Diaper Cakes, Anyone?

Diapers, diapers and more diapers!

These are diaper cakes Mikaelah has made for baby showers over the past couple of years. Two for our little princesses, and three for some handsome little gentlemen.

The themes vary, from Winnie the Pooh, to Jungle Animal, to Pirates. Each are adorable, unique and very useful for the mommies-to-be! (The cakes are made of rolled up disposable diapers, usually in Size 1 or 2, but probably can also be made with size newborn or larger.)

Ahoy, matey! This pirate cake helped welcome little Graham. It was customized in the theme that would match his nursery.

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Pink and girly! We welcomed our niece Brylee with this princess and flower themed diaper cake.

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This was the diaper cake that was made for my baby shower back in 2009. We didn't know if "Shamrock" was a boy or a girl, so Mikaelah did the entire shower up in a Winnie the Pooh theme. I loved it! And now our little Avery loves Pooh Bear, too.

We called her "Shamrock" at the time because her due date was March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. She now goes by "Aves Margie" or simply "Margie" ... to explain, one of her middle names is Margaret =)

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Look familiar?

You might have seen this in our "Milk and Cookies" baby shower blog posted recently.

It was made for Baby Boardman's shower. He'll be here soon, and mommy and daddy are keeping his name a secret for now! Can't wait to meet him =)

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This was made for little Bryson's baby shower last year. (I wish I had better pictures!) It was made to go with the Jungle theme of the shower.

We love these diaper cakes and hope you do, too!

Anna

Yummy Nutter Butter Baby Cookies

I LOVE peanut butter. I LOVE cookies. And I LOVE babies!

All of these come together for Nutter Butter Baby Cookies. These are simple and a lot of fun to create ... and no baking required.

I started with a regular sized package of the yummy cookies. (Guilty. I ate about two of them ... OK, maybe three or four.)

I use almond bark a lot for candy-making. So I grabbed up some white chocolate almond bark to make these cookies. I broke off a few blocks, placed them in a microwave-safe bowl and heated it up in slow increments (you don't want to burn it). Once it's all melted, stir in the coloring of your choice, if using. I use concentrated pastes found in the baking aisle of the craft section.

A small off-set spatula makes spreading easy ...

Plain almond bark, melted and piped into a circle, makes baby's head =) And melted chocolate makes baby's face.

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Although the above Nutter Butter Babies were born just in time for Amy's baby shower, these ones below were delivered in time for my baby shower back in 2009. My husband and I didn't know what we were having, so I made them the very gender-neutral yellow and green =)

Anna

Wipes, Dipes and More ...

Have I mentioned how much I love scrapbook paper? I use this stuff for EVERYTHIHG ... and I know Mikaelah does, too.

A little bit of sparkly curling ribbon, tape and stickers went a long way into making these cute little tags for a recent baby shower gift.

And who doesn't need more diapers and wipes? I also added in some diaper cream for baby's butt, little socks to cover baby's toes, and handsoap to wash off all sorts of you-know-whats off Mommy's and Daddy's hands. Oh, yes, you know what!

My little assistant, Avery, wanted to help add the final touches. I'll let her help me anyday!

Anna

Hippity Hoppity

When it rains, it pours.

We might have had a wet and rainy Easter here in Evansville, but our family's holiday celebration was anything but gloomy! It was full of springtime colors.

 

My fun project this year was to make fun little "bunny" cupcakes. Mikaelah found some adorable Easter scrapbook paper at a local craft store, and we made decorative wrappers using this cupcake wrapper template. Using craft glue, I added the bunny tail (tiny, white pom poms found at the same craft store).

They were so cute all lined up together =)

I admit that I used boxed cake mix for this one. I LOVE baking from scratch, and usually that's all I do. But for lack of time, I went with a strawberry cake mix. We narrowed it down to Funfetti, and strawberry, but Avery, my 2-year-old, had the final vote. She adores "Strawberry Shortcake," so it was an easy choice for her! I also used plain old whipped cream for the topping, but it was so light and yummy!

Mikaelah set up some really cute place settings for the kiddos.

We tried our best to catch the Easter Bunny, but darn it, he's just too quick!

Fun name cards for the little ones ...

And, of course, we had to have some Peeps ... even though I don't really care for them. You think we had enough? =)

Our little bunnies had a great Easter, and I hope you and yours did too!
(Seen here, from left, is Brylee, 2, Avery, 2, and Landon, 7.)

Anna

Dinosaur Cake for Nephew's 7th Birthday

This was so much fun to make!

My nephew Landon recently turned 7. He LOVES dinosaurs right now, and I loved that his momma asked me to make his birthday cake.

I bake muffins and cupcakes all the time, but this was my first "real" cake for someone.

I haven't invested in a large baking pan yet, so I used a 9-by-13 pan and baked three cakes. I stacked two on top of each other to make a "mountain," and the other cake was out front, where the river ran through.

 

My favorite part has to be the volcano. It's made of homemade rice crispy treats, stacked together and carved into the desired shape. My husband was actually the most excited about the volcano, and he was actually the one to make the rice crispy treats. And it was also his idea to place one of the dinosaur figurines into the top of the volcano!

I think Landon really liked it. And from what I hear, his birthday cake was the talk of his class back at school the next day!

Can't wait to make more like this. Happy baking, everyone!

Anna

Baby Shower: "Milk and Cookies"

Too many cookies? No such thing, if you ask me!

There were plenty to go around last weekend at a "Milk and Cookies" baby shower for our good friends Amy and Josh. Baby Boy will be here soon, and we made sure Momma had enough sweets for her sweet tooth!

Quite possibly her prettiest party setup yet! Black and white, and blue and green. Oh, yes, and in the end, nothing but cookie crumbs!

An ADORABLE way to display the milk! (How did Mikaelah know this would be my favorite part?) Cute containers held both 2% and skim, and they also carried through with the color theme. The little individual strawberry and chocolate ones were a hit as well!

Yummy yummy! We had everything from chocolate chip, to no-bakes to dipped Oreos.

Even the accent chairs matched the color theme =)

Mikaelah made these display signs. She is so good!

And more cookies ...

Dipped Oreos from Ba's Kitchen Connection.

Which milk is which? Just check the tags!

Pretty living room setup, complete with floating pom-poms.

How many gumballs were in the baby bottle? Future daddy won the game with a PERFECT guess! (We're still not sure if he cheated!)

It's (going to be) a boy! He'll be here soon, and to get ready for all those diaper changes is the diaper cake.

Ready to welcome baby!

Just in case our attendees didn't get enough sweets during the shower, there were some to take home.

I loved this diaper cake! Mikaelah is very good at making these, and she's made them for all sorts of shower themes.

Fun little baby cake.

Baby gets his own milk to take home. (And since Daddy is a football fan, baby now has his very own football booties!)

Best wishes to Mommy and Daddy. Baby Boy will be here soon!