Wanna win!

https://veryjane.com/giveaway.htm



https://veryjane.com/giveaway.htm

Hurry ends on the 1st

Elves Off of The Shelves part 1

Elf On The Shelf--round one

Apparently Elfie and Twinkle missed the Polar Express that was to arrive the morning of Dec 1st.  Those silly guys had to catch the next trip and arrived during the night of Dec 2nd.  (how lame am I that I can't get them here in time?)

The elves brought the family some new crayons,
colored pencils, and markers.

The left a message on top of the note that Beka left for them...
she also left a little cup of milk

Ok I gotta say my middle daughter is soo thoughtful of these little guys.  The first night she left out a little cup of milk, the second night she left out some cocoa, and then last night she left out milk again.  What a cutie pie!

Dec 3--UP to no good...you leave these two guys alone for
a few minutes and here they are swinging from the lights at
the top of the window in the living room.  What a pair!

We woke up this morning and they were taking advantage of the netbook.  My son had left the computer out on the counter in the kitchen after doing some homework and the two elves were playing Santa Slingshot on the internet

You can't see in this pic, but Twinkle and Elfie found Santa cam
and were checking in to watch Santa feed the reindeer.

Pinterest Mtn Dew cupcakes

So my son was watching me pin items a few months ago on Pinterest and we ran across these .  He was immediately in love!  My nearly 16 yo proclaimed You HAVE to make those. Now.

Um like I don't have anything else going on.  So we agreed that I would make them for his birthday.  Well sadly my little boy is now a bonafide 16 year old.  When, just when did that happen.  ok be fore the tears a start I better get going with the additions that I made to the recipe.

 now my photography skills are not the best so you must forgive...

Cupcake girl at All Things Cupcake has posted a deliciously delicious recipe for these cupcakes.
Warning:  The recipe is wonderful and makes a LOT of cupcakes...way more than your standard box mix.  (which sadly is my go to in the daytoday)  I ended up with 24 regular size cupcakes and then because I had run out of standard cupcake liners I made mini and got 24 of those.


I gotta be honest when I read the recipe and then the comments section I was a little worried.  about 1/2 the comments stated that these delights were awful.  What ever happened to the "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" rule?!
I did notice that many of the comments remarked that while delicious they didn't taste much like Mtn.Dew.  Since I am not much of a Dew fan myself, this actually came as a little bonus ;)

 On commentor posted that she had added orange concentrate to reduce the lemonyness...hmmm is lemonyness a word...yup I just decided!
I thought since I was already juicing a lemon and limes, why not just juice an orange as well.  Plus concentrate has a kinda bitter taste to me for some reason.  I use it to make juice, but when I use concentrate in a recipe I can totally taste it and not in a good way.

Anyways....
so I made a few changes to her already wonderful recipe.  And they worked out!

Mountain Dew Cupcakes

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup Mountain Dew
1/4 cup of citrus juices (orange, lemon and lime juice (juices from 1 lemon and 2 limes and 1/2 an orange)--reserve the rest for frosting
zest from 1 lemon and 2 limes and 1/2 an orange (separate into 2 piles, one for buttercream)
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Beat butter on medium for 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar and lemon, lime zest. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, Scrape sides of bowl in between additions
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Turn on low for 5 seconds.
5. Add the Mountain Dew and citrus juices . Mix to combine.
5. Scoop into cupcake papers about two-thirds full.
6. Bake @ 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Mountain Dew Buttercream

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
4-5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Mountain Dew
Citrus juices reserved from batter recipe or juices from 1/4 of an orange  half of 1 lemon and half of 1 lime.
Orange, lemon and lime zest (rest of zest from cupcake recipe. Or zest from half of 1 lemon and 1 whole lime)
neon green food coloring (yellow and blue if you dont have green)  I only had Kelly Green --still worked

1. Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy
2. Add half of the sugar, turn mixer on low for 5 seconds.
3. Add the Mountain Dew and zest . Beat until combined.
4. Add food coloring to the desired color.
5. Gradually add remaining sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

I filled a good old fashioned generic ziplock bag with frosting and snipped the tip and frosted away.  I like doing this better than using a knife, cuz then I can put more frosting on the cupcake.  I mentioned that the recipe made a lot of cupcakes, well I actually had frosting to spare.  Then I added green sprinkles cuz that's how I roll.  I had to girly them up a bit ;)  Not very manly for my 16 yo, but hey that's what you get with me.

Anyways....

and people commented that they could totally taste the Mtn. Dew-ness.  (another addition to my personal dictionary)

Valentine Countdown Day 3 and 4

For Day three of showing my love I made him some valentine chex mix that I found via pintrest.  I was so excited to put it in his work truck I forgot to take a pic before I gave it to him , but the recipe filled up a gallon size ziiplock bag.  The recipe found at Betty Crocker website is yum, yum ,tasty.  I did modify adding the new cherry flavored m&m that they have...mmmm

Valentine chex mix...almost all gone

Day 4...since it's Saturday I put this on his work bench in the garage...I figure he'll be out there at some point  working on his boat.

Gummy Bears!

Valentine Count Down Day Two--Spice It Up

Oh come on this isn't THAT kinda site

My hubs-and is the apple of MY eye

inspiration found here
Thank you to:

this idea borrowed and stolen but changed from:

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/01/14-days-of-valentines-with-free.html

February 1st--All You Need Is Love Day 1

left this in his truck so he can find in the morning ;)

this idea borrowed and stolen from:

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/01/14-days-of-valentines-with-free.html

&

http://kimskandykreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/10-valentine-party-food-ideas.html

Valentine's Day Love Station

After seeing several blogs that I came across doing the whole "oh lets have a FUN and crafty Valentines Day!" thing.  I decided that my eternal quest to not be the suckiest mom on the planet must have some part of this.

One of those blogs I found via pintrest.  oh how I love pintrest.  BTW (by the way) I just have to get this out of the way..My name is Melisa and I am a pinholic.

any who back to the whole fun and crafty Valentine's Day thing.  This blog:

http://andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com/2011/02/emily-did-something-crafty-holla.html

had some really cute mailboxes, and I have been searching for cutie pie mailboxes for a month.  The only thing I could find were some flimsy foam ones at the Walmart.  for $5.  uh I don't think so. I am way to practical to spend $30 on foam.  especially for 15 days a year.  So we and by we I mean I decided to have the kids make their own heart shaped "pockets".  easy peasy!

Step 1:  get 2 sheets pink or red construction paper, fold in half width-wise, and draw half a heart using the fold as the middle of the heart. then cut out the hearts.  easiest if you do both pages at the same time (fold together)

Step 2:  glue the bottom edges of the two hearts together to make a pocket or envelope. We folded down the top layer on ours.

Step 3:  the kids all taped theirs on their bedrooms doors after decorating of course.

happened to have some Valentine's themed containers too

We have gone to a Valentine party with friends every year and give each other gifts at this party so we have a ton of little valentiney things.  Some of it is even child appropriate so I got together what we had in a basket and added some paper, stamps, ink, stickers, etc.  The kids can now make each other daily messages of love and kindness to put in the pockets.  We also had a little lesson on kindness and are "playing" a secret cupid game where they have to do an act of service secretly for someone in the family every day.  There are special hearts for people to fill out for their secret cupid fun.

I used all the leftover Valentine's that the kids have had years past.  Quite the variety: Harry Potter, Narnia, bugs, MonsterTrucks, and more.  Quite funny when I pulled them out my oldest daughter who is at the prime of her tweens practically jumped on the Harry Potter ones.  She has a few friends that are Obsessed with HP, and she is starting in on her teenage crushes too.  Altho she did really like watching Prince Caspian when it came out, and not just for Aslan. ;)

Put a sign above the station to remind us all....

We got this sign as a gift from some friends some years ago

That's what it is all about.

A year of Achievement days