How to NOT get invited to next year's party.

We went to The Dude's cousin's son's 2nd birthday party on Saturday (did ya follow that??). At last year's party, The Dude got "yelled at" by his cousin for the girls throwing leaves in their little pond-thing. Two things there: A.) at the time, there was a huge tree nearby, also "throwing" leaves into said pond. 2.) the stupid "pond" (it's really a big bowl with a teeny fountain in the middle) is SOOOO not a good idea to have when you have little ones (hello! drowning risk people!!).

When we got there, the girls ran straight for the pond/bowl. I, trying to prevent a repeat incident, reprimanded them promptly and asked that they leave the thing alone. They did as told, or so I thought. Then I opened up my email this morning and found these:

I just realized you can't read the white captions I added. Oh well. I'll just type what's on them.

She notices the water.

Hey! Let's throw some leaves in!Disapproving look. (By girl in purple shirt, arms folded. Looking very smug)My turn to hit!!Back to the job of filling pond thing with leaves.Father of homeowner finally notices...does nothing.This last one is kinda self explanatory.Yeah, totally won't be surprised if our invitation to next year's big party gets lost in the mail.

But look at this here pic, she just looks so sweet and innocent. Ok, ok, it's the OTHER twin. Ya know, the one NOT throwing the leaves in the pond during the pinata event.

To top everything off, while the birthday boy was opening presents and cameras were snapping away, Pickles walks up in front of the camera and says, "Cheeeeeeeese!"

He then proceeded to strike about 10 different poses before finally moving out of the way. Good times!

Princess party a success...and some caramel corn

The girl's party was a success! Except for the migraine Mommy was courting through the day, and the debris from the Magnolia tree being cut down, it was perfect!

Here are my two little princesses patiently waiting to open gifts.

The kids LOVED drinking their strawberry lemonade from the royal goblets (*plastic disposable wine glasses embellished with stickers and glitter pen*). They thought they were so cool. All the kids were running around toasting with each other.
We danced with Daddy.

We enjoyed cake. The girls each had their own individual princess cakes while the rest of us dined on the castle.

I guess my little Pickle enjoyed the cake too!

The biggest hit of the party was my caramel corn. I almost didn't make it. It was kinda a last minute addition to my list of treats. I used my Mom's recipe. The Dude swears I've never made it for him...he lies. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with ya.

Mamma Cat's Caramel Corn

Air popped popcorn or stove top popcorn (just don't use microwaved)

1 Cup butter

2 Cups brown sugar

1/2 Cup Karo Syrup

1 tsp. Salt

1 T vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

I honestly don't know the exact measurment of popcorn. I always just make enough to fill a roasting pan 3/4 of the way to the top. Pop your popcorn and pour into roasting pan. In medium saucepan, melt butter. Add Karo syrup, brown sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Simmer 5 mins without stirring. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and baking soda. **When you add the baking soda, it's going to look like it's out of control, calm down, it's normal**. Pour mixture over popcorn, stir to coat. Place in pre heated 250 degree oven. Bake uncovered for 50 minutes. Stir every ten. Pour caramel corn out onto waxed paper or newspaper to cool. Enjoy!

Princess shoe favor box

**Ignore the UGLY desk and crap in the background. I'm at work still**

These are the little lovelies that I used the spray adhesive on.

The twins' 3rd birthday party is Sunday. It is princess themed (or queen themed if you ask Twin A). I saw a similar version of this shoe favor box done up to be a witch's shoe for Halloween. I thought they would be awesome made over into princess shoes! I was right.

They aren't 100% finished, hence the untrimmed edges and whatnot. I won't be able to post for the weekend as I'll be busy but wanted to get these up. The shoe template can be found here.

The shoe lining template here.

I cut the shoes out of white poster board and the lining is just colored paper. You can certainly doll these up depending on what papers or card stocks you use.

I did a few with spray glitter and was not impressed with the results. Enter the spray adhesive. I used that and some glitter. I liked the results.

I added a little gem to each shoe to finish them off.

Me-thinks 3 yr olds will not really appreciate the effort that went into these, but I had fun.

I will hopefully be able to post what I'm filling these little lovelies with later.

White chocolate dipped goodness.

Our Saturday was jam-packed. Pumpkin patch in the AM, Hobby Lobby, LSU party, then a pumpkin carving party, topped off with drinks with the hubster. Man, I'm just tired typing that (Mondays are rough).

Started off at the pumpkin patch. Now, when I say pumpkin patch, I mean a swath of land with pumpkins thrown on the ground. I SOOOO miss the actual patch of pumpkins I used to go to in SoCal. You actually picked your little orange orb (or red or white, or green) off the vine! I loved that. The kids had fun though. Pickles tested each pumpkin with a good lick. Little known fact, proper pumpkin selection hinders on it's taste. Or did I just make that up?

The LSU party was fun, but getting there was not. The kids desperately needed a nap so we were late. I can't not bring something to a party. So I brough a cream cheese and pineapple dip. Yum. I ate most of it.

Now for the ghost cookies! I made these while Pickles napped. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have ghost cookies so much as white chocolate covered baby.

I bought some Nutter Butters which was a task in itself. The grocery store had fully stocked shelves. The ONLY hole was the section on the shelf for the friggen Nutter Butters. Aggrivating. I ended up buying the go-packs (4 cookies individually wrapped). I was determined. I melted a bag of white chocolate chips with 1 Tablespoon of shortening (important step when dipping things), then dipped the cookies.

After shaking off the excess (into my mouth, wait, no. That's not right) I added three mini chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth. Set those little bad boys on a waxed paper lined baking sheet to set. Done. Super cute and super easy.