Carlsbad Flower Fields

My mom flew in today for 1 day of fun...we drove to the carlsbad flower fields, and we LOVED it. Here's a little glimpse of what we loved about today:

{mar mar and her mini}

a Pinkalicious Party

Tonight we had a little family party for Ives first birthday...a pinkalicious party. I'm no Melody Odell, who can make an amazing cake for any occasion, but I tried to copy the pinkalicious cupcakes the best I could...here's Ivy's cake:

here's the pinkalicious spread:

she Loooooved her cupcakery!

loved!

loves mar mar {my cute mom}

and of course great, great aunt Bette

and unlike her big brother,

LOVED her pinkalcious cake...and as you can see, she turned pink, too!

Happy Birthday, Ivy!

We're Dye-ing

We did our easter FHE tonight, instead of last night...

we did our annual 'Easter in Eggs' story. It was awesome this year because Max understood what I was doing, and it was fun to sort of explain to him what happened to Jesus and see his reaction, and his understanding. Anyways, then we dyed Easter eggs for our activity, which of course is always fun. BUT I saw this new trick, somewhere...I wish I could remember where I saw it...sorry! But they put their hard-boiled eggs in a whisk for their kids to dye with...so we did it!

it.was.awesome.

no messy fingers, no crazy stains. whoever thought of that trick is a genius!

poor ives was completely left out...sad.

but we WILL be cracking an egg on her head when Easter rolls around next Sunday!

If you haven't dyed Easter eggs yet, try the whisk...it was awesome!

and if you want to copy the Easter in Eggs thing (probably everyone already has it...but this is what mine looks like, and it's a really neat idea...you can borrow mine and copy!)

mmm, spinach!

A lot of my friends have blogged about the yummy green smoothies that our friend Kristin taught us how to make at 'enrichment' a couple months ago, here and here.

Max pleads for them EVERY.DAY.

I enjoy them

Jeff enjoys them

Dean enjoys them(jeff's dad)

But last night, when I made Max a Spinach Smoothie for snack time before bed...I couldn't pry either Max OR Ivy away from it...Ivy sat like this for about 8 minutes, and would not let the straw out of her mouth...

milk, baby spinach, frozen bananas, frozen peaches...

that's it...oh my yum, batman!

I guess we need to start snack time a little sooner!

ps...milk, spinach, PB, chocolate syrup and frozen Banana is my fav.....sigh. num!

Pink Trucks

Max and I have had an ongoing project for Ivy's birthday present from him this year.

Max is an expert on trucks.

So, we thought we'd let him teach Ivy all about trucks by making her a book...

with all pink trucks.

So, Max and I searched the internet to find all the pink trucks we could find. Max loves to do this, and we had a good laugh to see pink backhoes and pink toe trucks, etc. He picked out the ones that he wanted Ivy to know about, and we saved them on the computer. We also saw a pink beetle-bug in the grocery store parking lot the other day and added it to our collection.

I made a little template background and pasted the pictures he chose onto it. Then he sat with me at the computer and told me what he wanted Ivy to know about each truck. He even typed some of it! (one letter at a time...sigh)

we looked and looked for a pink garbage truck...but still have yet to see one. Max really wants to one day see a pink garbage truck.

made especially for Ibes by Max...he is soooo excited to give it to her...cute boy!

Strawberry ShortCut Cake

We are bringing dessert to dinner tonight, and when I was trying to think of what to make...I thought of this recipe, and that max and I had never made it together, so I thought we'd give it a shot. It's a goodie, so today, we are sharing.

Strawberry ShortCut Cake

I think this is my mother-in-law's recipe, but if I'm not giving credit to a sister-in-law on accident, kick me when I see you!

Cheryl {my mil} says this is a science experiment...a little bit of magic, so try it, it's fun!

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Mini Marshmallows

2 Cups (2 10 oz pkg) Frozen, sliced strawberries and syrup. completely thawed

1 Pkg(3oz) Strawberry Jello

2 1/4 Cups Flour

1 1/2 Cups Sugar

1/2 Cup Shortening

3 tsps Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Cup Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

3 Eggs

Grease bottom of 9 x 13 pan and sprinkle marshmallows evenly over the bottom of the pan.

set aside

Thoroughly combine completely thawed strawberries and syrup with dry Jello. Set aside

In large bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat for 3 minutes at medium speed, scraping sides occasionally.

Pour that batter evenly over the marshmallows.

Spoon Strawberry mixture evenly over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm or cool with either ice cream, or whipped cream. YUM!

PS...the magic is that the marshmallows started on bottom, and the strawberries started on top...and when you pull it out of the oven...voila, they are reversed...crazy floating marshmallows. Hope you try it!

Quiet Book, check!

I originally started this Quiet Book as a way to get some people to come to our monthly project night. The plan was to do one page a month {totally do-able} and make a church-themed QB. yada yada...I finished the cover today, and can finally say that it's done...another project to check of the list.

The kids are going to get it for easter {isn't that Easter Bunny crafty?}

My Mother-in-Law says I should sell the pattern...so, I'll put the instructions and all the patterns in my etsy shop as soon as I can whip it up...{writing a pattern is buh-rutal!}

Anyways, here are a few of the pages...

Per the advise from my friend Laura, I left room in the cover to add pages later if I want...velcro attachments

Bound with grommets and those office-supply rings (I need to get bigger ones, but I had these)

the Chapel doors seem to say to me {shhhhh} be still...

The iron rod (the people move up and down the shoelace)

dress the mish

moroni buries the golden plates...

...and JosephSmith finds them {this is my favorite page...so tricky!}

One of the sacrament pages

so much fun to make, but so happy to check it off my list!

Ivy's 12 month banner

I saw this idea at homemade by jill forever ago, and loved the idea...of course I couldn't wait to make one of my own for Ibes.

So, same thing, I just added numbers..

i had to hang it up in honor of her pinkalicious first birthday coming up in less than 1 week! ahhh!

Have you seen me?

Just wondering if you have seen a boy fitting this description:

Green Gap Hooded sweatshirt, Brown baseball hat, silver sunglasses, dorky fireman galoshes

Pretty sure you have as Max has worn this same thing for 2 weeks straight. He, of course, wears a different shirt underneath, different pair of jeans, and I swear I don't put his galoshes on him when we go somewhere, but when we go outside in the backyard, or on a walk, or ANYWHERE...he must, and I mean must wear the sweatshirt, the hat, the glasses. Sweatshirt must be zipped all the way up, hood must be on.

sigh. Just let it happen...{as Jeff would say}