Alma Mater

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Summer Hairstyles With Mater, Siobhan and Filia

~Summer Hairstyles~

Mater, Filia and I love playing around with some fun hairstyles in the summer. Here are some pictures...

~Mermaid Braid~

~Dutch Wrap Around Braid~

~Double Bun Updo~

~Crown Braid~

Monday, July 20, 2015

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Lux! By: Siobhan

Happy Birthday Little Lux!

Our Little Lux is not so 'little' anymore. He is getting so big! It seems like yesterday he was just a tiny newborn...

~Baby Lux~

Lux turned two on July 20th.

We had a special birthday celebration with Adam and Steph and Carter. Mom put together the same meal we had for the Fourth of July: orange chipotle ribs, corn, potato salad, coleslaw, jello, fries, onion rings, chips, root beer, and margaritas.

Lux loved his monkey cake pops!

He loved his presents, most of which were books. He also got some fun craft supplies, toys, clothes, a new bike from his grandparents and the bear pillow you see above. :)

Cooking with Carter

Thank you to everyone who made Lux's birthday so special. Happy Birthday to our favorite two year old!

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Monkey Cake Pops By: Siobhan

Monkey Cake Pops

The other day my friend Asia and I made cake pops together for Little Lux's 2nd birthday. We have wanted to try cake pops since last year when our cake pops were a disastrous (but delicious!) mess. Thankfully this time they came out really nicely.

One of the most important factors in your cake pops turning out well is the consistency of the cake pop mixture itself, which is just cake and frosting. The mixture needs to be moist but not too moist, about 1 part cake to 3 parts frosting. Make sure to mix the mixture with your (clean) hands to get it totally incorporated. We measured out one tablespoon per ball so our pops were uniform.

The balls should look like this.

Next we melted some yellow candy melts in the Wilton Candy Melting Pot. The melting pot helped get our candy melts melted evenly and then kept them in a liquid form while we dipped the pops and waited for them to chill. The candy melts were incredibly thick when we melted them at first, so we thinned them out with vegetable shortening. The candy should be somewhat runny so make sure to add plenty of shortening if needed.

We dipped the sticks in the candy and then put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Then we were ready to dip the pops!

I recommend dipping them in partway, then tapping the stick against the side of the pot to make sure the bottom of the pop is fully covered. If the pop starts to come off the stick, then make sure to just add some more candy to the stick itself.

A Styrofoam block worked perfectly to hold the pops in place while they hardened. We kept the rest of the pops in the freezer while we were dipping.

We bought Wilton Monkey Royal Icing Decorations to go on top of the pops. We just spread a little more candy on the pops and then attached the monkeys.