Monday Quicky!

Imagine my surprise when I went to use the restroom and I found the toilet lid smiling at me:

Courtesy of Little Dude of course.

More Special Gems - With Pictures!

AKA - Not So Wordless Wednesday

Monday I shared some kids say the darnedest things moments, courtesy of Little Dude.

Today I have some funny (to me at least) photos to share.

This one isn't so much HAHA! funny, so much as it is HUH! funny. . . I'm not sure if that even makes sense.

Anyway, since Little Dude developed his love for all things vehicle, he has enjoyed lining them up in a row. I don't remember when I first noticed it. Maybe when he was around 18 months.

An example of a lineup around the dishwasher door.

More recently, he started sometimes organizing the lineups by color. I don't have a picture of this, but he is pretty good at it. Then yesterday, I was watching him play. He decided to organize the vehicles by size: 

Little Dude's Special Gems

I really want to name these types of posts: The Sh!t My Kid Says, but in an effort to remain family friendly I will resist. Not sure I achieved that with this title either though. . . but I digress.

It has been over a week since my last post and I blame all the Christmas festivities and general business of life lately. Lets just pretend last week didn't exist - That way, I am still posting rather actively actually! The lack of posting certainly hasn't been for the lack of inspiration. A day without any special gems are rare with Little Dude around.

I am unfortunately not feeling so well today (and neither is he), so I'll keep things short so that I can return to moping around on the couch ASAP.

*Just the other day, I was baking sugar cookies; I had the dough rolled out on the counter and Little Dude came up to me and said, "Oh mommy mommy I wanna watch! You making cookies? Can I watch with my mouth?"

How to Give Yourself a Heart Attack

Step 1:   Buy a giant Elmo balloon for your child's birthday:

Step 2:   Leave it sitting in front of your entry way door once it is done being played with. You get extra points if its also next to an air vent or fan so that it floats around randomly.

Murphy's Law: The Toddler Version

A funny little example of how "what can go wrong, will go wrong" can often does apply when you have a toddler around.

Once you become a parent, there is no allowance for turning off your brain. Even on the weekend. . .



A while back, I had a couple of sponge brushes laying out on the dining room table. I had just finished stencilling the dining area wall. I had packed away the paint and other stencilling equipment immediately, because I knew that leaving them out was just asking for trouble. I figured the brushes alone would be fine though. Besides, they needed to dry after being washed anyway.

Can't make a mess with these if there is no paint right?

Nursery Art and Decore - Almost Done!

A while back I featured my kids' rooms. It has been a while since I have touched much in either room, but I did have an unfinished project in Baby Boo's room: more wall decorations.

Baby Boo's Room

Click HERE for more details

Since creating the room (way back when I was a giant preggo ), I had planned to put up frames and maybe some art on this bare wall:

Our Crazy Thanksgiving and 5QF

Long time no see 5 Question Friday!

In the spirit of all the Thanksgiving-y questions, I decided I should participate in the 5QF this week. We had a very interesting Thanksgiving to say the least. The plan was to have breakfast/brunch at my parents' house, and then go to dinner at my In-Laws' (IL). My MIL and FIL both came down with a nasty bug the day before, so Thanksgiving was changed to my SIL's house.

On Thanksgiving morning, we were at my parents' house when it was decided that it would be better to have dinner at our house instead. We got home by 1 and had until 4pm to get everything ready. The house wasn't even clean! Luckily it was the kids' nap time, so we set them down and got to cleaning right away. Thankfully the house wasn't a disaster to begin with.

My MIL, had all the groceries so hubby picked them up around 2pm and brought them over. SIL arrived before 3 and we started cooking. Luckily the turkey was taken care of for us already otherwise we obviously wouldn't have made it. By 4, the house was clean when everyone arrived, and before 5pm we set up a table for 11 in our living room (our dine-in kitchen has room for *maybe* 6). We had turkey (pre-made), gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (brought in), yams, stuffing, 2 types of cranberries, ceasar salad, and dinner rolls. Not bad for an incredibly last minute effort. Unfortunately MIL and FIL were not feeling well enough to come. They were missed, but we had a great time with other family.

Here are some shots of dinner in the living room:

Wordless Wednesday - November 23, 2011

What I am most thankful for this year:

Not So Wordless Wednesday - November 16, 2011

The kids and I were enjoying a lazy day at home recently, and we got to playing in the kitchen. The light was streaming in through the kitchen window so beautifully, so I whipped out my camera and snapped away. I only have a point and shoot, and I definitely don't have much technical know-how. Still, I got some fun photos out of the deal.

Here are a few of them:

Playing cars on the open dishwasher

Finger Painting Adventures

Somehow, I let Little Dude get dangerously close to age 3 before doing a finger painting project at home. The sad part is that we have had a set of washable finger paints for over a year now and still managed to never do anything with them. He has finger painted elsewhere (like in his toddler class), but never at home. We draw, cook, and do other creative projects, but not finger paint.

This past weekend was my mom's birthday, so I decided that it was a great excuse to finally get some finger painting under our belts. I bought a couple of 8x10" canvases from Michael's so that the kids could make some masterpieces for grandma's birthday.

I cleared off the kitchen table and set everything up. Little Dude was very excited to start:

Not So Wordless Wednesday - November 9, 2011

I tried to come up with a post for Monday and Tuesday to no avail. I am having a week of writer's block it seems so I won't bore any of you by forcing something. I don't need any hate mail from people requesting the last 2 minutes of their life back.

Creativity is in no short supply elsewhere in this house though. . . nor is artistic ability it seems. I'm just going to go ahead and be a proud bragging momma and show off Little Dude's latest drawing:

Not So Wordless Wednesday - November 2, 2011

I had to go with the obvious Halloween theme here because I have cute photos to share of the kiddos. Sorry if you are my friend on Facebook because nothing here is new, but it was definitely the highlight of our week.

I am enamoured with Tom Arma costumes for kids. The only problem with that is they are rather expensive. I scoured the internet and kept a close eye on eBay, and scored both costumes for a decent amount less than MSRP on 1. As an added bonus, the kids coordinated rather nicely:

Little Dude was a dinosaur and Baby Boo was a tree frog.

Pinterest Challenge - Halloween Fun!

As many of you already know, Pinterest is an addictive site that has the potential to suck a person in for hours staring at inspiring decor, DIY ideas, clothes, food, art, etc. It also has the potential to inspire some great projects and cooking, but the reality is that most of those fun pins usually stay as pins.

I definitely am guilty of pinning WAY more than I will ever make use of - For that reason, I decided I really like the idea of doing the Young House Love Pinterest Challenge:

Buying Nice New Kid Clothes on the Cheap

I love kiddy fashion, which unfortunately means that I love to buy my kids clothing that retails for way too much. I personally don't have an issue with buying myself some higher end pieces, but when I know something might be outgrown in 3 months, I don't really want to slap down too much money for it.

If you're like me, and several other (mostly) women that I know, you love stepping into those stores and taking it all in. I think my heart races each time I walk into a Baby Gap. The clothes are so stinkin' cute!

Photos courtesy of Gap.com

Not So Wordless Wednesday - October 26, 2011

We carved some pumpkins the other day. . . and by we, I mean me. Little dude watched for a while and asked me what I was doing a million times, but he didn't even want to help me scrape out some seeds.

Here is what my silly children did the majority of the time:

Weirdos!

Here is the first Jack o lantern all done:

The Craziness that is a Two Year Old

There is nothing more entertaining than a 2 year old when they blurt out or do the most random things. I have recently started writing the stuff down more so that I can remember it.

Randomness that has come out of his mouth when talking to strangers at the grocery store:

"O-bots aw awesum!" {he was less than 2 years old - translation: robots are awesome!}

"I am SOOOOO happy!"

"I eated lots and lots of pills" {He didn't, but I walked away quickly before the person could think about calling CPS}

After a day or 2 of potty training boot camp, Little Dude was becoming very familiar with anatomy and we had a conversation about how mommy and sister don't have penises. Well, we stopped by Target a while later, and very randomly Little Dude looked at the cashier and announced, "Mommy have no penis." I was a little mortified. Luckily, the cashier laughed and assured me that she had kids of her own and remembers those years of verbal diarrhea.

Not So Wordless Wednesday - October 19, 2011

Quick little {almost} Wordless Wednesday today!


Baby Boo has started really liking my purses lately and likes to stand and hold them just like mommy:

One Year Pictures!

As you can probably already tell, we recently had some family portraits taken. I figured it would be a good time to do a blog redesign with some updated photos and colors too.

You might remember some of my portrait brainstorming posts from few months ago (here and here).

For the family photos, I wanted something cute and coordinated, without being super matchy matchy. I think it looks cheesy when everyone in the family is wearing the exact same outfit or even the exact same shades and fabrics. I did want a color theme though so I settled on yellow and white. The only problem with that is I was shopping in late August/ early September for these clothes; Yellow and white clothes aren't exactly all over at the very end of summer. I managed to make do.

How to get Your Toddler to Eat Lunch - Wrong and Right Ways

Here are a couple of scenarios that I have had the pleasure of partaking in recently.

You quickly learn some tricks for dealing with:

The NO monster!

How to get your toddler to eat lunch:

Not So Wordless Wednesday - October 5, 2011

To go along with my outdoor post yesterday, I figured I would share some photos from our time at the playground:

As soon as we got there, Little Dude immediately went over and started playing with dirt and rocks.

Such a boy!

While I took the photos of her brother, Baby Boo took it upon herself to climb the steep stairs. I didn't notice until she was halfway up (bad mommy). I was too busy rushing over to support her to take a photo that time. I wasn't being over protective either, she is very shaky on that thing and almost fell a few times:

Nature Defecit Disorder - Not This Week!

Fall has arrived with a vengeance and we are absolutely loving it!

The view from my front door this morning.

It really snuck up on me since the end of summer was so busy. Now life is a little more relaxed and being in MN, we know that our days of fun outside are numbered. We are having some unseasonably gorgeous weather lately and I have been trying my best to get outside with the kids as much as possible.

Wall Stencil Finito!

I am on a roll with the dining area project. I am happy to say that the most time consuming portion is finally done: the stencilling!

Stencilling has been popular lately in the DIY world and there is good reason. It can be beautiful, impactful, less expensive than wallpaper, more customizable than wallpaper, and easier to re-do or remove than wallpaper. Back in the spring I came across an article on Casa Sugar that featured this Moroccan design that was used for a bathroom makeover:

See article here.

I fell in love with the technique right away and I knew that one day I would have to try it in my own home. The opportunity presented itself fairly quickly with the "naked wall" that we had in the dining area of our kitchen. Here is the mock up I made of the wall:

Five Question Friday - September 29, 2011

Another busy busy weekend on deck so that means it is time for the 5QF:


   1. Do you apologize to your kids if you're wrong?

Who seriously answers no to this? Of course I apologize if I am wrong. I would be setting a horrible example for them if I didn't. They might not know now if I am lying or deceiving them, but they will pick up on that sooner rather than later. I prefer not to lose all my credibility when that moment comes.

Now with my hubby that is a moot point. . . seeing as I'm never wrong.


   2. Do you have a class ring, letterman's jacket, or similar obscenely priced high school "most have"?

Not So Wordless Wednesday - September 28, 2011

A couple of weeks ago the kids got this Melissa and Doug wooden magnetic alphabet set:

This is not an advertisement for Melissa and Doug, but the set is only $9.99 - just sayin'

The point of (not so) Wordless Wednesday is to show off photos, not jibber jabber about products- so here are my kids loving their new magnets:

Finally Making Headway on the Wall

I have been talking (writing) about the empty wall in the dining area of our kitchen for a few months now and so far it has been a whole lot of me yapping, and not enough of me doing anything. Honestly all the craziness with Baby Boo's birthday party and our family portraits these last few weeks had me rather distracted and I didn't get a whole lot done.

It has been a couple of weeks since all that though, and now I am happy to report that I have made some major progress on "the wall".

To recap, this was what I had planned originally for the wall of the dining area of our kitchen back in May:

Five Question Friday - September 23, 2011

My calender on my phone says that it is Friday already. I'm not sure that I believe it, but just in case I'll answer a 5QF.

   1. Dream Job. . . realistic and completely unrealistic.

Realistic - I would get my MBA and be an executive at a company in the science field. . . rather broad, but I haven't thought it through very much since I'm rather content where I am actually.

Unrealistic - If I didn't have kids I would want to be a wine buyer for a large company. I would be wined and dined all over the world on some company's dime to pick out wines. Mmmmm wine. Since I do have kids that dream job would have to change a little. Maybe I would choose to be a professional blogger that just reviews products (and Hawaiian vacations) left and right while someone else handles actually writing and maintaining the blog. What? You asked for unrealistic so you got it!


   2. Do you fart in front of your significant other?

Not So Wordless Wednesday - September 21- 2011

I shared a couple of photos of my sweet baby girl snoozing on the couch last week. I guess I have been on a sleeping babies kick lately because I have several more to share with you this time.

Here are another couple of her passed out on the couch:

Shoes for Babies and New Walkers

Baby and kid shoes is a topic that most people don't give much thought to before they have their own children. I mean, what could be so complicated about shoes? They should be cute, and they should fit. . . right?

Turns out, it isn't quite that simple - shoes can directly encourage (or discourage) the development of walking and coordination. This means that the right type of shoe actually matters quite a bit.

When your baby is born, he/she doesn't need shoes for a while. Socks work great for keeping feet warm and toasty in colder climates. You might recall my post from last April: Shoes - A Girl's Best Friend in which I professed my love for shoes and how that has extended to my daughter's shoe collection:

Most of Hailey's shoes back in April.

THE Party!

Enough anticipation already. . . onwards with the party pics!

      (If you need to catch up, check out this post then this post)

I feel like I have built this party up immensely, and because now I'm self conscious, I will have to add this disclaimer: I put a lot of time and effort into this party no doubt about that - but in the end - it was just a first birthday party. Don't be expecting no Sweet 16 kind of shiz around here*.
  *No need to comment on my exceptional grasp of the English language either - I already know it's fantabulous!

Phew, now that I got that off my chest. . .

Here is an overall view of the picnic shelter pre-party:

See -- Simple kiddy party!

That's my momma holding the birthday in the middle there.

Birthday Cake Love

Birthday parties can be a lot of work. . . at least if you do them like me they are. I know some people don't feel like it is worth it, and I agree it isn't for everyone, but I love the results and am so glad it all worked out great in the end. Baby Boo's party has definitely been the most labor intensive party I have ever thrown, and it was definitely the coolest looking.

If you missed all the previous posts on the party preparations, check out yesterday's post for a recap.

So lets start with the cakes. Over the last few months I have been ogling cakes on google and Pinterest. I have looked at some pretty amazing inspiration and even baked a couple of practice cakes. I found myself at a point where I was comfortable working with fondant, but I still had no idea what to do for the big party cake. The only thing I knew is that I wanted to make a tiered cake.

The smash cake I had a better idea of what I wanted. I believe it was back in June that I saw this cake on Pinterest:

Originally from the amazing Sweetapolita.

Five Question Friday - September 16, 2011

A hectic week comes and goes. Me thinks I need a weekend where I don't have to do anything please.

I have been finding these 5QF questions to be kind of boring lately. . . maybe I should think of some myself and submit them. . . that would require a lot of effort. . . maybe I'll just do nothing. . . yes, nothing sounds good. Onto this week's questions:

   1. If you had a weekly newspaper column, what would you name it?

Ummm, I don't know how good I am at witty titles. Seeing as how my blog is titled Stay at Home Who? - I would probably go with that for other publications.

   2. Who is your mentor/inspiration?

Ack, I don't know if I have one specific person. I find all sorts of positive qualitites in different people that I try to emulate, but no one person that embodies what I want. My mom provides a lot of insporation to me, as well as some moms I know that appear to be super mom all the time. I know they're not, but they have so much energy and that is something I strive for in my own life.

First Birthday Party Prep - Presents and Projects

I figure I should take a break from that mountain of laundry calling my name to share photos and details about Baby Boo's 1st birthday party last Sunday. It was a big success, and we got all sorts of compliments on the decor. Upon last update, I had all sorts of ideas in my head, and I was diligently chopping away at the to-do list.

Here is a recap of the process leading up to the party:

If you weren't already aware, I spent a good deal of time planning and daydreaming about this party. This blog was my journal of sorts to catalogue all of my ideas. It started back in May when I rented a local park picnic shelter, and wrote Sixteen Weeks and Counting. Summer came and I became a little distracted with all the fun summer activities, but I always kept an eye out for inspiration on Pinterest, and wherever else as mentioned in All Over the Place. Finally in early August I lost my fondant v-card and made some homemade marshmallow fondant and a practice cake on Conquering Fondant. With less than 3 weeks left to go, I really started listing everything I needed to get done on First Birthday Party Organization. Finally, with 10 days left to go, I showed off the birthday outfit I made as well as a second practice cake on More Birthday Odds and Ends.

The week before the party was definitely hectic - hence the blog neglect. I was also trying to get everything ready for the family/birthday portraits 2 days after the party. My Amazon account was exercised rather heavily. I would arrive home sometimes to a stack of several (beautiful) brown boxes with smiles on them. They really made this shop-a-holic's heart skip a beat each time I saw them. Of course, now that it is all over, spending is being cut back big time until the holidays roll around.

Not So Wordless Wednesday - September 14, 2011

There is some serious blog neglect going down around these parts in the last couple of weeks. I have been totally consumed by random projects, Baby Boo's birthday party, her 1 year portraits, classes starting for the kids, and other random craziness that is our lives. I hope you can bear with me a few more days as I try to get back on track. I now have about a dozen loads of laundry, and some major deep cleaning of my house left to do.

In an attempt not to leave everyone hanging too much, I'll post some sneak peaks from both the party and the portraits:

Not So Wordless. . . Thursday - September 8, 2011

This is a bit of a crazy week for me since I am doing a bunch of prepping for the party on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday were a wash due to the holiday weekend and family happenings so I have a 3 day week to get several projects done.

I figured I should get at least a quick post up and share some photos.

Last Saturday we went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. It was a good time for all of us and the Little Dude especially had a blast. Amongst all the activities, there were elephant rides:

10 Tips for Coping with Insomnia - Because it Sucks

I am a little sleep deprived today so I am definitely lacking for inspiration on what to write. I have many an idea floating around in my head, but they are all slightly out of reach. My mind just doesn't want to go there right now, and I have decided to not fight it for now. Instead of rambling on incessantly about  nothing, I want to share some tips a friend gave me on dealing with insomnia. Kind of random I suppose, but the tips are actually pretty decent, and she manages to put a funny spin on it all. She has dealt with severe insomnia herself since she was 12, so I guess she would know.

Her rules are in red, and my own thoughts are in teal:

1. You MUST go to bed at the same time every night, and wake up at the same time every morning. Regardless of whether you sleep or not.     I suck at this one. I am terrible at sleeping on a fixed schedule. The whole kids thing doesn't necessarily help since their various moods and ailments change up their routine fairly frequently.

Five Question Friday - September 2, 2011

Shut the front door, there is no way it is September! I totally didn't catch that yesterday. The end of summer is fast approaching, and Baby Boo's birthday is coming even faster. Next weekend is sure to be hectic so I guess I should try to relax and appreciate this one since there isn't much of anything going on. Happy holiday weekend everyone in the US, and happy weekend to everyone else.


   1. Shoes in the house - yay or nay?

Mostly nay, but if they are clean it doesn't bother me really. Sometimes I am lazy and wear them for a few minutes before taking them off. I am especially bad about taking the kids' shoes off once we get inside. This is a big no no in the winter though because that would make a horrible mess. It is funny how cultural this practice is. In Chile or Australia (from my experience), people don't normally take their shoes off before going into a house, but here some people completely freak out that not everyone does it automatically.

This question does remind me that I want to get some projects done with the front and side entryway to our house. We need knew shoe and coat rack organization because it is a big jumbly mess right now. This will probably take a few months since they will require some larger expenses, but I think they can get done this year.

Holy Harvest Batman!

I haven't done a garden update in several weeks; mostly because I have been busy and have not focused on the garden too much. That doesn't mean that it has been a flop. On the contrary, it has been a raging success!

Since this is my first real attempt at gardening ever, I didn't really know what to expect in terms of harvest. I would honestly have been relieved if I had managed to simply keep more than half the plants alive. As you may have seen in the last few garden updates, I have managed to actually harvest some honest to goodness vegetables. If you aren't familiar with my gardening journey, check out the gardening tab on the top of the blog for some history (or click here).

Sibling Bond Development

I have written a couple of posts about the mommy guilt that comes with having a second (or beyond) child. They are Mommy Guilt - Having a Second Child, and Dealing With Second Child Guilt - Revisited if you aren't familiar. In the second post, I went on about how the gift of a sibling far overshadows any loss of attention that a first born might have to deal with. I used my own sibling relationships to make my point.

Well, it has been a mere month and a half since that last post and I just had to share how much more evident that point is becoming in our lives lately.

More Birthday Odds and Ends - Cakes and Outfits

12 Days To Go!

I'm having a lot of fun planning this party. The hubby is liking it too because he gets to eat the practice cakes. I try not to have more than 1 slice of each because I don't want to gain 20lbs before the party - that would be sad. Hubby has a crazy fast metabolism so he is in the clear for that. He could probably eat a whole cake a day and still have a six pack. . . not that I'm jealous or anything.

Modified Onesie - Mock Necklace with Rosettes and Crystals

I was feeling crafty again today so I decided to experiment with modifying a onesie.

I went through Baby Boo's closet and found a few plain white onesies. I actually picked one that had a design on the front because I knew the design would get covered up anyway, and because I liked the fit of this longer and lighter cotton onesie compared to the thick and boxy Gerber brand ones:

Five Question Friday - August 26, 2011

After 2 weeks of hiatus from 5QF, I figured I better jump back in. Happy Friday to everyone!


  1. Did you make any fun purchases this week?

I bought an outfit for a wedding - dress and shoes - coming up in October. All my other wedding attire was too summery so I needed something new. The dress itself is not too revealing, but it is not flattering to the midsection if there is much additional flub so it is great motivation to stay in shape. the shoes are AMAZING!

Not So Wordless Wednesday - August 24, 2011

I probably could have stuck to the rules for this Wordless Wednesday since these photos really need no caption - That's just not my style though. So without further ado, I bring to you my spaghetti monster:

First Birthday Party Organization

There are two and a half weeks until Baby Boo's 1st birthday and her 1st birthday party!!!

I'm not usually a list making kind of person - I'm just not that organized. I did make one this time though because I want to try to make the actual weekend of the birthday party relatively stress free and that means I can't leave everything until the last minute. This is what I came up with a few months ago:

1. Rent park pavilion
2. Figure out color scheme
3. Make decorations
4. Try making marshmallow fondant trial cake
5. Figure out design for actual cake
6. Figure out food for party
7. Design invites and order them online 
8. Send out invites
9. Buy Hailey's birthday presents
10. Decide on a birthday outfit for Hailey to wear

Potty Training Boot Camp - The Results

Several weeks ago I announced that I was going to do a potty training boot camp with Little Dude because I really wanted him to be done with diapers. If you missed those posts, check out Potty Training Boot Camp: Prelude and In the Thick of It. Being that the last mention of it was 3 weeks ago, I figured I owed everyone an update on the situation.

First things first, is he potty trained?

The answer is. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - August 17, 2011

I may permanently change this to Not So Wordless Wednesday because my yapping mouth (or fingers) has a hard time ever being wordless about anything. I feel it is best to be realistic with oneself and embrace those short comings.

I shared this on FB, but they were too cute to stop there. Here is Baby Boo eating some of her grandma's empanadas. My mom makes some amazing empanadas and Baby Boo got to try one for the first time. She obviously liked it since she ate a whole one and they are not small:

Yes. . . I'm Alive. . .and Doing a Meme!

Wow, almost a whole week without a post! Considering I often post daily, I have been more than a little neglectful. Life gets in the way sometimes, but I'm back on the horse and I appreciate everyone putting up with my little hiatus. . . or maybe no one noticed. I'm OK with it either way really.

I was tagged the other day in a meme by the lovely Elizabeth at Momma Two.

If you aren't familiar with her blog I highly recommend checking her out. She has an incredible way with words and tends to be rather hilarious. She doesn't sugar coat anything about mommy-hood and I love that about her.

(Totally Not) Wordless Wednesday - August 10, 2011

Today I have a couple of addendums (or is it addenda?) to previous posts.


Do you remember this series of photos from a few weeks back?:

If not, you can check it out here - please do so before calling CPS.

Well, the bad parenting must be rampant around here because Baby Boo got in on the action too:

Conquering Fondant

I mentioned a while back that I will be making Baby Boo's birthday cake just like I have all of Little Dude's. I also mentioned that I want to try to use fondant this time around. Since fondant is notorious for being difficult to work with, I figured I better not leave things until the weekend of the party. I found this recipe for homemade fondant on the Bake at 350 blog. There are several similar recipes floating around the internet and they all claimed to be much yummier than store-bought fondant. This sounded great to me since most fondant tastes like a bland, gummy, mess.

Last Friday I figured I would go ahead and give it a shot.

Five Question Friday - August 5, 2011

How is it seriously Friday again? This last month or so of summer is whirring by like crazy. I look at my calender on my phone and it looks like every single day for the next month has at least 1 event, if not more. As much as I'm loving it, I may breath a sigh of relief come fall. . . then right after the holidays I will wish it all to come back to glorious summer once again.

   1. Do you have siblings and are you close to them?

Yes I have 4 siblings and we are a pretty close family. I am the oldest followed by two brothers, and then twin sisters. We all live close by and see each other fairly often. Family dinners are always rather hilarious. We tease each other a lot and always manage to have a good time. My mom had all 5 of us in 4 1/2 years so we are rather close in age.

   2. Would you rather be slightly UNDER weight or slightly OVER weight?

The Naked Wall Revisited

I decided I needed to blog about this subject again in hopes that after seeing it all written out in front of me, I would actually get my butt in gear to get going on this project. You may recall that a few weeks months ago I posted about my plans for the dining room portion of the kitchen. The wall on that side of the room was and still is very much naked, and I have illusions of one day changing that. I blame this gorgeous summer we have been having. The days have been so nice that I have had zero motivation to get anything done inside the house. That includes cleaning, but I at least force myself to do that. . . sometimes.

To recap a little, I am planning on making a display using a repurposed antique type case to hold family photos. The display would look something like this:

Whole Grain Pancakes

This whole wheat pancakes are great to keep on hand for breakfast as well as snack time. I always make several, and freeze them in groups of 2-4. That way, later in the week when I need something quick and easy to feed my kids, I can grab some out of the freezer, pop them in the toaster, and feed them to my kids within 5 minutes with minimal effort. They are pretty healthy to boot!

I like this recipe with a relatively high amount of sugar (as far as pancakes go) because I skip the syrup (too messy). If you plan to serve with syrup consider cutting the sugar to 2 Tbsp instead of 1/4 cup.

If you have older kids that are finicky about whole grain foods, start with 1 cup of whole grain flour and 1 cup of regular flour. Over time you can adjust the ratio until you end up with just whole grain goodness.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole grain flour
• 2 Tbsp flax meal (optional but very healthy)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cups milk (roughly)

Mix in ideas: Chocolate chips, cinnamon powder, crushed walnuts, banana slices, blueberries, and peanut butter.

Making the Pancakes:

Sift together flour, flax, baking, powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set bowl aside. In a larger bowl, mix the egg and sugar together until well combined.

Add in the dry mix, stirring to combine. Slowly start adding in the milk while continuing to stir.

Add enough milk so that the batter is slightly runny. Add extra if it does not get runny enough. Mix the milk in slowly in case it isn't all needed. There is a decent amount of wiggle room with this so don't worry too much about getting the perfect consistency.

 Throw in any add ins like chocolate chips or blueberries. Then heat a pan on the stove to medium heat. I use about 1/3 of a cup for each pancake, that tends to be a good size for my kids. I prefer not to use non-stick cookware so I use a tiny spray of Pam on the pan. Cook pancakes on each side for about 2-3 minutes each.

Chocolate Chip pancakes pictured above.

Cinnamon dusted pancakes pictured below:

 I often make several different kinds out of 1 single batch. Variety is fun!

 They are wonderful fresh, but most of the ones I make get bagged up and frozen for later consumption.

That's it! Quick, easy, and healthy - Not much else I could ask for!