The Best Pinata Ever

I realize I haven't blogged in a very long time, but it's that time of year again when I go nut-so and make I-don't-know-how-many birthday cakes for my sweet boy. This year, he's 5 and it's all about Batman. He loves all superheroes, but Batman is his favorite. At some point I will post a picture of the Lego Batman Cake I made, but this weekend, it's his "friend" party when my house will be infiltrated by twelve 4 and 5 year olds donning homemade Batman towel capes made by my wonderful mother-in-law. Did I mention they will all be wet? We rented an inflatable water slide, so it should be interesting.

Anyway, the whole reason I am writing this is because I ordered a Lego Batman Joker pinata (because who wants to beat up Batman, right?) from a wonderful Etsy seller called WHACK. They are a husband and wife team and they make custom pinatas. I needed a home to post the picture of the BEST PINATA EVER. So here it is.

You should check out their other creations at http://whack.etsy.com

E4 - Ethan's 4th Birthday with Family

This year's theme: Sharks. He loves them. Of course, I set out to make a shark cake. I found this idea on the internet and I copied it. I baked a normal 8" round chocolate cake for the base and iced it blue for the water and then I baked red velvet cake in a loaf pan for the shark. I did this on Saturday before his party on Sunday. To carve the shark, I froze the loaf cake thinking it would be easier. Carving went well. However, I didn't let the shark thaw before I iced him and as the crystallized moisture melted, it created a red (bloody looking) seepage that caused the bottom jaw of my shark to melt off overnight. Yikes! I fixed it, but it didn't look as nice as it did on Saturday. Here's some pics from the day.

"I make a birfday for you"

So, it's not Christmas, or my birthday, but here are some pictures of my sweet son enjoying his Christmas gift from Mrs. Claus (the Le Toy Van Mixer from my earlier post.) He is making a birthday for his momma.

Ethan's 3rd Birthday -- Part III

Woo hoo! Three years-old is fun. It's finally the time where they appreciate and want you to do all the fun Mommy things that I wish I could do more of, but never seem to have adequate time (darn having to work full time and sleep.) This year, by his own choice, he asked if he could have a party and have his friends over. I asked him if he wanted a Thomas Party, a Super Why party or a Cookie Monster party and he chose Thomas. (See entries for Ethan's Birthday I and II to see that he had all 3.)


I made his invitation using brown kraft paper. I didn't want it to be overly Thomas-y, but I still wanted to include Thomas. I had a really good time making it. If you're interested, I'll probably sell it in my Etsy store eventually. http://inviteddesign.etsy.com

For his party, I bought Thomas engineer hats, Thomas party blowers, Percy, Thomas and James mylar baloons and a Thomas pinata from www.trainparty.com. I also bought the 3D Thomas Cake kit. Again ... I love the idea of making the cake, but I kind of stink at it. My cake proportions were not correct, and yes, I used a ruler to cut it. I guess other people's cakes are thicker because the face was way too big for my engine body. Oh well. Here's a picture of me with the cake and my neighbor's child, Simon, who definitely didn't mind the sinking side and "out-of-proportion-ess" as he continued to follow me around while I held it, saying "I want a piece of that one."
I also made cupcakes which I decorated with double sided little cupcake toppers, each with a different engine. If you're interested in these, I'll probably put them in my Etsy store too. http://inviteddesign.etsy.com

For the favors, I bought paperback Thomas books and a wooden whistle and wrapped them together in a red engineer's bandana. I bought the books from www.trainparty.com too.

I used yellow table cloths and plain blue plates and strung yellow, red and blue balloons across my yard.

Also, I rented tables and chairs from Weinhardt party supply. I hate the idea of spending money on something that I could probably call in favors for, but it was so much easier. Plus, they had little kid chairs and tables.

For a train, I bought a Thomas pop up tent with an Annie and Clarabel caboose tunnel. I struggled with this for a long time because I really wanted to buy the Thomas ride on train with track, but geez! It's expensive and virtually impossible to find at this time of year. In the end, I settled for the tent and it was a hit.

The real hit was our playset though. Knowing that we were planning on buying a playset for his birthday this year, I saw an ad in Toys R Us for the Lexington by Big Backyard in April and dragged my husband to the store. We stored it in our basement until late July when we began its assembly. It took my husband and I no less than 30 hours to put it together -- that's not including the 4 hours of sorting wood in my basement with a tape measure that I spent prior to construction. Thanks to my mother and father-in-law and my aunt and Sharon, we were able to do it together, otherwise, one of us would still be trying to assemble it. We decided to put pea gravel down around the set and that has been almost as much fun as the playset. My husband built a cobblestone border to hold in all the pea gravel. We still have to back fill and plant grass (and finish our fence.)

Overall, everything went really well. The kids had a great time. Not sure if I'll do this kind of party again though. It was a lot of work the day of. And I stressed about rain. Luckily, it didn't.

Ethan's 3rd Birthday -- Part II

This year, my husband and I took on the tremendous endeavor of constructing a playset(which will be shown in Ethan's 3rd Birthday -- Part III) for the E-Man's birthday. Knowing that this would take us just about forever and also taking into account that another child in his school has a birthday the day after his, we decided to move his "Friend Come Over to My House" birthday party back a couple weeks. So, on his actual birthday, we attended his friend's party and then came home to a pizza, cake and ice cream with Grandma, PaPa, Aunt Lynn, Uncle John, Erin, and Dee Dee, Sharon, and Grandma Schutte (and Mommy and Daddy too.) I love the family birthday the most. I really wish we had more little kids. It would be that much better.



For his family birthday, I spent way too long trying to make a Super Why themed cake. I love decorating cakes, but I stink at it. If you have a child who watches Super Why, perhaps you will be able to tell what I wast trying to get at with the cake. It's supposed to be the Super Why book. See it? I cheated and stuck toys on it (thank goodness.)

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the festivities. He makes my heart pitter pat.




Listening to everyone sing "Happy Birthday To You" -- How cute is that?




Blowing out his candle




Erin -- Isn't she pretty?






Jumping and playing!

The Holy Grail of Toy Mixers (I think)

So, I received a comment with a new wooden mixer suggestion and it was really cute. And then I thought to myself, "Have I searched WOODEN toy mixers?" And have I used bing? (I love bing. It gives me so much more than google.) Anyway, that's when I found it in an article about Le Toy Van ... the ultimate in wooden toy mixer sets.
Drool. Drool. I quickly looked at Le Toy Van's website (which I highly recommend -- they have the CUTEST wooden toy playsets!) and I couldn't find a US distributor. Panic. So then I binged Le Toy Can Mixer and woo hoo! There it is on good ol' amazon. OK, so it is $53.99 + $8.95 shipping , but it includes all of those CAKES which I love, love, love!

Now, remember. I have a boy. He does like to play with the kitchen set (which is one made by my grandfather and saved since my childhood), but he also likes guns (sorry to the squeamish moms who can't handle that), crashing cars and making loud roaring sounds. Would this be completely lost on him? It's not lost on me! I guess there's always hope I'd have a girl eventually (pray. pray. even if it's not a girl. another would be very nice.) but I run the risk that he would have put little tiny bite marks in all the cakes (not to mention the rolling pin.) But it is so lovely. So ... should I get it?

His very own "Mixter"

So all of this baking has given me the idea to get Ethan a toy mixer for Christmas. Now, I just have to choose one. Anyone care to give me their opinion?


Choice #1: The Casdon 490 Kenwood Mixer
http://www.amazon.com/Casdon-490-Toy-Kenwood-Mixer/dp/B00009W9JC/ref=pd_sbs_t_4

PROS:
It really works. It has two speeds and the description says it will have junior bakers on their way.

CONS: It really works. All I can think of is how careful I have to be myself not to get my spatula caught in the beaters. Or a worse thought...pinched fingers. ouch.


Choice#2 : Electronic Mixer
http://www.amazon.com/Motormax-Electronic-Mixer/dp/B000MEWORG/ref=pd_sbs_t_5

PROS: Pulse function
CONS: I don't love the design. I would really like something that looks more like my KitchenAid.






Choice #3: Pottery Barn Kids Wooden mixer (in Red)
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/ty30/index.cfm

PROS: I love wooden toys. They are durable and generally safe. The absence of beeping and blinking leaves more to the imagination and let's the kid exercise their mind with creative play. You can crank the top and mixes. No pinched fingers!

Cons: Holy $59! That's kind of steep.



If anyone sees any others, please feel free to send them to me! I appreciate it.

Ethan's 3rd Birthday -- Part I

So, I am a little bananas about my boy and his birthday. I admit that I might go slightly overboard in celebrating, but I love the idea of making him his own special cupcakes and cakes. It's difficult for me to pick just one, and since there were multiple opportunities to break out my "mixter" as he calls it, I decided to go ahead and make him as many birthday cakes as I wanted. The sad part is that as much as Ethan gets excited about me making his birthday in my mixer, he doesn't really LOVE cake. He does LOVE cookies, so I had to be a little creative. Therefore, after much thought of how I could stick cookies and candy on a cupcake I decided naturally on a cookie monster cupcake.


I thought for a long time about what to use on the eyes. As it turns out, one of Ethan's new favorite things is marshmallow, so I used black food coloring and painted pupils on large ones cut in half. I then shoved a Chips Ahoy cookie in the mouth and wah-lah ... Cookie Monster cupcakes. I took them to school for all of his buddies and the best part is that I saw another mother a week later and she told me her son came home with a detailed description of Ethan's Cookie Monster cupcakes. They were a hit. And that makes me happy.

Too much on my plate

So I have come to realize that I have too much going on in my life and I need to cut out some of the "extra" things that cause me unneeded stress and worry. That's why after months of ignoring my blog, I decide to actually write a post. That makes a ton of sense. Actually, I just want to be able to post pictures of my son's birthday party (which is probably my real source of stress -- only because I am going to be embarrassed by the rock quarry and mud mounds in my yard.) I really should have had a construction themed party. It would have been perfect.

Anyway, just to get back in the swing of things. Here are two items I have knitted in the last couple months. The first is a set of booties for our neighbors who had their third boy. You can get the pattern from here: http://www.bekahknits.com/. Or if you are on ravelry, from here.

The second pattern is from Debbie Bliss' "Essential Baby." It's just the little baby vest pattern, but I added the monogram "R" using intarsia. It's my first time making of my own intarsia design. I just basically created a grid of the stitches and Xed the blue ones. It was pretty easy.

Seagram: 1993-2008

Last night, I made the choice with my husband, Greg to say goodbye to our sweet dog Seagram. In the past couple months, Seagram declined significantly from the effects of lymphoma. In addition to failing appetite and intestinal distress, breathing problems and muscular-skeleton issues, the last couple weeks rendered him completely blind in one eye with the other failing fast. This being said, I can officially say that I am a complete disaster as my mind second-guesses my decision. It's difficult to process that yesterday, he was here, and today, he’s gone. Words really can’t describe how sad we are and how much we miss him. Seagram has been around for nearly half my life. He was born in New Orleans sometime in July of 1993 and came into our lives after someone found a litter of puppies in a garbage can and took them to the LASPCA. He was a mess when we got him with gross intestinal parasites and a big spot of ringworm on his back leg. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but think he was adorable after watching him pounce and wrestle with his brother. So Seagram went home with us to 916 Audubon Street, his first home of many. During the New Orleans days, he romped around with his fellow college partner in crime, Champ Bell plotting ways to tip over the garbage can so he could drag the trash to Barrett’s bed or how he could eat an entire tray of brownies sent to me for Valentine’s Day from my Grandma Schutte. He also accompanied us on many hikes, the most memorable one to St. George Island where he was carried 2 miles in Barrrett’s back pack on what later became known as the “Spring Break from Hell.” When he moved back to St. Louis with me in 1998, he was able to become a full time roommate to my childhood dog, Charlie, then living with my mother and my cat from 4th grade named Dusty. Seagram pretty much sealed the deal on Dusty’s moving papers and she decided to adopt our neighbors as her new parents because I guess that she didn’t like to be out-numbered. Then came Suzie and Miles who have been his longest companions yet…Suzie for the last 8 years and Miles for 5. He has spent many a day laying in the sunshine with Suzie (and avoiding Miles) watching the birds and clouds fly by. It’s amazing how he seems to be one of the only dogs that I have known to really take in all of his surroundings. Seagram will be forever remembered for his sensitive nature and for his caring intuition for his humans. He was a very good dog and I am lucky to have been able to have him share in my life.

And again...Why did I not learn how to Crochet?

Holy cow. I want to make these. Except bigger and I wanted them like 3 weeks ago so I could have my one hand smack my other hand around when it got out of line during the debates.


Barack Obama Crocheted Finger Puppet from Lion Brand


John McCain Crocheted Finger Puppet from Lion Brand

The Jib Jab Guys are my Heroes

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Hickory Dickory Dot Sweater

I have officially finished the Hickory Dickory Dot Sweater by annypurls. It's for our friends, Sarah and James (and Sadie) who are expecting their first child due September 24. I don't think my sweater is nearly as cute as hers, however I used yarn that probably wasn't as nice. I get worried about using yarn that is too expensive for a baby. They either grow out of it quickly or get it terribly stained and you can't throw a lot of the yarns in the washer for a good scrub. If anyone has found a good DK yarn for baby items that is not TERRIBLY expensive, let me know.

While at Jujube&Lolo, I discovered anny has a new pattern. Yay! It's called Duck Soup. I really want to make it for Ethan, but I'm a little worried it looks too girly. I wouldn't make the closures multi-colored. I think that would help lessen it's feminine effect. What do you think?

E's Birthday Party Invitation

So, as my good friend Ellen pointed out in my last post, I didn't show a picture of Ethan's invitation. Here it is.

I am selling ones like it that I will customize with your child's silhouette and colors in my Etsy shop: www.inviteddesign.etsy.com

Happy Birthday to E!

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's been a month and a half since my last blog post, but it's not like I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. So here's what I have been up to ...

Knitting: I am almost done with Hickory Dickory Dot by anny purls. I'm just finishing up the mouse and deciding if I want to put a squeaker in it before I finish seaming. I'll post a picture of it when it's complete. Next on the needles: A sweater jacket for me! My first. Here's the pattern I'm using: DROPS Jacket

Invitations: I guess you can say I have started an invitation business. This has taken up most of my spare time. It's too much to go into now, so I'll save that for a later post. Maybe tomorrow.

My son's second birthday: Yay! Ethan turned two! With all of my efforts towards designing invitations (which I really have enjoyed) I was totally the slacker mom about the E-Man's second birthday. I couldn't really even decide on a theme. I was torn because he really likes cars. However, we got him a train set because he loves playing with them at other people's houses and has really started to say "CHOO! CHOO!" whenever we're driving or walking and see trains. On the other hand, he's totally obsessed with balls. So the theme became "All things that roll" I made his invitation and lined the envelopes with paper printed with little cars. I love to make cakes, so I totally stole the idea of this train cake and made my own. Here's mine.

OK. So mine isn't as fancy, but it's OK. I used my Grandma Young's Lady Bird Johnson Chocolate cake recipe which is one of our faves.

The weather here in St. Louis has been beautiful for August so we were lucky enough to be able to have the party outside. Here's some pictures from the day.

That's my husband's tortoise, Buddy. (Notice I say my husband's tortoise. He came with him in the marriage.)

So, Ethan wanted to play with "Daddy's Lawn Mower" (it's really a blower) more than anything else. Eventually, we had to put blower "Night. Night" "Bye. Bye. Wawn Wower."

He can finally rip wrapping paper. Yay! He eventually got the hang of the present thing. Here he is playing with his Thomas book from Aunt Lynn and Uncle John.

How cute is my niece?
These are the lion cupcakes I made and brought to school for his birthday. I got the idea from here. (I'm such a cake hack.) Ethan doesn't like cake...I have no idea what is wrong with him, but I figured he would like the candy. Plus, I wanted to hear him say "Wion. RAARRRR!"
He's a good "rarrr-er".

So that's it for the birthday. I can't believe my little love is two.

First Carnival For the E-Man

So, my son is going to be a daredevil. (Worried sigh.) On Thursday and then again on Friday (because we forgot our camera- doh!) we went to the Webster Groves Community Days Carnival. I have always LOVED carnivals, so much so that I would happily hop out of the car on my way to dinner to take a couple rides. We decided to take Ethan to the carnival thinking that he would like the lights, but expecting that he would be too scaredy to go on any rides. So, when we got there and saw they had several kiddie rides, we decided to start small with the train. By the end of the night he was giggling through the "Bigger Kid Kiddie Rides" that even sort of scared me. Here are some pictures from our revisit on Friday (which was WAY more crowded and crazy than our visit on Thursday.)

Everyone has a little 15 year-old in them, right?

At one point in time, I could have called myself a "reader." Unfortunately, five plus years, a child, a full time job, knitting, designing, not to mention trying to fit in maintaining a house, bills, cooking, cleaning, and spending a few moments with my husband, I find if I do pick up a book, it takes me a very long time (as in months) to finish it. But that was not the case with this book.

I think you can say I am officially obsessed with "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyers. I read it in a couple days ... and those days were work days. The entire time I read it, I felt this overwhelming sense of guilt that if I AM ACTUALLY READING, I should be reading something that would be more "beneficial" (whatever the hell that means) to me. I dunno, like maybe I should finish some of the books I *should* have read in highschool like Tolstoy (whom I have never read). The reality is I think I want to read Tolstoy because it is representative of a specific historical time and a plight of a people who helped create a foundation for what we have today and I find the idea of that compelling, but when I actually sit down to read Tolstoy, eh, it's not as interesting. (I'm saying this having not read anything by Tolstoy, so it could be completely gripping for all I know.) On the other hand, reading "Twilight" for me was like drinking a Cherry Coke -- something I totally enjoyed doing, but not sure if I should be expending my calories on something so unsubstantial. I realize that's not very nice to say about the book, and I kind of feel sorry for saying that, especially after having read Stephenie's inspiration behind her book and really relating to her plight as a mother trying to complete a project that she was passionate about. Another thing to feel guilty about: wishing for bedtime or naptime for your children so that you can work on your own selfish, creative obsessions. That's an entry for another time, though.

Regardless of my guilt issues, "Twilight" called to the younger girl within me and reminded me of what it's like to love and live passionately -- something that I'm sure we all forget how to do as time goes by. Unable to say goodbye to Edward and Bella, I'll be picking up Twilight's sequel tonight, New Moon.