My punk

52 week project was not a success.  I fell behind and that was the end of it.  I haven't taken any photos of the kids in awhile because I've been too busy with everything else.  Took a few yesterday and this is a little hint of what I got from Stella:

Eva

So much for my 52 week project. I think I have been doing it, but I haven't been so great with posting the results. I may dig through and get things posted, but in the meantime, here are a few from this weekend's photo session with Eva.

Dress up

My girlies love playing dress up. Eva is almost always snow white and Stella is an equal opportunity dress up player. Yesterday, she was a Kangaroo. I love this costume...she looks so snuggly :)

No more diapers!

I am so thrilled and as you can see in the second photo - so is she! My baby is potty-trained and we only started this past Saturday. She has been accident free for 5 days. Yay Stella!

 

 

Valentine's Day!

Eva requested that we throw a Valentine's Day tea party for a few of her girlfriends. I don't know where she gets these ideas :) Ok, of course, I'll throw a party for any reason, so I knew this would be fun! This was the first 'drop off' party that we have had so, well, I had to put the camera down as soon as guests started arriving. I tried to get a few pictures of the goodies that we made and the table.

 

Party Details

Fancy red and pink Valentine's food recipes/ideas:
Heart-shaped rice crispy treats made with strawberry marshmallows
Heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches
Heart-shaped wheat pasta with red marinara sauce
Maraschino cherries (just because!)
Red apples
Raspberry lemonade
Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing (both Gluten Free) with pink/red sprinkles
Raspberry hot tea
Red Izzes (adults only!)

Activities
The girls made heart-shaped Valentines to take home. I bought large red foam hearts that had a sparkly glitter border, smaller glitter foam hearts, even smaller puffy glitter hearts and heart stickers. 4 and 5 are great ages for actually sitting down and creating! I gave them glue and they got to work!

Goodie bags
I didn't actually put together goodie bags, per se. I bought goodie bags and filled them with the table decorations. There were two small pink painted flowerpots full of red lollipops and one filled with very tall heart-shaped lollipops. I put one of each in the goodie bag along with heart-shaped lip gloss, a red bead necklace, a fancy pink hanging heart crystal, a raspberry tea bag, fancy sparkly bling, a tiara and a heart-shaped fan.

And these were Eva's Valentine's that she, well, we made for school!

 

Last, but certainly not least...the cheapest dinner in the world to make at home:

Other things that we made, but didn't necessarily document...

Red heart shaped jello
We actually made a layered heart-shaped jello concoction, but it took more time and effort than it was worth. Next year, definitely sticking to the one layer of red jello!

Heart sandwiches
I always feel guilty when making shaped sandwiches because I have to throw away 30% of the sandwich (the border). So, this time, I made regular sandwiches and used a cookie cutter to put a design on the top. Eva wanted PB&J, so I used cherry jelly to make the heart shape. Mickey and Stella wanted grilled cheese - so after making their grilled cheeses, I cut out a heart shape from a slice of cheese and placed it on top of their sandwiches. Turned out great and didn't have to waste anything!

Pink heart bagels
Bought mini-bagels, covered them in strawberry cream cheese and carved a heart out of a strawberry to place in the middle.

Ooh La la

It's no secret that Stella's favorite music artist is Lady Gaga.  She can pick out a beat from a mile away when I can't even hear that there is music playing.  Well, yesterday, we were reading every fancy, girly, tea party book imaginable and came upon Tea for Ruby.  At least I think it was Tea for Ruby...I easily confuse that with one of the many Fancy Nancy books we have!  Anyway, we get to a page where someone says 'ooh la la' and Stella puts her hand in the book and says "ooh la la, just like Lady Gaga."  I think that is her new favorite book.

Snow day

We got about 6 inches of snow and the kids have been having a blast. No one in NC drives in the snow, so we used the streets for sledding. I'll post more at some point, but here were a few of my favorites from snow day part II:

What kind of monkey?

Todd and I were talking the other morning and I said to him, "Stella is a crafty little monkey" after she had done something clever. Eva storms right over and chimes in, "yes, that's right, she's a crappy little monkey, alright." Oh Eva :)

Let me backtrack a bit - Stella's 2nd birthday!

I received an email yesterday from a South African party store asking if they could use Stella's 2nd birthday photos in their publication.  Of course I said yes...we have so much fun planning and hosting these birthday parties and I'd love to share so others can get ideas!

As soon as it's published, I'll be sure to add it to the blog!

In the meantime, I'll point you to a link from a talented designer named Jenn that designed the monkey printables, who has also featured Stella's party on her blog!

Stellas monkey party featured on Parties by Hardie

Well, I guess I should post a few photos as well...

Party Details

Monkey printables: Parties by Hardie
Fondant monkies: Designed by: The Frosted Cake n Cookie  Made by: Me!
Cake: The ever fabulous Todd Olson

Monkey-friendly food recipes/ideas:
  Monkey mix - dried banana, coconut, peanuts, cashews, raisins
  Monkey pancakes - mold found at Williams Sonoma  Instead of sticky syrup, whipped cream to top
  100% Banana juice - found at Whole Foods
  100% Banana ice cream - freeze peeled bananas, then mash!
  Monkey sandwiches: modeled them after the fondant monkeys.  PB and Banana sandwiches.  Brown M&Ms for eyes and a cashew to make a little smirk!  Used peanut butter as 'glue' to hold things together.
 Other things on the menu: hummus + pretzels, fruit platter

Activities
Since the majority of guests were 2 years old, we kept the activities pretty simple.
Pin the nose on the monkey: monkey face and noses came in the monkey printable pack (see above)
Banana hunt: similar to an easter egg hunt, we hid mini bananas (found at Whole Foods) for the little monkeys to find.  Great snack too ;)
Monkey story time: Grandma read "Five Little Monkeys" to the group.

Goodie 'bags'
Target's dollar section often has plastic popcorn tubs.  Since red was in the color scheme, I used these and put a little bag of 'monkey mix' in there along with a monkey maraca found at Cost Plus World Market.  I also had little rubber monkeys that were 'supposed' to be in the goodie bags, but they ended up hiding all over the house and the car and weren't recovered in time for the party!  There were purchased from Party City.