i do ... Bridal Shower Cupcakes

I meant to post these a while ago but I kept forgetting... I will get better at posting them right away! I want to keep a better pictorial/journal record of the cupcakes I do so I thought utilizing my blog would be good for that.  The only problem is that I forgot my camera so these photos are from my phone and not the greatest. 

 

These cuties were done for the bridal shower of a dear girl at church.  The original idea came from http://cottonandcrumbs.co.uk/?p=22 but a friend found the link on Pinterest and shared it with me.  Bailey’s colors are yellow, gray and black so I tried to match as best as possible.  For the swirl, I just used my 1M tip and topped it with the small white pearls.  For the “i do” sign I used gray cardstock paper with a little bit of texture to it and printed multiple  i do” phrases in the font I chose on the paper.  Then, I used a Martha Stewart tag punch to punch out my desired shape. We tied little knots in black ribbon and attached them with craft glue to the tag then craft glued the tag to the small popsicle stick.  Looking back now, the only thing I would do different is get a little bigger size tag punch.  I think I would have liked the look better with a little larger “i do”.  Overall, they were fairly simple and a whole lot of fun to make!  

 

 

 



Sleeping Under the Stars …. Kinda

Last night we had an outdoor movie night and a sleepover under the stars…or under the pop-up to be more precise! The kiddos love to sleep outside at least once over the hot summer days and Chad has been itching to do an outdoor movie with the projector.  It was the perfect night to watch one of our favorites, National Treasure 2 and take our slumber in the great out of doors! The only sad part is that Mitchell has been gone for a week at his BPD Explorer Academy in Pasco so he was not home to join us.  He will most certainly be in unbelief that I actually participated in the sleeping outdoors part! I am absolutely a “motorhomer” not a “true camper”, let alone a “sleep outdoors under the stars-er” but I was determined to make it through the night! I have never yet, in all the years of them sleeping outdoors, joined them in the fun! The phrase “I can’t believe you are still out here Momma” was heard more than once into the late evening!  Isabelle took advantage of the situation and used her fingers to simulate a bug crawling in my hair as we were drifting off to sleep….needless to say, she got the reaction from me she was hoping to hear!  I know we did not officially “sleep under the stars” with the pop-up above us, but I was ever so thankful for the cover as I heard the drip of condensation and dew hit the ground all night!  As much as I was longing for my own bed, it was quite a joy to peek out and see the amazing stars, here the coyotes howling much closer than usual, feel and smell the cool night air and to see God’s beautiful sunrise come up over the berries and farms around us.  Precious memories made.

Ummm....is it just me or does this photo make Isabelle look like she has a TON of make up on?!?
No worries....no make up...at all!



A 30 Minute Miracle

That’s about all I can think to call the fact that I am running continuously for 30 minutes. Today was day 3 of going 30 minutes…totally and completely …. it is truly a 30 minute miracle!  I mean really…this is me….the girl who detests running, can’t stick with an exercise program for more than a few weeks, usually finding any reason possible to skip a day…. and here we are.  I am not nor ever will consider myself a “runner”, they are in a league of their own.   Just a rung lower there is me…. a girl running, slower than what is probably legally considered running, but I’m doing it…. and for 30 minutes to boot!  Thank You Lord!

12 Years and Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Yesterday marked Isabelle’s 12^th birthday…..where does the time go?!? She started off with pop-tarts for breakfast, yes a special birthday treat, not a normal breakfast choice in the Honey home! We spent the afternoon at the lake and the evening eating very nummy food, of her choosing!  Her birthday dinner consisted of steak with the Zesty Flank Steak marinade, thick baked beans, baked artichokes with melted butter and homemade corn fritters with honey butter….yikes it was a delicious meal!! Oh… and I cannot forget, she got her first Mountain Dew!  Soda Pop is a treat here for the Honey children. You don’t get your first real can of pop till your 6^th birthday and then smatterings of drinks thereafter.  When you turn 11 you get a pop the first Friday of the month and Mt. Dew is definitely off limits until your 12^th birthday!  Per Isabelle style, she opened it, drank barely any, shared it with her big brother and the rest sits in the fridge slowly losing carbonation and becoming a sugary syrup undrinkable drink!  For dessert, she had chosen Pink Lemonade Cupcakes from this neat book …. Fun Stuff Cupcakes.  At first I was unsure as the frosting is a little different and it is intended to look “melted” hence the “lemonade drink” look but they turned out really quite well and they were fun and pretty simple to make. 

There are so many things to love about Isabelle, but here are a few heard around the table last night…. “ I love how she is always willing to play with me and play Little House and she is the best sister”, “I love how she lets me build the cabinets she needs in the red building for Little House”, “I love that she goes the extra mile and helps others”, “she is kind”, “I love her cheeks”!!! She is tender, kind, compassionate, giving, has a tender heart for things of the Lord, an excellent sister, an invaluable mother’s helper and a precious daughter.  She is truly a joy to our hearts. 

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 package white cake mix

1 cup water

3 egg whites

1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup thawed pink lemonade concentrate, divided

2 T veg oil

5-8 drops red food coloring, divided

4 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

Fruit slice candies, straws

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18-22 standard muffin cups with paper baking cups

2.  Beat cake mix, water, egg whites, 1/3 cup lemonade concentrate, oil and 4-6 drops food coloring in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until well blended.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full.

3.  Bake 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes in pans 5 minutes, reove to wire racks to cool completely.

4.  Beat powdered sugar, butter and remaining 1/4 cup lemonade concentrate in medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add a pinch of milk or cream if frosting is to thick.  Beat in remaining 1-2 drops red food coloring until desired shad of pink is reached.

5. Pipe frosting over cupcakes, garnish with candies and straws.



Our Favorite Part of Summer

There is hardly anything we look forward to more as a family than our annual church campout! Even though this is our family's 11th year attending, we never tire of the anticipation and then the joy of the actual event! This year was no different and we were blessed with incredible weather and much fun had by all!

Just a few of the memories..... campfires, friends, nummy food, loads of fellowship, Eschbach Annual Pancake Toss, lots of laughter, SCBC Olympic Games, tea parties, croissants roasted on an open fire for breakfast (the best ever!), endless bike riding and "goin' round the loop", fishing, soaking in the sun, running, and all things smores....regular smores, Reeses PB smores and York Peppermint Patty smores.....mmmmm mmmmm good!

JD is "ready" for his water balloon in the water balloon toss!

Chad came up with some creative ways to label his cups this year,

this one was a favorite!

Fishing with the Barbie pole! :-)



25 Minutes

     In April I decided that I needed to do something different….drastically different….with my physical self that is.  I had been hearing a lot about this C25K (Couch to 5K) running program and decided I would do it, or die trying. This is coming from the girl who detests, loathes, hates… no really, I mean to use those strong words….despises running.  Let me tell you a little secret about my school days.  We had a PE class, of course, what school doesn’t?!?  I really don’t like physical education; well I really didn’t like THAT phys-ed class.  For cheerleading we did tons of physical exercise preparing our routines including hours of aerobics but that PE class was probably the bain of my existence in my school years.  Did I mention that I had the same PE teacher for most of my school years? I attended a private Christian school from preschool to graduation (with only one year thrown in there where my mom let me “try” public school…didn’t like it so much) and for the most part we had the very same PE teacher.  She never aged and her Cheetos and Diet Coke she drank…(while we exercised none the less)… never changed.  We had a lake near our school and up until just this moment I always thought it was at least 2 miles one way from our school.  As I was writing this I decided to look up the exact distance on Bing maps so I know how far we were made to run….it always felt like an eternity…well I stand corrected, really corrected.  My oh my…. It is only 0.6 miles one way from our school…yikes that’s pathetic. Well, many times we were made to run to Cheney Lake from school but I was of course always the straggler at the back.  I finally got smart.  On the way to Cheney lake there was a neighborhood off to the right and I got a fantastic idea.  Since I was always the end of the line anyways I decided I would just drop off the back of the line as we went past the neighborhood street and rest myself behind a parked car.  Then, when they all ran by on the return, I would then sneak myself back up to the end of the line and run the short distance to the school. This worked great for quite a while until our teacher decided to drive her car to check up on all of us and our running skills.  Needless to say my creative caveat wasn’t greatly appreciated and I was back to running with great disdain. 

     I have always known I would go to great lengths to avoid running but in April I was desperate.  I needed physical activity that was flexible, no extra parts needed, not stuck inside in front of a TV, not expensive start-up costs, not a gym and I didn’t need a partner.  As I weighed all my options, all I had left was unfortunately running.   How hard can this be I thought.  I have matured since high school, I no longer hide behind parked cars.  I have endured childbirth, 30 long hours for Mitchell alone, (thanks sweetheart) I CAN endure running.  So began my dreaded running days. I gave myself one year to lose “xx” pounds, so I downloaded two apps on my iPhone, Lose It and C25K.  One is for counting calories and the other for learning to run.  Oh…my… goodness.  Really there could not be an easier program to get you running, but I hate running so it was kinda like torture for me.  C25K is a fantastic program that, slow and steady, goes 3x’s a week for 9 weeks and takes you from nothingness to running a 5K.  Day one begins like this….Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cool down walk. 

     60 seconds of jogging…really….sounds pathetic but when done by me, in alternate with walking for a total of 20 minutes, it was HARD.  Really, honestly, it isn’t hard… but for me….oh yes it’s hard.  Slow, that is all I can say about how I run...slow and steady. Originally it was probably more like “slow and sloppy” as I didn’t have the steady part down but that has developed over time, thankfully.   So fast forward 15 weeks, yes… I am 15 weeks into a 9 week program and no, I am still not all the way there yet…but I am still running!  A couple weeks into my beginnings, my sweet neighbor Jamie joined me so I started over again into the program, back to day 1.   I had no problem with that, a little more time to build myself up! It has been fun to have Isabelle fill in as my running partner when Jamie can’t  go.  I have so enjoyed her company and Shelley can’t wait till she gets a little bigger to join me!

     Much has happened since we started.  We repeated days when we did not feel ready to move on, I battled a nasty bronchitis but worked through it and we conquered our dreaded 20 minute run. My friend Cindy says if you can run the 20 minutes, you can run the 5K and I’m beginning to believe her! Our running is slower than they expect from you as we are not quite meeting the distance they mark, but we are meeting the time and we know the distance will come as we get stronger.  I am excited to say we haven’t missed a day, even if our days have had to switch around and maybe we could not run together, we still did it and kept up with the 3x’s a week…sometimes we even went extra! Yesterday was week 7 day 1…..25 minutes… and we did it….we actually ran 25 minutes straight!!!  I told Jamie when we were done yesterday; I am still shocked every time I complete a day that I actually ran it without dying!  There is a little part of me now that believes I can really, truly run a 5K….. no really….. I can actually do it! So far I am a quarter of the way into my desired weight loss.  Slow and steady, nothing fancy, just  portion control and watch what I eat and get myself outside to run.

     Amazingly now, I don’t detest running.  In fact, I kinda, just a little… but not too much… like it!  There is something sweet about praise music blasting in my ears, God’s beautiful creation around me and doing something I never thought I could do that gets my adrenalin going every time! Wonders never cease!

Cute Enough to Wear Pink

No issues with his personal “boyhood” here….



Shots of Summer So Far...

With all the hours Mitchell is working at a local berry farm,

it is a blessing he got to join us for some time at the lake yesterday! 

I just love summer!

A Little, Little House

I love imaginative play and there is nothing like an old barn and castaway supplies to get the imaginations of children going! Myself and  ALL of our kiddos, including Mitchell (sorry honey), have long loved The Little House on the Prairie.  Many hours were spent reading the books and watching the old show... in fact we have all 9 seasons on DVD!  While the show was not perfect to the book, it was endearing all in itself.  Chad loves to joke that the only hymn they know is “Bringing in the Sheaves” and that Michael Landon takes his shirt off every third episode….I think the latter is a proven fact!  Nonetheless, this sweet series has been and always will be a family favorite.   So… we have this old red barn on the back of our property and boy have the children made a home away from home!  Unfortunately Chad’s desired storage space in the red building has been inched out little by little over the last couple years as the children have expanded their once “little room” to a full “little house” for play! I love that they will spend countless hours in sun, rain or snow playing out there!  They have what they consider a pioneer kitchen, a pantry, a fireplace and sitting area, a bedroom and a dining table. They have made everything from vegetable soup to banana mush to their own ink and quill…that actually worked for a while!  What I love the absolute most is that they have worked and played long hours together to create this “Little, Little House” and in the process, created priceless memories.

I guess SuperMan spans the ages! :-)

I love that in the midst of the pioneer home we have a cordless phone!