piggy cupcakes

It was Isabella's birthday, so I made cupcakes for the YW to match the theme of the lesson and my handout. First I made pigs out of Marzipan:They turned out cute:
The frosting was brown, looks a little greenish in the photo. It was a lot of rolling the Marzipan into little balls . . .

I followed the instructions found here.

Butter cream frosting - yum:

1 cup butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1-2 tsp milk

Cream together and frost.

Inve$tment

This week's YW lesson will be A Heritage of Righteous Traditions. I found a cool quote that says 'the time $pent with your family creating traditions is the greatest inve$tment you will ever make'. I added the dollar signs so I could make a piggy bank handout:

The pig graphic came from Stackable Crew, the tin containers I found at Specialty Bottle and the pink boa and pipe cleaner I got at Michaels Crafts. Jonathan cut into the tin can with a hack saw, the opening was too big for anything but a quarter. The nose of the pig is a separate piece - so it really looks dimensional with all different layers.

Jonathan asked me 'what do you think the girls do with all your handouts?' Think he's worried they don't appreciate the time it takes to design and make all of them?
Oh well, I still enjoy making them for the pleasure it brings me =) I think the pig is cuteness!

What can you do with a TP roll?

mod podge bracelets with cut outs from magazines =)

I didn't have the girls add beads/charms to theirs - but they are cute without too.

I cut each toilet paper roll into thirds and then slit out places for the ribbon to go through. Cut out images from magazines and mod podged it on - let it dry. Punch holes for the jump rings to hold charms or beads. I hot glued my ribbon and then tied it in a knot - does look cute with just a bow too. You could also finish the inside by mod podging another strip of paper on it.

Bookmarks with themes

My step-mom, Michelle, is going to Girl's Camp as a cabin mom in Oregon and they have 1 theme a day and asked me to make some bookmarks for her girls - so here they are for you to use too:

Super cute to add a ribbon at the top or a charm at the bottom of these!

Revelation - Take 5

I saw an idea where they used a Take 5 candy bar with this lesson because it had 5 points to ways to prepare to receive revelation. That's not good enough for me ;) I saw the lesson had 5 points on methods to receiving revelation too - so I got creative and put a letter with each of the main points and will use one on each side of the Take 5 candy bar - the 5 is an S in my case:

I used this layout to match the first handout I made and I'll give out as well.

Front and back of the candy bar:

Probably would have looked cuter if I would have used a red theme instead of blue . . . oh well =)

Fasting - get 'filled' with the Holy Ghost

I used the same layout from VT for July for my Fasting lesson in YW:

I am using the handout shaped like this to use on a take-out box:

And this on a pair of chopsticks - the kanji character is for pray - couldn't find one online (quick enough) for fasting:

I filled the take-out box with 3 fortune cookies dipped in white almond bark and sprinkles.

On the back of the take-out box I hot-glued a magnet (as well as the chop sticks at the top) so it can go on the fridge as a reminder when fasting =) But it doesn't hold up when the cookies are in it - too bad they'll have to eat the cookies first ;)

Maggie helped with this lesson, so she came over to make the handouts and dip the cookies with me!

Funnies

Scene: Sitting by the camp fire

Andrew: Do you want to sit here?

Me: No, I want to sit by my husband.

Andrew: That's not your husband!

Me: What is he then?

Andrew: {Pause . . . (thinking)}

Andrew: He's your step-husband!

LoL

I guess that makes sense since Jonathan is the boy's step-dad, he must be my step-husband ;)

Kids are too smart!

This is the fire that the kids built . . . and yes, the adults took some off before lighting it - LoL

Scene: Waiting for the fireworks to start

Andrew: Howl like a coyote

Me: {hooooooooooooooowlllllllllll, howl, howl, etc.}

Andrew: {looked at me}

Andrew: No, like a real coyote!

LoL

I guess I'll have to work on my howling technique ;)

Scene: Kitchen cutting strips of dough for little smokies - making pigs in a blanket

Me: {Using a knife to cut strips of dough}

Stacy: {gets out pizza cutter to make the process faster & better}

Me: ahhhh, I've never used a pizza cutter

Colten: What? You've never used a pizza cutter?

Kids are great for the soul!

There were more things that made me laugh, but I didn't write them down and I forgot them! So, write down the funny things your kids say because if you think you'll remember them all, you're wrong ;)

Dips . . . for chips and crackers

Nat's favorite dip and she even called grandpa Mike to get the recipe - she's been using it for every gathering since ;) I had to add some (okay as you can tell from the photo it's actually A LOT) of dill weed and it definitely made it perfect!

Dill Pickle Dip

1 cup low-fat mayo (Nalley's is the best!)

1 cup sour cream (Darigold)

3-4 tbsp dill weed

1/4 cup dill pickle juice (from the jar of pickles you're using)

10-15 pickles diced or chopped (I used Vlasic baby pickles because I am a pickle snob - hehe)

A little bit of cream cheese, mayo, parmesan cheese, fresh minced garlic, artichoke hearts, bacon, green onion, dill weed (surprised? hehe) and serve with crackers:

Slideshow - 1 song

Here's one song that I did for the slideshow at Girl's Camp - the whole slideshow was 1 hour long with more than 1000 pictures!

Would have liked to have done some effects or captions with some of these pictures - but time restraints prevented anything more fancy since we did the slideshow on the 3rd night of camp.

Jean Flower Corsage

We made these at Girl's Camp too:

You can wear them as a corsage, in your hair, on a bracelet - possibilities are endless:
Found the instructions here.