Banana rhubarb muffins

I had a large bag of chopped rhubarb in the freezer just begging to be used. I found this recipe and thought I'd give it a try.

I just mixed everything up and hoped for the best!

Hello there!

I don't have a final product picture but these turned out great. I would make these again for sure!

Just had to share this picture of Aubrey; she helped out at the food bank last week with her auntie and cousin. She had a blast! She loves to share and  is so compassionate; it was a great environment for her.

Last night I treated her to her favourite, "sushi" to celebrate her wee college graduation. 

Someone seemed ready for bed...

...night night Liam?

Where does the time go? She's 5 and heading to grade 1 in September. It's amazing how fast life flies by; I need to remember this more....savour the simple moments.

It was so amazing to look to my left and see all my siblings(minus Demelza) there to celebrate! 

I love my siblings; I'm so blessed...I know we're not normal and I love it!

Happy belated birthday Cooper!

So being a mother you definitly learn to multitask! I had cupcakes to make for my nephew Cooper's 1st birthday and Liam wanted to be held; I can do both!

Since I was making my cheesecake filled cupcakes I used a box mix; don't judge! Actually truth be told I have used a homemade batter and these self filled cupcakes turn out so much more uniform when you use a box mix so I bought a red velvet one.

I mixed up 1 brick of cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and a pinch of salt for the cheesecake filling.

I filled the liners with batter a little less then 3/4 the way up and then put one small scoop of cheesecake filling in each liner.

After 22 minutes this is how the cupcakes turned out; perfectly risen and identical!

Now for the decorations; my sister in law Demelza asked me to do a Thomas the train theme. I had blue in my mind so I went ahead and made blue icing totally forgetting I was going to make the base brown; oh well! She had given me a few trains and kit kat chocolate  bars to use as tracks.

My "helper" approved!

I was also incharge of the fruit platter; Aubrey was a big help!

So the morning of the party I decided I'd partially assemble the cupcakes before driving the hour to get to the party. A little risky but I thought it would be fine.

And voila! We saved the extra decorations to be added once we got to the party. Note to self; finish decorating completely before giving your two year old the extra kit kat bars. I had originally put "COOP" because that's his nickname but it looked too much like "CO-OP"; the gas company so thank goodness for aubreys treat basket with a couple of mini kit kats to add the ER... Crisis avoided!

It turned out just how Demelza had hoped.

Cooper was pretty excited to eat sugar; he was kind of buzzing with excitement!

Happy birthday sweet Cooper we love you and are so thankful that your parents stood their ground and prayed you into the world. When I look into those sweet eyes I always remember when Drew and Demelza were advised to terminate the pregnancy at 13 weeks; what a miracle. I could cry just thinking about it. God is still in the business of performing miracles; we just don't always give him the credit...thank you Lord for Cooper!