Damn you Pinterest...Damn You! :)

Too many of my friends have been telling me to check out Pinterest...great now I am addicted and have added an new 'time-waster' to my days! That being said, I can say that it is fabulous site and I have found great ideas and recipes. So, here's a few pictures of what I have done this last week! The Panda Bear cupcakes were actually out of the Hello Cupcake cookbook that my mom bought me a few years ago. They were super fun and totally cute...not to mention yummy! The Reindeer, Christmas Tree, and Santa were a gift from my Step-mom, Pam, last year! They are by far my favorite decorations. If you look closely you can see little stars and trees...a pinterest idea for the kids to do! The Ho Ho Ho sign that I have up was actualyy taken from a Halloween idea that I used last month (previous post). This time I bought pre-designed cake boards and traced out the H's, and O's onto colored foam. I then glued ribbon to the back and Ta-Da! Our front door...as you can see, it is basically all glass, which means see-thru! I found this cute idea in the Home Decor section on Pinterest. It was super easy to do...all I did was buy the stuff, hand it to Eric, and say, "Can you do this, my leg hurts!" (to those who don't know, I had surgery this week). So, you see, simple! :) By the way...a big thanks to my husband for not only putting them up, but taking them down and re-doing it because I didn't like the placement of the curtain rod! He's so good to me! The Santa-wreath was soooooooo fun to do! Claire and I found this in the Seasonal section and voila! Really easy! We cut strips of cloth (or you could use tulle), tied them around a straw wreath from Jo-Anns (you can also use foam wreaths...but, I am cheap and the straw wreaths were less $$$). We found Santa hats at Walmart for 98 cents, and hot-glued it to the top. So, now you understand my dilemma..great ideas for the home, fun projects for the kids, fabulous DIY ideas for organization/cleaning...the list goes on and on. Where am I going to find the time for all that I want to do???

So, I have recently developed a Love/Hate relationship with Pinterest. I 'love' it for all the fabulous ideas and recipes that I find, and I 'hate' it because of the amount of time that I spend looking at everything! These are my first two projects that I have attempted. Not too bad on time or the pocketbook, so that is a plus! Eric is going out of town next week (during Cade's 10th birthday) and I usually do some big projects while he is gone...we'll see what I can find on Pinterest...who needs a clean house anyways? :)

What We've been Doing!

My toe!

Jax is 6!

Easter Basket Cupcakes!

So, I broke my toe...foot vs. chair and the chair won. The kids decided to call my foot the 'Zombie Foot'. Pretty, huh? :)
Jax turned 6 in March. We celebrated by dropping off pizza and cookies for his class, which he loved! Then we made a Mint Chip ice cream cake and cookies for his birthday dessert! He is such a joy and such a funny lil guy!
Last night we had our annual balloon send off for great-grandpa John. Eric's grandfather passed away and every year we get a bunch of balloons, write a message on them and send them up to heaven to him (Claire's idea-isn't she a sweetie?)! Lisa, David and their kids came as well and wrote messages and then we had a big BBQ. I made Easter Basket cupcakes, and I think that they came out pretty darn cute....they were very yummy!
So, today the kids are out of school and I am taking two of them in to the Dr.'s because they are sick. I think that Griff has an ear infection, an Jax possibly has bronchitis. It looks to be a looooooong Monday! :)

ZUMBA!

One of the Zumba instructors...Hugo!

As many of my friends and family know, I LOVE ZUMBA! I started taking a Zumba class in September with my mom-in-law. We just wanted to try something new and hey, it got me out of the house in the middle of the day...without children! That alone was cause for a little 'booty-shake'! :) So, Bonnie and I took the class. I LOVED it! Really, I loved it so much that I can remember the song that we first did (Shake It by Metro Station). Ever since then i have taken one to two classes a week. I even got some of the videos in order to work on perfecting the moves. I thought that eventually I would get sick of it but in fact, my interest grew until I was downloading 'Pitbull' (love his songs), and choreographing in my head while i heard songs on the radio. After talking to my Zumba instructor, and all the support of my friends and family, I decided to simlpy go for it and get my instructor lisence. So, this Saturday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, I spent the day in Zumba Instructor Training. The day was packed with lecture, master classes, step reviews, quick water breaks...which resulted in quick bathroom breaks, and moving, moving, moving! To say I was tired at the end of it was an understatement! There was our Master trainer, Joy, and another trainer named Hugo. They were amazing...so amazing that at one point the back row stopped dancing just to watch Hugo move! At the end of the day I recieved my license to teach Zumba and fell into the sleep of the dead! :) So, that was my weekend...another training (Zumba for kids), in two weeks! I'm so very excited!

Finnegan is 4!

Racetrack Cake!

Zeke and Finnegan...th birthday boys!

Finnegan with his Finn McMissle car!

Finnegan and Jax...too cute to pass up!

Yesterday Finnegan turned 4! In true Connett fashion, we celebrated this with him sick and on antibiotics, running to trimester conferences for Cade and Claire, and massive doses of Tylenol...for me, not him! Anyhow, he had a pretty good day and got some fun presents. Over the weekend we also celebrated with his cousin Zeke as their birthdays fall so close together...well close together in date, but many years apart! :)
I made a race track cake over the weekend (Finn loves the movie Cars), and last night the kids couldn't agree on a dessert so I made everyone their own individual cakes and let them decorate them however they wanted...messy, but fun!
So, Finnegan is now 4, and Jax's birthday is coming up in just a couple weeks! Yep, let the birthday season begin!