Puppy Cupcakes

And no, by puppy cupcakes I do not mean cupcakes made out of puppies, as StinkyMan suggested, clearly delighted by his own joke. Nor are they cupcakes for puppies. In fact they would make your puppy quite sick.

No, these cuties were for a puppy themed birthday party. I saw a picture and thought "I can do that!" and started planning. Here is the end result:

Sweet, right?

Want the step by step?

OK, well, step 1: Make your cupcakes and your icing. Mine are chocolate, with butter cream frosting.

Step 2. After they've cooled, cut a hole out of your cupcake and put a donut hole in it (I had to shave some of the sides of the donut hole off)

Frost away! (I used Wilton tip 18)

I was going to make fondant for tongues and ears, though in the picture I saw I thought the ears looked more like fruit roll up. My ever so clever friend Sandy over at Modern Simplicity suggested rolled out caramels and that the tongue could be made out of rolled out pink Starburst candies. Both solutions sounded much easier than making a batch of fondant. Thanks Sandy!

I discovered after about 6 cupcakes worth of tongues and ears, it's MUCH easier if you cut the Starbursts and caramels in half before you roll them out. That makes them much easier to shape and more to scale for the cupcake.

I used mini M&M's for the eyes. I did put extra frosting under the ears to help them stick.

And finally, a jelly bean nose on top of the frosted donut hole:

Almost too cute to eat! Happy Birthday Amelia!

Misspoken

It really couldn't be cuter that BabyGirl thinks bananas are called "Go-nanas" and that the panties she likes to pretend she knows how to wear are called "champies."

Champies could be cuter if she stopped showing them to everyone, everywhere, all the time, though.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to:

My Dad, for being a great dad, who reads my blog faithfully, finds my kids as amusing as I do and who always comes through in a pickle. Actually, he even comes through when there is not a pickle. Thanks Dad!

My Husband, the best man I know. You are a fantastic dad. You always knew I wanted to be a mother and I knew you'd be a great father. I was wrong. I couldn't even have begun to imagine the kind of wonderful father you are. Thank you.

My Father- in-law, who has always treated me less like a daughter-in-law and more like a daughter. Who is also always willing to pitch in to help and has done so quite often. I am lucky in the in-law department, I know.

My friend Lance, who does it all and then some, many days with a heavy heart. Rochelle is most proud of you, my friend, as am I. We all are.

To all the boys I've watched become men, both friends and family, who then went from just men to husbands and fathers. You all impress me. Every last one of you. Your evolution from the kids I knew to the men you are has been amazing.

Happy Fathers Day to Everyone. May you be loved this day and every day. And if you are a father of someone in my life, please know that you are loved, this day and every day.

Lucky

Peanut: Mommy?

Mommy: Hmmmmm?

Peanut: I'm super lucky, huh?

Mommy: You are? Why?

Peanut: Because lots of people love me.

Mommy: Yes, you are very lucky that way.

Peanut: You are lucky too, because lots of people love you too!

Mommy: Thank you, Baby.

Peanut: They just love me a little bit more because I'm just a little bit cuter than you.

You know, it's really hard to argue with her. She is really, really cute.

And apparently she knows it!

Not cool

When I was younger my father used to torture my sister and I by making us listen to The Everly Brothers in the car. To this day I have an unreasonable hatred of the song "Wake Up Little Susie."

However, I am no better, I suspect (though my choice of music is. Sorry Dad!)

It was just my Curly and I on a 90 minute drive a few weeks ago and in flipping radio stations as we lost the pre-programmed ones, I found some songs here and there that are simply, well, awesome. She was unimpressed with "One" by U2, "Dreams" by the Cranberries and Coolio's "1,2,3,4"

Then, one of the best dance songs ever came on.

"OOOOHHHH!" I said, turning it up. "Curly Girly, this song is awesome!"

After all, who could NOT love Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It", right?

My child, as it turns out.

"Who is this?" she asked. "And what does jiggy mean?"

"Just go with it." I said, dancing along in the driver's seat.

She did not dance along in the back.

In an effort to gain her interest I decided to try to get her to relate to the song.

"Well, you know who Willow Smith is, right?"

"Oh, yeah! 'Whip My Hair'" she says excitedly.

"Right! Well this is her DAD!"

Deafening silence from the backseat.

And with that single sentence, I lost every chance I had of her ever thinking any of my music is cool, ever. Because I am old and so is Willow Smith's dad. Because dads are no cooler than moms, even famous dads of famous kids.

At least my music was good, unlike The Everly Brothers.

Optional labor

"Hey, I'm going to need you guys to do the dishwasher here in a minute."

StinkyMan: Uh, no thanks, Mommy.

Well, at least he was polite.

And he just learned that sometimes even being polite doesn't work.