Jack's 1st birthday

such a cute lil buckaroo, if I do say so!  (thanks mom for sharing your pictures!)

 

 

 

leading up to Jack's birthday felt a little hectic.  not only because it wasn't long after the holidays, but we had new flooring started in the kitchen and entry way the week before that wasn't all buttoned up until a couple days prior to the party so my house was a wreck, then Jack got sick. I didn't know if I was gonna pull it off - it was touch and go there for a little bit.

I put a picture of Jack at each month on a digital frame, and I find myself just sitting in front of it watching the slide show to see how much he's grown in a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the idea I could make a cactus cake with marshmallow fondant, but I ran out of steam and just went with a Wild West Toob on top of yellow cupcakes with Almond Joy frosting.  maybe next birthday I'll try something like that.  I think it still came out cute.

 

Jack seemed a little unsure of the cupcake until he got a taste of the frosting, then he dug in!

     

and he wasn't as interested in opening gifts as he was in eating the paper, so once that was taken from him he wandered off to play with other things.

 

  

one of the things I'm really glad I found was this cute little chair.  it's a rocker, but I kept the rockers off so Jack could climb on it.  he really likes it and he's just so darn cute in it!

I didn't work too hard on favors this time (sorry Jack!)  I just got jar mugs and filled them with gold nuggets and jerky.  I did embellish them a bit, and I made Leo his own little cup lined with matching paper.  his had candy rocks and toys in it - couldn't tell he was that impressed with it.  oh well!

now off to get ideas for the next birthday party - the planning just never ends!

Arachnophobia

for our fall backyard movie night I chose Arachnophobia.  I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid!  I remember being a little scared when I first saw it, and it still has its creepy feeling when all the real spiders are running around, but it was pretty corny, so that was fun!

I did a big no-no and tried stuff I hadn't done for a crowd before.  I never have good luck when I just throw together an idea for a recipe, especially for a party.  I will test a recipe out until we're sick of it so I know how to do it, but this time I just threw caution to the wind and hoped for the best, and if it didn't work out I had Matt's corn dogs to fall back on, but it all came together great :)

while I have made beer pretzels before, I only did 8.  I made 24 this time, and set out a bunch of dipping sauces - a variety of mustards, "cheese" sauce, caramel, and chocolate - they doubled as a savory and a sweet treat.  it's a nice little versatile "snack" :)

I made Rolo pretzel spiders which is not quite a first time "recipe" either, but I took a chance that they would turn out in a nice spider configuration, and they did :)  I tried melting the Rolo and sticking the pretzels in, but that didn't work so I used candy melts to glue the legs to the candy.  chocolate and pretzels seem to be a hit combination at movie night so I'm glad I did them.

a new thing I did that I hadn't tested out before was kettle corn.  I used coconut oil and bacon drippings, stirred in some sugar and salt with the popcorn kernels and shook it all together on the stove in a big pot until it was done.  this one didn't come out as awesome as I thought it would, but it was okay.  some people really liked it so I'm happy I tried it.

Harlan & Hailey                                                  Judy and Kathy

Reagan, David, and Dad                              Larry, Marie & Joel

Kim, Amanda & Michael                                           Matt & me

Hailey, Kim, Amanda and me                 Matt making corn dogs

Marie and me                         Dad with a spider on his shoulder

Marie and Jack                                   Pawpaw making Leo "fly"

Leo waiting to have a pretzel                                Mom and Jack

the weather was nice, the food turn out great, the new speakers sounded wonderful and everyone enjoyed themselves :)  another success!

monster truck party

for Leo's 3rd birthday party we did a monster truck theme.  he's been talking about his monster truck birthday party all month!  he was definitely excited :)

 

 

 

 

I did the date decider, save the date, and invitation through punchbowl - I'm really liking that site :)

I love how the cake came out - probably the best cake I've done for Leo.  it was 4 layers - 2 blue suede and 2 Funfetti with cream cheese frosting, dusted with cookie crumb dirt and chocolate rocks.

I knew Leo would want to play with the cool scene, so I made the top part removable so he could play with it while we ate the cake.  he tracked the dirt all over the table and ate handfuls of rocks - he really enjoyed himself with that :)

I set my cake stand on a tray that I put over an old tire I had in the garage and added more dirt to the tray to hold some chocolate cookies that looked kinda like tires.

the balloons were such a hit last year that I had to do a bunch of those again.  with the help of a Sandi Masori Balloons video I made an arch into the kitchen.  my lips are still feeling funny from all the latex powder :\  but it was worth it.  next time I'd use the compressor... and not do it in the middle of the night when I have to be quiet ;)  surprisingly, I only popped one and no one woke up!

I also used some punch balloons to tie open the curtains.  I thought the red, yellow, and green looked sorta like a signal light?

when we brought Leo in to see all the decorations the thing he was most drawn to was the dollar store monster truck cut outs that took no effort at all to put up...  go figure!

I packaged up some caramel corn, honey roasted peanuts, and cookies in some cellophane bags printed with trucks, tied them with some black and white ribbon, and added key chains I made for the party favors.

I had something else in mind when I was ordering the key chains online, but I made them work and they turned out kinda cute.

since we're pretty much maxed out on space and we already have a ton of toys, I thought giving Leo one big toy that everyone could chip in on would be a good idea, so we got him a Power Wheels Jeep that can stay in the garage.  he loved it... after everyone stopped staring at him.

on Leo's actual birthday we'll be on vacation in Galveston, so I'm saving him a picture book I made from a bunch of Google images of monster trucks.  it's been wrapped up in our bedroom for a little while and when ever he sees his present he tells me about his monster truck party - who was coming, what we were gonna eat, and then describes monster trucks in general for a pretty long stretch of time.  I keep telling him that present has to wait until we go to Galveston and that starts up a whole new conversation about going to the beach, playing in the water, dragons moving into sandcastles... I hope the weather is nice for us!

zefrank

how have I not seen zefrank before now??  it's an excellent time kill... which I don't really have time for!  I started with True Facts and have been watching other stuff he does once in a while.  I really liked this one from ashow that I watched yesterday :)

fresh shaken

I've been making my own whipped cream for a while because it tastes so much better than what ya buy at the store, but I would end up with leftover heavy cream that would just spoil in the fridge if I forgot to use it all up before we ate all our dessert.  felt like such a waste.  even more so when I found out I could make butter from soured heavy cream...  gah!  who knows how much potential butter I've tossed throughout the holidays :(

anyway, so I tried it on half of a quart of cream that got lost in the back of the fridge and was about a month out of date... it was the best butter I've ever had!  also, the best arm workout.  win win win :)

I used the mixer the first time which gets the job done much faster, but I think if I'm going to be eating more butter I should get a good work out first and just shake it in a jar ;)

I got 2 cups of butter from 1 quart of heavy whipping cream, with about 2 cups whey leftover, which is apparently what "traditional" buttermilk is. makes me think I could use the whey in place of water with powdered buttermilk for a richer buttermilk pie.  I'm so excited for holiday baking!

"traditional" buttermilk

my arms are incredibly sore after an hour+ of shaking, and it's not really cheaper for me to make the butter and buttermilk (unless I get a good deal on cream), but it's so much better when it's homemade so I'll be making it for the holidays and special stuff... or maybe when I need a good workout :)