Red Velvet Mocha Buttercream...not really though.

Yesterday started off really good. Kin's Grana got to eat at school with us and she LOVED that! She also got to take a field trip to the stock yard to see all the animals. They have been learning about animal this week and since then she has come home asking for a chicken, rabbit, duck, and goat! :o) I said maybe when she is older. I know Daddy would love for her to show some animals. He's gonna have to help her cause Momma sure didn't do very good raising a pig when she was little! The pig thought so though. It ended up being overweight because I fed it instant oatmeal all the time! But that's another funny story.

Anyways...The other two girls and I wanted to go but they ended up taking a nap. Ah...peace! But it soon ended. Kinadie must have a stomach bug. She was up all night.

I managed to make these cupcakes while she was sleeping yesterday afternoon. I really wanted to experiment with the chocolate and see what all I could do with that. And I also wanted to try making some cupcakes in a jar. Those were a few things I'd seen online.

We are at the end of our stock on groceries so the cupcakes were a box red velvet (I try to get ones that say moist). I used my left over coffee from that morning for the liquid and folded in some swmi sweet chocolate chips to try and bring out the coffee flavor. With the frosting I whipped in some espresso (2 tablespoons) and a little of the grounds into store bought buttercream (I know..but I'm out of pretty much anything in the fridge!). It got runny so I put in some powdered sugar.

I never could get it to taste like coffee but for touched up store bought, these were pretty good. Kris said they kinda had a coconut taste. Hmmm don't know how. lol I am going to try to attempt this again sometime. I need to research some mocha recipes. Maybe I need some extract or something.

More Cupcakes

Friday is my day! So I find its a good day to experiment with my baking.

I've been practicing for Kaylee Jo's birthday and the cake auction for our church.

Yesterday I was inspired by my sister to make lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. These turned out really yummy!

I have also found that the richness of the buttercream tends to mellow out the next day and are very good for breakfast!

Thanks for looking :o) More to come soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Check her out!

I have a friend from high school doing her first free giveaway. She has some very interesting/fun posts over there. Please go check her out and join in on her very first free giveaway. Just click here!

Long weekend and First Friend Sleepover!

Kinadie had her first friend sleepover this weekend!! They had lots of fun playing dress up, or in Kara's case "dress down!" I thought it would be fun for them if I made a sleepover bento. This is what they had.

Fortune cookie, fruit salad with whipped cream and pink sprinkles, pizza, my girls had light ranch, E said they eat their pizza with BBQ sauce, popcorn with pink sprinkles, and the cupcakes I was experimenting with. I put little animal faces on some. They also requested Sprite with a cherry. The BBQ sauce and pizza was very good and the cupcake icing seemed really sweet right after it was made but seemed to calm down the next day. It ended up being very good! After supped they decided it was time to turn in for the night and watch my favorite childhood movie, The Little Mermaid!

Kara and Kaylee Jo didn't make it to the end. Kin and E did and watched a little Wubbzy before falling asleep in the living room. Overall I think they had lots of fun! Daddy on the other hand set up fort in our room! ha ha I think he went a little crazy over all the princess & pink stuff! They loved that every now and then he'd walk through the house saying "HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!" He's a silly Dad! 

All About Kinadie! We Like Green Beans! Anyone Want Cupcakes?...I Never Know How To Title These Posts!

This whole week has been all about Kinadie at her school. We had sent some pictures and a print out of Kinadie and what she likes and what she is about. Some of the things Kinadie had me put down were that her favorite colors were pink, purple, and black, she loves mixed berries with whipped cream on top, she was born in Hawaii, and she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Kris and I made sure to visit her alot at school this week. Monday Daddy picked her up from school. She loved that surprise because I am usually the one to go get her. Wednesday she had an assembly at school. They had the NED program there and I took Kara and Kaylee Jo to go watch with Kinadie. Click here to see a video of NED!

Today we went to eat lunch with Kinadie. She and Kara obviously loved it.

Kara has been doing really good eating up her food. Wednesday I made her this bento. She had peanut butter and sugar free blackberry preserves on whole wheat bread in the shape of a "Kara girl," baby elephant, heart, and triangle. She also had some applesauce with mixed berries and green beans sauted with garlic and turkey bacon with a little light ranch dip. She ate everything except some bites of the sandwich. I was very happy that she ate the green beans. We all liked them cooked that way.

I've decided this week what the theme for Kaylee Jo's birthday will be. Thinking about having her party on the Saturday after and doing a dedication at church for her on that Sunday. Still have alot to get done with that. Kinadie has a long weekend so maybe I can finalize some things and try a few cake recipes! In fact I'm thinking about testing a few of them out tonight. Anyone want to come over and be my guiney pig? :o)

Restarting with the New Year!

It's a new year and a good time to restart everything. Kinadie restarted going to school. So her and I are restarting our time working on shapes, letters, numbers, and first name vs. last name. She is still also having trouble holding a crayon/pencil correctly. Any tips?

My focus on Kara is to restart those bentos and meals because she is my Skinny Minnie and I want to make sure she is getting proper nutrition. Our main focus is towards vegetables. I am gonna hunt down some butternut or acorn squash and see if she likes those. Well, I'm going to see if any of us like them. It's not something I have cooked before.

My restart with Kaylee Jo is to restart the celebration of her comming into the world. Her birthday comes first and I am reminded of the days in the hospital holding her and watching her sleep. Now I will get to experience new things with her this year so I'm letting the party begin in my head. Not quite sure how we will celebrate. But I've got a few ideas. I can't wait!
I am going to restart my nutrition and health program. I am not really concerened with how I look but rather how I feel. I think back to the time right when we got back to Texas and how well I felt and how much more moving I was doing. Yeah I gotta get back there. So far it hasn't been hard except Daddy keeps buying junk food. Just waiting for the cold weather to go away so the girls and I can get back to walking again. I've been indoors doing cardio and strength training videos while watching Dr. Oz. Love that show!
Finally, Daddy's restart is pretty much the same as mine. He has some PT tests comming up. We are both taking a step to restart our savings. I wouldn't call any of these resolutions because these things are all somethings we have done before. We're just gonna step it up. Do you have anything new you are doing for 2011? Are you stepping anything up? I wanna know!