Happy 5th Birthday, Hannah!

This cake was actually REALLY easy! I bought one box of white cake mix. ALL of the rainbow colors in food coloring gel.

Once I mixed the cake (following the box directions), separated the batter into 6 bowls and added the food coloring to make the colored batter.

All I did, seriously, was pour half of the batter from each bowl into the middle of the cake pan. And then again to the other cake pan. It turned out very pretty just sitting in the pan! Somehow the colors mixed like this.

I put both pans into the oven and baked it. I never understood evenly baking until I baked both cakes. I suggest you bake one cake pan at a time. It still came out alright but I wasted a lot of cake because of how unevenly it cooked.

We celebrated Hannah's 5th birthday last month....and collectively decided on a theme together. She had already had a princess theme for her 4th birthday and I wanted to encourage her to have something other than princesses. So, we agreed on a Rainbow Party!! It was fun for both of us. The only thing that she requested was to have a rainbow on top of the cake. I used mostly Skittles and some Jelly Beans. Did you know Skittles doesn't have blue in their candy assortment!?

These are the invitations that we sent out to the invitees!

In no particular order...Introducing Hannah's friends who came to the party!!

My Reason for Not Blogging

My first Trimester I was T-I-R-E-D!! In one word....that's it. I was either sleeping, lying down or sitting. I am now 24 weeks (due around September 5th!!!)...6 months into this pregnancy and I feel pretty good. I have more energy and starting to get my creativity back. I also have tried posting TWO different posts and they went somewhere..not sure where. I am hoping this one makes it and I can successfully start blogging again!

Hannah, who is 5, is very excited about having a baby sister. She is such a natural nurturer and is a little on the bossy side so I can see her fitting into the "Big Sister" role very easily. I decided to homeschool her for Kindergarten this coming school year. And guess what!? That is exactly when this bundle of love is to be born. So, I decided to get a jump on it and bought some curriculum and start teaching her in the summer. I know we will be busy outdoors doing things but I want to have some time when the baby gets here to not have to worry about teaching Hannah.

I can't wait to blog more about teaching Kindergarten. I think I will do fine and so will Hannah. She is at such a teachable time and wants to learn, which makes it less challenging. I'm actually looking forward to it!!

Rainbow Jello

Hannah is turning 5 in 1.5 days (and yes, she is reminding me daily and sometimes hourly) and we are having a small rainbow party on Saturday with her friends! While on the hunt for rainbow themed party fun/food/desserts I came across beautiful rainbow jello in different forms.

This is from Food Librarian. It's called Broken Glass jello...cool, huh?

I found this dessert on Olson Updates. I have always wanted to get this kind of serving bowl. Doesn't it look beautiful!?

I found this beautiful jello mold at Chexydecimal.com.

And this one is a replica of Alcatraz...Jello Style. I found it on Kitchen Monkey. I won't be doing this one...ever...but I thought it looks pretty amazing!

Which one would you like to see at a Rainbow Party???

Bubbles

I was trying to capture the beauty of bubbles! I was amazed to see that each bubble had a different tint to it. I'm not sure why and I haven't tried googling it yet. I think I just want to enjoy the beauty of them.

We loved watching Molly trying to pop the bubbles by eating them.

Beaded Hearts

This is all that you need. Beads with holes big enough to fit through pipe cleaners. I shaped the heart first by bending it in half and then bending the ends to make a heart. It keeps it shape enough for the beads to go on.

We made these pretty little hearts the other day. I am teaching at Hannah's preschool on Friday and our focus is Valentine's Day!! I really like that day because it's filled with hearts and love and it is a special holiday to celebrate the love you have for others. Some people think that it is just a Hallmark holiday, but it's fun!

I wanted to see how this craft turned out with a real life child before I did it with 7 2-4 year olds. I think they will be able to do it.. Even the little ones!

Cute or What!?

I love this dog so much. Molly will be turning 9 years old next month!!! And yet she still seems to have the energy of a 4 year old dog.. go ahead and ask anyone who has met this cute beast. So, it's cold here in Maryland and the last thing that I really want to do is go outside. and take pictures...Plus, I just got a new external flash for my birthday!!! Yay! (I feel incredibly blessed to have this flash!)

Typically you don't need a flash for outside photography. And since it is cold and I just got my flash in the mail today, I took some pictures in our basement. We have pretty good lighting, but I have found that when I take pictures inside, I get yellow undertones. So, I attached the flash, which was SOOOO incredibly easy and started shooting. Right away, I got an awesome picture, the one above. Look at the picture of Molly all the way at the bottom of this post. I took this about a year ago with my camera's original flash.. Do you see a difference??

The above picture of Molly's nose is a little bright and washed out..but I know how to fix that if only she stayed still. The awesome thing about an external flash is that you can point the flash up. I pointed up to the ceiling so it would bounce off of there instead of directly into the subjects face/eyes.

The big thing that amazes me about this flash is the whiteness and crispness of the coloring of the picture. The one above is a little out of focus but you can still see how white it is. A pet-peeve of mine when I shoot pictures, is the yellow under tones..

I love her!!!!

Creativity...Where Art Though??

It feels like my creativity brain cells are non-existent these days. I was on such a steady flow of ideas all the way from early last year till about a month ago. The thought of even looking for something creative to do by myself and even with Hannah has disappeared. It has to be a phase. I know I feel so much like who God created me to be when I am using my creative juices.

As you can see from my most recent posts....nada...there isn't much. I don't feel depressed. I just feel..like, "eh" to most things. Jewelry, Photography, sewing and crafts. Is it the winter blues that I am feeling? It is really cold out there that's for sure!

How do you get your creative spark back?? I would love to hear some answers. Please?

Ariel Bust

Hannah got this Ariel doll for Christmas and it takes up a majority of her time. 1-she LOVES Ariel. It's her favorite favorite princess of all! 2- Ariel colored hair changes color and her make-up goes on and off depending on what temperature the water is. 3-Her hair is really really soft! It is so easy to brush and rarely gets knotted! She got it for Christmas on Amazon and plays with it for hours throughout the day. So if you have a little Ariel lover, I highly recommend her!

Rainbow Roll Cookies

While reading my friend, Amy's, blog, Flexible Dreams, I came across this post about Baking with her Preschooler.

Hannah saw me on the computer and decided she wanted to make these specific cookies. Don't they look beautiful? Amy linked Annie's Eat's recipe for the cookie dough. I then just followed Amy's directions for the rest, which is followed with these pictures.

Once you make the dough, split it in three. We chose Red, Green and Yellow. Because that is all we have. I need to just break down and buy Blue.

Roll out each colored dough by putting plastic wrap on the bottom and top of the dough. Roll it with a rolling pin. I found it is easy because it doesn't stick to the roller and you don't have to use flour. AND I found it easier to roll with Hannah.

One they are rolled out stack on top of each other in the order that you want the colors to show. Hannah chose for the pink to show on the outside. It obviously doesn't have to be perfect.

Make sure when you roll it up that you squeeze slightly on the ends so that you don't have gaps when you cut them.

We also chose to use rainbow sprinkles. Too much?? Nahhh!

Cut in half! BEAUTIFUL!! Major WOW factor! :-)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I chose 10 but made them a little too brown on the bottom. 8 minutes will be the way to go next time.

Macro Lens

This one was with the +10

This one was with the +4

This one was with my fixed 52mm lens, which I also got for Christmas. It's still gives it the blurry effect but I couldn't get a close-up like I did with the macro lenses. It's such a small price to pay for doing some extra things with my camera. Yes, I am in love!

So...for Christmas all I wanted were accessories
for my camera. And that is what I got! Something
that I enjoyed playing around with and mistakenly
took some nice pictures with are the
52mm Macro Lenses. You can get as close as +1, +2,
+4, & +10.