Basketball Cake...and Tears

Somehow I closed my eyes and took a sigh and my sweet baby boy...

...turned into this five foot tall, athletic, smart, funny, and handsome young man.

All it took was ten years. A decade. I have been a Mother for a Decade.

Now I understand all those parents and grandparents who told me time and time again, "Cherish these moments." "Love him up while you can." "He'll be grown before you know it." Because at the end of these next ten years, he will be twenty. A thought that makes my throat seize and my eyes fill with tears.

And I thank God for ten years of  gigantic smiles, bright brilliant blue eyes, goofy dancing in the kitchen, cuddles, excellent debates and discussions, reading together, music, praying together, endless laughter and endless adventures.

So how do you celebrate all this? With a cake! Doesn't cake make everything better??? Even the idea that your baby isn't a baby anymore is lightened up by his excitement over Birthday Cake!

Yep. That's Louie. My Ten Year Old.

And this is his awesome Basketball Swoosh Cake! Inspired by Parenting Magazine...they always have the best birthday cake ideas RIGHT before our Birthday Season starts!

Basking in the Glow of 10 Candles!

Now...excuse me while I grab some toilet paper...I've run out of Kleenex!

Countdown to Summer!

I may have mentioned before that my family has an affinity for Paper Chains...

Well. We do! Our three started asking if we could make a paper chain count down to Summer Vacation...right after Christmas! I was able to hold them off until now.

Here we go! Our "Spring" (and I use the term very loosely) here in Nebraska has been very cold. And wet. And gray. And drizzly. We had snowfall on May 1st...and the last time snow fell on Nebraska in May was 1967!

So to jazz up our chains...the kids made some smiley suns to remind us of warmer weather yet to come! And we went with a rainbow pattern, because who doesn't love rainbows?!?!

Katy pulling off her first chain.

John's turn!

Our fourth grader's final day is May 22nd and the little two are finished on May 24th. Just in time for Memorial Day weekend!

Heart Hair Clip

Nothing says My Sweet Valentine more than Hearts!

I found this cute idea for a Valentine hair clip at Skip to My Lou. There is a simple crochet pattern to make the heart with embroidery thread. This is the first time I've used anything but yarn to crochet with and I loved it! I've got a whole new world of  hearts and flowers and butterflies!

Perfect to pull back some wispy Lil Valentine hair!

Linking Here:

Crochet Heart Bracelet

Two Blog Posts in One Day!

I'm on Fire!

I wanted to share these cute and easy bracelets I made last year for my Katy Bug!

I saw them over at Tangled Happy, and there is an easy-to-follow pattern with lots of pictures along the way!

I was able to use some left over white yarn from my stash and I found the pretty heart beads in the Wally Mart craft section. Note the faded Mrs. Potts & Chip tat on Katy's hand. She's such a rebel!

I Heart Hot Chocolate

We are a Hot Chocolate type of family. When it's frosty and chilly and snowy and we've been outside nothing is yummier to warm up with.

OR

When it's frosty and chilly and snowy and we've been inside *looking* outside!

I'll repeat. Nothing is yummier!

We decided to show our Love of the Treat and Celebrate the Month of Love all at once.

Why yes. That is a giant Heart floating in some Hot Chocolate. I'm sure you've seen shots of this on Pinterest and around. I'm not the inventor of the idea. And I'm not sure how everyone else does this...but I'll tell you how we did it!

I thawed a tub of Cool Whip. Then I flopped it on a sheet of wax paper and tried to spread it out evenly. I say "tried" because my children seem to think that as soon as the Cool Whip is out of the Tub it is perfectly acceptable to dip their fingers into it and chow down. (I wonder where they get their table manners from?) So...anyway...I was rushed.

Put your Sheet 'O Whip in the freezer. This is the hardest part. You have to wait for it to freeze.

And. It. Took. Forever.

So. We pulled it out when it was solid, but only just.

Use a cookie cutter in the shape you desire, and cookie cut away!

I think if we would have waited for it to become more firm it would have been not so messy pulling up the hearts. But it wasn't too bad! Maybe a few fingerprints...

Then heat up some Hot Chocolate and garnish it with your Cool Whip Heart.

Waste not Want not...Mom's mug got all the little non-heart bits left over from cutting!

This was really a fun way to serve up Hot Chocolate! My kids were in on it, but it would make a sweet surprise for Valentine's Day, a Birthday, when they come in from the cold, or just because!

The Cool Whip melted much faster than marshmallows do. Also, because it was frozen, the Hot Chocolate cooled nicely as the hearts melted.

Melted Perler Bead Ornaments

Already on Day 3 of my Ornament Challenge! I can tell December is going to fly by really fast this year. Our youngest is in pre-school this year and dance. Then there is swimming all around and basketball for the oldest. PHEW!

December...or rather Christmas...is so wonderful in that we are all still busy as ever, but there is a reason to make yourself pause and: pray, reflect, wonder, make some magic, help someone out. The list is endless. I love it!

So today we did a melty plastic project! There is an awesome Perler Bead pin running around Pinterest. The beaded moose. I'm sure you have seen it! Follow the link to a blog titled WOOZ.DK and it's in Danish! Thank goodness for Google Translator!!!

With this Beaded Moose in my head...I flipped out while on a recent vacay in Minneapolis I found a set of cookie cutters with a moose that looked identical to the Pin at Ikea! Grabbed it up! And here is how it turned out:

This was fun and easy! The only change I made from the original post was I upped my oven temp to 300. Maybe that's a Danish/Nebraskan translation??? Anyway...after about 30 minutes on 200 my beads weren't melting at all. Up to 300 and five minutes later and it was done!

We also made a Star!

Elf on the Shelf...or Not!

Well, we've got a busy little Elf at this house! They guy hasn't sat on a shelf ONCE!

This morning we found this:

It seems that Filmore was getting a bit lonely. He gathered up some of his Best Buddies from around our house and sat them all down to read a story!

He got everyone to climb on top of our tubs full of Christmas decorations and sit nice and quiet! Maybe tonight he and his posse can dig out the decorations and put them up for us! And do the dishes. And fold some towels...

These friends are hanging onto every word of this story! And the best part is...Filmore brought back "The Animals Christmas Eve" from the North Pole and we get to keep it! We love new books!!!