Revisiting Childhood Favorites

I have discovered that in many cases motherhood is a case of deja vu.

This past week I have been sorting 18 month clothes for my very long 9 month old who is almost ready for them...this sounds familiar...oh yeah, did the same thing her big sister!

But mostly I find that when I am in the toy stores or book stores I often find things that I remember from childhood. Maybe not in the exact same format, but a new version of it. While taking my favorite classics and either abridging them or turning them into easy readers horrifies me (sorry, I just cannot help it), and seeing Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony make me look twice, there are some things that make me stop and look again, and then smile with delight.

I am delighted to see that Winnie the Pooh is still popular, we love him.

I love that Paddington Bear is still available! As well as Madeline!

But today I had to laugh out loud.

As a child I grew up in the country and our TV and 2 channels. Not including off and snow. So it was a real treat to go into the city and have almost 2o channels! It was a treat because I would get to see Reading Rainbow! I LOVED Reading Rainbow!

We have noticed that some books that are newer have the Reading Rainbow logo on them, so I searched for it and found the book list from the newer version! While we have not read all the books, we have read quite a few, and some of our favorites are on here, so I look forward to checking out the rest!

And what does it say that one of my favorite childhood programs (and my husband's fave too) was a show about books?

What are some of your favorite picture books and read alouds?

Boston Cream Cupcakes

These are my new favorite cupcakes. And for what goes into them, it is not hard to understand why....

Boston Cream Cupcakes

Cupcake
1 pkg Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix (I used Butter and it was good too)
1 sm pkg instant vanilla pudding mix, dry
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil

Mix all ingredients together with a mixer. Line cupcakes pan with liners (16 large cupcakes, 24 regular size). Bake at the temperature the box of cake mix says for 25 minutes for large cupcakes or 15-20 minutes for regular sized.

Let cupcakes cool for 1 hour...and yes, the middles should fall.

(this is where I froze the cupcakes, then I pulled them out the night before so they were room temperature to fill the morning of the actual birthday)

Filling
1 small box vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sour cream

Combine all ingredients in mixer and beat with whip atttachment until stiff peaks form. Put filling in decorator bag and fill using a star tip (do not use the pastry stuffing one because the filling is too thick). Practice squeezing to see how much comes out, you are looking for about 2ish tablespoons, and if you squeeze too much in the cupcake will split or the top will pop off...

Frost with either home made or ready made chocolate frosting.

Birthday Party Menu

For Miss Pear's afternoon birthday party I had a very easy menu:

Veggies and Dip
Fruit
Pasta salad (pasta, veggies, Italian dressing)
Pizza Fondu
Yummy Breadsticks (Quadruple batch) Really worth trying this excellent and simple recipe!

I could not find the link to the pizza fondu recipe, but here is what I did:

Pizza Fondu

1 jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
pepperoni to taste (this will taste stronger than you think so go lightly).

Melt on low either on stove or in crock pot until cheese is melted, although little specks will remain regardless.

Serve with bread sticks, it is a dipping thing...

I did a triple batch of this and it was almost all gone! It is an excellent treat, and hearty enough to anchor a substantial snack table!

Encouraging Myself

Can I ask you a question?

How do you encourage yourself?

I find that lately I am having to do that a lot. My husband is very supportive and encouraging, but the times when I need to be encouraged most seem to be when he is at work, especially if he is in a long meeting away from his phone! (Of course!)

So I am finding ways to encourage myself.

One thing that helps me lots is making lists.

Oh, not of things to do, forget that! Not the least bit encouraging!

I make lists of things I have accomplished! Loads of laundry by name.... whites, towels, etc. Strip bed, wash sheets, dry sheets, make bed ... look, 4 things done! Reading to the girls, playing with the girls, making lunch etc. I write it all down and then I feel like I got so much done!

I also make a grateful list, things that I am thankful for! To prompt me I either do every letter of the alphabet, or a 1-25 list.

I take the time to do something creative that makes me happy like finally finishing the hem on my Edwardian apron...pictures to follow.

I read a little bit.

Steal kisses from my girls...hugs and cuddles too.

These are all very little things, but they have a remarkable influence on my attitude.

So how do you encourage yourself?

Still Here!!

It has been a wild week and a half! Both of the girls had their respective check ups, Miss Pear felt yucky after hers, and then I felt yucky. Thankfully both girls are healthy!

We have been getting some projects done, resting, and trying to organize pictures to send to family, all of which is taking longer than anticipated. Which is where I have been.

Hopefully now that Baby's appointment is done as of this morning things will begin to settle back down again...one would hope!

Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

For Miss Pear's birthday party I made a sheet cake using the conversions I mentioned here, cut it in half and loaded it with icing. Afterall, Miss Pear's theory on cake is that it is a delivery method for icing. The icing was topped with sprinkles...her favorite, and a Fancy Nancy crown for my version of a Fancy Nancy cake.





For her actual birthday the next day we were out of cake, and we knew we would be, and that is great because it gave us a chance to have Boston Cream Cupcakes.

The Party Decorations

The Saturday of Miss Pear's birthday was not the sunny California morning we expected. It had rained overnight, so we had to wait to decorate until things dried up a bit.

We put tissue flowers in the tree out front, but the only pictures I have of that include a dancing birthday girl, so I could not post them. But I did get pictures of the back yard.

Tissue flowers in the tree
(attached with the pipe cleaner that holds the flower together)

Tissue flowers along the fence

Inside the house we put bows in the top corners of each window and a happy birthday banner up, but in all the pictures are either family or pictures of family...so this is the only picture to show how the bows were placed.

And of course it would be the picture of the bow the the tails that refused to stay nicely curled! Oh well.

The decorations turned out so well, I was really pleased, and Miss Pear loved them, so that is what counts!

We brought in all the tissue flowers Saturday evening, and it was a good thing because it rained again overnight! That is very unusual because it is not the rainy season and we don't remember it raining in May or June the entire 10 years we have lived here! So we told Miss Pear that God must have sent the rain special just for her on her birthday because He knows the rain delights her.

Sunday Miss Pear ended up with a tissue flower hat once the flowers were joined together. It was so cute.

The tissue flowers cannot be repurposed, so we just played with them.

The bows have already been reused. We put 2 bows on the bench out front to welcome guests on Saturday, and Saturday night they were moved to decorate the wagon that Miss Pear got for her birthday. The bows will all be flattened and reused on gifts or in bouquets.

Ready and Waiting

The Friday before Miss Pear's birthday party I had this to show for my labor:


A basket filled with tissue flowers and ribbons waiting to be fluffed up to decorate the house and outside. Although the test ones of each we fluffed nicely. When all was said and done I had 8 bows and 16 flowers.

And they are in Fancy Nancy's colors! Pink and Purple! The bows are sporting butterflies in honor of her book Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly.

The guilty party...

...who has been eating our grass and leaving little pellets of ... ummm ... fertilizer was caught red pawed! This is the little bandit who is making dead spots on our grass and leaving stuff behind making our front lawn not so child friendly!


It appears he is a nightly visitor because he certainly thinks he owns that patch of front yard!

But at least he has not discovered the banquet in the backyard that is my garden!

CVS Pampers Deal

Usually we don't list the deals here, afterall, there are many who do it so well we don't need me chiming in!

But!

There is such a good deal on Pampers at CVS this week, I had to make an exception. Especially with the Long's stores becoming CVS so more of you hopefully have access to this!

The deal is buy a jumbo pack of diapers for $8.99 and get $5 in Extrabucks back! So net price of $3.99. Plus the P and G coupons were in the Sunday paper and they had a $1 off coupon in there. The limit is 3.

The catch is that it is not advertised in the fliers, only here.

The second catch is that my store did not know about it when I made a run on Sunday to pick up a prescription I needed that day but forgot to pick up on Saturday with all the chaos of company leaving. So the manager had to call about the deal etc. etc. etc.

Hat tip to Money Saving Mom - if you are not reading her for the deals, I recommend you check her out!

Still Learning

I am learning that:

1. I don't bounce back from 2 back to back days of celebrating as quickly as I used to!
2. The "weekend wreckage" is particularly acute after a birthday party on Saturday and a birthday on Sunday.
   
3. I am smart enough to not vacuum before hosting a party for 22 people - I wait to vacuum after!
4. Teething is not fun (okay, I already knew this)...Baby had her best night in about a week, only waking up twice.
5. Unless I have a backlog waiting to be posted I cannot blog everyday without boring you all to tears about what we had for lunch (actually, it was pretty good today, you might not be bored!)
6. I love being a mom. Yes, it is hard, and yes, I get frustrated, but usually the frustration is in my lack of ability, and I have a Father who helps me and teaches me.

We have company this week, a teething baby, weird weather going through, an overtired 4 year old, and our 10th anniversary on Saturday.

So while I don't know how this week looks, I am pretty sure I will be back next week with a synopsis of all the fun!

Fancy Nancy Decorations

The plans for the party are coming right along.

The presents are wrapped.

The decorate your own tiara craft supplies are assembled. (Sun visors for the boys)

The activity books are made.

The tissue flowers are almost done.

The fabric ribbons for each corner of the windows are done (well, almost, they just need the ends trimmed...

Oh, did I not mention that fabric ribbons?

You know the ones, they are also called floral ribbons and often grace fancy floral arrangements and packages? The ones that sell for about $15-20 a bow at craft stores?

Super easy to make!

Basic instructions can be found here.....

...don't for get to curl the tails of the ribbon if you are not using them to tie the ribbon to the present!

Have a great weekend!

Check, Check, triple check!

When you are a bit on the tired side (i.e. you are a mom) and you are planning a birthday party, check, check, and check again your list for the party supply store.

Otherwise you might end up with 2 purple ribbons and no pink ribbon...

...don't ask.

A Fancy Party

Saturday is Miss Pear's 4th birthday, and she has requested a Fancy Nancy party. So during nap time this week I am getting everything ready for Miss Pear's Fancy Nancy birthday party on Saturday.

Today I made the activity book to be photocopied for the children. I simply went to Fancy Nancy's website, looked through the printable activities and selected what I liked. Then I renumbered accordingly, and for the ones that said reproducible activity on the bottom I printed out a label to announce Miss Pear's 4th Birthday. As they are all reproducible I will take them to the office supply store and have enough copies made. Then I will punch a hole in the top corner, put a binder ring in, and attach curly ribbons to that, and the activity books are done!

The reason for the books are that the craft activity will take little ones more time than the big ones and this will keep the big ones occupied. The little ones will be able to do the activities with help. Everyone can take their copy home.

What I am learning...

Remember the break I took from blogging to focus on what God was teaching me? And that Sunday as my break was winding down Miss Pear got croup and life when kablooey?

Well, even though things did not go quite as I had planned, God used that time to teach me a lot of valuable things.

One of the first things He showed me was that my motto when Baby was born was not just for then, it is for this season of life. That if I have served my Lord well by loving my family, by providing meals for them (extra points for super healthy), and they have clean laundry I have done well. And that it is okay if my only quiet time before bedtime is reading scripture to the girls and praying while I nurse Baby (more on that in another post).

That has to be my standard.

When I try to fit more into my schedule loving my family thing often loses importance.

My children thrive (and Miss Pear has excellent behavior) when they get quantity time from us, even if they are just with me in the kitchen while I make supper, or playing nearby while I fold laundry (Baby likes to wrestle with the socks). And if we can fit in some extended picture book reading all the better.

But my standard is simple: Serve God by loving my family.