Rainbow Cupcake Recipe

Hey, Val, I got the recipe from Family Fun, it was super easy and yummy. Here it is ...


Ingredients

* White cake mix (we used an 18-1/4-ounce box)
* Food coloring (red, blue, green, and yellow)
* Baking cups
* Whipped cream (optional)

Instructions

Prepare your favorite white cake mix, then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. Following the chart below, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color.

RAINBOW COLOR DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
Purple 9 red and 6 blue drops
Blue 12 drops
Green 12 drops
Yellow 12 drops
Orange 12 yellow and 4 red drops
Red 18 drops

Line 12 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order shown. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.

Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped-cream cloud.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Our St. Patrick's Day treat:

Family Night Treat

We made ice cream in a bag for our FHE treat. Everyone had fun shaking their own then we put it in ice cream cones and added sprinkles. Yum!
Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups crushed ice
4 tablespoons salt
2 quart size Zip-loc bags
1 gallon size Zip-loc freezer bag
a hand towel or gloves to keep fingers from freezing as well!

Mix the milk, vanilla and sugar together in one of the quart size bags. Seal tightly, allowing as little air to remain in the bag as possible. Too much air left inside may force the bag open during shaking. Place this bag inside the other quart size bag, again leaving as little air inside as possible and sealing well. By double-bagging, the risk of salt and ice leaking into the ice cream is minimized. Put the two bags inside the gallon size bag and fill the bag with ice, then sprinkle salt on top. Again let all the air escape and seal the bag. Wrap the bag in the towel or put your gloves on, and shake and massage the bag, making sure the ice surrounds the cream mixture. Five to eight minutes is adequate time for the mixture to freeze into ice cream.

It can be made with half and half instead of milk but I didn't want to make an extra trip to the store so we tried it with milk and it was pretty good.

Playing with Paige

Paige is the world's most patient kitten. She is always happy to be cradled, cuddled and sometimes smothered. The kids have had so much fun playing with her.

Littlest Pet Shop

Meghan and Julia love to play with their Littlest Pet Shops. One day Julia set them all up and wanted me to take pictures of her with them. She has been begging me to post this picture on the computer. Here they are:

Priorities . . .

My cousin posted the end of this poem today and it really illustrated what I feel. It made me curious about where the poem originated so I looked it up. It was written in 1958 and originally published in Ladies Home Journal.


Song for a Fifth Child
By Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


As spring has finally sprung here it has made me think a lot about my priorities. The nice weather has made me stop and think about enjoying life, not always rushing through it. I've taken the kids on field trips, we've gone on walks and just spent time together outside. It has been heaven to not be cooped up and just enjoy my kids again. At first there was this nagging in the back of my brain. "There's laundry to be done, I've got calls to make, and we can't have sandwiches for dinner again." Then came the realization that my time as a mother of young children is fleeting. The housework will always be there, but my children won't. I'll admit that I pretty much had things under control up until I had my fourth child. I never had a problem keeping things clean and organized and always had several hours a day to play with my kids. Now I have found with four children, lessons, and all our other responsibilities, I frequently have days when it is physically impossible to get everything done. It is really, really hard for me to let things go undone, but I'm trying. Trying to ignore dust and fingerprints. Trying over-look beds that aren't perfectly made. Trying to make happy memories for my kids, everyday.

They grow so quickly . . . Julia, Anthony & Meghan when we moved here.



The kids now . . .