Relay For Life 2014

Our Relay was at the end of June this year and while I'm relieved the festivities are over (due to the amount of preparation and work involved) I'm also sad because I thoroughly enjoy it.

We had some new team members this year so I spent the whole of one evening painting more team shirts using the freezer paper stencil method.  I think I ended up finishing about 15 shirts including a onesie for our youngest relayer.

We stepped it up this year with games at our campsite.  One of them was the fishbowl game.  A classic carnival game we all love to play but our parents dread because it comes with the possibility of owning a goldfish.  We didn't want to buy a bunch of goldfish, nor do we as parents want to put that on other parents so the solution was Swedish Fish and Goldfish crackers for our younger relayers as prizes.

 

I created a cute little tag for each of the prize baggies that said "Thank you for supporting Betty's Hope" so people would know where they won their prize and who we were.  I created them in Picmonkey and they were super easy and I think, a great little added touch.

Here are the games we had at our campsite, the fishbowl game and the Cancer Sucks game which was like a lollipop tree but in a flower pot instead.  We had a small bucket of trinkets if you picked a lollipop with a black tip you won a prize.  If you picked one without you still got to keep your lollipop.

We also had homemade cookies and a fleece blanket raffle.  For a few of the team members I busted out the good ol' Cricut and made team cups.  I purchased the clear tumblers from the Dollar Tree and used my breast cancer awareness cartridge to create the image and the calligraphy cartridge for the words.

We bought the trifold boards at the Dollar Tree and I used my cricut to cut out the letters.  We were really psyched with how good they looked.  Not to mention super easy to read as you walked by our campsite.

We like to take care of our overnight and early morning walkers so I whipped up some breakfast burritos filled with egg, sausage, green pepper and cheese.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap then in foil and around 3 am they go into the crockpot on warm and are hot and ready for everyone within an hour or so.

This is the second year I've made these and everyone really loves them.  They are easy to walk and eat at the same time which is perfect for any relayer.

We are already coming up with ideas for next year's relay and I'm excited at the possibility of new team members, and more money raised.  This year we have almost hit our goal of $1500.  Last year we raised just over $1000 and the year before (our first year) we raised $500.  We are steadily increasing and that's exciting for us.

If you want information on a Relay for Life event near you go to relayforlife.org for more information.

Red Velvet Cupcakes-Cupcakes for a Cure

The official beginning of the Relay for Life year started September 1st, and I had such good intentions to send cupcakes to work with my mom once a month starting then.  However, as always September through December is a crazy busy time of year with the holidays and Grant's birthday and I never ended up getting around to it. 
So I figured I only have 4 months from now until the end of the school year to raise money with cupcakes and I better get started.  Naturally with Valentine's Day this week I thought red velvet would be the perfect flavor, plus I have never made red velvet and have been wanting to for awhile now.

I used the red velvet recipe from the girls of Georgetown Cupcakes except I didn't use red food coloring, I used the Red Velvet Emulsion I also used for the Red Velvet cut out cookies.  Since the recipe was from Georgetown Cupcakes I thought I would be blown away with a really great flavor but I have to say I was a little disappointed.  There wasn't enough of a chocolate flavor to satisfy me.  The recipe calls for 2 1/2T cocoa and I have to say next time I will be using 1/4c to add more flavor.  Most of the recipes from Katherine and Sophie say they will make 12 cupcakes and I always somehow end up with 18, I thought this would be the same for their red velvet recipe so I only added 1 1/2T red velvet emulsion.  This recipe ended up making 24 cupcakes so I really should have added 2T of the emulsion and I plan to next time I make them.

All this being said, my husband said they tasted good and they were really moist right out of the oven.  They rose perfectly and other than wanting a little deeper red color and a little extra cocoa flavor they seemed perfect.

Relay for Life 2013

Our Relay for Life event was this past weekend and we had a great time but, lessoned learned, I have to start conditioning before hand next year.  I was so unbelievably sore afterward.  The blister on my foot is proof.  I walk over 12 miles total and have the lapbeads to prove it:

The lap beads was an onsite fundraiser one of the teams did.  You paid $1, got a necklace and a bead and each lap you made you got another bead to add to it.  Each lap was 1/4mile.  So 4 laps = 1 mile.  We had an amazing team with 2 members walking over 20 miles!!!

That's freakin amazing in my book.

My Mom even walked 14 miles.  We were there the full 18 hours the event lasted and I was got all of 1 1/2 hrs of sleep, my mom was the only one who lasted the entire night with no sleep whatsoever. 

We were also one of the few teams who had a walker on the track every minute of the race, so I'm super proud of our team and accomplishments this year.

 

We doubled what we raised last year and won Rookie of the Year this year!

 

I guess this means we have to step up our game for next year haha.

 

I made a banner for our campsite:

It was nothing spectacular but it went well with our pink lights and other pink ribbon decor.  My mom made pink ribbon butter cookies and put them out for donation.  There were 2 in a package and we raised over $20.  Next year we hope to do a couple different on site fundraisers and we are hoping to double our money every year!

 

I had visions of cute pictures of me and Grant in our team shirts I put so much work into.  Here is how that turned out:

Me trying to physically turn his face toward the camera, him laughing hysterically because he knows he's driving me crazy, haha.

It was a great time and I'm so proud of what we accomplished this year and so proud of our team as a whole.

 

Great job Betty's Hope!!!!

 

Now only 11 months until our next Relay....

 

 

Banana Split Cupcakes

I made some banana split cupcakes for my Mom to take to work to help raise money for our Relay for Life team.

(seems like all I'm getting recently is ugly cell phone pics, but at 6 am I have no desire 2 whip out the good camera)

I altered the recipe a little since I've had some trouble with the tops of my cakes being a little sticky after they've cooled.  They turned out super cute and I was really pleased with the taste, texture, and presentation.

I used the Pumpkin Spice recipe in the book Cupcake Diaries except I substituted the pumpkin for about 3 mashed bananas, omitted the spices, added vanilla, and decreased the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups.  To top them I did a regular old vanilla buttercream, chocolate drizzle, peanuts, and a cherry.  They were so tasty and everyone loved them.