How to Make Shoe Cupcakes | A Tyrant Tutorial

My daughter loves shoes! She's a walking, talking, two-year old fashonista. If you're anywhere near as addicted to Pinterest as I am you've probably seen the Shoezan pictures floating around. I am completely in love with the idea of hanging out in the garage one Saturday creating one of these for Tiny Tyrant.  It rests on a lazy susan at the bottom and has room enough for Tiny Tyrant's shoes now and in the future! I have the perfect spot tucked away ready for it in the closet!  So needless to say when I was planning my little diva's second birthday celebration I immediately was drawn to the shoe cupcakes idea. The only problem? I'm a working mom, have two demanding children and ended up with about 1 hour to pull together cupcakes. I decided to see if I could pull off Shoe Cupcakes on a budget, for a house full of food allergies.  Here's what I did!

Source: bobthebuilderwilley.blogspot.com via sarah on Pinterest

So needless to say when I was planning my little diva's second birthday celebration I immediately was drawn to the shoe cupcakes idea. The only problem? I'm a working mom, have two demanding children and ended up with about 1 hour to pull together cupcakes. I decided to see if I could pull off Shoe Cupcakes on a budget, for a house full of food allergies.  Here's what I did!

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I used a box mix by Gluten Free Pantry and egg replacer by Energ. The cupcakes were slightly crumbly but not bad for a quick box mix makeup. I let the cool completely.

While they were cooling I had to figure out how to replace the graham cracker shoe base used in the examples I found online. I didn't want to waste time or money buying gluten free graham crackers just for this. I decided to go with a white chocolate form so that I wouldn't have to ice it. I looked and looked through my GIANT bucket of cookie cuttters hoping for a foot but no luck...so instead i grabbed the snowman. I filled him with melted white chocolate candy melts that were allergy safe for my crew. The process went much faster than I thought. I sprayed the inside of the cookie cutter and would put it on wax paper, spoon in melted chocolate, spread it out then quickly lift the cookie cutter up and do it again.  The chocolate held its form very well even without the cutter in place. I popped the whole tray in the fridge to harden for 30 mins to an hour.  When they were hardened I pulled them out and used a vegetable peeler to whittle down the snowman's curves into something more shoe like! :)

Then the fun started. I used food writer markers to write the birthday girl's name on the shoe base. It wasn't as clean as I wanted and next time I'll probably use thinned royal icing to get a better look.  Then I brushed the chocolate molds with edible gold dust to give them some sparkle..

Turn them over and use left over chocolate melts (you might need to re-heat it in the microwave or a double boiler) to glue pretzel rods to the white chocolate shoe base. Spend some time before glueing making sure the pretzel rod is the right size for your cupcake /heel  height. I glued the pretzel rods and let them sit for a few minutes to harden.

Then I inserted the large end of the chocolate mold into the cupcake and got creative with the frosting. Again since I was on a time crunch I used store bought supplies. I used chocolate can easy frost and some pink for highlights. This is where I had the least time, but could have spent all day. My frosting is a litte sloppy since I did it in about 2 minutes. Don't judge me! LOL Next time I want to spend more time on this super fun part!  Hope this helps! The process was actually super easy and a ton of fun.

Childcare...my take on the options!

A few weeks ago a friend asked me for childcare option advice. I stalled, I didn't email or text a response, I really didn't think my somewhat retro opinion would go over very well. However before I get to that let's take a walk down memory lane and see how I arrived at a somewhat less mainstream opinion.

With my two kids we've tried out quite a few options when it comes to childcare. I've juggled my kids and work myself and questioned my brillance when things went nutty. I relied on a flexible stream of relatives, close friends, and the benevolence of my employer to make things work. I spent far to many hours working meetings and phone calls around nap schedules and quiet(er) times of the day.  I loved this scenario in my head, on paper and occasionally in real life. The problem was, as I'm sure anyone who's been around children know, kids aren't trains and you can't make them run on time. I would end up stressed, strategically pushing the mute button and simultaneously working and praying. I took a very long maternity leave with my firstborn and phased back on to work slowly. For the most part this system worked for me until I was back full time. At that point even I, telecommuting extrordinnaire and supermom in training, realized I needed more help.

That's when Sam entered our lives. She was a nanny who I adored, until she left us to go to law school that is. For a year and a half though she was a huge part of our lives and made the sun shine just a little brighter. I could still work at home and hear my son's baby laughs and giggles. I could poke my head around the corner and see him decorating the kitchen in purreed sweet potatoes. Most of all I knew he was well cared for because I was there to watch. The biggest struggle for any new parent is trusting those they've entrusted with their children. I knew I would have to continue working once I had children and quickly realized this was going to be one of the hardest parts of early mommyhood for me. Having someone in the house who I could trust was a great transition for me. Sam not only helped my son learn and grow in the first years, she also helped me trust caretakers with him later on.

When we hired our nanny we knew she was in college and there was a finite amount of time she would be available to us. Attending her graduation luncheon was bittersweet. By then we had grown to know her, we wanted the best for her and I knew she would make a darn fine lawyer one day. It was also the end of an era for us though since I knew we would have to make other arrangements for my son. I reverted to childcare option 1 for a few weeks. Just long enough to realize there was a darn good reason I had hired Sam in the first place.

Thus started the era of the small neighborhood church preschool, which was great but expensive. That was a bit of an adjustment for us. Arriving and picking up at scheduled times, my son had to adjust to other napping conditions and of course the onset of separation anxiety. We also hit the school during a sudden onset of staff turnover which left me very uncomfortable at the beginning. Once things leveled out I was happy with the location, teachers and my son's adjustment, but man the beginning was rough. Time went on and he grew and before I knew it he was in preschool. Same school, so no sudden transition there and I absolutely loved his teacher. When she left to start her own in-home childcare and focus on kinder prep we followed her without a thought.

Our in-home experience was fabulous but owe most of that to knowing my provider before hand in a school setting. I was her classroom parent and spent a lot of time with her one-on-one. She also kept her class size small, only 5 kids were in her kinder prep in-home care. They had spanish, music and art teachers and during the day she taught them core cirriculum for kinder that left my son very well set for his first year. My son also had the chance to learn in a way that we don't teach anymore. My provider's husband did several projects with the kids during the school year building forts in the play area, birdhouses, demonstrating lifeskill lessons that aren't always a part of school teaching. We loved it!

But time continued marching on and soon my son was ready for kindergarten and my daughter's nanny had graduated leaving us in a position of new childcare situations for both kids.

That led us to our first official round with the more mainstream daycare chain solution. I'll be honest, I wasn't happy with it. I know a lot of people have great experience with daycare chains, but we did not. Items went missing, staff turnover was high, too many kids in a class and constant sickness plagued our 9 month stint. At that point we withdrew from the daycare and returned to a smaller, church preschool setting that seems to fit our lifestyle better.

My two cents, think long and hard about what you would want in a school setting and backtrack. I wanted a small charter school, smaller class environment and rigorous academics for my school age child. After trying all the daycare options I found that the small church environment for my daughter was very similar rule and structure wise. It seems to be my comfort zone!

Balance is hard for an overcommitting Telecommuter

I've been struggling a lot with working, traveling and parenting. This year my oldest started kinder and I added volunteering to my plate. Although multitasking seems second nature most of the time, the last few weeks have seen me have not one, not two but several mini meltdowns as I tried to deal with all life was throwing us simultaenously.   Even though my husband doesn't read my blog I'm giving him a shout out on record for stepping up and jumping in wherever I needed him. 

Sometimes I wonder if I would try to balance as much if I worked in the office. Something about working from home and being instantly able to shift from Working Woman to Multitasking Mom on a moments notice makes me more inclined to commit to after school activities and planning lunches. Two years ago when all my work was local that might have worked but now when you throw travel into the mix, I seem to be spending more time planning how the day can run smoothly than actually doing anything. 

Some of this I seem to bring on myself...I need to work on that! :) My son's kinder class is representing Norway in an upcoming International Fest and instead of coloring a few flags and ordering a DVD to show I decided that our class would concentrate on Norway's viking history. 

We have a viking ship that is 10 feet long and 5 feet tall, a 4 foot tall viking cutout, a forest on the walls, a fishing station and some viking food to sample. Those have taken some time to pull together! For the record I'm not the only crazy mom, the class next store has a 7 foot tall castle you can walk in! :)

I need a clone and since that's not possible :) I need to practice what I preach and get back to the basics of work life balance. There are 24 hours in a day, 8 go to sleep, 8 go to work, by the time I pack lunches, make dinner, do house hold chores, factor in travel time for pick ups and drop offs, there are really not that many hours left.  It's time to make them count instead of counting them down!

 

To Volunteer or Not to Volunteer

I have a school age kid now and with that apparently comes great responsibility to volunteer!  (Did you hear that in the same Spiderman voice over that I did?)  When my son switched schools in October with the school year already underway I knew it was going to take me reaching out to get plugged in and involved at his new school. I happened to run into several moms on our first day and walked up to ask what they thought of the school, any advice and it they knew how I could get plugged in. Little did I know I had run into the very group that was at the core of anything and everything that happened at our new school. This group of woman are amazing and I quickly knew that friendships were coming fast and furious! I told them laughingly that I loved to help out and they hadn't seen the last of me.

A few weeks later I attended my first PTO meeting where I heard some complaints voiced about the lack of communication from the school and PTO that was leaving parents with questions but no recourse for answers. I offered to jump in where another parent had left off and create the PTO website. A few meetings and weekends later and it was off and running. Fast forward a few weeks and I had gone from flying under the radar offering advice to front and center jack of all trades volunteer with an honorary position on the board.

Then came my personal Waterloo! International Fest...an amazing event intended to open the eyes and minds of children and teachers at our school and allow them to embrace the diversity and culture that our charter school represents. My planning expertise landed me at logistics coordinator and we were off. Over the last several months we have had conference calls, meetings, craft sessions, shopping trips, commercial production, promotions creation and production, you name it!  It's going to be great...I know it is, but it has brought up a big question for me.

To Volunteer or Not to Volunteer...it's an eternal question.  When you volunteer your efforts benefit your child and a slew of others, the school, the teachers and other parents. Your time is given over benefit the collective, but what does that do on a small-scale to your family.  While I know that volunteering does benefit my kid, does he? For my five-year old the activities I do for him, for his school, his class, his soccer team, I do them all for him, but in his eyes it's all just one more thing (more realistically a dozen more things) Mom has to do before she can play.

I'm adding Volunteering to my list of jobs. First and foremost I'm a Mom, it takes priority over everything else. Second I'm an employee of a great company and work set hours to get that work done. That leaves a little time for job numero tres, Volunteering where I need to split time between soccer team mom, home room mom and school volunteer.  Moving forward I realize that I need to be a bit more structured, allocate some hours and plan my volunteer time instead of agreeing to tasks without taking into account the hours I'm giving over and where they're being taken from.

On that note I bring you this week's

TELECOMMUTING TIP!

Check out www.slimtimer.com if you are trying to juggle the hours you spend on any activity. Whether you freelance, are a telecommuter or just need a handle on those volunteer hours www.slimtimer.com allows you to create tasks that fit your life. When you click on a task it starts a stopwatch. Click again to stop it. Then on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis you can run reports on how many hours you spend on each task. It's a great way to track time and stay on top of whatever schedule you set for yourself.  I've been using it for years and recommend it far and wide when I encounter a situation where someone is trying to get a handle on where their time is spent!

[contact-form subject="Volunteering Post comment feedback" to="tracisyn@gmail.com"] [contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Email" type="email" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Website" type="url" /] [contact-field label="How much time do you spend volunteering? " type="text" /] [contact-field label="Any advice for this volunteering Tyrant or other readers on balancing the motherhood, work, school chaos? We\'d love to hear!" type="textarea" required="true" /] [/contact-form]

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Party

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to host a House Party.  In exchange for some social media and word of mouth reviews Duncan Hines sent over a fabulous party pack for me to try out...and boy did I have fun!  They sent Coupons for free cake mixes, Frosting creation flavor packets and a case of Frosting starters. There was also an apron and some great free frosting coupons for my guests.  What was a a girl to do but throw a party!

Today I am celebrating my seventh anniversary to an amazing man. There are a lot of guys out there that are born ready to take on a family and all the responsibility that comes with them, but the guy I married impressed me even more. He has risen to every challenge our tiny tyrants throw at him and at the back of it all is a solid wall of love for all of us. We are blessed to have him in our lives.  Oh, but I digress, you're here for cake right?

So on the same weekend we had our Anniversary right around the corner and my grandmother's 79th birthday, not to mention I was finally wrapping up some major redecorating throughout our house.  So I sent out some invitations and invited family over for a good time.  To keep things fun, low key and let me enjoy the party I cooked up 4 dozen  mini cupcakes in three different flavors (Chocolate Decadence, French Vanilla and Lemon).  Lemon was dairy free and my tiniest tyrant really enjoyed getting to participate in the party.  I left everything unfrosted and set out a buffet of cupcake goodness!  I also wanted something a little showy in the center so a tiny two tier cake was my nod to the big events of the day.  The top layer was French Vanilla and the bottom Chocolate decadence and the entire thing was frosted with my favorite Frosting Creation flavor-Cherry Vanilla.  Boy was it a hit!  

To keep the party rolling and ensure I wasn't left with dozens of cupcakes I dug out my trusty lazy susan condiment server and let the party guest choose what flavors we were starting out with.  We filled each serving bowl with a sample of Chocolate Marshmallow, Orange Creme, Cotton Candy, White Chocolate Raspberry, Cherry Vanilla and Chocolate Almond. I added spoons and everyone jumped in to frost their cupcakes.   It was a great party and knowing that there was great food helped me relax and enjoy the fun.  

I give Frosting Creations by Duncan Hines two thumbs up! 

Working from home with a sick kid

Is there anything tougher than knowing work won't wait when your child is sick?  As a telecommuting, work from home mom, I can honestly say no.  When I was in an office and stayed home sick I was out of sight out of mind, but now my co-workers see no difference on the days when I'm out either caring for a sick kid or home sick myself.  What ends up happening is we pull double duty trying to please everyone.  How many of you have ended up more exhausted than your sick kid by running back and forth between caring for your kid and checking email.

All I can say is Thank Goodness for the mute button! I've had a sick, cranky kid home all week. Between teething and the horrible allergies she is overtired, wants nothing more than an around the clock supply of juice and Wonder Pets (side note: I want to know how to call that can phone so they come rescue me from this tiny tyrant ;)). I've held two live webinars and more than 7 conference calls this week and although they all went well there were some nerve wracking moments. 

My advice if you are home with a sick kid- don't even open the computer, but if you don't have a choice, plan ahead. I hold off on the WonderPets until right before a meeting, we eat lunch early and get in a good nap so I can power through some pressing work and I work early or late so I can take time when she needs me to just sit and cuddle on the couch.

Organizing a Kindergarten Room

A few parents and I got together and decided to organize our kindergarten teacher's class room. Check out the bookshelves that we picked up for a great price to get the project started. I'm thinking about a peg board in the middle section to organize supplies, and then finishing up the 17 foot long wall with rain gutter bookshelves inspired by Pinterest.