On Today's Episode of Cupcakes and Quarentine...

One of the things I have loved while working from home is following all the Disney Mama's on the Gram and looking for all the Pinterest worthy activities that my little's and I can do together. This sounds super sarcastic, but that statement (for once) is 100% truthful.

Is this 'Gram worthy enough? Pay no mind that I played around with lighting until my gray blended in with it and pay not attention to my chipped toes or already floured apron...that apron though huh?! Too bad shortly after this purchase, Pottermore decided to reinvent their website and make individuals retake the test and what did I end up being after a year of Gryffindor...Hufflepuff...:sigh:: At least I am in the company of my BIL, but I am honestly digressing and this will end up being a tirade...moving on...

Honestly, in the beginning it is difficult. You are looking at all these perfect pictures that are beautifully crafted and skillfully put together and all I could think is that I have to take a hundred "motion pictures" just to get EV to look at the camera, let alone capture the moment of everything we are doing and honestly our projects never seemed to come off easy enough to photograph or I forget to take pictures of the "steps". How do you ladies do it?!

It took the Christmas Cookie debacle of 2019 for me to remember that it is not about the success of it as much as the moment that is created around it. One blog in particular, (if you are hungry as you are reading this, avoid it), is the DisneyFoodBlog. I don't really think I need to explain what this blog focuses on. Not only is there a bevy of interesting food and drink that you can get in the park and where you can get it, but they include all the special event food and drinks as well. However, during the #coronaviruschronicles, my favorite part has been the recipes that duplicate some of the most popular Disney treats. Even more exciting was finding out that many of the ingredients were already in our pantry. Some of the ingredients I admit although not necessary I would add to our grocery list, so if Hubs stumbled across it, it could just be scooped up since he was already there. I cannot tell you how many eye roll emoji's I have received

Hubs: Really, refrigerated pizza crust?

Me: Duh, how do you expect me to make Mickey shaped pretzels the EASY way?!

Hubs: Cue eye roll emojii...but the pizza crust was in the bag....

One suggestion for a fun night that the blog suggested was making Mickey Beignets (if you know me you know my deep intense love for Nola and everything about it) and watching Princess and the Frog (another fan favorite of mine and EV's). This gave us the awesome idea of weekends being about making Disney themed food and finding a movie to match the theme of our meal. Along with DisneyFoodBlog, I also suggest staying on top of the official Disney Parks Blog or following their Instagram. There are all kinds of activities for kids of all ages, such as downloadable coloring pages, tutorials on drawing characters, watching Disney fireworks and the parades and all the trending titles that are on Disney+ (a complete and utter lifesaver during this pandemic, both for my sanity and the kids).

As mentioned, during Christmas, I learned that 2.5 year olds have the attention span of a tse-tse fly and will not sit still for the entire cookie making process know matter how magical you make it or how exasperated you get when you don't understand why they don't want to be there for the entire process of putting the ingredients together, kneading the dough, spreading the flour on the island, cutting out all the dough in cute christmasy shapes, putting them on the baking sheet and then in the oven. Writing it all out right now was kinda exhausting. After that fail, I bought all the ready to throw in the oven Star Wars cookies (she is a huge Star Wars fan) and let her put them on the sheet to be put in the oven. This to her was the real excitement.

As much as this Type A Mama is a planner, I did not plan for what a hot commodity cake mix and frosting was going to be (if you found out what I paid for a pack of 4 on Amazon, you would die). In hindsight, every kid in America is home and every parent in America is scrambling to find entertaining things to do with their kids and I should have known better...but here we are. While I wait for my cakemix that better be dripping in diamond dust, I did have some Christmas Funfetti Cake Mix and Peppermint Frosting in the pantry. Ummm I thought the Peppermint was going to be overkill, but now all I want to know is how I lived without it my entire life. EV is a big fan of the cupcake, so making cupcakes was definitely on top of my bonding list. Plus, cupcakes are a nice win for the parentals too...especially with wine...when the kiddos are asleep.

Maybe instead of ogling at the amazing family cooking pictures that mama bloggers are putting up, I should have actually read their instructions on having all the ingredients ready to go for the littles. This means having everything in their respective measuring cups, and everything needed for mixing; including the bowls and baking sheets. I also made sure that the oven was already preheated, cupcake pans were greased and that anything that EV would need assistance with was immediately out of her reach until it was time (I have an old school glass measuring cup and it was full of water, so although not lethal, would shatter into a million pieces if dropped and would scare the jeebus out of her).

The recipe suggested opting out of the oil and using applesauce instead and it was a great choice. It made the cupcakes extremely moist and we were able to use the unsweetened applesauce that we had in our pantry forevs (yes, it was still good). EV never seemed to take to applesauce so it felt good to use it towards something she would consume...us too for that matter. Having everything on the ready and EV being able to participate in everything from the pouring in of the liquids, cracking the eggs and stirring made for a super fun activity and was just enough time to keep her interest and then get to enjoy the fruits of her labor when they were done. The fruits of my labor included the cupcakes and the wine pictured above. Plus, it was a good trial run for any other baking endeavors we will do while self-isolating and the importance of prep, prep, prep. Thanks funfetti gods for making my three year olds night and for keeping her attention span for the length of half of a Mickey and the Roadster Racers episode (this is how I determine time now). Not many things can do that, so hats of too you!

Behold the blog-worthy pictures that only took about 100 pictures and 50 motion pictures to get. I wouldn't have traded this moment for anything, it took all of ten minutes, but I had the best time sharing the moment with EV and EV had the very best time mixing and easting as can be seen below. To get these magical memories basically involved me thrusting my phone into Hubs hand giving him a death glare and telling him just to click away till we were done. I then gave my most winning smile like I just didn't threaten his life and he took the pictures like the good Instagram Husband he never wanted to be and would like to avoid like the plague (should I be making this reference when we are in a pandemic).

And of course the best part, for every child...and adult...the tasting of the batter...which I may have let her gooooo a smidge overboard with...but...when in self-isolation...