Bug Cakes

A few years ago my little brother and his wife gave us a Backyard Bugs cakelet pan as a gift.
Let me tell you this pan makes the cutest cakes in the whole world!!
AND
the recipe it came with is DELICIOUS!!
It came on the back label for the pan when they gave it to us and I have been able to save it ever since!
I thought I should get it on the web in case the packaging gets ruined.

 

"Vanilla "Bug" Cakes"

ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 16 tbs (2 sticks) unsalted butter melted
• 1 cup (250g) sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 375F.
Grease and flour the wells of the Backyard Bugs Cakelet pan.



To make the cakes, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in to the bowl of an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla until combined. Fit the mixer with the flat beater (I did not do this, I dont have one). Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and beat on the lowest speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, 15 to 20 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds.




Transfer half of the batter to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Spoon the remaining batter into the prepared wells, dividing evenly and filling each well to withing 1/2 inch (12mm) of the rim. Tap the pan firmly on the counter-top to release any air bubbles. To ensure good detail on the cakes, spread the batter so it is slightly lower in the center of the wells. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean, about 18 minutes.







Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack and let cool for at least 1 hour before decorating or serving.

Meanwhile, wash and thoroughly dry the pan. Grease and flour the wells and repeat with the remaining batter.


(Williams-Sonoma Kitchen)

Common Sense and Government

The more I pay attention to politics and government the more I realize Government has way too much power and We The People have given it to them.
We The People have forgotten what this country was started for and how America came to be.
Government has decided not to teach about it anymore.
Government teaches you what they want you learning. What "they" feel is important.
Government is taking away Common Sense with silly stupid laws.
I can understand things like car seats but when it comes to what we teach our children, how we raise our children Government needs to back the heck up.
We The People need to "abolish" (favorite word in the Declaration of Independence) this government and start over as WE THE PEOPLE!!
Bring GOD back in!
Our GOD GIVEN RIGHTS!!
Common Sense!!
Law of the Bible!
In God we trust!
Not government who wants to take every thing from you including your God given COMMON SENSE! The right to give your child OREOS!!
I know this all sounds so overly dramatic but LOOK FOR YOURSELF PLEASE!!
The worst are tiny governments like HOAs that can go so far as too foreclose on your home or put a lien on your home. Tell you that you can not have a kiddy pool in your front yard. Tell you where you can plant a freaking tree in your yard. They can charge you $10 for parking on the street and your neighbor $100. They can start their own dag gum court system!! It is seriously scary all the rights that governments Big and Small are taking from us. Even scarier is WE are giving it to them.

having a moment

I am totally "having a moment"

Katrina went to a neighbors house this morning for an egg hunt, Abbi napped from 10 to 12.

My house was way too quiet and I didnt like it one bit.
I kept watching across the street for little glimpses of Trina Rose out there playing. I worked on a large Carlykins order I got last night for Korea to keep my mind off the quiet. Turned the radio up a bit higher so I had some noise.
Now as I hand Abbi a sippy cup of juice I am remembering this morning. And realizing why I am having "my moment", Clay did not give Abbi her morning bottle. Instead he put her in her high chair and fed her breakfast. I commented and he said "It is time Merideth." I did not respond and started doing dishes and kept telling myself not to cry. I gotta let go. She is 16 months and doing a lot on her own.
While the girls were gone this morning I texted Clay and told him this sort of quiet house is not for me and it is time to look into adoption.

Perfect day to color HAIR

I ran to Wal-mart this morning to pick up 2 things.
Dont you think it is hilarious to go to Wal-mart with the idea in your head that you are only going to get 2 things! Now, for the life of me, I can not remember what the 2 things were but I can tell you about the 50 freaking other things I bought!! HA HA HA
So while at Wal-mart I was just walking aimlessly with no children pulling my pants down, or screaming or asking me for every little thing they saw. So I took a bit longer then intended but WHO CARES I was BY MYSELF!!

So I came across this box of hair color that was 3 colors and the bleach to strip the color from your hair before you put the colors in. Oh and the colors are Purple, Blue and Red (the box had sexier names for them). I thought WOW How cool would that be!! Carly loves putting the spray color in her hair I bet she would love this. And I had recently seen a picture/blog on pinterest about doing this (on blond hair). It was only $8.00 so tossed it in my cart!!

Here is Carly with her tips stripped of color. 

 Here I am putting the colors in where and how Carly wanted them ;)

 Here is a before shot of the colors

 Here is mine with the color stripped out of the tips of the very underside of my hair

 Here is Carly's hair with the dye washed out

 Here it is dry!! It looks ,MARVELOUS!!!  Makes me wish I had done all of my tips just like Carly!!

 It turned out pretty darn cool. I did not go high enough up with the color and next time she wants more blue.

With mine you can not really see it too much unless I pull my hair up. Just perfect for a 35 year old.

It was so much fun spending the time with Carly and playing hair salon together! All she kept saying was "Ms Pride is going to scream! Ms Pride is going to Love it!!" She absolutely loves it!! I ended up putting a few colors in Paityns hair too.

You cant see them too well in this shot but I just put a few colors on her hair without stripping it at all. She was excited to be included and I think by that point Carly was ready to share. Katrina and Abbi did not get any. Jacob now wants to do his in all 3 colors in 3 sections. I think Clay would kill me!!

After our hair salon morning I took Carly into Cary to Toys R Us. Carly got an amazing report card!! She achieved two 4's and two 3*'s. Basically 2 HIGH As and 2 low A's according to the teacher. I hate the numbers and wish they would go back to letters.
About an hour of walking up and down every aisle about 4 times each she decided on a doll that I can not even spell. I believe it is called LaLaLoopsie or something close to that. I have absolutely NO Clue what the fascination is with them either but a friend has them and they play them together and she wanted it and in my opinion she earned 4 of them!!
Walking all around Toys R Us a zillion times made me hungry so when we finally left we headed to Skinny Dip. My absolute favorite yogurt bar!! So yummie!! I got my usual Southern Strawberry with pound cake squares and waffle cone chips. Carly got French Vanilla with crushed oreo and whipped cream.

 Isn't she just beautiful!!

WOW!!

Speechless!! 

This is one amazing young lady!! 

I am so very blessed to have her as a daughter!!

I love you Carly Marie

"Dats you Mommy!! Dats You!!"

OK, I will admit it!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT when Katrina sees the Disney Princess Belle and she screams

"Dats you Mommy!! Dats YOU!!"

(don't tell Katrina my eyes are blue)

For my daughter to think I look like this Princess proves our God is an awesome God ;)
I hope and pray she always sees me in those precious goggles of hers!!

Family Challenge Game

I came up with an idea today that I must admit I AM PRETTY DARN PROUD OF MYSELF for coming up with. *toot tooting my own horn

Anyways, Clay is always complaining about how he wishes we could put our kids in Private School so they would get a better education. Or homeschool so we can teach them the truth as we see it instead of what Public School is drilling into them. I always tell him we can teach them this at home and to find positive things about school and all they ARE learning.
To get to the point I came up with an idea today that I think is awesome.
I called it the "Family Challenge"
We will draw a challenge from the hat and they will have 2 weeks to learn as much as they can about the topic and then who ever can learn/memorize/whatever the most that child wins.
some of the topic we came up with at dinner were

• Founding Fathers
• President
• 50 states 
• each states Capitol 
• put the states in alphabetical order
• solar system
• periodic table
• how many bones in the body (what are they?)
• First 10 woman to_________
• First 10 African Americans to _________
• Memorize preamble of the Constitution

So they will draw a challenge at the beginning of the month, have 2 weeks to complete it, whoever wins gets a night out with Mom & Dad
Clay had a good point though when he said it could not be an outing with both of us because in order to do that the kids that did not participate get a fun night at S'Kids. So we will have to think of something else. I think the prize may differ for each kid. Carly likes toy shopping, Jacob likes video game shopping, and Paityn likes craft supply shopping.
It is still all in the planning stages so please help us by praying for this Family Challenge idea. Also if you have any ideas of "challenges" DO SHARE!! 

Kids say the darndest things...........

I was just thinking about a few of the things my children have repeated to me recently that my husband has had conversations with them about.
Just the other day I was out back with a male neighbor who was pushing his daughter and 1 of my daughters on the swing, Carly informed me that Daddy was "building a second floor on the tree house".
The other dad and I both started laughing.
Jacob informed me the other day "Dad is going to take you to the gun shooting range to butter you up to letting him get a gun. He said that if he takes you to the range and you get to shoot the gun that you would fall in love with it and let him buy one."
Ohhhhh I love my husband so very much!!
Katrina was sitting with Clay on the couch yesterday and for some reason or another lifted his shirt and saw his pit of a belly button. One thing lead to another after many silly questions Clay told her to smell it and she screamed "NO ITS STINKY"