It’s that time again…to potty train that is. First let me begin by saying that I am not ready for my little girl to be potty trained. Does that make me crazy? She’s been using the potty on and off since she was 18 months old and we have never pushed it on her. If she asks to use her potty we take her, if not then we don’t bother. She’s starting to become a lot more interested in it and the other day she said “no diaper, undies please” *tear* So we decided to go ahead and start potty training and see where it goes. I never used a potty reward system with my son but we’re trying it out with Madi.

I was inspired by this cute jar.

This is what I used:

Does anyone have any advice on potty training they can offer? It’s been so long since Jay was potty trained that I feel new at all of this. I’d love to hear what worked/what didn’t for your child.

Have a great weekend everyone! Check out where I’m linking up to here.

Continuing with our 4th of July theme, I recently made the kids individual berry trifles.  

If you follow me on facebook, I mentioned that I had a successful trip to my local farmers market and picked up these beauties… 

We’ve been eating berries with everything and I wanted to see if the kids would like berry trifles. Which of course they did. 

They really liked the star on top 

Want to know the best part about this yummy treat? This is all I used..

I’ve seen recipes where you add pudding, but neither of us is a fan of it so I didn’t bother adding it. Can I just say how fun pound cake is to cut? With the leftover cake I cut out mini stars with a cookie cutter and the shape held up really well. I’m thinking we may have another treat idea in the works :)

Do you have a favorite trifle recipe? I’d love to try different recipes out..with or without berries. 

Linking up to these awesome parties.

Story book theme didn’t go as planned, mid week we decided to switch to a 4th of July theme. I have a list of quick, easy, and fun patriotic crafts and recipes that we’re still working on. This has been one of their favorites.

I had Jay paint the sticks white and red. Once they dried we glued them onto cardstock. 

I didn’t get a picture but I taped off a square on the left hand corner and had them paint it blue. I then gave them strips of rhinestones to use as the “stars” 

At the last minute we decided to glue magnets on the back and we had an easy and festive flag magnet

Also, I am happy to say that I finally have a button and facebook page. I’d love for you to follow along. I’ll be posting sneak peeks of current projects, featuring awesome crafts I find around blogland, and well…being social :) 

They had a blast playing in the water and making sand castles

Made these yummy cupcakes

Looked at all the different shapes and textures of sea shells

And read every book in the house that involved the ocean

These are the activities I didn’t get pictures of:

To help keep the kids entertained and provide some educational activities this summer, I have come up with weekly themes. This week we’ve been focusing learning about the ocean and of course I had to make a special treat to reflect the theme. 

Beach Cupcakes 

I cheated *gasp* and used a cake box AND can frosting

It’s nice having a little helper available at all times…

I frosted them and tossed some crushed graham crackers on one side but they still needed something 

Aha! Left over umbrellas from a luau party 

These were perfect for our Ocean theme week. We’re finishing up our projects today and as soon as I get everything uploaded I’ll share them with everyone. Have a great weekend!! 

Check out the awesome parties I’m linking up to here.

Summer is here and so is the hot weather. What better way to cool down than with homemade popsicles? 

We fill the molds with lemondade, toss in some berries, and top it off with more lemonade. Very simple, but they’re my kids favorite popsicles. 

Sometime we puree fresh berries and mix it with the lemonade prior to filling the molds. But the kids enjoy seeing the fruit, so we make these quite often. 

P.S. I’ll share a roundup of our Beach/Ocean Week crafts, trips, and recipes on Friday. 

Check out where I’m linking up here.

Being pregnant means I’m constantly craving something. The past few days it’s been cream puffs. So I asked hubby to pick some up from our grocery store bakery only to find out they’re on sale this week and keep selling out. So last night I searched for a recipe and found that they’re really easy to make. 

I used this recipe from JoyofBaking.com

Ingredients:

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c unsalted butter

1/2 c. water

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

In a bowl sift together flour, sugar, and salt.

Bring water and butter to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly mix in flour mixture. Return to heat for a minute or two, until the dough forms a ball. 

Then use a mixer to cool the dough down, once it’s cooled mix in slightly beaten eggs. The second picture shows what mine looked like after the eggs were incorporated. 

Using a pastry bag I piped them onto a greased foil lined pan (parchment paper would also work). Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 degree and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Once they’re golden brown, turn off the oven and slightly open the door and let them sit for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Once cooled cut them in half and pipe whipped cream and sprinkle with powered sugar. 

For the whipped cream:

Mix 1 cup of heavy cream, 1tbsp of sugar, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. 

Place in refrigerator for 30 mins. Using a hand mixer I mixed it until the cream thickened up. 

I used a Wilton 2d tip to pipe my cream, but you could also scoop the cream inside. 

They didn’t get very puffy, but they were still delicious! So technically I can’t call this a recipe fail if it was good right?? 

We had strawberries with it (I had forgotten the powdered sugar at this point, but added it later).

If anyone has any tips on how to make the pastry to puff up some more I’d love to hear them! 

On another note, I’ve come up with our summer to do list and created week themes to keep the kids busy. So far we have projects lined up for 

Beach Week

Safari Week

Nature Week

Fairies and Dragons Week

Story Book Week

I’ll be sharing all of our projects and trips as we go along. Thanks for stopping by and check back soon for updates on our theme this week. 

Linking this recipe to these awesome parties.