Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 1)

Eli's third birthday party with friends was held at our house today.  It was great fun.  However, I have a few confessions to make. 
Confession #1--I get a little obsessed.  I plan.  I try to make everything play into a theme.  I decorate.  I write out lists...and then other sub-lists of things to accomplish.  It's my thing.  I LOVE to plan parties.
Confession #2--I hate party games.  Seriously.  I know it's wrong, but I truly do loathe them.  It doesn't matter if it's a party for kids, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  I do not like them and will do my very best to avoid them.  However, my inner teacher can't necessarily just roll with free play either.  That's what led to stations...

Here are just a few of the decorations (my faves).  It took each picture about ten minutes to load.  Mercy knows, I'm not a lady of great patience.  Therefore, there will only be a skimming.

The front door (on the way in) had a "Start your engines" sign.  This one, on the back of that one, is what was seen when leaving.

Here's Eli's birthday banner. It's kinda hard to read, but who doesn't need a challenge, right?  Ok, so I should've made the red more prominent than the blue.  Oh, well!

Here begin the stations:

This was the coloring station.  They had little Cars coloring sheets and crayons in a Cars bucket.  We love this IKEA table.  It was all of $7.00.  Eli plays and eats on it.  He uses it for pretty much everything.  Back to the point...

This station was for driving Cars cars.  Eli and I worked really hard on this one night.  We took a cheapy shower curtain, a Sharpie, and joined creative forces and went to town!  Drawing a town...  Anyway, it was fun to make and fun for them to play with.  Had it not been for Eli's help, there wouldn't have been a whale or shark in the river.  I love his imagination!  Side note:  The red blob on the far right was the puzzle table (Cars, of course) and it was the leading favorite spot of sippy cup drop zone.  Whatever works!

This was a station for Chuck & Friends.  They drove all over the place.  The train table's set up next to it for some railway fun.  We have lots of things that go in our house!

BUT my very favorite station of them all was the drive-in  movie.  We had Cars 2 as the feature presentation.  We set up a concession stand with movie candy, popcorn, and Cars juice boxes.  The popcorn is from the local movie theatre.  I called a few days in advance to ask about buying whatever leftovers they had from Friday night for the party on Saturday.  They told me when to come in and gave it to me for free.  We filled 32 popcorn boxes and still had a full trash bag full.  I was totally amazed, not only by the amount, but by the free-ness of it all.  That was really, really nice!

Their cars were office paper boxes that were spray painted.  Then they had eye windshields, license plates, and tires put on them.  This idea was a Pinterest steal (as was the shower curtain road).  I do love Pinterest. I think the kids enjoyed this station quite a bit!  I'd recommend it for rainy day fun!

Tomorrow, I'll focus on cake and presents.

Lingering thought of the day:  Captain Crunch is ripping the flesh from my mouth.  I should probably never eat it again.  I'm giving it up.  That is, until I forget in a year or two, eat it again, and repeat this whole monstrously painful thing.

Lingering thought of the day #2:  I haven't blogged since April.  I've missed it quite a bit.  However, I've lost my touch in that time, so go easy on me.  Ok?

UK Partay

On Saturday, we went to a UK partay at a friend's house. It was great fun, even if the outcome of the game wasn't quite what we were hoping it would be.  That morning, we ran to the mall to pick up a few things.  UK t-shirts were included on the list of items to buy.  It was easy to find shirts for Scott, Eli, and me.  However, it was a bit trickier for little bit.  Everything was just a little...well, blah.  SO, while the rest of the fam took an afternoon nap, it gave me the opportunity to create this outfit:

I was pretty excited.  All of it was made of materials, basic pieces, and supplies I already had on hand.  Yay for freebies!  It was my first tutu and first applique. 

Here's our fam all decked out:

Kate borrowed a beanbag chair.

While Eli borrowed a massive hand...I think it's also worth noting that Eli got to pick out his own shirt.  He had two choices.  He did a pretty good job.

Eli stayed up and played through the game.  He had a blast.  Kate was a little more sleepy, but the girl even sleeps with flair.  How funny is this pose?

Lingering thought of the day:  Last night my little ones decided to wake up in alternating shifts through the night.  The problem is that I got cocky.  I started telling people they were sleeping through the night, and I was well rested.  They overheard me and decided it was time to put a plan into action.  Maybe, just maybe, after the sleep strike last night, me little ones will decide to take mercy on Mama tonight...

Smores Pie Experiment

The other day, my Scott was watching the Food Network.  I'm not sure what he was watching, but Guy was making a smores pizza...on a pizza crust.  I wasn't entirely pumped about smores on crust, but it got the old wheels a turning.  I decided that instead of a pizza, he should just make a pie with graham cracker crust.   It sounded good, so I had to experiment.

My next trip to the grocery store, I bought:  a pre-made graham cracker pie crust, Hershey bars, marshmallow creme, and chocolate chips.  I started by layering the chocolate on the graham.

Then I added the mallow.  This just needs to be lobbed on.  It will smooth itself out as it rests for a few minutes.

Then I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave, put them in a baggie, trimmed a corner, and squeezed.  I then baked the pie at 350 degrees for an undetermined amount of time.  It was just until it felt right...

I pulled the pie out, turned on the broiler, put it back in, let the mallow turn golden brown (It is smores pie, afterall!), pulled it out, cut it, and ate it.

In hindsight, there are a couple of things I would do differently.
 #1--I would let it cool for a few minutes before cutting.  Marshmallow is a goopy monster, especially when melty hot.  This leads to runny pie pieces and unpretty presentation.
 #2--I would make my own thicker crust OR add a layer of graham crackers within the layer of marshmallow creme.  The goop was a little overpowering and more graham was needed.  If adding graham, why not add a little more chocolate too?  There's no such thing as too much chocolate!

This was the fastest and easiest dessert of all time.  I will be trying it again in the near future!

Lingering thought of the day:  I LOVE that my street is lined in flowering trees.  They are gorgeous.  However, I do not look forward to them smelling like rotten fish, and they will.  Why is it that I decided to write about my stinky fish tree in a cooking post?  Doesn't that just whet your appetite?  Goodness gracious...

Chunk N Chiez

My kiddos and I went on a play date last week to Chuck E. Cheese.  Eli loved it.  Kate was indifferent, but I think she liked all of the noises, lights, and such.  She was sitting in her Baby Bjorn, so she won't be pictured.  It's really tricky to get a picture of a little one who's strapped to me without being in the picture myself...  Anyway, it was a really fun trip.

Eli was rather fond of the Dino Dash.  There were two buttons:  run and jump.  He played well and thought it was really funny when the dino tripped over the stump...

Then he sat in the monster truck, which he was really excited about...until he was up on it.

As this child eats, breathes, and lives all that is Cars, the race car game was an obvious hit.  However, as he is two, it was a little tricky for him to reach the pedals or the steering wheel.  He liked it anyway.

Who doesn't like Ski Ball?  He was SO excited every time the ball went all the way up the slope and would "disappear."

This is the ABC version of Whack a Mole.  It was quite fun.

Bob the Builder took Eli for a ride on his backhoe...about five times.

Train + Barney = Really Cool

This was a really fun social outing.  It was the perfect rainy day play place.  Eli's been asking to go back to "Chunk N Chiez" at least once a day.  He has leftover tokens.  I don't see why not...

Lingering thought of the day:  Today I hemmed a bridesmaid's dress for a friend.  It was unexpectedly therapeutic.  I love to sit and have girl talk.  I love to sew.  That made for a really relaxing, yet productive, afternoon.

Mmmmmm, bread!

Today I will share with you one of the greatest frugal practices of all time.  Obviously, I will not be short winded about it...  Anyway, I LOVE to cook, and I love to acquire new recipes, cookbooks, and the likes.  However, to buy all of the cookbooks I want would be ridiculously expensive--not an option.  So I discovered (many moons ago) that if I check them out at the public library, before buying, I can weed some out of my want list AND acquire new recipes at the same time. 

Here's my rule.  If there are fewer than ten recipes in a particular cookbook that I simply can't live without, I copy them down onto index cards and file them into my recipe box.  If there are more than ten, I must buy the book.  Of course the book can only be purchased after looking for it in about thirty-five places and finding the most affordable copy possible--usually Amazon. 

Now that I've conquered every freezer cookbook known to man, I'm now moving onto bread, soup, and salad cookbooks.  I go on tangents, then I move on...but that's a whole different matter.  The newest recipe I've tried is out of Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club.  It's a recipe for french bread; I'm not going to share it, as I don't have permission from them.  BUT it is worth trying.  Here are my pictures:

It was delicious!  I'll have to make it again.  Here's the hugest flipper known to man.  Yes, I know that's not the technical term, but those aren't nearly as much fun as making up one's own. 

I learned a big lesson the first time I made this bread.  Don't kill the yeast.  I couldn't figure out why it didn't work the first time.  Then I chatted it out with a pal who is one of my go-to gals for all that is domestic.  If your warm water reaches the point of hot, it'll kill the yeast.  That's bad.  Don't kill your yeast.  If you do, you'll be out about two hours and still won't have bread.  Now that, my friends, is a bummer. 

I couldn't resist showing you these chubby little cheeks.  Are they not the cutest little things ever?

Lingering thought of the day:  If I play outside with my little ones like I did today, I'll be down thirty pounds by the end of the week...I'm a dreamer, but we did have fun in the sun!

Stolen Content

I stole this from another blogger.  And now I want you to steal it from me.

GO!

A. Age: Twenty-Seven

B. Bed size: KING.

C. Chore you dislike: I HATE taking out the trash.  I'm also not fond of general tidying.  I am ok with deep cleaning, scrubbing, and other "real cleaning," I just don't like to tidy.  It's a shame though, because that makes me a "messy."

D. Dogs: I just gave a pug away and don't care to have another pet until my children are potty trained, feeding themselves, and sleeping through the night.  I do, however, prefer them to cats.

E. Essential start to your day: chai tea, baby snuggles x2, big stretch, figure out a game plan for the day

F. Favorite color: There are many categories for this.  My favorite color to wear is blue.  When asked, it's pink.  On a wall, it's gray.  So on and so forth... 
G. Gold or silver: Gold.

H. Height: 5' 2 1/4"

I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano, saxophone, recorder...the term played should be used quite loosely here. :)
J. Job title: Stay At Home Mama

K. Kids: Eli (2), Kate (2 months)
L. Live: everyday to the fullest OR Lexington, KY

M. Mom’s name: Mom, Mama, Noni
N. Nicknames: Stac, Staci Beth, Staci Bug, toots, butt face, da sweetness
O. Overnight hospital stays: Oh mercy, there have been a few.  I stayed a few nights when I duked it out with a vehicle and lost.  I stayed another couple of nights when I had Eli.  Then another couple nights were spent when I had Kate. 
P. Pet peeves: I have many.  Cars without blinkers, snarky customer service representatives, $680 electric bills, copy cats...anyone catching the irony in the last one (as this is stolen)?
Q. Quote from a movie: "Your brain's the one with the shell on it."

S. Siblings: two little brothers, though neither of them are little

T. Time you wake up: whenever my little alarm clocks wake up
U. Underwear:  I keep them in the top drawer of my dresser and under my pants.
V. Vegetables you don’t like: peppers, onion, avacado

W. What makes you run late: traffic, laundry that isn't dry, losing track of time
X. X-rays you’ve had: teeth and various lower body x-rays after being clobbered by a moving vehicle
Y. Yummy food you make: I LOVE to cook, and most of it turns out well. 
Z. Zoo animal favorites: Somalian wild ass, penguins, sea lions

Playin' in da dirt

If one were to ask Eli what we did today, he'd tell them, "Played in da dirt."  This is true.  We did play in the dirt today, and we had fun.  But there was more to it than that--we started our garden today.  Katelyn and I decided awhile back that we were going to have a garden this summer, an organic garden.  Today we did our first round of prep work.  These seeds came in the mail today.  The rest are on back order.

Some of these seeds went into starter packs to make baby plants to put in the ground.  Fortunately, Katelyn has a green thumb, because I am a plant murderer.  I am, however, going to give it my best go to help keep these little puppies healthy and flourishing...  They are currently residing at Katelyn's house.  Each little seed heaved a sigh of relief at this thought.

This garden is going to be fabulous on many levels, but I'm really excited about the learning experience that Eli will have.  It will be so neat for him to get a basic knowledge about how plants grow, where veggies come from, and whatever other little lessons may come from this.  We will see.

Eli helped Miss Katelyn break up the soil.  He was a bit hesitant at first, but with a little encouragement he jumped on it.  Quite literally, actually.

Then the soil had to be spread into the little starter pots.

Eli helped put the seeds in the holes.  He REALLY liked this part.  A happy dance followed each seed that he got to drop.  I failed to catch that on camera...sorry.

Off topic side note:  Eli picked out his outfit with very little guidance today.  He insisted on "ball clothes" and "boots."  This was the final product. 

I am so excited about having this garden this summer.  We are going to have so much fun and good food.  I cannot wait!  More will follow on this topic as we progress. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I would like to be a good southern woman.  Therefore, I must garden and wear a large hat while doing so.  There is a large hat on my "items to buy in the near future" list.  I'm kinda thinking of the Weezer look (think Steel Magnolias).