Christmas Nativity

At our Church Christmas party the Primary children had the opportunity to reenact the Christmas nativity. This year we happened to obtain just the right pieces of cardboard to construct the backdrop. It's pretty much all held together with zip-ties. There were lots of skeptics but it held up for several days without any problems!

The cardboard was painted to give it a faux wood look, which under the right light looks ok and better than just cardboard. This is the painting tutorial I used. I chose to not spray paint the black and just used a marker to make the black lines and then went over with watered down white and then brown and then painted black knot holes and streaks. I just used tempura paints and they worked out just fine.

I didn't get a close up of the manger but we used this website as the inspiration. With the all important mitre saw table all set up it didn't take long for Marshall to cut and construct it out of old pallet boards. I love how it turned out and how simple it was.

The great part is that it can all be taken apart and stored for another year!

Halloween

It was cold and windy but we did manage to find our warmest costumes and head out for some good old fashioned trick-or-treating. Now our food storage feels more complete :)

I pinned the hat and made it that night...yes, I am that crazy and a serious procrastinator since it was the night before Halloween. I was thinking it would be for Sarah, but it turned out to fit Hannah. And it was a good thing since she needed something on her head to keep warm. Sarah ended up using a sheep costume I made with Aunt Jaime last year for our Church Christmas Nativity.

If I hadn't been such a procrastinator we should have come up with a costume around missing teeth. There's a serious hole in the front of her mouth now and I think another front tooth is loose.

Artist

Emily created this piece a little while ago.

Princess Hannah and Princess Emily.

Shoes

It is insane how quickly children go through a pair of gym shoes!

We tried to keep Hannah in these as long as possible. I guess when you can see feet it's probably time for them to visit the trash. Truthfully I did not know that they were this bad until I took this picture...yeah worst parent award for me. Don't worry, I found her some nice sparkly sketchers to replace them. I hope they last a whole lot longer than the last pair too!

Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's another recipe I just have to share. They turned out just like ones you would get from a bakery.

Good thing most of these went to a school event (same as the cupcakes) otherwise I would have spent this week looking for bigger pants. I substituted some of the chocolate chips with m&ms...yum.

Click here for the recipe. Make sure you melt the butter or margarine, cool the batter, and let them cool on the pan.

Cupcakes

I am happy to announce that after many failed attempts, I have found my go to recipe and method for frosting cupcakes! (thanks pinterest)

Isn't it lovely? It isn't nearly as perfect as the ones done by the original source (Created by Diane) but it's stunning enough for me. The buttercream was the perfect consistency, the frosting to cupcake ratio was perfect for me, and using the 2D tip was easier than I thought it was going to be...easy peasy as Emily would say.

Next up...learn to do the two toned frosting application.

Weekend with George

We were heading out of town for the weekend and picked up Hannah from school so we could get a bit of a head start. When I went in to get her she was holding a bag with a large Curious George sticking out of it. Yup, she was chosen to "take care" of Curious George for the weekend and write about it in the class journal. At least it wasn't a living animal since we were staying at a hotel!

Curious George was so lucky, he got to go to Washington D.C.! He jumped on hotel beds. He played at the park.

He visited the Washington D.C. temple grounds and visitor center. (To find out more about LDS temples click here.)

Before we went home we snacked on cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, which was loved by all.

But oh no, where is George? Shhh, he spent some of the weekend strapped in a carseat when it just didn't seem appropriate for a 6 year old to be toting around a large stuffed animal.