Princess Castle

Last Thursday night, I helped plan a Recognition night for the 8-11 year old girls and their parents from my church. The theme was, "You are a Princess, A Daughter of God" The event gave me the perfect excuse to construct this adorable Princess Castle! My grandmother gave Lexi this book called, Princess: Sweets and Treats Cookbook and Apron by Genevieve Ko Sweet and since having it, I have wanted to make this castle for something, but the occasion was just never right, until now. We put this castle on the dessert table at the event, and it was so cute and the girls just loved it!

This was so easy to make, even Lexi helped out, and it turned out really cute, in my humble opinion. I wanted to share how I made it so that you can make one for your princess! If anything, it is a fun activity that even toddlers can help out with.

Ingredients/Supplies:
1 (8 count) package frosted toaster pastries, including the box (I used the cherry kind to get the pink frosting on the outside)
1 (16-oz) tub pink frosting (you will have leftovers)
1/2 cup pink and white candies or jellybeans (I used pink, red, and yellow mike n' ikes that were leftover from Chris's b-day)
2 chocolate wafers
4 pink flat-bottomed ice cream cones
1 Tbsp pink sparkling sugar  (I used red)
3 mini marshmallows
1/2 pink dragees (I couldn't find these, so I used more sparkling sugar to accent the doors and balconies)
serrated knife
foil
3 small paper flags, which you can make from toothpicks, paper, and stickers

Directions:
1. Remove toaster pastries from package. Wrap box tightly with foil and place one long, narrow side on work surface

2. Spread some of the frosting on top and 4 sides of box. Stick 6 toaster pastries on frosted box to make castle walls. Fill in gaps and decorate sides and top with candies or jellybeans.

3. Spread some frosting on sides of wafers. Stick on one larger side of box to make doors. (My wafers were too tall, so I used the serrated knife to cut off about 1/3 of it.)

4. Using serrated knife, cut curved tops off of 2 cones and then cut 1 top in half. Frost cut sides of halves and stick over door to make balconies.

5. Frost bottom of 3 cones including 1/4 in. of sides. Roll frosted sides in sparkling sugar. Place unfrosted cone inside whole frosted cone to stack them into a taller tower.

6. Stick flags into marshmallows, then place marshmallows on top of cones. Arrange cones on top of box, with taller tower in the center.

7. Pipe frosting along tops of balconies and around door and decorate with dragees and jellybeans or candies.

I think it would be fun to make a rectangle cake, instead of using box, and turning this into a fun girly, princess birthday cake! Just a thought.

My proud, Princess helper

Anyways, we had so much fun making this, even after the event, Lexi would not let us throw it away. So, we have had it sitting on the kitchen window sill for some time. Lexi just loves it! So fun. Thanks Grandma for getting us this book, we can't wait to try more of the cute treat ideas!

My name is A-L-E-X-I-S!

Lexi loves nature! I mean, she really loves being outside and she really loves going on "adventures" as she calls it. She loves animals, she loves rocks, she just absolutely loves the Earth! Almost daily, we go outside and she collects various things like pinecones, twigs, leaves, etc. that she puts in her "adventure bucket." I kid you not, she refers to her red sand bucket as her "adventure bucket." It makes me smile! Anyways, after I put her down for quiet time I transfer the collectibles back to their natural environment. And, every day when she wakes up she says, "Mom, did you put my stuff outside again!?" Well today, on our walk, as usual, she collected a lot of sticks, leaves, etc again. When we got back in the house, she said, "Mom, I really don't want these missing when I get up. Please?" Well, I could not resist her face, but I also did not want any more of nature in my living room, so I asked her if we could craft with them. It was the perfect compromise. Now, I just needed to come up with a craft....

Well, I have been helping Lexi learn to write and spell her name properly lately, so that is the first thing that came to my mind. We took her sticks and the only two leaves that she wanted on the poster and spelled out her name, glueing each stick in its place. Lexi was in charge of finding me the sticks she wanted to use, and helping me break them, and she glued them in place. Lexi had a blast.  

When we were done, she stood up and as proud as she could be, she said, "Mom, my name is Alexis, A-L-E-X-I-S!" Is that right, did I do it?" 

She was so proud of herself and of her creation. I was glad that the sticks could find a good use and Lexi insisted that we hang it up in her room, so I told her when Chris gets home tonight, he can help me hang it up! 

I love my smart, quirky girl so much! And, I love doing fun crafting projects with her too!

Summer is Here!

It has been a long winter here in MI.

But now, well... Summer is finally here and I, along with my family, could not be happier! I took this picture one day right before we went on a walk and Lexi threw her arms up in the air, and said, "I love Summer! It makes me feel happy!" So, we would just like to wish all of you a happy summer from our family to yours!

Four Teeth!

Christine has four teeth in her pretty, little mouth! Here are some updated pics of Christine that really show case her chompers!

Can you see them? Two vampire teeth on top and two on the bottom?

Seriously, how did I get so lucky to have such a happy, little girl?

Memorial Day 2011

Memorial Day was so fun this year, HOT, but fun! We decided to make use of our membership to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and go see some civil war re-enactments and step back  in time to really remember what this Holiday is for, to remember those who have died serving our country!

We all had a great time! We definitely had to bring the sunscreen, though. It was 90 degrees and very humid! But, even though the weather was a bit hot, we didn't seem to mind.

Lexi did not like these sheep! I don't know why, but her face in this picture pretty much sums up her feeling of these animals.

When we first arrived, we went right over to see the start of the re-enactment. Notice my hair is down, but that only lasted for about 5 minutes. It got put up after sweating to death :) So, for the rest of the pics I am sporting a pony tail!

Attention! Lexi really liked watching this more than we thought she would

I made a ribbon rose to show my support for the war!

They were showing how to fire a cannon. Chris really got into this.

Ahh, horses. Have I told you Lexi is obsessed with horses? Seriously, she was in awe when they all rode by.

1, 2, 3, 4, March!

Lexi kept saying, "Those are big guns" over and over and over...

This picture just makes me laugh. we were taking a tour of one of the old houses and we looked over and saw Christine just chilling with her foot up! It was so funny!

Close up

The end of the 2 hour re-enactment, no we did not sit and watch the whole thing from start to finish, but we did go to the closing ceremony, it was pretty rad

They had old artifacts and historical documents and things that made Chris very happy. 

I took this picture of Christine why Lexi was riding the carousel with Dad. Shh, don't tell Lex that Christine stole her flag!

To end our day, we went to Red Robin to grab some late lunch, we were starving by 3 o clock! Lexi got a green balloon from the place which made her very, very happy. Green is her favorite color, by the way. Anyways, it was really fun to spend Memorial Day together and reflect on those who serve our country.