Nathaniel's Science Field Day

Friday Nathaniel's class along with the other 3 fourth grade classes enjoyed a day at the park, having fun with science!

John and I went along and made food(I was so sick of hot dogs and hamburgers by the time we were done) and served the kids lunch.

It was lots of fun!

Here is Nathaniel and his best friend Riley

Nathaniel's teacher Ms. Beatty

Dinner Time!

John was so impressed by the dinner plate I served him tonight...he said you have to take a picture and blog this "Real Mexican Food in Virginia"! lol

I felt like I cooked and baked all day today but it was worth it :) I so enjoy it, especially when John and the kids enjoy it!

Made Beans, Cilantro Lime Rice and Green Chile Shredded Beef!

5 Dozen of Cupcakes :)

The cupcakes above our my take of an "Almond Joy" candy bar turned into a cupcake. Destinee asked me to try..hopefully she will approve!

They are Chocolate Cupcakes with an Almond Buttercream Frosting then sprinkled with Coconut and topped with a mini Almond Joy.

They turned out so pretty :)

These are Chocolate Cupcakes with the Espresso Buttercream Frosting with Chocolate Sprinkles...my flash really made the picture look yellow for some weird reason!

The cupcakes were super moist and this is John and Tiff's favorite frosting ;)

HeY bAtTeR bAtTeR!!!

Loving the warm weather so we can get outside and have some fun and burn off some energy.

Tiff, Dest, Gabe and I went to the DollarTree and Gabe picked out this baseball bat and ball and so when we got home, we played outside for a few minutes. It was 89 degrees today so we could only keep him outside for about 15 minutes but it was long enough for him!

I think he had lots of fun!

Baking with Tiff ;)

Tiff and I made cupcakes last night...we just made vanilla cupcake batter and then divided it and put mini chocolate chips in one and mini Reese's pieces and then made vanilla frosting and topped them with the chocolate chips. We had a lot of fun...Tiff said cupcakes from scratch is too much for her, she will stick to Betty Crocker! lol

She''ll come around and I will win her over...hahahaha

I was washing out a bowl and turned around and there was Tiff and Gabe in the cake batter! His hands and face were covered! I asked him if he liked it and he said "it's AAMAAZING!" lol

Here are our creations!

More Than A Movie - Bug's Life

We hold this event called "More Than A Movie" once a month at church for the kids and their families and it also gives the kids a great opportunity to invite their friends to come to church with them! SO last month we did "101 Dalmatians" and this month we did "Bug's Life" and it was lots of fun. Jenice hung green grass skirts and crepe paper so the kids and families felt like they were walking through the grass. Kristen found some really cute bug masks at Target and they were adorable. The whole evening was a BLAST and it was cool to see how God can allow you to invite kids to church for a movie and be able to turn back and teach a Truth about God or about who God has created them to be! This month we were able to teach them just as the ants were being bullied by the big grasshoppers and yet they did great heroic things to save their colony. So too has God given GREAT POWER to even the smallest child to do great and Mighty things for Him!

Destinee, Me and Nathaniel

Me & Tiff...lol!!!

I just know she loves spending the weekend with me!!!

Me, Dest, Nathaniel, Jenice and Caleb trying the grass out before everyone arrived

We divided the families up and each one had to choose a bug to act out...we choose to be a caterpillar..I think we ROCKED it :)

I made these cute bags of "sticks in grass" (Pretzels in green shredded tissue paper)

for snack during the movie! Thanks John for your help :)

Jenice made ant hills covered in grass with crawling bugs on top!!

A Really fun night!!!

Now for next month...hmmm.which movie???

Thinking maybe Beauty in the Beast or maybe Toy Story ;)

Simply Sweet!

Sometimes I think we over complicate and over "fluff" things and so today I was reminded that sometimes the "simply things" in life can be very sweet!

These are my vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butterceam frosting and sprinkle for fun :)

They are so cute!!

John said they taste like sugar cookies and really enjoyed them...let's see what the kids think when they get home :)

As you can see I finally got my frosting recipe right and figured out what little tip to use in my frosting bag!!! YAY!!!

Having lots of fun...think my mom and aunt Addie would be very proud of me! They use to make some awesome cakes :) The best part of making my own cupcakes and frosting is that i can now stick my finger in it and lick with out them getting mad! lol

Some temptations don't go away :)

More Cupcakes!!

Here is my cupcake that I made today. This is a cupcake for the coffee lover!

Mocha Chocolate Cupcake with Espresso Buttercream Frosting...

John says these cupcakes were out of this world..he LOVED them!

As you can see this frosting recipe was much better then the other frosting I made last week :)

Having lots of fun making these cupcakes all from scratch...the flavors are so creative..why do we buy and make the same whole box of cake???

Which will be the next the flavor to come????

If you area coffee lover and you want a cupcake to go with your next cup...here is the recipe :)

Mocha Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes Baking Time: 17-20 minutes

1-1/3 all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup whole milk
½ cup strong brewed coffee
1½ teaspoons espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature

1. Mix the espresso powder into the brewed coffee until dissolved; set aside to cool to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard-size muffin tin with paper liners.

3. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, brewed coffee mixture and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 liners. Baking for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting cupcakes.

(Cupcake recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction)

Espresso Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2½ cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons espresso powder

1. Mix the espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside.

2. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.

ENJOY!

Cupcakes :)

My new thing lately are cupcakes...so I am on a new adventure of learning to make them from scratch. So Saturday...Nathaniel and I spent 3 and half (SERIOUSLY) hours making these cupcakes! They are Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Frosting.

They were actually pretty good! I need to get the frosting a little thicker but they really did taste like cookie dough! Nathaniel and I had so much fun :)

He is so funny we were making the cookie dough filling and he was reading the ingredients on the side of the Sweeten Condensed Milk can and he says to me

"WOW...what kinda of dumb nut wouldn't know this contains milk?"

lol!!!!! I just love kids!!!!!

Thanks Salsy...had a great time baking with you...can't wait for the next ones ;)

Gabriel..AKA..."Cat Wrangler"

Here is the "Cat Wrangler" and one of Destinee's little kittens (notice..they still have no names) Gabriel is in LOVE with these kittens...however, he has not caught on that he can not hold and pick them up all the time. He is fixed on picking them up and putting them on his shoulder and expecting them to sit and stay there??? The poor kittens they scratch Gabe all over the place...his face was scratched up last week and now yesterday they scratched his one hand and arm all up and he was bleeding and still just holding on for dear life to the poor kitty. I am praying that he will realize that all these scratches are dangerous and forget this obsession for holding them...I love when he comes down and says "I put your cats in the cage" and the first time I was like "WHAT" and Destinee says to me " He puts them in their cat box!"

Hahaha..he is really kinda funny!

The other day he came down the stairs and this is how he managed to capture the one kitten!

Photo Shoot...