Birthday Cakes {pinned there, done that}

Whew...we made it.  Three birthdays + Mother's Day all within 7 days...and it's a party year too.  We had A LOT of cake this week.  And since there is so much cake in one week, we try to choose cakes that are a little fancier or different flavors, instead of just a traditional birthday cake.  Some years we don't have cake at all, we choose a pie or other dessert.

Pinterest is a great resource to find any birthday cake your heart may desire.  I have a whole board just dedicated to birthday cakes we may want to try one day.

Here is what we had this year...

 I chose Chocolate Angel Food cake with Nutella Ganache.  It turned out great.  It was light and fluffy and not to rich.  My only complaint was that it could have had a bit more Nutella flavor in the ganache, when I make it again I'll adjust the chocolate-Nutella proportions.  Also, add some strawberries on the side, I thought of this after we had eaten it--it would have been sooo good :)

My Son had a Buckeye Cake.  He loves, LOVES anything chocolate + peanut butter.  While this was really good, it was also really, really rich.  You could easily feed 16 with this tiny cake.  To me, the base is more of a brownie than a "rich chocolate cake".  The filling is to die for, and chocolate-peanut butter ganache was rich and silky-smooth.

My Daughter chose a basic chocolate cake, which was then shaped into a mustache for her party {more on that later}.  It was everything chocolate cake should be...moist, dense, rich and so good.  It held up well when decorating, which was nice...nothing is worse than a crumbling cake. I didn't try the chocolate frosting they have with it though, I stuck with a tried-and-true recipe from my old Better Homes & Garden cookbook.

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As always you can follow me on Pinterest here.

F.H.E. Friday {pinned there, done that}

Pinterest is an amazing resource for Family Home Evening.  Especially when you need a lesson quick, or are looking for special supplements to the lesson you've already planned.  I'm sure I've pinned more than I can ever use (realistically)...but its good to know they are there all the same.

Last Monday I used this pin as a jumping off point to teach a lesson on how we can become closer to our Savior & in turn how our home can become a more peaceful place.  I  used to the talk Opening the Heavens (as referenced in the pin) as the main talking points. I then made a chart of the scriptures Little LDS Ideas listed, one for each family member, so they could keep track of the scripture for that week and be motivated to read it every day....we still have 11 weeks to go, but I have enjoyed the challenge so far.

More pins that I find useful...

• If you have a Young Woman or Young Man in your house this pin has lots of great printables to go along with each monthly theme.
• I used this pin A LOT when I was Singing Time leader, but sometimes its nice to not be the only one singing the songs at F.H.E.--so a simple song flip chart is great to get the little ones (and husbands) singing along to primary songs.
• In case you didn't know you can follow this pin to LDS.org for coloring pages by topic, taken from the Friend magazine--great resource!
• This pin has lots of gospel related coloring pages too.

I have an ever growing number of pins on my CHURCH board (not just F.H.E. ideas) feel free to have a look!

Good Eats {pinned there, done that}

Our computer is stupid, literally.  It's almost impossible to do anything.  Thankfully I have a very computer savvy husband, who has been working with it.  Still, most of my computing has been done via i-phone...which makes blogging tutorials and such difficult...

But here are some pins we've tried lately in our family & loved them all...

Spring is the season for artichokes & this recipe is perfect.  No dipping sauce required, just a little time.

I've been competing in a wellness challenge with some family & friends and came across this Green Monster Smoothie ...yes that is A LOT of spinach, no it DOESN'T taste like spinach :)

I usually don't like whole wheat pancakes, but these Oatmeal pancakes were fantastic...and the peanut butter syrup...I could eat it by the spoonful {but I wont}.


As always you can follow me on Pinterest here.
And I've jumped on the Instagram bandwagon, you can follow me here.

Squeaky Clean {pinned there, done that}

There is something about January that makes me want to clean and reorganize everything...EVERYTHING.  I think it is the previous 3 months of holiday decorations, don't get me wrong, I LOVE to decorate for the holidays, but by January 2nd, I'm ready to take the last of the decorations down and get back to normal.

Lately I've been trying out pins with more home-remedy cleaning solutions.  Here are a few of my favorites:

*How to clean your microfiber couch ...with 4 kids my couches are in CONSTANT need of cleaning & this method works great!  You may want to do this on a day when you can open the windows for a little fresh air---the rubbing alcohol fumes gets a little strong...well at least if your couches get as dirty as mine.

*How to remove hard water stains...one of the joys of well water is that we are plagued with hard water stains.  After trying chemicals that didn't do much, I was surprised how well this worked, it still took a little elbow grease on my part, but was well worth it.

*Laundry stain remover...it says its for sweat stains, but it worked on blow-outs, spit-up & some baby food stains as well.

*Baking soda toilet cleaner...I actually added a pour of vinegar after I let it sit & gave it a good scrub--instead of just flushing {just because I never buy into the cleaner doing all the work for you}--it works great

 Visit my 'home keeping' board for more cleaning and organizing pins.

And as always, you can follow me on Pinterest here.

Wreath Christmas Ornaments {pinned there, done that}

This week the kids and I tried out this pin.  It was easy enough, my 10 year old and 7 year old had no problem making their own wreath to add to our tree.  I would only change one thing...the instructions call for hot glue.  You don't need it.  I didn't use any at all, here's what I did....

To start the wreath thread your yarn through the hole near the shower curtain ring clasp, then squeeze it closed.  It keeps the yarn secure & you can start wrapping your wreath.

For the two color wreaths, I wrapped the entire wreath once, then when I neared the top of the wreath, I cut a length of the contrasting yarn, laid the end along the ring (perpendicular to the wrapped yarn) and wrapped over it with the base color.  When I wanted a stripe of the second color, I would switch the yarn, and start wrapping over top of the base color...then switched back when needed.  It takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, it goes really quickly.  Have fun!

you can follow me on pintrest here.