Baby's Thank-You Notes

After making the invitations, the decorations, the cakes (and here) and the goodie bag cookies it seemed silly to buy thank you notes, so I made those too.

I used the same red paper and ribbon as in the the invitations (as well as a different designer paper from the same package) in addition to a nice matching orange paper. I also used the same stamp for the lady bug as was used for the decorations.

Here is the front of the card - the lady bug is actually peaking out from the inside of the card.


And here is the inside view...


Our company just left on Saturday morning, so writing the thank you notes is a top priority this week!

The Goodie Bag

I never know what to put in goodie bags that find that balance between fun and not breaking the bank. So this time I opted to bake sugar cookies and decorate them like ladybugs. I used made enough icing from the first cake to also decorate the cookies.

Here are the cookies all wrapped up to be handed out - adults too, of course!

Here is what the cookies looked without the wrap...or right before being devoured:


And here is the basket of cookies just waiting to thank our wonderful guests!

And, of course, there is the ribbon from the invitations and the lady bug from the sandwich picks making additional appearances!

The Decorations

The decorations for Baby's party were simple because she has a big sister who REALLY wanted to help because this big sister loves her Baby.

The first part I had to sneak in during nap times: Sandwich picks to decorate the homemade rolls for the sandwich bar (at first I was going to make the sandwiches and then decided that because we had picky eaters it would be best to let everyone assemble their own!)



Then Miss Pear helped me make ladybugs to decorate the windows:



We used the foam sheets you can get at the crafting stores for about $1, and each sheet of red was good for 2 bugs with a useful remnant for another project for Christmas, (So 3 sheets of red and 1 sheet of black), some google eyes, some glue, and a sharpie marker for the line.

It was such a bright sunny day that we could not get a good picture of the lady bugs above the two windows, so you might have to squint to see them! And I somehow neglected to take a picture of the buffet to show you how cute the sandwich picks looked in action. Oh well. And the sandwich picks were in action because the children LOVED them!

Birthday Party Cake

In some ways Thursday's cake for Baby's actual birthday was a trial run, it was just for family, so if it ended up looking funny or something it was not going to be a huge embarrassment! So that gave me lots of confidence to just try some things. I was really happy with the way it looked, but I thought that the icing in the lady bug did not taste great because of all the coloring paste used to get the colors that dark. It still tasted good, but I felt that I needed to work on it a little bit more, so for Saturday's party I played it safe and just used simple chocolate and cherry icing (the cherry icing is made by using the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries to flavor and color your icing). The results looked like this:



I was THRILLED with the flavor, but liked the way the other one looked better. So next time I would make a cherry icing and then tint it red, and I would make the icing very chocolaty and then tint it black.

And the cake must have been delicious because at the end of the party we had 2 pieces left!

The baker was very happy....

Birthday Cake

This is the birthday cake I made and decorated for Baby. All things considered, I am pretty pleased with the results because I think you can actually tell it is supposed to be a ladybug...it was my first attempt at really decorating a cake and not just icing it and putting stuff on top.

The cake is a banana cake from The Cake Bible. I iced it first in a white icing and then made red icing, and chocolate icing which I then tinted black. The round shape was achieved by finding an appropriate sized bowl and placing it upside down on the cake to get a nice outline to work with.

Baby's Birthday

Baby's birthday and birthday party were wonderful! We still have company all this week so I thought I would just share some of the birthday fun with you. As always the pictures won't actually show you our family...at least no faces...but it will show you some of the fun things we did.

I thought I would start with Baby's Birthday invitations that I made.


The stamp set is Love Bug from the current Stampin' Up catalog (it is one of the hostess sets). The paper is also from there and is Real Red, Whisper White and Summer Picnic Design Paper. (The ribbon is from Michael's)

Here is a close up of the bugs.


The stamp is just the outlines and then I colored them in.

(I cannot find a link to the stamp set because you can only order it if you host a party, but you can see other examples of cards using this stamp set here.)

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is Baby Pear's first birthday!

It seems almost impossible that she could be 1 already! And then when we think about all that has happened with her it seems hard to believe she is only 1! We are so blessed by her, and so thankful for the healing the Lord has already brought into her little life!

Between her big blue eyes and her huge smile she is a real sweetie! She is curious and interested in everything, and loves her big sister very much.

We are celebrating in fine style today, just our family, and are then having a party with 2 other families on Saturday!

Tomatoes, tomatoes everywhere!

A few weeks ago I was sure we were going to lose most of our tomatoes to blossom rot. But, in a true gardening miracle, we lost about a dozen tomatoes and the rest are beautiful! But HUGE! So today I took a bowl of tomatoes, some green peppers, some jalepenos and some other assorted odds and ends and tried my hand at making salsa for the first time.

I used the recipe from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today called "Simple 'Home' Salsa". I will let you know in about a month if it is good, and if it is, then I will type up the 2 page recipe for you!

For those of you who wonder such things, I needed 10 cups of coarsely chopped tomatoes and got 3 quarts of salsa.

And there are so many large tomatoes out in the garden that there are probably another 2 batches of salsa out there! So I will be harvesting them as they ripen and freezing them as I will not have a chance to can them for the next 2 weeks. My MIL who has been canning all her life said that this works fine with tomatoes.

Happy Long Weekend

Our long weekend started this morning with friends coming over for a play date and lunch. It was a wonderful way to start a 4 day weekend, and Miss Pear is very excited that daddy does not have to work tomorrow!

Next week we will have company and be getting ready for Baby's first birthday! There is still lots to do even though we are keeping it small and simple, so let's just assume I might be blogging much next week!

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend filled with rest and lots of fun!

ChristianBook.com Coupon Codes

If you have been reading here for any amount of time you pretty much know I LOVE books, and love getting a deal, and if there is a coupon to sweeten that deal, even better! You also know that I love Christianbook.com Home because their prices are always great!

I just placed an order with them and used one of 2 coupon codes that I have for them and it occurred to me that I had neglected to share them with you!

So here they are:
289109CE gets you 10% off your order of $35 or more until 9/8
289018AADYGW gets you free shipping on your order of $35 or more until 10/31

Unfortunately you cannot use (combine) both codes on one order, and you can only use each code once.

As always, I would appreciate it if you would click through my links if you are ordering. If you click through my link anything you put in your cart and order during that session sends me a credit.

Butter Tarts

Last week I posted about Butter Tarts and was sad to see that my American readers had not tasted these delicious morsels! As it is impossible to invite you all over for tea to introduce you, I decided to do the next best thing, although it is a distant second, and share the recipe with you.


Butter Tarts

12 Pastry lined tart shells (You can buy these, but I just make a pie shell, roll it out, cut it and fit it into my well greased muffin tin, with the tart shells coming approximately half way up. A recipe of pie pastry to make a double pie shell will make 24 nice tarts with enough dough left over for pat deux soeurs.)
1/3 cup raisins (although I don't measure I just put some in the bottom of the tart shells)

1 egg
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp butter or margarine softened
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Divide raisins amongst tart shells

Beat egg with a spoon in bowl until smooth. Mix in next 7 ingredients in order given, one at a time, mixing to incorporate each time. Spoon over raisins. Tart shells should be 2/3 full. bake on bottom shelf in 375 F oven for about 12-15 minutes until pastry is browned and filling rises up but does not break the surface.

Cool.

These freeze very well...should they last that long...I usually double the recipe.

Multitude Monday 5

There is something wonderful about praising and thanking God. I want to be purposefully thankful with specifics, even though there are generalities and always things that I am thankful for. God, my salvation, my husband, my girls all count and are the always ones! I want to find the rare gems in each week that are unique to that day, to that time, and note them.

I want to purposefully and wholeheartedly thank and praise God for His goodness to me!

So here is some of what I am thankful for from this past week:

36. Baby is crawling very well and very fast...especially if I open the fridge or dishwasher as they are the most interesting. Her knees do sometimes slip to the sides on her, but she is doing better each day.

37. 23 pints of peaches canned and ready for us this winter when fresh fruit is not that great.

38. Doughnut day on Saturday which delighted Miss Pear to no end. Some friends came to join us to make doughnuts for their first time. This is our second doughnut day, you can see the first here...

39. Baby slept through the night for just over a week...then woke up at 5:10 Sunday morning, but went back to sleep. We are definitely trending towards sleeping through the night! Praise the Lord!

40. I am continuing to work on learning to crochet and it is going well! I am going slowly and practicing each stitch until it feels natural to me before I move on.

41. Grandma is arriving in a week and Miss Pear is very excited and is planning everything out that she can for them to do.

42. We started official reading lessons with Miss Pear and she is both doing well and loving it!

43. We are finally getting ripe tomatoes! We almost lost our plants completely due to the weird weather and them what looked like blossom blight but was not, so to be eating tomatoes from our garden is a special blessing this year.

Peaches

On Tuesday I canned 15 pints of peaches. I do hope to can 7 or 8 more but with an unrelenting heat wave we might just eat them! However, these jars of peaches looked so pretty sitting on the counter I thought I would share.

In addition to canning peaches I have also made pickles and relish, and plan on canning pears still. We have dried some fruit and made some fruit leather, and we have frozen beans.

What plans do you have to save some of the summer harvest for winter?

A Treat for My Sweeties

It has been one of those weeks where we really needed a midweek treat. Just a little something thoughtful to combat the craziness right now. So I made butter tarts.

I was talking with my neighbor this evening about something and shared one with her, and she asked me of these were the authentic Canadian kind, apparently the kind you get in Canada are different than in the US, not that I have bought any here.

So here is my question: My dear American readers, do you make butter tarts? Do yours just have raisins and the butter mix in them?

My dear Canadian readers, is this an authentic Canadian food and I just didn't know?

If you read from somewhere else I would love to hear if you know about these sweet morsels!

My Little Goalie

I was watching Baby play in the floor yesterday, and was once again marveling at her flexibility as she played. Her wide spread sitting position she developed while in her harness has not abated at all. She often plays with her bum flat on the ground and her legs in a w position.

In fact, watching her yesterday I realized that if she ever wants to play hockey she will be a phenomenal goalie as she already has the butterfly style down! In fact, it is so good that there is no 5 hole to shoot through. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, pictures are available here, and the 5 hole is the between the legs hole.)

These are the things that Canadian mommies notice.

What sports are your little ones shoo-ins for? (Besides sprinting!)