Cupcake Flower Toppers

I got so many compliments of the cupcake toppers I made for Ava's party, (some people didn't even know they were edible!) I decided to show you how I made them...

I originally found the idea from Bakerella (the inventor of the cake pop) and decided to try them out. She used a candy melt for the center of the flower, but I didn't want the flower to be bigger than the cupcake so instead decided to use these jumbo candy sprinkles from JoAnn's. They seemed to make the flowers a little more to scale with the size of the cupcake. Instead of printing the flowers onto paper as she suggested, I drew one petal and traced it onto 24 circles (traced from one of the sprinkles). Stupid, I know, since it took a lot longer, but I wanted them to look homemade in a way, not store bought. Once all the flowers were drawn on, I taped them to a cookie sheet and taped a piece of wax paper over top.

 

 I then used Wilton candy melts, which is what I also use for my cake pops, and poured it into a ziploc bag (I ran out of icing bags), then snipped off a very small corner to outline the petals in white.

After that set, I then used purple candy melts (in a new bag of course) and filled in the petals. Voila! Done! I think they were a hit! (and still good almost a week later by the way....) If you're also interested, I used this buttercream recipe from Cookies & Cups and used icing gel to change the colors of the frosting.

It definitely takes some practice, I had some weird looking flowers once I was done. But as long as you go slow enough, you'll get the hang of it!

The finished product!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ava!

Yesterday our Little Miss turned 2! Cliche, but seems like time has flown by...

I made a cake for her, had some presents, and she was VERY excited to sing "Happy Birthday" to herself! Although when you'd tell her Happy Birthday, she'd say "Happy birthday Momma!" (Or Bubba or Daddy, etc.) Such a goof.

Even though today was pretty low key, this past Saturday, we had a little party for the Birthday girl. Mostly family and a few friends came to celebrate with us, and she had a great time.

 I made some cake pops (of course!), some cupcakes with decorative flower toppers, and a spring variation on the Oreo cake.

Helping me hang the birthday banner

Excited for the party to start!

Enjoy some pictures of the now 2 year old!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So exhausted when everyone left...

Dishwasher Issues

First off, I am well aware of the fact that I haven't posted anything in almost a month. I really don't have any excuse except for sheer laziness. I'm not gonna lie... I also haven't been doing any sewing projects or crafting of any kind, which will probably be the norm here for awhile until we find out what the new baby is (to make curtains, a quilt, etc). So you guys are just gonna have to deal with the kid-related posts for a bit until I get back into the swing of things.

However, in the past month, we've had a few things going on. Nothing major, just life as usual.

For one, our dishwasher has sort of been on the fritz for a few months, and we've been waiting for it to just die already. It was here in the house when we moved in, and was from 2000, so 13 years old. At the end of December, it started leaking out of the bottom of the door, so Jacob messed with the seal and all seemed ok. Then about a month ago, I ran it through a normal cycle, as I do at least once a day (sometimes twice), and it started leaking again. So I sat down on the floor in front of it and started to clean up the water/soap as it was coming out (since it only seemed to be for a few minutes during the beginning of the cycle). When I turned around, this is what I found....

They were waiting...

They brought chairs into the kitchen to watch me clean up the mess. Apparently it was pretty exciting.
And here's the conversation that followed:

Aiden: "Mom, what's wrong with the dishwasher?"
Me: "It's leaking water and soap Bubba, I think we need to buy a new one... ".
Ava: "Good job Mama!!" (as I wipe up the water)
Aiden: "Is Daddy gonna put the new one in?"
Me "No, we'll probably get it installed by Home Depot" (assuming at the time that we would buy it from there, we eventually did).
Aiden: "But I think Daddy can do it. And then me and Papa and Hayden (Jacob's sister's boyfriend) can all do it because we're all good worker men. And I even got my worker hat, Mom, because that'll protect my head in case something hits me."
Me: "That's a good idea Bud."
Aiden: "Maybe we can call a train conductor too because they know how to fix things too, Mom."

That last one confused me, but he had a good reason.....

To make a long story short, finally, the door broke all together and we couldn't even get it to close. So we broke down and bought a new one, but in the meantime, I've been hand-washing the dishes. I tried using paper plates, etc, but just couldn't do it. We were wasting way too many, these kids can eat! As an upside, Aiden LOVED helping me wash/rinse them. I mean, I wasn't about to tell him no... free child labor! And of course, wherever he goes, she goes as well.

Once we got the new one installed, he was quite disappointed that he couldn't help me wash them anymore. I'm thinking I might need to save a few dishes each night, considering he would ask me all day, "Is it time to wash dishes yet Mom?".

Gotta love kids.