Category Archives: food

A Fart Cake

Posted on by

Two years ago my son had a bowling party so naturally I thought I would make a bowling cake.

Instead, I made a fart cake.

When asked what kind of cake he wanted me to make in true little boy humor he declared, “I want a fart cake.”

So I pondered. And pondered. And pondered.

And finally we came up with this… A Bowling Fart Cake…

Where’s the fart part you ask?

Take a close look at Alex’s rear end…

The green fart smell than inundates poor Andrew who is sitting at the back of the lane.

Earlier in the day we took pictures of the boys, shrunk them, and used them on the cake.

Add in a bowling bowl and chair made out of fondant, two signs printed out, and your fart cake is all done.

Trust me when I say this cake was a huge hit with eight year olds.

Oh, and the cake tasted great, I decided not to take the theme too far 🙂


HookingupwithHoH The 36th AVENUE button A Crafty Soiree

Free Slurpee Day!

Posted on by

Today is free Slurpee day at 7-Eleven!

You can pick up a 7.11 oz drink. No purchase is necessary.

My kids are so excited I’m picking them up after school to go get one.

Walk, run, race to get one from 11 am. – 7 pm.

He’s Not Mikey…He Doesn’t Like It

Posted on by

In an effort to have my boys try more food I took them to the grocery store to choose something for dinner.

My rule was the food needed to be something neither of them had ever tried.

We walked past the fruits and vegetables and nothing caught their eye.

The seafood department was different. I blame it on the worker who offered to take out a lobster for them. They were fascinated, getting to touch it and ask questions about the animal.

So they lingered in the seafood department and chose fish as their item to try.

Alex picked out some tilapia fillets while Andrew decided on catfish.

They decided to make their own fish sticks so we bought a fish fry mix as well.

Once we were home, the boys were very involved. Alex made the batter and they both dipped the fish.

Doesn’t quite live up to the Pepsi vs. Coke taste test hype but it worked.

Everyone had to taste both kinds of fish and give their vote as a favorite.

Alex loved the tilapia and ate several pieces. Of course, anything covered in tons of ketchup is always good. One vote for tilapia.

I chose the catfish as my favorite. One vote for catfish.

My husband chose the tilapia. Two votes for tilapia.

The deciding vote was all Andrew’s. Either a clear winner was about to emerge or he would declare a tie. This was his moment.

But …he was convinced we were trying to poison him.

“I can’t eat it.”

Eyes begin to water.

“It tastes terrible!”

At this point he’d eaten roughly one millimeter of the fish fry coating.

Cough, gag, cough.

“I can’t do it.”

“I hate this!”

Suddenly our fun experiment had come to a screeching halt. Just to be clear we were taste testing FISH STICKS! It can’t be that bad.

Maybe I should have just poured some Pepsi into a cup for them and called it done.

And so…the tilapia won by default.

I will call this experiment a success still and bring them to the store to choose something new to try. I’m not sure what item they will choose next but I can assure you when we walk past the seafood section Andrew will say, “There’s the catfish that I tried. It was gross. It made me cry.”

Angry Bird Cakes

Posted on by

My boys recently had a combined birthday party and they requested an Angry Birds Cake.

Actually they requested a cake with angry bird lacrosse players who were shooting goals on opponents. It’s nice that they think so highly of my cake decorating skills but I said no. Instead we compromised with… 3 Angry Bird cakes.

Thanks to my good friend Duncan Hines the cakes were made in a jiffy.

I used one of my favorite baking tools…since I always have good results with it.

For the frosting layer, I went simple again by using frosting from a can. Place a desired amount of frosting in a bowl, add coloring, stir, and spread with an icing spatula.

Love, love, love this coloring. I always buy it at the cake shop (which has a retail section).

After frosting cakes, I always place them in the fridge to let the icing set a bit. I also drop the temperature in the house by about ten degrees since warm frosting is impossible to work with. (I place the cake in the fridge after each different color frosting is applied.)

To get the oval shape for the white bird I cut pieces of cake and added them to the circle cake. Putting frosting between the different sections helps hold them together.

Now onto the fancy frosting with an unfancy tool.

I like to use a metal icing tip and place it inside a ziplock bag which has a small hole cut out of the side. Simply place the icing into the bag, twist the bag, and start frosting.

For the larger sections of color I simply place the icing all over and then smooth with the spatula.

For the bird feathers I cut shapes out of black card stock and pushed them into the sides of the cake.

And for my most important tip…if you have a “helper,” be sure to provide her with her own cake and frosting bag.

Here she is actually frosting blueberry muffins since her decorated cake had already disappeared into her tummy and I needed some more time.

The final products – Red Bird, Green Pig, and White Bird.

An Easter Synopsis

Posted on by

9:00 – 10:00 pm Easter Eve – Momma & Poppa Bunny fill Easter eggs with candy, check to make sure the gifts (books, coloring books, card games, stickers are equal).

10:05 pm Easter Eve – Momma Bunny complains her stomach hurts from eating so much Easter candy already.

10:06 pm Easter Eve – Popppa Bunny is not sympathetic and says, “Well that candy was for the children.”

10: 15 pm Easter Eve – Momma & Poppa Bunny watch the news due to rain possibility.

5:30 am Easter morning – Alarm goes off in Momma & Poppa’s room

5:35 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny check the online weather report. Debate over next move due to lots of green on the radar.

5:37 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny go to the front of the house and put out eggs for littlest bunny.

5:40 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny proceed to the back yard where they lay out eggs for the boy bunnies.

5:46 am – Momma Bunny writes note to little bunnies explaining the layout of the hunt.

5:47 am – Poppa Bunny goes back to bed. Momma Bunny takes dog for a walk since the backyard is now a “No Pooping Zone.

5:59 am – Dog poops on lawn three blocks from home. Momma Bunny surveys the area for any witnesses. Debates about possibly leaving poop on the lawn due to the fact that’s it’s dark outside and no one will know. Momma Bunny begrudgeonly picks up poop.

6:10 am – Momma Bunny and dog return home. Momma Bunny turns on the tv and sits on the sofa.

6:15 am – Momma Bunny has to tell dog for millionth time that she cannot go outside until all the kids wake up.

6:20 am – Momma Bunny retrieves the newspaper and sits on the sofa again.

6:50 am – Middle bunny comes downstairs ready to begin Easter hunt. Eagerly looks out window yelling, “I see one!.” Momma Bunny bursts his bubble when she says he will have to wait another 20 minutes before waking up other bunnies.

6:51 am – Momma Bunny suggests he look for a note to see if the Bunny left instructions about how the yard has been divided.

6:52 am – Middle Bunny finds note. Reads it and notices one bunny has been left off the list while another bunny has been given two sections of the yard.

6:53 am – Momma Bunny curses to herself for writing the note in the dark and quickly explains that the Bunny must have meant something else.

6:54 am – Middle Bunny asks if the note was written by Momma Bunny since it’s on the back of a bingo card.

6:55 am – Momma curses again but says the Bunny must have used whatever paper was available. Vows to buy special paper next year.

7:15 am – Momma Bunny tells Poppa Bunny it’s time to get up. Poppa Bunny looks at the clock and gives Momma Bunny an ugly look.

7:15 and fifteen seconds am – Momma give Poppa a dirty look hoping to convey her wish that he enjoyed his extra hour and a half of sleep.

7:20 am – Littlest Bunny and Poppa Bunny stumble out of bedroom. Littlest Bunny was ready to hunt at 2 am but was persuaded to sleep in Momma & Poppas bed as a consolation prize until morning.

7:22 am – Oldest Bunny stumbles downstairs complaining of lost sleep.

7:23 am – Momma & Poppa explain to oldest bunny that he can go back to sleep and in doing so relinquishes all rights to his candy.

7:24 am – Oldest Bunny decides to have a better attitude.

Continued on Thursday 🙂

Easter Mess

Posted on by

Two days ago we had tornadoes come through the Dallas Metroplex.

Around 2:00 the sky started to look ominous. My oldest was home sick so I went to see if I could get my six year old out of school a little early. I was told the school was on lock down due to the tornado threats; no children were being released. I went back home and watched the news coverage for the next hour, all the while listening to our city’s tornado sirens. I knew my six year old was safe in the school but it was quite nerve racking to not have him in my sight during this time.

Roughly an hour after school should have let out, the school starting releasing students. I picked up my son who enthusiastically told of being stuck in the teacher’s bathroom for an hour with his class. (In my mind, his teacher should receive Teacher of the Year for being in a bathroom for an hour with twenty-two kindergarteners – can you even imagine?)

So… because of the storm…our night activities were cancelled…so….we were able to do two Easter “crafts.”

First off, dying Easter eggs (and yes, Caroline does not have clothes on, it’s cleaner this way for everyone).

Notice the fingers…that’s what happens when your technique for dying the eggs is completely hands on.

Once the eggs were dried, it was time to decorate with stickers.

Just because it was time didn’t mean it actually occurred.

Apparently, peeling your eggs was more fun (I’m looking at it from the perspective that it was a scientific learning experience).

My six year old said, “Oh yuck! These smell like rotten cheese! No, wait. They smell like rotten ham!”

Just for the record, he has never been served either one of those options.

For our second craft of the night, I thought it would be fun to create some No Bake Chocolate Egg Nests which I saw on the Chef in Training blog.

This is what we were going for…

but this is what we ended up with…

but we sure had fun making them…

although I’m not sure if anyone but Mom really completed any nests…

since they were too busy “cleaning up.”

Easter Mess

=’s

Easter Fun

Mine?

Posted on by

I don’t have much of a blog post today because I spent the time I should have been writing at the grocery store.

You can blame my children.

I do.

After school around 4:30 yesterday I had a hankering for some cookies or ice cream. We didn’t have any at home so I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the store to buy some cookies. (They of course, would not have had any until after dinner while I would have stood in the pantry and shoved a handful into my mouth while cooking dinner).

In answer to my cookie question, they said, “Nope. Don’t really feel like cookies right now.”

It’s this answer and their love for science fiction which has me questioning the if they were possibly switched at birth.

So, I had to wait until dinner was over, showers were complete, and story time was done before I could go to the store.

And in case your wondering…my cookies AND ice cream were worth the wait.

Spring Break is Over

Posted on by

Spring break is over today but we had a busy week doing a lot of kid chosen activities.

*First haircut

*Went to see the movie “Tin Tin”

* Trip to the zoo

*IKEA trip for lunch and closet supplies (OK, so not all trips were kid chosen)

* 3 days of half day soccer camp

*Having a friend over to play

*Dinner & Painting Class for Mom with her friends

* Watching 3 Netflix movies

* Eating green St. Patrick’s Day pancakes

* Making Rainbow cupcakes

* Lunch date for mom and dad (Believe me when I say the kids enjoyed this one too)

*Everyone in family to see “Big Miracle” movie (Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski movie about saving three whales – comes highly recommended from our family)

* Dinner at In & Out

Yes, it was a good break.

But if any one of my three wake up tomorrow morning sick and can’t go to school, I will not be pleased.

Lemon Chex Mix

Posted on by

So here’s the yummy snack recipe I was talking about yesterday.

This recipe was originally from the Chex website but I found it on this post.

Click here if you would like this copy of the recipe.

My six year loves this recipe so much he was coming up with alternative versions we could try: lime mix, orange mix, cinnamon mix. I suggested chocolate mix and he just gave me a disgusted look. What can I say? He’s just like his father when it comes to eating.

***For St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow I have seen all sorts of fun eating ideas for the kiddos. I think we are going to have green pancakes and rainbow cupcakes (a little food coloring never hurt anyone).****

Have a great weekend!