Rainbow Fun

This year Avary asked me if she could have a Unicorn party for her 7th Birthday.  Sloan chimed in and said Rainbow! Rainbow!  Sooo... I brainstormed and thought hmmm... Unicorn Rainbow :) With Avary and Sloan's Birthdays so close together I thought joint party!  I know, I know, they won't let me get away with that forever :) I thought it would be so fun to try a rainbow cake.  I shared the idea with Aaron and he said he would help me :)  Yep, we were up until midnight baking and frosting :) What we do for our kiddos... Enjoy! You will be delighted with the looks on their faces as you cut their cake for the first time!

Here are the things you will need
* your favorite white or yellow boxed cake mix (easy to color)
* food coloring for each layer of "rainbow"
  purple (red and blue)
  blue
  green
  yellow
  orange
  red
* pie tins or round cake pans
* 2 cans of white frosting

Directions,

Prepare your cake batter as directed on the box
divide your batter equally into 6 bowls
color each bowl of batter one of the 6 colors
bake in each color of  batter in a pie tin (which we did) or a round cake pan
bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes depending on your oven and thickness of batter
let cool on baking rack
trim off domed top of each cooled cake so they stack nicely
start with a dab of frosting on a cake plate or cake cardboard
put your first layer purple on and frost a little on top, proceed with all the layers going from purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red on top. (Which I would have done but my real life super hero husband didn't hand them to me in that order as I frosted) haha
 Frost entire cake in white.
I liked the white because when you cut it for the first time the layers and colors just POP! I did put a Skittle's Rainbow on top to decorate it and a small unicorn figurine and that turned out cute. Enjoy!

Avary Larie (7) Sloan Kamryn (4)

Oh Holy Night

Wow! What a CHRISTmas.  We have so many things to be thankful for.  We have had an amazing 2011 and cannot wait to embark on 2012. Hudson had his first Christmas and it was just perfect.  We stayed at home in Virginia and enjoyed our time together as a family.  The girls loved to not rush around and run from place to place. We stayed in our jammies for a couple of days ( I mean hours) :)
 I hope to have some more time to blog on my DIY gifts I gave for Christmas after we get back from our Iowa Christmas in January, and Hudson's Baptism.We are so excited.

Peace, Love and Joy for an amazing New Year! God Bless

2nd Felt Flower Wreath

I had so much fun making my first I just had to dive into a second.  I took 2 different sized circle shapes one still being the CD and the other item I traced was a wine glass bottom that was quite a bit smaller.
 I followed the exact same process starting to wind the flower by using the end last cut in the spiral instead of the inside where the circle was cut out.  The effect was a more "full" bloom vs the tightly closed one.  Both of these techniques gave great results and would be so pretty together in combination. 
 I stopped at Michael's Arts and Crafts to see what they had for felt and the selection was great.  I don't think you can tell in the picture but the dark brown I used had a stamped design in the felt making the detail really" pop".  They had denim print, leopard, pink glitte, etc.  The possibilities are endless.  I thought I would try and make a poinsetta shaped felt flower pattern with a leaf and get pinks and red felt to do a Christmas wreath. 
  I also made this wreath a lot more full of flowers compared to my more simplistic first one. Both turned out great!

 Happy Crafting! 

Felt Flower Wreath Tutorial

Okay!! So I am super excited to show you my first posted craft project.  I had read about making felt flowers but never thought they would be this easy to make and so much FUN!


Items you will need:

*Grapevine Wreath  (Wal-mart for under $4.00)
*Assorted colors of felt (package at Wal-mart under $4.00)
*Glue gun
*Glue sticks
* CD or circle shape of any size
* Scissors
* pen

Step 1

Take your felt and trace around your CD or circle object.  I made three circles from this size sheet I had.  I choose gold, yellow, teal and blue felt for my flowers.  They complimented our front door even though my urge for pinks and purples almost over came me! :)

Step 2

Cut out all of your felt circles making sure that you cut off the pen line you traced or it will show on your flower.  Cut a spiral from your circle cutting the center circle of the felt completely out. 

Step 3

Take one of the ends of felt and wrap it around itself until you reach the other end. I wrapped some tight and left others loose to give it different effects.  Hot glue the end of the felt to itself to complete the flower. 

Step 4

Attach the completed flowers onto the wreath with hot glue.  I arranged them in a random pattern all the way around the wreath.  Use your imagination with color combos and arrangement.  I plan on making a bunch of these!

Step 5

Hang your beautiful wreath, give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy your accomplishment of making great door decor for inside or out for under $10.00! 

Spring Fling

I have not been on in a while and wish that time would sometimes stand still. :)  We have a lot of fun things going on right now.  Avary has just 2 half days of Kindergarten left and I am very happy she will be home with me for the summer.  She was sad when I told her that Mrs.Fries and Mrs.Harlow would not be her teachers again next year.  She thought she would have them every year.  Haha... little sweetie. She is going to be honored with a character award at her school assembly tomorrow and she has NO idea!  We are SO proud of our little peanut butter. 
Sloan is busy as a bee playing with her friends outside every day and getting one on one time with me at home.  She will be starting a great Pre-school in the fall at Grace United Methodist Church right next to us.  It will be a great experience for her and she will go 2 times a week.  Every time we drive by the church she yells, "there is my school"...
 I am 28 weeks along with Baby McVay!  It has gone so fast this time around but this pregnancy sure has been a tough one. I have not been able to enjoy a lot of foods, but it is well worth not gaining a pound so far! :) 
 The doctors say it's perfectly fine.  We were over the moon when we found out we were having a boy!! We have a scheduled c-section scheduled for 9.2.11 and we are hoping he sticks with that time since we have family coming in for his arrival.  We have his name under wraps and no one other than Aaron and I know it!  I must say, it is very fun to have a secret!! :)  The girls continue to call him Baby McVay and I think they will even after he is here and named! Haha

We have recently visited the Hartland Orchard where we picked our own strawberries.  The girls flipped out over this and it was a great family day.  There are still so many things to do here in Virginia and we really enjoy seeing it all. We went to Virginia Beach already this spring and really had a great time with Grandma Marg.  The girls could live at the beach!
Aaron has been very busy with a new job.  He was recruited by a Health Care Company and he received an offer he just could not refuse.  His previous company AMU was sure sad to see him go but they were very excited for him to be able to excel in his career. 
He took a position with XL Health in Baltimore, MD.  It is an hour and twenty minute drive for him but that is generally the normal commute around here even if you do work 3 towns away.  Traffic is a monster here!
 His office is at the Warehouse at Camden Yards where the Baltimore Orioles play, and NO he is not going to become an Orioles fan!  YANKEES all the way!!  We are planning on staying here in Virginia for another year or more.  It is just to much to move right now with a little one adding to "Our Nest". 

The Girl's thinking of baby names

So it's our due date has officially changed yet again. :)  9-9-11 is the new date and with my back surgery that I had last year we are doing a scheduled c-section when the time comes.  The girl's are so busy trying to figure out if we are having a boy or a girl and they have had some wild names!  Avary likes Starbucks and Oliver ( she calls black olives Olivers) haha!  Sloan is leaning more towards tree hugging names like Star and Star and every single time I ask her she says... Star!  Ha ha!  Such little imaginations and Aaron and I support their eagerness by telling them we will ad it to our lists!  Avary brought her progress report home yesterday and she did outstanding if I do say so myself!  She tested so high in every level and we couldn't be more proud of her.  We defeat her Galactosemia complications in every way! We took her to ToysRUs last night and let her pick out two new Explorer games for her Leapster.  We love this educational system and so does she!  She doesn't even realize it is educational until she gets a math problem wrong. hehe
  I am heading to Iowa on February 23-27 for some much needed "me" time.  It will be so fun to hang out with my bestie Amy and my sisters all in the same trip.  I wont get to see my Dad and Mom (hopefully) they will be enjoying their Israel and Egypt trip if all is safe for them to go.  We have a lot of fun things coming up in the near future!  I will keep everyone posted!  Happy soon to be Spring!