Carnival Themed Birthday Party (shared Party)

My kid's birthdays are 3 days apart, therefore I decided to throw them a birthday party together. I decided on a carnival theme, since it is gender neutral.

I had so much fun planning it, I started thinking and gathering ideas 3 months before the party on pinterest. It had to be an indoor party since it is December.

Take a look on how it turned, warning that there is a picture overload :)

I bought 3 yards of this red stripe fabric from IKEA for the background

Chocolate Cupcakes, you can find the recipe here

Vanilla Cupcakes, you can find the recipe here

Cake Pops, you can find my tutorial on how to make these here

I bought the lollipops on Amazon

I bought these popcorn containers at Target in the dollar bins

I wanted to have a "photo booth" for lots of fun and silly pictures

I found some free printables here and here

I used 2 large foam poster boards

I taped them together and glued blue stripes to cover the seam and create a fun bright backdrop

me and my hubby

my daughter AKA the birthday girl

I bought these foam masks on Amazon for the kids to play with while I got the food ready

For food we had:

Baked Potato wedges

Italian hotdogs for the adults and plain hotdogs for the kids

veggie cups

Bean bag toss game

Some empty cans, a little bit of scrap paper and you have yourself:

I also made the pinata:

Party hats that I made

Birthday Girl:

I made a Rainbow cake, I saw this here

Instead of a cake mix, I just used my vanilla cupcake recipe

Birthday Boy:

presents!

That wraps it up!

We had such a great time, I can not wait until next year!

"Tikvinki" or "Pumkini's"

This is one of my favorite snacks from childhood, The crispy, flaky crust filled with warm squash. So good, my mouth starts to water whenever I think of them.

I serve these with some soup on a rainy day. ( unfortunately we still have lots of rainy days here in the NW)

PRINT RECIPE HERE

First make the dough:

1 egg

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups flour

Knead the dough and leave to rest while you prepare the squash.

Peel and seed the squash, and shred and add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper:

Prepare the butter. Take 1/2 cup of salted butter. Cube 1/4 of the butter and melt the other 1/4:

Take half of the dough and roll out to 1 cm thick and butter with the melted butter:

Roll up the dough:

Cut into 1 inch sections:

Press each section into flour:

Roll out each section to about 2 cm thick

Put one butter cube onto the dough and 1 TB of the squash:

Fold each piece up like so:

Place on a greased sheet.

Beat one egg and brush each pumkini:

Bake at 350 for 24 minutes, or until slightly golden. Then take the melted butter and brush each pumpkini:

All Done:

Yummy!!!

My Baby Boy is One!

My little Baby Boy has turned one year old! I still can not believe how fast the year has gone!

I am so grateful that I have been given the opportunity to stay home with my children this year, being a stay at home mom has been truly a blessing, I get to see my baby's firsts myself, I get to cuddle in bed with my kids in the morning, most of all, I get to give them the care and attention they need.

A few updates on the little man:

He walks while holding on to things (couch, wall, chair) but still not by himself

He stands up and manages to stand for a few seconds on his own

He climbs upstairs and down stairs all by himself

He gives kisses and waves good bye

I am still nursing him, although a lot less since he is eating more real food

He takes 2 naps a day (usually at 11am and 5pm)

We are still cloth diapering

He is such a sugar booger, I love him so much !

Here is my little guy at one month:

Our Half Bath

Today you get to take a peek into our down stairs half bath

I am really pleased with the outcome, considering that it took us only 2 days to pull it together.

We spent $500 on this update. More then I wanted to spend, but you should see the before, the whole thing had to go!

Here is the before

Huge vanity, big old mirror, wooden towel rod, wooden toilet paper holder

(oh yeah, this house had wooden toilet seats when we moved in, that was the first thing we replaced. LOL, It just didn't seem sanitary)

Gosh, I hated this bathroom!

I was going to just paint the vanity, but I could not find a counter/sink in this size

Then we thought about tiling the counter, but that seemed like to much work.

So we decided to rip it all out

The vanity was $129 at IKEA

The sink/counter was $100 at IKEA

I fell in love with the vintage inspired faucet at IKEA, which was $69.99

I used left over paint for the walls

I used this FREE template for the stenciling

I saw this Martha Stewart light fixture long before we started working on this bathroom, I just fell in love with it and I knew right away that I wanted to use it in my bathrooms

Well, that wraps it up

Thanks for visiting

Vanilla Cupcakes

This is my go to recipe for delicious vanilla cupcakes, I have tried lots of recipes and this one beat them all. The cupcakes smell delicious, they taste scrumptious!

CLICK HERE TO PRINT RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of cake flour

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups Sugar

1 TB Baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) softened

4 large eggs

1 cup of 2% milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated do not over beat.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

4. Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost with this frosting:

Vanilla butter cream

1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks) Softened

6-8 cups of confectioners sugar

1/2 cup of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until creamy (2-3 minutes)

add 6 cups of confectioners, milk and vanilla and beat on low until light and fluffy.

If necessary add remaining 2 cups of the confectioners sugar until you reach the desired consistency.