One more month...

..until my little guy turns 4!!! I'm so tired of saying it but really, where does the time go?!? It's going to go even faster since I'm working on invites every free second I get, then there's crafts and food prep, he'll be 4 before I know it! But I'm really enjoying the planning of this Mickey theme!

For some odd reason, like I have extra time on my hands, I went ahead and made the invites instead of taking the cheaper/simplier route and buying them from a party store. I blame it on Disney's family.com for having a cute snowman with Mickey ears hat, after seeing that I had to make Gavin's party a winter Mickey theme! And it was great that both boys could help in decorating the cards, it gave us lots to do inside on these cold blustery days!

Can't wait to start on making the goodies, found some great ideas with some online ispiration!

Don't know that I'll get to make these cookies but they are super cute!

Instead, as part of the favors, I opted to try my hand at making these cuties, really...can't...wait!

I am using the cake pan from my Mother-in-Law that she used for my hubby when he was a kid. At first glance I was trying to figure out what I could put ontop of Mickey's head instead of a drum major's hat to make it look more updated, but cannot seem to come up with any unique ideas, besides a birthday hat. I'll just have to see what comes to mind when I actually go to decorate it. But keeping with the family sentiments I may just leave it as is too.

At least this is giving me a jump start on Carter's 3rd party, he want's Special Agent Oso and of course there's nothing at any party store or online, guess I'll be crafting a word document for him too :)

Cookie baton passed on...to me!

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers. ~Heinrich Heine, The Hartz Journey


It's that time of the week to forever be in the kitchen, how I love the smells of the season! I've been trying my hardest to master my Mother-in-Law's Spritz Cookie recipe after she officially gave up the tradition due to it being labor intensive on the arms, back and legs now.

I've always been one to dabble here and there with arts and crafts and also try anything that sounded good recipe wise when baking, so cookie making to me is a combination of different recipes.

These pretzel chocolate and M&M treats are super good for practicing hand-eye coordination too :)

But every year, Black Friday morning in my husbands home as a child was sugar cookie making. I kind of felt an obligation to make them since my Mother-in-Law has passed the cookie press to me now, seeing I have the kids of the family and enjoy baking with them ever so much! And after several attempts I think I've got it down pat- so says hubby after several taste tests!

Last year I found this oh-so cute idea of re-using containers for gifting cookies and I've been saving a variety of things to use.

But now that I've mastered the 30 plus year spritz cookie recipe I feel the need to make some for the family, neighbors and then have some on hand for us... now I know why it's taken it's toll on my Mother-in-Law over the years, making dozens and dozens of cookies is wonderfully time consuming and I don't care what kind of kitchen you have there's never enough counter space. I had to end up putting pot holders on the floor for cooling the trays! And the mess... lets just say that since I'm doing this by myself after the kids (and now hubby) are in bed, the full sink will have to wait until tomorrow!

And since I most likely won't have time to post until after the holiday I couldn't help but share some ideas I found online that I'll be utilizing this weekend. Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas!

http://familyfun.go.com/printables/ho-ho-holiday-matching-game-704027/

http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/wrap-race-825205/



And the winner of the games, actually all the kids (big ones alike), will be recieving a goodie bag to take home! I saw these in a Mary Engelbreit Christmas book and had to try it out for a new way to display goodie bag without taking up room on the table!




The original photo of these had vintage Christmas wrapping paper with pom-poms glued to the bottoms, super cute! I printed out some holiday patterns onto cardstock and since I kept forgetting to pick up pom-poms at the store these past few weeks, for an extra treat I hot glued Dum-Dum's onto the bottom! Can't wait to see if they're a hit!

No-go for phyllo

Tried my hand at making some homemade phyllo dough for a side to bring to the neighbors today and had to post that the recipe needs some tweaking... and I'll most likely be purchasing phyllo cups next time!

It was a combination of trying to save money and not having to run out to the grocery store when I didn't need anything else to pick-up ( because if I go to the grocery store with even one thing on the list I always end up with items in the cart I didn't plan on buying and the budget didn't allow for that to happen this month!).

I knew I wanted to make an appetizer with cream cheese, sausage and little flaky cups that would be easy to pop in your mouth. I have a great Williams-Sonoma mini muffin pan that was perfect and the easiest recipe for phyllo dough, it seemed so simple!

Recipe:
Serves/Makes: 1 batch

Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Sift the flour with the salt. Make a well in the middle of the flour. In the well put the water and the olive oil. Work the dough until it hangs well together. Dust flour on a table or board. Kneed the dough for about 5-7 minutes. The dough should be smooth and not stick to the board. Roll the dough out to a big rectangle. Lay a damp towel over it and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Flour your hands and work the dough from the middle outwards until you have the dough stretched to about 3 ft by 3 ft (1meter x 1meter) Cut the dough with a sharp knife or pizza cutter to the desired sheet size. Continue with the recipe that requires the phyllo dough.

Dough came out good, not at all sticky and really easy to work with, though I have really good muscles from the kneading and rolling!

Getting it paper thin was a hard task though! Just when I thought I had rolled it the thinnest I could go, I cut a piece, stretched it out, rolled some more and it got even thinner.



So I thought, there, this is how it's supposed to be, not so bad after all! I even doubled up some as another recipe stated so there could be flaky layers...

But when it cooked (at 350 for 10 mins) it came out the texture of a wonton, crunchy and thick, not at all flaky. I must have been missing a step of how to get it tissue thin instead of paper thin. So if you're looking for a dense filled cup or pocket type dough this is the recipe for you. And this certainly wouldn't work for desserts, it's good but much too thick.

The end result was delishish but just not what I expected. So if anyone has a secret to make phyllo do tell, but next time I'll be making that trip to the grocery store!

December festivities

December has always been a fun time of year filled with birthdays, Santa, hours of baking in the kitchen and ending with the joyous birth of Jesus. This year seems to be crammed with more than years past but still fun and just as enjoyable.

I just have to say that I'm so glad I wasn't hard-wired like others I know or come across at this time of year when they get so stressed out during busy times, it's saved me in the teaching world and now in parenthood! Enjoy every moment, busy or not, life is to be lived happily in all you do and say so your joy will spread to others. Wish I had the guts to say to people when at the bank or a store to just keep their frustrations, attitudes, bad language, and grumpy faces to yourself please; but I'm sure that'll make matters worse so I'm just thankful it doesn't bother me and I can use it as an example of what not to do for the kids!

That vented, just wanted to share the best birthday present I could have ever gotten from my boys, a smiling picture with Santa! For my birthday I wanted a day spent with the boys and decided to take them to the Bass Pro shop where they're supposed to have a winter wonderland set up with different tables of fun for the kids to play with along with a free photo with Santa. It was awesome! There was no line, nothing like the mall where at 6pm on any given day of the week it'd be at least a half and hour wait. They had a train display to watch, RC cars to drive, Red Ryder laser guns to shoot at a wall, and others we just never got to.

I've been prepping them for weeks about sitting on Santa's lap and just as I thought Mr. Outgoing went right up with no problem, sat on Santa's lap and answered every question he asked, especially the one about what toy he wanted, "a bicycle and dump truck helmet with a horn!" Santa was impressed and I just beamed, that's all the boys have been talking about, Santa bringing them a bike under the tree!

Gavin got extremely shy and held on to Mike with a death grip so as usual we didn't push it and used re-direction and went off to play some of the free games they had set up. Then Gavin realized that Carter got a candy cane after seeing Santa and he wanted one too, then there it was, all on his own he had the biggest smile and said "Me go see Santa too!" and was actually happy about it! I took him up, he gave Santa a high-five then actually sat on his lap and was talking to Santa like he's known him forever- stroking his soft suit collar, feeling his real beard all while answering Santa's questions of how old he was, what he wanted and if he's been a good boy! After he got down with a big smile I totally welled up with tears as this was a milestone for him and I was so glad he could actually enjoy the season with Santa instead of being so anxious! I am so glad to have such good photos of them this year to remember that day! Don't know if it'll be the same next year but it was such a nice ending to a great birthday for this year at least!

Gavin has cried his little eyes out every year, and the anxiety he's had since being 1yr old never helped, but time and maturity have done him well and I am impressed at the little man he is becoming! Just last night at Pop-Pop Thompson's 40th Retirement party he sat at the dinner table with the adults for a very long time eating and socializing like he was in Elementary school already! But Carter, as advanced as he is, made it known he doesn't want to grow up too fast just yet and refused to sit for dinner and cried when it was time to blow out Pop-Pop's candle, which is fine by me- stay young as long as you can both of you, tears and tantrums don't bother me any!

So glad I was able to re-use this cake pan from Gavin's 1st birthday dump truck theme! Gotta love Wilton pans, they're so versatile!

Mom-Mom only found one sippy cup firetruck, I knew there would be a fight for which boy got it so had to make it useful another way! But now that the party is over I'll have to hide this one until I hunt another one down!

Happy 40 yrs with the Baltimore City Fire Dept Pop-Pop! Actual retirement starts next fall when his sick and vacation leave expire, but we look forward to spending more time with him now that he's guaranteed to be home for holidays! He's already been to Gavin's pre-school for the Thanksgiving feast and now is able to go on Wednesday for the Christmas show too; here's to making up for lost time!

So amidst the yr. anniversary of my brothers passing, with all the cookie making, present wrapping and parties these next few weeks, it's made me even more thankful that I'm here on earth and know I'm enjoying every moment and trying my best to spread joy at every turn!

Thanksgiving place card holder

Thank you Pottery Barn Kids for being out of your Thanksgiving Sailboat Treat Holder... no, really, thank you. I now am going to start the wonderful tradition of the boys helping me make our own place setting boats each year!


Here's the photo of the original felt sailboat treat holder ($6, not too bad seeing you can re-use them each year) in the PB catalog, along with the super pricey Centerpiece boat (which they still have in stock BTW if it strikes your fancy).




I was actually bummed they didn't have the sailboats online or in store when I went to order them this week, they were actually super cute. So now with my heart still set on using that idea for the upcoming holiday I had to look up how to make a felt boat but then decided it would probably cost me more than $6 in the long run for the felt and materials to do it on my own. So I opted to look up how to make paper boats and found this easy tutorial.




And wa-la, still super cute, and will be even better with colored cardstock and filled with goodies! This is definatly something I will enjoy preparing for our feast, along with the yummy food too of course!

My sweeties

Well, finally finished the Halloween costumes and they turned out good for my first time! I stumbled onto the idea of the ice cream cone earlier in the year when searching Google for something and saw this Mom made her daughters costume out of panty hose, looked super easy!
This was perfect because Carter was totally into ice cream, I mean really into ice cream for a 2yr old...asking for it at the dinner table almost every night when he finished his meal and even for snack; though he never got it for snack b/c of mean old Mommy saying he needed something healthy instead.

Then it didn't take long to come up with a costume idea for Gavin, he's totally into donuts! He'd consume a whole box of munchkins if I let him, eating the chocolate ones first of course (Did I mention how much I love these boys, they sooo take after me in the sweets department and I'm loving it!)

I then headed to a nearby one-stop-shop, Walmart, for fabric for both costumes, polyfil, multi-colored straws, and white pantyhose for the ice cream part; I would have loved nothing more than to make Carter's favorite chocolate ice cream but I could only find mocha- and it didn't look like chocolate if you know what I mean. It was awesome spending only $4 for all the fabric too, gotta love clearance racks even in the fabric section!

I was able to use things around the house to help me with a layout as the pattern was in my head for both of these.

Oh, and be careful using hot glue on stuffed animals! I used Pooh as a model to glue the ice-cream topper together and it got stuck to his head. He'll have battle scars, but then again everytime I see them it'll just remind me of when I made my first costume!

So with the help of my mom's sewing maching for the donut part and lots of hot glue and straws for the sprinkles, both costumes were finished!

They took a few weeks to create only because as any parent I could only scrape a few minutes here and there to work on them, but they were worth every second when seeing how excited the boys were to wear them!

They're only little once so thought I'd go for the 'sweet' costumes this year, as when they get older I'm sure they'll want a store bought 'something or other' from TV or movies. And the wagon ride from house to house is always wonderful as we all live too far away for the little ones to walk that distance.

Now, hopefully the costumes will hold up until actual Halloween so we can go trick-or-treating at the Grandparents! Who-hoo, more candy... not really a good thing, just more temptation for me and extra dentist visits for them!

Halloween treats

I saw super cute Halloween Peeps at Target a few weeks ago and went online to get some ideas on how to use them. I found one that I had to make it for the trick-or-treaters coming over, super easy and super cute!

It took a couple hrs to complete them all, from melting the chocolate, decorating, waiting for the chocolate to set and then wrapping them up, but sooo worth it!

(Didn't want to set the creations chocolate side down overnight b/c I was sure the chocolate would rub off onto the bag and be a royal mess for the next day)

Can't wait to hand them out tonight (along with some fall magnet crafts from Oriental Trading) for the neighborhood hayride! I'm not worried about being 'that' house that always does homemade stuff and crafts each year, the kids are young enough to appreciate it. But in a few years I'll have to resolved to candy bars I'm sure :)