Little E's Library Birthday Party

It's already been ten days since little E's first birthday party!

A few months ago, I decided to go with a library theme because, for one, we really don't need any more toys for young toddlers, and I also am in love with children's books–such an easy, broad starting point. In a crime against books everywhere, I bought some Golden Books from a nearby antique store and disassembled my least favorites, turning them into paper banners, fans, and pinwheels.

In addition, I used a few of the books, some favorite quotes about reading and from children's books, and photos of my favorite one-year-old to decorate. I also found some cute, customizable woodland-themed bookmarks on Pinterest!

This is just in my room, not at the party. :)

Bookmarks!

For supper we had meatball subs, à la "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" (which I did not get a photo of), and Peter Rabbit's garden vegetable platter.

We also had apples with homemade caramel dip, representing "Ten Apples Up On Top."

 

And chocolate chip cookies for "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

As well as strawberry lemonade punch, for "The Red Lemon."

And the best part of the food? The cake, of course! Jordan's mom made some delicious cupcakes, and I made a smash cake for Elias to enjoy that were all fashioned into "The Hungry Caterpillar."

Did the birthday boy enjoy his cake? A lot more than his brother did, I think!

We were so thankful for the friends and family who were able to venture out to celebrate our little boy's special day.

Kieran and his friend "helping" Elias open one of his gifts. ;)

It's so great to be one!

P.S. As usual, mom didn't make it into the pictures, so here's one of me rockin' the braids and knit hat today because it was literally 10 degrees outside.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Normally, when I go shopping--especially when I go grocery shopping--I'm all about looking for the best price. How much does each item cost per ounce? Of course, I know better than to just buy the cheapest white bread or spaghetti sauce I can find (plus, I find myself making my own more often than not!). But there are times when you really do have to pull out a few extra pennies to get the higher quality items. Here are a few of my more recent favorites:

Raw and Unfiltered Honey

You can find this at Walmart or even on Amazon. Now, I am not a huge health nut, but I also don't like that honey is marketed as "good for you", but then we are sold a version of it that has many of the benefits removed. Moreover, I truly think that the taste is far better. It is nowhere near as cheap as the generic brands; however, at least this way you are actually getting what you payed for.

Cottage Cheese with Sea Salt

This stuff is AMAZING. I only let myself buy it every other trip to the grocery store because I am afraid that I will become addicted to it. If you don't have AE in your area, I am most sympathetic to your plight. Now, just so you don't think I'm biased, I used to buy the generic kinds and found that I liked our local grocery store's version. I also tried the Simply Kraft cottage cheese, and I thought it was just terrible. I may have been justified, since over a million containers were recently recalled. Not only does my pick taste better, but it has fewer ingredients. Oh, and the best part? "Each 1/2 c. serving is packed with 12 grams of protein, low in fat, calories and carbohydrates and gluten-free."

Mom's Best Natural Cereals

I know people who say that cereal is bad and overprocessed and over-sugared and have completely cut it out of their diets. And, while there are some that are more like milk-drenched candy (sorry, Reese's Puffs), I have completely fallen in love with this brand ever since I found their oatmeal flavors back when I would work early mornings (They have an oatmeal raisin cookie, people!). I only wish that my grocery store sold even more of their varieties--the blueberry pomegranate is my absolute favorite, and it has been sold out the last three times I have gone. Le sigh. They really are an amazing company. "Free of artificial flavors or preservatives. No hydrogenated oils. No high fructose corn syrup." Plus, they are very environmentally conscious and super affordable (Who can afford name-brand Cheerios these days?).

Pure Cane Sugar (minimally processed)

It seems like right now so many people I know are cutting out sugar from their diets and replacing it with sweeteners such as pure maple syrup, honey, and agave nectar. I was really excited when I stumbled upon Zulka Morena pure cane sugar--and super excited to find that it is only fractionally more expensive than most refined sugars. For me, this is a happy medium, as this is not an issue in our household, but, as with the honey, I would like the product to be closer to how it was meant to be.

All of this talk probably makes us sound like a super "crunchy" family--far from it! I am, however, trying to be smarter in my choices and find us products that help our family to eat delicious foods and provide the fuel our bodies need. 

Do you have any favorite finds you've stumbled upon recently?

Little Man Party for Little Man's Big Day!

April 5th, we celebrated Kieran's first birthday in true little man style.

Manwiches

Bow Tie Pasta Salad

Couch Potato Chips

And, oh, the mason jars!

While I did not accomplish everything that I wanted to for his big day, I am super pleased with how everything turned out--especially with how much fun the star of the day had!

I made Kieran a personal-sized frosted carrot cake for a traditional "cake smash". He has not had that much exposure to cake, and I could not for the life of me get him interested in it.

Stripped down to his diaper and ready to dive in!

I even smushed his hand right into the cake, and he just made a face like, "Why did you just do that? What is this stuff?"

He did, however, enjoy Papa's cupcake soon after. I suppose food always seems to taste better when it's on someone else's plate.

Of course, Kieran also thoroughly enjoyed his new presents. We had better be careful, or we might have a spoiled little guy on our hands!

Tasting every single block and "marking" his territory.

"I can't believe all of these toys!"

Friends. :)

It was so good to have many of our friends and family gathered together to celebrate our little man making it through the first year of his life. And we were thrilled to share our family's news for the first time via this gift to Kieran:

Link

So thankful for all of the memories that were made!

Grandpa Jim and Kieran James

I Pinned It...And I Did It, Too!

I am sorry to disappoint you, but it seems I must go along with the masses and include a post about Pinterest. There is some symbiotic relationship between blogs and Pinterest, as of late, where blogs inspire pins on Pinterest and Pinterest inspires posts on various blogs. There are a few projects (out of the massive amount of possibilities on the site) that I have undertaken, and I would like to share them with you.

Freezer Meals

I started out by pinning this post from Mama and Baby Love. After seeing her take on the idea, I did some research and found recipes on other sites, as well. With the upcoming addition to our family, I thought it might be a good idea to try my hand at readying meals in advance. My friend, Bekah, and I went on a good-sized shopping trip and spent most of a Saturday making freezer meals. What we ended up deciding on, since it was our first attempt, was to make several slow cooker meals, one casserole, and several quarts of spaghetti sauce with meatballs. We had so much fun!

Here are the results of our shopping excursion.

Half of this will make it to my mouth, eventually! :)

Bekah and I were feeling pretty accomplished at this point.

I am not quite sure that I would do this again in the same way. It was fun and helpful cooking with someone else, but doubling and sometimes quadrupling everything turned out to be complicated at times--especially when it came to countertop space, mixing bowls, and the like. But it was a good learning experience, for sure, and a fun time of just hanging out. Since then, I have doubled some of the meals I make in the evening and frozen the second batch. In the future, I think it would be fun to start a freeze-and-share group with several other girls! In case you are wondering what we have made, here are the majority of the recipes we used. We also used a couple of brisket recipes Bekah had, but I do not have those in my file, yet.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

When I saw this, I just had to try it! We had made homemade liquid detergent before and did not like the results. This was a powdered version, and it piqued my interest.

Recipe and photo are courtesy of Being Creative (to keep my sanity).

We have been using it for a couple of months now, and we love it! Our landlord had to replace our old washer and dryer with a new, front-loader high-efficiency unit, and it still works well. When friends of mine threw me a baby shower, I thought it would be cute to surprise them with samples of this laundry soap as a thank you.

Cupcakes in a Jar

My church also threw me a baby shower, and I was looking for another homemade thank-you gift I could make for the ladies. I stumbled upon (no, actually, I searched within Pinterest) this little number from Cakies.

Red velvet cupcakes in a jar! 

I found the printables for this and the laundry soap on various sites.

It was such a fun idea, and I had a blast--although I stayed up way too late layering cupcake and frosting!