Winter Wonderland!

Yes I know it's technically not winter anymore, but it is just starting to feel like winter here! Finally the rain and cold have come! This weekend we went away to the snow and it was so much fun. First we visited my aunt and uncle and had a great time with them. They live near a great ski resort so it made it that much more fun to enjoy the mountain with them. Then after a couple days we headed to another ski resort location and stayed there for a couple days. Our daughter enjoyed ski school, tubing and playing in the snow. It was really fun to get away with the family and just enjoy life!  

Our first day of snow fun!

Snow loving baby. He had to do everything his big sister was doing and insisted on being in the snow too!

Unfortunately I can't get any of our other pictures to load. It was lots of fun and I think we're going to make this an annual trip since our little ones seem to LOVE the snow! : )

The Very Hungry Caterpillar First Birthday

My little baby boy is already a year old! I am happy and sad all at the same time. Happy of course because he is such a joy, and I am so unbelievably lucky to have such a sweet, loving and healthy little boy. And sad only because time flies by way too fast. I really can not believe it has already been a year since he was born. He brings me such happiness, and I don't go a day without laughing and smiling because of him and his big sister. 

For his first birthday party, we spent the day celebrating with family and friends. I was so happy that my family flew up for the weekend to celebrate with us, and it really made the party that much more special.

The party was themed after the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, and it was so much fun! All the planning and preparation paid off and I was so happy with the result. 

My husband and I made his name blocks by first spray painting them a nice blue color. We then modge podged on pages from the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" onto the wooden blocks. The the vinyl letters were cut out by my friend's Cricut.
We also put together pictures from each month of his first year for his banner.
For the jars we added peanut M&M's and regular M&M's, a number one birthday candle, and attached balloons to it. We made a few of them and used them as table center pieces, and on the mantel as well.

My husband and I also made the "Happy Birthday" banner which was pretty easy. We then prepared different foods from the book that we thought people would enjoy. They were a total hit and worked perfect as appetizers before we served lunch.  We also made grapes and strawberries on skewers that went on the red box, although they were not done before I started taking pictures, oops!

Of course I can't not mention his AMAZING cake. The lady that made his cakes is so unbelievably talented and wonderful to work with, I am recommending her to everyone. He also had his own smash cake that was in the shape of an apple you can see in the other pictures above!

I just had to add this picture because he is such a goofball and he loves balloons. We actually ordered this balloon by accident but I actually think it added to the theme to have the butterfly balloon on his high chair, since obviously he was our little caterpillar all year that has turned into our beautiful little butterfly : )

I set up a craft table and had the kids make handprint caterpillar that I think they enjoyed. I made my daughter make one beforehand and framed it so everyone could see an example of what they could do if they wanted.
We also had a slideshow of pictures from his first year running on the tv. That was really fun to make and totally made me realize how big our little man has grown over this past year. It was fun to find all our favorite songs too to go along with it.
After we had lunch the kids went on a "Caterpillar Hunt". We created fun clues that had them running all over the house. At the end of the hunt they found their own real live caterpillars. We bought them each a live butterfly garden from Insect Lore. So they can actually see their own caterpillars turn into butterflies in a few weeks. My husband 'loved' that I pushed for this, but I actually thought it was fun having 35 caterpillar larvae in our house for a few days before the party : )!

My little love bug getting ready for his cake! We made him his party hat. He actually loved it!

Yum yum!

Here are the kids party favors. They are fun little pretend caterpillars, food shaped erasers, bubbles and a puzzle. Even with the live caterpillars, they also had to have fun toys!

Happy Birthday to my little love bug!

I love you my little one year old!

DIY Bib

My little guy is turning one and we are having his party this weekend! I can't believe it. For the last 2 months we have been crafting and creating fun items that will make his party more special. This week I wanted to share a new craft each day. I am not crafty, and I can barely cut in a straight line, so all these crafts are easy and fun. Oh I also can't sew, but I want to learn. Think of the endless possibilities of things I could craft if I knew how to sew?! 

The theme for my little boys first birthday party is from the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Pottery Barn Kids used to have a line out of The Very Hungry Caterpillar items such a bedsheets and towels etc. One of the first crib sheets we bought for him was from there in that theme, so really its quite fitting that now we are using that as his birthday party theme! Anyways I saw on their website a tutorial of how to make these cute birthday bibs, and I really had fun making them. 

Here is the template:

http://ab.pkimgs.com/pkimgs/ab/images/i/201204/0001/images/design-studio/celebrations/pdf/Baby_Bibs_HD111.pdf

The youtube link that I had to watch probably 100 times in order to follow along with the directions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s21kB5y55FM

Very simple, and I actually think it was fun to make. Now if he'll actually wear it the day of the party when he's smashing his cake is questionable : )

Best Cake You'll Ever Have

The most delicious dessert came out of our kitchen today, thanks to my husband. This is the yummiest cake you will ever eat, I promise you! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Cake:

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix

1 small box chocolate instant pudding

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup water

5 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 cup peanut butter chips

Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter cups, chopped and chilled for 1/2 in freezer

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour (on chocolate cake mixes I love to use cocoa instead of flour) two 9 inch circle cake pans.  In large bowl mix all ingredients, except peanut butter chips, with electric mixer for 2-3  minutes.  Stir in peanut butter chips and pour into your prepared pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 28-35 minutes.

2.  Let cool in pans 10 minutes and then remove from pans and let completely cool on cooling rack.  

3.  While cake is cooling make frosting.   In medium bowl whip butter and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.  Add salt, vanilla, whipping cream and 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Beat well and continue to add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.

4.  To make cake, place bottom circle on cake stand or plate.  Spread top with 1 cup frosting.  Add the second circle to the top.  Spread the rest of frosting on sides and top of chocolate cake.  Carefully press chopped peanut butter cups into frosting and chill for 3-4 hours, or overnight, before serving. 

Compliments of the recipe from http://www.thefarmgirlrecipes.blogspot.com. We enjoyed it with some of our neighbors, who are our best friends, and everyone agreed it was delicious from age 4 on up! 

First Birthday Crafting

My little boy's first birthday is coming up, and I have been crafting away. Well actually when I say I, I mean my husband and myself. I pretty much come up with all the ideas and am the brains of the operation, and he is the worker mouse implementing the ideas. He is actually very artsy and crafty, where as I have a hard time even cutting a straight line. Probably if he wasn't so crafty I would just learn how to be more precise and not get so frustrated, but hey we make a good team. The theme for our little guy's party is the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," so I've pretty much been living with the book and crafting different projects for it for about 2 months now. And let me tell you, I really don't think you save that much money through being crafty. Now someone might argue that when you're crafty you get to buy all the things that go along with the project and get all the extra stuff you don't end up using for that project, so you can turn around and make 10 more of the same thing you just made, but seriously I don't even need 10 more. It's not like I am going to open up an Etsy shop for all the random craft ideas we've done. But I do think that they are much better quality and look a lot cuter than buying them from a party store or even buying them off Etsy. But more importantly than saving money, we've had a really good time making them and it's much more meaningful. Most all the ideas I've had have come from Pinterest and other peoples blogs. The projects range from making a birthday banner, to making a bib and block letters etc. I never did any of this stuff for my daughter's birthdays, because her birthdays so far have been pre-Pinterest. Really that website has changed my life for the better, because there are so many great ideas. I would include pictures of some of the crafts but our computer is being updated and I can't access them right now. I'll definitely post pictures of his party when the time comes. I am very excited about it. Our daughter every day asks if its her brothers birthday and has a count down going! Can't wait to share the pictures and the fun! 

Rambunctious Little Boy

A typical day for our little boy can only be described as busy! Unlike my daughter, who I think is super mellow and would love to sit and be cuddled all day long, he likes to just give brief hugs and be on his way exploring wherever he is. Now if you know me at all I do NOT like germs, so this is a bit of a challenge for me.

Today I had to go pay a traffic fix it ticket (and yes I am a perfect driver! I totally blame this on my husband for not replacing the tags on my car soon enough, and he blames it on the fact they were send to our old address from OVER a year ago!) and my little boy could not handle being held for the 30 minutes we were there. Let me tell you that it is a bad idea to march yourself into a court building if it's not absolutely mandatory (I could have totally sent it in the mail!). So anyways by the time I finally got called to the window he was OVER it. He was pulling my hair, hitting me in the face, desperately grabbing for the counter (super gross!) and trying to pull my earrings out. All because he desperately wanted to explore. And yes exploring is good, but when everyone in the room looks like they are there for some hard crime, its not a good idea in my book! Anyways there are alot of times I find myself saying, wow he is WAY more rambunctious that my daughter! To top it off the worker lady I was paying kept trying to have conversations with me about how how boys are more mellow than girls! I have no idea what she is talking about. But maybe that's because I could barely hear her over his screaming in my ear to let him down? 

A typical day for him: 
So sweet and innocent in the morning when he is just waking up

 

But banging loud pots and pans together is just too much fun to resist!

Can't handle being held for more than 5 seconds by a 4 year old

But who could resist this cute face? (climbing on the couch!)