Cake Pop Madness

My Cake Pops
(taken with my iphone 4)

So, I have surfed around on Bakerella's website before and seen all of her beautiful small and edible creations...I just got out of a making cupcakes all the time phase and am transitioning over to making Cake Pops and Cake Bites all the time. While buying last minute things for my son's first birthday party over the weekend I happened to run into her book 30% off at my local Target. How could I resist? After all with Starbucks tooting it's Cake Pop horn now I just had to make a batch of my own. Because paying $1.50 for one, well that's just crazy. And the exact reason I hardly ever go to Starbucks without my hubby in tow. That 30% discount is just lovely. I feel bad for all you suckers that pay full price. =)
Anyways, I had an insatiable urge to eat chocolate the other night. Which if anybody knows me, well, that's just not my style. So, I did as any other woman would do and went to the store to gather supplies to make some all chocolate cake pops. It was never my intent for my first batch of cake pops to be chocolate but I just had to have some then. (And no it wasn't a pregnancy craving!) I made a batch with milk chocolate cake, chocolate frosting made with Hershey's cocoa powder and dipped them in real milk chocolate and topped them with some sprinkles. They were certainly delicious but very sweet and very very chocolatey. Today I decided I was really bored and needed to make some more cake pops...more to my every day eating liking.  I used a white cake with rainbow chips/sprinkles baked in for some added texture and color. And I dipped them in a vanilla coating with sprinkles. As I was sprinkling one with, well, sprinkles it slid down the stick so I decided I needed to eat it immediately. I have never experimented with candy coating...or vanilla almond bark so this was something new to me. To my surprise (okay, I wasn't really that surprised) it was super delicious. Take that over-priced $1.50 Starbucks cake pops...take that!!!

{QoK}

Birthday Photos

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My blue eyed birthday babe & his proud momma!

Too Pooped to Post...

Read it (post title above) and weep!
For those of you who are the edges of your seat waiting for pictures, you will have to wait one day more! Too pooped to post is right!

ps-Hope your behind doesn't numb up from sitting there on the edge too long! ;)

{QoK}

D-Day...err I mean B-Day fun!

Noah-3 Days Old

The day is almost upon us! Well the actual day is still three days away, but my youngest prince's birthday party is tomorrow afternoon!! "PARTY!!!! WOO-HOO!!!" alright, I'm glad I got that out of my system. As I sit here making notes of every last minute detail I need to take care of tomorrow, I am wondering why we celebrate and make such a big deal of our children's first birthdays? Because we all know they will carry these treasured memories all of their lives right?...Right...that's what I keep telling myself! I don't consider tomorrows event to be anything lavish by any means, we're having a BBQ, cake, pinata and bouncer for the kids who will be attending. We are dropping a good $400 on this affair, and I wonder if maybe that money could be used more wisely? My hubby and I briefly chatted about it tonight and thought, well we could "deprive" our children of birthday parties for the rest of their life and store the money in a bank account until they need money for a down payment on a car of money for college or such. I'm sure they would love that...and be totally understanding. Because we all know kids are understanding...right. Even with all these thoughts clouding my brain, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. His older brother will probably really enjoy it now that he is close to three and will someday be able to tell Noah all about it. Man, even at three I doubt Caleb will be able to remember Noah's first birthday party! In times like these I sure am glad that we have video cameras, and digital cameras, and cameras on our phone. Now those will be treasure memories to carry with us all of our lives! You only turn one year old once baby! Make it count!
{QoK}

Pumpkin in March?? Say what!

So anybody who knows me probably knows I LOVEEEEE Starbucks Pumpkin Scones!!! They are hands down the best pastry at Starbucks...if you disagree, well then you are wrong! Haha. These lovely delicious scones are a seasonal item offered during their Fall Promo. And I have to say with the busyness of having tow young boys and being trapped inside all day I didn't get to indulge in as many scones as I would have liked to. My hips are probably thankful for that! A friend of mine let me know she bought some scones at a local Starbucks yesterday morning. Say what?! Are you sure? Yes! They are back at least for the day it seemed. Well, my husband is actually a store manager at Starbucks so I immediately called him to see if he got any at his store that day. He didn't know. How do you not know? Well, to his defense he was doing admin stuff in the back all day and wasn't working out on the floor. He called me back within a few minutes to let me know they had some in! "Buy me the whole tray!!" I think that's what I yelled at him over the phone. I would have eaten them all too! When he got home from work he only had two bags in his hand. *sigh* it was bittersweet.  In my head I was thinking..."I will eat half of one scone tonight so I can savor it, and spread the goodness out over the next couple days. Yeah, that worked...NOT! I ended up eating the whole scone within a couple minutes. It was just as amazing as I remember it being. Probably better that I remember it being. I will tell you there is nothing like pumpkin in March!
{QoK}

Babies No More

My oldest son, Caleb, has been sleeping in his crib which my hubby converted into a toddler bed by merely detaching the front railing. Man, my hubby has it hard! For months we've been talking about moving the old crib out and purchasing some bunk beds, but it just never happened. Life is busy, and when my hubby is off from one of his two jobs the last thing that crosses our mind is going bed shopping and putting bunk beds together. So I finally decided enough was enough! I did some online shopping and found a great deal on some cherrywood twin bunk beds.  Once, my hubby got home from his weekend away at winter camp I enlisted him to help put the beds together. What a joy! They were actually pretty easy to put together considering the million pieces that were in the box. So now Caleb has a "big boy" bed and is thrilled! Noah is pretty thrilled too, and crawls over to the bed and screams and pulls trying to get on it. Once he's on the bed it's like the best thing since milk! He shrieks and has a blast doing I don't even really know what...monkeying around on it with his brother I guess. Maybe I could use moving Noah to the bottom bunk as a bribe to get him to walk. That is a whole different story, but since I have time I will share it. For the past couple months I have been trying to coax Noah into taking standing on his own and taking some steps. I am not sure if it just his stubborn streak he got from his wonderful mother or what but he just isn't having it!  I always heard your second child generally does things a a faster rate than the first child because they have a somebody to learn from. Well, that has not been the case for us. Which is fine. In my head I pretend Noah is still a little baby. Just a twenty-four pound baby crawling around at the speed of light...right...With Noah's first birthday approaching within the week, Caleb turning three in May and pieces of a old crib sitting in the patio I realize that they are babies no more. They will always be my babies...I bore them after all!
{QoK}

Disneyland Days

Caleb & I on King Arthur's Carousel

Matterhorn Bobsleds

One of the many benefits of living in Southern California is the "Happiest Place on Earth" is nearby! Not to mention a plethora of In N Out Burgers...my hands-down favorite place to eat! My hubby and I both have Deluxe Annual Passes to Disneyland which cost a arm and a leg! Thank goodness Caleb wont be three until the middle of May so he is still free! Although, he looks like a four year old and we sometimes get questioned about his age. To avoid delays and such we carry a copy of his birth certificate with us in the stroller so we can whip it out at a moments notice and say boo-yah he isn't three yet! For his third birthday he will be getting a annual pass...that will probably be his Christmas present too...and maybe fourth birthday present! At $329 a pop and prices increasing yearly I'm not sure how many years we will continue to purchase passes, but for now we enjoy them immensely! We probably average 3-4x a month so for us it is well worth the money we spend. The great thing about having a annual pass is you don't feel pressured to spend a full day at the parks. And with two little ones, going to the parks for 4-6 hour chunks works out great for us. Anyways back to today! Today started off in a later than normal people wake up fashion. Meaning my hubby was off for the day so I had the opportunity to sleep in.. We were lagging until around noon when we decided to head out to the "Happiest Place on Earth". My sister wanted to join so we met at our church and stopped at In N Out Burger on the way there for a late lunch. Prices in the park are ridiculously expensive so we eat outside the park as much as possible and bring in our own snacks and drinks. One of my friends happened to be in the area and joined us at the park as well. It was a cool day, not crowded and short lines. Caleb had a lot of fun, but was very wishy-washy about what rides he wanted to go on. Believe it or not his favorite ride is currently the Matterhorn Bobsleds in Fantasyland! He will go on over and over...until no willing adult exists who will ride with him again!! The parks closed early, since it was a weekday so we left the parks around 8:15 and headed somewhere for a late dinner...our family runs on our own time! Haha. We are almost always hungry! Initially our thought was to go to the local Chickfila but things changed when a In N Out Burger was spotted in the same parking lot...haha..we are suckers for In N Our Burger. So, for the second time we ate In N Out...and boy was it delicious!! 

My Baby's Birthday

My baby boy's first birthday is next week and I am floored! Not because I can't believe it, but because I am so exhausted running after my two boys I am laying on the floor...haha, this really happens sometimes. I am happy to report that a year of nursing/pumping is coming to it's end next week as well. I have transitioned him onto whole milk successfully so I am giving him about half my milk half whole until his first birthday. For the sake of saying, yes I did it for a full year! Silly, I know. But to me it matters.

Enough about me! My baby boy, Noah, is turning one! I think time goes by 2x a fast when you have more than one child. I swear Caleb's first year didn't go by nearly as quickly. Two=twice the fun! My little blue eyed babe is the sweetest boy, always sporting a big smile and eager to eat anything in sight! I always imagined I would have blue eyed, blonde hair kids...Noah has blue eyes a auburn/blonde hair so I guess he fits the bill! He and Caleb couldn't look much more different, they have similiar features such as my husbands eyebrow shape and nose but totally opposite coloring. Not to mention people always comment on how beautiful or pretty my daughter is. Really? Dressed in jeans and a blue plaid shirt? I always smile, thank them and then correct them. Noah is really a boy after all. Just a beautiful boy. Now that Noah is older he is really enjoying playing and chasing after his older brother, Caleb. They have such a blast together screaming about the house and chasing one another. Hitting and beating up on one another. Such a joy to watch! I seriously need a daughter...

{QoK}