cake pops

I know cake pops are every where right now.  To be honest, I don't really care for them all that much. I am not a fan of chocolate and not a fan of "wet" cake. I know it's not wet or raw cake, but crumbled cake mixed with the frosting doesn't taste good to me. Maybe it's because I don't really like frosting either?  I do think they are ridiculously cute to look at though.

via

Anyway, I just heard about Babycakes cake pops maker from Baby Gizmo. You can read Holly's review of the cake pop maker here. This maker creates perfectly round cake balls or donut holes. The inside is more like real cake and I can dip them in white chocolate, which I actually like, then decorate with fun sprinkles. To top it off, it takes a significantly less amount of time to make them then the "real" cake pops that you see popping up everywhere. You mean I can actually make something cute, fun and yummy without spending hours in the kitchen? Yes please!

via Babycakes

So now, I am at the Babycakes website and realize that the cake maker is only $25! serisouly? It also comes with a cooling rack to put the sticks in when done decorating. And it comes with a recipe booklet. I think that is a great investment for all the cute cake pops I can make for parties. And I can't wait to make these as treats for birthday presents! They are just so darn cute. I think this may be another treat I make for the guest at  Chloe's first birthday!

via Babycakes

via Babycakes

1st Birthday Ideas?

I am a big party planner and I start planning parties wayyy in advance. I feel like I am falling behind with Chloe's 1st birthday only 4 months away! Most of our family is coming to be here for that weekend (it helps that it is also Thanksgiving weekend). I can't wait to celebrate this special day with all the family!

My sister has already mentioned she wants to make themed cupcakes. (hmm... maybe a cupcake themed party?)

I was thinking it would be so much easier to go with a couple colors and center everything around that. Like a very happy YELLOW birthday party. I am a sucker for yellow, one of my fave colors. It's so happy and cheerful. And it's not your typical pink girl party. Plus, that candy bar looks DELISH and so pretty with the ruffle streamers.

via The Sweetest Occasion Blog

I know I want to include tons of hand made fabric flag banners. Sheri from Young House Love had made one for her daughters birthday here. And better yet, I could even make cake bunting with this tutorial from The Sweetest Occasion found here.

via The Sweetest Occasion

and I can make invites that have printed pennant banners like this:

via Jack & Izzy Blog

I definitely want to have a little candy/treat/dessert bar with cute little things like cake pops and chocolate dipped pretzels and marshmallows.  I could definitely make these on my own, I feel they would be super easy to make. Just decorate with sprinkles and a bow to match the colors of the party.

via Maddycakes Muse Blog

I cant wait to get started on planning! Anyone have any ideas or tricks of the trade for throwing a big birthday party on a tight budget? I would love to here your suggestions!

Family Time

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to visit my parents and take some family photos. We went up early and stayed Friday night. My mom made her delicious tacos and we just hung out and relaxed. Chloe played with our HUGE family dogs and rolled/army crawled all around the house. My step dad  usually acts all hard and tough, but as soon as he holds Chloe he becomes a softy, like a big ol' teddy bear.  My sisters and significant others came up Saturday to hang out. We walked around Old Town Temecula and it was adorable! I would love to go back there when we have more time and it's not so hot. It was so much fun just hanging out with my family and doing something outside together. Chloe had a blast hanging out with all her auties and her grandparents. She was a very happy baby the entire trip and mostly slept for the car ride.
 
My mom wanted us to wear white, gray and purple. So I decided to make a quick purple tutu on the 1 1/2 hour car ride up to see them. I like how it turned out. When Chloe starts walking I think I will making many more of these!

Auntie Ginney

re-creation of our first picture together (I wish we could find the original picture, it does look just like it)

Auntie Tiff

Daddy

Grandma

 

Chloe is so happy here!

As you can tell...

I have been pretty absent lately, here on the blog. Work has had me swamped lately. And I have been so busy at home that I never get a chance to sit in front of the computer to even read an email, let alone write a blog post. Sorry to those, especially my family, who like to keep updated on the Schmitzel's life. I have made it a challenge of mine to blog at least 2 times a week and slowly grow more from there.

Anyway, I put up a new blog poll to the right. You should go answer it!

James will be gone the next 3 days in Chicago for a business trip. His first one since we have been married. He used to travel all the time around 4 years ago, but I feel it is different now that we have a little one. It will be just momma and baby. Even though it will be a lot of work, I am looking forward to some quality time.

And I am having a few other moms come over tonight for a play date and dinner. I would take pictures, but James has taken both cameras to Chicago.

Maybe I will get to blogging more this week if Chloe goes to bed before 10pm (wish me luck!)

Please, Vote!

I entered Chloe in the Gerber baby contest last month and totally forgot about it! eek!  

So please, vote for her.

Normally, I am not one to vote for how "cute" someones baby is. All baby's are precious. However, this gives her the chance to  be the next Gerber baby and win a college scholarship! And I am all for preparing for my child's future education. So, it leaves me to beg for votes. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. 

You can vote for more than one baby and you can vote for each baby once a day until July 31st.

Click on the picture below to go to the voting page! You can always search for her with the name "Chloe Darling".

short and sweet

Betsy over at Three.20 posted this survey and asked her readers to do the same... so here you go. I would love for YOU to do the questionnaire as well, it's fun to get to know my readers. :)

Using only one word, answer the following questions. Interpret freely.
1) Your cell phone? boring
2) Your hair? unnatural
3) Your mother? strong
4) Your father? Southern
5) Your favorite thing? creating
6) Your dream last night? none
7) Your favorite drink? hot chocolate
8) Your dream/goal? explorer
9) What room are you in? office
10) Your hobby? scrapbooking
11) Your biggest fear? alone
12) Where were you last night? home
13) Something that you're not? shy
14) Muffins? bald cupcake
15) Wish list item? books
16) Last thing you did? blog
17) What are you wearing? dress
18) Friends? happy
19)Love? James
20) Drinking? strawberry soda pop
21Your mood? relaxed
22) Your car? dirty
23) Your style? random
24) Something you're not wearing? cardigan
25) Your favorite store? Ruche (although I never can afford to shop there)
26) Your Favorite Color? mustard
27) Your favorite place to eat? Casa Del Sol
28) Favorite place you would like to be right now? Balboa Park
29) Your pet peeve? Attention Seekers (look at me, look at me, look at me!)
30) Your favorite website? idk... amazon?

p.s. So I cheated and some of these are 2 words, but you get the point. I would love to see what YOUR answers would be!

Guest Post for Delirious Rhapsody

Today, I guest posted for Deanna at Delirious Rhapsody. Her birthday is today and her son's birthday on Sunday. I wrote about my annual birthday tradition. She has a ton of guest posts and giveaways lined up for this week all in honor of her and her son's birthday. Go check it out!( and go wish her a happy birthday!)


p.s. I would love to know more about my readers! Would you be a dear and answer the blog poll on the left?

Watch this!

I love the band Queen. They are purely awesome. So this video is 10x purely awesome because it has Muppets singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

How do you do it?

I know that most of the mommy blogging community are SAHM's. I love that and encourage Mom's who can afford to do it. If I could afford to stay at home with my little one, I would. I would love to be the one to teach my child, to play and be with her all the time. If it were up to me, I would home school her until she would be in middle or high school.

The reason I don't blog as much as other mommy blogs is because I work full time. Then, I come home and try to get in as much mother daughter time as I can. All while taking care of a household, running errands, leading a big Church Life Group, trying to find time to catch up with family and friends and hoping to squeeze in a little hubby and me time. Trying to that in  the 5 hours between getting home and bed time is exhausting! I felt like it was all a little easier when I was on maternity leave. When I spend 40 hours of that time I would be doing all of those things stuck in an office, it leaves me very pressed for time and a little frazzled. Lately, I have been feeling overworked and over tired. I definitely have not found the time to blog very much (sad!). 

I feel blessed to have a job that pays us well enough to rent a nice place and to hire my sister as our babysitter. I love Chloe, but I know my limits and I know I need a break every now and then. As much as I miss her, I know going to work is good for me to get away and have adult conversations and be surrounded by other adults. I like being able to actually concentrate on one thing only verses concentrating on trying to do something and entertain Chloe at the same time. However, I definitely would trade being at work for being at sahm in a heartbeat. 

The reason I am writing about this is not to throw a pity party, but rather to ask HOW DO YOU DO IT?
That question is for both stay at home moms and working mothers.
If you work, how do you manage your time? What helpful tips can you give me to use my time at home more wisely? What can I do to find this very hectic lifestyle just a little less stressful? what things can I do with Chloe that will give me that mommy bonding time that I feel I am lacking with her? How do you handle being away from your baby for so long?

And if you are a sahm, how do you handle being with your children 24/7? What are some tips to get daily necessity things done while child or two or three?  Also, how do you live with just 1 source of income? It seems as though many of you still live a life of typical spending. I know that if we were living off of 1 source of income, life would be bare bones around here. James and I would like for me to be a sahm and hope that we can within the next 5 years. I would like some advice on what to expect, what can/should we prepare for (emotional and monetary wise)? I am sure there are things out there that we probably wouldn't think of. Any other advice on how to make my dream a reality would be very much appreciated.

And I want to give a big, "YOUR AWESOME" to ALL moms out there, working or not. We all bust our butts to make our homes a loving and good place to raise a family and I commend you on all your hard work!

Q&A: How we met {He Said}

Hello everyone. James here, to fill in the gaps of our love story. My lovely wife spilled out her heart to you all and told the story of us on her last post...and that's all fun and sweet, but here's what really happened...

It all started on Halloween night [insert evil laugh in the background]. Now I absolutely love Halloween, so this actually makes the story just a little bit more special to me. Surprisingly, I had nothing planned for that evening though; no crazy shenanigans, no trick or treating dressed as Cat Woman, not even a gore-fest movie night. Lucky for me though, I received a call from a buddy trying to get me to come to this party. Now, just so you know, I am horrible with crowds and mingling with people I don't know, so flying solo to some shindig without backup was pretty gutsy of me. Shoot, I didn't even have a costume. So on came probably the most random assortment of retro clothes I could find in the closet. When I get there, I'm already almost regretting leaving my comfort zone, but just a moment after, the most glorious thing happened. I'm greeted by an angel...or tooth fairy, or whatever the heck this was. Seriously, kinda hard to tell, but she was wearing all black and had black wings to top it off. My friend, Willy, introduced me to the few people right there and I'll never forget the words to come out of this beautiful, dark tooth fairy of death...she said "Hi, nice to meet you". Wow, I mean trumpets were playing, quire was singing, and the whole world seemed to stop in that moment for a while. Then just like that, she left the house. I was stunned at how I just encountered the most beautiful creature on Earth and then have her vanish as if it was some sick mind trick. Come to find out later that night, she did infact really exsist and her name was Michelle.

Skip ahead maybe 2 weeks and you'd probably find me on Myspace doing something stupid or trying to figure out which pics make me look most emo and cool with the whopping 10 photo maximum at the time. I must have been looking gooood cause I received a random message from a random young lady. The message read, "Impressive movie selection". Now of course I know my list of favorite movies was impressive - wait, this was that angel that walked in and out of my life just a couple of weeks prior. She didn't know who I was or that we "met" before where she took my breath away. She just saw a cute guy on Myspace and couldn't help but make contact some how. So we wrote each other a few times, but I was too timid to really try to take things anywhere.

Another couple weeks later there's another party at that same house, but this time it's a going away party for Willy. I'm just getting off work at der Wienerschnitzel and it's got to be after 10pm when I'm just hearing about this. I've got to say bye at least. So I head straight over there dressed like a bum and smelling like kraut dogs, who cares. As I walk up, SHE walks out, "No, not again!", I think to myself as it looks like she about to walk out of my life forever again. We caught glances and she says, "Hey, you're that guy from Myspace, huh?". HA, I got her! I can't let her get away this time! Luckily though, she was just grabbing something from outside. The rest of that night consisted of me trying to keep a conversation going, but shyness really got the best of me. Michelle was very nice and gave me the grace of still being interested in hanging out. I learned a lot that night - we have a pretty big group of mutual friends, although we never knew of each other; She is not very good at ping pong, but can still pretend she's having fun doing it; and I am honored to hold the bathroom door closed while she pees because the door doesn't exactly stay shut on its own.

It's wasn't very long after that when we made a plan to hang out on maybe a "date" thing. Santanas Mexican Food. After both of us waiting for the other for about about 30 minutes in our own cars parked on opposite sides of the building, we finally figure it out and meet inside for a shared plate of pollo asada chips. I'm nervous as heck and just praying I don't look like a dork. Michelle, of course, is great and carrying along the conversation nicely. We meet up with friends downtown for a while and we all do our best to act ridiculous. This is where Michelle and I have our first picture taken  together.

Of course nobody told me we were taking a goofy picture. I don't know why I'm so serious in this, though. My nerves must have me frozen in boring face mode.

After that you could probably call us inseparable. Just a couple of kids madly in love.