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Birthday Party Planning

May 23, 2011 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

I love making birthday cakes. I love figuring out how to implement what my kids want their cake to be. JW turned one in January and I made two cakes for his party.

The first was a drum cake. This was a simple two layer round cake with buttercream frosting. I looked up which colors would help me make brown icing and amazingly enough, I got the color I wanted on the first try. JW loves drums and singing. He caught on to drumming the moment he picked up a drumstick.

The second cake was a two layer square cake, also with buttercream frosting. The design was a starquilt star.

The cakes were absolutely delicious! The buttercream frosting was so good.

I am in the beginning stages of planning birthday parties for Alice and Jake now. We are probably moving this summer so they will have their birthday’s in June with friends. We have preliminary guest lists made up and I picked out a theme for each of them – which I’m sure they’ll love but we’ll see once I talk to them about it.

First Birthday Party Planning

January 6, 2011 by Tsoniki 2 Comments

In one week and five days JW will be one! (Doesn’t that sound sooner then less then two weeks?) I’m amazed at how fast the year went. I took a picture of him sleeping on my Mom’s lap at around midnight on New Years Eve. A year ago he was huge inside of me and this year he’s a big baby.

I’m working on planning his first birthday party. Of course this one is all for me, and his brother and sister, and my Mom and stepdad too. JW is just too little to realize what is going on. But plan away I shall!

Last summer my friend’s first birthday was Duke themed. The baby’s Grandma made him a round cake decorating like a blue and white Duke basketball, and he had blue and white cupcakes. A few of the gifts from his parents and family were also related to the team.

Since my family is from South Dakota, I thought I could pick the University of South Dakota for JW’s theme (plus that’s where my Mom attended). I mean, he doesn’t even know right. He will just be like “wow you are really letting me eat this sweet stuff? All of it? And I get to make a mess??!” He won’t care what the cake looks like before.

Or what about a soccer cake! He loves going to the older kids’ games. This one looks easy.

photo credit: mags20_eb

But I haven’t decided. I did find what looks like an easy recipe for rolled fondant and I think I’d like to try that. It would just be easy decor. Maybe the rolled fondant in a color and then I write with icing on top.

I don’t do themes so I’m stumped!

A Daring Year

January 3, 2011 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

This will be my DARING year.

I’m not one to really take risks or step out of my comfort zone on purpose. I play everything pretty safe and enjoy it that way. I have changed over the years though. I mean to be a military spouse you have to adapt and change. I’m not the controlling big sister I once was. Maybe my brothers and I relax into that dynamic when we are all around our parents, but in general I’m not at all controlling. My Mom has said she used to worry for when I would have kids – I was that controlling. But I’m a relaxed parent.

I’ve never been what anyone would call daring. I’m not even totally sure what it would take before I considered myself daring. I took the first step on Saturday though.

I did the polar bear plunge at Birch Bay. I know how to swim so its not that I was trying to get over any kind of fear there. I’m actually not able to pinpoint what made me pick to participate.

It was a fantastic way to start the new year. I loved it. It was a rush and it felt awesome. My Mom went with me to take pictures and she said she can’t get over how happy I was and look in the pictures.

And so begins my daring year. Cold water seizes your lungs and you have to take short breaths. I tried to take deep breaths and it just didn’t work. I fell and scraped both knees and one shin. So today I am walking around knowing I was able to do something that others call crazy (though the newspaper said there were 600 people there on Saturday). It was an awesome experience, and I’ll have the scars to prove it.

Baby Food Jar Advent Calendar

December 10, 2010 by Tsoniki 4 Comments

I used empty baby food jars to make this fun and easy baby food jar advent calendar. I had all of these from my youngest and feeding him, but you could always get some from a friend with a baby. You can also use canning jars! These are sold in packs of 12 so two packages are perfect for your calendar.

I love Advent Calendars. Check out my Advent Calendars board over on Pinterest!To make a baby food jar advent calendar you need the following:

24 baby food jars or small canning jars
Holiday scrapbook paper
Large Marvy Paper Punch
Numbers stamps
Ink
Glue and tape

I was happy to discover that the light blue marvy punch is the same size as the lid of a baby food jar! Punch 24 different colored circles out of the scrapbook paper, then stamp the numbers 1-24 on them. You don’t need to use very much glue on the lids, if you do the paper may get wavy and the glue could soak through. Next, measure around the jars and cut a strip of paper a half an inch longer to wrap around the jar. This adds to the secret of what is hidden inside.

Once the jars are decorated, fill them up! I filled the jars with something different each day – jelly beans, gummy bears, chocolate kisses and in a couple of them I put some change. The jars are larger then a lot of other calendars, so they will take up space. Be sure to find a place away from tiny baby hands that will want to get inside!

Here is the Marvy paper punch we use:

And the canning jars, two packages are just right:

And how about a holiday crafting book! This is free for kindle unlimited users!

Two Luigis & a Fairy Witch

November 1, 2010 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

Jake wanted to be Luigi for Halloween this year and after a quick search I found this post showing how to make Mario hats. The only difference between Mario and Luigi hats are the color so this was easy to make.

I did make a mistake at first – the tutorial says to cut 2 – 12 inch circles, I cut 2 – 10 inch circles. After re-cutting and working on Jake’s hat, I realized I could use the smaller circles for a hat for JW! His costume was quickly changed from a star to a Baby Luigi.

We went trick or treating in Fairhaven. The shops there are fun and one of the best bookstores I’ve ever been to is also there, Village Books. We trick or treated there, ran to the store for a few last minute things, and went home to make chili (a yearly tradition for me) and take the kids out in the neighborhood. They ended up going out with my Mom’s husband while she, JW, and I stayed home.

I loved the boys being Luigi, there were a few other Luigi’s in the crowd but I was proud that ours were two of four that were homemade.

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