balloon wreath.

Do you remember this picture? 
Do your remember this wreath?
Don't you just love it?

 

I first saw this wreath on HowDoesShe.
And then one of my dear friends made one.
And after seeing how easy and cute this wreath is I just had to make one.

I will let you know that my wreath ended up with waaaay more balloons then suggested.
Somehow I seem to go overboard on things sometimes.
My friends still talk to me. . .so I reckon its ok!

All you need to make this wreath is
a straw wreath form (plastic left on)
florist pins
lots and lots of balloons

Once you have all your supplies gathered, start pinning.
I found that if I folded the balloon in half and pinned in the middle it looked the best.

At one time I ran out of floral pins and thought I would try just plain straight pins.
Not such a good idea. 
The balloons did not stay put with straight pins.

Did I mention lots and lots of balloons?

After the whole wreath form in filled with balloons then I tied a ribbon around it for easy hanging.

The finished wreath is so stunning. . .I am actually glad I went a little crazy with the balloons.
Now whenever we have a birthday I can pull this out for instant decoration.

Happy Birthday!

only for him.

There are lots of things that I am good at. . .
I am good at cleaning the kitchen 12 hundred times a day.
I am good at not doing the laundry.
I am good at forgetting to exercise.
And I am good at cooking and baking.

But one thing I am not good at is baking a beautiful cake.

As I have mentioned before, I have some friends who are professional cake makers.
Every cake they make is perfect, beautiful and yummy.
So, needless to say, I will leave the beautiful cake making to them.

However, when it is a certain big boy's 9th birthday and all he wants is a 12-layer chocolate cake,
then, by golly, that is what he is going to get. . .I don't even think he noticed how lopsided it was!
I have made this cake many times and I do believe it gets uglier every time. . .oh, well!
Still tastes delicious!

 No judging. . .here it is in all its beauty.

Sweet birthday boy. . .
Oh, and there is that balloon wreath I forgot to tell you about. . .next post, I promise.

(Go ahead and count the layers, you know you want to.)

I have looked all over the web at many, many layer cake recipes and this one by far is the easiest. 
Lots of the recipes call for cutting layers and such. . .not for this cake maker.
The easier the better.

I would not recommend making this when the baby is awake.

Stay up real real late making it the night before the actual birthday,
lick the frosting bowl and then stay awake a little longer because of the sugar high.

Oh, and don't forget, cake for breakfast on birthdays!

ziplock ice cream.

How do you make a perfect summer day even more perfect?? 
By adding some homemade ice cream of course!

Our morning was spent at home enjoying "no agenda".
While Ben took his morning nap I straightened up the house and cleaned the kitchen.
And the big kids played in their rooms and read books. . .can you ask for anything better?!

When Ben woke up we headed for the pool where we ate a yummy lunch
and played in the pool until afternoon nap time. . .are you loving all these naps we take!! 
Summer time at its best.

Then when Kate and Ben woke up we headed outside to make some ice cream.

A few weeks ago I spied this idea in the Family Fun Magazine and thought today was a good day to try it.
I love finding ideas and recipes that use things I have in the house already!

One thing I will say, the recipe called for half and half,
which I didn't have. . . but we used whole milk and it worked just fine.

 

I put the milk, sugar, and vanilla in a sandwich bag and then ice and salt in a gallon bag .
Then the sandwich bag went into the gallon bag and was zipped up.
I made one of these for each kid and put their initial on the front so no mix ups!

Then for five minutes the kids shook the "crazies" out of the bag!

Oh, have you met my coveted fourth child Carley? 
This is her sweet self with Kate.
One day I hope her most wonderful mom and dad will just give her to us! 
She is just too stinkin' cute and so much help. . .I need her!
Not likely going to happen, but a girl can dream right?

Ben shook his too.

Let me mention here that reading "shake for five minutes" and doing it are two different things.
This was the hard part.
Mostly because five minutes is a long time but also because the bag gets really really cold.

So truth be told the kids did not actually vigorously shake for five minutes
but indeed it turned to ice cream anyway, yea!

Sweet ice cream makers.

Time to eat. 

Yumm-O!

Perfect snack for a summer day.

I hope that you are all having a great summer.