Birthday Signs

Life is Good: we have great memories 

When I posted about our Little Kid's recent birthday party and the party decor, some of you wrote me to inquire about our family's HAPPY sign. 

Whenever we have a special day---holiday, birthday/anniversary, milestone, whatever, we put out the "Happy" sign. It's actually the door from my grandparents' washhouse at their former farm. On a trip to visit my Grandma (who had left the farm and moved into town), we stopped at the farm and my dad helped me "grab" a few things to have a mementos. The farm had been sitting for a while and clearly, no one else wanted anything from it. But when I saw that chippy door, I knew I needed it. 

I had so many memories of my Grandma coming in and out of that door. They had not used it for their laundry since before I was born, but she did still use it as a pantry of sorts for her canning. I also remembered my Granddad going in and out of that door with kittens swarming his feet. Those kittens would almost trip as he emerged from that door. There were always a hoard of little ferrel kittens on the farm and my Granddad loved to serve them warm milk. He would gently pet them and talk to him in his sweet voice as they ate. Granddad was a wheat farmer, a cattle rancher, and a hunter. He knew the value of animals to his family's bank account and dinner table. But those kittens held his heart. 

I dragged that door to Atlanta and on to a storage unit in Minneapolis, then to a condo in MN and on to our Pleasant house. I had thoughts to add nails to it and hang photos on it, but it never felt quite right. I was nervous to add holes to it that I might "ruin" it.

Soon after we moved to our current home, I was thinking about our Little One's upcoming first birthday and the idea just popped into my head. Add some letters to it and use it as party decor. And if I put something fairly general on it, I could use it for everyone's birthday. The more I thought about it, I knew that choosing the right word would mean that I could use it more often. "HAPPY" seemed just right. I thought I would need to go to a home store to get the letters, but then I happened to see some at Target one day and they were exactly the right size and simple in style. 

I love the sign so much that I really want to use it inside our house all year round. However, it is chippy with aged paint and there are rough places, a rusted handle, and broken wood all over it. It is certainly not kid-friendly for a family with three under 8. So it lives in storage until a HAPPY occasion. Which is pretty often around here! : )

And the little green sawhorse with the "FIVE!" sign? I was walking into a repurpose home & garden decor store in Linden Hills right before we moved out of our Pleasant house and saw it on a pile of some other, cuter things. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew that I had to have it.

After we moved into our new house and I unpacked the sawhorse, my first thought was to hang a picture frame from it (with my three favorite kids' photo!) and stick it on top of a highboy we have in our main room. But when I placed it there, it just didn't feel right. After some sleuthing on the inter webs, I found a shaped chalkboard. I drilled a couple of holes in it and attached it with some ribbon from the packaging of our new Pottery Barn bedding and there it was...the sidekick to our HAPPY sign!

I often look at that HAPPY sign and have to wonder what my grandparents would think. I think my Granddad would say something gracious, polite, and diplomatic along the lines of "to each, their own". I think my Grandma would giggle and comment on my creativity. I think they both would be happy that I wanted something that reminded me of them to be near me and part of my own family's traditions and life. 

Oh, how I loved my grandparents. I thank God that I was blessed to know them. And to have their blood running through my veins. They were amazing examples and loving grandparents. It all goes way beyond what words can say. And I am grateful for that. And HAPPY!

Kid's Birthday Pizza Party Decor

Life is Good: there's pizza everywhere!

If you managed through my post about the Little Kid's 5th birthday pizza party, then you know that it was a teensy long. Lots of fun was going on! 

The Little Kid was specific. He wanted everything to be GREEN. So here's what I did for decor:

As always, our front porch was adorned with our happy sign. I added our little chalkboard sign with a FIVE! and my homemade garland draped across the front.

Inside, Happy Birthday banners were draped all around. We used balloon tape to make a giant green "5" out of balloons.

Okay, our Little Kid thought it was an "S" for "have a super birthday!" Whatevs!

It was raining outside (which ruined our obstacle course fun) but these garlands still looked cheerful. And GREEN!

The party table was draped with GREEN gingham from Joann Fabrics and adorned with the paper chef hats I made, the goody bag chef aprons, and arts & crafts materials to make puppets, door hangers, and other masterpieces.

I used my outdoor melamine plates plus some paper goods. Of course, all green, green, GREEN!

On the long wall in our dining room, I hung a piece of white butcher paper with "Pizzeria T's" written on it and lines through it as if window panels plus green and white tablecloths to create a faux restaurant window with curtains.

I covered our buffet with green tablecloths, too. It was really cute to see the reactions of the kids to the "restaurant window". They all asked, "How did you do that?" (And a couple of them asked, "WHY did you do that?" I wanted to tell them it was because I am nutty about birthday parties, but instead, I just told them "for fun".)

I made a pizza slice pennant garland for the kitchen. I cut out triangles of tan felt (crust) and then yellow felt "cheese", green felt green peppers and olives, red felt pepperoni circles, and white felt mushrooms.

I hot glued everything together and draped it across my kitchen cabinets for a fun backdrop to pizza making.

Then I went to Target and discovered this...

And then I WANTED TO SCREAMMMMMMMM! When I mentioned to Grant later that night that I was so annoyed that I didn't discover the Target banner sooner and save myself some time making one, our Little Kid said, "Don't worry, mommy. Yours is better. Yours is made with a secret ingredient. LOVE."
LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVE! : )

And after all, this is why I do all of this silly stuff. It's for the kids. For the moment. For the memory. Every mom is different (and I celebrate that, truly.). These kids' of ours will hopefully look back and remember that their mom enjoyed making their birthdays special in her own crazy way. Or rather, making their lives special in her own crazy way. And that her secret ingredient was always "LOVE".

Pizza Party for 5th Birthday

Life is Good: we took another trip around the sun!

We celebrated and celebrated in July. I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and while I never enjoy the number change, I fully enjoyed my birthday picnic aside Lake Minnetonka. Sushi and fruit with four fantastic dudes beside this scene was a great way to usher in a new year.

But more importantly, our Little Kid turned five! FIVE! FIVE? Yes, FIVE! I looked at him that day and had to wonder, how did this happen? I've fully accepted that our Big Kid continues to grow, but the Little Kid has just stayed little, you know? But, five. That is growing up. And it shows itself all of the time these days. The thoughts and words and depth that come out of that kid's head and heart are kind of incredible. He continues to make us laugh and giggle and laugh some more. But he also stretches our minds. And our hearts. As much as I have loved him being little, I know that we are in for some wonderful times with him as he grows and wonders and experiences more from this world. 

And true to the Little Kid and his particular personality, he knew exactly what he wanted for his party. He wanted his guests to wear costumes, he wanted everyone to make their own pizza, he wanted the pizza crust to be from Joey Nova's, and he wanted all of the decorations to be GREEN! That is what he wanted. So that's what he got!

We picked up dough balls from our good friends at Joey Nova's and planned for a pizza party like none other. 

Each guest had their own "station" around our kitchen island. I put a bit of flour on the "yum" placemats so that the dough wouldn't stick to the placemat or our friends' fingers. Each guest had a ramekin of pizza sauce and glass dish of mozzarella. I also had kid-friendly toppings like pepperoni and pineapple and of course, GREEN olives! ; )

But before we started creating our pizzas, we had to put on our chef hats and aprons! I used fabric paint to add names to aprons which would be part of our guests' goody bags. I figured that the aprons could be used for cooking, gardening, or painting after the party. 

I wasn't sure that anyone would use a chef's hat, though, so I decided to skip pre-purchased ones & instead, make one for each friend. They looked just like chef's hats, but were uber less expensive.

I took white cardstock and folded it in half and cut them so that I had two pieces of 4 1/4" x 11". (I had asked all of the parents for the sizes of their kids' heads.) Then I added the right amount of pieces to make the size right to fit around their heads (most were around 21-22") and taped them. I wrote everyone's names inside the hat "band" to make sure they all had the one that would fit just right!

After I had the "bands" of cardstock ready, I put a ring of glue stick around one edge and then took a sheet of tissue paper and inserted it into the bands, fluffing  until it looked "chef-y" and then pushed the tissue into the glue to adhere it. I added some extra glue stick here and there to make sure it would stay.

All of the kids were willing to wear their hats! Hooray!

I thought they all looked sooooo cute!

Remember, costumes were a request from the birthday kid! ; )

We put all of our pizzas in the oven and moved on to a puppet show. Again, at the request of the birthday boy!

This was a bit of a last minute request, so I quickly put together a "puppet theater". I use this term lightly. I bought two pieces of black foam core and cut one in half. I cut a "window" out of the full-sized piece. (Yes, I should have measured the window so that it was even. But I was in a hurry!) I used black electrical tape to tape a half piece to either side of the full piece with the window. Then, I hot glued a piece of... you guessed it...GREEN felt to the back side of the window. Voila! A last minute puppet tabletop puppet theater. 

I decided to do a "pizza themed" puppet show. The story was about a pizza chef who tries to teach a five year old how to make a pizza pie. I quickly drew out a chef & a blonde 5-year old boy (sound familiar?) and the ingredients for a pizza. Then, I cut them out, added some color and glue stick-ed them onto some popsicle sticks. 

The pizza chef gives all the details, but the five-year old makes a joke out of each instruction. For example, "First you roll the dough real nice." But the five year old says, "First you throw the dough out the window!" And so on. Inspired by a 5-year old we know? Maybe a touch.
In the end, the chef teaches the five-year old how to make the pizza pie just right. It got some smiles and laughs. Everyone was happy. 

Then, everyone made their own puppets. I supplied paper, markers, crayons, stickers, google eyes, scissors, glue sticks, and probably more accoutrement than they needed. "Over-do" is my middle name, after all. But seriously, I think one key to having a successful party for the under twelve set is having lots of art and craft material options. If they don't want to make the craft you planned, they can create their own if you have plenty of materials.

I had a few door hangers left over from our Littlest One's first birthday party, so I put one out at every guest's place setting and they ended up making those, too. 

Soon, it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" and eat some pizza and cupcakes! Our pizzas tasted great. They looked...ummm...well, you decide:

As always, the cupcakes made me nervous. a couple of months before his birthday, our Little Kid requested "all of the green super heroes". At night, I would lie in bed and try to figure out how I was going to make The Hulk, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Green Goblin on a cupcake? SIGH.

I knew that I was going to make cookies that looked like pizzas for the goody bags, so about a week before the party, I asked the birthday boy if we should put pizza shaped cookies on top of the cupcakes so that everyone could have a cupcake AND a cookie. (Super moms use their noggins to understand their super kids' strengths and weaknesses...) I was pretty sure that he would like the idea, but I didn't expect his answer: "Why, that's a SPLENDID idea, mommy!" he said. And then bounced out of the room.

So I turned to my tried and true (eggless) sugar cookie recipe and cut out some triangles (pizza slices). And then crossed my fingers (and said a prayer) after I decorated them to look like they had pepperoni & green pepper slices on top. 

Those went into baggies and into goody bags for the drive home. (I always put something to eat and drink in the goody bag for the drive home.)

And they topped eggless vanilla cupcakes with GREEN frosting (of course).

Friends, fun, and pizza equals: HAPPY!

Best Ever Eggless Egg-free Sugar Cookie Recipe for Kids with Egg Allergies

Life is Good: we're making cookies!

Tomorrow, we are celebrating our newly minted five-year old's birthday! After sweating and fretting about making the "every green super hero" cupcakes that he requested, I am happy to report that I "suggested" that since we are making pizzas at his party (his idea!), that we should have "pizzas" on his cupcakes, too. True to his personality, he smiled and said, "That's a SPLENDID idea, mommy!"

So we are baking cookies shaped like slices of pizza today. And using our tried & true, eggless sugar cookie recipe that my mom created for us. 

Elsie's Sugar Cookies
Quantity depends on the cookie cutter you use. Plan on 30.

Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable or Canola oil
1 cup butter, partially softened (still maintains shape)
4-4 1/2 cups flour (Start with 4 cups and add more if you need to. I use all-purpose.)
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cream of tartar
2 T. vanilla (I use Madagascar)
1 t. arrowroot (this is the egg replacement)

Directions:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
2. Then, add the wet ingredients and mix.
NOTE: A Kitchenaid mixer works best for this recipe, but in a pinch, you can use a spoon. If you use a spoon, you may find that you need a little more "binder" for this recipe. Add a spoonful of milk until the dough sticks together, but is still stiff.
3. Cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
4. After one hour in the fridge, roll dough flat with a rolling pin and then use cutters to make shapes.
5. Bake small cookies at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

This recipe has opened up a whole new world for us! It is our "go to" cookie recipe.
I keep a recipe in our freezer in a roll wrapped (in waxed paper and then in foil) so that I can cut off a few cookies when we need a treat in a pinch. glazing them with a powdered sugar "frosting" is simple, but my kiddos like them even without frosting! Enjoy!

Felt Pizza Pennant Banner Bunting Garland

Life is Good: we have five years worth of good times to celebrate!

Our Little Kid turned FIVE YEARS OLD yesterday! SO...

Today's office: party prep for the weekend.

BEST Eggless, Egg free, Light and Fluffy Doughnut Donut Recipe

Life is Good: we finally have a good eggless doughnut recipe!

I have tried so many times to convert doughnut recipes to be eggless for our kids. This egg allergy is always a challenge and doughnut recipes have been a pain. Every time I try to make doughnuts, they end up being really dense and cake-like. Now, nobody is crying or complaining about that. However, I have longed to give my family a true, light, melt-in-your-mouth EGG FREE doughnut.

This past week, our Big Kid and Little Kid went to Vacation Bible School (VBS) and so, as usual, I was charged with the task of recreating any of the week's snacks that my kids could not eat (because they contained eggs, nuts, or other of their food allergies). The theme was "Surf Shack" so, of course, there was a powdered doughnut decorated like life preservers. ACK!

I have determined that cake and cookie decorating (and now, doughnut decorating) are God's way of keeping me humble! ; ) Martha Stewart need not be afraid of me taking her job!

Like I said, I have struggled to find the right recipe that is not a dense cake shaped like a doughnut. This week, I finally found the right recipe from sweetestkitchen.com. Thank you!!!

I adjusted the recipe to be eggless as well as the nutmeg and vanilla amounts. I've made the recipe three times already and everyone of all ages were satisfied. Sift some powdered sugar on them or roll them in cinnamon & sugar--either way, yum! These honestly taste very similar to the mini doughnuts that you get at the MN State Fair or out of food trucks and at carnivals around here. On second thought, I may need to lose this recipe unless I want to buy all new pants in the next size up.

Ingredients:

In a separate bowl, combine & mix thoroughly:

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 quick dashes of ground nutmeg

1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a separate bowl, mix together:

1/4 cup applesauce 

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Then, add:

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a separate bowl, cream together with a hand mixer:

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a mini doughnut pan with spray oil.

2. In a bowl, mix together the baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and flour with a spoon.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce & baking soda mixture with milk and vanilla.

4. In a separate bowl, cream together softened butter and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy.

5. Add half of the wet ingredients to the creamed mixture, being sure not to use the hand mixture too much so that your doughnut batter doesn't become tough. Too much use of the hand mixture can make baked goods end up tough and not light & fluffy.

6. Add half of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.

7. Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the creamed mixture.

8. Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.

9. Spoon the batter into a ziplock bag, zip it and then cut the very tiny corner out of the bag.

10. Push on the ziplock bag to pipe the batter into the doughnut pan. ONLY fill the circles halfway. TRUST ME. Do not fill the circles all the way full unless you are in the mood to clean oozed out, burnt doughnut batter off of the bottom of your oven. I'm speaking for a friend, of course.

11. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and spring back when you lightly touch them.

12. Let the doughnuts cool in the pan completely. Then, tap the pan on the counter to release them from the pan. This is the tricky part. I tried several different ways including trying to gently pop them out using forks, knives, spoons, etc and often, they were breaking apart. Tapping the pan on the counter was the best way to keep the doughnuts intact. 

13. To coat the doughnuts with cinnamon & sugar (our favorite), I melted two teaspoons of butter in the microwave in a small bowl. Then, I mixed 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons of sugar together in another small bowl. 

12. Lightly tap each doughnut in the melted butter, just enough to make them "wet" but not soggy. Then, roll them in the cinnamon & sugar mixture. Another option is to put the cinnamon & sugar mixture in a big baggie and then put the buttered doughnuts in the bag, ziplock and then shake the mixture around the doughnuts.

13. Try not to eat all of them.

14. This recipe makes approximately 36 mini doughnuts, which appears to be enough for one small human at our house. 

15. I got my pan from Michael's with a coupon. This one from amazon.com is similar.

Art projects for kids ages 2 and up

Coming soon!