Paused...Until He Takes Us Home!

I'm not the die hard potty training mom who tosses out all diapers and goes cold turkey with nothing but undies.  I keep them in their diaper for nap and bedtime until they start to wake up dry.  With Adda and Ella dry nap time happened pretty quick.  With bedtime it took Adda a good 5 or 6 months to wake up dry and with Ella it only took a few weeks.  So, when I potty train I go in as quick as I can to get them out of the diaper before they wet it, especially in the beginning so they have more success. This is what has worked for me.

Let's start with day 1.  My mom is here visiting and she very graciously agreed to help me do this.  She, by the way is the BEST mom there is because she did her potty training a long time ago with Lee and I.  Very quickly into day 1 I realized that there was no way I could have done it without help.  Potty training two at once is SOOOOO much different than one.  They don't drink at the same time.  They don't pee at the same time.  They don't poo at that same time.  So, you are running back and forth from one bathroom to the other asking one kid the same question 90,000 times a day and trying to remember who just went teetee and who didn't do anything.  All while I have the other two varmints needing me every so often.  Hold cow it's crazy!  By the end of this day we only had 4 accidents total, one dry nap time diaper, and they both went #2 on the potty.  I was amazed actually because day 1 with Adda and Ella was like 9 accidents to1 success.  So for two at one time to do so well seemed like this would be no big deal at all.  By the end of day 1 both of the twins started getting a fever and Chloe had weird hives.  I didn't think much about it because it was a low fever and decided I would just watch them.  So day 1 seemed to be good and my mom and I ended that day with margaritas on the couch after everyone went to bed!

Day 2 went pretty good too in terms of accidents.  Chloe had a little dribble accident first thing in the morning and that was it all day long for both of them.  The only thing that got me worried was that they, especially Claire, only went teetee about 3 times and they were dry for hours at a time.  They both still had this lingering fever and you could tell could feel it.  I was a little nervous that they weren't drinking enough with this fever.  Because it was such a low grade fever I thought for sure they would wake up fever free and ready to go for day 3.  Again, my mom and I ended the day with margaritas on the coach after everyone went to bed...and we watched the Bachelorette and Real Housewives of Orange County.  Smut TV and an adult beverage seemed to be just what we needed to head into day 3.  Haha!  You would have ended that day the same way...trust me! 

Today was day 3 and it started out rough when I rushed in to get them up as soon as I heard the first peep only to smell poop.  Claire had been working on a good one the day before with no success before bed and I knew she would need to right away in the morning.  I got them out of their diapers and gave them their milk and we sat for our first potty break of the day.  Nobody had a drip.  About 10 minutes later Claire gave us a weird look as was standing in a puddle.  At this point all positive thoughts I was having flew out the window.  I'm pretty good at letting the devil blow out my flame within 30 minutes of the day starting.  I started to feel sad, disappointed, discouraged, and felt like a cloud of yuck was hanging over me.  Like I said before, often the enemy slaps me around early in the day.  That's when everyone is needy and wants milk, and breakfast, and blankets, and dressed, and hair done, and toys out, and Nick Jr. turned on, and so on, and so on, and so on!!!  Usually the first person to ask a question in an ungrateful way gets the crazy eye with a touch of screaming!  I'm sorry!  I'm working on all this!  It's a daily hand over to The Lord.

As I felt myself going to this gross place this morning I knew I needed some good ole prayers.  Luckily I have an amazing group of people that I text and tell my ugliness and they beg The Lord on my behalf.  After several responses of encouraging words and prayers I felt encouraged and ready to get back on the potty bandwagon.  Two ladies, that very much love The Lord, and hear from The Lord, and love me dearly responded with encouraging words to not kill myself and pause this potty training if need be.  I honestly was a little defensive at first because by golly we were gonna get this potty training down come hell or high water.  I mean I posted it to freaking facebook...you can't turn back from that!  Everyone knows your business...stupid social media! 😉

The morning moved on and the twins both were accident free all the way through lunch.  They both went potty right before naps and Claire woke up with a dry diaper.  We drank a smoothie and took a walk outside and came in to potty and Chloe had a #2 success on the potty but neither one went teetee  Right after the potty break Claire had an accident.  Both of them had no fever but were now coughing like crazy.  With all the coughing and Claire's accident I started to head right back down that dark road with my stupid thoughts.  Adda was also couching up a small lung and all I could think about was having to stop potty training.  Their fever came back, and I started to really feel like The Lord was pushing me to remember the words I heard from my two friends earlier in the day about stopping if I needed to.  Was this worth everyone loosing their JOY?  Was it worth the twins having to continue feeling a little like crap and go through this at the same time?  Oh, and I didn't mention that Thursday is our anniversary and my mom was planning on watching the girls so we could go to dinner.  There was no way I could leave her by herself if things weren't looking up around here.

We decided to all load up and pick dinner up at Taco Bueno.  The babies stayed dry the whole way there and back and we went straight to the potty when we got home.  Neither one went teetee so we put them in their seats and all started to eat.  I was sitting in my chair running things through my head when Claire let me know that she went teetee in her chair.  So did Chloe!

When The Lord is checking my prideful heart I usually break down and cry and get really real and all the thoughts I think start rolling out of my mouth.  This time was no different.  I started to cry and told my mom that I was afraid to stop for lots of reasons.  I was afraid of looking like a failure, I was afraid that stopping now would make it harder later, I was afraid of doing this again without my mom here.  I realize I don't have to explain myself to anyone, but I want to.  I started thinking about how moms put these ridiculous pressures on themselves and when they can't reach them its devastating at times.  I started to think about this rush I was in and why?  They aren't even 2 yet!  I think because I did Adda and Ella before they were 2 I decided the twins had to be done before 2 as well.  I started to thinking about the moms I know that would give anything to wipe another butt of the baby they no longer have.  I just wanted to stop and hug the babies with a diaper on and tell them how proud I was and how much I loved them. So I told my mom we are stopping!  She let out a gasp of excitement!  I wanted to be real and bring light to this crazy place we as moms put ourselves in.  I loaded myself down with these must reach goals because it all seemed to line up the right way in my eyes and I was going to get all 4 of mine potty trained by the time they were 2.  Gosh my pride is so gross!

In reality this is not the same as Adda or Ella.  Things were going good and this fever threw us off track and The Lord did some good work in my heart today.  I don't count the last 3 days out.  They were good and I'm always up for a good heart change!  The second I told my mom I wanted to stop I felt like 50lbs were lifted from my shoulders.  Don't carry all that crap Jocelyn!  I can't wait to just let them pee in their diaper tomorrow and cuddle them!!!  Adda asked me what we were doing tomorrow and I said sit, and cuddle, and play, and love on each other.  I'm good with that!  We will revisit it all maybe in July.  I'm going to still put them on the potty every once in a while and ask them about poop.  We are going to work on them telling me more when they feel like going to the potty. This works for now!!!

We are fine, this is fine, get a grip Jocelyn.  You don't have to be a prefect mom!  Isn't this what we tell ourselves all the time??!!!

So we are ending day 3 again with a margarita on the couch after everyone has gone to sleep. We are going to get donuts in the morning and enjoy the day hoping the girls start to feel better.

Oh, and change a few diapers too!  

So long, Farewell...

Are you singing yet?  Are you twirling around pretending you're Julie Andrews running through fields of grass and wildflowers in Austria?  Well, I am!  I was a few days ago!  Crap, I'm so fired up about my news I'll be humming this tune for a while!   Might even run through my backyard with my top off!!!  Maybe not the backyard top off part but possibly through my house with no top!  You'll understand as you continue reading.  You might even want to run with no top after reading this!  Wink, wink!!

Let me start out by telling you about a few very exciting marks that I have always soooo looked forward to with each baby.  These are all things that weren't life or death.  These are things that just plain made me flipping happy.

1. Sleeping on my stomach!
I'm not a stomach sleeper.  I like my side.  My right side to be exact.  But, when that option in taken away from you for about 7 months of a pregnancy because of a human growing in your belly, and then for another 12ish months because of huge boobs that are full of liquid gold, you can't help but feel a little pissed about the loss of that flip.  I never really dreamed about this sleeping position with Adda or Ella (I thought very fondly of it though!!!), but with the twins I longed for my face in the pillow.  So when that day came, that my boobs were like cannons, I was like a sack of potatoes only moving to take a breath.  I had already spent the last two months of the pregnancy so big that I had to be moved out of bed and I was ready to do somersaults.

2.  Sleeping without a bra!
Some ladies are different than others.  Some need a bra early in a pregnancy.  I never locked my ladies up until I absolutely had to.  That means that until my milk came in, I let them roam freely!  Once my milk arrived I had to wrap em' up to prevent a spray down every few hours.  I always nursed longer than 12 months, not because I thought I was a supermom, but because I just made lots of milk and I was home and in a good routine and very much enjoyed nursing my girls.  With the twins I did it longer because I was trying to save us from having to purchase a cow to graze in our backyard and supply our family with a constant flow of dairy.  I found a rhythm and stuck with it.  When I did start to think about quitting I knew I had to very slowly take myself off so that I wouldn't get mastitis again.  After having it 5 times I had nothing in me that wanted to try for a sixth.  It literally feels like a good mixture of a really bad flu and a boob job.  I haven't had a boob job but seems like that's what it would be like! 

3.   My body back! 
With Adda I stopped at 18 months.  By that time she was only nursing morning and night and it was obviously a comfort thing.  I had a 4 month break and then found out I was pregnant with Ella.  Ella was 8 months old and I was pregnant again.  This time a total shocker.  I was fully nursing and had not even had a cycle yet and thought for sure we were protected.  Ha ha!!!  I decided I would try and nurse Ella as long as I could as long as the twins were growing like weeds in my belly.  I stopped nursing Ella at 16 months, 3 weeks before I had the twins.  I just couldn't fit her on my belly anymore and she took to milk in a cup very easily, much easier than Adda did.  I nursed and pumped with the twins for the first 3 weeks and then pumped exclusively up until a few weeks ago.  I finally decided it was time to close the book on that very long chapter of my life.

I don't say any of that to get accolades or pats on the back.  I only say it to give you a GOOD picture of how excited I was to say goodbye to The Pump.  

The first night I didn't pump I laid in bed and took these selfies and sent them to some friends and family members.  My caption read, "These are the faces of a very happy lady who for the first time in almost two years is going to bed without getting her nips sucked down a funnel over and over and drained for my little varmints!  I'm finished...unless all of the sudden I become engorged and need some pain relief!  Ahhhhh!"  We jokingly talked about making a slo-mo video of me beating it with a bat.  Something kinda like this! 

We also talked about videoing Gonzo with the pump on.  I really tried to make that happen!  He wasn't so fired up about trying it out.  

In the end I didn't practice my gold swing on my pump.  I didn't tie it to a raft and send it across Lake Arlington.  And, I didn't pretend I was a National Champion in the weight throw heaving it across the sky.  (I should have done the weight throw one...I know a National Champion in this event and could have gotten some good coaching tips from her.)  I actually haven't even gotten rid of it!!  All this talk about how glad I am to say goodbye to this pump and I still have it.  It's zipped up and on a shelf in the twin's closet.  I've learned to never say never to The Lord.  By that I mean...if something happened and somebody needed breast milk for a baby and I was asked to help and The Lord laid it on my heart over and over and over...and over and over and over again I would get that "sucker" back out and pump again.  Although, my fingers are crossed that I'm done!  Never say never!

HUGE. Sack. Of. Marbles!!!

Marbles...I'm sure you're wondering...Where's she going with this????
Twice this has happened.  Twice people driving by have seen this.  Twice I have almost died with this HUGE sack of marbles.  It's happened twice!!!
I'm sure you are still wondering.

Yesterday I made plans with Adda to eat lunch at school.  She had two Book-It pizza coupons to spend for reading extra books.  Gonzo picked up the two personal pizzas for me the night before and all I would need to do is cut up some fruit, put some crackers in a bag, and fill everyone's water bottles and lunch would be ready for all the girls.  Her lunch is at 10:44, which means I have to walk down the driveway at 10:30 to get to the school in the 8 minutes it takes walking, through 3 doors with my double stroller, checked in with the not so friendly and seemingly very judgmental front desk ladies, and sitting at the table with the girls lunch divvied up before Adda's class walks in.

So, let me start at 7:15.  I had just finished Adda's hair and she was eating breakfast.  Ella finished her pop tart and it was her turn to get dressed.  I lifted her shirt and she was covered in hives.  Like all over the place huge swollen hives.  My eyes bugged out and Ella said, "I've got polka dots!"  She was without a doubt having an allergic reaction.  All I could think about was over a year before the 2 weeks of watching her with an allergic reaction to penicillin, and that was horrible.  I immediately went into "oh crap" mode but knew I still had to get everyone dressed and fed and down the driveway by 8:00.  As soon as we got back from taking Adda to school I called the Dr. and got online reading about an inhaler Ella started taking on Wednesday.  At her 3 year visit I talked with our Dr. about some things I was seeing in Ella that seemed to point to asthma...things that I did at around her age before I was actually diagnosed with asthma.  I had no doubt that's what was going on in her little body, a reaction to this inhaler.  Before I knew it the clock said 10:20 and I had not gotten anything ready for lunch.  I washed and cut up some strawberries, dumped some pretzels in a bag, filled everyone's water cups and threw it all in the diaper bag.  I ran to the twins room and grabbed two diapers and started calling them to the living room to change their diapers.  This is a joke because they like to pretend they don't hear me yelling their name for a new diaper.  They like to keep doing whatever they are doing or come look at me and smile and run the other way.  I snatched one up and started to change her diaper and yelled for Ella to potty and get her shoes on.  Got both diapers changed and their shoes on and headed for the back door.  Ella came running with her jacket and had her shoes on the wrong feet.  Got that situated and herded the cats out the door to get the babies in the stroller when the clock said 10:32.  Down the driveway we went with Ella standing on the back of the stroller while I pushed.  We were walking quickly down Green Oaks (a very busy street) and almost to the stoplight when I realized I left the FREAKING PIZZA!!!!  The whole reason Adda wanted us to go eat lunch...THE PIZZA.  We turned around and I started to run back to the house to not just get the two personal pizzas, but I still had to heat the two personal pizzas.  I pushed my load up our very steep driveway and closed the garage door behind us so I could run in and heat pizza without unloading from the stroller.  On any other day when heating a small pizza in the microwave 30-45 seconds would have been perfect...not this day...1 minute and 15 seconds later per pizza they seemed luke warm enough to go.  I ran to the garage yelling for Ella to get on the stroller.  After we waited for the garage door to slowly go half way up I ran down the very steep driveway with (in my estimation...Ella 32 lbs, Twins 40ish lbs, Big Ass Stroller 40 lbs) my load.  As we were going down Ella screamed.  Not just a scream, she screamed the letters S.H.I.T!!!  Three years old screaming SHIT as we fly down the driveway on four small plastic wheels!  I quickly told her not to say that and shook my head in severe disappointment for my lack of control with that word.  Oh my!!!  My kids are warped!!!  It's official!!!

We took a quick left and I ran down Green Oaks (the very busy street), then a quick right at the stop light across Green Oaks (the very busy street), and down the street headed for Adda's school.  As I was running I had a thought...What does this look like from behind?, In my head it looks like a HUGE sack of marbles beating me in the back of the head.  Everyone passing by knew I was not exercising.  Who would throw their 3 years old on the back and run like that?  No, it was very clear I was running because I was late, and my life is freaking nuts, and I can't get my crap together to be somewhere on time.  All I could see was Adda sitting at the end of the lunch table looking for me to bust through the doors with two personal pizzas!  As the HUGE bag of marbles continued to beat me in the back I ran as fast as I could until the hill started to incline and I had to stop and just put my head down and push.  I felt like a mule walking through a blizzard pulling a wagon with a family of 10.  Ella was asking 50 questions and I finally said Ella...Please...Stop...Asking...Me...Questions...I...Need...To...Focus...We...Are...Late...I...Can't...Breath!!!!
I got up the hill, took a left and finished the hill.  Finally we were rolling on flat ground and I was at the front door of the school.  I pushed the button to have the door unlocked.  I heard the click and I pulled my wagon through the doors.  There were doors right there in front of me and I could have gone right through them and would have been right at Adda's lunch table where I could see her waiting.  Instead, for all the children of Ditto and their safety, I had to take another left and pull my stroller through two more doors that are within a few feet of each other.  The first door is at an awkward angle and has all kinds of Hobby Lobby trinkets, a lamp, and a table right as you go through.  I pulled the stroller over the threshold praying the door frame would hold and nobody would loose a knuckle.  I looked up to see the two not very friendly ladies in the front glaring up at me from their computers and the principle having a lovely chuckle with, I'm assuming, another teacher.  I wanted to scream, DID ANYONE ANTICIPATE A HUGE SACK OF MARBLES AND A MOM OF MULTIPLES COMING THROUGH ALL THESE FREAKING DOORS WHEN YOU HIT UP THE 40% OFF SALE TO DECORATE THE OFFICE?!?!?!?!  Just when those words were about to fly out of my mouth the Kindergarten Aids opened the door and pulled the wagon and children through to the table while I waited on my TAG.  Thank The Good Lord for those ladies!!!  They looked so sympathetic as they came in to help me.  I must have looked like dodo!  I got the tag and walked in the last of the doors to sit down and pass out the food to all the children.  They ate, I sat staring at the wall while all my limbs were shaking from the workout with a HUGE sack of marbles. 

And just like that, her lunch was over, her class was leaving, and my ankles were still shaking.  We loaded back up only to walk back through all those f-ing doors.  As we rolled closer to the office I was thinking of what I would say to justify why the hell I am still pushing 20 month olds in the stroller.  So I did...I used the "sandwich method" - positive, negative, positive!!!  I very politely handed the lady my tag and said "Thanks!  Sorry it's always a train wreck when I come in here!  (positive tone)  You know, one day they will be responsible enough to walk and not be in a DOUBLE stroller.  (negative tone)  Y'all have a great day!  (positive tone)"
 
We walked home very slowly and must have lost the marbles along the way because I felt nothing hitting me in the back.  I didn't regret my statements at all to those ladies.

I posted this picture on Instagram yesterday of all the children at the grocery store with me.  This really has only happened 4 times I think.  It's a beating, and makes me crazy, and tired, and pissed, and sad all at the same time.  It never fails that I get several looks from people like, why would I bring them all to the store.  Like I've totally ruined their grocery store experience by venturing out with my whole crew.  After my jog, that was the last thing I wanted to do when Adda got out of school.  There is a chance that I might use an "all meat method" full of a whole lot of negative for the next glare I get!  Just sayin'!!!!



I'm tired!!!
And...It's all still pretty funny!

And...the HUGE sack of marbles is referring to my boooootay!  

This Chicken!!!

We tried another new Pinterest recipe.  It was delish!  So good that I can't wait to make it again!

Here is the recipe  

Spicy Honey Glazed Chicken

Photo Courtesy of www.nutmegnanny.com

 

I don't usually buy chicken thighs.  It's not that I don't like them, I just usually only have a big bag of frozen chicken breasts and that's what I use for recipes with chicken.  I decided to give this a try because the chicken thighs were on sale at the store and I was intrigued by using the broiler to cook them.  Next time I make it I will probably try it without cracked red pepper and see what the spice is like then.  It was a little spicy for the girls.  I HATE making two meals so I try to adapt it so we all can eat it.  I just told them to give it a good dip in ranch to cut the spice.  Adda loved it!  Ella was sick so she faked like she loved one bite.  I didn't even let the twins try it because the thought of letting them dip in ranch made me shake my head NO!!!  Of course, Gonzo didn't think it was spicy at all!  It was!  He just has burned off his taste buds eating raw seranno peppers.  There was a little of the honey mixture left and we drizzled that over the chicken on our plate.  It seriously was so so so good!  I hope you will try it.  

 

I snapped a picture just as I pulled it out of the oven.  After I basted the chicken with the honey mixture I put it back under the broiler for 2 minutes then basted the other side and did another two minutes.  In the recipe she said that she put hers lower from the broiler but I tried it on the middle rack and it wasn't close enough.  I did mine on the rack closest to the broiler and watched it.

Pinterest Recipe Test

If you're anything like me you have 68 boards on Pinterest and 1,084 recipes posted under "Food", or "Yum Yum", or "Need To Try", or "Get In My Belly".  I waste time scrolling through so many different delightful looking recipes and very rarely make what I have pinned.  When I see someone has tried a Pinterest recipe and given their opinion I'm always excited to see the verdict.  I've decided that if and when I try a recipe that's pinned in and amongst my other 1,084 recipes to try I will blog about the verdict from our table!  I'm always up for a new meal that your family loves too! 

On Thursday I tried this recipe.

Spicy Sausage Pasta

 Photo courtesy of www.kevinandamanda.com

The Sausage and pasta were on sale at the store and I had everything else.  I didn't use Rotel because I didn't have a can in my pantry.  I just used a can of diced tomatoes.  I didn't look hard enough at the store for the pasta she used in the picture and instead used mini pene becasue it was $1 at Kroger.  I also used a little more chicken stock than it called for because I added a little more pasta than it called for.  It was very good, very easy, very quick, and cheap!  All good things in my opinion!  We finished off the leftovers tonight for dinner and everyone still approved!  Well except for Ella, she's in a picky phase right now.  She gave it a good effort though because she had her eye on a cup of hot coco after dinner!

 Try it for yourself!  Tell me what you think and if you changed or added anything! 
 

I'm BACK...ish, semi, kinda, sorta, maybe

It's been a looooooooooong time since I've written on the blog.  Actually the twins were about 9 months old the last time I blogged.  Soooooo, about 9 months ago!  Woops!!!!  To be completely honest I stopped when they started moving.  When the twins became mobile the SHIT hit the fan!!!  Excuse my language but that word just has to be used to fully describe my feelings.  If I ever thought it was hard before, boy was I wrong.  They started crawling and I felt like a chicken with my head cut off from sun up to sun down.  Crap, I still feel like that but the chicken head that is cut off is spinning out of control and shouting cuss words every so often!!!  I stopped blogging because I wanted to be honest about life, but didn't know how to write it without sounding like I hated my life and was the worst mother EVER!  Listen, I am well aware nobody is sitting back watching my every move and making sure I'm up to par on my mom swing, but I do feel like there is a stupid standard that our society puts out there.  Facebook and Blogs are some of the biggest culprits for beating down the already beaten down mom.  I'm sure at some point I've made my life look like "The Sound of Music", but it's not!  It's hard.  It's a beating.  It's frustrating.  It's hard.  It's a beating.  It's frustrating!!!  So is Suzy Q's, right next door.  Unfortunately I have to remind myself more often than I want to admit that even though it's all of the above, it's so so so good!  It's just what God wanted for me.  It's rewarding!  It's sweet!  It's worth it!  It sanctifies me daily, well probably hourly!  I mean if I'm trying to be a book wide open here I'm gonna go ahead and say it's more like minute by minute that The Good Lord is working on me!  I'll be the first to admit that my oldest daughter did not learn the word shit from "public school" she learned it from ME!  I'll also be the first to admit that I ask Adda to pray for me often!  So often that she has told me, "Mom, I've been praying for your yelling and it's not helping."  Sorry Adda I'm working on it!  I'm working on it today.  I'll be working on it tomorrow, and probably again the next day!  Some days will be good.  Some days will suck!  All I can do is keep my head up and keep pushing my girls to Jesus!  Even if I'm asking for prayer for my yelling!!!  Eeeeek! 

So, a very long and probably overly detailed paragraph later I'm telling you that I'm back and will attempt to let you guys back in only if you promise to...pray for my yelling!!!!!  I will attempt to keep it real and not make you think we've got our junk together over here, because I don't think it's possible to get our junk together. 

Happy New Year from our "CREW" to yours! 

Let me explain the overload of the same picture.  We have taken a picture on New Year's Eve every year since we had Adda.  It's usually a beating and we are scrambling to set up the camera to get the picture in, but one day we will look back at them all and be glad we did it.  When I pulled the pictures up I couldn't help but post them all to show you how many it took to get one, or none!  No, there is ONE that turned out!

 Checking camera position

 Checking camera setting

 Everyone get in your spots, here I come!

 I guess I checked spots 15 times before I actually pushed the timer button!

 1st one is blurry probably from me running around the corner to get in the picture.

 A little better but still blurry, probably from my heavy breathing from running around the corner to get in the picture.

 Trying round 2 of the timer.

 The next to last picture was the best.  I stopped breathing for a sec and everyone started laughing!  SCORE!

Hold that pose for one more...and Adda is gone.  Look at Gonzo still holding the pose but pointing with a very strong finger at the spot Adda needs to be at.  Oh Lord!  We are a mess over here!!!

Happy New Year Y'all!!!

Cupcakes Galore and An Empty Basket!

I don't usually make cupcakes.  Mostly because I like cake better, but my cake recipe doesn't work good for cupcakes.  It doesn't have a rounded top and it pulls away from the liner.  I have found a cupcake recipe that makes very pretty cupcakes but it doesn't taste as good as the cake recipe.  If you have a good cupcake recipe please share!  I am still on the search for a pretty and delicious tasting cupcake.  

I had to make a few batches of cupcakes recently.  One batch for Adda's school birthday party (All the kids get to celebrate their birthday at some point during the school year so that the summer birthdays don't get left out).  The other batch was for Adda's Easter party at school.

Rainbow Cupcakes

When I asked Adda what she wanted me to do for her birthday she said, "rainbow cupcakes please"!!!  I knew she would say that!  I looked around on Pinterest and found a few things.

I don't know that I would call this a "Pinterest Fail" but it sure doesn't look like the one on the left.  It looks like the top colors sunk to the bottom of the cupcake during baking.  Weird!  Adda didn't care!  She still saw the rainbow!  

Everything I read said to make sure you use very vibrant colors of batter so that the browning from the baking would not show through the color.  It would have been nice if I had a recipe with the Pinterest one.  It was only a picture.  It did say to use a piping bag to put your color in each cupcake liner.  

Very vibrant colors!

Put each color in a piping bag.

Here is what it looked like when I got them all filled.  They were perfectly layered...until they baked!

Ella watching them bake.

See, it looks like each cupcake had the darker colors rise to the top on one side.  Not sure what caused it. 

You can slightly see the rainbow from the outside. 

My handy dish loader/unloader.

Look at Ella sneaking a taste of the icing!

The finished product!

Even though they didn't stay layered like the Pinterest cupcake they turned out pretty cute!

Singing Happy Birthday to Adda!

Every kid in the class ate the icing first! 

My parents were here on their Spring Break and came to the class party!  Adda was very surprised! 

Easter Party Cupcakes

These were also a Pinterest inspired project.  I was very glad I ran across these because all the other Easter themed cupcakes were baskets with a candy arch that looked much more involved that I wanted.  These turned out much cuter than the rainbow cupcakes did.  I made the cupcakes a week ahead and had them in the freezer and the icing I had leftover in the freezer from Ella's avocado birthday cake.

The grass is made using a Wilton grass tip.  It's super easy and turns out looking just like grass. 

I let them both have a Peep while I was working!  It was their first! 

Fixing to hunt eggs at the class party.  This is Adda's buddy! 

And they're off!  

 Ok, I need to give some details before you see the next picture.  Adda has never had to hunt eggs with a huge group of kids.  She has hunted with her cousins and also with the kids I used to keep but there were always plenty to fill each persons basket.  I made two mistakes in preparation for this class Easter egg hunt.  One, I didn't explain to her that she needed to run like the wind and grab as many eggs as possible to shove in her basket.  Second, I bought rainbow eggs for her to take to school.  That was my biggest mistake!!!  I should have just bought the plain eggs that everyone associates with an egg hunt.  What was I thinking when I got the rainbow ones?!?!?!  I was thinking that Adda would think they were so cool and would love taking those to her class party for the big hunt.  She did think all of that but when the teachers said GO she had one thing on her mind...I need to find those rainbow eggs!!!!  In a matter of a few minutes 120 plus eggs were in all the other kids baskets and Adda had none.  I wasn't sure what to do.  I looked over and all the other parents were standing on the side just watching and here I was out in the middle of it all trying to explain to her that she just needed to grab eggs and not worry about those rainbow ones.  She quickly realized the excitement was over and her basket was empty and started to cry!  I was sick!  I wanted to cry for her and I wanted to go yank all those rainbow eggs out of the other kids baskets and put them in hers.  I wanted to tell the teacher that a better plan would have been to have each kid get 18 eggs and then stop.  I didn't do any of that.  I just watched and my heart broke for her.

Her teacher came over and talked to her and gave her a hug when she realized what was happening and right after I took this picture a few of the girl from her class came over and took eggs out of their own baskets and put them in hers.  Sweet little girls!  Adda later told me that none of the boys shared their eggs when she had an empty basket!  Rotten boys!  When the kids came in from outside the teachers had all the baskets in the hall and everyone got 18 eggs.  Guess what...Adda didn't get one of her rainbow eggs in the 18 that were in her basket.  I think she wasn't meant to have those stinking rainbow eggs. 

 Even though that was so hard for me to watch I think it was good for her.  She gets her mind fixed on something and can't get away from it.  She was bound and determined to get the eggs that she wanted and because of that didn't get any.  Parts of that are good but parts are bad.  She will be able to put her mind on a task and do it well.  But she also needs to be able to hear the adult in the background telling her that she needs to not worry about the rainbow eggs and just get some eggs in her basket.  She needs to be able to take criticism and instructions from someone on the outside.

When we did our egg hunt here at the house for the girls she ran hard and grabbed eggs.  She even helped Ella get eggs and put eggs in Chloe and Claire's baskets.  Maybe she remembered the horrible experience on the playground!  Poor thing!  I love my rainbow obsessed girl! 

It ended up being a very fun party and she forgot all about that empty basket by the time we got back to the classroom. I learned a lesson too!  Don't be fooled by all those fancy eggs in the store. Just go with plain!!!!

This is a boy in her class who is moving and this was his last day. She was so sweet and gave him a big hug telling him they would miss him for the next egg hunt!