Little Man Party

Last Sunday was Eli's 4th Birthday Party. The theme for his party was "little man". This may be the last party where I get to choose the theme for him as he is starting to get much more opinionated.

Grab Bags: Fruit gummies, wooden mustache men, tool erasers, mustache men bean bags, glasses

I made the boy ties using the tutorial from Purlbee

The children chose the mustache they wanted drawn on their face from this chart. I used a black eyeliner to draw on the mustaches.

Eli wanted me to make "Dump Cake". The name doesn't sound appealing but it's actually very tasty (and simple to make.) 1 can apple pie filling; 2 eggs; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 1/2 cup oil; 1 t. vanilla; 2 c. flour; 2 t. baking soda; 1 t. salt; 1 t. cinnamon. DUMP & STIR. Bake at 325 for 45 min. I usually just serve it warm with ice cream, but I wanted to frost it for his birthday and I found this delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

I have to give credit to my husband's co-worker Kate for making the mustaches on a stick. Thanks Kate!

Pencil Crayon Rolls

I made some pencil crayon holders for Little Badger and Buzzby for Valentines day.  I made them big enough to hold Crayola Mini Twistables. I thought this would be better than crayons because when crayons get worn down they get "lost" in the pockets. Plus Twistables are just more fun than plain old crayons. I made a see-through pocket on the back to hold their masterpieces.

"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" birthday party

Anjas favorite things right now are the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (She can sing all the words to this song.) and anything dark. She flips through her books and flash cards for any picture that shows a nighttime sky and says emphatically, "Dark out!" To find some inspiration for her party decorations I looked around on Etsy and found this adorable plate (Personalized Star Plate). It would have been perfect as a cake plate for her party, but it wasn't in the party decoration budget. So instead I used similar shaped stars and the navy and white theme for her party.

This was the first time I used this sugar cookie recipe and I would definitely use it again. They were so easy to roll out and tasted great.

 I made Buzzby's birthday shirt from a white shirt I got from Children's Place and added the ruffles and stars from a navy t-shirt I got at Goodwill.

My mom made this amazing cake for Buzzby. Thanks mom!

Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

My kids love baking with me. Today we made Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies. This is my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I started making it soon after I got married (6.5 years ago) and my husband is always disappointed if I try a different recipe. Today I added mini m&m's to make them more interesting for the kids (not that chocolate chip cookies really need to be made any more interesting).

Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

1 c. all-purpose flour                  1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 t. baking soda                       1 egg

1/4 t. baking powder                  1/2 t. vanilla extract

pinch of salt                                3/4 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. butter                                1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c. sugar

Mix first 4 ingredients. In another bowl cream butter & sugars. Add egg & vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add flour mixture. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min.

"big girl" bed

Anja's last sleep in her crib.

 She just turned 2 a couple of days ago and pretty soon her little sister is going to need her crib. I started making this quilt for Anja's bed before the new baby arrived. I finally got around to finishing it last week. I've only made a few small quilts before and have never taken a quilting class, so I kept the quilt pretty basic. I just used ties to hold all the layers together. I was afraid that if I tried sewing through all the layers the fabric would bunch up and I'd ruin the quilt. I actually ended up liking the look of the ties more than I thought I would. I think it goes with the shabby chic look and it was really fast. I had quite a bit of the pink & green dot fabric left over from when I decorated Buzzby's nursery, so I just added to that with fabric I found at the quilting store "Earthly Goods" in Edmonton. I didn't want to change the colours of her nursery so it worked out well that I was able to use leftover fabric. (The headboard is from my bedroom set when I was a kid.)

Now to get her to loose that soother...

Consignment Christmas 2010

This year for Christmas my family decided to exchange 2nd hand gifts. I decided to give "upcycled" clothing to all the kids. I have a bag of old shirts my husband and I don't wear anymore. I used some shirts from that bag as well as a few I bought from Goodwill. Using patterns from Lil Blue Boo and Dana Made It, I sewed dresses for the girls and shirts for the boys. I also made headbands for the girls out of leftover scraps using a tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets. I think they turned out pretty cute!

One of my nephews loves SpongeBob, so I found a large men's t-shirt that had SpongeBob pictures all over it. (Really? A man would wear this???) I then cut out a few SpongeBobs and sewed them on a smaller shirt. (Much more appropriate on a 7-year-old!)