TAKS treats for Mac and class

My sweet Mac finished the big all so exciting (can you hear my sarcasm?!) TAKS yesterday!!  So the room moms sent snacks.  I didn't have cupcake mix,  this shocked me b/c I try and keep this stocked!  I guess I used it all on Mille's party. I had plenty of cookies from the cookie sale at school. So I decided to make cookie sandwiches. 

After they cooled and I iced then I wrapped them in wax paper, I didn't want them to get messy.

Then we stuck them in these cute little brown sacks.  They were the perfect size for one cookie sandwich.  We attached a little card saying, "Way to go, We did it! Love, Mac" 

 Even though Mac had to take tests 2 days in a row she was actually excited about them.  She never ceases to amaze me.  She was fired up Monday night about the Math TAKS test, again I was amazed.  Mac wasn't the best Math student at the beginning of the year, but her teacher this year Mrs. Penson is AMAZING!!!!  We love her! She has given Mac not only the "skills" to succeed but also the passion and self esteem to make her soar this year.  So Monday night she couldn't stop talking about how great she was going to do on the test.  Then of course after she gets there and they do the test she is even more excited because they get longer recess  and, wait for it....they get to eat in the room!!!!! AWESOME!  My baby always finds the good in situations that others think stink, one of her best qualities.  

I had to include this pic because I thought it was cute/funny.  Tuesday night we had a tornado scare.  The kids were almost asleep, TAKS night-yikes!  We had to get the kids and hang out in the bathroom.  I ended up getting my iPad  and the kids watched Modern Family while I looked at a magazine and drank a glass of wine!  The funny thing is even after Craig came and told us the scare was over the girls and I still hung out until the show was over.  In case you didn't know, the Cherry family is weird!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mille! Mille's Silly Celebration!!!

It's taken me a while to post these because we have been super busy at the Cherry house.  Camille had a fabulous b-day party!!!  We had a wonderful group of friends (32 to be exact!) that helped celebrate.  Mille was able to see friends that are in her class, other 1st grade classes, other schools, neighbors, and family!  My baby was so happy that it made my heart glow.  Nothing is better than when your child has a huge smile on their face and says," Mama, this was the best party and day EVER!"  Mission accomplished!  Below are several pics of the decorations, it was so fun to prep and plan, one of my favorite things to do.  All of the material I used for Mille's party will either be used for aprons for Mac's 10th b-day party (yes Mac and I are already planning it! Mac is crazy good at party planning, maybe we'll open a business when she older!!!!) a baking theme, or I'll keep it for table runner, etc...

This is the cake and goodie table.  I covered the back wall with fabric because it was a huge, long mirror.  It would have open the room up more but I thought it looked yucky so I covered it!  My amazing Dad came and helped me set everything up!  It doesn't even flinch when I'm a bit short tempered while setting up.  He just asks where something goes and gets right to work.  My mom trained him well, she's was smiling in heaven that morning!  That man is my hero, I love him and I'm blessed he's my daddy!

Another view, the birthday banner behind is out of material, simple but fun.

This is the gift table.  I wish I would have had time to step back and check the tables!  I would have pulled the white table cloth forward so you didn't see the ugly legs of the table, I ran out of time!!!  Oh well.

Ok, I hate to even point this out b/c many people wouldn't even pay attention to this but my mind is evil to me and all I can pay attention to are those dumb chairs!!!  I was going to either rent all white chairs and have them delivered or I was going to make fabric covers for them, CRAZY I know but I was concerned about how the chairs would look and I was right!  They look horrible.  Again if I had time I would have gone around and at least matched all of the chairs, this is how it was set up.  Oh well, at least the table looks cute!  I ordered hats from Oriental Trading Co. then I made little lips and mustaches (there is a pic later of these) and placed them at each spot.  There are also rainbow suckers in the middle as well.  I bought fun popcorn sleeves and those were at each spot too.

Mac and Julianna checking out the sweets!

Mille's cake, we will enjoy that tonight actually!  I made the cake and used a cake tatoo!  I bought it at Micheal's, it is made by Duff's.  He's that guy on t.v. that makes all the cool cakes, Ace of Cakes.  Super easy and then I just added gumballs. I made the little girl on the cake as well but I think I already featured that on anohter entry.

Another view of the cake, cupcakes, cake ball sundaes, and marshmallow pops. Yummy!

If you look close you'll see that I put the cupcakes on "presents" I actually just wrapped foam to look like a present.  It turned out really cute!  I also wrapped the water bottles and put little sayings on there like, "Get silly at Silly Mille's celebration!" or "Silly Mille is 7!"then I attached a cute paper straw that had a little flag saying "Mille is 7!" using a silly band.  The kids loved that they got a silly band, whoever invented those things is rolling in the $$$$

Cake Ball Sundaes, these were a huge hit!  I never got to taste one! :o)

Marshmallow pops

I always make a sign for the girls.  After the party they hang it up on the bedroom door.

Sweet Mille listening to her friends sing Happy Birthday to her.

She made a special wish I bet!  This was the T-shirt I made her, # 7!  She's wearing it today too!!!

Mac with a tie-dye cupcake and her silly hat on.  I had 2 teenagers come and paint faces, they did an amazing job!!!!!!

Cutie pie Chloe (the girl's cousin) with her hat and silly mustache on!

Most of the group, some had to leave early.  Such a fun party!!!!

We went home and opened the presents, the girls raked it in!!!  My goodness!  This was a poodle that her friend Erika gave her!

What a kid, we had a great time.  I will post pics from her actual b-day (today) later today.  We are going somewhere that they will sing to her, those are her rules!  Happy Birthday sweet Mille!

Thank goodness I love my child and baking!!!!

Only a few days left for Mille's party!  She is so excited and as of right now we are expecting 32 kids, WOW! I think I have everything prepped and ready with only a few things left to do.  After the girls left this morning I started baking, actually I baked from 8:00-2:30.  I made 48 tie-dye cupcakes (didn't ice them yet), a 3 tiered cake (not completely iced yet) 40 cake ball sundaes, and 36 marshmallows pops. Tomorrow I need to go get a few b-day presents for family members and then I will finish a couple of things for the party. Exciting!!!

Here are the marshmallow pops, so stinkin easy and cute!

I used sprinkles that I had left over from all the holiday cupcakes and cookies I've made before and then ribbon left over from party decor.

These are the cute cake ball sundaes!  So easy, and super cute!!!  They take a little time but they are easy! It's just waiting for them to chill that takes the time, and when you are impatient like me that stinks! :o)

Too cute!!! Of course I picked a dented one to show, but you get the idea.  They are vanilla cake balls then you melt chocolate, put it in a squeeze bottle and squirt chocolate in a candy mold.  Then you squish down a cake ball in each mold and stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.  I did that to all of the cake balls then I melted the vanilla waffers and dunked each cake ball in the vanilla.  Then you just sprinkle with sprinkles and stick on a gum ball.  You can also make them so they are on a stick, but these were easier.  I didn't want to have to stick them into something for drying and display.

Again a dented one, but isn't it little and cute? 

Why is it the smaller something is, the cuter it seems? Oh by the way my little testers, Craig and Camille (I'm not telling Mac, she would be very jealous!!!  She was at dance when they tasted!) had one and they said they were yummy!  That's a relief b/c it would stink if they were only cute but tasted bad!!!

Easter treats and preparation for Mille's party!!!!

I can't believe Easter is right around the corner!!!  

I've been super busy getting stuff ready for Mille's party but I couldn't wait to get these little guys ready.  I ordered books for the girl's class through Scholastic.  The books I bought were $1! Mille's class is getting Junnie B. Jones and Mac's class is getting Dear Mr. Henshaw.  Then attached to it  are 2 little peeps and a note.  Hey Easter isn't Easter without some peeps! :o)

Nothin better than a cute book and some yummies!

I love Junie B. Jones!  One day I'd like to write some childrens books!!!!

On to Mille's party!  This party has been sooooo fun to prepare for.  It is a Silly Celebration for Silly Mille.  Here is a picture of the cake topper I made for her cake.  I got the idea off of one of my favorite blogs.  I found all of the wooden parts at Hobby Lobby and glued them together.  Then I painted the features and sewed the little dress.  The arms are wire and rope and the b-ball is air dry clay that I made into a ball.  Easy and fun!!!

Here are my versions of my girls!  Mac is on the left and Mille is on the right.  I made Mac's for her   

 b-day, hence the donut in her hand.

It's so funny because even though the figures are the same, the way I decorated them are so true to my girls!! Mac is so dainty and sweet and Mille is girly but with a flare!  I can totally imagine Mille being a college basketball player, but she would make it her own style.  Think Serena Williams meets basketball. My girl has got her own way of doing things, I love it and over time have learned to not only embrace it but  ADORE it. She is truly one of a kind to say the very least!

Sweet sisters!

This isn't a pretty picture but it does show the chaos of prep work for Mille's party.  As of right now I have 3 bags full of party stuff.  Yikes I hope I can get EVERYTHING there.  That's not to mention...

Party favors, 4 huge trash bags of balloons, and the cake, cupcakes, popcorn, marshmallow pops, and the list goes on. Yikes!!

Party supplies that I got online at one of my favorite blogs.  The polka dot papers are for popcorn, the little cups will hold my cupcakes and the circles to the right are the cupcake toppers I made.  I can't wait to post final pics of the party.  If it all goes well it will be super cute, well I hope!

April Fools' Day Fun!

A couple of years ago I started the tradition of playing a little prank on my kids for April Fools' Day.  Well actually it didn't start as a "tradition" I found a cute idea one year and thought I would do it and then the years after that my kids would get excited wondering what joke I was going to pull on them this year!  So the tradition began, I'm actually glad because I LOVE traditions!!  Hopefully they'll do it for their kids and so on.  So last year I froze milk in a clear cup, when they tried to drink their morning milk nothing came out!  They loved it!!!!  On a side note...don't try to pull a prank on your hubby by telling them one of your kids fell and broke their arm.  Especially if your hubby is out of town and doesn't want to be!  I found that out the hard way, didn't go over very well.  If I remember correctly it was the first and only time Craig actually hung up on me. Ouch, it still hurts to this day.    Not the best idea, if he did that to me I would be soooooo mad!!!!! Sorry about that, learned my lesson.   

  This year I'm doing a couple of things and hopefully they'll be a hit.  The morning of April Fools' day I'm going to serve them cereal, but of course it's not normal cereal!  I am freezing it as we speak and in the morning I will add new cereal to cover up the frozen part.  I think they'll laugh.  Another thing I'm doing is making "special cupcakes!"  It will really throw them for a loop because I'm doing an early April Fools' day prank (because of that they really won't suspect anything tomorrow morning, the cereal will be great!) Mac is spending the night with a friend tomorrow so I can't serve them for dinner, I thought about sending them to school with a cupcake but I want to see their reaction!  They look like normal cupcakes but they're really meatloaf with pink mashed potatoes on top!!! They will think I'm such a nice mom to serve dessert first, ha!  For other ideas look at www.familyfun.com fun ideas!!!!

It worked out good because I had a little bit of crushed up cereal left so I don't feel like I wasted anything!

Yummy! They'll never know!!!

All the ingredients for mashed potatoes and meatloaf (thank goodness the entire family loves meatloaf!)

In the cupcake liners ready to go, bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

I made the mashed  potatoes and added red food coloring.

Then I iced the little cupcakes.

I tried one for lunch and it's yummy!  Once they take a bite I will add a little pepper I couldn't put that in the potatoes.  I'm not sure how to explain pepper on cupcake frosting! :o)

Happy April Fools' Day!!!

Easter is coming soon!

I always love Spring time!!!  Everything is blooming and the weather is just delightful.  It was also my mom's favorite time of the year so even though I think of her daily all year long this time of the year is very precious to me.  I find myself remembering special memories of fun things we did together and also I imagine what fun and creative things she would be doing with my girls.  For those who don't know, my mom who was an AMAZING friend and mom pasted away in September of 2001 from a brain tumor.  I was about 7 months pregnant with MacKenzie at the time so my mom never got to meet either of my babies.  So many times I imagine what she would be doing with Mac and Mille, one thing is for sure she would be SO in love with both of them!!!  My dad and I joke that if she were still alive I would actually be begging her to leave my house and let me have some time with the girls alone.   If only .....

I included some pics of spring/Easter decorating that I do each year.  I give the girls a Christmas ornament each year so when they have a home of their own they will have a good start on their Christmas tree.  Then I got the idea from a friend to expand that to other holidays.  My second favorite holiday is Easter so each year I get Mac and Camille a bunny.  The girls love to look at each bunny and remember when they got it.

Some of my favorite pics of me and my mom!  I was probably a Sophomore at Baylor in the top pic.

This is a great photo that I love!! I was about 6 years old in this one.  My mom was so gorgeous!!!

These are bunnies my dad bought they girls last year in Salado.  Each year the girls and I go to Salado during Christmas (another thing I did with my mom and dad each year!  Love it, so the tradition continues with the girls and my dad!) but this particular year we didn't get to go at Christmas so we went in the Spring! These are actually my favorite bunnies. :o)

All the little bunnies on the table!

Far away view

This is a tiny view of what I've been working on!  Mille's 7th bday is coming up so I've been busy doing fun little things for her party!  Her are the water bottles each child is going to get.  The theme is "Silly Mille's Celebration!"

Little center pieces that I might use on a couple of the tables.  They didn't turn out as cute as I'd hope but they'll add fun to the party.  Once I have it all done I'll add more pics.  A lot is done but it is all in bags waiting for party time!