More Christmas treats

 I made these for my brother John and his family who came to spend Christmas with us this year.

These were so much fun but took some time.
Santa head: white chocolate Lindt truffle.
beard-marshmellows
hat-fruit slice and pearl sprinkles
nose-cut mini M&M
I used pink chocolate to attach everything and make rosy cheeks.

 Reindeer head-milk chocolate Lindt truffle
nose-mini M&M
antlers- pretzels.
I used chocolate to attach everything.  I had to hold the pretzels on the head until it dried, otherwise it fell over.  They ended up taking longer than I thought to make.

Reindeer donuts.  Love this idea from Pinterest.

 Shan made the cookies and I decorated them.  These are so delicious.  She added peanut butter between 2 Ritz crackers and dipped it in white chocolate.  Simple yet so yummy.  The snowman was my favorite.  Next time I'll turn his nose to the side a little.

I know this is cheesy but I wanted this pic for me.  I turned my BELIEVE sign from the Polar Express party into a WELCOME sign, added a variety of the above treats to a platter, and included some sparkling cider with hopes that our guests feel welcomed and loved when they walk in our door.  

Happy Birthday, Jesus! :)

So my 3 year old attends a preschool at the Episcopal church, which is absolutely amazing.  We love it!!!
At Christmas time they are wonderful and center most of the lessons around the Savior.  The kids love birthday celebrations and so they have one for Jesus as well.  This year I got to be the lucky one to make the birthday cake!
I

I found the general idea online.
-stable-graham crackers glued together with chocolate.
-manger-I used Alisha's baby and added tootsie rolls with chocolate to make the manger stand a little taller.
-hay-toasted coconut
-star- I rolled out a yellow fruit slice and used a small star cookie cutter. I "glued" it onto a sucker stick.
-letters-blue chocolate

Polar Express party

 Patti gave me the idea to do a Polar Express party and I am so glad I did. Not only was it a super fun way to get excited about Christmas but we got to do it with our awesome friends.

Here's the invitation we used.  Click here to print your own.
They are super simple(thanks to Alisha) and fun.  I just hand wrote all the info on back.
Mine read:All Aboard! Departure Date: Dec. 14 Boarding Time: 3:00
Departure Point: Wyatt and Ethan's house. Join us for a trip to the North
Pole as we watch Polar Express and party in our PJ's. 

We had fun making snowflakes and hanging them all over.

We can't have a Polar Express party without a hot(warm) chocolate bar.
They had gingerbread and french vanilla marshmallows to choose from
and a peppermint candy cane to stir with. I found these great hot
chocolate cups with lids at Wal-Mart.

Popcorn bar
We like to add treats (M&M's and Sixlets) to our popcorn

North Pole cupcakes.  Found on Pinterest.
Super easy. I used melted chocolate to add a North Pole sign to a peppermint candy cane and a red M&M to the top.

/

 They were so cute in there PJ's.

Thanks Alicia and Shan for all your help!!

Take home prize!
Straw, hot chocolate, candy cane, and a bell (found these at Hobby Lobby.)

Here is the link for the Believe tag.

WE BELIEVE!!

Festival of Lights

 I helped make treats for our scout pack meeting this month. The theme was Festival of Lights.  I found this idea on Pinterest.

 I found the bulb sprinkles at Target.

Football cupcakes!

I made these for Ethan to take to a SEC Championship
 game party at his buddy Drew's house.

I added raspberry filling. I found this football mold at my local cake supply store.  It was fun adding the Alabama A.

Roll Tide Roll!!!!

Bridal shower cupcakes

Jill, Mindi and I did this bridal shower for Erika.

Pam Norris did all the amazing flowers.  I couldn't
get over these beautiful colors. 

 These flowers make our cupcakes look good.  I had such a fun time helping with these treats.  The colors Jill chose were so fun to work with.

The chocolate cupcakes had a raspberry filling.
Raspberry filling
16 oz. frozen raspberries thawed
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixtures boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir thawed raspberries into cool mixture.

The vanilla cupcakes had a butterscotch ganache:
Butterscotch ganache 
6 oz.(1 cup) butterscotch morsels
6 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
 In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage. Pour over the butterscotch morsels. Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.

 These were the different chocolate letters we did. We found the dark blue chocolate at Hobby Lobby.

 I have used this heart mold several times but it's a good bridal shower cupcake topper.  I used white frosting to add the N (Norris) to the heart after it was set up.

 We added silver sprinkles to these N's before they set up.

 Here was the delicious spread!

Me, Jill and Mindi.  Love these girls and their talents!!!

Gobble, Gobble

Shan helped me make these little turkeys (from Pinterest) for Wyatt's preschool class. And turkeys they were.  They seem so easy but were a little more difficult than we expected.

The hardest part was getting them to stay together. We used chocolate to glue them which worked great but took awhile to set in place.
We used double stuffed Oreos for the body, Reese Peanut Butter cups (cut so they sit flat) for the body, and a whopper for the head. We used chocolate for glue to stick the candy corn in. Sometimes the cookie would break but we just opened it and put some chocolate in to glue it back together.
*I didn't want to use the candy corn as the beak so I used orange frosting instead.
For the eyes we used yellow frosting and sprinkles for the pupils.

Once we were done, we both agreed it was worth it.  They are cute little guys.

Wyatt was so happy to give these to all of his little turkey friends.

Thanksgiving treats

Jill and I got together all day today to make Thanksgiving treats. We made these Pilgrim Hats for Ethan's class and her guests. They were so easy.  I love Pinterest.

We dipped marshmallows in chocolate then put in on the back of a Fudge Stripped Cookie. I had some left over yellow frosting that we used to make the buckle.

Ethan also wanted to take some acorns to his friends along with the hats. They are his favorite so I say, Why Not? Another easy make.  I used the same chocolate to glue a hersheys kiss and mini nilla wafer together.  I added a mini chocolate chip on top.

They go together right?? Pilgrim Hats and acorns.  Close enough!

Speaking of acorns, Jill and I made these 2 weeks ago for her daughters class birthday party. They were really easy and fun too!

Do the sprinkles take away from the acorns?

Today we also baked 6 pumpkin rolls!! Why did I not get a picture of us.  We were covered in powdered sugar and so was her entire dining room.  It was so fun!  I also wish I would have gotten a better pic of the rolls.  We made these for our visiting teachees and I remembered last minute to get my phone out and take a picture while they were still in my car.  Oh well!  I love this memory! Thanks Jill!

Monster Birthday!

Roar, John Taylor's 4!

I love love this theme for a boys birthday theme! I loved helping Shan plan and execute this!

Here's the cupcake tower! Shan did the cute monster face on tower and I helped her make the cupcakes.

This big guy was John Taylor's.  We used a jumbo cupcake with a regular cupcake stacked on top.  It was one heavy monster.  We put 4 marshmallows on top instead of candles, which totally fit him.  He only ate 2 bites of the cake but made sure all the mallows were gone. =)

Here's a close up of the mini cupcakes we did.  We used small marshmallows and six lets for his eyes.  We drew the pupils on with edible markers.

For the regular sized cupcakes we used marshmallows for the eyes.  We used star tips, the hair tip, and leaf tip for the monster hair.

The best part about these cupcakes, besides the fact that they were super easy is John Taylor picked them out. What good taste!

So here are some of the other super fun things Shan did for this monster bash! She and her dad made these monster boards out of wood and the kids loved throwing bean bags in their mouth.  They also made for cute photo ops. The kids heads fit perfectly in the mouths.

Love the goggly eyes!

Monster marshmallow pops

She added monster faces to capri suns.

Love the monster play dough take home treat and the glass monster jar with chocolate eyeballs coming out of his mouth.

This was the kids table she decorated.  Can you see the monster faces on the end chairs?

We also made these for John Taylor's preschool class.

I love how Shan decorated this cupcake carrier.

Happy 4th Birthday John Taylor!