Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Birthday Traditions {Recipes}

My daughter is a 4th of July baby!  
This year she turned "11"...It's gone WAY too fast!
She is also my "dessert" girl!
She LOVES cheesecake...
We make this fruity cheesecake EVERY year for her birthday, it's her favorite!
It's actually a recipe from Kraft Foods.
It always tastes good & it's serves a large crowd.
You can find the recipe HERE.
The only thing I do differently is DOUBLE the crust!

This year she also requested that I make her "other" favorite dessert for her party!
It's called Eclair Cake & it tastes just like an...Eclair!
Here is the recipe:

CRUST:
1 stick of  butter
1 cup water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Place the butter in a saucepan & melt it on medium heat. Next, whisk in the water & then the flour.
Then add eggs.  Mix well.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray & bake at 375 degrees for about 23-25 minutes.

FILLING:
2 small packages instant vanilla pudding
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
3 cups milk
Mix all the above ingredients together & let it set in the fridge for 30 minutes.  Then remove & place on top of the crust.  Then top with cool whip.

CHOCOLATE TOPPING:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup powder sugar
Place chocolate chips & butter in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds & stir.  Repeat until they are completely melted.  Next, stir in the milk & powdered sugar.  Once it's all mixed well, drizzle on top of the cool whip.  Then place in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

ENJOY!!!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Cleaning Out The Junk...


How can it already be July??  
We've been so busy lately that I haven't blogged for a while!

Can you believe it's almost been a month since they started painting our house & it's still not done! 
My last post showed you what they did to the door.  They tried for 2 days to fix it, but it still didn't work.
It is driving me crazy....so to deal with my anxiety we have been working on cleaning the inside of our house.
We have a few areas that constantly collect...JUNK!  
That would be closets, the basement & our garage. We have conquered 2 out of the 3 this week.
We did the kids' closets & the basement .  I am proud of my kids...they were so good to get rid of things they don't use anymore!  We filled the WHOLE car full of donation items...there wasn't any space left for passengers!

We started out by emptying the entire closet & separated the stuff  into 3 piles:
   -Garbage 
     -Donation
-Keep
Then we organize the "keep" pile where we want it to go.
It's a MESSY process, but it feels so refreshing when you are done!
This is from my 10 year old's room....
There was so much junk it started overflowing into the hallway...
We actually filled 2 bags of  just garbage!
It always amazes me how much STUFF can fit in a small space!
We decided to really clean & move her whole room around...this always makes it feel really fresh when you are done!  The way we arranged it actually makes it feel more spacious.

My daughter actually has a great sized closet, so we change it into a reading/music/clothing room.
  She LOVES it & so does her little sister...can't keep her out of there!
We pulled all of her American Girl posters & toys out.  You can see the before HERE.  Then we put her chair & bookcase in there. Her clothing hangs on the other side of the closet.
 Next, we decided to hang her own artwork & will be displaying more of her art on the wall...she was excited about that!  
We just moved her bed, dresser & vanity around.  Then we took her "name" letters from above the window & put them going down the wall.  It's amazing how just moving around the stuff you already have makes it feel like a new room!
It feels so good to get rid of JUNK!
At least this frustrating painting process motivated me to clean out some of our problem areas!
I hope the painter's finish up this week & I can post pictures soon!  They have repainted my deck, the back door & they've removed the paint off of the brick & lights...which I'm thankful for.  We did have to order a new door & hardware & have decided not to let them paint it.  
I can't wait to have our house back so we can enjoy the rest of our summer!!
I'm sharing with these blogs:
Not Just A Housewife
The 36th Avenue
52 Mantels
At The Picket Fence
Chic On A Shoestring
Thrifty Decor Chick
Organize & Decorate Everything