birthday bouquet...

my only-est girl turned 4 recently, and instead of doing a traditional cake, i decided to give her a flower pot filled with sugar cookies!  she was thrilled with them, and it was super easy!

i started off using a package of sugar cookies from betty crocker, and made the recipe off the back for the cut-out cookies. (cheating, i know, but i was short on time).  at Easter time, i found a wilton cookie pan mold with flowers on it.  i filled the cookie tin with the cookie dough, stuck in the wilton cookie sticks at varying lengths and baked.  it was super easy!  and they came out beautifully once they cooled a bit.

i enlisted the help of daddy to decorate her flower pot, which i got at wal-mart for $3.99.  he painted it with fireworks, flowers, fish, and a happy birthday sign along the top. i am glad he is artistic, because my painting would have been disastrous.

why the face?  because of this:

there wasn’t any way he could fix it!

next i mad rice krispie treats and molded them into the pot.  in retrospect, i should have used cocoa krispies to look more like dirt, but this worked.

i positioned some extra cookie sticks in the treats so that i wouldn’t have to force the actual cookies into hardened treats.  i am very glad i did this, because i probably would have broken a cookie or two trying to get them in.

i decorated the cookies with various brands of cookie icing.  quick drying proved to be the easiest to work with.  they didn’t turn out too badly, although i think my creativity lacked immensely.

stinkerbell loved the way they smelled!! (who doesn’t love the fragrance of sugar cookies?) she kept ‘sniffing’ her bouquet!

everyone enjoyed eating them.  they were HUGE, though.  way more sugar in one sitting than my kids are used to.  they had to go run it off outside for about 2 hours!

all in all, a success, i think!  if you decide to make these, would you link to my blog and let me see them?  i would love to have new ideas for the next time.

linking to Mingle Monday today with Robyn at addapinch.com

turning 4...

our only girl turned 4!!  cannot believe it.  we relived the day of her births, the bedrest leading up to it, all the turmoil and family junk that transpired those last few months of my pregnancy with her. 

but now we have her!  and i couldn’t be more torn between happiness and sadness that my little girl is now 4.  she is still full of sweetness and sometimes vinegar.  she has a smile that lights up any room, and a selfless disposition (as long as it doesn’t involve her animals!) she loves all things pink and purple, and yet can play with the hot wheels like a pro.  i love her dearly and cannot imagine our home without her.

here are a few pics from her birth-day day! 

i made flower cookies on sticks. and put them into a clay pot filled with rice krispies treats to hold them.  these were a HUGE hit!  tic tac kept saying they smelled sooooo good !  (they tasted pretty yummy, too! i might post a tutorial if anyone is interested.)

we did a cupcake tree in lieu of a cake, since i did the cookie planter.  she loved the twisty candles.  it took several tries to get the last candle, though.

her big gift was a new Schwinn tricycle.  it looks like a pink harley!  she had some trouble getting it to go fast, though, so her big brother helped her along.

she loves the cool bell and the dangling cords from the handles.  she is sporting her new dora glasses, too (a gift from the boys).

everyone got to enjoy a cookie.  they were HUGE!

happy birthday, stinkerbell!!  we love you oodles!

Eternity doesn’t have plumbing problems!

Satan knows me well.

he knows my weaknesses and how to push my “worry now” button.

not that i have to let him get to me, but he knows exactly what will send me into tears and anxiety and worries.

this last week, he hit me in the finance department.

we have some plumbing issues.  $1400 worth. 

no biggie, right?

but as the plumbers fixed the issues, we discovered a much BIGGER problem. 

the two upstairs baths are leaking sewage into the basement where the pipes all meet up and head out of the house.  this happens to be in a small closet in my husband’s office. right next to the boys’ room.

drip. drip. drip.

ewwwwww.

haven’t been able to get an estimate yet.  apparently all the plumbing from the sinks, bathtub and 2 toilets have to be replaced.  it requires permits, and holes in the walls and floor. 

sigh. 

and this right on the heels of replacing our gas stove because it is really, really old and burns little hands if touched when the oven is on.

oh, yeah, and we went ahead and got the new dishwasher because we thought we were in a good place to do so and my husband really hates doing dishes by hand! (i love that man!!)

oh, and did i mention that my husband’s car needed new brakes?

and that i am making a trip out to north carolina to visit my uncle who has taken a significant turn for the worse with his ALS and is now on Hospice?

*sigh*

satan knows just how to push me over the edge.

thank goodness, my GOD is so much bigger than all of this.

it is only money.

this is only a temporary home.

eternity won’t have any plumbing issues!

i have a hope, a secure place in Heaven because i love my Savior and believe He died for me on the cross, and rose again!

the Holy Spirit can take this on for me and relieve me of my worries.

thank you, GOD!

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

Ps 31:24