First attempt

I don't know if you remember the post i did with the guy that makes amazing things out of pancakes last week. Check it out here
Well we thought we would try it. Our first attempt was spent working with the consistency of the batter and the heat of the griddle. We used a condiment bottle from walmart and cut the opening a little bit bigger. We thinned out the batter a little bit and turned the grill down so it wouldn't burn the pancakes.
We just had fun! Everyone came with ideas of what to try next. I don't think we will eat pancakes the same way again! Granted we are no where near as awesome as the dad at Jimspancakes my kids didn't notice thats all that matters right?! Heres us playing with our food.

My soldier boy won
Since Emo boy is cat in the hat for Halloween we had to make him a hat

Sticking with the Halloween season we did a witches hat and broom stick

And living in Oklahoma my soldier boy who isn't much of a foot ball fan spent the previous evening watching football with the guys at a party so heres his shout out for team pride LOL

There were plenty more that didn't make the cut including each kid with their names. Here is a butterfly, and a flower, and a pumpkin.

You should give it a try! Fun for the whole family! Thinking of making this our Sunday night tradition for a few weeks.

Halloween Costumes complete!

Happy Halloween!
We had a Halloween party to attend tonight so I HAD to have Halloween prepared a whole week early (Thank goodness cause now I can enjoy the week without too much stress.)
We went for a family theme this year
Dr Suess

My Emo boy LOVES Cat and the Hat. Everyday he visits PBSkids.com he plays mainly on the cat and the hat games and watches the movies. He and my sensitive one have been caught a few times talking in rhymes like the books! SO I had plans for a red and white hat for him.

Last week I came across a site that had Sam I Am as a costume to compliment the Cat in the Hat. I HAD TO COPY! (I never got to the sign or the hat but I have a week to finish that)
My sensitive one Loves his costume. Next time I will not use felt I will buy some thing that will last longer!
Live and learn. It may hold its shape really well but it stretches and pells really easily

When my flittering butterfly found out Emo and Sensitive were going with Dr Suess characters she wanted to also. I searched for something clever and Cindy Lou Who was all I could come up with. She pulls it off well.

Ape baby had to stick with the theme. I wanted to make her Gustav-the fish in the bowl but ended up with One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish in a fish bowl. This was the funnest yet most challenging costume to put together! I am definitely learning my limitations in the sewing department!

Here they are!
the Dr Suess group.
For next weekend I will have Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes for me and my soldier boy just not enough time today to finish them today.
Have a fabulous week!

Costume previews

Can you guess who we are going to be??

Definitely learning my limitations on sewing and designing my own patterns!
1.Felt is itchy-not the best idea for a costume! even if it is cheap and holds it's shape really well!
2.I liked the challenge of sewing the brim on a hat
3.You CAN print on material from your home printer! It just took a little patience, but now I KNOW what my printer likes it is so super easy!!
4.Don't let your 8yr old help cut your pattern out or you may just end up having to do it all again yourself (good thing I bought extra material, and I am the queen of mess ups so I just do a few adjustments and altered my original design)
5.I love family themed Halloween costumes!!

Food art

Check out this guys presentation of PANCAKES!!!

The coolest dad ever!!

Gives a new meaning to playing with your food!

Check him out here

Cleaning tip- stove tops

How many of you have one of these?

I have had a a glass top stove for almost 4+yrs now. I hate to clean them. If any food gets on them it cooks and is almost impossible to clean off. My mother in-law bought me a bottle of specially design liquid cleaner but it never was easy. The instructions suggested you first use a razor blade to scratch off dried on food, and then spread it on and leave it for 10-15 minutes. BY that time I have lost all interest in cleaning it! I spent many hours it seemed scrubbing the dang food off and never really getting anywhere. Plus once the bottle was gone I really hated forking out that much money for the special cleaner!

In our attempt to save the budget, remember this post here we started using vinegar or bleach in place of Lysol. Well I have discovered that the combination of vinegar and baking soda do a lovely job on a glass top stove! I spray it down with vinegar then sprinkle baking soda over top, you can actually hear it work ;-). I then grab my scrubber (something safe for glass tops) and most of the mess cleans up with little effort! I use a rag to clean it all off. If it looks too streaky I just spray with vinegar again and buff it up with a dry rag.

You end up with a shiny cook top- too shiny to get a good picture of LOL
Clean and shiny at a fraction of the cost and effort!!
Happy cleaning!

MIA

This has been the month of BIG projects. I think I have bit off a little more than I could chew at times.
Next week we lose two great people in our congregation. They have been serving a two year mission (the whole 24months being spent with us). We wanted to honor them in a special way for all the love and support they have given to us during their time here in Indian country. Two of the most wonderful people you will ever meet!!

A friend of mine asked if I would help her out with putting together a farewell gift. She had the idea I just did the leg work and helped piece it together and tie it. We sewed a 80 something hearts on scrap pieces of material and grabbed our fabric pens. We then had members of our congregation write love notes to them. Once we had them all back we got to sewing.

Here is our finished project all wrapped up and ready to be presented

She was so surprised we got away without her knowing anything about it. She had no idea!

I was a dork and only brought my wide angle lens so I didn't get a photo of the whole thing and both of their faces LOL I love the Hero heart right in the middle!

Some many wonderful things were written. It was fun for everyone to lay it out on the floor and find their message and read some of the ones we mailed off and got back.

Since these missionaries are from Maine we thought we would make this a poofy quilt. We added triple batting, I know you can't really tell but it is super poofy, great for those New England winters.

I love this idea and will use it again in the future. Granted my kids better be a little older so I don't have to lay the pieces out a million times after Ape baby steals a few or Emo boy races his cars across it. What a lovely memory they have that is so personal from every member of our congregation!
Plus I had so much fun hanging out with my friend Kathie for hours on end talking all kind of nonesense! Love you Kathie!

baby shoes

My ape baby has such high insteps that she fights the battle of the bulge when wearing shoes. She absolutely hates wearing shoes. With as active as we try to stay and her independence there is no way I will let her go without them (plus our yard is full of sticker/pickers/briars it is a matter of necessity). My baby sister sent me this link
I was so excited to make my ape baby something comfy for her feet. She absolutely loves her shoes. She will grab them and try to put them on herself. They must be comfy.

I chose jean for the bottom layer of the shoe, for a little more durability than the flannel- leftover scraps from the kids cut offs.

I lined the sole with a layer of felt between two layers (felt and jean) on the bottom.
I chose jean for the bottom layer of the shoe.

These are so super easy and fun to make!