A Pirate's Life for Me

Ahoy, Mateys!  We set sail on the Never Seas this past weekend to celebrate Monkey's 3rd birthday.  While I HATED baking BK (before kids), becoming Mom has awakened my panache for ganache ;) My first love will always be cupcakes, but my recent favorite,cake pops, made their debut for our "Jake and the NeverLand Pirates" bash.  The initial idea for the cake pops came from Pinterest, but I took it one step further with the help of my very handy, artsy and crafty hubby.  I present to you our swashbuckling crew o' cake pops!

Here's the whole crew!

Directions for Cake Pops:

I used the Hello, Cupcake (my personal baking bible) from scratch vanilla cupcake recipe (you can use any cake flavor) along with my cake pop maker. I found one at Macy's for super cheap after Christmas, and I am glad I invested in it.  There's no way I'm making cake pops the "real" way! After making the cake pops, make sure you freeze them for a few hours with the sticks inserted. They are much easier to decorate!!

Supplies for Pirate Pops:

-red melting chocolates (vanilla flavor)

-white melting chocolates (vanilla flavor)

-"creamy peach" gel food coloring (Wilton) 

-black icing decorator in tube

-small edible pearlized sprinkles

-lollipop sticks

Begin by melting the white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, according to package directions, to make the flesh colored layer for the cake pops.  Once chocolate is melted, add a SMALL amount of the creamy peach gel food coloring.  I used only the tip of a wooden skewer, dipped it in the jar with a small layer on the tip and stirred it in -  and that was all I needed for the flesh color.  Stir thoroughly into the melted chocolate.  Dip the frozen cake pops into the flesh colored chocolate and swirl around to cover completely.  At this point, as I finished each pop, I stuck them  into the already-assembled pirate ship for the cake pops to set in the refrigerator. I let the first layer sit overnight in the fridge to harden.  For the next step, melt the red chocolate wafers just as you did the white.  This time only stick the cake pops half way in to the red melted chocolate to achieve the "bandana" effect of the pirate hat.  Once the red is put on, immediately add on the small pearlized sprinkles all over the red chocolate to make the polka-dots. I did this by hand, one at a time.  At this time, I also drew the faces using the black gel icing.  Once completed, refrigerate again until it's time to PARTY!!

Pirate Ship Supplies and Instructions:

-Darice 3-D Foam Pirate Ship kit

-2 small rectangle floral styrofoam blocks

-straight pins

-glue for foam pieces on ship

I enlisted the help of my incredibly handy hubby to make the pirate ship.  He had to rubber band the floral foam together, glue WILL NOT WORK!  He built the pirate ship around the foam and also cut the foam down to the shape of the boat.  You will have to pin the pieces of the boat to the styrofoam because glue will not hold.

Cupcakes:

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with "Almost Homemade Buttercream" Frosting, again from Hello, Cupcake.  The frosting is made from marshmallow fluff, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. I added blue food coloring until I got the color I wanted for ocean waves.  I piped it on with a #5 tip, added the "Pirates of the Caribbean" cake decorations from Wilton and Voila! Cupcakes worth losing your hand to the Tic-Toc Croc over!!

If you're looking to plan a ship-shape bash for your little swashbuckler, I hope you find some helpful hints :)  If you do use something, let me know how it turned out!


UPDATE: As of publishing week, May 21, 2012:  If you're looking for some fun add-ons to your pirate bash, check out the Dollar Stop at Target.  I went a week too late for our party, but was able to find fun thank you cards.  It's FULL of fun pirate theme things great for goodie bags, gifts for your pirate, etc!  

Keeping Track of Time

My darling Monkey Man is turning 3 in 3 days.  And while I was putting him to sleep tonight and listening to him review the day for me, I was reviewing where the last three years went.  And it got me thinking of a project I've wanted to share for some time.  I did this project with both of my lovely babies. I don't remember where I first read/saw it, but I am so glad it made an impression on me.  I can't think of a more fun way to keep track of  how quickly time flies in the first year of life.  So here's my suggestion to all the new Moms out there.  This example is my darling daughter, Alayne a.k.a. Sweet Pea.

A picture taken on the monthly birthday for the first year using a stuffed animal as a growth chart J

My Mother's Day Evolution

So, President Obama made headlines this week with his announcement that his thinking on gay marriage had evolved.  BIG news, right!?  Well, I found myself going through my own surprising evolution of thought this past week.  As newsworthy as positive affirmation of gay marriage from the POTUS? Nah.  But enough to make me take step back and say, "Whoa".  And it's all about Mother's Day.  Let me first say that my husband does a more than admirable, if not exceptional job, in celebrating this day for me.  He's on the ball; from cooking an entire brunch for our family the year I was about to explode with Jack to always perfect, yet not extravagant, gifts. (See my pic below for this year's)  And since my very first Mother's Day 5 years ago, I have always wanted to be the "Let's-go-out-and-celebrate-at-a-fabulous-brunch-and/or-dinner" Mom.  But this year, I found myself wanting to go in a direction I never would have imagined...I was becoming the "Leave-me-the-hell-alone-to-celebrate-Mother's-Day" Mom.  WHAT THE WHA? Shocking. Those Moms always puzzled me. "It's a day about family.", I always thought. Then when I finally became a mom, I wanted to celebrate ME as MOM, EVERYWHERE!!  But over the past few years there's been some, shall we say, "compromise" on my end because of the other Moms' (and believe it or not, Dad's) wishes in my family. And I suppose it all came to a boil in my pretty little head this past week, and I  began to see the light in the dark side of Mother's Day celebrations.  "Should I follow that light?", I thought. It does seem very tempting. "Don't get outta your PJs before NOON!". Wait, what? Who said that?  "Head to the mall. Find some shoes.", I swear that's what a voice said from behind the light.  "You won't have to remind anyone to use 'walking feet' in the mall." Oh my, this does sound fantastic! "Stop and get a Venti ANYTHING!".  It was relentless! I resisted. It tried another avenue. "Take your book. Go to the park. Read. Without having to start the same page again 10x." Heavy artillery now.  I had some serious contemplation.  The voice knew I was weak, stressed.  I was coming off of a couple rough months; my mom's back surgery and subsequent never-ending recovery, the end of volleyball season, crazy work schedule.  But then I was snapped back to the bright side.  My husband asks, "So honey, what would you like for Mother's Day breakfast. Whatever you want, it's on the menu."  My request:

And just like that, I was back.  Survived a brunch with my MIL, which my SIL made entirely herself.  Now, making my lovely SIL cook an entire brunch for us, her family and my MIL on Mother's Day is totally unacceptable ~ but that's a whole other post for a whole other day. Hmmm.  Then the hubs and I did a little yard work, which was definitely OK with me.  And then we were off to the standard Mother's Day dinner with my mom at Mom's favorite place. Was Mother's Day, 2012 "perfect"?  In the most important respects, yes. I have a wonderfully gracious and attentive husband who knows exactly how to take care of me and make me feel appreciated. I have two beautiful children who make my world complete.  But when the day was done, a little selfish spark of the dark side rose up again and said, "Next year, we're laying low at our house for the day. Maybe we'll do dinner out somewhere." Because, isn't it MY DAY? What are you Moms feeling about your day?


My Beautiful Gift:

Necklace: Dirty Pretty Things Jewelry

Sacred Heart Silver Necklace

My MOST BEAUTIFUL GIFTS EVER:

Mother's Day Affordable Style

Shirt: Nicole By Nicole Miller, JCPenney

Pants: a.n.a colored skinny jeans, JCPenney

 Turquoise Necklace: Kohl's

Shoes: LC, Lauren Conrad Kohl's

Nail Polish: Zoya BLogger Collection

A Little Late to the Party

Anyone who knows me, knows it's not surprising that I'm LATE for something.  Hence, the title of my venture into the blogosphere: Wendy Time.  Dubbed by my fabulous mom, "Wendy Time" would be about 20 -30 minutes later than the time I was supposed to be ANYWHERE.  So, yeah, I'm not the most punctual person in the world.  But it could be worse, right?  I think I make up for it with my many other talents :) I've been kicking around blogging for over a year now.  Reading my friends' blogs and Pinterest have motivated me to get going. I've got my hands in a lot of things. I love to share the things that drive me through my day in hopes of making something easier, making laughs, commiserating or just enjoying what life throws at me!  Check back in a few for my post on how to up-cycle an old TV tray set into something beautiful, useful, modern and KID-MESS PROOF!