Chinese New Year Party

 

Madelyn's 10th birthday this year happened to fall on the beginning of the Chinese New Year. It made for the perfect party theme! According the the Chinese Zodiac, 2011 is the Year of the Golden Rabbit.

Pre-party decorating! Sophia was eager to set the table and hang the few decorations that I had made. I had printed and hand-colored a Chinese Zodiac chart so that guests could see what their Chinese Zodiac signs said about their personalities! 

I also photocopied and hand-colored a dragon head and feet. I then created the winding dragon body with colored card stock and white centers for guests to write birthday wishes for Madelyn's "New Year"!

I found these two printables from the January edition of a series of books. The January Idea Book has fun ideas, crafts, recipes and printables for New Year's Day, the Chinese New Year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Artic and Antartic Animals, and much more. 

The books are great for both classrooms or homeschooling environments! I hope to collect all 12 months as well as the Season editions. I have the Winter edition which has a treasure trove of ideas to stay occupied for the cold months spent indoors.

My sister, Hannah, made the cakes for our celebration. She designed and created them herself. One had the Chinese symbol for Family and the other had the Chinese symbol for Happiness. Perfect choices for our family and friends that gathered this day in celebration! They were also as tasty as they were beautiful! 

Oh, and if you are wondering. My sister is looking for a job. Her passion is baking cakes and other tasty pastry confections and her dream is to find work in a bakery creating edible art.

Forgive the photos. I am sure they do not give them as much justice as they deserve.

Giveaway Ends at Midnight!

Yesterday, my Dad and I celebrated our birthdays together as we have every year for the past 34 years. 

I am happy that we share this day. I am glad to know he thinks the best birthday present he ever received was...me!

I am pretty sure the Snickerdoodles I baked for him for yesterday ranks among the top of that list as well. ;)

Here we are my very first birthday! Holly Hobbie plates! Poor guy suffered so many years with girly plates.

I love that glance I am giving him in the photo. Like he is just about the best Dad a girl could ever have!

Actually, that sentiment still remains true. Then, today and forever.

I love you, Dad!

* Today is the last day (until midnight!) to enter to win one of TWO "Celebrate" felt banners! 

If you could create a new holiday with your most favorite of things to celebrate..what would it be? Click here to enter!

Cupcake Birthday Party!

It was a busy week preparing for the twins' birthday party! I was shopping and cleaning; making food and hoping everything would be perfect. I think Isabella and Gracie may have had their best birthday party ever! So far.

I bought these plates and supplies from 1st Wishes.



My sister Hannah, and aspiring pastry chef, made these luscious cupcakes!



I created these "our two little cupcakes" favor boxes with yummy cupcake bites hidden inside.




Isabella and Gracie now have a whole new wardrobe for the spring and summer months! (Thank you everyone!)

They modeled their sunglasses and are super ready for the beach!





We had a great night! We sang the girls a jumbled Happy Birthday, ate semi-frozen giant cupcakes I had baked for each girl, recaptured mini caterpillars trying to escape, and drank coffee while talking, laughing and celebrating!

Oh, and there were kisses. Lots and lots of baby kisses.

And I am sure it couldn't have gotten any better than that.

Cupcake Bites Heaven

I recently read some great posts by the Pioneer Woman and Bakerella. They recently had a party and made cupcake bites and cake pops. The photos and stories are amazing! If you haven't had a chance to visit either of these blogs yet... do yourself a favor. Trust me.

As a result of their get-together, the Pioneer Woman, posted a tutorial on how to make miniature cupcake bites. Too cute to resist, I ran to the craft store to pick up a peanut butter cup candy mold and a whole lot of melting chocolates. The possibilities are endless and you will only be limited by your own imagination!

Shh.. don't tell the twins but these might just show up as favors for their Cupcake themed 1st birthday party!

Here are some more pictures! I think the frosted shamrock ones are my favorites.. and just in time for St. Patrick's Day too!

Snowy Birthday

Our tiny Sophia with the crazy hair and silly personality celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday, which also happened to be the largest snow event our area had seen all winter! Even Daddy got to stay home from work and that is a rare occasion indeed.

She started her day off bright and early opening gifts in her denim hat (because what else do you wear to such an occasion!?)


This girl LOVES cars and trains and most recently the Lego Star Wars game for Wii. It's become a ritual that after the two older ones go off to school, we play for a bit before I must trudge off to do the household chores. Bad habit to start gaming at such a young age? Perhaps. But we have SO MUCH FUN! ;)

She got a lot of cars and a new GeoTrax train set.


We also bought her this super cool play rug from Ikea.


Check it out here. It's was only $14.99 (baby not included) which makes it a great buy on top of being a fun, new surface for the kids to drive their little cars on!

I think Sophia gets a bad rap though. Her sisters will tease her sometimes that she is a boy because she loves what they consider "boy toys". Funny how they forget how much they loved the same things when they were 3!

It's also amusing that among all her "boy toys", her favorites included the Knuffle Bunny and accompanying Mo Williams book, her Dora dress-up party outfit with sunglasses, and this tiny sparkly box and felt octopus... all of which she tried to smuggle into her bed with her last night.


Her aunt made the box and felt octopus gifts for her! She has many felt creations on her Etsy site, thedotdesigns. Super cute stuff!
So, another happy birthday to you, Sophia! Play with whatever you like, my dear. No matter what anyone else says, you'll always be my baby girl!

The Fanciest Fancy Nancy Party!

Lana turned 6 yesterday! In Kindergarten, the class sung her the Birthday song and she got to wear the birthday crown for the whole day! Each classmate shook her hand and then gave her birthday wishes! This is huge stuff for a girl turning 6!

Her party was a Fancy Nancy theme! We bought all her decorations online at Celebrate Express. Great site! I think she probably cleaned up on every Fancy Nancy gift that I could find at Target. She loved everything... being the fancy girl that she is!


Check out the awesome cake my sister, Hannah, designed and baked for Lana! It was quite a hit! The top layer was vanilla and the bottom was chocolate. She made the hearts and flowers, as well as the crown for the top, out of fondant. It was quite the masterpiece! :)

The butterflies that were fluttering out of the top of the cake were also magnets! Now we can remember Lana's fanciest of days with all those colorful butterflies flying across our refrigerator!


Another birthday over..on to Sophia. She'll be turning three in March! Whew!