fall cupcakes and sprinklers

This was our last week before the girls start school, so we've stayed pretty busy. Kiersten has been begging to make cupcakes, and on wednesday, she cleaned her room, and talked Kara into helping clean the playroom too. So I went through a cookbook with them to pick out a flavor. They ended up choosing a yellow cake, which was good for me, because it was a simple recipe.

They took turns putting in ingredients and turning on/adjusting the speed on the mixer. They both still complained that the other was getting to do more or better ingredients.

Evie really wanted to be involved, so I let her down from the highchair to participate. She didn't get too many jobs, but she still felt like a big kid helping out. the other 2 were going crazy over who got to put in the eggs, so Evie ended up getting to do that part. She almost smacked away the measuring cup I'd put them in for her, because she was clapping so wildly for herself.

They looked through my hello cupcake book, and chose to do pumpkins. there was a template for the faces, but being a little lazy that day, I just melted down some colored chocolate and free handed the faces. They are on that wax paper to Kara's right. I didn't have any yellow, so I used a neon green to look like they were glowing, then I outlined them all in black. In retrospect, they would have probably looked a lot better had I just used the templates, and it probably wouldn't have taken much longer, but owell, too late now.

We made a vanilla buttercream, and colored it orange. Then I piped that onto the cupcakes with a star tip to make it look stripey. Then Kara's job was to put the faces on. I kept reminding her to keep the stripes vertical, but she did several of them horizontally, and they didn't look too bad.

I happened to have some chocolate covered sunflower seeds, so i decided we'd use those for stems. That was Kiersten's job. she kept saying she wanted to make them girl pumpkins, and asking if she could put bows on their stems. I told her no several times, but she ended up doing it anyway on most of them, and they actually looked kind of cute, I have to admit. Both of the girls only wanted to eat the boy pumpkins, though. Maybe they were trying to keep the girl ones around longer or something. Some of them got named, but I can't remember the names. See what I mean about the faces turning out a little sloppy? That's what I get, I suppose for being lazy.

I made enough faces to decorate 15 cupcakes. Even though I cut the recipe in half, we got 32 mini cupcakes out of it. So I sent a bunch of them to work with Ben to share. They are certainly not perfect, but good enough to make the girls happy. Kara also had a few issues with the spacing of the faces, but I guess it doesn't matter.

They were very proud of their creations. It was torture for them to have to wait until after dinner to eat any.

Since only 15 got to become pumpkins, we made some chocolate frosting for the rest. I also let them use the sunflower seeds to decorate the chocolate ones. They turned out very...interesting... and artistic...

Today was super hot, so after we got back from grocery shopping, I got out this sprinkler beach ball for the girls. Kara picked this out weeks ago, and this was the first time they've gotten to play with it. We've just been so busy for the past month.

She kept trying to run and jump over it, but she'd just end up hitting the top and bouncing back.

Kiersten complained a lot about getting wet. I don't think she had much fun. The only reason she kept getting back in the water, was to prove Kara wasn't having more fun than she was. She took a nap when we went inside, so I'm sure she was just tired and grumpy.

Ben went grocery shopping the other day at sam's club, and came home with this cute little picnic table. It's perfect for the girls, and they are always asking to eat in the backyard. When we had people over on monday for burgers, Kara took her plate out here, and sat by herself to eat.

4/12/11

Kara recieved a princess cupcake kit from her aunt Nancy for her birthday. Since then we've been busy, or out of town, or just had too many other treats around. But last week, I decided it was time to let her make them. The girls decided to have a princess party, and make the cupcakes at the end. So we all dressed up in dresses and jewelry. (notice the gorgeous necklace Kara made for me :)) They had me in a skirt, but I took that off for baking. It was pretty fun.

making the cupcakes.

They are always impatient when we have something baking. I had to put the cupcakes in the freezer to cool them faster, because they were so ready to get to the decorating. I know if they'd had more time to cool, they would have looked better. But oh well, they were gone after 2 days anyway.

they each had a little pastiage circle with a picture to paint. The edible water color was included with paint brushes. Kara got a little frustrated that she couldn't stay inside the lines with the brush. Kiersten was just worried about finishing her cupcakes first, and she had no reason to worry. She was done with all of hers before Kara was satisfied with her first one.

They loved the little pink crown wrappers around the cupcakes. Kara was reluctant to throw them away when she ate them. I was letting her save one for her scrapbook, but she left it down and Evie got ahold of it, so that was the end of it.

a closer view. can you see a difference between Kara's and Kiersten's?

The proud artiste. She loves watching cake decorating shows on tv and often tells us she wants to be a cake decorater.

Kiersten was pretty proud of her cupcakes, but mistakenly thought that she had free license to eat all of the ones she painted.

Princess Evie just got to sit in the high chair, snacking on a wagon wheel.

On sunday, I took the girls outside to ride their bikes. Kara fell down, and Kiersten decided it was too dangerous outside. So she brought her bike in the house. Evie was thrilled to see her riding it around.

my little beauty. It's fun to see her personality develpoing so much lately. She sure is a handful though.

Kiersten did end up coming back out to ride with kara. They have so much fun riding around together, but they hate that I wont let them ride in the street, or even go around the block unless I'm following behind them. I guess I'm just the worrying kind of mom.

that's all for now, as I have TONS to do before flying out to Utah with the girls soon. Hopefully Daddy can find something fun to do while we're gone. These 3 little girls are usually the focus around here.

1/27/11

I know it's gonna be a long day when Kiersten wakes up and says, "I want daddy to stay home today". I had to be the bad guy and tell her he was already gone to work. a classic, pouty bottom lip was her answer to that, and I've been hearing about how much she misses daddy all day. (I didn't even mention that he has a late meeting in Seattle tonight and will be home extra late). Kara joined in the daddy missing when I agreed to let her play wii. The controllers wouldn't link up, and I had no clue what to do about it. So they both were wishing he would come home. Luckily, they had a dentist appt. to look forward to. They are still at the age where going to the dentist consists of getting fawned over, and told how cute they are, getting "pictures" of their teeth, a little cleaning with bubble gum flavored toothpaste, and "mr. thirsty" to suck the water out of their mouth. Then they are sent home with a goodie bag and stickers, so it's something they really look forward to. While we were waiting for it to be time to go, Kara was still upset about the wii, so I told her we could do any kind of project she wanted. She chose a "fashion shoot". She wanted to be the photographer, but I talked her into being the director instead, so she could be in the pictures too. She chose everyone's outfits, tons of jewerly, and picked the settings. She tried to pose her sisters, but that didn't work out too well for her. This first one was cute, but the lighting was not working out, so I encouraged her to find another spot for the shoot. This worked out better, but Evie had started to get cranky.

The best Kara picture. She loves coming up with poses, but sometimes they just turn out looking odd. So this one was the best.

Kara got to help take the pictures of the other girls. She really loved Kiersten in this pose, and did about 8 pictures all posed the same.

Kiersten finally changed it up on her own, and we got this one.

Evie was crying a little, so we were trying to snap pictures each time she was calmed down. But once she saw the flash and heard the click, she'd start crying again.

Finally, the last pictures I'm gonna post from Kara's birthday. Kiersten helped me bake these big cupcakes while Kara was at school monday. I've had the jumbo cupcake pan for several years, and this is the first time I've used it. I can see why. They were really huge cupcakes. Who wants to eat that big of a cupcake?!? (besides Kiersten...) I didn't have quite enough chocolate frosting, so 2 had to be pink. Kara wanted her 5 candle on one of the pink ones. The other pink one mysteriously disappeared when Kiersten was left alone in the kitchen for a few minutes. I still can hardly believe she could eat such a large cupcake so quickly, but I have to believe it since I haven't been able to find any remains anywhere.

I got out the milk for the girls to have a drink, and by the time I turned back around, this little rascal was investigating the refrigerator. Since the camera was already on the counter, I had to snap a picture.

Kara asked for mac and cheese for her birthday dinner. I made chicken with it, and made her pick a veggie. She went with broccoli. While I was making the dinner, she had Kiersten help her set the table. I took their plates over first, and by the time I made plates for Ben and me, these 2 had already started scarfing down their dinner. notice she even made place cards.

Even Evie had a place card.

making a wish on her birthday cupcake. She got that crown at school. She was so excited to come home and tell me that she got a pair of sharp scizzors to use at school, and no longer has to use the little plastic safety ones.

I told Ben to take a picture of Evie by the cupcakes. He kept telling me to let go of her, and finally convinced me she'd be okay, so I let go. She didn't fall, but she did grab a handful of chocolate frosting, so I quickly grabbed her again as he took the picture. She was desperately trying to get her fingers in her mouth as I cleaned her off. So Ben felt badly, and snuck her a little of the pink frosting while I wasn't looking. Kara was talking to Nancy on Ben's phone.

Kiersten just had ice cream since she'd already snuck a cupcake earlier.

Happy Christmas Eve!

here are a few pics of what we've been doing this week.

I didn't want to do a gingerbread house this year, but I changed my mind, and bought one. They loved it, so it was worth the mess.

I did the icing, and the girls put on all the candy.

love this little Christmas baby!

making sugar cookies with the girls.

we also made a half bathch of cupcakes. I let the girls look through my cupcake books and pick out a Christmas one to do.

they chose ornaments. they were fun and easy. Ben did the 2 at the far right and bottom of the cookie sheet.

this morning I let the girls decorate the sugar cookies we baked yesterday. Kara always wants to use all different colors, and do it like coloring a picture. I made her stick to white or brown, with a few sprinkles options.

happy girls. We have been watching SO many Christmas cartoons the last few weeks. Yesterday and today were no exception. (excuse the chocolate stain on my sweater. I was making a pie, and didn't notice it.)
I don't think this kid could be any more excited about Christmas! We are just trying to keep them busy so they wont nap. We don't need them staying up late tonight. Hopefully a long drive in the car to look at lights will get them tired later.
I wish everyone could hear how cutely she says. "Kwissmiss" and "thana kwas".
Karalee and Kiersten have been dying to wear their new Christmas dresses forever. I now realize I need to get a good standing shot of them wearing them. Kiersten loves to dress up and be "fancy". She was thrilled to get her hair curled.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas tomorrow!!!