Belli's haircut

Well, I finally did it! I have been wanting to cut her hair for the longest, and was determined to do so back in February, but chickened out and only did her bangs -which we are letting her grow- Lately she has been swimming in the pool and her hair gets very tangled, and it is very painful to brush even when using extra conditioner and detangler. I suggested to Gus the idea of cutting her hair and when he said sure but not too short, I jumped on it! Belli could not believe it when I told her, because she has been asking for a hair cut for the longest. I honestly did not want to cut it this short but before I realized it I had chopped a big chunk and there was no going back, I don't know about her Daddy, I think it'll take him a while to process it but if is any consolation and sh is anything like me, her hair will be long again within a few months. I love the end result, and most important she loves it too...I can tell because she is just standing in front of the mirror.

she looks like a completely different Belli

I love the way it looks from the back

this is 13 in.

iced sugar cookies

With a lot of time in my hands, the weather being uncooperative and 3 super bored kids, what do you do? well try new projects and recipes. Here we are going to try the iced cookies once again, but this time we are going to use store bought cookie mix. I only have one volunteer today, the other two are playing their DS and since they do not allow Belli to play with them, well I'll be patient and let her join me.
ingredients for the cookies: Betty Croker sugar cookie bag, 1 stick unsalted butter, 1 egg & 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

she loves to crack the eggs, but...

this was Belli's favorite part

ingredients for the frosting: 1lb confectioners sugar, 5 tablespoons meringue powder, 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract & food coloring

after outlining them, and waiting 1 hr., add more water to the frosting to flood them. I had to keep an eye on the kids because they kept "testing" them to see if they had dried

after letting it dry for 1 hr. I added some sugar sprinkles to finish them off. A couple of cookies did not make it to the photo shoot, and one of them was "injured" on the way :9

next week we'll do a practice batch with this "horsie" cookie cutter -I'm thinking Belli's 6th birthday is going to be cowgirl themed-

FASHION FRIDAY...a mens shirt

This weekend, while re-arranging my closet, I found this pair of brown shoes I had bought in a "sale" a couple of months ago. I haven't worn them yet, so while trying to convince myself that I will eventually wear them instead of giving them up for "adoption", I started to look around in my clothes to find a match for them.

I did not find anything on my side of the closet, I did however find something I liked on my husband's side of the closet! This green shirt I had bought him a couple of months ago, with the tags still on. It is not an expensive shirt, so I though if I mess with it and it doesn't turn out well it'll be OK, no big loss, right?

The final product, removed the sleeves, trimmed the sides and added belt loops. Paired with a brown leather belt and the shoes that started it all.

and as worn by me...I didn't have any make up on so, I'll spare you the shock

Did I mention I really like shoes? well, I DO!

enjoying my kids

Today we are having a lazy day, and although I am bored, it is kind of nice to once in a while not have anything to do or nowhere to go. My truck A/C broke down and with this heat it is just not safe to drive anywhere. After cleaning up, watching a couple of movies, and attempting to get the pool out of the storage and not succeeding, -the pool is heavy and I cannot last 5 minutes out there in the sun- my kids had an idea, to let them run outside with the water hose. It's amazing how little it takes for them to have fun, they started playing a pretend game where they are all animals at the circus, and the funny thing is that Belli got to play the elephant, I wonder why?!

dreaming of a bench at the end of the porch...

once Belli spotted the camera, she immediately posed

Michael hosing down the "elephant"

taking a break from his sisters

Belli can't be trusted with the hose, she aimed at me!

Here is Gabby's chance for revenge!

shortbread iced cookies

I had been curious about these iced cookies I have seen everywhere, so I decided to give it a try and since it'll be my first time, I chose to do the most easy and simple design of all -a happy face- I mostly wanted to give it a try at outlining and flooding the cookie with the icing. It is pretty hard and time consuming, very inexpensive but you do need a lot of patience. I baked these shortbread cookies in the morning (8:30), cooled them (9:45) and prepared the royal icing (10:30), outlined them(11:30), flooded -yellow icing- (2:00) them then I decorated them -eyes & mouth- (4:00). It was an all day thing!

I'm thinking they would be great for holidays, or b-days so I made enough for my kids to eat, but also enough so I could see how long they last fresh. I had to do a taste test so I had to eat 1 every day : ) and as I found out, they are good up to 1 week after you bake them, but I recommend you make them no longer than 3-4 days in advance.

I also practiced monogramming, with my kids initials, of course...

and also with some basic shapes...

this poor cookie had a bad start since the beginning, the shape was not perfectly round and while icing it I did not notice the air bubbles, but it was equally delicious : )

Fernanda's 8th Birthday

Fernanda's birthday is coming up and her mama decided to make her a party at the roller skating ring! Lets see how many kids will leave the party with an injury, probably one of mine, since none of them know how to skate!

she looks so tough, yet so cute in this picture!

I don't know where my head was, I forgot to write the party info on the card and didn't realize it until I had them printed! luckily and with some quick thinking, I made this coordinating cards and fixed the problem : )

last day of school

What a difference 10 months make! Summer has officially started for me, and I'm just so glad I will no longer be waking up at 6 a.m and fight traffic everyday. Maybe now I can get things done? MAYBE