Monday, May 28, 2012

sailboat sandwich

My kids loved this lunch. I think the sea and the sun were their favorite parts. (My kids loved shredded cheese.) It was an easy sandwich to make if you're making sandwiches for two kids, or want a fun sandwich yourself. I made two (peanut butter) sandwiches. I cut the crusts off of one of them, then I cut it into triangles. I used a large circle cutter to cut out the other sandwich. 


Then have fun putting it together. I made a sea of blueberries, with a few gold fish in the sea (we didn't have any of the cheese ones.) Arrange the boat how ever you like it. I used a straw for the mast, but you could use a piece of crust if you don't have any straws. I added a few mini chocolate chips to make the little window ports on the boat. I cut out a piece of cheese using my smallest circle cutter. Then I shredded a bit of cheese to create the sun's rays.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Simple Things Sunday


To say that Simon loves these trains is an understatement. He carries them around ALL day long. 
At $0.25 a train, they may be the best yard sale find ever!

Linking up with: Simple Things Sunday

Friday, May 25, 2012

perfect summer punch


I first had this punch at my bridal shower which was *ahem* 7 years ago now. My best friend hosted the shower, and her Mom made this punch. When I knew that I wanted to serve punch at Simon's party, I knew that this was the one that I wanted to serve. I emailed Dora, and she sent along the recipe to me. Because we were having such a small party, I halved the recipe, which was more than enough. This is the original recipe, so it would be perfect if you're having a large barbecue this summer.

2 cans frozen pink lemonade
2 cans water
2 cans frozen orange juice
2 cans water
1 can Dole unsweetened pineapple juice
2 L Sussex Golden ginger ale

Mix all together and serve. Garnish with orange slices.  



Monday, May 21, 2012

I Dig Being 2


Simon's two now, and I just love this age. He is so adorable (says his unbiased mother) and learning so many new things everyday. One of Simon's favorite things is watching big construction trucks. He's always mesmerized by them. So, I settled on a construction party for Simon, and our theme was, I dig being 2.

I made the banner by using a few sheets of 12x12 paper. I cut the paper in half (6x12) and then cut it into thirds. I used my cricut to cut out the happy birthday letters.

The cake was my favorite part! Seriously, this was the easiest cake to make too. I used Martha Stewart's chocolate cake recipe, and my own butter frosting recipe. I frosted the bottom layer of the cake. Then, I used a fork to start digging away to make the hole in the top layer. I put all of the extra cake bits in a bowl. Then, I just put the cake together and finished frosting the whole cake. I frosted the cake the night before the party, and waited until the morning of the party to put it all together. I placed the backhoe on the cake, and 2 of the pylon candles. I made a few signs for the cake. It's hard to read them in the picture, but one says I DIG BEING 2, and the other one says YIELD FOR CAKE. I crumbled the cake that I had set aside. I mixed in a little frosting with it so that I would be able make a little mound of dirt. I put the dirt mound on the back of the cake and covered it with a few more cake crumbs. That's it. 15 minutes from start to finish.

 It was an afternoon party, so I didn't go crazy on the food table. There were grapes and apple carrot muffins. I had water, juice, and a punch for the party goers to drink. 

I've seen construction parties where people load up their dump trucks with brownies to look like dirt. I loved that idea, but since my party was for two year olds, I decided to make muffins instead. I used my sister's cake pop make to make apple carrot muffins in balls so that they would look like boulders.

 I made a little label for the water, using a free clip art graphic.

 This is the aforementioned punch I made for everyone to drink. (Recipe to follow in another post.)

 Using my cricut I cut out the letters to make these signs on 12x12 paper. (If you don't have a cricut or similar machine, check out your local scrapbooking store. Most of these stores will offer their tools for their customers to use. Or you could just pick up a few packs of stickers.)

 Derek, my husband, made this car track on the floor for the kids to play with. He used masking tape to create all of the pathways. 

 One of the best party activities was this giant colouring sheet that I made. I used a sheet of bristol board, and traced some shapes that I printed from my cricut. (I'm terrible at drawing, so I'm many of you could do this freehand!) The kids loved colouring it. All of them sat down to help. I hung the picture on the wall before the kids sat down to eat their cake.

 There wasn't a lot of noise while the kids were eating their cake!

 I was trying to get a picture of Super Simon holding the fun balloons, but he was not interested in a photo shoot.


Simon had a great time. Simon was a little overwhelmed by all of the kids at Claire's party, so this was the perfect size party for him. And just like that, my party planning is over for another year, unless I plan a summer ice cream party...

 What about you? Do you love planning parties? Leave me your links in the comments, I'd love to check them out!


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Simple Things Sunday

My baby turned 2 on Friday (even though he looks like he's 8 in this photo). He is such a happy boy (unless you take his Thomas trains away from him). It was such a beautiful day on Friday, that we spent most of the day outside playing. I just love this picture of Simon playing in our neighbour's outdoor playhouse. When he first noticed the playhouse he started climbing in the window. By the time I noticed him, he was perched on the ledge. I nearly had a heart attack. I showed him the door that he could use and he was so pleased to be able to shut me out of the house. We  had a small party for Simon yesterday, so stay tuned for a party blog post tomorrow.

I love Rebecca Cooper's blog, Simple As That. If you haven't checked it out yet- you must! She has so many lovely crafty projects, and offers lots of photography tips. Every Sunday she does a photography linky party called Simple Things Sunday and I will be participating in it every Sunday. I think that it will be a nice way to share with you what we do around here when we're not crafting!

Linking up with: Simple Things Sunday

Friday, May 4, 2012

pretty flower mosaic



This was a super cute craft, that just used supplies I had on hand! (My favorite kind.) It would be a cute Mother's Day project, but since it's probably mostly Mothers who read this blog, you could pass the craft along to your Mother. I haven't met a Grandparent yet who doesn't love to receive crafty projects.

Now, I hoard have lots of scrapbooking paper, but much like Sarah, I have no time to scrapbook anymore. Clearly this was a hobby started before kids. I picked out a few pieces of patterned paper (pink, purple, yellow, and green). If you don't have patterned paper, this would work just as well with plain construction paper. You could use red and pink, purple and blue, yellow and orange to create your flowers. Claire went to town cutting the paper into small pieces. While she was doing that, I grabbed a piece of 12x12 cardstock and drew a few flowers (using a pencil, of course). Draw the flowers very lightly, because when you go over the pencil lines with a glue stick you can't erase it anymore. (Wondering how I learned that lesson? Look at the pink flower :) )

Then, using a glue stick we filled the inside of the flower with glue. Claire glued the paper in the flowers, picking out the pieces of paper that would mostly stay within the pencil lines. I did end up snipping a few pieces of paper that went way beyond the lines. Once she was done all of the flowers, I drew a few leaves for her to fill with the green paper. She drew the stems with a green marker once she was done the leaves.

Up close the flowers sort of look like a jumbled collection on paper, but further away you can see how they look like a lovely field of flowers (with the name Claire floating in the sky!) What sort of Mother's Day projects are you working on?