Passing the Torch

This beautiful lady is my mom. She was THE candy maker when I was growing up. Her skills were unmatched. I remember watching her for hours while she mixed & melted down her candies and carefully painted the candy into its mold. Her creations were absolutely breath taking. So much so that I always felt a little guilty to eat them. But only a little after all they were delicious too. I have such fond memories of her time as a candy maker. So much so that I decided to give it a try. If I have just but half of her natural talent then I should be fine. So I decided to ask my mom if she still owned her old candy molds. And to my utter joy she does. Or did. As of Sunday they are now mine (with the condition I return them should I decide I no longer want them). She had so many candy molds that she filled up a 35 gallon bin....to the top!

Why yes, those are Star Wars molds on the left.

I cant express the excitement I was filled with when I opened that lid. First thing I did was pull out every single mold and write down what it was. To my amazement it was full of holiday molds, ornate candy molds, animal molds, misc cute stuff and even some boob molds. Yes, that is correct. I can now make a lollipop of a woman's boobs. Hahaha. But the ones I am most excited over have to be the character molds. There are Pac Man, Spiderman, Muppets, Flintstones, Garfield, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Pink Panther, Cabbage Patch Kids, Smurfs and the awe inspiring Star Wars.

Now, I dont have any of the necessary tools for quality decorating. But I wasnt gonna let a little thing like that detour me from taking these molds out for a test run when I had some candies (pink and white) in the fridge. So I picked out two of the ornate candy molds and began mixing & melting my candy.

Once my candies were ready I dug out a pair of wooden chopsticks (from Panda Express) and pulled them apart. I used one for my pink candy and one for the white candy. I tried a tooth pick but that just wasn't working. Chopsticks & a spoon were my only candy working tools.

With that being said I think I did fairly well. I enjoyed standing there painting these molds with the chopsticks then filling them in with the spoon. I think given how they turned out on my first try ever and with no tools that maybe I could posses a little of my amazing moms talent. I will need lots of practice and the correct tools but I think I can pull this off. I'm so excited to keep trying.

Just starting out.

 Filing in the molds.

 The first mold is ready to be refrigerated.

Second Mold is ready too.




The finished products.

I hope to do my mom proud.

Interrupting Cow..

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Interrupting Cow.

Interrupting Cow.......

MOOOOOOO!!!

I sit here repeatedly having my thoughts interrupted by the love of my life who for someone has the desire to talk to me everytime I try to type. I love him to death so I'm gonna call it quits and try again tomorrow. When I have less of a distraction. Hahaha. I cant believe I actually said my three kiddos were less of a distraction than my husband. Thats all for tonight. We shall catch up over a cup of french vanilla coffee.

Peace out home fries.

Toooo Infinity And Beyond!!

To say that my son William (1 year old) is addicted to Toy Story would be an understatement. If I would let him he would sit on the couch all day holding his Toy Story toys while repeatedly watching the Toy Story movies. I'm not completely sure what it is about this series of movies that has enthralled him so deeply. Although my son Alex (4) and daughter Emma (3) are equally entranced when the movies are on. William is also the proud owner of a slew of Toy Story products.

 

Obviously we own the movies. We have seen all three although we still do not own the third one.

And then there is his 'Buzz' shirt that he loves to wear. 

You cant sport a 'Buzz' shirt without matching kicks.

Then there's the toy line.

William wearing his Jessie dolls hat on his head.

To top it all off he has a Toy Story bed too. My little 'Buzz' fan.

Were Building A Birdie House

Normally our crafty time is free in nature. I like to let the kids express themselves through their art. We have only one rule, there are no rules. For the longest time my son Alex has been asking to build a bird house and while I was at Michael's the other day I came across these:

I didn't notice I snapped a picture of the non English side.

They were only $1 so I thought they might be a fun little craft for the kiddos to do. They have an age recommendation of 5+ but other than helping my 3 & 4 year old assemble them they were more than competent to handle this craft.  

The kit came with everything you needed to build the bird house. Instructions, wood bird house pieces, sand paper, paint, glue & paintbrush. To keep the kids from painting my kitchen table I cut a piece of butcher paper as a work mat for each of them.

The first step was to sand all the pieces. They only partially followed this step as they are young ones and not too motivated to sand something without an obvious result. Second step was painting all the pieces. They were very excited to paint something besides paper.

Emma's a painting pro.

Alex has an interesting painting technique.

To keep the kids from mixing colors too much I gave them each a little bowl of water and a wash rag to clean their brushes on. We only had one spill during the whole project. That made mommy very happy. After all the pieces were painted to the kids satisfaction we allowed them a few minutes to dry. Once they were (mostly) dry we got them ready for gluing. 

Emma just painting away.

Alex was proud of his art.

Alex was frustrated that his roof kept falling off.

Emma gluing her last piece.

After all the gluing was done it was time to show off their bird houses.

Alex sure was proud of his bird house.

Emma's favorite thing is to paint so she was just beaming.

We set their finished projects outside to dry in the sun. These turned out to be two of the best dollars Ive spent in a long time. We had a blast doing our crafts and making memories. When Daddy came home from work the kids each got a turn to surprise him with their bird houses. Wonderful day!