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Party Time!

Since the kids’ birthdays are relatively close together and they still share many of the same friends, I have decided they will have a joint b’day party. I figure it’s a good way to cut down on the number of events our friends have to attend (they do suck the weekend time).

So I am in the midst of the planning stages. We will have it some time in mid April (in other words AFTER our first half marathon) … hopefully the weather will be nice. I think we’ll hold it either at our local community party space or at the “arbor house” at a park. I’m super excited about the theme Matt came up with, PIRATES and MERMAIDS. I spilled the beans to Lisanne and she sent me a terribly cute treasure map “cake” from Family Fun. I have serious doubts about my abilities to recreate it on my own, but I think I might be able to do the concept and stick some pirates and mermaids on top … right? I was also thinking of making placemats for the kids as party favors … some 11×17″ paper, some laminating sheets and you’re good to go.

I am going to be “grinchy” and request that folks not bring presents for the kids. Honestly, the kids have way more toys than they can play with anyhow and our house can’t hold any more!! Ben is way too little to get this, but I still need to talk it over with Tabby so she understands. She has already received many lovely presents from our close friends and family and that is wonderful, but like I said … more than enough. I hope people won’t be offended.

I found a bunch of really great party stuff from Oriental Trading, including a treasure chest  cooler. I was thinking of doing a craft station where kids could decorate some sun-catcher frames. I thought a “treasure hunt” for chocolate coins in a small kiddie pool all decorated up with sand, etc. might be fun too. And I was also thinking of setting up a photo booth … I quoted one from The Traveling Photo Booth, but they wanted almost $900 for a three hour rental so umm… yea, not going to happen!! Too bad. But I figure with a computer and a little bit of action with a nail gun, some plywood and some black fabric we might be in business. We’ll see.

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Strawberry Milk Cupcakes

I think it’s an established fact that I “read” too many blogs. There are 125 subscriptions in my Google Reader. Yea, I know it’s a bit weird. But read is in quotes, of course, since I don’t actually read them. I skim headlines. I quickly tag what I want to save for later or read something that is momentarily amusing but of no real long-term value. I am also merciless about tossing a blogs that no longer hold my interest. It probably shouldn’t surprise you that I have a tag for recipes. Then usually when I’m making a menu up for the week I like to run back through the recipes I’ve marked and see what looks tasty.

As I was in the midst of this process on Sunday, I saw the Strawberry Milk Cake. I have absolutely NO recollection of marking it, but there it was in all its pink glory and it smacked me in the face with the realization that “Oh sheesh! I need to make a treat for Tabby to take to school for her birthday!!” Because, of course, I’d completely forgotten about that small fact. And had I not realized it in the midst of menu and shopping list making then we would have been reduced to making the Funfetti. For shame.

Seeing as I don’t want Tabby’s teachers to have to deal with cake cutting, etc. we made the cake into cupcakes. Recipe is as follows:

Strawberry Scalded Milk Cake
(adapted from Mrs. Joe Montgomery’s recipe card via The Kitchn)

2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup scalded strawberry milk
1/4 cup butter

Heat oven to 350. Line about 18 muffin tins with liners. Beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar until fully combined (I used the stand mixer). In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In a small sauce pan, heat milk until almost boiling (look for a bit of steam and some bubbles around the edges), add butter and turn off heat then stir until butter is fully melted. Alternate additions of milk and flour to make a nicely consistent batter. Don’t overmix!!

Cupcakes take 20-25 minutes to bake and are better on the slightly less cooked side from our findings.

Whipped Cream Frosting
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
food coloring as desired

Use your stand mixer again and beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until smooth. With the mixer on medium-high speed, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Try not to make a big freaking mess. Keep whipping, adding more speed if you need to until you get the stiff peaks about 2 minutes. Add food coloring if you wish.

This frosting goes on super easy but it is very susceptible to melting so make sure those cupcakes are cool!

I give this recipe HIGH marks. It was really easy to execute and produced excellent results. The frosting in particular is a triumph. I am a huge fan of cream cheese frosting and this was cream cheesy AND light and fluffy and super super tasty. I anticipate making it quite a bit in the future.

 

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Happy Monday to You

We had a nice weekend away … but I was ready to be home. The kids were too. They do not sleep as well away from home and so consequently neither do we. They miss their toys and their routines and their familiar surroundings. We make a big effort to leave the mountains early to avoid traffic and to get back early enough that we can get things all ready for Monday because of course, we’re always busy. Here’s the update:

  • A while ago, my laptop started having issues. Anytime I needed to do something graphically intensive, it would BOMB. Flat to the ground. So it has to be sent back to Sager to be fixed (under warranty happily) … but I am now sans laptop for at least a week.
  • Now my Netbook (tiny backup laptop mostly good for websurfing) is on the fritz. Its power cord is no longer holding a connection. You have to hold your mouth just right and plug the thing in and then it is OK … so basically everyone in our house is forbidden from moving the netbook even a millimeter.
  • And to make things a bit more fun, one of our plastic spoons fell onto the heating element in the dishwasher and melted/burned … killing the dishwasher (well at least the heating element) and smelling up the house and all the plastic stuff IN the dishwasher. It should be fixed today at least. $200 I could easily have spent elsewhere, THANKS. We ate out a bit more than usual last week and dipped into the supply of paper plates.
  • I started a 6wk session of bootcamp today … it is MWF. So far my body isn’t pleased with the long run on Sun/bootcamp on Mon combo. I might have to change that up a bit. I might be inclined to drop the long run all together, but I really don’t want to have to walk 13.1 miles on April 10.
  • St. Patrick’s day is almost upon us! Check out my round up of Fun St. Paddy’s Day activities on FTMB.
  • We have freezing rain here … cheers. But in typical CO fashion, it is projected to be 60 by Wednesday … cheers (for real).
  • Tabby arrived home to find more presents from her Nashville grandparents. She is delighted with her own spending $$ in the form of a Target gift card and a darling magnetic ballerina “paper doll” set.
  • It will be a nice spread-out birthday for her. We’re doing our special Tabby date this weekend where she gets to go paint her own pottery. I am almost as excited as she is.
  • She also gets to take cupcakes to preschool tomorrow for distribution to her friends. She requested to wear her cupcake t’shirt that I made her as well. I am glad she likes it. We will be bringing the cupcake form of this delectable Strawberry Milk Cake I found on the interwebs (more about this tomorrow maybe). When presented with this plan Tabby sweetly said, “It’s OK, Mommy, we can just make the Funfetti.” My family is clearly corrupting her as this was the cake my mom made for her this weekend. I spent a small amount of time trying to explain the ethos behind “from scratch” but I fear my diatribe was more or less lost on four-year-old ears.

Hope you are all off to a good start to your week!

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Happy B’day Baby Girl!!

My most darling Tabby turned 4 years old today. I have hardly any words to describe my feelings about her going from the pink cherubic little baby to this big, sweet, funny, amazingly capable little person.

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We talked at dinner tonight about all the things she couldn’t do when she was Ben’s age (almost two) that she can do now. She is skiing like a champ (spent about 4 hours today doing just that). She knows all her letters and can write her name and read quite a few words. She is getting good at simple addition. She goes potty all on her own. She dresses herself. She helps with little chores around the house. She is an amazing big sister to Ben. She plays computer games. She rides her bike. She “skins the cat” (a gymnastics move). And the list goes on and on. It was neat to see how for the first time this year, she really seems to grasp what having a birthday is all about. She seems to understand that quite a bit of time has gone by since her last one and what that means. It’s pretty cool.

She had a wonderful day (she even said so). She requested baked french toast for her b’day breakfast, complete with bacon and Papa’s custom smoothies to drink. Then we hit the slopes for a few hours of fun in the sun. She got to have hot chocolate at the lodge and then ski down and take the bus home. I was happy it worked out for her to get a nap … she needed it! After her nap we opened presents from Mommy and Daddy so Tabby could see and wear her b’day t’shirt. I’m extremely happy to report she loves it!! We went and had dinner at a restaurant in town. She requested STEAK and received a kiddo sized portion of prime rib and mashed potatoes plus a Shirley Temple – extra cherries. Then it was back to the condo for a grandma-made birthday cake, heavy on the funfetti and some more presents. It was a tired girl who crawled into bed way past her bedtime.

It has been oh-so incredible to watch her grow and change these past four years. She is becoming a little person who I’m incredibly proud of and oh so thankful to have in my life. She’s a gem through and through.

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B’day T’shirt

One of the benefits of having a four year old is that she can’t read (well not really) just yet. This makes subterfuge much easier. Not as easy as it was when she was say … 2 but you get the idea. Thus I can make AND display her birthday t’shirt before her b’day without much risk of being found out.

 

So the t’shirt … it’s applique. I don’t know about that word. It just sounds old fashioned and dowdy to me. Kind of appropriate, actually, since a lot of the applique you see, even on the ‘net is just that: old fashioned and DOWDY. But it doesn’t have to be. The design is the big ol’ lynch-pin. You have to have a cool design. More on that in a minute. First, what you need.

  • cool design
  • scrap fabric in appropriate colors/patterns (cotton, light weight) … all pre-shrunk
  • surface to applique on (should be easy to get to the back – pockets are a bit hard, at least if you want to use your sewing machine) – pre-shrunk as well!
  • iron-on interfacing
  • sewing machine
  • coordinating/contrasting thread as appropriate Continue reading “B’day T’shirt”