Easter!

I wanted to share with you all some things we do for Easter in my family! Every year since I was a little girl I have always written the names of each family member on an egg then used that egg as a seating card. I usually use a napkin ring or even a shower curtain hook to have it sit upright but I think it adds a personalized touch to each plate. Every year we (the women in my family) VOW that we will not do cleanup. We have cooked for days prior and cleaned and decorated so seriously fellas you need to clean up! Unfortunately, that never happens. So a few years ago we decided "heck with this, we are using paper plates." It may not be the most chic looking set up, but hey survival of the fittest. This year I also decorated the cupcakes and made the jello eggs! I tried to make the cupcakes resemble a bird's nest but I couldn't quite get the chocolate to shave like I wanted it to. I still think they look cute though. I made cupcakes the way a person normally makes cupcakes then iced them with white icing. After that I shaved some bakers chocolate onto the tops and arranged it to look like little nests (not very well though.) Finally,  I topped with the whopper eggs. I think they look cute, what do you think? I also decorated some of my eggs differently this year. I cut out different shapes (primarily flowers) from previous year's Easter napkins. I made a water flour mixture to serve as glue then pasted the cut outs onto the eggs. Some of them turned out really nice! Others not so nice but there is always next year to perfect the skill :) Well I suppose that is about it. I just wanted to share with you all a few things I did for Easter this year. Thanks for reading! Of course Happy Easter! He is Risen! 

Easy Jewelry Organization from a Shower Caddy

So as many of you all know, I am a crazy Pinterest fan. I mean, come on though, who isn't? I have been seeing all of these adorable ways to organize your jewelry but many of them involved wood and screws and all kinds of other accessories to purchase which could cost some money. So me, being the cheap thrifty person that I am decided I could do it much cheaper and easier and in some ways better. A few years ago someone gave me this cute bath set. It included a soap and shampoo and conditioner, bubble bath and this cute little medal shower caddy. I always loved it but really had nothing to do with it until now. It now serves as my earring and bracelet organizer! There was no drilling or nailing, cutting or spending! Simply hang it up (heck I even used a thumb tack! LOL) Not only does it display my earrings but, unlike so many of the other jewelry organizers you see online, this one also holds my bracelets! If you don't have a shower caddy check out your local dollar store. Most of them carry them. Well I hope I was able to offer you a quick and cheap tip to making your jewelry look fab!

Build Your own Pita Pizzas

   Since I was a child one of my favorite meals was our build your own Pita Pizzas. They were delicious, fun to make and actually somewhat healthy when you use the whole wheat Pita bread. I really wanted to share this with you as my children love creating their own and it tastes so darn yummy! Now I did vegetable Pizzas this time because it was Friday and we are in Lent so we can't eat meat. Now before someone says "Umm, isn't that a can of meat sauce you are using?" let me explain. Sometimes I do things that don't make much sense. i told you something always goes wrong. This would be an example. I planned the meal to be meatless, not a single pepperoni was purchased. So as I am standing at my pantry trying to pick out a sauce I came across this one.  No one in my family is particularly fond of this sauce so I figured ok, it might be great for Pizza and completely forgot about the entire Friday/lent/no meat thing. complete accident. I actually didn't even notice it until I was finished eating! OOPS. Oh well, it was an honest mistake. But any way back to the Pizzas! here is what I use to make them.
*Whole Wheat Pita Bread
*Jar of favorite marinara
*Mozzarella Cheese
*Favorite Pizza Toppings

Pre-heat oven to 425.
Decorate Pizzas with whatever toppings your little heart desires.
Bake for 10-15 minutes (oven temps can vary, just keep an eye out)

My Kids LOVE making their own

Choose your toppings. Personally I love broccoli, olives,
 tomatoes,  mushrooms, onions and peppers. Believe it or not
Broccoli is my favorite on pizza. Who knew?

Ready for the Oven

Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes

  

Enjoy!

Chris and Ki's Birthday!

I seriously cannot believe I have not posted on this thing in over a month! How horrible am I? Today I just figured I would share with you some of my kids birthday party. Christian and Malachi (commonly referred to as "the twins") turned 5 on Dec 21st! Having birthdays that close to Christmas is really tough let alone 3 of them. Of course I want them each to feel special so I asked them what kind of cakes they would each like. Malachi chose a green spy cake and Christian wanted a superhero cake. I made them each a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing then covered it in fondant. We decided to have a big movie day. We rented "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" because they have been wanting to see that for a long time. We ordered pizzas and had a vegetable tray along with chips and cheese balls of course! Even though it wasn't a huge party the boys had such a blast and enjoyed their cakes so much. 

Set up: Sleeping bags with dollar store "popcorn" containers

The Table

More of the table

The Cakes! Malachi's Green Spy Cake and Christian's Superhero Cake

My oldest Isaiah made them their presents. For Ki he created
A spy decoder and for Chris he made a Captain America Shield-
Both out of paper plates and markers. I love him!

Watching the movie

Malachi (Left) and Christian (Right) enjoying their super cool
presents from their brother.