If we’re being honest, the last six days have been like having a newborn baby, without the physical pain.

And then we quickly graduated to it being like having a toddler in the house, although my toddlers never ate wood chips or chewed on coffee tables. That said, it takes constant vigilance. I’m only writing this while he naps now at my feet, like so:

My mental state is good..ish. I don’t do well with the end of the school year. All of those permission slips and field days and end of year breakfasts and goodbyes. It gives me a stomachache, and I mean that sincerely and literally. (ow) I did ok with it as a kid because I had the promise of an eons-long summer vacation to answer to, but as a mama? My growing mama heart has to wrap my head around new teachers and routines, and my kids both have the audacity to have June/July birthdays while the years pass. More years taking me beyond those early moments and days. When all I had to do was hold them.

To my heart. Hold them and hold on. Hold on.

So this puppy – this baby. Our baby. I’m quite attached. Athena and Juniper seem to like him too. Junie and I will always have our computer cuddle time. (seriously – she wants to cuddle only when I’m working) And the puppy isn’t big enough for the dog park yet until he has all his shots. That belongs to Athena and me. Eventually she’ll show him the ropes and he’ll be ready. She will soon see that it means more time at her favorite place. Nothing but more lately. More love and more life.

I figure that out eventually. Every time.

You are so lucky, because you’re about to find out how to make snow cone cupcakes. Pretty cool, right? I’ve seen them in red, white and blue, which is really pretty, but I wanted to make mine more summer-colorful. You can make them any way!

Snow Cone Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

6 prepared cupcakes, unfrosted
1 container white frosting
Sanding Sugars—red, yellow, blue
6 white styrofoam cups, 12 oz
6 plastic spoons
Scissors

Instructions:

1 – First, cut off a little more than half of the top of each cup. The bottoms will be used to hold the cupcakes so make sure the cupcakes fit inside with the cake tops being about even with the cup tops. Don’t put the cupcakes into the cups yet.

2 – Frost each cupcake with a thick layer of frosting and smooth it into a dome shape.

3 – Start with the blue sugar and sprinkle a thick coat on the left third of the frosting so it looks like a blue stripe. Use the yellow sugar next and sprinkle a thick coat on the middle of the cupcake to look like a yellow stripe. Use the red sugar last to sprinkle on a thick coat for a red stripe on the right third of the cupcake. It should resemble a snow cone.

4 – Set each cupcake down into a cup and dip a spoon down into the edge of the cake so it looks like a spoon inside a snow cone.

5 – Enjoy!

Do you like snow cones best, or would you like snow cone cupcakes even more?