My prayers are with Boston and the victims of the recent Attacks.

Our prayers are with Boston, may the light shine brighter with each day to come!

Good afternoon my dear friends, as I write this blog post it is with deep sorrow for the victims of the recent bombing attacks in Boston. As an adult I remember quite clear the reactions and the events of 9/11 when I was a child. This, is another event that will go down in history as a sad, sad day. There isn't a huge death toll, but many injured, and many affected. The few that did lose their lives, let us not minimize the pain the families must feel due to the lack of large death toll, I cannot imagine and my heart goes out to them all.

As I began this blog it was never intended to be one of serious, sad or really any type of news topic but this I find to be of much importance in the lives of Americans.

Here Is a video I found that describes some of the sad details and some about the people who have and are helping. VIDEO HERE

As I read and look through all the graphic photos and headlines all I can think is my children are going to see the world worse and worse each coming year. Without some dire change this world is headed to a dark place. The thought that someone, whether afar or on our own turf would be so cruel breaks my heart. Though I cannot claim to know all sorts of things on war and politics, I do know and have seen a change in humanity in just my life time. The simpler days when kids could play outside without the fear of being taken or could go to school without fear of being shot, those are days I pray return. Yes, I know that this is likely never to happen and the decline in humanity seems to be so fast now but still, how lovely would that be?

Humanity is not hopeless though, we all must know that. Changes or not, there is and always will be some good in people. As evil as this world gets I believe there will still be a positive people in the world. In the midst of everything that happened in Boston and as the shock still sets in that there has been yet more attacks on our own soil I found a page via a friends Facebook share that I found so touching. This is something that will bring tears to your eyes and bring back lost hope in the people of today's world. CHECK OUT THESE AMAZING HEROES HERE!

Now, I must add this as well, we are all sharing and posting "Prayers for Boston" images and such, please PLEASE truly pray for them, the families, the friends, the rescue, fire, police, first responders, and everyday heroes that had to endure that day, that tragedy. Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." In no way can we understand, or grasp the evil and cruelty in some people, but we can always find hope and encouragement from our Lord Jesus Christ! Trust and believe in Him, and Him only!

God Bless and Prayers are with the victims and families! And prayers are most definitely going up for our country as a whole!
Elizabeth B.

Spring-time finger paint crafts, our Easter!

A little late I know, but, I hope that EVERYONE had an amazing Easter. What an amazing holiday? Not only is it a reminder of our Lord Jesus' love for us but we can celebrate that He did indeed RISE again after his crucifixion on the cross for our sins. May we always remember, all year the sacrifice and the love He has and shows us. 

Now, on to our Easter celebration that included a couple cute little crafts for the kiddos, and of course hunting eggs and dieing them too! And who forgets, CAKE! You can find more on my Easter/Spring Rabbit cake HERE!

First, I'll share the paint crafts we did then you can feel free to see the pictures that tell the story of the rest of the weekend of fun with family quite well!

Craft time:

For the girls we did Aprons, my little girl and niece absolutely LOVE to help in the kitchen and of course their own special apron that THEY made, well that makes it all the more fun for them.

Before we began I painted the stem to the flower and their name. Depending on the child's age you could do this at the time of the craft but I found this worked so we could keep it short and sweet with the paint in case they got tired of it. Didn't want to push it with them but you know the kids you are working with so you be the judge. Suprisingly, all 4 that I got to work with (niece, nephew and my 2) had a blast with it!

Oh and just to add, the aprons are 4-5.00 at Hobby Lobby and fabric paint about 3.00/bottle, so it is a cheap fun craft!

The apron before the hand print, which will serve as the flower on the stem!

 Now for the boys, we simply did some cute little t-shirts for spring time, and they look adorable on. Since it is for the boys we didn't do a flower for theirs but before hand I did write their name and Spring 2013, they did hand prints!

The 'before' shirt.

 And... Who can forget the egg dying time!

Great tip for making it less mess to clean up, do it out side in the GRASS, kids love it out side anyhow! Oooh, and as you can see in these pictures we used a no spill egg cup (due to younger age, so they can have more control) I got at walmart. They by no means DONT spill but they definately keep the spills down and make it much easier. Still count on a little mess but it wont be as bad and as they do spill some it holds most of the water in the cup so that they can keep on dying!

 

 

And here, feel free to check out all the great fun we had with the Easter egg hunt and baskets through all the pictures below! You will also find all the pictures of the painting fun we had!

 

All the kiddos took turns rolling down the hill with my husband too!

 

God Bless and Happy SPRING TIME! 

Easter or Spring Cake. Fondant rabbit and flowers.

Easter/Spring Rabbit in flower garden cake.

So I'm a little behind on some blogs here but hope to catch up soon, it has been a full few weeks for us, moving, lots of Dr. trips and some time with family.

With my love of cake decorating I thought I might share this adorable cake that I made for our Easter dinner. While I wasn't sure which kind of cake to make I was looking at pictures online and my daughter saw a rabbit on a cake on the computer and said "make rabbit momma".   So, that is what I did, and what fun it was. Especially when she saw the finished product, she still talks about it weeks later :)

Here is an awesome recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, you can use a pre-made fondant  but this fondant taste great and we all love it, so simple and cheap.

4C Powdered Sugar + extra for kneading and counter

4C mini marshmallows

2tbsp water

coloring and flavor if desired

-----In a large microwave safe bowl heat marshmallows and water for 20-30 second intervals until thoroughly melted. If you want to add flavor add at this point 1-2tsp (though in my opinion it isn't necessary), also, this is where you will add the coloring (you will need to make it darker than your intended color because adding the powdered sugar will do quite a bit of lightening to the color). Another option is making this white and breaking off pieces and adding 1 drop at a time of gel food coloring and kneading into fondant until desired color. Now, add the powdered sugar and mix until you can't stir with spoon any more then pour out onto a powdered surface with powdered. sugar and then dust the top too. Work together and kneed until it is smooth. This is going to be sticky and messy :) Roll out on powdered surface for making cuts or covering things, or break off pieces to mold into animal at this point.

NOTE: If ever the fondant becomes too sticky to handle or form then just dust with a small amount of powdered sugar.

First I made fondant flowers a couple weeks ahead of time so they would have time to dry out completely and be easy to handle. Here is a great flower mold sold by Global Sugar Art, it creates such adorable, medium sized flowers for any and all baking projects and I LOVE it. When I started with the cake I also wanted a few sizes of flowers so I purchased this plunger set, also from G.S.A. and used the largest one and the second from the smallest as cutters for the fondant. When using these plungers they also will fit into the same mold to imprint the design on all the flowers. Just cut out the flowers then press in mold (you may need to use a toothpick to get them out but I found they popped out easy on their own) lay upside down on a paper towel to harden up. Once they dry out you will need to paint them with a SMALL amount of water with a new paint brush or use one that you have from Wilton or like company. You will need to do one side, let dry wet side up then do the other side because they will be really sticky on the wet side and will get stuck to the surface you lay them on as they dry. Once both sides are painted and dry you can place in an air tight container and keep for up to 3 months. When applying to cake if you are putting it on fondant you will just need to wet it lightly to make it sticky so it will adhere to fondant, no need to do this if placing on regular icing.

 

Next, I made the rabbit and I can't tell you how much fun I had creating this little guy. I can't tell you much how I did this, I do most of my molding by looking at pictures or what not and working on it as I go. I made the body, the ears, head, legs, and tail. This is where you will need to do and impressions like in the feet or wherever because once it dries it will be much harder. These were all made out of white and the color on ears was molded separately and placed on using a little water as the glue. You will need to take a toothpick and stick it about half way in the ear in the middle pressing your fingers on each side of the ear to make sure it doesn't protrude thru. How I did it was I let all these things dry (only because I work in between my kiddos naps most times) then I made the eyes, flower (made this rolling out a small, long oval shape and rolling up and pinching bottom), and the leaves and glued all on with a small amount of water. The ears you will press the 1/2 of the toothpick not in the ear into the head of the rabbit. Paint down the rabbit once all pieces are together with a small amount of water to dissolve all powdered sugar and clean up. Let this dry on a paper towel for several days if possible (if not it should be fine to place on cake already).

 


And if you were wondering, the cake was AWESOME, what a hit! Especially the kids, they all shared the rabbit and wanted the piece with lots of flowers. Since the fondant was marshmallow fondant it taste yummy!