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 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.

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.)

The Babied Baby – Ethan's Farm Nursery

EthansNursery, originally uploaded by lucyschutte.

My friend Ellen is getting married, and watching her, I don't think anything can become quite as big of an obsession as planning your wedding. After you get married, you buy a house and become all-consumed with decorating. Still, it doesn't quite compare to planning a wedding because decorating a house is a long term (really an endless) project (plus, you just blew your whole budget on your wedding, so who can afford to make over their whole house at once?) Then, you get pregnant. Budget? Who cares about a budget when we're talking about you CHILD? As evidenced in $900+ chandeliers for a baby nursery from PoshTots. My husband and I tried for years to get pregnant and when we finally did, I was hesitant to start planning our nursery (although I had been secretly planning it in my head for a very long time.) When the time did come, I was pretty disheartened with the examples of baby nurseries out there. I couldn't really find anything. Eventually I would like to start a website where people can post pictures of their nursery so that expectant moms and dads can see all the cool things that people are doing in preparation for their newest member. Until I do, I decided to post pictures of my own nursery here.


I decided to do a Farm theme based on a print that was given to me from my grandma. It's a picture of a milk maid and a little kid drinking milk on a farm with cows and cats and a farmer standing in the background. My Grandma Young would hold me in front of the picture when I was a little girl and tell me stories about the farm family. I decided to hang it in Ethan's room. My husband and I added the mouldings and I painted all of the silhouetted animals. Also, in rebellion against paying $900 for a chandelier, I made my own. I sculpted a pig, a hen and chicks, a cow and out three dogs for each arm. (If you are interested in a custom chandelier, feel free to email me. dianacweir@yahoo.com)

Here are some images from the completed room...

Here's a list of where I bought everything:

• Freckles Farmyard 4-Piece Crib Set
  


• Espresso Pinehurst Lifetime Crib from Babies R' Us (It looks like they don't have the Espresso one anymore)


• Waverly® Carlton Drapery Rod - 26-48"


• Old MacDonald Had a Farm Rug

I'll add more to the list as I think of things, but if you have a specific question, just let me know.

E is for Easter, Ethan and Elmo?

I'm not exactly a huge fan of childhood characters. Don't get me wrong, I definitely qualify as immature when it comes to my love of cartoons and "kid" movies (at least the good ones.) However, I can't stand the syrupy, commercialized cartoon characters plastered on every kid product from diapers to baby yogurt. I also don't like to put my kid in "character"clothes. I just don't. I like the basics. Lately, however, in a quest to build my child's language skills and attention span (and to give mom and dad a break from climbing furniture, tormenting the dogs and throwing everything but what he's supposed to), we have Tivoed "Sesame Street" so that Ethan can have some quiet time. It has worked. He sits still for more than five minutes as Elmo rides his bike around talking to the same Gordon and Maria I watched 25 (maybe even 30) years ago. So, I have to admit, when he looked at his Elmo and Cookie Monster laden diapers and said ecstatically "MoMo" and "Cookie" it made my heart melt.


I really wasn't going to do anything for Easter, because he doesn't really get these things yet. He wants to throw Easter eggs, not hunt them, and God forbid he should get his hands on a bunny. Guilt (or Patti B. at my work) got to me and I decided he might enjoy an Elmo egg like the Ernie and Bert my dad made me when I was little. It was one of the most memorable things my dad did for me. I loved my Ernie and Bert eggs that he blew out and decorated. They were in my Easter basket every year. So hopefully Elmo can be in Ethan's. That is, if we can keep him from throwing it.

Finished Sweater for Ethan

So, I finished the sweater for Ethan with the yarn that my mother-in-law gave me. It's a little big. (At least in the arms and neck...ha! I'm definitely still learning.) Maybe if will fit him better next winter.

If you want to see more pictures of the sweater, click here.

If you would like the pattern for the Pullover Sweater, it is free from Lion Brand's website.