Triple Layer Lemon Pie

Have you checked out Kraftrecipes.com? You should. They have some of the easiest and idiot proof recipes. I have tried a TON of them and it's usually the first place I look when I want something quick and simple.

I made this pie for dessert after Easter dinner at my house. This is the 'laid back' meal of the day with just my husband and I and the kids with my parents.

Now, when I say idiot proof I mean only if an idiot reads directions and package sizes.

Be careful. I thought there were only TWO sizes of Jell-O. The really big box and the small box. However, there are TWO small box sizes and evidently you have to search high and low and in the back of the shelf and all around to find the right one in lemon flavor. The recipe calls for 2 packages of 3.4 oz. jello. I just grabbed the small box that I thought was right...no, that would be the 2.9 oz box. Really??? We  need two boxes that are THAT close is measurement??? Needless to say my first pie did NOT turn out correct but after I bought everything over again adn got the right size this pie was delicious. Even my mom who doesn't care for lemon meringue pie and my husband who doesn't eat desserts often thought it was good.

Go here for the original recipe.

Triple layer lemon pie:

You will need:
2 pkg 3.4 oz. Jell-O lemon flavored instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 T lemon juice
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 tub Cool Whip, thawed, divided

Beat pudding mixes, milk and lemon juice with wire whisk about 2 minutes. This mixture will be thick. Spread about 1 1/2 cups of mixture into bottom of pie crust.

Whisk half of Cool Whip with the remaining lemon pudding mixture from above. Spread over pudding layer in pie crust. Top with remaining Cool Whip.

Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.

Beautiful Breakfast wreath

I bookmarked this recipe over a year ago and couldn't wait to find an occasion to make it. This year I decided to make it part of our Easter breakfast. We do brunch with my family after church but we do breakfast and baskets at our house beforehand and this was a hit! I served it only with our hardboiled eggs and some sweetbreads....best meal of the day!

I originally found the recipe at Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo. My husband loved it so much he began thinking of different variations we could do with this not only for breakfast but for dinner too! The only picture I got of it though was the one HE took of the whole table before we ate. He was that excited over how good the whole meal looked I guess...he NEVER picks up the camera for anything!

All you need for a really good breakfast are one roll of crescent rolls, five eggs (scrambled), pre-cooked bacon, and shredded cheese. That's IT!!! If you click on the link she has step by step pictures but here is my run down (more for me in case the link ever goes inactive!)

Separate your eight crescent rolls and lay in a circle on a pizza pan covered with parchment. The wider ends should all overlap in the center of the wreath with the pointy ends on the outer edge. Almost looking like a sun. Lay one piece of precooked bacon on each piece of dough. Spoon your eggs  onto the wide ends of the crescent rolls in the center of the wreath but not filling the 'hole'. Sprinkle some of your cheese on top of the eggs and bring each pointy end of the crescents up over the eggs and into the middle. Top the wreath with more cheese and bake until the crescent rolls are done. You should have something that looks like this:

Again, there are much better pictures on the original link but we were too hungry to try this that we didn't stop to take any more pictures!

Dinosaur Tail

I gave birth to a little girl over two years ago. When they said: "It's a girl!" I immediately began dreaming and looking forward to dresses and cute shoes and tea parties and hair bows and all those girly things. I do have tea parties but while my girl wears outfits like a t-shirt and her pull-up with her snow boots :) And, forget about hair bows. They don't last five minutes in her hair usually and that is only when she lets me brush her hair without screaming thorugh it. I spend most of my days chasing her around trying to get her ponytail holder and bow back in her hair.

A few months ago was when she showed some real interest in two new things.

Dinosaurs and Pirates.

She still shouts 'argh, mateys!' whenever she sees even a picture of a pirate. And if she sees a dinosaur she puts her hands out like claws and begins to roooooooaaaarrrr! and chomp her teeth. While my husband was out of the country for a while back in February I decided to make her a real dinosaur. Plus, it kept me from going crazy and gave me something to do :)

I found the super easy instructions here after finding them on Pinterest.  I put it on her that morning and she had a BALL!! She thought this was the greatest thing ever. My pictures are not the best because I couldn't get her to stand still long enough to take a good one! She also really liked helping me stuff it :)

All in all the supplies cost me about $8 and I bought 2 remnants and had a lot left over. GREAT project and so super simple to follow and understand!

Easter Cupcakes

I haven't been doing much 'magic' lately outside of making sure two children survive each day and get their basic needs met. Well unless you count not drowning in laundry magic :) But, I do have a few things that I am hoping to blog about soon.

Starting now.

I asked my mom to let me provide Easter dessert. She does a fancy brunch and when my siblings leave to be with their 'other sides' they come home with us (my 'other side' is out of state) and we do a much lower key dinner. I found these adorable cupcakes on Pinterest and made some changes to make them less time consuming for me. I decided to do this at 9:00 the night before Easter when I was exhausted and kicking myself for stretching myself too thin for the weekend :)

Here is the link to the instructions. And, her blog is amazing! Check out more than just this recipe. I bookmarked the whole thing instead of just the one link!

And, here is my version of the cutest dessert ever...

The kids loved my cupcakes and even a few of the adults indulged. I think they came out great and was really proud of myself.

Instead of the mini chocolate chips I took mini brown m&m's and flipped them over so the 'm' didn't show. Instead of piping on a beak I went through my sprinkle stash and found a container of black and orange large circles. I bought them and only needed the black ones so I was lucky to have a bunch of ornage ones left. I snapped one in half and put both pieces, broken side down, in the frosting and it looks just like an open beak. I also didn't add any feet or wings to mine and I think they are just fine without them.

The only problem with these is I still have about six of them left and they are staring up at me every time I walk through my kitchen...very hard to resist :)

Valentine Hair Bows

I decided to blog about this one while watching my nieces and my daughter all lay together and watch TV today. They are all sporting hair accessories made by moi.

I love making hair bows. I wish I could figure out how to sell them...in the meantime though my daughter and every other little girl I know has a HUGE stash of hair apparel to choose from for any occasion.

They all looked so cute this morning and it made me smile knowing they looked so cute because of something I made :) (please excuse the fact that two of the bows are in uside down-evidently my sister doesn't care about things like that!)

Valentine Door Decor

Ok, so I am cutting this really close. I was going to blog about this weeks ago but this mom of two thing still gets the best of me sometimes :)

Anyhow, just stash this away for next year. It would be fitting since I made this last year and it took me a year to post about it.

I found this online somewhere and I swear saved the link to it but can't find it anywhere. So, I do not take credit for this one. Someone else thought it up and I followed their instructions. I just can't give them the proper credit. Sorry, I'll keep looking for the blog....

In the meantime here is my door 'wreath' for the month of February.

I cut the letters out of an old diaper box first. You just need any thick cardboard but I have an overabundance of diaper boxes usually. I cut strips of red felt and ruffled them with my sewing machine and then hot glued them onto the cardboard. The heart I painted red first since you would be able to see it through the moss-which I bought at Dollar Tree. I glued all the pieces to a long piece of ribbon that I also got at Dollar Tree. The hanger is made from a piece of ribbon that I had laying around. All in all this was a very inexpensive project.

Plus it looks great :)

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Our little girl turned 2 this past weekend. I started planning for her party last summer. Knowing I would give birth a week before Christmas and 5 weeks before her birthday I wanted enough time!

For months I collected anything and everything I could find. Anything that was red, black, polka dot or Minnie Mouse and was on sale or a great deal came home with me. I had so much red and white polka dot ribbon to work with I didn't even use it all!

It was all worth it and the party was a success :)

I started by making my own invitations. I found the idea and the instructions here. Except I had a Mickey Mouse paper punch for the ears. I watched for scrapbook supplies to go on sale at JoAnn's and also used one of my % off total purchase coupons so it wasn't as pricey. So many people told me how great they thought they were!

I found ideas via Pinterest too and ran with them. This one was really easy to figure out and cheap too! I bought the wreaths at Dollar Tree and used wire to connect them and then added some hot glue for good measure. I wrapped it with a bit of polka dot ribbon and was sure to cover the wire with it. I made the little pennant myself with the leftover paper from the invites and attached it with white ribbon. I actually free-handed the two, backwards on the back of the page and cut it out. I was impressed with myself!

I also found the supplies for this one at Dollar Tree and filled in with some other things I had at home. I spray painted the styrofoam balls blacka after I glued them together. I made a bow with some more ribbon and attached that too. I had bought a set of graduated boxes to make a card box long ago and had the two smallest ones leftover. I took the smallest one and wrapped some tissue paper around it and glued Minnie to it. It was the perfect touch on one of our tables.

Those were the most I did in terms of decorating. I bought plain red tablecovers at Dollar Tree, red and black plates and napkins too! I found polka dot balloons at Hobby Lobby way back in the summer on redline markdown and they were PERFECT! I put the birthday banner I made last year out once more and I found a huge Minnie at a garage sale for $1 last summer and it looked great as decor. 

Along with the balloons I found cupcake wrappers that were red polkadot and since I always make cupcakes instead of a big cake I was in luck. I used a white cake mix so the color would soak through them and ruin the look and frosted them with chocolate icing and stuck two mint cookies in for ears and the kids loved them. I made half my cupcakes that way and the rest I frosted and topped with white pearl sprinkles. 

I also made these cute Oreo Pops. I found them over at The Idea Room. They were very time consuming but worth it in the end. I put them in treat bags and tied them with some more ribbon. I put them all in a bucket that I found at Michaels and it completed the dessert table.

Of course I made the birthday girl a set of ears too, but she refused to wear them. She doesn't let me do much with her hair! I bought an inexpensive black headband and glued the ears to that. I cut four circles out of an old file folder and glued two together to make it really stiff. Then I sandwiched that between two pieces of felt and had my ears. I made my own bow and glued that to the center. I wore them for the party and will be holding onto them for a future trip to Disney World. :)

I found Mickey Mouse ears at the party store and got 8 of them. Since this was a Minnie Party and I had yards and yards of ribbon i turned half of them into Minnie ears myself and the kids loved them. \

Of course, the birthday girl had to dress the part as well. I found a Minnie Mouse costume from the Disney Store at a mom2mom sale for $3 and it was perfect for her to run around in at her party. Everyone thought she was the cutest!

And, because I am growing to despise thank you notes I made her help me this time. I found a Minnie Mouse coloring page and sized it down to fit under my WordArt and put four on a sheet. I let her have at it with every red and pink crayon she owns and then cut it out and glued it to a piece of red cardstock. I wrote the sentiment on the back and they are ready for mailing!