A Very Belated Birthday Party!

It seems like things are never calm in our household and when Ciara's birthday rolled around this year, our life's were as hectic as usual.  School was coming to an end and baseball and softball was in full swing so we decided to postpone her party till after school finished.  We kept waiting for the calm to arrive, so we could have her party but finally decided if we keep waiting the party may never happen.

So today was the day.  She wanted to help me make a cake so we made two little cakes that we split and then filled with strawberry and buttercream filling.  I covered them with pastel colored fondant and from then on Ciara was the creative director.  She even made some of the fondant flowers - not bad at all for her first attempt!!

 

My fondant was really dry for some reason and I wasn't sure how to fix it, so I had a hard time getting the fondant to lay nice and smooth.  You can see all the cracks that developed.  Thank goodness Ciara wasn't as nitpicky as I was - she loved the finished product and I guess in this instance her opinion was the one that mattered the most!

Our Hero! - Happy Father's Day 2010

Due to a family members medical emergency last month, things were kind of really hectic around here!  Throughout it all, my dear husband was so supportive.  Coming home from work early, working from home, eating fast food, helping more with the kids and just being ready with a hug!   It would have been really easy to postpone our Father's Day Celebration to another day but I wanted to make we took at least part of the day to acknowledge how much Chris means to me and the children.

Thankfully a few weeks prior to Father's Day, I stumbled upon a great idea on one of my favorite blogs:  http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/

The kids and I assembled some of Chris's favorite snacks, placed them in cello bags and labeled them with cute labels:

(Pardon my poor photography and my kitchen tablecloth in the background!)

I found a cute blue wicker box on clearance at Michaels.  It had a cute mini chalkboard on the front.  The kids wrote little messages on it.  I'm not sure if Chris will use the box again but I'm sure we will find it a home around here somewhere.  So after a breakfast in bed of Eggs Benedict, the kids proudly presented their gift basket.

Happy Father's Day to an all around great guy, wonderful husband and fantastic dad.........

Our Hero!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Treats

Almost a month ago now, my stepfather had a stroke.  Needless to say, our life's were quickly turned upside down.  After a lot of ups and downs, I am thankful to say that he is now slowly but surely recovering.  He is currently in Rehab ward and has actually been there for about two weeks, but before that it seems like we never knew where he was going to be from day to day.  Started in the ER, to ICU, then to Neurological monitoring and then Rehab. 

Every single staff member that we came in contact with were soo kind and caring.  We wanted to make just a little something to show them that we appreciated them, so I started making cookies.  Because we were all so busy I opted for Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Easy to make and everyone loves them!  We made bags and bags of cookies.  Each bag had two giant cookies in it.

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to use, is the Tollhouse Cookie Recipe.  I use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough and then let it chill in the freezer for a few minutes.  This helps the cookies keep their nice round shape. 

A special Thank You to all those wonderful nurses, doctors, medical staff, rehab therapists, counselors and anyone else I might have forgot!

And to my mother:  You are AMAZING!!

Gift Baskets and Cookie Gifts

The Young Women at our church put on a small carnival to raise money to go to Girls Camp.  They needed donations for Door Prizes and also baked goods that they could sell.  I came up with the following.

 Green Butterfly tote with a cute mug, picture frame and flowers.

Pink Butterfly tote with a cute mug, picture frame and flowers.

Ice Cream Cone Sugar Cookies - perfect for summer!

Itty-Bitty Cookie Bites!

Flower Sugar Cookes on a stick

Rice Krispy Treats on a stick - cause everything tastes better on a stick right?

Happy Mother's Day to me!

My family surprised me with this sweet treat for Mothers Day:

Thank you so much to my dear hubby and kids.  Love you all!

Ella's Creations

Ella loves to create her own little projects.  She brought home a cute little Mother's Day gift from preschool and it was packaged up in a little bag decorated with foam flowers.

As an added bonus - she decided to decorate my Blackberry cover:

Now, isn't that much better than a plain black cover?

Ciara's Baptism

Last month, my first born daughter turned 8 years old!!  Eight is a special birthday in our Church, because that is when children are baptized.

Ciara was being a little stinker about photos, but we managed to snap a few.

We ordered this beautiful dress from a shop in China.

Funny that the girl always fighting t0 be the center of attention refused to pose for photos!

(I think her nerves were getting the best of her)

I got the idea for this adorable towel on a blog I visited, and just had to make 

one as a gift for Ciara.

 

We had a wonderful day.  Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family who joined us for Ciara's special day.