Checking off the To-Do List

 I had a very lengthy to do list that I wanted to accomplish over the weekend that I posted

here.



Well...not everything was accomplished, not even half of my list was checked off.  But, considering that my 4-year old has been sick & barfing since Friday & my 8-month old only allowing me a few hours of sleep each night, I think, in hindsight, that I did my fair amount. 

Here is what I was able to successfully check off on my list ( the rest will still be there for me to check off later) :

#3 on my list

Whoopie Pies for "The Annual Men Only Ice Fishing Trip"

I made two different flavors:

a standard whoopie pie

&

a dark chocolate whoopie pie filled with a fluffy and lite peanut butter frosting then rolled into peanut butter chips

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

#7 on my list

Desserts for the Restaurants:

These magical ingredients helped to create these:

Dark chocolate stout cupcakes filled with an Irish whiskey ganache center and then topped with a salted caramel buttercream frosting!  AMAZING! 

I also made a flourless chocolate and vanilla marble cake but forgot to take a picture of.  {Big Sigh}

Rich and decadent...oh my.

In between the baking I was able to enforce some child labor...

Yet, another storm in the northeast.  Not so much a big shocker, really.  It is winter in Maine after all and "snow happens".  Just gives many "Mainers" (you know, the ones that have lived here their entire life or pretty much their entire life) something to complain and rant about like this kind of thing doesn't happen EVERY FREAKIN' YEAR! 

Oh, just so you know, I didn't actually force my 7-year old to shovel.  He is the one that asks me if it's okay to go out & shovel.  Given that in a couple of years he probably won't be doing any shoveling without heavy arguing and grumbling, I thought I would, just this one time, allow him to shovel to all his heart's content.   I know, "Mom of the Year" candidate, right?  :)

#5 on my list

Finish mom's very belated birthday gift(s)

Because I am afraid my really cool mom will be reading this post, I will not be showing you what I made for her until she receives it. 

#8 on my list

  Do a little housework

I did do some, even if only a minimal amount. 

All and all, I think I was pretty successful.  To top it all off, I was also able to get myself and my three wee ones out the door by 7:30am this morning for my son's last hockey practice for this season!  Yay for the last day of hockey season!! 

Woot! Woot!  No more hockey until next season!  Whoo hoo!

Am I sounding a bit too excited?  Well, that's because I am!!!!!!!! 

Hockey seems to go on & on & on & on.....

Love hockey, but good grief!

So, amongst all the chaos, the barfing, and some minor melt downs (me, being the one with the melt-downs) it was a pretty great weekend.

So much to do, So much to do!!!!!

I have so much that I want to accomplish by the end of the weekend.  It involves endless amounts of sewing and crocheting/knitting.  Oh, not to mention that  both restaurants need more desserts!  Did I mention that I have 3 children that I have to entertain while attempting to cross off items from my very long to do list?

Let's see..........my list:

(1)  create items to stock up my Etsy store

(2) sew curtains for my french doors, entryway door, kitchen window

(this will be put on the bottom of the list)

(3) make requested whoopee pies for the "Only Men Annual Ice Fishing Trip"  aka smelly men acting disgusting, drinking waaaaaay too much beer, cussing, behaving like small boys, freezing their biscuits off trip.  Not my idea of a good time but, hey, I don't have to go and husband stays out of my hair.

On these annual trips, something always dramatic happens like...trailer hitched onto back of a truck flying off the truck that is carrying snowmobiles, four wheelers, and other supplies.

(4)  make  skirts, skirts skirts for my sweet girls.  My 4 year- old has been demanding skirts in every color.  Therefore, I am going to try my best, to sew one or two skirts a week to meet her demands.  :)

(5)  finish mom's very belated birthday gift(s)

(6)  make a little something for a special auntie in Texas

(7)  desserts for our restaurants, which by the way take FOREVER!!!!!  Especially on short notice.

(8) some housework somewhere along the way

(9)  clean out backroom in order to re-do for son's new bedroom

(10)  make pajama bottoms for my three bundles of joy.  They are growing fast and furious! All of Little Man N's current pj bottoms look like he is wearing clam diggers!

I'll stop there for now because "time's a wastin'".

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, send out the search and rescue party.  I may be buried under mounds of fabric and flour and unable to find my way out!

Growing so Fast...

                

 Sweet, beautiful Baby M is 8 months old today.  I tried, without much success, to capture a few photos of her today.  She was not having it.  Grumpy Baby M is teething...4 little chompers all coming in at the same time!  Yikes!  Needless to say, she didn't want to play nice today and she certainly did not find the need or desire to smile often, if at all,  for the camera.

I was, however, able to capture a couple shots of her making her newest squishy/snorting face which makes us all laugh.

                           
                                      I love the corn between her eyes!     

                                 I am so in love with her...

 

D-O-N-E, DONE!

         Woot! Woot! 

 I have finished my task with the reading bags for my son's 2nd grade class. 

Velcro has been sewn onto 67 reading bags and they are ready to be handed off to the next mom, who will now serge them all!

I am feeling like a rock star! 

Why 67 reading bags?

As most of us know, teachers spend much of their own income to help supply their classrooms. Which to me is unfathomable considering how, most, are incredibly underpaid and underappreciated.  

With that beind said, at the beginning of the year, an amazing mommy volunteer, named Annie, came up with the idea of having a  "Wishing Well". Here  teachers/staff would be able to voice their wishes and/or needs for their classrooms. 

Through donations and volunteers, the wishing well could be a resource to make their wishes come true.

The 2nd grade teachers made a wish for every child in their classrooms to have a reading bag and that is where I came in, along with two other moms with 2nd graders.

We took on their wish and we are on our way of fulfilling it!

And it feels great!

My handsome 2nd grader with his baby sister.

Now this "Rock Star" is signing off to go play a little air guitar!

A Sunshine-y, Popsicle-y Kind of Day!

     Here in Maine, for the past couple of days, it has felt like a mini heat wave!  A whopping 45 degrees and I am cracking the windows open and I seem to  have a little more pep in my walk!  All this sunshine and the warmer temps make me smile a bit more knowing that this crummy, long winter will be passing soon. 

                       

It just feels like a

 popsicle-y kind of day!

                                                                           

                                                          Is there really anything

                                                                 better than that?

                                                                   

                                       

Well...maybe there is something just a little bit better than popsicles on a

sunshine-y, winter day...

and that little something would be a grumpy, teething baby finally sleeping.

Now, off to tackle the project that has been looming over my head while enjoying the sunshine...

    that being to sew velcro onto 60 bookbags for my son's 2nd grade class.