laid back heart day

mama c. helped us whip us emma's little valentine day goodies for her classmates. you know emma has a thing for s'mores, so we were pinterest inspired, and it worked out perfectly!

emma had a whole bar full of goodies waiting on her when she got home from preschool. aunt charlotte sent us a whole box worth of fun with the lady & the tramp included.

from us, the kids got homemade playdough with glitter. they had a stack of cards from family too. hugs to aunt char & uncle steve, mama c. & papa, and aunt lindy & uncle dill for making their day special!

i made them chocolate covered strawberries too. i've made these every valentine's day for rob since i can remember. they are so, so good.

and, my sweet hubby brought home flowers too. miss emma even had her very own single stem pink rose.

the kids were dying to open their goodies, just too excited, as emma might say.

i love how all of these little holidays are so much more fun with little ones :)

i loved bro's card :)

and bro enjoyed his gel clings.

we just had to try out the new playdough...

i think i had just as much fun as they did. and, i'm pretty sure i never made it to the shower that day :)

although, i did have on red sweat pants, so that counts, right?

we had dinner at home, nothing fancy. just stuffed red bell peppers for us and homemade pizza for the kids. chocolate covered strawberries were for dessert. i was trying to keep with the red theme :) although, can i say i used some homemade pesto for the kids' pizza, instead of pizza sauce, and it was hands down amazing! try it next time, it won't disappoint.

we ended the night with a valentine's day story.

carson will sit and listen to a book now, which is so much fun.

i love reading with my kids and i love them both to pieces.

i definitely prefer our laid back night in to our fancy night out...

it was a happy heart day.

happy valentine's day to my three sweeties!

and

happy anniversary to mama & papa c!

and

happy birthday to my dad!

Just the Four of Us

We invited these two along for our Valentine's Day festivities.

Our dinner was burgers and fries...so much irony in the night. Never have we chosen burgers for our Valentine's Day dinner, and I am pretty sure it's usually a date night without the kiddos. We planned to make up for our date night on the following weekend...and beat the crowds :)

Emma toasted us with her "cheers."

And, we enjoyed the company of each other and all of the little ducks visiting.

Miss Emma....She's always willing to help out. She's a sweet girl.

And, she loves her daddy.

Towards the end, it was getting a little late for our little one.

He was so ready for bath and bed.

I did manage to sneak in a family photo. Although, now looking at the photo, I'm thinking, "poor Carson." He looks so, so sad.

I ended my Valentine's night with one of the sweetest kisses ever. He's just so sweet.

Burgers on Valentine's with the kiddos just might be a new tradition. After all, they are who we love the most, right?

from there to here ::part 2::

i was on a mission last week to find a made from scratch cupcake recipe. after being super unhappy with those delightful little box cake mixes on aisle 9 and chunking one "made from scratch" batch of cupcakes in the trash...yes all 24, i came up with this: chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting. it's a keeper. i used the recipe from here for the cake, and as for the frosting, i don't remember it's source. it's moist and yummy and if you want the recipe without the photos, scroll down to the bottom of the post. preheat your oven to 350, line your cupcake pan with liners, and get a small pan of water boiling on the stove.

mix your dry ingredients together: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup unpacked brown sugar, 1 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt.

then, i dumped it into my kitchen aid and gave it a whirl. i should have just started in my kitchen aid...

add 2 eggs. mix well.

add 1 cup whole milk.

add 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 2 tsp. vanilla. beat for about a minute, scraping the sides if necessary. then, add 1 cup of boiling water.

you'll end up with this...super drippy batter. i used a ladle to pour the batter into my baking cups. bake for 20 minutes.

they'll look like this when they're done. while they are cooling, you can work on the frosting.

for the frosting you'll need 1 stick butter, softened to room temp, 1 block of cream cheese, softened to room temp, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 box powdered sugar (1 lb.), and 1 Tblsp. milk. cream the butter and cream cheese. add the cocoa and vanilla. add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, and finish with the milk. if you want thinner frosting, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time.

now, for the fun part...frosting! i'm a nerd and used this video to help out with my frosting techniques. i wanted the "swirl" effect...

i wish i knew more about this stuff...

remember i made these a couple of weeks ago? they were our toppers for our valentine's day cupcakes. miss emma added a heart to each of the cupcakes, and then i loaded miss emma up, and we delivered the cupcakes to a couple of her super special little friends.

our little buddy has reached another milestone...pulling up! here he is on his very first success...just before the big O-N-E.

we wrapped our week up at a valentine's day crafting party.

what a fun idea! there were cookies to decorate...

and eat...

my little pony joined emma on her adventures. have you noticed that they've re-done strawberry shortcake, my little pony, barbie, and all of the others? it appears that in the past 20 years or so that whole licensed clad has gone clubbing. together. seriously. they're all looking a little wild and *****ish (insert appropriate adjective). do you know how much i love all of that licensed junk? not. i abhor the t-shirts covered in dora, don't really enjoy eating on ariel's face, and honestly would prefer my children to play with all things wooden and classic. let me stop now. just take a look at the barbies next time you're in target. i gurantee you that they don't look like these. in short, i prefer the vintage, don't you?

there were bookmarks to color. emma gave hers to her daddy for heart day.

and little valentine dudes to create...

emma even made me a necklace, which i proudly wore to dinner that night. later on, we turned it into a key chain...those bright little rainbow hearts have helped me big time when on my key hunt! it was a fun week....thanks so much to our sweet friends for the super fun party.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup sugar

1 cup unpacked brown sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Preheat your oven to 350, line your cupcake pan with liners, and get a small pan of water boiling on the stove. Dump the dry ingredients into your kitchen aid, sugar through salt. Allow it to mix. Add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat for about a minute. Add the boiling water, and beat until blended. Ladle into cupcake liners. Bake for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter, room temp.

1 block cream cheese, room temp.

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla

1 box powdered sugar (1 lb.)

1+ Tblsp. milk

Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the cocoa and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, and finish with the milk. If you want thinner frosting, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time.

::recipe:: Peppermint & White Chocolate Heart Suckers

We've got leftover mini candy canes...do you?

I grabbed everything that you see below. Would you believe that, with the exception of the sucker sticks, I already had ALL of this in my house? I guess I'm officially a mom now :)

Preheat your oven to 250. Place your candy canes, in heart shapes, on parchment paper. Stick them in the oven. Mine took about 5 minutes to soften.

Once you pull them out of the oven, add the sucker stick, and pinch both the bottom and top together. Make sure that the sucker stick is sandwiched pretty well in between the candy cane.

You've gotta work kind of fast. Those candy canes start hardening pretty darn quick.

Melt some white chocolate in the microwave. I bought the Wilton pink variety. Spoon it into a gallon ziploc baggie, snip the end, and you are ready to go. Pipe just enough chocolate to fill the heart and cover the stick. Shake your sprinkles on pretty quickly too. The chocolate hardens just about as fast as those candy canes.

I packaged them in cellophane bags. And, yes, I already had those too. Just call me Miss Pack Rat.

While I was at it, I made a set of these too....

I have plans for them later...

Inspired by and adapted from: Skip to My Lou!