REAL Monkey Bread

My girls luuuuuuuurve them some monkey bread ( I don't know where they get that from??? Ahem, not me...). I make it every so often, but the last time I made it I wanted to use homemade dough instead of canned biscuits. I have nothing against canned biscuits, except for the fact that it's dough that shoots out of a can.....

I googled homemade monkey bread and found this yummy recipe. By making the dough in my Kitchenaid mixer, it streamlined the recipe quite a bit. Once the dough was rolled in the cinnamon/sugar mixture, and the sauce poured over the top, I put it in the fridge overnight. when the girls got up, this is what they got......

Absolutely divine! And so full of calories and fat, you can feel those suckers forming on your thighs.....But ohhhh so worth it!!!

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

A few weeks ago Rachel had a surprise going away party for her friend Sydney who was moving away. We went with a summery/retro decor. I had ordered a couple things from Oriental Trading Company, but only spent about $20 total! Everything else I already had. The girls devoured sloppy joes, chips and veggies and to drink, I made them Shirley Temples. They spent most of their time in the hot tub jamming out to Katy Perry. And as much as I hate to admit it.....I really like Katy Perry.....

The girls and I filled mason jars with white beans, and colored balled up tissue paper, glued ribbons around the rim, and placed candles inside.


For dessert I made Homemade ice cream sandwiches. I used regular graham crackers, homemade vanilla ice cream and the most ah-mazing fudge sauce ever!! The girls raved over how yummy they were, and I got a couple phone calls from moms asking for the recipe.

These were a super easy, yummy summer treat!

What We've Been Up To

Boy oh boy has this summer flown by. We had such a rainy, cool spring and part of summer that I can't believe it's August already! Now if we can just make it through this summer with all of our trees, we'll be ok! The weather has been very stormy, seems like every other day we're getting severe weather.

Now it is August, which will fly by as will our money, haha! School shopping for all three girls, yep that's right, Miss A will start all day kindergarten this year. I can't imagine all three girls being in school, I am SO excited to see how much fun Alayna will have. She is B.O.R.E.D. here at home, so school will be a wonderful addition for her.

Alayna feeding the chickens at Hemker Zoo

The girls posing....
The three days a week we spent at a softball field....And, Rachel's team only lost ONE game the whole season!!!!
Emma's first day of overnight camp, she had an absolute blast, and is already planning her week of it next year. Brad and I have already taken out a small loan to afford three kids' summer activities.....

School's Out For The Summahhhhhh!!!

Yesterday was the girls' last day of school, I think they both had mixed emotions about it. They love summer, but also love school (thankfully!). Their school has an end of the year carnival every year with games, jumpies, face painting and snacks.

For the teacher gifts we made these flower pots for them. I spray painted some pots we had on hand (errrr, some that Emma had painted for fun, but have been sitting in the garage forever, shhhhh), and cut out flower shapes with my Cricut. I had the girls write their favorite things about their teachers on the petals. They had a lot of fun thinking of different things the teachers had done throughout the year. I added a Cold Stone Creamery gift card to one of the petals, and then they decorated the pots.

They really enjoyed making these, and it was such a fun and easy craft to do. Of course I waited until the last minute to do these (aka, the night before), but thankfully I had the stuff on hand.

After school they came home to a sign on the door congratulating them on a great school year, and then they enjoyed brownie pops for snack. I made a pan of brownies, scooped them out with a melon baller, rolled them into a ball shape, then dipped the bottoms in melted chocolate and sprinkles. Very easy, and very tasty!

I am glad they get the summer off to enjoy and play, although I am NOT looking forward to the fighting that will ensue, *sigh*. This weekend I am making them "summer fun" folders with activities, games, and things to do over summer break. I also signed up for a math website that has different math games for them to do. And of course a summer reading program through Scholastic books. I plan on keeping them on somewhat of a schedule for the summer. Ya right! It'll last a week, lol!!

Marta and Suzy

Ok, so my picture taking skills are something to be desired, but I had to get pics of this morning. We have these two sand hill cranes that come every spring and graze in the pasture. The kids love to watch them, and you will often find them screeching back when the cranes squawk (not sure what noise you call it...). So this morning Alayna was pretty excited when she spotted them, "MOM! LOOK!!! My friends came back!" I asked her (to be funny) what their names were. "Marta and Suzy!" Say what??

She needed to pose for a picture with them. The funny part of this is as soon as I took the picture, they starting squawking and scared the bejeebers out of her!!

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Sick of me yet? Liar. I think I have posted more in the past four days than I have in the past four months! I am anxious to show you what I've been up to lately....

So, as you can see in the previous posts, my girls' birthdays run March, April and May. Basically starting in February I become this crazy, blubbering, cross eyed fool searching for the coolest birthday party ideas. Now, remember that everyone is different, and everyone becomes obsessed about different things. My craziness is making my girls' cakes. I could not imagine buying a cake, it just wouldn't suffice.

However, since dealing with my crazy skin "thing" the past several months, birthdays had to be modified jiiiiiist a titch. For Rachel's birthday I bought cupcakes. I couldn't even fathom the energy of making a cake. By the time Emma's birthday came around, I was feeling tons better, so I was on the lookout for some incredible, cool looking cupcakes. Enter Martha Stewart. Now, I know some people have boycotted her since her whole scam situation, buuut, who am I to judge? I love her ideas, recipes, and pretty much anything she does.

I found these delicious vanilla cupcakes on her website that were D.I.V.I.N.E. Seriously people, these were the cupcakes that make you grab one and run into a closet to devour.

Next on my list was finding a salted caramel topping and filling. Enter Sprinkle Bakes blog. I used her recipe for the filling, buttercream frosting, and the sugar candy.

These were truly amazing! I did have a bit of a time with the pieces of candy sugared. Still need some practice on those. I will definitely be making these again!!!

The cakes were dense and full of flavor, with the yummy salted caramel filling and the buttercream frosting. Delish!

Linking To:

Sundae Scoop Party

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap up Party

My Favorite Things Link Party

Entryway

So I have been on a MAJOR redecorating kick lately. (well, more like the past few months) So far I have redone Rachel's room, master bedroom and master bath. So my next venture is our entryway. I don't have a lot of space to work with, but I wanted something different. There used to be a fake pine tree (or as Brad calls it, the year round Christmas tree:) here in the corner. The daycare kids and I would decorate it for every holiday which was fun, but after 5 years, I was ready for something different. I have been on the lookout for a small-ish bench to put here, but was having no luck. At our local antique store, I came across this old stadium chair.

It is in perfect used condition! I took off the two wooden planks on the bottom, and need to spray paint them. Without the planks, the chair is tippy for little kids. So once I had that in place, I now needed to find something for the wall.

This is an old screen window from a barn that Brad's parents tore down a couple years ago. I added hooks on both sides and attached wire to hang pictures from, and hot glued the brown flowers in the corner. Loved how it turned out! After getting that hung, I was looking for one more thing to hang below the frame. I found this Family Rules printable here and changed the color to a more sepia look, and framed it.

So this whole project cost me $20! The chair was the only thing I had to purchase. Everything else was stuff that I had in my craft bin.

Next up is my laundry room that I finally decorated, even though it is an unfinished room, haha!!

Linking too:

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Southern Hospitality