Craftin', Bakin', and Pluckin' the garden, make this woman VERY satisfied!

I love being busy! And man, have I've been busy with tons of stuff and it's only getting busier for me and my bunch. You would think summer was our busy time, but nope, come August, we don't stop until the end of January. I guess that's what ya get when you have four birthday children within 2 months. Then we have the 3 major holidays and closely followed by the oldster's birthday(and it's a big one, she'll be 12 ya know-insert tears welling up). Anywho, I love creating new things out of old and trying my hand at new things. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE finding treasures at the D.I. I found this lovely beauty... It used to be a cork message board, but the cork was all scratched(knifed up is what the hubs called it) and it had drawings and some sticky stuff on it. I saw its great potential and for only $8 it was a steal! It is really big and thick and I had to have it for our new craft room.

So began the transformation. I took it all apart so I could cover it with fabric and spray paint the frame. The frame was in really good condition, It just didn't match the decor in the room.
Here's the piece all covered and ribbon on it to make it my new message board. I love the birdie fabric. I love it because Bella says "birdie" everytime she sees it.
And here it is all done. We hung it up on the wall in the dining/new craft room. I love it and can't wait until the room is all done!

I also made up some stuff for Kaleigh's party. We were going for some summer water fun. What's better than buckets of water and throwing homemade sponge balls. This was so simple, but the kids LOVED it so much. I just went to the $ store and bought a pack of sponges.

You cut each sponge into 3 long strips

Then you stack 9 strips together and tie with twine and VOILA...a homemade sponge ball! I let the kids pick their colors so each one was unique and it was a craft project for them at the same time. I just did this one to show them how they would look.

I have also feel in love with the corker hairbows that we see everywhere. However, they start to add up when you have 3 girls who love hairstuff. These bows are sold in boutiques and at kid to kid, but cost about $5 for one. Way too rich for my blood these days, so i decided to try making them myself-guess what, they are super easy!

You just wrap your ribbon on dowels and bake them!

Then you unwrap them after 25 minutes of baking and this is what I had. I cut each strip into 3 pieces(4 inches) and just sewed a bunch together.

Then I wrapped an alligator clip with ribbon and hot glued the corker bow on top and voila... the cutest little hair bows ever. I love making things that my kids wear and I'm getting really good at it. The hubs says I should sell them because I like making them so much.

Oh how i love fresh garden veggies. Aren't these gorgeous! Unfortunately, the rest of the garden didn't turn out so well, but we did get about 10 lovely zucchinis. Maybe it'll go better next year when I have more time to help with the garden. Poor hubs, he was so frustrated with the garden that he nuked it a week ago with weed killer. Oh well, we'll just try again!

I have also been trying out my new recipe concoctions. I've had this one in my head and wanted to try it out. I think I have finally come up with the best blueberry muffins! I've been trying at this for awhile now. They have been either too dry or too sweet, but this one is so YUMMY!

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

3 c flour 2/3 c oil

1 1/2 c sugar 2eggs

1 tsp. salt 2/3 c whole milk

4 tsp. baking powder 3 c fresh blueberries(Costco's are great)

Topping

1 c sugar 1/2 c butter 2/3 c flour 3 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, eggs, milk and oil together. Add salt, flour, baking powder, into the wet ingredients. Fold blueberries in. Drop into cupcake liners and fill about half way. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly and sprinkle some over each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Eat and Enjoy!

This is one yummy, easy dessert that is quick too.

Ice Cream Cake

24 ice cream sandwiches

16 oz tub of cool whip

whole bottle of magic shell

In a 9 X 13 pan lay out 12 of the sandwiches(unwrapped in case ya didn't know), you need to kinda of squish them so they all fit. Then spread half of the cool whip over the top, then layer the next 12 sandwiches on top. Spread the remaining cool whip on top and then pour the magic shell on top. Put it in the freezer for at least an hour. Slice and serve. People will be amazed at how easy and DELISH this is. There are so many flavors of ice cream sandwiches, you can make all kinds of cake. This one was Neapolitan layer and a vanilla layer with heath topping.

Eat and Enjoy!

July 4th Fun And This is the Place Park

We had a busy 1st week the kids were out of school. The first weekend was the 4th of July and we had to do a ton of fun stuff. We went down to T.P. on Saturday, on Sunday we made some tasty treats for the day and for Monday(we were gonna spend it with my dad at the pool). We made a yummy strawberry/raspberry poke cake. Very easy, and very delicious.Top of the cake
Inside of the cake.
It's just a white cake mix baked with some raspberry extract. We let it cool and then we made raspberry jello using 1 cup less water then the box calls for(big box of jell-o) and poked holes in the cake. We then poured the jell-o all over and let it set up in the fridge for a couple of hours. We then mixed some more raspberry extract in with a whole container of cool whip and frosted our cake. We garnished with strawberry stripes. Now, a lot of people do blueberries to make a flag, we didn't because my munchkins don't like to eat blueberries unless they are in muffins or pancakes.



We made these yummy, fruity cookies to take with us for our BBQ with my dad on Monday. These too were made from cake mixes and jell-o. I used 2 boxes of white cake mix(1 for each color), 2 eggs, 1 c melted butter, 2 Tbsp. of water, and one box of raspberry jell-o and 1 box of blue raspberry jell-o. I mixed the cake mix, one egg, 1/2 c of melted butter, and 1 Tbsp. of water with one of the jell-o. Then did the exact same thing for the other color. I had one red mix and one blue mix. I also added a little more color to them using gel color. I rolled them into balls and baked the cookies for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. I then just frosted the blue cookies and stuck the red ones on to make a sandwich. I then melted a bag of white chocolate chips and added a tsp. of shortening and decorated the cookies. We sprinkled them with red sprinkles, and VOILA... festive cookies for our celebration.
They were gobbled up by everyone after a day of swimming and BBQing.

The blue side, I didn't add enough blue to make them really pop, but they were still so cute and YUMMY!

We spent last Friday up at This is the Place State Park on their Family Fun Day. Admission was free and they had a bunch of activities going on. The kids did laundry, beat blankets to get the dust out, watered the garden, and learned a new game. We ended our fun with a "train" ride and a free Popsicle(which was much enjoyed due to the heat). It was very busy, like crazy busy, and Logan was extremely tired and had a HUGE meltdown. So, we left early and missed the square dancing and crafts, but we still had tons of fun. Even the big kid, the hubs, had a blast.

A beating the blankets

The new game the kids learned

The hubs teaching the munchkins how to keep their hoop up and rollin

Poor Laney got her hoop going so fast she started running after it to "catch" it and fell and skinned both knees up, again. Her lit'l knees were just startin to heal from her falling and skinning them up the week before, but alas, the girl is so active her knees take a toll.

Kaleigh excited that she finally got it to work

Such a precious lit'l munchkin

Pure joy and excitement from riding the "train." It was just a bunch of cars that were made to look like a train, but the boys LOVED it.

Logan so in love with being on a train he has hit his "high." Really, this pic does look like he is doped up, but his excitement just hit the roof, plus this was right after his HUGE meltdown. The train wasn't coming fast enough for him, but once it did he was in heaven. Our family had an eventful week and we have just kept on going. We've been busy this last week too and have so many plans next week that I will sigh with relief when the girls go back to school on the 26th, I'm pooped, but havin' a blast being so. We love to be busy when it's pure fun we're having.

End of School Year & Tradition!!

Another school year has come to an end for us and look at these AWESOME girls!

They are all posing and showing off their awesomeness of reaching their goals. Our elementary has an award system set up for all the students to reach different levels of the Rocky Ram Award. This year, not one, not two, but all three of our girls achieved the Mastery level-the highest level of the award. Way to go, my little darlings! I'm so proud!! We have amazing, talented, smart young ladies. Look out world, 'cause here come the Hansen gals.

And to go with the end of the school year comes our family tradition. We have waffles and ice cream. Well, I forgot that kindergarten got out a day earlier and Miss Laney Banes wanted her special dinner too. I didn't want to do waffles and ice cream two nights in a row, so enter funnel cakes. Yummm-my! It was enjoyed by all and made them all want our night of waffles and ice cream that much more, but alas, they had to wait one more night.
Easiest recipe ever! I love making these. I believe I have finally perfected my recipe as of last September when we had them after our State Fair day. They're light and tasty, but you still can't(or shouldn't)have too much of them, gotta preserve those hips ya know.
Funnel Cakes:
3 eggs 2 cups of milk 6 Tbsp. of sugar
3 3/4 c of flour 3/4 tsp. of salt 3 tsp. baking powder

I mix it all together and use about 2-3 cups of oil in a skillet. Cook it for about 2-3 minutes, flipping over when it starts to brown, and place it on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat and Enjoy!

Here's our official end-of-the-school-year celebration dinner. I use to have these when I was little with my dad. I was in love with them after he introduced me to waffles and ice cream. It's not the greatest/healthiest dinner, but for a celebration, they are GREAT!! We made beligian waffles and the kids chose what ice cream they wanted and topped it with some hershey's syrup and whip cream. Another yummy dinner treat(hence why we only have it once a year).

Here are all the kiddos ready to dig in to their yummy desert dinner. Gotta love the smiles and faces. This really has become a family tradition. Every year when the kids are getting ever so closer to being done they ask if we're going to still have ice cream and waffles. I love that they are remembering our family fun and special things we do. I love raising my bunch.
We have since been very busy with crafts, outdoor activities, holidays, and big changes are happening in our family. Who knows, but maybe the changes will come sooner to us! As soon as they do we'll let you in on our newest adventure that we are headed into. I love summer and the changes it brings!

Busy week with more crafts

So, in this house we just love us some smores. We could eat them always, but they're always such a mess with our lovely bunch. Enter, smores on a stick. The greatest, smartest, and just plain WOW, way to enjoy us some smores. We had so much fun making them and then even MORE fun eating them.All you do is take a marshmallow put a lollipop stick in it and dip it in melted chocolate. Then you just roll it into crushed graham crackers and VOILA... you have a very, easy, clean, tasty smore.
The kids all ready to make them and of course we had to have a pic. They are getting so use to the pic taking that they all said, "wait, we need to get the camera out and take a picture." Aww, gosh, I just love my crazy bunch.

Laney just enjoying hers so much. She is the slow, savor, kinda girl.

These two are the put -the -whole -thing- in -your- mouth, kind of eaters.

And this one hasn't changed since she was a wee lit'l one. She puts it in her mouth, eventhough her mouth is kinda small, and just sits there chewing away with her chipmunk filled cheeks. FYI-when she was a babe she put 3 carrots, a bunch of apple slices and a cracker all in her mouth at once and she looked like a lit'l chipmunk storing food in her cheeks for the winter.

And then we have this little cutie pie. The look says it all. She loves her sweets, and boy, did she ever LOOOOVE this one.

Now these treats are really not messy, but this one seems to always make a mess no matter what. Gotta love the cutie patootie!

My mind slipped this past month and I didn't do any crafts for July. What was I thinkin? Oh, yeah, my dad, Noah, Kaleigh, Bella, and the stress of job huntin. Well, when I finally did think about it I decided to go on a hunt at the dollar store. By the way, I think it is one of my new favorite little finds. Best place to come up with crafts and to think outside of the box. I needed, no wanted, a new 4th of July decoration this year. I wanted it to do double duty though, so here's what I came up with. Some star dishes and bowls. Cute all by themselves, but this is what I came up with...

It's my new table centerpiece and will soon be filled with some candy/treats on each layer. Love it and it only cost me $6. Golly, gee, I just love the dollar store.

Oh for the love of STRAWBERRIES!

Being that it was Bella's actual birthday yesterday, I just HAD to make her a birthday treat. Eventhough I was way behind on packing and the many other items on my list that needed to be done before this afternoon's flight, I decided to make this glorious beast of strawberry heaven. Ain't she a beaut!Bella just loves, loves, loves strawberries! If I would let her, I think she would eat a whole 4 pound container of Costco strawberries, if I would let her. I don't think so. I like to keep the diaper changes to a minumum thank you very much. Anywho, I thought what not better treat than a homemade strawberry pie. It turned out so good that I can give Marie Callendar's Fresh Strawberry pie a run for its money. I like this one way better and our crazy, sweet-loving bunch finished an entire pie. Good thing I made two, the rest of the clan can have some more tonight when Bella and I are in Washington.

Here's what the yumminess looked like all sliced up and undressed in all her glory. YUMMY! Makes me want another piece right now!
And here she is all dressed in her white, creamy goodness. Best pie ever and very easy. I made my own pie crust then baked it. Then I filled it with a ton of fresh, washed, Costco strawberries, and then I made my own glaze. Now, you can buy the glaze at the grocery store, but I personally think it is nasty. So I made my own with jell-o! Super easy...
1 c sugar
1c water
3 T cornstarch
3 T strawberry jell-o(I personally didn't have any so I used raspberry instead, still sooo good)
Bring to a boil in a saucepan and boil for 1 minute. Take off heat and and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
Pour over strawberries in the pie crust and let set up for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Eat and Enjoy, we sure did!

Tasty pizza night!

Yummy, pizza night!

This is what I hear from all my kiddos when we decide to do pizza. This time I decided to do a fruit pizza for dessert as well.

Doesn't it just look yummy?

Trust me it is, and it's so easy to make.

It is a sugar cookie base topped with the best fruit dip and then fruit of all kinds. We finished ours off with some chocolate drizzles. Who doesn't like chocolate with their fruit!
Here's how it looks step by step. I made sugar cookie dough(it's the best by far, trust me I've tried at least a dozen recipes and I like this one the best) and flattened it on a pizza pan and baked it at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then I spread the fruit dip on top once the cookie was cooled.
Then top with any fruit you like. We had pineapple rings, strawberries, and mandarin oranges. Yummy, I just love the combo of all these.
Isn't she just gorgeous. But, she wasn't quite done yet.

We melted some milk chocolate chips and drizzled it all over. The kids thought this was the best part. Oh man, the best dessert ever!

This is what it looked like sliced. It was enjoyed by everyone.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

2 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and extracts and mix. Add flour and baking powder and mix well. Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes(if using for cookies)

Fruit Dip

2 6 oz. strawberry yogurt

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 tub of cool whip-8 oz tub

Mix cream cheese and powd. sugar. Mix in yogurt and then fold in cool whip. Chill until ready to spread on pizza, or ready to dip fruit in.




BBQ Chicken Pizza

Yummy and easy. I used rhodes bread dough for the crust and spread it on a pizza pan. Then I spread on our favorite BBQ sauce(Joe Morley's)all over. Then shredded baked chicken and mozzerella cheese. You can put red onion on it too, but most my kids don't like it so I left it off. I baked it at 350 degrees for about 17 minutes. D-E-L-I-S-H!!!

Eat and Enjoy!!

A simple, but very YUMMY berry sauce

Breakfast anyone?

My family loves, loves, loves having breakfast for dinner. I wanted to try a different way of having berries on our waffles, so I made this sauce. It's tangy, but oh soooo good! You can put it on waffles, french toast, pancakes, ice cream, yogurt, etc. You name it, you could put this sauce on it. Here's what you need:

1 bag of frozen mixed berries

1 tsp of orange extract

1/4 c of lemon juice

1/2 c of sugar

1 lb. of fresh strawberries-cut up into pieces

You put the frozen mixed berries into a saucepan with the extract, lemon juice, and sugar and bring to a light boil. This thaws out the berries and smells heavenly. You take off the heat and add the strawberries. Serve over waffles. Eat and Enjoy!