Halloween Treats

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Last year my sister-in-law bought these treats from a Harvest Festival and this year
we decided to make a craft-playdate with the kiddos.
Halloween tretas
Things you need:
Brownie mix (follow recipe)
Marshmallows
White yogurt covered pretzels
Food markers (we bought ours at Michael’s)
lollipop sticks
halloween treats
Cut brownies in square.
Place the lollipop stick in the middle of brownie to hold together the skeleton.
Use the white yogurt pretzels as the skeleton bones.
Place the marshmallow on top for the head.
Use the food markers to make the face of the skeleton.

DIY Sharpie Mugs

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mug2
I’ve been looking at this DIY mugs project for a while and decided to give it a try. The first time I used regular sharpies and after washing them in the dishwasher a couple of times, the colors started to fade. After doing a little research I bought OIL-BASED Sharpies and so far they haven’t faded.
Maybe this time I will only hand wash them.
Easy and super cute project!
mug20

Awesome Iced Lemon Pound Cake

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I found this awesome recipe on Pinterest, not only is it easy to make but it sure taste just like the lemon pound cake at Starbucks.

Enjoy!

lemon cake

1 box yellow cake mix

3.4 ounce instant lemon pudding mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

8 ounces sour cream

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Icing:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray your loaf pans with cooking spray or use butter ( I used the mini loaf pans 5 1/2″ x 3″ x 2 1/4) but you can use anything you have.

Mix all ingredients together in no particular order with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes, place batter equally in the loaf pans.

Bake approximately  40-45 minutes , all ovens are different so I usually stick a wooden stick in to make sure the cake is baked.

Icing: Sift powdered sugar into a bowl, add the fresh lemon juice and stir. Make sure the loafs are cool before drizzling the icing on top.

Foxy Family

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Halloween is around the corner and of course we are obsessing about costumes… but when you have your 4 year old daughter make the final executive decision, it gets a little complicated! It changed from being Elsa, to being a llama, to Katie Perry in the “Roar video”. Even though Katy Perry would have been so funny specially because she wanted her little sister to be the tiger from the music video. I finally got my way because we are going to be a fox family.” Yay!!

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The inspiration is the Fantastic  Mr. Fox. I wish I could do a full-on mask but I’m afraid Arden (9 months old) would be too scared, so I found this cute mask tutorial from Handmade Charlotte. 

fox mask

Welcome to Everly’s Pizzeria!

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Walk-ins welcome, the only catch… you have to make your own pizza! We had our little friends over making their own dinner and keeping those little fingers busy.

Pizza night1

We bought the dough and sauce from our local Italian market, Angelo’s in Belmont Shore, but Trader Joe’s carries pizza dough for about $3 as well as Pizza Sauce. For the cheese we used cheese sticks  (kid Friendly) and easy to use.

Pizza night2

The pizza turned out great, and the kids ate every single piece!

1. Set oven to 450
2. Split the dough in 3 pieces
3. Using flour, start making a round shape with the dough
4. After you made a round shape for your pizza add the sauce and cheese.
5. Put in the oven for about 12 minutes and serve.

Cusco

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I’ve been putting off writing this post about our trip. Let’s just say it didn’t go as I planned.
After 2 long flights, we finally landed in Cusco. My girls did so well and they were happy to finally be on land.
Cusco is such a magical town, it always takes me back to my childhood. Even though Cusco is a tourist destination
and a little bit too expensive, it’s magical and beautiful and worth visiting.
This time I was flying for “La Garramada,”  a big family reunion with about 125 family members.
It was so great seeing family I hadn’t seen since I was probably 11 years old.
We visited the hacienda where my grandmother was born  in Oropesa, and it seems like that little town was stuck in time.
Cusco is located 11,200 ft above sea level and almost feels like you can touch the beautiful sky with your fingers.
I love this town so much, this is where I got married and where I baptized Everly, so it holds a special place in my heart.
People in this town are so friendly, there are always parades and delicious food.
But with that said… the weather can be brutal and I probably won’t take back an 8 month old baby again. We all got 
so sick after after the first week. We had a horrible cold, 104 fevers, a cough and all those wonderful things that come with being sick.
Here some pictures before we got sick.
Cusco B3
cuscoB4

Travel Lap Pillow

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Last night while looking for ideas to take on the plane for my 4 year old, I found this awesome tutorial from Prudent Baby. Last week we made the chalkboard with the alphabet letters and finding this was just perfect for our previous project.
So this morning I went to my little studio  to find any scrap fabric to make this awesome travel pillow. I’m not a seamstress by any means and it sure didn’t turn out as cute as the original but it works for us. Here is the Tutorial

This is our version of the travel pillow.Processed with VSCOcam with a6 presetFor the handles I used my old wraps from kickboxing. I have’t been back to kickboxing for about 18 months, I’m just glad I got to re-use them.Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

 

Come One Come All, “Everly Is Turning One”

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When it came to planning Everly’s first bday party I started planning more than 2 months in advance. From invitation, to the cake and most everything was made by us.It sure helps a lot that my husband likes to cook and he is in charge of all the food.Our house is pretty small so we needed to use the front yard and for seating, we used hay. We thought it went with the theme plus it was cheap.

Circus1

My husband Chad made the cupcakes he iced the cupcakes first and then added some mini marshmallows on top so it would look like popcorn buckets.
For the favors, I used tin buckets I found at  Target for $1, some animal masks, clown noses, and made a label for the animal crackers.
Circus2
The entrance we covered with a big top tent. I had striped fabric leftover from a previous party and I thought I could make it into a big top. I bought PVC pipe for the frame and used lots of duct tape and fabric glue.
Circus4
I’ll be posting tutorials and free printables soon .
Tin Buckets / target
Clown Noses / Oriental Trading
Animal Mask / Michael’s
Black & White Stripe Fabric / Ikea