We had S'more Much Fun!

For my son's second birthday, we had an Alaskan outdoor theme party, and I thought since I have so much to share from his Birthday Party, I would start with the food! To start, though, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my mother-in-law for helping with the food part. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been able to get everything done!

And what would be the main food at an Alaskan Party for a 2-year old? Ooey, Gooey, Yummy S'mores!!! If it could be made into a s'more I think we had it. Of course I had so many ideas of things to make, it just wasn't possible to do it all.

His cake was non-traditional this year. There wasn't any buttercream frosting or bright fun decorations. Instead he had a Giant S'more Cake! It was so fun and it looked great on the S'more Bar Table. It didn't hurt that it was super yummy. The Giant S'mores Cake Recipe can be found: here

Brown Sugar Spice Cookies with a Maple Syrup Glaze cut out in the shape of a moose head. One of my all-time favorite fall cookies. When these bake the whole house smells like fall! These are from one of my favorite cookbooks from Gooseberry Patch "Old-Fashioned Country Cookies" it can be found here

All the hard work of these cupcakes including the meringue icing was thanks to my mother-in-law. There a few steps but worth it. You can find the S'mores Cupcake Recipe here

We also had cookies. S'mores Cookies Recipe  here

My favorite, beside the cake was the S'mores Bars. I forgot to take a picture of them, but I could eat a whole pan of these guys no kidding! Be sure and check the recipe out here.

For the main meal we roasted hot dogs and had chili to make chili dogs or just have a bowl of chili to warm up with! The chili recipe that I used can be found here  (I modified it slightly to appeal to the varying palates and tastes) We also had hot chocolate & homemade marshmallows and hot spiced apple cider to keep us warm. 

Here is the birthday cake on the s'mores table. 

We had all different kinds of chocolate bars and caramels to make up all kinds of s'mores. 

We also had all different varieties of graham crackers: regular Honey Graham, Chocolate & Cinnamon. (Not pictured)

And of course we had several different kinds of marshmallows. We had the Jumbo ones, regular size, mini's, and strawberry. I looked for chocolate mallows because I wanted a chocolate, chocolate, chocolate s'more but I couldn't find them, oh well maybe next time! :-)

I'm pretty sure my little guy ended up loving his party and the s'mores! He is still talking about the fire and the marshmallows!

Oh yeah, it was an ooey, gooey, good time!

I'm Back!

Hey Everyone!
I'm back from taking some time off to spend with family and prepare for my little guys second Birthday. I'm hoping to get back to posting in the next few days. Not certain when I will be listing new items in my shop as I will be actually going on vacation soon, so hang with me as I'm in limbo! :-)

I do have to share at least one photo from his birthday!

We filled his room with lots and lots of balloon so he would have a surprise when he woke up! He loved it and it was so much fun! We will definitely do this again!!

I can't wait to share the rest of the photos with you! It was so much fun, and I can't believe my little guy is two!!!

Happy 18th Birthday to My "Baby" Sister

Over the weekend my baby sister turned 18! It's hard to believe but she is finally an "adult." I am having such a hard time believing that! Oh well, such as life, it goes by way to fast!!! 

So for her birthday, they (my mom & other sister) were having a surprise party and I made up some decorations for it. I've been dying to share and I couldn't wait for her to see what we came up with. I was super happy with how they turned out and I think they were too. 

(Please forgive the quality of the banner pictures. It was late and I really wanted pictures before I packaged them up for the post office. )

 So here is the sign as a whole. "Happy Birthday Larissa" 

Up close of the details. All of the paper was glitter cardstock: the black, pink, & white. Then I sealed it with a gloss sealer to keep the glitter from continually falling off so man did it sparkle!!!

I love the detail of the scroll work and how awesome this turned out! Wouldn't this be fun for a sweet sixteen, turning "30", a bachelorette party or even just a "Girl's Night Out' party! So many possibilities with how pretty this turned out!

Just another view. I was really trying for some decent pics...

This was one of the centerpieces I made up. The decorations were for a masquerade party theme. So there was still lots of glitter, pretty ribbons, beads, and feathers!

One of the masks I made. 

And this is the other and my personal favorite! This one could be used alone or as the main centerpiece. Love how it turned out. 

A couple of close-ups of the details. I learned a lot doing these. Of course decorating these could go on forever. I had to stop somewhere though. :-)

Here it is at her party. Sign, centerpieces, and table confetti. 

I really wish I could have been there for her party. That's one of the hardest things about living away from family, you miss major milestones like this. But I was most definitely there in spirit and I LOVED doing this for her. Happy 18th Birthday Larissa, I Love You!!!!!

* At this time, these decorations are not listed on my Etsy shop.  I'm not certain if I am going to be listing them, I will be sure and post and let you know if I do. 

Priorities and A Walk in the Park (Kincaid Park)

While my husband has been out on his week long Moose Hunting trip, I've been given some time to rethink my priorities: church, family, and my new Etsy Shop. I love them all and obviously don't want to give any of it up so I'm taking the time to figure out a way I can be successful with it all. So for now, I have the order figured out,  I just have to figure out the time management part! :-) That being said, I may not get my orders out as fast as I would have in the past, but I will definitely be honest about dates and when I think a product will be complete. I would much rather sacrifice a little time it would take to get something done than to sacrifice the quality of work. And I don't really want to sacrifice time with my children,  if my little guy wants me to sit down and watch an episode of "Blues Clues" well, I want to take that opportunity and watch it with him. (I can sing that mail song a hundred times if it makes him smile!) Also, it seems that when we have kids, we easily forget about our spouses. One of the hardest things for me to do is to make time for my husband so that is definitely something I want to work on. You know maybe something as simple as a dessert date , I mean who doesn't love dessert and great company?

Anyhow, enough about my goals. LOL!!! Here are some pics I wanted to share from our walk that we took awhile back, maybe two weeks ago now. You've read that it's been raining pretty much every day since August 1st, and that really is pretty typical, but you get to the point where you don't care if you get wet you just need to get out! Aka: Cabin Fever!!! Well, that was me. I needed out of the house, I needed exercise and I needed fresh air! So we went to Kincaid Park Kincaid Park Nordic Ski Trail History It's an easy place to walk with some scenery and a place for the little guy to get down and run and get rid of some of that energy!!!

Molly and My Little Guy excited to go for a walk!

Me with My Guy surrounded by one of the beautiful gardens at Kincaid Park. Talk about inspirational! Especially when you've had more rainy and cloudy days than sunny. This was the ticket !!!

There he goes, expending some of that energy!

My baby girl had to get in the garden to. Beauty within beauty!

So once we left the garden we started on the trail and everyone kept saying "there are two bull moose up ahead" Ok, my son LOVES, LOVES moose! so the walk to the moose seemed like an eternity and it's not like we were going to be able to go up and pet them. LOL! But we did get close enough. 

 This mama gets a little nervous about being to close when my little people are around so we were close enough!

The leaves have definitely changed much more than this now. 

This is the second moose on the way back up the trail. 

Yes, they both heard us and they knew we all were there the whole time. 

We had PB&J's for dinner and got done just in time for the rain to start again. 

I had to throw this one in. He was all about wearing his cow shirt from his mamaw even though it is still way to big. He loves hats and he loves putting them on backwards. He is just a hot mess here, but he is having so much fun! 

So enjoy your weather whatever you may be having. We are definitely trying to make the most of ours. It really won't be long before this rain turns into snow, but that's kind of a four-letter word still so I won't be saying it to much before it actually happens....