 45 degree angle to make it look like all the other cute banners I have seen. It was so easy and the boys all thought it was so cool when they got home from school. 

 Happy Birthday Tillison.

Cute Water Bottles and Water Balloons Ice

This was so cute and fun to make for our BBQ party. I bought 2 cases of water bottles and had all my boys take off the labels. Then we bought this cute Butterfly Duct Tape, yes that is Duct Tape, and re-labeled the bottles. Everyone Loved this little detail! 

FYI- 1 roll of Duct Tape covered about 40 water bottles. Not the whole 2 cases, 24 pack.

 For the Water Balloon Ice, we filled up small balloons up with water and froze them in my freezer. I didn't get the actual water balloons cause of their delicate nature to pop easily. Beware, they take up a lot of space in the freezer so make sure you have room. 

FYI- You need to freeze these the day before you use them. I froze these in the morning of our party and they were not all the way frozen.

After the party, the balloons were somewhat melted and the kiddos enjoyed a water balloon fight. This is perfect for hot summer parties! Just make sure you pick up the balloon scraps after the fight. ☺

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A Very Special Birthday

Our Mom's birthday is today!  And our Dad's birthday was last Sunday!  We are so thankful for the example that they have been to us.  

They have taught us so many skills such as music, hard work, welding, changing the oil, driving a standard transmission, changing the tires, gardening, performing in front of people (we had a family band), canning, cooking (Mom could make a wonderful dish by just throwing things together), baking, riding horses, working at the ranch, shoveling manure, blacksmithing, dutch oven cooking, milking the cow and the list goes on and on...

We had such a fun childhood and it was because of the experiences our parents provided for us.  When someone had an activity, the whole family helped.  We worked hard and played hard.  Life was fun!

One fun memory we share is the time our Dad ran into the house and said he found gummi worms hiding outside under the dirt clods.  We recently had part of our field tilled up and he went out one morning and hid gummi worms under the big dirt clods.  We thought it was amazing that gummi worms were coming out of the ground!  Now that we are older, Brittany has tried to recreate this experience for her kids, but she said that it needs to be a cooler morning and not in the middle of a hot day...the gummi worms melted.  :)

So I talked to my Mom this morning and asked what she wanted to do on her birthday today.  Most Mom's might go and get a pedicure or go shopping or even relax, not our Mom.  She wants to try our her new weed eater and remove the nails out of the boards from the chicken coop they tore down.  Only our Mom...we love her!

We are thankful and blessed to have them as our parents! And love them to pieces!

What have your parents taught you?

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Pretty in Pink

We have been absent the past few days.  Life has been extremely busy.  My family is really good at sharing, especially when it comes to sharing sicknesses.  Off and on for the past few days, we have had someone sick in our home.  No fun!  Hopefully this will pass sooner than later...And I have had so many assignments due this past week for my college class.  But I only have one more week and I'm done with this semester!  Yea!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  My daughter turned three years old on Easter!  She wanted everything to be pink: pink toys, pink cake, pink frosting, pink ice cream, pink candles, and even a pink snake that doesn't work!  (I still don't know where that one came from!)

So here's to pink...nothing fancy, just all PINK!

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Birthday Cupcake Cones

My youngest daughter just had her 1st birthday!  After having 5 boys in a row, I had 2 girls.  My two year old daughter helped me make the cupcakes and guess what color she picked...pink!  I love having girls!  My boys are great, but I don't think they would ever pick pink frosting.  :)

I baked half of the cupcakes into ice cream cones and the other half were just regular cupcakes.

To bake them into the cones, just stand them up in your cupcake pan and fill them half way full.  I baked mine for about 20 minutes.

My kids loved them and they weren't as messy as the cupcakes.  My daughter was able to hold the cone and she ate all the frosting!  Some of the frosting on the cones got smashed because the cones liked to fall over.  So just beware.  I'm sure there is a clever way to make sure they stay, but I couldn't think of one fast enough.  :)

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Happy Birthday Banner!

Can I just say how much I love my Silhouette machine!  I use it all the time.  The most recent time was for my son's birthday.  He turned 6 years old last month.  He was actually born on my birthday!  Crazy, huh?  There are so many birthdays that are shared in my family!

So, I decided to make a "Happy Birthday" banner for him.  It was a last minute decision, but so fun to make!  I used my machine to cut out everything and all I had to do was glue!  My son strung the ribbon through all the little holes.

I just loved this little cake cutout that I found in my "Silhouette Library".   I thought it added the perfect little touch!

I hung it right in our entry way, so everyone can see it when they walk in!  We kept it up for a few days.  Now every time we have a birthday, we can hang it back up!