Hoo Are You? from Night Owl Crafting

Night Owl Crafting is hosting Hoo Are You? #34 

Visit her blog if you want to play along! 

Here are this week's questions 

(and my answers)

1. Do you make a budget and keep it, or just fly by the seat of your pants?

We have a vague budget, i.e. don't spend more than you make! 

2. Do you do spring cleaning and if so which month?

We "spring" clean when the mood strikes, or when I can't stand it any longer!

3. Are you a yard sale lover and do you have them and go to them?

I only have yard sales when the entire neighborhood has a joint sale. I don't typically go to yard sales either.

4. What do you take when you have a headache?

I take whatever is closest..Tylenol, Aleve or Advil. 

5. Name 3 things that you feel lucky to have in your life!

I fell very luck to have 3 happy and healthy little boys. They are my light! 

I also feel lucky to have a wonderful husband and a great group of friends!

Recipe Review: Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from Recipe Girl

First thing this morning I turned on my computer and looked at my Google Reader, which pulls in new blog posts from the blogs I subscribe to. The first one to catch my eye was from Recipegirl.com. She shared a recipe for Cinnamon roll pancakes in honor of National Pancake Day! Who knew there was such a day? I sure didn't, but I'm glad Recipe Girl did!

I decided to make these for dinner since I didn't have enough ingredients on hand to make them for breakfast. Come to think of it, all I was missing was enough butter, but I stocked up on a few other essentials like milk, eggs, and powdered sugar. Fortunately, I did so without having to leave the house! My sweet hubby stopped at the store on the way home and got here just in time for me to make the yummy cream cheese glaze.

I wish I had the forethought to take pictures of these while I was making them, but Recipegirl did a great job with hers. Check them out when you click to find the recipe! There were a couple of steps to this recipe, but none of it was difficult. Put some stuff in a bowl, and wisk it together. Then put some more stuff in another bowl, and wisk it. So easy!!!

The hard part was coordinating all of the steps. I'm usually a baker, not a cook, so my timing is not always good. I made the batter and the cinnamon/sugar "filling" before I started cooking the pancakes but had to wait for butter to make the glaze. I tried to put the filling in a plastic bag and didn't cut the hole big enough  so the bag busted when I squeezed too hard. Then I tried a pastry bag with a piping tip, and the tip wasn't big enough. I changed out the tip and thinned the filling with a little milk and finally made it all work before I burned the pancakes.

The mess occurred when I flipped the pancakes. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, like maybe had the heat of the stove too high, but the cinnamon filling oozed all over the griddle when I flipped the pancakes. It then started to smoke  after I removed the pancakes. Fortunately, by that time, I had run out of filling and we were making the rest of the pancakes without. So my hubby cleaned the griddle and we started fresh. I put the already cooked pancakes in a messy stack on a plate (burning my thumb on boiling sugar) and put them in the microwave on warm, (probably not my best idea!). When I took them out to serve, they were all stuck together by warm, goey cinnamon. Thankfully, my kids don't mind messy. I gave them each a few cinnamon roll  pancakes and topped them with the cream cheese glaze and they were instantly in heaven...a few minutes later, the bacon was ready!

Both of my older kids (the ones who talk) said this was their very favorite pancake recipe they'd ever had. My oldest son just went on and on about how good they were. Hubby was really wowed by the cream cheese glaze too! I have to admit, that the finished product was well worth the effort and I am glad I tried it!  Next time though, I'll be putting the batter into muffin cups and stirring in the cinnamon filling before baking, or maybe sprinkling it on top.

Let me know if you make some of these! I'd love to hear about it!

Potty Training my 2 Year Old

Once upon a time there was a girl (me) who said she would never be the kind of mom to talk about her children's bowel movements and potty habits in public. She swore that it was unnecessary and rather gross. That was a lot of years ago, and she has since grown up to be a suburban mom of 3 boys. Now, nothing is off limits, especially potty training!

Today, my youngest son, who is not quite 2 and a half, peed on the potty for the first time! He had previously only pooped on the potty, and that was only because it was right next to the tub and I caught him just in time! This time I asked him to sit on the potty and stay there until he peed...and he did!

We've been talking about potty training for some time now, but I've been lazy had a lot going on! The kids were tracked out for most of January and then they were all sick. They're all finally healthy again, and in an attempt to save money, my youngest is no longer going to preschool 2 days a week. So I fear that I have no more excuses and it's time to get on the stick!

What are the chances that I could have 3 boys who were all potty trained before they turned 3? My oldest trained at 2.5. We moved into a new house and gave him about a week to get settled before we took his diapers away. He did fantastic! He only ever had 1 accident and it was at night, while we were on vacation. My second son was trained a few months before turning 3, and he took a little bit more work, but still trained fairly quickly. I don't remember a lot of accidents during the day and only a few at night. I can only hope that my third son follows in the footsteps of his brothers!

I have to admit that this moment is bittersweet. I am so excited to be on the precipice of never having to buy diapers again, but the end of diapers signifies an end of babyhood! I am not looking forward to the extra laundry or going out in public for the first time without a diaper, but all in all, this is a good thing! My little man is growing up, and as sad as I am about that, this is an important milestone. He too will join the big boy club and start moving toward independence. I'm terrified and thrilled at the same time.

How did you handle your last child growing up? Did you hold onto babyhood as long as possible or encourage independence from day one?

Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

My youngest son is really into Mickey Mouse. We took him to Disney World for the first time when he was 4 months old, and then again when he turned 2. He watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (MMCH) all the time, and has almost every MMCH toy they make. It's something we indulge because my husband and I are also Disney fanatics! When his second birthday came around we didn't even have to decide on a theme. It would of course be Mickey Mouse, but I didn't want to just do the really commercial MMCH theme that you can get at the party store. I started with some ribbon that I found at Walmart. It is black ribbon with alternating yellow and red Mickeys. That was my inspiration for the whole party. Here is what I ended up with:

For the place settings I used white plastic forks wrapped in black napkins and tied with red ribbon. The plates came from Party city and the hats were left over from a previous party. I went with a plain yellow table cloth to have a solid background for the colorful plates and cups.I used the Mickey Mouse cups to hold the goody bags, which were made from red and yellow tissue paper and tied with red ribbon. Each one had a few Mickey Mouse trinkets like paper, crayons, a bouncy ball and stickers, and I tucked a blowout in each cup to finish them off.

I made the cupcake stand (and the cupcakes) myself. (There is tutorial here.)  You can see the ribbon that inspired me on the top and bottom tiers. I used red and yellow cupcake liners and red and yellow colored sugar on the frosting. To make the cupcake flags, I bought a pack of Mickey Mouse stamp/stickers and cut out a paper square for the back. I put a toothpick in between the layers, and voila!

The birthday boy's cupcake

Can you see the little bowl on right side of the picture? I bought 4 little bowls that matched the black/red/white/yellow color scheme at Homegoods for $10. I filled them with black, yellow, red and white M&Ms. I bought each color separately and then mixed them up in a bag before filling the bowls. It really added a nice touch, and was easier than picking out colors that I didn't want from a regular bag of M&Ms.

For the dessert table, I made a bunch of other goodies, including Mickey shaped sugar cookies and mini cupcakes! I used more M&Ms on this table for color.

For lunch we served Mickey Mouse pb&j's, fruits, vegetables and chips and dip. We also had some mini Hebrew National hot dogs that are always great for parties! Here are the Mickey PB&J's.

The other side of the room was decorated too. We used all of my son's little Disney stuffed animals to decorate the mantle along with a Mickey Happy Birthday banner. We made sure to set up all of the MMCH toys in the living room for the kids to play with.

Here is a picture of the birthday boy before the party with his presents from us and his grandparents.

All in all, the party was a huge success! I can't wait to decide what we're doing next year!

Brownie Bites from Scratch

I have been craving chocolate something fierce lately. Since I worked out 4 out of 5 days this week, I decided to indulge myself tonight. Besides, I was tapping into my inner Betty Crocker already today.

I've used this recipe a few times now and just love it. It's a recipe from Betty Feezor who used to be on TV. Because I always have the ingredients on hand, I never buy brownie mixes anymore!

Scratch Brownies from Betty Feezor via Cyndi Allison

• 1 cup butter or margarine (melted)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 cups plain flour
• optional - nuts, raisins, chocolate chunks, caramel pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream margarine and sugar. This works well with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
3. After the creaming stage, do switch to a spoon for mixing. Brownies tend to get tough if worked too much.
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix just until smooth.
5. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. But, don't go to wild on the mixing.
6. If you want to add extras, just fold those in easily.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes in 2 pans size 8 inches by 8 inches. You can use a larger pan like the 9 x 9 and cook for a little longer-25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. If you use a single pan, then the Scratch Brownies are thicker.

I have made this recipe in an 8x8 pan and they turned out fantastic. Tonight I split the batter into two bowls and added white chocolate chips to one, and Andes mint chunks to the other. Then I scooped the batter into greased mini-cupcake pans and baked them for about 14-15 minutes. The result was delicious, homemade brownie bites, perfect for indulging my chocolate craving! 

Craft-it-Forward in 2011

A friend of mine just posted her status on Facebook about "Crafting it Forward" and I've decided to participate. Instead of doing it on my personal FB page, I'm participating through my Cul-de-sac Mom Fan Page. The premise is that you commit to send 5 handmade things to the first 5 people who comment on you page. In turn you agree to post the same promise as your status, or on your blog. The only rule is that you must send your handmade items before 2011 ends. So who is in?

If you want to participate go to the Cul de sac Mom FB Fan Page and leave me a comment. Then leave me a link to your page, or blog where you posted your Craft-it-Forward message! Easy, right?!

If you're not one of the first 5 people on FB, you still have 2 chances to receive something handmade by me. First Follow this blog (click follow on the right sidebar) and then leave me a comment on the this post. Then go to my FB page and "like" it, or add me to your page's favorites. Then come back here and leave me a comment that you did so.  I'll pick one person using random.org to pick out a lucky 6th person!  You have 1 week to enter! No entries will be accepted after midnight, 1/13/11.

My Christmas Hangover

I have had the worst Christmas hangover this year! And it's not from drinking too much! The month of December brings so much happiness and cheer, and by Christmas I have my family surrounding me, participating in all of our Christmas traditions. We drink, we eat, we play games and watch movies. We laugh, we cry and we laugh some more. And then it's over. Christmas ends and they all go home. The tree comes down and the decorations get put away. The house feels empty (and bigger), and strangely quiet. All that is left is my Christmas Hangover and a big mess!

I'm not sure why this year is so much worse than recent years, but I just can't shake this feeling of sadness. I wrote an entire blog post yesterday about what I was feeling, and then I left it as a draft. It was good to get it out, but I don't need to whine where the whole world can read it! I don't really have anything to whine about, really, other than missing my family and feeling a little lost in my career (or lack thereof).

So today I made the decision to pull myself up by my bootstraps (who came up with that saying anyway?) and shake the doom and gloom cloud that I've been under. I need to get my house in order, spend some quality time with my kids, and start to figure out what I really want to be when I grow up! No one is going to do any of those things for me, so I better just jump in with both feet and get started.

So far, my plan is working. I've done 2 loads of laundry, washed the windows in my dining room, and took down the outside Christmas lights and decorations. The kids are playing nicely together (shockingly!) and I feel a little bit better about the New Year! I know there are a lot of good thing in store for me this year. Now I have to go out and find them! I really believe that our destinies are up to each of us, and I'm not letting mine pass me by!