Tis the season.. for Baking

There is no time more than the holidays, that I love to bake! Unfortunately this year my mixer is in storage... I've been hunting recipes on Pinterest that do not require a mixer. If you have anything for me, please comment, I would love to know what "works" for you, & of course, what tastes delish.

In the mean time I found a site that shows how to cream butter and sugar, but I am now debating how the rest of the process would work?!

I may just look into some pre-made, do they make that in organic dough? :) I'll let you know what I decide, but in the mean time.. enjoy my trip down memory lane with these most adorable pictures.

Meet me in St. Louis

Off to the city we go.

Arches and weddings await us.

Home.

When I was a young teenager I remember telling everyone who would listen: ‘Once I am an adult I am moving out of poe-dunk USA Midwest, I am going to the city’. Now although I have not moved to the city, I did move about Three Hundred miles away. I also remember my father telling me upon hearing this: ‘One day you will appreciate your hometown and grow to love it.’ Then he made a comment about me missing it if I really did go to a city. Now that I am no longer that mouthy teenager, I am beginning to realize that Father Indeed Knows Best!

Now like I said, I am not a city girl, and I am still surrounded by farm land 360, but I do…

long for my hometown,

miss my home county,

When I drive that long 300 miles, I am transported back in time. I see the things that hold such strong memories for me. In fact, now that I have a decent camera, I want to pull over every few miles, to capture every. single. one. of. those. memories.

Here are a few:

 

Sometimes just looking at a picture can open the flood gates on memories, guess that is why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Having girls

Can I just take a minute to express how much I love having two little girls?! I love the fact that they get excited to watch “Cupcake Wars” with me… I love that my little one asks when “Sweet Genius” is going to be on. I just love the fact that I have prissy little girls that love to get excited about the same things that excite me!

More baby arrivals

Here are the centerpieces for the other baby shower I went to. I really wish I would have taken pictures of all the diaper cakes. Every single one of them were different. The one I was sitting in front of, there were two ‘NUK’ food-mesh-spoons crisscrossed on the top. Again, wish I would have taken pictures. I was running around visiting with family, and didn’t have the camera enough. But, the point is, all of them were very cute.

Mother’s Day 2013

Did everyone have a wonderful Mother’s Day?

I believe every year with my girls gets better and better! Being a mom is so wonderful, but it seems as they get older it gets better. <3

We went to Whole Foods for a free coffee, flower, & mini pastries. It was lovely, and while we walked about, they had beautiful bouquets in Mason jars, & I had to have one! So I came home, pulled out one of my Mason jars, and started to walk the perimeter of my house. I feel like I came up with a good combo, don’t you? I wanted to put a yellow tiger lilly in there too, but held back. My husband came home later and brought me some white roses too. I love it!

Legoland

Last year at this time, we were planning a trip to California, for a college graduation in the family. While out there we were lucky enough to be given tickets to visit Legoland from a family friend.

Let me tell you something: this was such. a. good. time! Me, my girls, & my MIL had an amazing time. I am not gushing because I was asked to, I just loved so many things about this place. The atmosphere was lovely, I had someone asking how our visit was going every single ride we went on. The ride operators asked if there was any way they could make our visit better, but my kids were already so happy! They got to “play in line” on every ride. There are coral areas with large legos in every. single. line.

The food was good, and when going to check out in line, the cashier was helping us to save money by getting the family deal plan. After, while visiting the bathroom, there were complimentary toiletries, I mean who does that?!

I know if you had asked my girls what their favorite part was, it would have been the pirate ships though.  While on the pirate ships, you can shoot your water guns at the other ships while everyone is moving on a track about the place. THEN, you get to get off the ride, walk around the side of the ride, and there are water squirt guns on the side to aim at the people still on the ride.  We were soaked, but it was all good, it was a hot day, and we were happy. :)

When it was closing time, was anyone rushing us out the door? Oh, absolutely not! We had time to take a few more pictures, like the one above.

We WILL be back. We truly enjoyed every moment.

Daydreaming the Day Away

When I was a little girl, I had it in my head that it would just be amazing if I had a window seat. I am not sure what triggered this want/need in my young self, but it was merely a wish. When I was nine-ish we moved to an older home that had windows that nearly touched the floors, and my room was upstairs, facing the street. When it was nearing, but not quite summer, we changed our clocks so it was still dusk at bedtime. I would sit in front of those windows and watch the older kids play in the street for another half hour or so. This was as close as I came to stargazing from my totally awesome but not real window seat.

Fast forward about 20 plus –ish years…my older daughter was upstairs for quite the while the other day, I called up “what ya doin punkin?” She replied “Oh just lookin out the window.” A big smile passed my lips. Then she said “Did you know there was a bird in my tree?”

You see this is what she gets to look out her window to see.. her bed just ends at the window. A flood of memories raced to me as I took this picture on her faux-window seat.

Words for today

*I know I am not the only one to have ever lost someone, but some days it sure does feel like it.*

Artwalk (part 2)

As promised, here is the other half of the artwalk. These are from all the other grades, so will not include any art works from my munchkin.

I realize there are a lot of pictures here, so you can’t really see the detail, but every. single. one. is holding a child. So sweet! Reminded me of why exactly I was there.

I guess I should be embarrassed that I do not know who she is?! The kids works of art were amazing though!

This was Alisa’s favorite one however. Isn’t it pretty? The middle was tissue paper. I was thinking this would be a nice craft for her & her sister on a rainy afternoon.

This was the one that I wanted to attempt. I would have never thought to try to recreate my version, but I absolutely love these! So bright & colorful to brighten up a space.

Picasso! I was pleasantly surprised at how very awesome these 4th graders did on these!

Here is another project I was thinking would be loads of fun for our family. I had to get all of them in, so here is another picture of them…

What do you think? I love the third one over from the left, top row… reminds me of Paris for some reason????

This one was my husbands favorite. I pointed out the Notre Dame one, but he said it was actually the entire collection together that he liked. I concur.

Art Walk (part 1)

You know when I posted about t.v. turnoff week, and I told you that the part I was most excited for was Artwalk? I took loads of pictures to share with you, in fact enough that I am dividing it into two posts.

As we walked in there was a table with programs, just like an art gallery. As I said before, we tapped all walls with colored paper, so that it gave that professional look. ;)

We started off in the Kindergarten hall, and the first display was this. Most, but not all, displays had three main components: the kids artwork (of course), a “artists poster” that they were aim-ish for, & an art piece from one of the school districts art teachers, which tied it all together. Forgive me, but I do not know the artist of these pieces, nor did I get what was going on till half way through.

Here is my lil punkin’s art piece for this one. Love, cupcakes, rainbows, & chocolates. YUM

This was the cave that the art teacher made for this display. Is it not the cutest thing?

This artwalk was made up of things projects that the kids had done ahead of time, though out the year. This project I went to help with, when they did it. It was called “cave art”, the idea was to replicate a ‘cave wall drawing’. We used a paper bag and crumbled it all up so that we could re-flatten it to give it the effect. Then we used only the colors that they would have had access to. It was lots of fun.

Here is my babies version of ‘cave art’. Don’t you love the bear? So cute!

Last but not least, in the Kindergarten hall, my munchkin’s version of her “Rainbow Fish”. I was super proud of this one because it was not her usual pink, pink. & more pink!

All the other grades in the next post. Other grades are just some of my favorite displays. I have some Monet & Picasso for you!

Naturally Perfect Eggs

I talked the other week about “natural dyeing” our Easter eggs this year… ironically, a week later I stumbled upon an event at the St. Patrick’s Park locally. I was so ecstatic, I invited everyone I knew who had kids my kid’s age. Lucky for me one of my best friends & her son were able to go with us.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at $5 per kid, it was nearly fee entertainment. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the teacher had things planned out for the kids to do. There were color pages, and she had strips of pastel paper to make rings for the eggs to set on.

We got to make 6 different colors, so 6 different techniques. Here, all of them are pictured together. From top left: the first was dipped twice; turmeric & then red cabbage (gave us a greenish hue); the second was of course drawn with an amazing sun, then dipped in mashed blueberries; the third was colored quite literally with beets. Next row from left; soaked in grape juice (which left the egg quite sticky); the second on bottom row was boiled in turmeric water; the final egg, boiled in onion skins, was such a pretty brown, no really! The speckles were created from rice.

 

It was overall a long process, but we five had a lovely time. Like I said before the teacher was kind enough to have extra things for the kids to do, so they wouldn’t get bored. My girls loved showing their eggs off to their dad, and I was just as excited with the little carton as the kids were. Too Cute!

The Roz Puppets

As a mom, I truly want to be very connected to the school & the schools community. The way I see it, the people that are around my kids all day, NEED to be my business. So I have been trying to throw myself into any role I can at school. Anything that doesn’t conflict with work, I am in. We go to almost any after hours event that the school has as well, and that is how I came to know about these characters. Moms around my area might have heard of the Roz Puppets before, but I had not, before Friday that is.

Our school was having an event called ‘In your dreams’. It was a career fair in a sense, we had a nurse, teacher, graphic designer, police woman, & a firefighter. Once we heard from all of them, the Roz puppets were up next.

I have not seen my girls laugh that hard in a long time :) He was a huge hit! He read books, all the while having the puppets and himself comment through them. It was loads of fun, Alisa really liked the chipmunk, so she got her picture taken with him. He is quite cute, and his ‘voice’ even cuter.

I would highly recommend going to see him if you get the chance. Our PTO president said he likes to go around to the local libraries for performances. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for his next performance.

Arts & Crafts per my 6 Year Old

It is really starting to look like Easter around my house! My Alisa has been hard at work making us all necklaces to celebrate. So what do you guys think? Are they not so craft-cute for an imagination of a 6 year old? I love mine (the purple one).

<3

Over the Rainbow

I love coming home from a long days work to a lovely sight like this! It reminds me of why I was drawn to graphic design in the first place. My oldest clearly got her love of all things stationery from me! Pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paper, stickers, & just colors in general. It wonderful that she can color group already at such a young age. She’ll have no problems with the color wheel & the different hues and saturations. I know it’s a little on the late side…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Hopping down the bunny trail…

It’s almost that time again! Who else it super excited to color eggs with the children? I don’t know what I love more, their joy or my joy of playing in the pretty colors.

I have been thinking to do the natural dying from veggies & herbs this year. Any opinions or experiences from this you’d like to share?

March 8th–Women’s Day…

The first time I heard of International Women’s Day was after I became a mother. With a husband from Europe I should have been getting flowers the 8 years prior to this, right? *sheepish grin here*

Okay, let me tell you what women’s day means to me….  The year that I learned about Women’s Day, I was going through a lot. It was the stuff dreams are made of, two beautiful, and amazing little girls in tow. As all of you women know, this is hard hard work, especially when you have two under two. It was not flowers and trinkets I was looking forward to. It was not some time alone at a spa, & it sure wasn’t a “night out on the town”. It was, in fact, something only a women could truly give me… moral support. This is how International Women’s Day came full circle for me. Women helping women.

Why do we, as women, get so cagey and catty with other women? We have it hard enough ladies.. we need loads of support to get through all that domestic stuff that us “goddesses” are expected to do. Okay, well, let me back up for a minute. All those domestic things that a lot of (but not all) women like to do. Everyone has their own arrangements in their households, but I feel like I would be an awesome “goddess" if only time allowed. This is where our support team steps in, to talk us down off the ledge, we can’t do it all. Also, to let us get the praise we deserve, who better knows how hard it can be than another woman?

So in short, be extra kind to all women today & everyday, because like in my favorite quote:

If we all understood that everyone has their own battles to fight, insecurities to face, loves to contend and goals to attain, the world would be a gentler place.

Happy International Women’s Day! <3

Porto’s Bakery

I was first introduced to this wonderful-in-everyway-place by my lovely sister in law. This introduction, unfortunately was over instagram. You see my SIL lives in LA. Once she finished USC (yes, extremely proud over here), she officially took the plunge of living the high life of a studio apartment *sarcasm indeed*. What is not sarcastic however, is that I am living vicariously through her. Who wouldn’t want to be young, with tons of fun friends, on your own, in Los Angeles? So when we went to visit this past summer my only wish was to go to this place. It’s obviously the closest I was going to get to being young and fun in LA, with children behind me. haha So off we went:

The architecture inside and out was so pretty. I wanted to take tons of pictures, then redecorate my house accordingly.

Tell me one thing in this case that me, my husband, and my two girls wouldn’t want to take home?! Every. single. thing. I wanted to buy and smuggle on the plane.

This is what my husband and I settled on: Tiramisu on the left and mochachino on the right. Mine is the right, good thing, cause it was the most delicious one! I could use one right now, this 1200 calorie diet I’ve been on needs to be blown up!

Monday, Monday…

Wishing I could be in a cute little chair like this. Maybe getting a great new do, I could use one, and a chair massage while we are at it. Another snow on it’s way, and we are into March now! Calgon take me away….

At least this cute little girl is by my side, making me smile. I can’t believe that she is reading to me! Just 5 and a half years ago, she was on this very couch cooing to me!

Frederik Meijer Gardens

I had been wanting to go to the Frederik Meijer botanical garden & sculpture park for a couple years before we finally did. You know how that goes, right? You keep saying ‘Next year we really need to go to *insert some new place, not too far away*. We all know, you just never genuinely make an effort to get there though.

I had my couple of true excuses though. First off, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a ‘guy thing’ for my husband. Secondly, I wasn’t sure it was going to be ‘cool enough’ to drive so far for.

Two summers ago, my girls and I had a “girls day out”. I decided if it was a disappointment, it would only be a true disappointment for me this way. I didn’t play it up to the girls, just told them we were going to take a road trip to look at some pretty flowers.

When we drove up the long drive and this was in front of me, I could tell it was going to be amazing! I was in love instantly, and immediately didn’t care about the two hour drive I had just made.

Do you see that big greenhouse? Wait till you see what amazing things are inside!

Orchids and Venus Flytraps, amazing tropical flowers, and cacti.. oh my!

Outside of the greenhouse was this little beauty… thinking she’s not so beautiful? Here name is “mad mom”! Now you’re looking at her a little differently aren’t you? LOL I know I did!

There were other sculptures as well.. this one was my favorite! Yes that is my then 3 yr old under the horse…massive huh?

This was another cute little sculpture I took a picture of. The most important part about this one though? Umm it was in the Children’s Garden!

Yes, there was a whole other level to this garden & park. I am telling you guys, I was amazed around every new corner! See the ‘door’ on the side for the kids? A-door-able :)

This little guy is awaiting the children on the other side. He reminds me of Stewart Little.

A little ways up the path, a fountain.. and don’t worry guys, I am NOT giving everything away in this long post… there is so much to see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Like a treehouse?! Yes a two story, amazing treehouse  with a bridge and other “features” I won’t give away on here. There is just so many awesome things to see.

I just felt like it kept going and going, but in a good way.

I mean, how adorable is this alone? I wanted to take him home to my garden.

Did I mention that there is a farm here? Yes, a full on farm, sans people and animals living in it, but very cool none-the-less. There are bathrooms in the farm, but the rest is not for walking through.

I hope your mind didn’t “drift off” in this extra long post, but there is just too much. I loved every. single. last. thing. As I said earlier, I promise there is so much more to see that I haven’t given away on this post. I couldn’t find enough pictures before we went to put together if I wanted to drive so far, but believe me, it is so worth a long trip to see this place. Be sure to put on your walking shoes & sunscreen, and bring a stroller for any toddlers. My girls were “out” before I made it a mile down the road, but they still talk about it two years later.