I LOVE April Fool’s Day!
Laughter is good for the soul~
My sister made these last year.
This is what I will be making for breakfast.
Bacon and Eggs OverEasy! Yum!
Bacon-Caramel and Tootsie Roll
OverEasy Eggs-White chocolate and an M&M
What are your plans for April Fool’s Day? I’m still figuring out the rest of our day.
Rebecca
I got to attend this super fun Cupcake Camp over the weekend! Even better was that I got to go with my sister.
(Image from Sasha’s site)
First up was my FAVORITE speaker. Sasha, from 24 Carrots, was amazing. 24 Carrots is an uber healthy, creative restaurant. I cannot wait to go check this place out. Sasha really knew her stuff as far as gluten free, vegan, dairy free, etc goes. She talked about why it matters what you are making, before you decide what ingredient alternative to use. She believes in making healthy foods still taste delicious and/or decadent! Seriously, brilliant! She was so nice, too! Anyone in the metro Phoenix area has got to go and see Sasha at 24 Carrots! Make sure to like her on Facebook as she is on there quite a bit with tips, information, and recipes! She’s not one of those that guards her recipes. She wants everyone to be able to make yummy healthy food! I know, don’t you just love her already?
The next person I was so impressed with was Sarah, from Pint Size Creations. She is 12 and has her own company! I just happened to sit next to her in my first class. What a cute and driven young lady! Later in the day she was on the panel for the Cupcakes as a Business session! How cool is that?!
This was from Cupcake 101.
Ah, yes, the class from ABC Cake Decorating Supplies. This is another place I must check out. They have some really fun stuff to use in your baking and I hear their prices are excellent as well. That fellow was showing us their edible spray paint.
Others to mention were AZ Mom of Many Hats. She led my first session in the morning. I learned some great tips like using parchment paper to smooth out my frosting! I never knew that one!
There were many other classes, speakers, and companies but I could only go to one class at a time! 
From what I heard, everyone had a great time. I am so appreciative to all of those that put in their time and energy into making such a fun event so successful!
I did not bring my camera so you’ll have to just bear through my iPhone pictures. Doesn’t everything look so yummy?! There were some amazing flavors of cupcakes to taste!
I thoroughly enjoyed this beauty, and may have helped myself to two of them! YUMMM
One last fun company to check out is Cake Hole Project. I have a picture above of one of their crazy cool cupcake displays! Check them out!
The whole event was well put together by the folks at Gangplank. That group is super nice! I’ve been to two of their events now and had a great experience at both!
What fun conferences, camps, or events have you been to recently?
Rebecca
Arizona is full-on spring time! The citrus trees’ produce is perfect for picking. We keep going to my parents citrus orchard (really it’s just their backyard but they have plenty of trees!) and picking bags of citrus. So I’ve been trying to make as many different citrus-y things as I can. Did you see my orange and lemon rolls?
A fantastic recipe to bake inside of citrus is cake! I grew up doing this at camp.
1. Cut off top of fruit.
2. Take flesh out of fruit (then eat the flesh or juice it).
3. Fill fruit shell halfway with cake batter.
4. Put top/lid back on and put into muffin tin.
5. Cook as directed for cupcakes.
6. Either eat with a spoon, or peel the citrus skin away (kind of hard to do).
7. Enjoy!
We used to make these at camp. You make the batter and fill them while at home. Then when they are filled with the cake batter you cover each fruit tightly with tin foil. Keep these in the cooler until you are making dinner. Throw these into the fire while cooking your dinner. They take a little longer than cupcakes would. I think they are best done this way. Isn’t everything yummier when cooked by a fire?
This is a great project to do with your kids. You cut the tops off and let your kids pull the flesh out. We then ran all the flesh through the juicer and enjoyed our juice while the cupcakes were baking.
The cake totally takes on a citrus-y flavor that is awesome! And they cook up super moist!
We made these in oranges and lemons. We also used chocolate and vanilla cake batter. All 4 variations were delish!
Try this and let me know what you think!
I’m still searching for more recipes using citrus. Please let me know and I will post a list!
Rebecca
We just picked more than a bushel of oranges and lemons! My parents have a backyard full of citrus trees. The kids and I headed over and helped lighten the load of those poor trees’ branches. They were gorgeously full! I love how pretty trees are fully laden with their fruit!
Such a great way to spend some time with my kids! Outside, gathering fruit, helping each other….
So we’ve been busy making everything citrus that we can. First up was lemon and orange juice. As a crafter, I just could NOT throw all of that beautiful peel away. So, as I juiced we cut the fruit in half and pulled the flesh out to save them as fruit cups.
Next, I added frozen dough to each one and let it rise. I also made a citrus butter (just added lemon juice to melted butter, or orange juice for the orange rolls) to coat the tops with before I baked them up! I just baked them like I would normal rolls.
Oh these smelled like heaven while they were baking!
My overall conclusion was that they were not as citrus-y tasting as I was hoping for. Next time I will add way more lemon or orange juice to the butter! They also needed extra cooking time because the bottoms (that were inside of the fruit cups) wanted to stay dough-y. They were still all devoured in one day. We love carbs in my house!
After we ate the rolls out of the fruit cups, I shredded the cups and added them to my compost. So that made these oranges and lemons a 3-for-1!! YAY!
I have a few more fun things that I have done with my citrus bounty. I have many more lemons, orange, limes, and grapefruit. I’d love to know what you have done with yours. Do you have any great citrus recipes?
Rebecca
So much fun to do in and for the garden right now! I hung up sky chairs on my patio 2 weekends ago and have loved being in them while the kids are running around out back! We’ve already had temperatures over 90 degrees, though you wouldn’t know it by the cold, wind, and rain we have today! 
Anything I can do to get us to spend more time outside, is a great thing, in my book! How about whipping up a Soda Can Butterfly Mobile? Mine has lasted all year long. I use it to deter birds from eating my strawberries. It worked extraordinarily well for this purpose! I did not lose ANY strawberries to the birds! My sister lives a few miles away and lost all of her strawberries to the birds! Oh and by the way, some of my strawberries just turned red over the weekend! YAY Arizona Sun!
I am so lucky to live in Arizona where we can be in our gardens all year round (and actually produce our own food almost the whole 12 months!)! For most of the rest of you I am guessing your gardens are just getting going. Last year I made my own garden boxes to try out some square foot gardening. They were super easy to make!
Don’t forget to add ammendments to your soil! This was the first year I had my own compost to add to my garden! I’ve already got another batch of compost almost all ready to go! It is ridiculous how much pleasure I get from making my own compost! But I just love the thought of taking waste and making something wonderful with it!! The fact that my garden thrives with it is just a win win!
For those of you that cannot get into your gardens yet, you could whip up a different kind of garden to get you in the mood! I made this Polymer Clay Fairy Garden last year (and it has been outside all year long and even lasted just fine through the Arizona heat!).
I hope everyone else is enjoying the spring as well. Though, from the news reports it appears many of you are actually getting snow today! I hope you are all able to get into your gardens soon enough!
I’d love to hear what everyone else is growing. This year I am growing everything I did last year, plus spaghetti squash, beets, colored carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, and some new lettuces. I can’t wait to see how they all fare!
Rebecca
How about a top 10 list of things you might not know about me? . Though if we are talking dreams, I’d also give myself a trip to Denmark! That would be my dream vacation! ).
Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone! My daughter made that Lego Leprechaun last night as we were setting our traps! I thought he was so cute I would share him with you all!
Each of my kids set their own trap to catch a Leprechaun. This is a note that was left with one of them.
It says, “Can you leave something of yours. Happy St. Patrick’s Day little leprechaun.” Though it is spelled quite differently! 
Then, she asked yes or no and to explain why. Then, she asked if the Leprechaun was a boy or girl.
Turns out our Leprechaun was a girl and she left little pots of gold for everyone in the family! This is the first year we got real money too!
This cute guy is Foxee (yes, he’s a wolf, but he’s my Son’s and that is what he named him-even the spelling). He’s wearing his new Leprechaun Duds!
What do you guys do for St. Patrick’s Day?
Rebecca
We are eating rainbows this week to start celebrating St. Patrick’s Day!
Rainbows even turned up inside our fruit!
And our fruit turned up as rainbows!
We’ve already made our traps to catch a leprechaun, have you? If you need other fun ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day check out our past St. Patrick’s Day posts! They are chalk full of activities, things to make, and great food ideas!
We will be busy today at Nana’s house baking up some St. Patrick’s Day snacks and then tomorrow we will be back at Nana’s for a really fun St. Patrick’s Day Dinner party! We hope you all have a ton of fun celebrating, too!
Rebecca
1. It’s all about the health! There is no question that eating food fresh from your own garden is such a healthy way to go! Being outside also gives you Vitamin D from the sun. And of course gardening is an active thing to do!
2. Quality time together! My kids LOVE gardening with me. We get to enjoy the beautiful weather that Arizona is having right now! We also end up watching many sunsets as we garden! I know my children will always remember the time we spend together in the garden.
3. Teaching your children! They know that their help has gone into the food that we get from it. That’s a pretty great thing. We also spy lots of creatures; worms, caterpillars, birds, cats, and our favorite-the geckos!
4. It’s Fun! All of us need some time to play in the dirt! Plus, who doesn’t love seeing a seed grow into a plant? Many times our watering turns into a water fight.
5. Being outside. Any time I can find ways to be outside is great in my book. I think we are all happier when we get more time outdoors. See the above about the Vitamin D.
I hope you enjoyed my tour of my garden as it is right now!!!
Happy Gardening to you all!
Rebecca
I have a dirty little secret. I always swore I would not let my children get into trendy toys that they keep needing to buy more of. However, I have succumbed to many of those “collectibles” that are such a waste of money….and I actually love them!
Build A Bears would be one of these things. I love them because my kids spend hours dressing their animals and come up with the most imaginative play to go with the super cute outfits and accessories. Second reason I love them? For the most part my children have earned their own money to buy the millions of animals, outfits, and accessories they have! That, I absolutely LOVE! The third reason I love them is because all of my kids collect them, and they play together with them, sharing everything they have!
However, we have accumulated quite a bit of the “stuff”. I have a cabinet just for Build A Bear stuff, but it was not working. So, I came up with the brilliant idea (yes that is me patting myself on my own back!) of putting up hooks on the wall next to the cabinet, to display all the cute outfits. However, I only had a few of the build a bear hangers and was not going to spend a dime to organize this area.
So I made my own hangers out out of leftover foam core board that I had from the playroom makeover.
I used the Build A Bear hanger as a guide, but I did not want the build a bear head on the hanger, so I omitted that.
In the two above pictures you can see that I traced the bottom part of the hanger, then I slid the hanger down and just traced the hook part right onto the bottom part (which is how I cut the bear head part of the hanger out of my hangers).
The notch in the hanger is a great idea because almost every build a bear outfit my kids had have loops in the pants that are made for hanging the pants on the same hanger with the top! I LOVE that. The loops are even pretty long so that the pants will hang down underneath the top. Pretty ingenious if you ask me! 
How have you organized these collections? What collections have you allowed your kids to have? Which collections do you secretly love?
My children collect Build A Bears, Bobbleheads (Littlest Pet Shop), Bakugon, and Webkinz. But you know what? They collected all of these things for years. That makes them feel so much more worth it to me, as they were not just a trend for this moment only to be thrown away when the next trendy toy came along!
Rebecca
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