How To Embarrass Your Tweenage Son...a remix.

It's been one of those days today.

Printer won't work.

Heavy things fall on toes.

Ran out of tissues...again.

Grumpiness everywhere.

I need a giggle.

Today that giggle is going to come at the expense of my son.

(sorry buddy)

Here's a little remix, hope it lightens your day!

So, I decorated these cookies late one night. 

Not a whole collection, 

just a couple.

I was doing some corsets for a bachelorette party and wanted to try something different.

I left them out to dry on the kitchen table, and went to bed.

The next morning was a school day.

I always try to send Ethan downstairs first, before his little brother, 

so that he can get his books and lunch together 

without a tornado spinning around his ankles.

Needless to say, I completely forgot about the half-dressed cookies

I left on the kitchen table....

...where he makes his lunch as soon as he gets downstairs....

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

What The Heck!!!!

Not only was his eleven-year-old self completely mortified...

I'm reasonably sure he's convinced his mother is a freak. 

Circus Animal Cookie Disaster....Can I Get A Do-Over?

 We all dread the moment as bakers and moms.

That loud crash, 

the ear-splitting clang,

the feeling of your heart sinking to the pit of your stomach with a thud...

All because your cookie sheets and your

 perfectly decorated cookies have scattered across the floor...

into a million sandy little pieces.

*sigh*

Click here to continue reading!!

DIY Easter Bunny Footprint Tutorial!

Who wants to make 

Easter Bunny footprints?!

Come on, you know you want to!

A few items of business first.

Disclaimer 1

 I did not invent bunny footprints.  

As far as my family is concerned, my fabulous girlfriend, 

Miss Christy, invented them.

Disclaimer 2

This tutorial was shot in super secret stealth mode.

That means the photos are not great....but they'll do.

Disclaimer 3

If you decide to create this little bunny trail, be aware that you 

may need to commit to this as long as your munchkins believe in the Easter Bunny.

Step 1

Gather materials.

You will need a paper plate, scissors and a pencil.

(Its a very high-tech craft.)

Normally this project takes place late Saturday night.

Joe hides the eggs, I do the feet.

Because its done at the last minute,

I have no patience whatsoever for gathering materials.

If you are in the mood to pull out your exact-o knife, 

circle cutters or punches,

go for it!

Step 2

Turn your paper plate over and draw some bunny feet.

I have never-ever-EVER used a cookie cutter to draw this.

Today, it was 12 inches away on the drying rack.

I couldn't help myself.

Bunny Feet!

Anybody know how many toes bunnies have?

I have no clue.  This year I made three.

How ever many toes you give your bunny, 

just don't draw them too close together.

I makes them harder to cut out.

Step 3

Cut out the Feet!

One of the comments I received said,

"how did you get your circles so perfect?"

Um....yeah, they're not, and it really doesn't matter.

Stab the tip of your scissors into the center of a toe, twist a few times...

  

and you have a roundish hole!

*Important*

Cut out the toes before the rest of the foot.

I'm sure there is a scientific reason why the paper plate rips

more easily when you cut the big part out first.

I don't know what that is, but I do know it means you have to start over!

There they are!

Step 4

Remember all that baby powder we all bought before we

had our first baby?

And how no one ever got to actually use it because,

 even though its called BABY Powder, 

its really bad for babies?

Now you get to use it!

If you use baby powder, your prints will hang around for awhile.

I like them, so I don't mind.

They make me giggle.

If you would like more temporary prints, powdered sugar works too,

but they wash away quickly.

(especially if you forget to turn off the sprinklers Easter morning)

Step 5

Shake it up!

We have bunnies that come and visit our Salad bar lawn occasionally.

They'll perch themselves on the edge of the concrete and nibble on the grass.

I like to start there.

Set down you plate right-side-up.

(very important)

and...shake shake shake!

I used powdered sugar here because I needed to wash the feet away immediately.

Didn't want to have to explain why the bunny came early!

The rim of the paper plate 

keeps the extra sugar/baby powder from spilling all over.

BUNNY FOOTPRINTS!

Step 6

Think like a bunny!

How does the Easter Bunny come into your yard?

At our house, he crawls under the back fence and hops along the wall.

He takes a little break in the roses for a snack,

then cuts across the grass onto the cement.

Some years, if he's feeling frisky, he hops onto a slide or a tricycle seat!

Silly Bunny!

Eventually he hops over to the backdoor, leaves a basket of treats,

and then hops under the side fence to the neighbors house.

Every year Ethan and Jack can't wait to see where the bunny went.

I hope he hops over to your house next!

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B

Bunnyprints!

I posted this last year back when I only had 3 followers....

and its still my favorite Easter memory.

Enjoy!

How do you know when your friends 

stop being just friends and become your family?

There definitely comes a day when you realize 

they are a part of all your most important memories.

In our house, 

it also seems to have something to do with everyday vocabulary and conversation.

• We don't eat crispy tacos, we eat 'Christy Tacos'.  (flour tortillas, hot oil, all kinds of good things going on inside)
• You need a super-deluxe, squisheroo, pick-the-munchkin-up-off-their-feet kinda hug?   That's a 'Christy hug'
• What does Jack say when he's looking at the ceiling during a thunderstorm?  "Mommy, we should call Mr. Brian and thank him for making the rain stop in the living room!" (long story for another day-and yes, he says this every time it rains).
• If something needs fixing in the house, and Daddy is thinking about it a little too long without actually picking up any tools, the boys say "let's call Mr. Brian, he'll know what to do!".   Ethan will even bring the phone.

Really, I could go on and on all day....

but its Easter time, so I'm thinking about this...

Ethan was 20 months old at the time, 

and it was Easter morning.

I was inside making breakfast and Joe and Ethan went out to get the newspaper....

and then I heard the giggles.

The doorbell rang furiously and I saw...

Bunnyprints!!!

Absolutely the cutest thing I had ever seen.

So I said (quietly), "Joe, when did you do this?"

He shook his head and said, "wasn't me, I thought it was you."

Ethan LOVED it...(so did I)

After a few moments of thinking there really was a giant man-sized bunny running around town, we started thinking about who could have done this.  

We checked with the most obvious people first, our neighbors...nope not them.

You might be thinking 'didn't they know it was Christy and Brian right away?'

We didn't.  You know why?  

They live a half an hour away!  

They drove all the way over in the middle of the night

 just so our munchkin would have a surprise in the morning....

And....the tradition stuck.

The bunny that visits our house seems to have shrunk a bit and has moved to the backyard

 (this works out better when mom remembers at 10 p.m.

 and is already wearing pajamas-no need to scare the neighbors).

He comes through the back fence,

 hops along the cement to our back door, 

then disappears under the side fence to our neighbors yard.  

I giggle hysterically while I'm doing this...

its absolutely my favorite holiday tradition.

Thank you Christy and Brian (and Reece and Paige)! 

 This is just another way you've brightened our lives!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lizy B

Cookies for The Hunger Games!

Have you read The Hunger Games series yet?

My husband read them first, then they came to me.

 SOOOOOOO good!

They had more than enough action, which meant I only had to read a passage

or two out loud before Ethan was convinced to read them.

Then....a miracle happened.

He starting ASKING to go to bed early and read...

No, I'm not kidding.

He tore through all three books and most nights we had to 

tell him to turn off his light and go to sleep.

If you have a reluctant reader in your family you know just how shocking that is.

So in honor of The Hunger Games and the fabulous Suzanne Collins who wrote them...

I made cookies!!!

Alright so maybe that's not all that shocking.

These designs were inspired by Living Locurto's free party printables

for The Hunger Games.  

Go download some!  They're super cute!

I did something new though....

did you notice what it was?

I painted the mockingjays with food coloring!

It was so much fun.

Miss Arty McGoo has been painting her phenomenal cookies for quite awhile.

If you haven't seen them, please go check them out.  

She's truly an artist.

After months of drooling over her photos, I finally mustered up the courage to try it myself.

Also....the Kopykake finally showed up (that helped with the courage)

A Kopykake is an art projector that shines an image downward onto a blank surface.

Before I had one, I kind of thought it would be a little like cheating.

Sort of like 'paint by number' cookies.

Um....no.  Not even close.

Its a VERY faint image and even perfectly focused, you really just get an outline.

It definitely helped make the circle an actual circle. 

All the wings and body parts ended up in the right spots and the proportions are correct.

For me, that's the hardest part, so it was a big help.

Because it was my first time painting I wasn't too confident so.....

I used this.

They're in the Wilton cake decorating section in your local craft store.

(not an endorsement, not paid for or supplied by Wilton)

I bought one (only one in a package) sheet of white.  It was 3.99 and OF COURSE I had a coupon!

I cut off a strip and painted that instead of an actual cookie.

I put dollops of color in an artist's palette and added water as needed.

I used ck golden yellow with a little americolor warm brown for the shading.

It was a little challenging to mix the colors, 

so I used a napkin to dab my brush and see how close I was getting.

Ethan helped take the action photos.

This is about halfway through.

The wings are shaded, still need to do the tail, body and 

the dreaded super straight and pointy arrow!

By now, the Kopykake wasn't any help at all.

For the shading I referred back to the book cover.

Done!

It was really fun.

Really, really fun!!!

My mom is the true artist in the family, 

but I think its pretty good for my first try.

I cut out the image and dropped it onto a freshly flooded cookie,

It was so much fun, I did another one!

This one I painted directly onto royal icing.

Much easier in black, no shading!

The movie's coming out in a few weeks...

...we finally get to see Peeta and Gale...

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B

Valentines for my Rock Star

My older munchkin, Ethan, has had a crummy week or two at school.  

Remember fifth grade?

Math is starting to get hard with fractions and decimals at the same time...

Grammar and punctuation aren't just adjectives and commas...

Science tests don't go so well when you skip a section and don't notice until 

you're grading your classmate's test.

(and, don't tell anyone, but I think there might be girls in his class)

So my normally happy-go-lucky child has been in the downy-dumps..

He forgot that he was a rock star.

So I made him a little treat to remind him.

"Ethan...."

"Ethan....are you listening?"

"Love you bud."

(I was going to write a whole bunch of mushy mommy stuff here,

but then I thought that might embarrass the heck out of him,

and that would be counter-productive)

I left them on his 'homework spot' so he'd see them after school.

I think he liked them...

Then, to prove he's the rock star that I know he is, he said,  

"Thanks for making cookies just for me Mom.  

I know you had a lot of other cookies you could have made.  

It means a lot that you took the time to do that just for me...."

...and my heart skipped a beat.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B

How to embarrass your tweenage son

So, I decorated these cookies late one night. 

Not a whole collection, 

just a couple.

I was doing some corsets for a bachelorette party and wanted to try something different.

I left them out to dry on the kitchen table, and went to bed.

The next morning was a school day.

I always try to send Ethan downstairs first, before his little brother, 

so that he can get his books and lunch together 

without a tornado spinning around his ankles.

Needless to say, I completely forgot about the half-dressed cookies

I left on the kitchen table....

...where he makes his lunch as soon as he gets downstairs....

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

What The Heck!!!!

Not only was his eleven-year-old self completely mortified...

I'm reasonably sure he's convinced his mother is a freak. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B