America the Beautiful

So since I am out of school I am looking for projects to keep my mind going and keep me away from screens. (aka: phone, computer, television) I decided to decorate and get creative for the 4th of July. It's such a neglected holiday when it comes to decorating.

First I did this... I have this awesome glass and metal container that I fill for each holiday. Normally I just stick a vase in it and some little American flags. But this year I wanted something a little more classy. This thing is BIG. I saw some cute jars on Pinterest that were filled with beans so I thought that would look good.   Nearly 12+ bags of beans later and Voila! We are decorated. I used a #10 can as a way to take up space in the middle so I wouldn't have to use as many beans. Thank goodness I did or else this would cost me a fortune in beans. LOL I a little nervous about taking it down. Maybe next year I will put a paper in between each layer for easier cleanup. Wish me luck this year.

I cannot wait for my baby girl to put on this cute shirt. It was so easy and took me about 10 minutes to put together. I found the red ruffle at the craft store and had the blue ribbon laying around. I think I want one now. 

This project is really funny. Well, I saw a skirt on Ebay that I really wanted. So I asked my hubby if it would be okay if I ordered it. He said "No." Darn. That didn't deter me. So I decided I would make some table runners and sell them. I knew I wanted one for my self so I made two. Then I thought I have all this left over material I should make a doily for under my plants. Then I thought why not make two. Keep in mind I have no pattern and am just doing this to do it. When I finished the two doilies I realized they were the exact size of place mats. "How cute is that?" So lets make it four to put at my dinner table. Oh, and then I thought heck I have two tables that could use table runners. Guess what I made two...Perfect! When I finished I realized I hadn't earned any money to buy my skirt. Way to go Leesha! At least my tables look cute. :P

Off I go to clean out my house and look for something to sell to earn my skirt...maybe, unless I can decorate with that too. LOL

BBB (Beautiful Bodacious Beignets!)

I have been wanting to make these since I saw them on "The Princess and the Frog." Oh, and since I had them at Disneyland in February. The ones in New Orleans square are SO good...I should look for that recipe...humm.
I found this recipe on Pinterest last night just before I went to bed and I jumped out of bed and whipped up a batch to have this morning. Obviously its super simple if I can do it when I am tired.

This is the dough...actually, half the dough, I had already cooked up half before I realized I should take pictures of this masterpiece.

I put them on a linen towel covered with flour before putting them in the oil.

Got my draining paper towels ready.

my oil is heating

the dough is frying.

And here is whats left after the first batch. LOL

The recipe made a TON. My 4 different neighbors are very grateful. and so is my tummy.

Recipe taken from here

I tweaked it just a bit. by adding almond extract because at my house that stuff is "the addictive chemical that makes you crave it fort nightly, smarty." (if you caught the movie reference we can be friends forever LOL)

Ingredients:

1 envelope active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar 
1 teaspoon salt 
2 eggs, lightly beaten 
1 cup evaporated milk 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 teaspoon almond extract
7 cups all-purpose flour 
1/4 cup shortening, softened

Canola oil for deep frying 
An ample amount of powdered sugar for dusting 

Preparation:

In large bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water; stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes.

Add sugar, salt, beaten eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and lemon essence. Whisk to blend thoroughly. 

Add 4 cups of the flour; beat until smooth. Add shortening and mix. Gradually blend in remaining flour.

You will get a very sticky dough. Leave it in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. 

When the dough has rested the required amount, flour a clean surface, roll dough out on floured board to 1/8-inch thickness. 

Heat oil in a medium saucepan; initially you will want to heat it on high heat, and as you start frying the beignets, you may have to turn the heat down a bit. 

Cut rolled out dough into 2 1/2 to 3-inch squares. Deep fry at 160° for 2 to 3 minutes until lightly browned on both sides; make sure you don’t overcrowd the saucepan. The beignets fry pretty quickly. 

Drain on paper towels and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. 

Dough can cut and frozen, separated in container with waxed paper. I froze mine and I have yet to see how the dough holds up after freezing. I will post the results in this post when I try. 

This recipe yields a large amount of beignets, so either cut the recipe in half, or freeze half of the dough after cutting it. 

Enjoy your beignets! I know we did!

A little summer inspiration

My daughter is at the hormonal, argue about everything, she is always right stage. Sadly, this means she gets grounded more often than she should. So I had to come up with some way to keep her busy while at home and entertaining herself instead of harassing me and telling me she is the dreaded summer word, BORED!.

I have tried to add a link so you can download it but it wont transfer all the fonts. Bummer. 

If you want to create your own I did it with a word document and using the text box function added all the activities with their own unique fonts, sizes, and colors and placed them on the page where I thought they looked good. Took me about a half an hour.

I found all the fun fonts on Pinterest which were free to download. Just search fonts and you will get a gazillion (I think that is a real word) different ones.

Happy Summer!

My attempt at being a Fun Mom

I really want to be that Mom who is at a good balance with her kids. Disciplinarian yet someone they can have fun with. I hate it when at the end of the week I feel like all I did was get on my daughters case about doing her chores or homework or making sure she is using correct manners and treating others respectfully. I don't want to be a constant nag. I want to be that Mom who makes their kids feel special by doing something out of the ordinary and something that they can say "Hey, my Mom was pretty cool today." 

So my attempt was to surprise Abby when she came home from her last day of school with a note on the door preparing her for an impromptu water balloon fight. 

This is what she found on the front door when she came home along with clothes to change into. (Silly girl wore long sleeves and long pants to school when it was 85 degrees out.)

Out back I had filled about 150+ water balloons and separated them into two containers.

This container I hid so that when the other one emptied I would have a secret stash.

I also filled this tub with water and water guns/balls to add to the fun and avoid turning on the hose.

I think she had a great time. She is pretty soaked. Maybe that means that I had a great time.

I know she had a great time trying to get Mom wet.

 

And she was pretty successful. Both of us were soaked. 

I love this kid!

Here's to Summer starting off FUN!

End of "Turd" grade

It's the end of the school year and there is more things going on then I can keep track of. Homework to catch up on (which I think is a joke the last week of school, it wont get done), totes to clean, teacher gifts to buy, activities galore, and a myriad of other things happening all at once.

FIELD TRIPS

I was in charge of these 5 crazy kids. Beth, Abby, Mia,  Elijah,  and ?

Mom and Abby having lunch

Oh, how fun would it be to be a kid again?

PROGRAMS

Singing in elementary school is the only time I remember being excited to have my parents come see me and being so proud of my performance. I cry every time I go see my baby.

Abby's art project. (above her head)

EGG DROP

We built this contraption to protect an egg when dropped off the roof of the school.

There is an egg in a carton inside of a box inside of a box in side of a box  all padded with newspaper. It worked when tested by throwing out or second story window.

Sadly, it didn't work at school. Maybe we damaged the egg the day before by all our testing?

FIELD DAY

Tug of war. Girls RULE!

And yet getting wet is still necessary.

Balancing an egg on your head. OH the fun that was had.

Do you remember the parachute from elementary? I do. And yes, it is still the bees knees.

Abby's classmates.

Abby's REAL classmates

And to top it all off my baby will be ending her reign as the "Turd" grader. Gabe began calling her a turd grader at the beginning of the year. She laughed then asked "Mom, what's a turd?" I told her it was a little piece of poop. She looked at her father and said "You just called me a little piece of poo grader?" We laughed so hard.

Well now she will start her new rein as a Jedi in the "Force" grade. Hope this doesn't mean she will be playing the "wave your hand" over the homework trick.  

Can we say YUM!?

Sunday I just felt the urge to cook. Not an all day thing but a quick whip up of something yummy. Muffins seemed like a good option. So headed to Pinterest to try out something new. I came across these little beauties.

http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/almond-poppy-seed-muffinsmuffin-mondays/

I didn't have an orange so I used a lemon in its place. It made a batch of 18 muffins

Can we just say that these are so addictive and Yummy!

They were devoured between the three of us within minutes...all 18.