As you may have heard already, in our family it's tradition that whoever's birthday it is gets to pick anything they want for dessert and I make it for them. So recently we had a birthday dinner for Lindsay, who turned 15 and Jayce, who turned 10. Lindsay knew right away that she wanted a strawberry dessert ice cream cake with real strawberries on top. Easy:Jayce, on the other hand, had to think about it for a while and then later on came up with the fact that he LOVES cinnamon rolls. Ok. Then LaRee (their Mom) had a great idea that I surprise him and make him a sushi cake since he LOVES sushi. So I searched around on the web getting ideas and this is what I came up with:
I frosted twinkies and then dipped them into coconut and shoved little gummy candies in the middle, followed by orange sprinkles as the caviar. I also used Little Debbie swiss rolls and wrapped them in fruit by the foot (I had to paint these with food coloring since they didn't sell the color I needed) and shoved candies in again. I also cut little powdered donuts in half and wrapped fruit by the foot around it with a Swedish fish inside. The wasabi is tinted frosting and the ginger doesn't look that great, but is mango flavored fruit roll ups.

Kaitlyn was a little nervous because Jayce ate all the sushi!

But do not fear, there's enough for everyone!

This is the very first project that I made using Photoshop Elements. Jayce was excited to wear it to school. I basically replaced the head of the skater dude with Jayce's head so it looks like Jayce has sweet skills:


And here was Lindsays gift that she can hang on her wall. She requested a picture with her and Teesha in it so this is what I came up with. The nametag states: Hello, my name is: Stud Muffin. And the little piece of paper he's holding says: Take a number. Click on the pick to view larger:

Click Here to view my friend's site where Apollo was tagged. The pics are ADORABLE! Thanks Monica!!! We had a fabulous time with you guys.

This gave me a better visual of all 44 of our Presidents along with their names. Well done whoever threw this together.

...and multiply your food storage???

Being the "bargain seeker" that I am, I thought I would share with you an amazing tip that a good friend of mine posted on her blog. Thanks Gina!!! Click here to read her post. Make sure you scroll down toward the bottom where you see a picture of groceries and then start reading. Click here to view her post with the grand total. Here's one more post you may be interested in... click here.

So... last night I decided to check it out and see if I, too, could save some green ones. I started out by going to Pinching Your Pennies.

Then I clicked on "State Forums."

Then I scrolled down to, and clicked on "Utah's Screaming Deals."

Then I found where it lists the most recent Albertson's ad and clicked on it.

Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory. It will show you all the items in the add, along with the price and whether there's a coupon you can use and if so, what the final price will be with the coupon. It has some links for you to print out coupons.

Anyway, I had to pass this along to all my friends and family because I CARE!!! lol....

Some of the things I bought was: 2-18pk eggs, 3 gallons milk, 13 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of granola bars, 4 boxes mac n cheese, 4 cans progresso soup, 2-6 packs ramen, 2 lbs pasta, 2 cans olives, 4 cans Hunts spaghetti sauce, 4 cans tomato soup, 2 lbs mayo, ketchup, 5 lbs. ground beef, almost 5 lbs drumsticks, tortillas, 7.5 lbs bananas, 6 lbs apples.

My total bill tonight was $67.63, with coupons tendered being $81.81, and total items purchased: 55. Total Savings: $83.92.

I know I'm sounding a little too excited about this, but I think you will too if you try it out and see how much you save and how little you pay. Yahoo!!!

I'd love to hear your success stories too with this whole coupon thing. I'm all about deals 8-)

Yesterday Apollo grabbed "The Eye Book" by Dr. Seuss, hopped up onto the couch and started reading it. I wasn't really paying attention until I overheard some of the words he was saying. He was repeating, from his memory of us reading it to him, the words to the book. They weren't clear and precise words, but I could decipher what he was saying. It was a proud Mommy moment and makes me grin inside just thinking about it. It's very sad to see my little guy grow up, but it's also very rewarding. One of the rewards is that he likes to help clean. We got him a vacuum for Christmas, which he used yesterday and here he is sweeping our deck a few days ago:He even does dishes! I try to keep the breakables away from him though. We've already had a couple of casualties. As I was letting Apollo do his chores, I also let Muffin (our kitty who's an indoor only kitty) out on our deck. A few minutes later when I turned back around to see where she was, she was outta sight! I called and called and finally she poked her head over the rooftop. She was having a ball walking all over the rooftop and even hopped up onto the chimney. I didn't have my camera yet. Darn! Anyway, I ended up having to get her close enough to yank her down. I think she was too nervous to do it herself.

For all of you out there who are wondering what to make for dinner, this blog is for you. I like to keep track of what I've made for dinner and whether was a hit or miss. When I'm planning out my next weeks menu, I can refer to this and get ideas rather than searching through recipe books and notes. It'll keep me better organized.

To view my new addition, click here, or you can locate it on my Gardner Villa blog in the upper right hand corner under "The Gardner Brain." It's called: Gardner Eats.
Tell me what you think...

A couple of years ago I made my Mom and Steve's Dad a custom calendar, which they loved. For some reason I took the next couple of years off in making them. Before Christmas I got a special request from my Momma for one of my calendars. I wanted to have it ready to send along with her other gift, but I overloaded myself with other projects and couldn't find the time. **That's one thing I'm going to work on this year- being better organized! It's taken me a few weeks now since I have to work along with Apollo's schedule and making meals, laundry, running errands, etc... With that, I have spent many a late-late night working on it. Sometimes my creative juices flow better that way. Anyway, I've decided to make it tradition, so she'll get a new calendar every year and I'll make sure to pencil it in so she gets it before Christmas!

These pictures are from back to front since I didn't want to take the time to change the order. I wish there were a quicker way to move pictures around in blogger. If anyone knows, give me a shout. FYI- Each months layout has pictures of whoever's birthday it is that month (except for November when there are no birthdays, and April, but I threw Pops in there) Click on the picture to view larger: