{birthday} Cake of the Month

Happy fifth birthday to my little sister!  She said she wanted a "colorful caterpillar cake" and this is what she got -

My mom has always been really good about sending me messages or texts of funny things my sister has said.  Here area few of my favorites:

"I want to be called Max or Emily, and if you don't like those names you can just call me zero."

Mom: "Shaylah, the room looks so pretty doesn't it?"

Shaylah: "Yeah. Well, as a matter of fact, no it really doesn't."

Mom: "Come on Shaylah, time for a bath."

Shaylah, dusting, "I don't think you know how important it is for me to dust right now."

Some fun birthday pictures - 

Pinterest Love - Desserts

For Father's Day I decided to make two recipes we have been drooling over on Pinterest: Easy Mini Lemon Meringue Pies by Tidy Mom and Mini Snickers Caramel Cheesecakes by Six Sisters Stuff.

Snicker Cheesecake

As you can see, they are not the prettiest looking things. They came out of the oven beautiful, but once they started to cool down they began to shrink.  The recipe called for way too many graham cracker crumbs and not enough butter.  There was also enough cheesecake mixture and snickers to make two 6" cakes.  So, you could easily make 24 of these babies.  The taste was DELICIOUS though. Even if they aren't so nice to look look at.


Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

These were SO YUMMY!  I used 8 short bread cookies, the juice from two lemons, plus a little extra bottled lemon juice to make half a cup.  There was enough of everything to make 12 pies instead of the 9 it says on the website.  They were hard to get out of the muffin pans so I used a butter knife to help slide them out.  I cooled them on a cookie rack and then stuck them in the fridge for a few hours.

Have you made any Pinterest desserts you loved? Send them my way!

Chore Chart

I am the type of person that likes my whole house to be clean at once. If I know I can't clean everything, I feel like I shouldn't even bother cleaning at all.   Now, my husband is the type of person that can live in a messy house for a few days and then one day wake up and become OCD about everything and clean all day long.  I figure, between the two of us, there has to be a healthy medium!

I got on Pinterest one day and searched for different cleaning chores and ideas. I came across several that I thought could work for us.  I didn't want to go out and buy anything so I decided to use whatever I had in my craft closet and the bulletin board we have in our kitchen.

I have to say, the first couple weeks of having this chart I woke up excited to see what my chore was for that day and to get it done!  With a little boy who naps 2 times a day for 45 minutes-2 hours (unfortunately it's usually the latter) I try to get my chores done during his first nap so I can have a little me time (or eat something!) during his next nap.  Rowan has always had this habit of waking up as soon as I sit down to eat.  Thankfully, I think he is outgrowing it.

I like the idea of a bulletin board because you can move chores around if you find they are not working for you on a certain day. It took me about a month to finally get the perfect schedule down for us.  At the start of R.'s morning nap, I take down my room card for the day and review the chores on the back. There is a great sense of accomplishment in pinning that chore back on the board.

Everyday - 
Make beds
Wipe down kitchen
Dishes
Tidy up and put away


Monday -
Kitchen: clean out fridge, wipe counters, sweep, mop
1st and 3rd: baseboards, windows

Tuesday - 
Living Room and Dining Room: dust, sweep, vacuum
1st and 3rd: mop, baseboards, windows, entry closet
Wash cloth diapers
Take out garbage

Wednesday -
Bathrooms (my very least favorite chore!): sinks, toilets, shower, baseboards, sweep and mop
1st and 3rd: wash rug

Thursday - 
Bedrooms: Dust/fan, sweep, change sheets
1st and 3rd: mop, baseboards, windows
Wash cloth diapers
Laundry

Friday - 
Basement: wipe down, tidy up, vacuum
Guest Room if needed

Saturday - 
Family time!

Sunday - 
Family time!

Watch for a review of two Pinterest desserts later this week!