Father's Day

Rob has been in Paris all week, he is flying home today and I have been counting the hours until his flight lands from the minute we dropped him off on Sunday. Life is crazy right now and I just feel like I can deal with it a lot easier when he is around. I am so grateful for how hard he works to support our family, we sure do love him and miss him like crazy when he is gone.

He left on Father's Day so we had our dinner on Saturday and breakfast before he left on Sunday. Of course the best way for me to show him how much I love him is to make him good food. We did buy him a new tie, but really he prefers the food.

For dinner we had Pork Carnitas, these are going on our favorite list. My kids don't normally like tacos, but they all asked for seconds.

Samantha checked out a Whoopie recipe book from the library, these were the first recipe we tried and they were so good!! I promise I will share the recipe soon!!

And then we made Rob's favorite Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast, I promise to also share this recipe.

Also, I bought a jumbo icing tip and now I am a piping fool, it makes everything look so pretty I can't help myself.

My kids are so lucky to have such an amazing Dad!! I love you Rob, for forever and a day!!

Project Pinned - Cupcake Tips and Tricks

It has been a crazy week at our house, my Samantha turned 10, that's right 10.

We had two parties this week, one with family, and then another one yesterday with 13 girls. Yes, 13.
It is a miracle I am here typing this today, even Samantha admitted maybe 13 was a lot when the party was over.

Thankfully she was willing to keep the party simple, we were originally going to do a cupcake party similar to  one I found on My Mix of Six, but when she handed me the invite list our plans changed.

We played Left Center Right with Starbursts, freeze dance, Headbands, and set up a photo booth.

It was crazy, but fun.

I also made cupcakes for all the girls and decided to try some of the cupcake tips and tricks I had pinned on Pinterest.

Which means it is time for another PROJECT PINNED!!

(For the record I am moving this back to Thursday, because I just don't have my stuff together to do this on Tuesday.
Does anyone even care?
Moving on.)

My first tip came from Dreaming All Day, and her secret for Perfect Cupcakes From A Box. Because let's be honest, I dream of making fancy cupcakes, but that was not happening at this party.

Also my husband doesn't like cupcakes so I only make them for birthday parties.

I do think this really helped, the batter was thick like frosting, and the cupcakes were good. My Sister in Law told me she does this and adds a box of pudding mix and a little more milk. I may have to try that next time.

Some of the other tips I used that I have seen floating around Pinterest but never repinned were:

*Pouring the batter into a gallon ziplock freezer bag, cutting the corner, and then filling the cupcake liners. It is one extra step, but it was easier, and there were not any batter drips on the cupcake pans to clean later. I will be doing this every time I make cupcakes.

* Using a gallon ziplock freezer bag instead of a piping bag for frosting. This I did out of necessity, I was out of piping bags, and I will not do that again. It was a pain!!

* Use a frosting tip to frost the cupcake, and make fancy designs.This actually made the frosting job go a lot faster and they were so pretty when I was done. I do need to invest in some bigger tips though.

The perfectionist in me was actually pretty happy with how they turned out, and they tasted really good. Thank you Pinterest for helping to make the birthday party a success!!

Weekend Roundup

Thursday night Hannah had a fever and wasn't feeling good, Friday morning was no better. She spent most of the morning curled up on my bed with Max watching cartoons. Eventually she got bored with cartoons and decided to sit next to me and color instead.

That night she was feeling better so Rob and I headed out for a quick dinner date, we picked up Mini Murph Pizzas for the kids, which they loved and now think they should get them every date night.

But who can blame them. They had so much fun making their own pizza's, Samantha even got extra creative and made her's into a Jack-O-Lantern.

Speaking of Pizza...after going carb free all week I was looking forward to finally eating fruit again on Saturday. I actually dreamed about this pizza. Rob had picked me a bunch of apples when he was at his parents house and sadly they sat untouched all week since they were not part of the carb free diet.

But the wait was worth it, the combination of apples, chicken, and caramelized onions was so good!!

We also bought a new game, we are a little late to the party, but I think we waited until the perfect time to finally buy Ticket To Ride for our family.

Samantha and Hunter are old enough to play and Hannah is a great teammate. We played at least 8 games this weekend. I think it's safe to say it's a new family favorite.

(This was the only game I wasn't the yellow trains and I did horribly, I kept forgetting what trains were mine)

Speaking of apples, I promised Rob if he would pick me apples I would make him a pie, he had to wait over a week for me to finally make it, but it was worth the wait.

Can you guess what I am having for breakfast?!?!

(after I do some kickboxing of course)