New Orleans and Alabama Part I

Family Vacation this year...... Las Vegas - New Orleans - Alabama
Ten days and four kids, a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

First stop Las Vegas, Circus Circus.
Then we flew to Louisiana... Yep we missed our first flight. It is really hard to get a baby with her food and formula through security, and yes Ethan's scriptures caused a problem. We took forever to get through security. But the new flight they put us on was actually better. Thanks Delta, they were actually really great.

Met up with Kat, Mom and Kym In New Orleans.
Ate our first breakfast at Cafe Du Monde. They make French Beignets. So yummy. It is open 24/7 been in business for 150 years.

The boys loved the Big City Park


Street Car

Mom and Kat trying to get a job
b
Karl Teaching his son about the finer points in life. Actually we were pretty good about putting the blinders on him. Only in certain areas, we had to.


Bourbon Street


Hot and Humid but a lot of fun things to see, especially the architecture.

Ava Bug Party..... (Lady Bug Party)

Our little Ava Bug is now a year old. Here are some of the pictures from her Party.
Here are her invitations that we sent out.


Her invitation with her little lady bug outfit.
For her outfit, I just got a spool of red netting cut it into strips and tied it onto a black ribbon. Soo easy. Then I bought a little black onesie and a lady bug stencil and painted a lady bug on it. With a pair of wings that I got at a garage sell, and one cute cheap and easy lady bug outfit.

So my oven was still broken so I had to buy a cake and the cupcakes. Truthfully it was kind of nice to not have to worry about making them.

I was having a hard time finding lady bug things for the party, so for the cupcakes I put buttons on top. They were cute, but was sure to tell the guests not to eat them.

Kaden was so cute, he made this cake for Ava.

The day before he had gone to a garage sell and bought this baking kit. It was a no cook bake set. You just add water and the powder turns into this spongy cake stuff. It is so nasty, but he was very proud of it. It's the thought that counts, right .

We gave Ava a pretty big slice of cake. I then served everyone else. By then I noticed she had almost eaten it all. I took the rest away from her, for fear she was going to get sick. She was so mad at me. She is just like her momma, loves her treats, especially chocolate. That's my girl. It was a fun party. We are so happy to have our little cute Ava bug in our home.

Teacher Gifts

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOORAY!!!!!!!!!
(Well that's what the kids are saying anyways. I might not be so excited ;)

Teacher gifts? What do you give your kids teachers? Can you guess what we did?
That's right...... Cupcakes!
We made Chocolate Peanut Butter and Hummingbird.
I am sure I have posted humming bird cupcakes before, but here it is again.

From Martha stewart

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large)
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts, or pecans
1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting
Dried Pineapple Flowers
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.with rack in center. Line cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, vanilla, and sugar until combined, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. Beat at medium speed until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together banana, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut. Add to egg mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in flour mixture.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with dried pineapple flowers, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

They might not look that moist, but they really are. These are Ethan's favorite. They get better after they sit for a day or two. Ohh so yummy.... I highly recommend this recipe.

Then The packaging. It's all about presentation right?

The Bag had a blanket in it that Kaden and I made for his teacher who is having a baby.

The boxes came from Micheal's. They have the cutest cupcake boxes, all different colors and prints. I chose the plain ones, they were the least girly :)

I would like to hear your ideas for teacher gifts.

Gingerbread Cupcakes and Candy Cane cupcakes

So I was going through my old pictures, and I remembered these yummy treats I made in December, but I don't think I ever posted them. So here they are.
Gingerbread Cupcakes........

These are oh so yummy!
From Epicurious.com

I doubled this recipe to make 2 dozen-

* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
* 1 large egg, beaten lightly
* 1 teaspoon baking soda

Into a bowl sift together the flour, the ground ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves, the allspice, and the salt. In another bowl cream 1/2 stick of the butter, add the granulated sugar, and beat the mixture until it is fluffy. Beat in the molasses and the egg, beating until the mixture is smooth. In a measuring cup combine the baking soda with 1/2 cup boiling water and stir the mixture to dissolve the baking soda. Stir the mixture into the molasses mixture (the mixture will appear curdled) and stir the molasses mixture into the flour mixture, stirring to combine the ingredients well. Line twelve 1/2-cup muffin tins with paper liners and spoon the batter into the liners, filling them halfway. Bake the cupcakes in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. (The cupcakes will be flat or slightly indented on top.) Transfer the cupcakes to a rack and let them cool.


For the frosting I just used my favorite Cream Cheese/ whipped cream frosting.

Whip 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream in mixer until it forms stiff peaks. In a seperate bowl mix room temperature cream cheese (8 oz) with 1 cup of sugar. Once that is creamy mix it in with the whipped cream.

Pipe onto cupcakes and dust with cinnamon

So Good a must try!

Candy Cane Cupcakes.......
I took these to a ward party, they didn't last but 2 minutes once I set them down.

This is from Cupcakerecipes.com
Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces melted unsweetened baking chocolate

This is from Cupcakerecipes.com

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine all ingredients into large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, and scrape bowl. Mix at high speed for 3 minutes.

Fill liners 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove from pan, and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Frost when chocolate cupcakes are completely cool.

For the frosting I just used a buttercream frosting. I don't really use a recipe, it's just a scoop of shortening and an scoop of butter. Mix it with heavy cream or milk. And add powder sugar to consistency. On this one I put in a tsp of peppermint flavoring.
Then take half of the frosting and add some red food coloring. Put in piping bag half pink on one side and half white on the other. It makes a fun color swirl on top. Then just add a small candy cane. This one is a definite repeat too. Sooo good. Even though it is summer these would be a fun treat to make. Enjoy!