She's So Obviously My Kid...

because she does goofball things like this and then laughs hysterically at herself.  

Sorry for the lull in posts.  Things are good here.  Little stinker man is now sleeping through the nights.  (This is where you hear a choir of angels singing Hallelujah.)  However, Ava has decided she can't sleep through the night by herself anymore.  (Booooo!!)  One of these days I will get a full nights sleep!  The weather has been great here so we've busted out the water table and have been playing outside a lot with plenty of chalk, bubbles and soccer.  I keep thinking I'll tire the kid out and she'll sleep but no.  There haven't been many crafty things going on here lately but I'm hoping to hop back on that wagon again soon.  Happy Wednesday all!

Ava and God

I was getting Ava and Cole dressed this morning in an attempt to get to the store before the rain hit our area.

Me:  Oh, no!  It's raining.
Ava:  That's okay, Mommy.  God's just watering the flowers.  (Ava then looks out the window and I can tell her gears are turning.)
Ava: You know God can't hear me.
Me:  Sure he can, Ava.  Why would you say that?
Ava:  He's way up in heaven.
Me:  He can hear you even way up in heaven.  You just pray and he hears you.
Ava:  (Looking up and yelling)  God, please stop watering the flowers because Mommy wants to go to the store and not get wet.

I love that kid so much!

Cousins

We were at Forest Park this past weekend with my niece, Lexi.  It was a beautiful day and I had the camera with me so I started snapping a few photos of the girls together.  Once Lexi picked up on what I was doing she decided to start directing and posing all the shots.  She came up with all these ideas on her own and I just took the pictures.  The expressions on their faces just crack me up.  They were trying to be so serious in some of the pictures.  Some of these are really quite good.  Who knows, maybe there a future for Lexi in photography.

Show 'em Some Love

Source eighteen25

Source The Twinery

May 2-6 is teacher appreciation week.  Being a former teacher, I can tell you how much the appreciation is appreciated :o)  Here are a couple of cute and easy ideas to show your appreciation for the people who teach your kiddos.  Thanks to all those who work so hard to make sure our kids have the best education they possibly can.  

Recipe: Cake Balls

I made these little beauties for Easter this past Sunday and boy were they yummy!  I am always looking for new recipes to try out and this one seemed easy and something that Ava could help me with.  These are quite impressive to look at too so you can use them for all your fancy-smancy parties.  They look so good we had to convince my uncle to try one because he thought they were fake and we were just seeing if he would eat it.  Come on we're family, would we do that to him?!  Well...

Cake Balls

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Makes approx. 50 quarter sized balls

1 box yellow or white cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can vanilla frosting (16 oz.)
2 packages candy melts (I found mine at Michael's Craft Stores)
sprinkles or other decorations for the topsparchment or wax paper

1. Make cake according to directions and let cool completely.
2. Crumble cake into a large bowl and start adding your frosting.  I added about 3/4 of a can of frosting and it seemed to hold together well.  
3. Roll into quarter sized balls and place on parchment paper.  Chill for several hours in the refrigerator.  You can also put them in the freezer if you're short on time.
4. Melt candy melts according to package directions.  I only melted one bag at a time because I was using 2 different colors and the candy cools too quickly.  You can reheat it if need be.  
5. Dip cake balls into the candy and let excess drip off.  Place on parchment paper to dry.  
6. Before the outer candy dries, add your sprinkles.
7. Let the cake balls dry completely before storing them in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve them.

You can do so many variations for these delicious cake balls.  Try red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.  Or how about german chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting.  Ohhh, what about strawberry cake with vanilla frosting for pink centers.  You can also use chocolate bark to dip the cake balls in as well.  Let your imagination run wild!

Recipe from Bakerella

Easter

We had a great Easter here!  It's so fun to have these holidays with wee ones around.  Ava really enjoyed the egg hunt Sunday morning and all the goodies the Easter Bunny brought her and Cole.  Cole napped through the entire thing.  What was he thinking!  We went to church Saturday night so Sunday morning we were able to take our time and have lots of family time with just us.  The afternoon was filled with more egg hunts, ping pong, lots of food (cake ball recipe to come) and Ava getting to play with her second cousins.  There was a lot of running and squealing coming from the 5 girls.  Needless to say, we all crashed last night...around 8.

Happy Easter

Egg dying was a huge success.  She was content just putting each egg in one color and then picking it up every so often to see how dark the dye was making the shell.  I thought for sure she would be dunking each egg in multiple colors and we would have a big mess on our hands.  We had one casualty as she dropped the egg from the lovely wire holder into the cup from about 6 inches too high but other than that she was a pro.  Next year we are upping the difficulty level and making them more colorful.  I'm seeing glitter and permanent marker with colorful dyes somehow.  Who knows...I've got a year to figure it out!

Hope your Easter is filled with happiness and family.  Our hearts are extra full this year as we celebrate with our new little guy.  So much to be grateful for and we are!