Maggie's Tea Party

My little Maggie is a lover of beauty. She can find beauty in most anything, and gushes over the simplest things, saying "that's so pretty" or "that's so nice". So for her birthday party, the emphasis was on beauty. She wanted a dress-up party, so I set out a stack of fancy hats and a box of dress-ups.
On the menu was raspberry tea, lemonade, and an assortment of treats, including popcorn and pretzels. I made lemon bars, and this recipe was fantastic. So, so good. For the birthday cake, I made cake cones and used twinkie filling for the icing.

I made paper pom-poms; fun, easy, and they were so pretty.

Everything turned out lovely, and Maggie was pleased.

Superhero Birthday Party

There is no shortage of superhero party ideas out there, but I thought I'd share our fun little celebration we had for Jack. Our kids love to play superheroes. It's a good party theme for our little circle of friends, because it works for boys and girls. I told the moms that my kids would be dressing up, so they could plan for their little ones. I also had some extra stuff in case someone came unprepared.

We kind of went with a "Superhero Training Camp" thing. Our first activity was "What is your Superhero Name?". My husband made these name tags, and he wrote everyone's name tag for them. This was a hoot! We all had to call the kids by their names all evening. One of my favorites was "Metal Man". Metal Man's costume was made out of foil.

Then we had an obstacle course. The object was to get past the bad guy and save the baby in the play house. The bad guy was played by one of the dads, who was wearing a scary mask and waving a weapon. Again, more hilarity.

Next was a relay race. My husband explained to the kids that as a superhero, you would have to be able to change out of your normal clothes into your superhero clothes quickly. We lined the kids up in two lines and each line had a pile of clothes. The kids had to race to put on a coat, hat, and tie and race around a tree and back. So fun!

I had a final game of "Rid the City of the Kryptonite". I spray-painted a few rocks fluorescent yellow, and the plan was to hide them around the yard and have the kids look for them. We didn't get to this one, but I think it would have been a hit.

We feasted on wings, nachos, pepperoni rolls, grapes, carrots, and this favorite of Jack's. My mom made her beautiful cupcakes, and my husband and I made the toppers for them. I also passed out store-bought superhero popsicles instead of ice cream.

This was really a good time. I don't know what I'll do when all of my kids outgrow these parties; I really enjoy having them!

Reflections on the Birth of a Boy

My oldest son turned six today...six! I simply can't believe it. When I was pregnant with him, having had a girl first, I couldn't imagine what loving a boy would be like. I'll never forget getting to know him at the hospital during the hours after he was born. Nursing him in the dark while my husband slept in the chair next to me, it happened. I fell in love. I will never forget what he looked like. He was tiny, and his little head popped out of the tightly-wrapped white hospital blanket. That little head was covered in perfectly spiked black hair. I can remember just staring at him; he was just beautiful.

Today we celebrated his birth with a breakfast of cinnamon rolls he requested, a picnic lunch at the park, and dinner out with some friends. There were gifts, but this one had to wait. I'll be finishing it up tomorrow.

I'm so very thankful for this sweet, adventurous boy. His zest for life is inspiring and addictive. What a gift he is!

Cooking Party for Jack

I can't believe that my oldest son is 5 years old now. He is such a delight, joyful and sweet. He has always loved to help me in the kitchen and while it may not be so convenient, I usually find him a little job to do while I'm cooking. It was for that reason we had a cooking party for him. We kept the guest list small and had the party at my mom's restaurant. Each child got to make their own pizza! I laid out a few yummy ingredients for topping the pizzas and my mom made delicious dough. We rolled out a small round of dough and placed each one on parchment paper where we wrote each child's name. After the kids were done decorating their pizzas the whole thing, parchment paper and all, went into the big commercial ovens to bake. Having the party at a restaurant made the whole thing very easy!



We had lots of mommies to oversee the fun. My friends are great to fill in the gaps of what I may have forgotten; one friend brought out some bottles of hand sanitizer during the pizza making.



While the pizzas were baking, the kids made their own fruit kabobs. Be warned that you're dealing with sharp sticks here. Little brothers and sisters did not join in on this and we had lots of moms to help out!



After everyone finished, the kids decorated cupcakes. For favors, I made some really easy aprons which were worn during the festivities. I just bought a big bag of white hand towels from Sam's, folded over the corners on the top and seamed down to make a slot for a ribbon. The ribbon goes around the child's neck then ties behind their back. Super easy and cheap! A week before the party I asked the moms of the party guests for favorite recipes of their kids. My husband printed up little cookbooks for all the kids to take home. This was a big hit! I found lots of ideas here and here.
It was a good time! My big 5 year old enjoyed it and so did I!

The Birthday Gift and My Last Chance

Just wanted to share what my husband made me for my birthday. It's called a cold frame. You start your seeds in small containers and keep them in here while it's still cold outside.



It did it's job well. All the little plants look great and were planted in their permanent spot in the garden this weekend. Gardening has never been my domestic strong point, but I'm giving it another shot! I was a little surprised that he made this for me, knowing I have a reputation for stinking at gardening. He told me this weekend that if the garden didn't do well, that was it-this was our last chance. Shoot. The pressure's on. I'm not prepared for this to work this time. I haven't done enough research. I don't know which plants need full sun. But, if I see any critters out there eating the plants, I'm going to sit in a tree with a BB gun.

Birthdays

This is birthday month in our house. I turned the big 3-0 on Friday and my husband and son also have birthdays this weekend. Once that's over, my little girl will be next in April. Which means lots and lots of cake. I was just beginning to make some progress getting back into shape after baby then the holidays. I cannot resist the cake, especially when it is my mom's. My husband surprised me Friday with a little party. It was a special evening that took place here.



This dear friend gave me all I needed to sew a bag from a great book, Handmade Home. I tried everything possible to link to the book, but had no success. Normally I would blame that on my computer, but it's probably my fault. Just google it, it's great. I had been wanting to make it but had been putting it off. Gina cut everything for me so all I had to do was sew. She's a gem, I tell 'ya. Here's the finished product. Looks great, I think.



Hubby's making me a special gift that is nearly complete. It's pretty impressive. Hopefully some pics will come soon. It's a good opportunity to brag on him a bit.
More birthday fun coming!

Yee-haw! A cowgirl party

We really enjoyed our daughter's birthday party this year. She loves horses and wanted a cowgirl themed party. This was really fun for a guest list that included both boys and girls. I've always taken more of a laid back approach to parties, focusing more on good food and the setting. However, as the kids get older I've found that parties need more structure to keep things from getting crazy. This year I wanted to have more games for the kids and less time in the food so I could just enjoy watching my little girl having fun.


This little idea came from Better Homes and Gardens. It's a great easy decoration for any party. I bought two 8 inch embroidery hoops for 99 cents a piece and 4 rolls of crepe paper. Cut roughly 8 foot lengths of the streamers and drape them across the inner hoop, close the outer hoop on top and hang with fishing line. I used red and light blue to match our theme, and I added a little hot pink. This was so cheap and easy.


To set the mood, we bought a few bales of hay for the guests to sit on. A table with a red-checked table cloth was a great place for the kids to stop and play with toy horses. This was a great idea and kept the kids busy in between activities. I also set out peanuts in the shell to munch on, this was a hit with the adult guests especially. I bought cowboy hats for each of the children and mentioned to the parents to dress them in jeans or any western-like stuff they had, if they wanted to.
The Lord blessed us with a beautiful evening and we were able to play games out in the backyard.


Stomp the Flies
This is a fun and easy idea my sister-in-law told me about. The black balloons are the flies and the children are the horses trying to stomp them. They seemed to like this one.


Six Shooter Game
The goal here was to shoot the bottles down with a water gun. I think a dart gun would've been better because the kids had to stand right up to the bottles to get them to fall down. They still enjoyed it, one little fella played with the water gun for most of the evening. He was quite a hoot, walking to the sink in his black cowboy hat to refill his gun.

T-shirt decorating
We did this later in the evening indoors and it was a great wind down activity. We purchased t-shirts in bulk online and bought fabric markers at a crafts store. We looked at buying the markers online also, but they were going to take longer to get in. It may have been cheaper. We just found a coloring page of a horse on the internet and bought iron-on transfers to print the image onto.
I had two other games to play, but there wasn't time. We were planning a stick horse race. I just asked some friends to bring their kid's stick horses, which was handy anyway. For the other game, you hang apples from a long board and the kids try to eat the apple like a horse (with no hands). For this game I had to make sure the apples I bought had a stem to tie the yarn to. I was really excited about this game, but we just ran out of time. Another nice touch was my husband signaled the start of games with one of our kid's cap guns. Also the dads really enjoyed playing with those.


The Menu
I wanted a really easy meal that would remind you of what a cowboy would eat out on the trail. I decided on beef stew and cornbread muffins. We served it on aluminum pie plates to represent the tin plates you always see cowboys eating from in western movies. This was a big hit, although the bottom of the plates got hot from the stew.

Birthday Cake
This cake was so easy and fun to make. I baked the cake a few days ahead and froze it, then my husband and I decorated it after the kids went to bed the night before the party. I wanted it to be a surprise. I found the idea on the Family Fun website. I also made a couple dozen cupcakes. My mom, who makes special occasion cakes, gave me this icing recipe. It is easy and sooo good!


Buttercream Frosting
With a mixer, mix 1 lb softened butter with 1/2 cup crisco. Add 2 lbs powdered sugar and beat just until mixed well. Add 1-2 tsp of your favorite extract (I love almond extract, it is wonderful). If you make this ahead and refrigerate it, you can add a little hot water or milk to soften it a bit before frosting your cake.
I used this on the cake and cupcakes. For chocolate, add about three tbs cocoa. I also added brown paste food coloring for the horse because the cocoa didn't make it brown enough.

Isabelle and her brother really seemed to enjoy this. When I asked her if she had a good time, she said "yes, but I want another cowgirl party!" So I guess we will do this all over again next year!