A new day, a new year

The past few weeks have been getting tough. Summer does that, you know? We get a little too cozy with one another, and way too far out of our routines. Needless to say the boys and I are ready for school to begin... Tomorrow!! My brain is extremely single minded. I think it's one way I adapted to having ADHD over the years. I simply can not handle too much on my plate. When we move I try to step up our involvement outside of the home a little bit at a time. This summer was the exception. All of a sudden we are "all in" in many areas. I've joined Weight Watchers, which has been fantastic. It's working! Partly because we also joined a gym. Because the gym is costly I actually go so I feel less guilty ;). The hubs and I have both stepped up our volunteering at church. On top of that I've thrown myself completely into Noonday. I adore the work I get to do with Noonday, but it absorbs almost all of my brain space. All of it. So even though we are going through the motions of buying school supplies, new shoes, haircuts, meet the teacher, I feel a bit caught off guard tonight. First day eve. My big guy starts intermediate school. Lockers, A B or C lunch, changing classes 7 times a day, and orchestra. Um, what? And my middle guy, all of 6 years old starts first grade, which he still says " firthst."  Last year first day came shortly after we moved here. Getting them dressed and our the door was a victory. I love making a special day extra special though so after bedtime tonight the hubs and I took 20 mins to throw together a tablescape to make tomorrow morning feel a bit special. Simple breakfast tacos and chocolate milk will seal the deal. Then it's party time for mommy and Silas. We are so ready for this semester! 

The cake that made me happy.

I am too exhausted from our big big big day to write a full post. BUT I've waited two days to share this with you... Pictures of my first for reals for money cake. Granted it was for a friend. But a five year old little girl can be tricky to please so I was nervous! She was happy :). I was happy. I absolutely love how it turned out.*in an effort to be fair and honest and unfabled. This cake was a 7 hr cake.this is my hobby though an id rather be elbow deep in powdered sugar than anything on this planet. But I understand not everyone feels that way. There is no shame in buying the lovely cakes at h.e.b :)!! They are quite yummy!

Birthday for a 5 year old

Our sweet Balin turns 5 (!) on Friday. We share this week full of birthday with many friends so in the planning stages we realized we needed a unique theme with a less than usual time slot. While pondering themes I came across some Curious George themes and was reminded of one of the boy's favorite little books Curious George Makes Pancakes. In the book George goes to a carnival that raises money for the local childrens hospital. While there he takes over the pancake griddle and becomes the best ever pancake maker. Pancakes. BINGO. A Breakfast pancake party, to which we decided to add pajamas to make it even better. Here are some photos and details in case you want to throw your own!

Invitation: I scanned the book I was using into my computer. Then using Paint shop and Power Point I covered all the words and then added the info for the party in a similar style as the book lettering. As this is art and published it is copyrighted. This was for personal use only and I have no sponsors on this blog. Just FYI. I also purchased 9 copies which you can do here.

 

Food: The pancake theme was the easiest ever and inexpensive. We bought a large bag of pancake mix, grapes, strawberries and bananas at Sams. We also had leftover blueberries from blueberry fest in the freezer. Next to the fruit we served syrup and whipped cream. Cocktail sausages in the crock pot provided some protein and we were set. I served two types of juices, milk, coffee and water. We set up a griddle station in the kitchen and my sweet husband spent the entire party flipping pancakes.

Decor: I wanted to go with the carnival theme as much as I could, and surprisingly there was very little in the way of curious George merchandise available. We used red and white streamers from the dollar store to cover a wall in red and white stripes. I then (thanks to agirlandaboy.com)added a string of blue balloons across the wall. We lined two tables up so they would center Balin against the balloon wall and covered them with dollar store picnic themed plastic covers. I also found yellow paper tickets there which i tore apart and scattered around the table. I set the places with a yellow paper plate and yellow cup turned upside down. A Black piece of construction paper turned it magically into a yellow hat! In the center of the table I placed a banana hanger basket and filled it with bananas. Along the length of the table I placed Curious George Books and voila! Table and background done.

Along another wall I made a string of lights fancy with cupcake wrappers and hung another string of balloons. The way they hung around a white Adirondack chair made a perfect photo corner so we staged the presents there.

Favors: To thank our guests I packaged up easy, sweet little cupcakes in dollar store favor boxes (from the wedding section). These got dropped into a carnival striped cello bag and finished with a George Sticker. The guests (each family) also received a copy of the book Curious George Makes Pancakes That I added a special cover to. I used the same blank template as the invitations but the type read "Here is a book for you to read that says Thank You for celebrating my birthday with me!" This got printed the same size as the book and double sided tape holds it on, but can be removed if the family wants.

All in all we had a great time! The birthday boy was happy, the guests left smiling and there were no major faux pas. We did forget to hang/ decided to hang the little carnival pinata we bought a little too late and some guests already had left, but it was not a very exciting pinata so I forgive myself that one, ha! We are now happily enjoying a quiet afternoon playing with his loot and not having to clean cake crumbs off the floor. I can not wait to show you the cake I made for our friends party this evening! See you later!

Not this cake

But three more! I am super excited that this month has three baking events. My first ever paid for cake, balins birthday and a baby shower. I've been browsing blogs and pinterest for some fresh ideas and was seeing lots of ruffle cakes. Could it be done with marshmallow fondant? Why yes. It may not be as delicate as some I've seen, and thanks to south Texas humidity struggles with flop issues, but I think my practice ombré ruffle cake turned out pretty cute :).

Very special day part 2

AFTER our special morning we brought one of aydens buddies home from church and were joined by two more. We took them to see the new Disney nature movie Chimpanzee. I highly recommend it! It was beautiful. If you love adoption, animals, babies or daddies it is a MUST see. So good. Ayden is now in star wars heaven with his friend an I'm sitting here staring at enough cake to feed 20 people. Sheesh. What a wonderful day! We are so blessed. I am so grateful to see God moving in my children's hearts and providing us such a great church family to grow in.

{ Simply Party theme ideas: Movie Party.Invite a small number of friends, arrange child care for young or difficult siblings, pull out all the stops at the theatre- save money by bringing paper bags to separate a large popcorn into- refill for free at many theatres. Have cake at home before or after. If you do cake before you came kids home after the movie which is an easy transition. We passed out theatre box candy instead of favors. Ours was super casual and we invited our guests in person and on the phone, but a cute invitation would be to make your invitation look like a movie ticket. }

The cake that wasn't.

So a few days ago I told you about aydens request for an earth shaped cake. I tried. Multiple ways. First I tried baking cake in a bowl. Some say that works. I forgot to grease and flour the first bowl and undercooked the second. Oops. Then I tried to make a rice krispie treat bowl but the humidity here melted it so it refused to hold shape- of any kind. Eventually I iced a layer cake and made it pretty. Put a horrible drawn earth map on it and called it good. I did make sour cream cake or the layers and almond buttercream for the icing so it should taste delicious. Aydens response? " at least I have a cake". You can't say he isn't honest, ha! We did not actually get to eat it though because everyone got sick- so into the freezer it went. We will try again next week! Happy b{earth}day Ayden!

Simply Party:: {Linda's wedding shower}

This weekend I had the honor of making cupcakes for a church bridal shower for one of the young ladies. Although I have not had the chance to get to know her very well yet, I have spent some time with her Mama and was thrilled that God has given us enough time with this body of believers to not only be around when the engagement occurred, but to also attend the wedding next month!  I was thrilled to try out some new recipes and ponder marriage as it would take the form in a cupcake. These three creations are the symbols I came up with to share our marriage advice in my favorite form... sugar. I gave the bride a copy of the recipes, a cupcake tin  and a 1M tip and icing bags~ all she will need to recreate these herself~ and all you need to do the same.

Bliss

A simple and sweet cupcake to remind you of the early days in your relationship and the beautiful ceremony and celebration that you started your life together with.

 1 box white cake mix

1 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cup water
2 Tb spoons vegetable oil
 1 Tb vanilla
1 Tb almond extract
1tsp salt

 Pre heat oven to 325. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Slowly add to dry ingredients and mix with a mixer until smooth. Fill cupcake cups ¾ full and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Bumble

A cinnamon spiced vanilla cupcake with a surprising sweet honey injected center. A reminder that sometimes our bumbles in marriage provide the greatest opportunity to sweeten our relationship. Forgive often.

 1 box vanilla cake mix

1 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cup water
2 Tb spoons vegetable oil
1 Tb vanilla
½ Tb cinnamon
½ cup honey

Pre heat oven to 325. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Slowly add to dry ingredients and mix with a mixer until smooth. Fill cupcake cups ¾ full and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  When cool use a medicine dropper for children or a baking injector to inject approx ½ tsp of honey into center of each cupcake. Ice after injecting.

Blessing

These rich and chocolaty cupcakes have a hint of mint to them and are perfect to remember that in our marriage it is most important to seek to honor our spouse, loving or respecting them as needed, and to desire to bless them daily. A blessed marriage is one in which both partners cling to the cross and lay their life down for one another.

 1 box chocolate cake mix

1 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/3  cup water
4 egg whites
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup Andes Mints

 Pre heat oven to 325. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Slowly add to dry ingredients and mix with a mixer until smooth. Fill cupcake cups ¾ full and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Simply Party::{Balin's 4th part 2}

A well planned party will A {Celebrate celebration} B {Organize Celebration}and C {Inspire Celebration}. All of this to bring Joy. Joy and thakfulness for what is being celebrated and Who gave us celebration in th first place. Our precious Balin, who is a gift from a good and knowing God, requested crabs and pirates for his 4th birthday celebration. I obliged. I went a little crazy at the dollar store, but they had a huge selection of tiki and pirate themed items. I wanted every child to feel fully outfitted as a pirate so I got hats, compasses, maps, hooks and of course eye masks. I then planned activities based around the idea of being pirates. Lets try this in a list...

Pirate Party Activities are in red

Commissioning : have a treasure chest set up with all the pirate fare- hats, eye patches, maps, hooks ect. as your guests arrive. This takes the place of loot bags at the end of the party, as your pirates gather their loot along the way. For an additional activity your pirates can make their own hooks by poking holes in the bottom of a black plastic or paper party cup and then inserting a gold or silver pipe cleaner through with the inside end balled up so it stays put.


Ayden's pirate party 2006-wasn't he so cute?

The dollar store had hooks this time so we went with that. I made some brown burlap loot bags to carry their stuff in and finished off their look- for those willing- with hypoallergenic brown eyeliner "mustaches."

Kate- the pirate Princess



Balin and his friend Jacob



Pin the Treasure on the Map: Found at the dollar store, a stick on the wall version of pin the tail on the donkey. All of the kids had fun with this one,even the big ones! We used a scarf to blindfold the big kids rather than the paper mask it came with.

Treasure in the sand: Again, a repeat from Ayden's party, we buried treasure in the sandbox and the kids had to use shovels and sifters to find it. tip: keep a list of what you buried :-).

Rescue the Ducks: I consider this game a FAIL. We filled a splash pool with water and originally planned to float rubber duckies.  The set up was that a crab shaped beach ball was keeping the duckies prisoner and the kids had to use scoops to get the duckies to float to them and be rescued. Some duckies would have gold coins attached under them. Hot glue doesnt stick to rubber duckies and oriental trading company duckies dont float upright. We also had the uncomfortable moment when the birthday pirate stripped down to his skivvy's and jumped into the pool. oops.

Pinata. Easy time taker because it can go as long as you let it.. just make sure little guests and birthday boys get to go before big kids. you know.. to avoid tantrums. And chocolate on a hot day is a bad idea. but I knew that and didnt send toddlers to gather melted chocolate bits out of my grass. right.

We tied our games together with a bigger story. The crew of pirates would earn a clue with each game that would ultimately direct them to the treasure (the birthday presents in a treasure chest). I printed pictures from the Graphics Fairy and wrote the clues out.. they were something like this:

The treasure you seek grows warm in the sun...

Beyond Grassy plains your treasure remains...

What you seek lies under the great Oak...

To find the treasre of our tale, look behind the wishing well!

The clues were intended to be easy for my 4 year old and younger pirates. We have one giant oak tree in the backyard and an ugly wishing well thing (joys of renting). After the fourth game they came in and were fed provisions. While they ate my husband snuck the treasure chest out back and put it where they could find it. After they had their snack they found it and then came in for cake. While they ate cake he opened gifts.

There was a little time for playing after that, but most guests were ready to leave by then. All in all it was a fun party! It lasted right at 2 hours which I feel is perfectly appropriate for a four year old's backyard party.

Simply Party:: {Balin's 4th part 1}

Four years and 1 day ago I was pregnant with my second baby. I went in for a Dr visit and got the best birthday present of my life. She sent me into the hospital! We stopped and had icecream with Ayden to celebrate first, and then took him to a friends house where he spent the night. The next afternoon I was holding my sweet babe.   This weekend was a BLAST. We celebrated Balin with a so- much -fun pirate party. (Ahoy!) Here are a few details in case you want to throw your own!

There is nothing I enjoy more than a planned party. Kids tend not to get  bored. Your house stays clean (at least the parts you want to keep clean) and everyone has a better chance of going home happy :-). Pirate themes are super easy for summer birthdays, and we had good fortune by finding tons of favors and props at the dollar store!
 For today I'll give you just the food.

First:the cake. The cake is always the center of parties I throw. I'm learning new methods all the time, and really think any one of you could actually make a better cake than me.... I'm just crazy enough to do it! This was a three day cake. The first day I baked the cake and dirty iced it. I used chocolate cake mix (duncan hines) nd then made my own banana cake mix for the "lid".. recipe will come in another post. The icing was banana butter cream, which I tinted yellow for my four year olds sake. The second day I made marshmallow fondant and then layered four sheets of cake for the base. The top sheet got a square in the middle cut out to make a place to store all the treasure. The treasure is, of course, the best part! We used Hershey's pot of gold chocolates and chocolate coins my husband bought while in the big city at a World Market store. I threw in some unwrapped ring pops and clear jewel toned jelly belly's for fun. Balin wanted crabs, so while I was making the red fondant for the "leather" strap I gave Ayden a ball and he made crabs. Request completed. As far as snacks go I had the party starting at 10:00 am. I knew parents might want kiddos to have something on their tummys before cake so we made fish shaped pb&js ham and cheese triangles and lots of fruit. I served chicken salad premade at the H.E.B (the rotisserie one, so good) on croissant "shells" for the grownups. Pinterest showed me a pirate watermelon fruit bowl. Goldfish finished us off!

For my basic table settings I used mostly items I already had. Under the cake I used a tan sheet and layered it with brown (non sparkly) tulle. I tore some holes in the tulle to look like netting. I had the conch shell laying around and then surrounded the cake with ground up Graham cracker to look like sand. On the snack table I just threw down a strip of burlap, used serving trays from the dollar store, set out the pinata when we were done and called it complete!