Happy Independence Day!

I had to drive a-ways today, to pick up the floor sander for the weekend. As always, I listened to my favorite radio station and they had an Adventures in Odyssey episode on about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which was fantastic.

The one thing that always gets me about so many holidays, especially the 4th of July, is how we’ve lost the magnitude and the importance of what these holidays represent, especially what the people were risking. They were committing treason against the crown of England, risking not only their lives, but the lives of their families. All of it for something they so strongly believed in, that made it all worth it. Not many people have those strong of convictions about ANYTHING anymore.

So of course after getting all teary eyed and thinking about the birth of our nation and what was lost and won in the battles, I stuffed these four in the car and headed to my parents for a BBQ.

Don’t they look thrilled.

That’s a little better I suppose‘

That’s some Daddy! Carrying 3 barefoot kids at once through the fields {this picture is just such a blessing to me, because, honestly, 7 years ago we didn’t know if he’d be able to pickup a 5# bag of flour}.

First time I was on a 4-wheeler in years, easily since before Ave was born.

The boys!

The girls!

Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July!

“A good friend is cheaper than therapy.”

The past two weekends have been filled with friends, all of them new. At the beginning of the month we had my friend Kim and her family, as well as our friends Rob and Rachel {and baby R}, over for a BBQ. The weather was beautiful; the kids had a blast; and the husbands talked homebrew! It was great!

I met Kim through a mutual friend, both of us were the newbies in a Mom to Mom group started at a friend’s church. Said friend sent me a message saying how we had to get in touch with each other since, we had so much in common {blogging, quilting, photography (she’s a professional, I am not), multiples (they have 2 sets of twins, and 2 singletons), books, and husbands that are homebrewers}. It was a match made in heaven, even if life is crazy and we don’t get together very often.

Then last weekend (6.8) we invited my Due-Date buddy and her family to come for a visit. Cristina and I met online soon after we found out we were having triplets, not only did we share a due date, but we were both pregnant with triplets, and both with 2 boys and a girl: Our trio was born 12.22 and Cristina’s were born 12.30. It was so much fun to see all these littles running around and interacting with each other, with the added bonus of getting to hug Cristina and meet her husband!

We also had other friends of our’s and their 3 kiddos. The big{er} kids got to go down to the river and have some fun there, before the littles kind of took over the day. I was so beyond grateful that the rain held off and we were able to be outside.

What have you been up to the past few weekends? This weekend we’re having a quiet weekend at home. We’re not going anywhere, just working on things around the house, and then spoiling Matt on Sunday. Spending sometime together recuperating before July is here.

March Showers, bring May Brides

This past weekend was crazy busy: Saturday we had my sister in law’s bridal shower {Matt’s sister}. I love parties….I love preparing for them, doing invites, food and decorations. But, boy are they tiring! Anyways…..there really isn’t much to tell, but more to show.

     

If you want to see more of the pictures from the shower, be sure to click HERE.

Pint-sized Yummy Goodness

What is it about sugar, butter and flour that can bring the masses to insanity?!

For the trio’s birthday party I made cupcakes. I’ve always loved the miniature fanciness that is cupcakes and have tried to replicate it, with less than stellar results. Finally I found a tutorial, on pinterest of course, that gave away all the secrets of how to decorate cupcakes that look professional: A bigger tip. Seriously, that’s it.

I hit up Michael's the last time we were in Bing-ton and picked me up a Wilton Cupcake Decorating Kit, which has the 1M tip for cupcakes.

I was all set, I had everything I needed to make fantastically professional looking cupcakes. I even picked out some highly recommended recipes for Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes.

Then tragedy struck.

I was pretty sure this was not how they should look. The chocolate came out way to airy and collapsed if you touched them and I forgot to add leavening agents to the vanilla. Back to the drawing board.

I redid the vanilla, remembering to use the baking soda and powder and they turned out wonderful. I then used Ina Garten’s recipe for Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes, even made my own chocolate syrup for it. OH MY GOODNESS! That is my new favorite recipe for chocolate cupcakes; so absolutely rich and delicious, without being too sweet.

This time things turned out a bit better.

I used the American Buttercream recipe, swapping out some of the butter for cream cheese {which I’ve never thought do until reading that post}. The frosting was delicious. I like frosting, but I’m not a big fan of super sweet sugary grittiness. The cream cheese cut that down so that you could sit there and just eat a bowl of it.

The chocolate cupcakes I frosted with my favorite Chocolate frosting recipe.

I broke out my new Wilton 1M tip and away I went. So easy! So fantastic looking! I seriously was in love! I find myself looking for excuses to make cupcakes now….not good!

For my tastes it was the perfect amount of frosting, but for aesthetics I think I could have piped on a bit more. Next time I plan on playing with the other tips and testing out what works best.

I found this while I was looking around pinterest and thought it was quite good as well :-)
I’ve never watched The Office, which I think is where it is from.

What are you favorite cupcake tips or recipes?

Party Time!

The poor birthday babies did not have a good time. They’ve all had a terrible, horrible cold and are feeling pretty crumby. Henry and Ellie weren’t too interested in their cupcakes, James was a bit more interested buy not terribly so. We did realize that we need to buy a bigger house to accommodate birthday and Christmas gifts: oy!

On Approaching the Big 3-0!

This month something crazy happens {my mom will attest to the fact that she is not old enough for this to happen}: I turn 30. That’s right! A new decade! I’m completely ok with turning 30, but why is it that the numbers always sound so much older than the actual age. I don’t think people who are 60 are old, but that numbers sounds really old.
This month I’m going to {try} to do some fun things around here, not sure what yet, but maybe a giveaway and some fun posts. I think I can manage that. BUT if you have some ideas for giveaways or posts, or things that you think would make for an awesome celebration (your questions for me)…by all means email me! :-)

But first off, let’s kick off the month with Creating Community through Comments! If you signed up, let the commenting begin!

Avelyn's First Birthday Party!

Well A's birthday party went off without a hitch...even if we were still cleaning when people started to arrive (it wasn't for lack of trying). A was absolutely wonderful, she took great naps and woke up just as she was supposed to (Thank you Lord). The food was all delicious and we managed to fit everyone in our house...yay!

We had the son of one of my mom's friends be our photographer for the day (he's really great) and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to not have to worry about pictures all day (I had enough on my plate without that). I haven't gotten the pictures from him yet, and it may be a while, but these are a couple of pictures from my camera.

Our menu was smoked ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, and homemade apple sauce: Dessert was maple bread pudding, apple crisp, pumpkin roll, and birthday cake (homemade vanilla cake with raspberry preserves and butter cream frosting). It was so good. Unfortunately I didn't get much to eat, but you can bet the leftovers will be tomorrow's lunch.

I did a couple of different craft projects for the day. In the first picture you can see the banner I made with MIL's cricut...it says Happy 1st Birthday, then below it are the pictures I took each month of A with a stuffed bunny. My SIL and I also mod-podged tissue paper on baby food jars for candle holders, and we had red balloons, on which we taped leaves to the top to make them apples. I was rather proud of myself that all of my DIY projects actually came together.

I was so grateful that people didn't go crazy with gifts...unfortunately I told people 18 months for clothes. She's fitting comfortable in them now, but give her a month and she'll be out. So I have to take some things back to get them in 24 months/2T sizes (how is she already in 2T?!) She got quite a few books, which is awesome, and only a few toys. Mommy still needs to wrap her presents for Monday though.

All in all, it was a great day. Filled with people we love and care about, and who love and care about us. I couldn't have asked for a nicer 1st birthday party for my amazing daughter.

Cake video

Hair and gone :-)

I chopped it!

This was this afternoon

this was this evening

(Yes, I know I look exhausted...and my chin isn't really that pointy....is it?...I guess that's what happens when you're taking your own picture)

I feel like ME again....do I miss my hair, yes, but I've donated what was chopped off to Locks of Love: It's a bit short, but they accept anything now and sell it to other companies for money. So it's still going to a good cause and not in the garbage can.

I've also been working on A's 1st bday invites (which need to be mailed monday). We're going with an apple theme (I use the word loosely). We've got the whole menu planned out and as of now it's going to be on the small side (25-30 people), which is ok with me.

On the menu:

Drinks: Fresh pressed apple cider (our own) and Matt's pumpkin ale

Dessert: Apple Cupcakes and fresh made cider donuts (with cinnamon and sugar)

Dinner: Smoked ham, mashed potatoes, homemade apple sauce, roasted squash, pumpkin soup, and homemade biscuits

I am so excited about it!