Happy Easter...and Easter cupcakes

So last time I posted I said I wanted to try to copy the Trophy cupcakes "Hi Hat" cakes. So last night I attempted them. A yummy devils food cupcake for the bottom and then whipped up some marshmallow meringue for the frosting.
considering I planned on dipping these in melted chocolate...in hinds sight...I wish I had made the meringue a bit stiffer.
Because dipping was a problem. Either it smashed my beautiful ice-cream design, or it pulled half of the frosting off. In the end I just drizzled a ton of chocolate over the top and refrigerated the cupcakes.
this is what my first attempted looked like after trying to dip in chocolate.
and my second. While it was much better, it flattened the frosting and the whole point of a "hi hat" cupcake is to have really high frosting. But that's okay, next time I make these they will be amazing! LOL (they taste great, btw)
So now to Easter. Here Jade is saying "Happy Easter, praise the Lord"
and here she is holding her basket, eagerly awaiting egg hunting.
Cutter had no interest in his basket, just the egg with fruit gummies he found inside. LOL
Here is my handsome family right before heading off to church!
We'll be spending our Easter dinner with a bunch of friends, complete with an Easter egg hunt that will have over 200 eggs to find:)

I want this cupcake!

Still on my cupcake kick I was browsing some cupcake websites and found the info about a Seattle Cupcake company Trophy Cupcakes. For one, sort of two, days only they offer their Hi-Hat cupcake for Easter. You can pre-order (for $4 a cupcake) these amazing confections...or....I could try to make them myself with cheaper products but get the same effect?
I'm now on a mission. I plan on using just a plain chocolate cupcake recipe and will be attempting my own pastel marshmallow frosting. Then using some kind of delicious baking chocolate I want to hand dip and serve to my family for Easter. I'm pretty sure I could make two dozen for less then $96:-) Perhaps I should only try for a dozen though...these may be a bit time consuming! LOL Will post if I master this. And if not...I may be heading up to University Village to sample these rare specialties myself!

Feeling Easter treats

This past week I have some how been bombarded with Easter cupcake recipes. Either through random blogs my husband saw, or a new cupcake business starting up in town, or various magazines I've flipped through showing great Easter cupcake inspiration. So...with friends on their way over for dinner. I decided to spoil us all with some fun Easter cupcakes.
Milk chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting. These below are topped with toffee bits and little peeps marshmallows.

Cadbury creme egg cupcakes complete with an entire cadbury cream egg baked inside the cupcake. Topped with vanilla butter cream frosting and a milk chocolate cadbury egg.
proof there is an entire creme egg in my cupcakes.
It's gonna be a good night;)

Art class Wednesday's

I had taken a break from Art class due to illness and a crazy schedule. But now, we are back at it.

Yesterday were two little projects centered around Easter. We read the Easter story and talked about what God has done in our lives. We decorated cross shaped foam chains and did tape art with flower and easter egg shapes.

The kids are becoming quite the little artists!


Here is a picture of Jade's foam cross chain that we hung in the living room
and all three of the tape art pictures

Matching girls

Jade and I sported our matching t-shirts. Thanks to Target and their wonderful clearance section (seriously $1.24...how could I say no?)

We even wore our jeans jackets earlier in the day. Thankfully the sun has been peaking in and out all morning, so we were able to spend some time outdoors...with NO jackets! Perhaps spring is on it's way!

Monkeying around

Jade likes to pull up a chair, sit at a table, and play with her toys in a very organized manner. Cutter is at the age where following and copying everything Jade does, is his top priority. So when I asked Jade to play with Cutter I shouldn't have been surprised to find them both sitting at chairs playing together.
looks like someone is up to something.
Jade is becoming quite the photographer. Here she takes a picture of herself
and a picture of Cutter and me!

New make-up that has me smiling

My dear girlfriend, Kristen, bought me the E.L.F. 32 Eyeshadow collection at Target 2 weeks ago. I'm in love. With so many color choices, my eye's are getting a fabulous new make over every day! (First I was Cleopatra, than I was smoldering and sexy, next I was pink and cute, etc)
Right before I got the fabulous new eye color set, I had gotten a free sample of Sephora's "Hello Kitty" glittercute purple eye liner.

What can be more fabulous then a big chunky pencil, in a flattering plum shade...filled with tiny sparkles? NOTHING! My eye's look amazing even if all I'm wearing is this liner and mascara.

Still...getting to play with 32 eye shadow's is to good to pass up. To bad my baby (and husband) have been sick for nearly a week. Or else the world would be getting to see my eye lids and all their fabulous-ness. Next week world. Watch out!

Jade's first trip to the dentist

Perhaps I am a bit behind in taking Jade to her first dentist trip, but at 4 years old she was VERY eager to go to her very first appointment.

Her hygienist was amazing, super sweet and talked about every aspect of the cleaning process. Even let Jade hold and use the "slushy" tool to suck out her own mouth. hee, hee. Jade had fun with that.

She was happy to have the "sunglasses" and told the lady that she had brought her own too (which she had, even though it was raining outside).

The only thing that didn't go as Jade imagined was the attempt at taking X-rays. When Jade failed to chomp down on the film correctly, on the third try, the hygienist told her she didn't have to do it. With that Jade burst into a fountain of tears. Bewildered the lady kept assuring Jade she didn't have to do the xrays, that's when I jumped in and told Jade she wasn't bad by not doing the xray properly. Jade said, through a flood of tears, "I just want to do it right the first time, and I can't!"

We tried it again, one more time, and assured Jade it wasn't a big deal and we'd do it again next visit.

here she is being shown the special tool used to make her teeth "shiny"
and away we go
Jade was pretty happy with her new tooth brush, her two "I went to the dentist" stickers and actually picked out a tiny G.I Joe doll from the treasure box as her special prize.

After we left she said "that was fun Mom, let's go again tomorrow"

Just a little update

This past Wednesday was busy for us, running errands, going to the library (we tried to catch a reading of "Alexander and the horrible, no good, very bad, day" we were late).
Daddy was on a short business trip in Oklahoma, so while he was gone we bought/watched "Tangled" and ate snack-y foods for every meal! (healthy snacks mind)

When Daddy got back he presented Jade with a new cowboy hat! Boy was she thrilled!
Cutter, not so much. He's not really a hat person
Unfortunatly, Cutter was sick on Thursday and then Daddy was sick all weekend. I thought my baby was over his cold...but I thought wrong. My baby still has the flu:-( Here he is in his figure flattering pj's.
I'm cleaning like a mad lady (something about sickness really helps kick up my game), doing laundry and holding my baby whenever he isn't sleeping. Thankfully jade seems healthy as a horse. Up beat, and happy as can be. She really is my little gem right now:-)