Month in Review - April 2010

Here's our April in Review! (I cannot believe it's over- this month went fast for me!)


1. Vanessa & Joe's Engagement Photos
2. The Now & Forever frame was added to our living room collage
3. Talia got a new bike!
4. Bunny Bubbles
5. Love Letter Books
6. Homemade Cheesecake
7. Finger Puppets
8. Printable Easter Egg Game
9. Shirt Dress
10. True meaning of Easter Egg Hunt
11. Rainbow Cupcakes
12. Baby Terrah was born & her Mommy's maternity photos

I also posted blogging tutorials on How to Write Beside a Photo and Placing 2 Photos Beside Each Other.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I've seen rainbow cakes online in several places, and it's really simple to do! We did it a while ago, but I'm finally catching up on some blogging now, so looking at these pictures again has me really wishing we still had more of these ;)



Here's how you do it:

1. Get some gel food colouring
2. Get some white cake mix
3. make the cake mix like the box instructs
4. separate the batter into smaller bowls (one for each colour)
5. mix the food colouring in (Talia loved this part)
6. pour the batter into the pan, layering the colours
7. bake & voila!

I've seen this done with cheesecake, too- I would love to get my hands on some of that! (I'm not quite ready to bake more cheesecake... it was kind of a lot of work! ;) But doing the white cake from a box method is really easy & definitely pleases my kids :) If you want you can add some rainbow frosting or something like that- we did white with rainbow sprinkles :)

Homemade Cheesecake

I am kind of in love with cheesecake. Good cheesecake. And I like to bake. But I had never made homemade cheesecake! I even have a set of springform pans that my mother in law gave me one year, that were still sitting on a shelf, unused. It was really a shame. I guess I didn't want to try making it & have it fail.

Then one day I found a post about mastering the art of cheesecake on How Does She, and have been dying to try it ever since.


I finally did it a couple of weeks ago & it turned out wonderfully! I was so happy with it! So, if you're like me, waiting for the perfect time to try baking cheesecake, or if you've already tried & been disappointed, I encourage you to check out the excellent tutorial over at How Does She, and give it another try! Doesn't it look delicious? (I admit it, I ate 90% of this cheesecake myself). No, I am not exaggerating- ask Ken.

Upcoming Review

I recently found out about a website called CSN stores which has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from bar furniture to briefcases, toys to home decor, cookware to cribs, and tons more! (Seriously, you could spend a lot of time on their website, checking everything out... I did ;)

I'm excited to have been contacted by them and given the opportunity to do a product review for them soon! Watch for that post if you want to see what the product is and hear about how it went- we're excited to tell you about it! :)

Please Note: My mom was shocked that I linked to bar furniture in this post, so let me clarify something. I don't drink! It's actually against my beliefs & part of my religion, not to drink. I do, however, love some of the products in the bar furniture section of this website- like their counter-height table sets (if I didn't already have a kitchen table set, and if I weren't concerned about my little monkey Katrina climbing up on the chairs, I'd be all over one of those sets! ;)

Homemade Happy Birthday Banner

For Ken's birthday this year, Talia & I got out one of her rolls of coloured paper (purple was her choice- she was sure he would like it ;) and a bunch of random craft supplies and went to work creating this Happy Birthday Banner for him.


We surprised him on his birthday by waking up before him, putting the banner up, blowing up balloons, and making him breakfast in bed. Talia also presented him with a present chosen by her (she knew for days that she wanted to give him a paddleball :)

It was so nice for her to feel included in celebrating his birthday, and how much more fun is it to see a banner on your birthday that was made especially for you, than a store bought one?

Not Dead ;)

It's Monday.
& I don't have a Monday Moments for you.
And it's been 4(?) days since I last posted.
That might be a record since I started this combined blog (eek!)

But...
I have posts coming on:
- my latest sewing project
- a baby photoshoot
- an old sewing project that I will soon be able to post about, once it is gifted
- a fun thing to bake with kids
- some things in our home
- a confession & a goal
- and lotsa other stuff

I've just been busy sewing, playing, visiting new babies, taking pictures, and such, to keep up with blogging the last few days! But, it'll come. I just need a good long naptime to work on things ;)

Just wanted to post & let you know I'm not dead & neither is the blog ;)