In a Nutshell: Mono Scare and Baptism

Remember how I said we have been a bunch of germ infested sickies around here?

Well Thursday it all got super fun...did you catch the sarcasm?

Thursday Oldest woke up looking like a hot mess. He was shaky. He was feverish. He was super weak. Truth be told he just looked awful. I decided he needed to go to the drs because he has had pneumonia before and figured that is what it could be.

Long story short, a blood test, a strep test, and a chest x-ray later I got a call at home that the verdict was in. Oldest had Mono.

Say what? Mono??? Really? I am pretty sure my 8 year-old hasn't been macking on the school yard elementary aged ladies. Then as the nurse started listing all the to-do's of containment and contagion concerning Mono, I started freaking out more. Who knew how long it would last? It is very contagious with close contact. They couldn't tell me just how long it would be contagious. He couldn't do any contact activities...um hello he is an 8 year-old boy. 

Then it really set in as I reflected on the fact that I had some house guests already here and some within hours to a day of leaving to come...all coming to town for OLDEST and his upcoming baptism for our church. 

This is when my insides screamed and I was tempted to curl into the fetal position...oh wait I can't do that because I have a ginormous baby in my belly that would get in the way of said fetal position.

Then I freaked out again...oh yeah I am 37 weeks preggars. How is Mono going to effect all that??!?

UGH.

Planning started on how to contain, manage, and go about our Mono diagnosis.

Fast forward to Friday morning. Middle wakes up with the SAME symptoms. SUPER.

Fast forward again....Take him to doctors. Find out that Oldest's strep test from the day before actually was positive. Dr informs me Oldest's mono diagnosis was probably a false positive. She doesn't test Middle for Mono just strep. Orders antibiotics for both boys. Pharmacy workers at The Mart know me by name...literally, I am not making that up. Dr said if I got three doses of antibiotics into Oldest and he felt up for it he could still be baptized.

Our family still all came, lovingly waiting to see if Oldest would be better.

Saturday came and besides being grumpy he couldn't stay in bed to read Calvin and Hobbes, Oldest was healthy enough.

All said and done, it was a wonderful day. I was so happy to be there as a family and to have all the people who love Oldest be there to support him (besides Jack who stayed home with a super neighbor).

I have more photos and things to share about his special day, but for now I just want to share some photos. After we all rest up and recover from our adventures in illness I will share the rest of the day.

Have a great Sunday!!!

A Pinteresting Saturday: Harry Potter Banner

This week for A Pinteresting Saturday (yes I know I am late today but we had a super fun and exciting family day I will share with you later) I am sharing my take on this Harry Potter birthday party banner.

I do believe this idea was the very first thing I pinned on my Harry Potter pinterest board. This is what snowballed my whole party idea board.

 

original pin 

Ironically this was one of the last projects I got done before the party. I had debated and debated about actually buying an old book like in the original pin. I actually debated so long I ran out of time to go to a used book store to find a used book.

Then BAM my brain turned on and I came up with a brilliant alternative. I took one of our Harry Potter books and scanned some of the chapter pages. Then I printed them off and cut them out. I used my Silhouette and cut out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" using Harry Potter font. Then I glued a letter to each page and strung it up with black yarn.

The banner was the perfect way to say Happy Birthday in a Harry Potter way.

How has your pinning been going? Gotta love Pinterest.

Harry Potter Cauldron Cakes

Instead of a cake for Oldest's Harry Potter party, I decided to make these Cauldron Cakes made famous at Honeyduke's (you know the sweets store that the Hogwart students take trips to).

There were a couple of recipes out there. I stumbled on the one I used when I was looking for other Harry Potter recipes. I thought they were the cutest ones I had seen for sure. They also sounded the yummiest.

So they immediately went on my list.

I simplified the recipe by using a cake mix for the cupcakes instead of making them from scratch. They were still completely delightful.

PLUS they were AH-dorable.

So if you have a Harry Potter party in your future, or you just want to make some yummy cupcakes, here is a recipe for you.

Harry Potter Cauldron Cakes
adapted from The Pastry Affair

12 devils food cupcakes made from mix
1 recipe of Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)
1 recipe of Marshmallow Filling (recipe follows)
about 1/2 cup chocolate chips
edible glitter or glitter cake gel *optional


Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons butter

In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. The glaze will be relatively thick. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes before use. If chocolate thickens too much, return to heat and stir until smooth and melted once more.

Marshmallow Filling

1 cup Marshmallow Fluff (or prepared marshmallow cream)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup powdered
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, beat together the marshmallow fluff, shortening, sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Assemble Cauldron Cupcakes

Using a sharp knife, cut out a cavity in the bottom of the cupcake. That is right, the bottom, flip the sucker over. Run the knife in a circular motion around the cupcake, while always pointing the knife towards the center (this will make the cavity cone shaped).

Now dip the top of the cupcake into the chocolate glaze. Flip the cupcakes right side up and let rest until the chocolate sets, about 30 minutes. You can speed up the process by placing them in the refrigerator.

To make the cauldron feet on the bottom of the cauldron (the top of the cupcake), take 3 chocolate chips and form a small triangle, placing each chocolate chip roughly an inch from the others. Place the top of a cupcake onto the chocolate chips and push down ever so slightly so the chocolate chips will stick into the chocolate glaze. Repeat for the rest of the cupcakes.

Place remaining chocolate glaze into a piping bag and pipe a chocolate rim around the edge of the opening to the cauldron. If you do not have a piping bag, you can put the chocolate in a baggie and cut the tip. If chocolate is too thick to pipe, heat chocolate glaze up until warm. If chocolate glaze is too runny to pipe, wait a few minutes until the glaze thickens to a pipe-able consistency. 

Fill a pastry bag (or again another baggie) with marshmallow filling and pipe into the cavity of the cupcakes. Garnish the top with edible gold glitter.

To make cauldron handle, melt the remaining chocolate chips, stir until smooth, and place into a pastry bag...or again a baggie with a cut tip. On a non-stick mat or wax paper, pipe out the handles (feel free to use any pattern you'd like). It is not a bad idea to measure the cupcakes with a ruler to determine how wide you need to make the handles before piping. Let the chocolate set until hardened, approximately 30 minutes, before very carefully peeling off of the non-stick surface and placing into the top of each cupcake.

Then display your lovely Cauldron Cakes and enjoy a treat at Honeyduke's.

Come back and see how to make your own Firebolt broomstick.

Have a marvelous day!

Harry Potter Spell and Creature Books Tutorial

Link to the SPELL BOOK download is FINALLY fixed!

Print away!!!

Oldest's Harry Potter party required of course some actual school books. I got the idea for the spell book originally from A Lemon Squeezy Home. I loved the idea of making a book of spells. The spell pages were formatted to go into a simple photo book. I did  not want to spend that much per party guest so I thought up a way to make them look like leather bound books.

I also decided to add in a Mythical Creature Book...which yes I now realize should have been Magical Creatures, but by the time my mistake was brought to my attention the suckers were already all printed out and assembled. The kids didn't even notice, so whew! I made this book to go with a Creature hunt. We used our books to review all the creatures and then they had to go around the house and "catch" them. If they were dangerous the kids had to cast a spell yelling "Stupify" in order safely gather them.

So when all was said and done each guest had two different school books to use while at Hogwarts.

I did a quick little how-to on how I assembled these guys.

Harry Potter Spell and Creature Books


What you will need:

felt cut into 10"x7" rectangles, enough pieces for how many books
felt cut into 1"x10" strips for book ribbons
pages formatted for book, click below to get book pages
    -SPELL PAGES
    -CREATURE PAGES
thread

First cut out felt pieces. I chose different colors for each different book.

Then cut out book ribbons.

Print off pages for both books and make sure they are in the right order.

Place the ribbon on the inside of the felt.

Make sure they will be hidden by the pages.

Remove pages and then sew in the ribbon. This is how it will look on the inside.

This is how it will look on the outside.

Next place the pages back over the ribbon and sew the pages to the felt "binding" of the "book".

The pages will be secure.

Place the ribbon in the book.

Fold the books in half and press closed so they they stay closed.

Then you have all of your school books.

Have wand and you are ready to open your spell book and cast some spells. The favorite spell around here was "Stupify" and "Bombardo".

The Mythical Creature Book helped prepare the guests to go on a Creature hunt. Once they reviewed their book they were able to gather all the creatures.

The books were one of the highlights of the party. My boys still have theirs and for days after the party Middle was "blowing up" everything by yelling, "Bombardo".

It was a fun project with great results!

Food Contributor: Blueberry Greek Yogurt Donuts

Head over to Somewhat Simple today and check out this yummy recipe for Old-fashioned Homemade donuts with a twist. They are made with Blueberry Greek Yogurt. Yum!!!

Also come on back today and check out another Harry Potter Party post.