Cake Lollipops

Jeff, Ethan, and I are going to make our way over to West Seattle today to hang out with some of our friends. I had offered to make Root beer Baked Beans. If you have never had these you can find the recipe here. So yummy.

I also decided to try my hand at bringing a dessert along too and decided to make cake lollipops. Jeff had gotten me a cake pop book for Christmas so I followed the directions from there.

I used strawberry cake mix with vanilla frosting that Ethan had picked out while we were at the grocery store. Below are a couple of photos I took of the process while making them.

First you bake the cake using the directions on the box.

Then you crumble up the cake so that is it pretty fine with no clumps.

Then you mix in about 1/2 of a frosting container so that the frosting acts as a binder for the cake and you roll the cake mixture into balls.

You put these in the refrigerator for several hours so that they firm up and then dip them in dipping candy coating (I got mine at Michael's craft store) or you can dip them in chocolate if you prefer. We also topped ours with different kinds of sprinkles that Ethan got to pick.



Everybody shout what's the big idea...

For those of you who have kids you may recognize the above song lyric from the Disney Imagination Movers. It is one of Ethan's go to tv shows and guess what? They came to the Seattle Paramount this last weekend to perform live in concert. Jeff had gone all out for the show and purchased front row seats which included tickets to the after party where you could get your picture taken with the cast.

Ethan was very excited to go see them in Seattle but once we got there he actually came down with a fever so he spent most of the show on mom's lap trying to get comfortable. He did dance a little bit but just was not himself. At the after party and some food in his stomach he started to enjoy himself a little more but still clammed up when we got a picture with the movers. It must have been a good show for him though since he had a good time even though he was a sick little guy.

Sewing Project #2

I wanted to share with you all my latest attempt at sewing. I was getting tired of not having a way to push back Ethan's curtains in his room. Especially since it is a really heavy curtain to keep the light out. I absolutely love his room when the sun is shining through since it makes it a great place to play and hang out.

After scouring the web for a solution to this problem and not finding what I was looking for I decided to make my own curtain tie backs. I used a burnt yellow leaf pattern with brown felt on the back and mismatched buttons for the closure. It was a super quick project to do and was the perfect fit in his room if I do say so myself.

(Here is a close up of the curtain tie back.)

(Curtain tie backs in action.)

(I wanted to also include a picture of my new craft/sewing area chair. It is actually a kids chair but I absolutely loved it.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Jeff and Ethan surprised me at work with some candy and flowers that Ethan picked out himself. Best Valentine's gifts ever. XOXO



Just a Sunday Afternoon...

We woke up to beautiful weather in Seattle today so we headed down to the waterfront to visit the Seattle Aquarium. We had a fun time looking at all of the different fish and marine animals but Ethan just wanted to run through the museum to see what was coming up next. The joys of having a three year old with a tiny attention span.

After the aquarium we went next store to the Crab Pot for some tasty fish and chips. We had a lovely day and I hope your day was lovely as well.

Grown Up Purchase...

After three years Ethan's dresser/changing table in his room finally fell apart. Well, this was a work in progress for about a year since it was a pretty cheap piece of furniture to begin with and we had duct taped the bottom of the drawers several times. Plus, since he no longer wears diapers we don't need the changing table anymore. By the way, we have several pull-ups and overnight diapers if anybody needs some. ;)

We finally made the big "grown up" step in buying a high quality dresser for Ethan. One with actual solid wood drawers instead of particle board. We ended up getting it at Dania after several furniture store stops and they had the perfect one that fit his bedroom exactly. Ethan's new designed room is finally complete so I thought I would show his final bedroom pics below and his new grown up dresser.

Aloha!

Jeff, Ethan, and I recently took a family vacation to the big island of Hawaii. We stayed in the Waikaloa Village in a condo at The Fairway Villa's and boy oh boy did we have a great time.

We were lucky to have 80 degree weather almost every day on our trip and sunny skies. We pretty much let Ethan determine our schedule of events which included visits to the beach in the morning to build sand castles, followed by lunch, a nap, and afternoon time out by the pool. We mostly stayed on the Kona side of the island but did a trip over near Hilo one day to visit the Botanical Gardens where we had to find our way out of a maze. We were all a little sad when we had to fly back home but hope to go back next year.

Here are a few photos from our trip. Enjoy!

 (A-Bay Beach near our condo)

 (Building sand castles at A-Bay)

 (Ethan loved the sand and making pools)

 (Returning from sea with a bucket full of water)

 (Botanical Garden Maze)

 (More Botanical Garden Maze)

 (Ethan and I in the rain forest)

 (Our home away from home at the Fairway Villas)

(View from our balcony at the Fairway Villas E-21)