Cinnamon Cheesecake Muffins

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS!!!!

I semi-homemade the most heavenly dessert Ever, EVER!!

My inspiration came from my favorite local bakery, Rao's. I Love, LoVe, LOVE their strawberry cheesecake muffins. They have these scrumptious little cream cheese "bits" inside of them that make you want to jump up and slap your mama!! (That is for you, Christine!!)

As I was formulating my dinner plan, I began to crave one of those little darlins. However, I also began to crave one of my other faves, Krusteaz Cinnamon Crumb Cake. I thought to myself, I wish Rao's had a cinnamon cream cheese muffin. WAIT A MINUTE!! I could MAKE a dozen cinnamon cream cheese muffins for the price of ONE!!

So I gathered my supplies:
Krusteaz Cinnamon Crumb Cake Mix
1 Egg
2/3 cup of water
Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Cheesecake flavor NOT their new cheesecake filling tub!)
Leftover Christmas Muffin Tin Liners
12 count Muffin tin



I followed the directions for mixing "muffins" on the back of the Krusteaz box.

When it came time for layering, I just added three little "bits" of the cheesecake flavored cream cheese. Here is layer 1:

The layer 2 picture is no where to be found! Trust me though....it looked good! Each muffin cup had two layers for a total of SIX cream cheese "bits."

13 minutes later:

WARM, BUBBLY, CINNAMON CHEESECAKE HEAVEN!!!

1 dozen muffins= $3.00

The Strong Man, Barnum and Bailey ALL gobbled them down!! It was a Red Letter Day for me!! There is NEVER unanimous agreement in this Circus!!

Please try this recipe out for yourselves and let me know what you think!!

I am linking this up to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday!! Please go and check her out!

Gingerbread Choo Choo Train

Look what we did!!!

A Moment of Peace

Someone PuhLEASE tell me what I was thinking!! WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?

I gave the boys CHOCOLATE ice cream cones to keep them quiet so I could check my Google Reader. After about three minutes of stone silence, my "holysmokesitisstrangelyquietwhatcouldtheybedoing" mommy sense went off.

"Boys, you guys aren't being messy are you?" I asked. Barnum replied, "NO, I'm not! Brother kind of is though."

Barnum's statement completely confirmed my panic so I ran into the living room. As I turned the corner, I found this:

WHY was he rubbing his ice cream cone ON HIS TOES????

Bailey, "I SEE, I SEE ME!!" He wanted to see his picture on the camera.

"HA HA HA HA, I durdy," Bailey told me.

What a cute, dirty little PUNK!!!

Lesson learned. As the mother of a 4 and 2 year old, I don't have the privilege of checking my email or Google Reader during waking hours. I also don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.

WHY ON EARTH WOULD I GIVE THEM CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM CONES?? (The answer: because they asked!)

Meet Stellaria Media

Nothing says "I love You" like the gift of fresh flowers!

Imagine my surprise and delight when today, I was the proud recipient of this arrangement! YUP! I was chosen by the four little darlins I was chaperoning today to receive this delightful gift.

Is it the promise of blooms in this arrangement that thrilled my heart so? I think not! It was the bloom in the hearts of the youngins' that gave them to me! The bloom of initiating love, kindness, giving, and selflessness.

Through this gift of love, I was reminded that the context of a situation and the heart motive behind it means everything! A heart motive can make the most beautiful person ugly and the ugliest person the most beautiful.

Because you see my friends, Stellaria Media is nothing more than a common weed. A common weed that was beautiful to me because of the pure loving intent behind it!

Altered Silver Tin Mailboxes

Catching the Love Bug....

While at Target last year, I scored some silver tin mailboxes out of the dollar bin. Fast Forward to a year later when I actually carved out some time to do something with them!!

I used paper from K & Company and The Doodlecharms cartridge on my cricut to personalize them. I have to apologize for the camera phone photos. I cannot find the camera charger anywhere and it is DEAD!! Won't even turn on!

My original plan was to Modge Podge the paper to the tins as I was instructed in my "altered tin" course at our local library! HAHAHAHA. I know you readers out there are thinking what a dork fest but it was F-U-N!! Thankfully, my friend Lori got a hold of me before I started and turned me on to the world's bestest stuff EVAH!!! Terrifically Tacky Tape! It worked like a charm! I just cut the paper to size, terrifically tackied it and VIOLA!!! (yes, I know I wrote VIOLA instead of VOILA!!)

It seems that I am not the only one into these little mailboxes this year!! Check out Organized Chaos and Make and Takes versions!

For those of you I know who are obsessed with pink, word on the bloggy street is that Target has PINK tin mailboxes this year!! If not, follow Kami's advice (from Make and Takes) and spritz on a little spray paint in pink OR the color of your choice!

Now, what to fill them with??

Even though it was a very small transformation, it was still a transformation! Therefore, I linked it up with Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage! Please go and check out all of the talent!! This weekly McLinky party will BLOW your MIND and INSPIRE!!! There is a TON of talent!

Random Questions about Rain

photo courtesy of www.i.pbase.com

Barnum: "Why are the clouds so dark?"

The Strong Man: "Well, they get dark before it rains. It is about to rain."

Barnum: "Daddy? Is there pee in rain?"

The Strong Man: "No. There isn't any pee in rain. It is just water."

Barnum: "Where does rain come from? How do the clouds get rain? When I am in the bathtub and I pull the drain then the water goes out and into the clouds?"

The Strong Man: "Well, yes. It is kinda like that."

Barnum: "OK. Then there IS pee in rain."

2 and a Powdered Donut Tower!!

Mother of the Year here, reporting on Bailey's 2nd Birthday. His Birthday which occurred on December 27th. Boo, I love you more than words! Please forgive your mommy for being late with your special Birthday Blog Post!

Although Bailey got the shaft on his Birthday Blog Post, he DID NOT get the shaft on his birthday!! In fact, he had TWO parties!!

Ahhhhhh....The Bliss of being 2!



Chowing down on a special Donut breakfast courtesy of Grammy and Papa! Bailey LOVES him some donut holes!



Great Granny was kind enough to let us throw down at her house!! 12 AWESOME Adults and 9 KRAZY Kids!! We had Taco Soup, Cheese Quesadillas, and French Fries! Oh the RANDOMNESS of a 2 year old's favorite foods!!

Prepare yourselves for what comes next! If you know me at all, you know I have an irrational fear/phobia/hatred/aversion/loathing/repugnance toward red and blue food dye. PLEASE NOTE! I did state that I know it is IRRATIONAL. However, it still controls a part of my life!

Imagine my horror when I picked up the cake that The Strong Man ordered for this celebration.



"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???!!! You did this to KILL me!!!," I said quietly. ;)

He replied, "I did it because it is fun. You have kids. Kids want to eat fun things. White things aren't fun. It is not about you. Get over it." Oh the wisdom he pours forth.

The Strong Man WAS right. The cake was a hit! Maybe not with Grammy! I mean, just ask her how much fun she had scrubbing red dye out of our clothes all night!! It may have taken her all night but she did it!!

Now on to the second celebration. 9 more AWESOME ADULTS and 10 KRAZY KIDS!

Barnum and Bailey are BESTIES!!

In lieu of the 1st celebration's cake and my husband's declaration that white food isn't fun, I thunk and I thunk about how I would come up with a super fun dessert sans red and blue food dye.

It hit me. A Flash of Genius. POWDERED DONUTS!!!

I gathered some cupcake wrappers, a bag of powdered donuts, some handmade pics I had my assistant make and a cupcake tower.

VIOLA!!!

It was a little unsteady and the burning candle fell off and almost burned my BIL and SIL's house to the ground. However, we are folks who can roll with the punches!!

Now you tell me....is white food fun or unfun??

Happy 2010

Our "New Year's Day" was "Christmas Day" with The Strong Man's side. These 3 Musketeers are getting ready to tear into that pile of presents behind them!


Here, the casual observer would miss the cleverness of these glasses. However, my readers are MUCH more than casual observers....RIGHT??

I adapted this idea from the very clever Make and Takes website. Please go and check them out!