SOMEone turned FIVE this weekend!

A little bit of cuteness celebrated a milestone birthday Sunday!  I remember my fifth birthday!  I wonder if she will remember hers...

The night before her birthday, I waited and waited for Sashi to finally fall asleep so I could dec out her room in the style the kids have become accustomed!  Two of the sibs were still awake and helped blow up and distribute the balloons!  I sure appreciated the help!

I left the doorway unfettered since the last time I paper~taped one shut Mr. T busted through it instead of the intended recipient (Meiners!)!  I also didn't want little Sashi to get scared or have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and have no way out of her room!  Taping the doorway shut may be an older kid fun-omena!  Taping up the bed with a distinct escape route was top notch for this five year-old!

Sash insisted we not do Bread Co in spite of our long-standing Sunday morning ritual.  She wanted pancakes.  What Momma could say no to that face?  Pancakes for a princess indeed!  And they always get their number, so I of course had to oblige!

Saturday Dad and the boys built this stellar playhouse ~ so that was the primary entertainment while Sashi waited for her cake I mean party! 

I've wanted one of these for the kids for a decade! How cool would it be to be little again and have this house in the backyard for hours upon hours of imaginative play?! Three of them played all afternoon in there, taking orders and answering phone calls!   Loved it!

Between playing and cleaning up for the family party, the kids decorated Sashi's birthday cake.  She wanted a cake with her face on it.  My friend Christi made a stellar RAINBOW cake last week for her daughter, so when I suggested this one to Sash, she was all smiles, and a birthday cake concept was born!

Oh man ~ I may complain about the details along the way (and I use the term 'concept cake' loosely!  Rosie sure makes it look easy on her blog!), but I loved the anticipation of eating this fun cake!  I have a few lessons to learn about fondant, but when you're five, do you really care if your cake has extra cracks and pleats?  Wouldn't Fancy Nancy just call that "unique enhancements?"  I think absolutely.  :)

Everyone had a chance to put something meaningful on the cake!  From her love of flowers and all things watering them, to her desired 'face picture' alongside siblings...to maybe even a few of those siblings' favorte things...Using the edible markers was a challenge, but we got the hang of it, and I really love how it turned out!  Wrinkles in fondant and all!

Sunday was a busy and fun-filled day for our five year-old super star!  Here are five of the top reasons why I truly think she is a super star!

1.  She is very responsible.  (It may not be fair to say the most responsible sibling, but it's true and life isn't fair!)  When you tell Sashi to do something, you can turn around, and she'll have it done!

2.  She is a hard worker!  This goes with number one, but not only that, she said yesterday, "I love to work hard Dad" and that is Truth.  She desires to vacuum like the big kids.  I vote we let her!

3.  She colors constantly and has a great eye for putting colors together in unexpected ways that turn out beautifully!  She loves to color with me, too!  (Except my color combinations are not as fun as hers!)

4.  She has a sweet tooth that just won't end, but she'll eat any combo of fruit, vegetable, or other to get her hands on a piece of the sweet stuff!  She's one of my best eaters!  (As long as I don't let her snack all day!)

5.  She is just the most adorable, squeezy, sweet, little cuddler and baby girl around and I love her to pieces!

Love you Sashi~girl!  To the moon and beyond!  Can't believe you're five!  I'm so proud to continue to watch you grow and mature and develop while being your momma!  God's got the greatest of plans for you! 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!  And yes, you'll always be my baby!

The Minutes :: 12.4-12.10

My good friend Frizzy used to host Five Photos on Friday on her lovely blog Heaven's Gift.  I truly loved that series.  I was horrible at keeping up with it.  But it was a wonderful way to give a week its own props by way of an honorable review.
So - in honor of that which once was, I am giving this post up to last week.  I know, I know.  We're all over-the-moon crazy busy.  It's that time of year.  But it was just such an awesome week.  The kids are all healthy; they're getting along with their friends, doing well in school.  Basketball has begun and schedules are nuts, but everyone made it to their respective practices. { I think. } I started baking again (for the first time in months, literally)...We celebrated St. Nicholas' birthday...The kids did a great job in the Christmas Pageant...Dad built a closet from nothing.  It was just such a good week.  Let's pay it a lil homage, if you will.

I could otherwise title this post:  A Tribute to Pinterest - Thee Whom I Love.  Pooks and I are way into hair right now.  Maybe it's mostly me.  I was pretty darned impressed with myself for recreating this hairstyle on my pretty girl, though, I must say.  I, myself, am Queen of the Messy Bun.



Sash insisted on a photo alone with Santa.  She added it to her wall of friends.  Santa gave her this sign to put in the window with her list of things she wants him to bring.  Now, when he asked her what she wanted, she merely said, "Whatever you bring me."  So sweet.  Somehow she found plenty of ideas for this list.  I think she'll be very happy come Christmas morning.  ;)

St. Nick was good to the kids this year already (December 6th).  Sash's ornament is a ballerina.  Meiners' a Power Ranger.  Pooks = Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and T's was the golden snitch (a nod to Harry Potter).

Here's another fun Pinterest idea.  (Did I mention I love that place??)  Sashi and I had fun surprising Daddy one morning after some light snow :)

The Christmas Pageant occurred last week, as well.  Our sweet shepherd.  Lovin' that hair.  She gave up on the matching beard, though.  (Can't say I entirely blame her!)

I just ove this four year-old march march marching below in the Christmas program...and the puckered little sideways lips.  She's been making that face a lot lately.  Such focus and determination.  So cute.

And get a load of this pre-teen.  He's still three years away from being a tween - are boys tweens? - but that hair sure makes him look older than 7, I think.  He looks like a brooding teenager.  Maybe pensive is a better word.  John and I have officially decided the kids can have their way with their hair.  What's funny is it can't be short enough for Tommy.  But Matt screams when you mention a haircut.  So different.  But it fits both of them perfectly.

And cupcakes.  Yeah.  I laughed as I delivered these.  Sometimes I get this incredible notion that I can bake cupcakes.  Yet, God humbles me.  {Thank you, Lord!}  These were awful.  Just awful.  Not the recipe.  No, the recipe for the cake was D.I.V.I.N.E.  I nearly pitched them and went to buy a dozen from Dierberg's because of the frosting I chose.  Next time I'll skip the brilliant idea to top the delicious peppermint mocha cake with [ever-so-yummy but way too overpowering] mint cream cheese frosting and just top 'em with chocolate frosting.  Now that would have been Y.U.M.!  Yup.  There's always next time.  {They were pretty, though, which is half the fun!}

So, that was our week-ish in a nutshell.  My man was home most of it, taking some hard-earned vacation time, building a closet in the corner of the boys' room.  The closet looks amazing and will be such an asset to their room.  I sure love my handsome handy man.

Yup - it was definitely a great week.  And only 13 days left until Christmas!  Can you believe it??

Yup. Cupcakes.

My friend invited me back to make cupcakes for her a second time!  I sure had fun with them!  She gave me poetic license, so I tried my hand at fondant.  Although they sure looked cute, her girls called it "fondue" and told the guests they could pull it off!  (Oops!)

These cupcakes were chocolate covered cherry - two way - per request of the 5 year-old birthday girl.  Yum!

This design, engineered originally by Sweetopolita, was a 'blonde' version with white girardhelli chocolate chunks sharing a presence with cherries in the white cake, topped with girardhelli white chocolate frosting.  I used sour cherries candies for the "cherry on top."

The devil's food cake showed off dark chocolate girardhelli chunks with chopped cherries inside.  The frosting was this fellow-St. Louisan's maraschino cherry buttercream recipe!  {And I don't even like soda anymore (since falling in love with icee mochas), but I'm pretty sure I'll be buying that Kool Kola extract she recommends here!}

Thanks, KF, for letting me try my hand at baking again!  ;)

Double Digits

Some kids we know celebrated a pretty significant birthday yesterday.

The twins turned 10.  It really does seem hard to believe.  10 years.  {pause}  "It goes too quickly," quotes the elderly woman in the checkout lane.  We all know it's true.

One of my little people - who isn't little, cuz, you know, he's like 10 now - desperately wanted this day to be something special.  I get that.  I truly wanted to give him that special day, as well.

So I spent four hours Sunday night blowing up balloons (which I threw all over their beds and floor to their rooms while they slept as well as taping them to the door frames) and baracading their doorways:

We took them to breakfast - SURPRISE!  Bread Co.  And then let them open the cards that had piled up over the last week and the presents from Dad and me.

The rest of the day we put them to work.  Did you know when you're 10 you're old enough to pick up the dog doo in the backyard?  True story.

Never fear, however.  It was all in the name of party.  And some of the work was fun.  See?

She did a such great job.  I love that {almost all} my kids love to bake with me!

[And I love that my friends help me eat leftover cupcakes when the two children born of my womb at the same moment (or no more than 1 minute apart, anyway) have such differing personalities as to insist on two separate kinds of cake.  And frosting.  {...who am I kidding?  Twice the Y.U.M.!!!}]

The real fun began at 4:00 when the family began arriving.  Presents presents presents!  That's what matters when you're turning 10, really.  So we didn't wait long before we let them start tearing into their gifts!  {They'd earned it with those smelly backyard bags, anyway!}

Before it grew too late in the day, we gathered on the porch for the obligatory, annual family photo:

These kids are pretty darn fortunate to have some very awesome grandparents!

And then it was time to sing and eat cake.

At the end of the night, Tommy grabbed me in a spontaneous and genuine bear hug.  He said, "Mom?  This was the best birthday ever."

I had to smile and agree.

Professional Baker?

A few weeks ago, my friend asked me to bake a large order of cupcakes for her daughter's post-wedding reception.   Oh my goodness was I excited! 

We knew immediately that one cupcake would be the strawberry with strawberry buttercream and chocolate butterflies.  From a list of about a dozen flavor choices, my friend also requested amaretto and snickerdoodle.  What a fun trio!  I spent the two weeks prior to the event baking up a storm.  Literally.  And loving every minute!

I took the amaretto cupcake and frosting recipe from The Primrose Bakery and filled them for fun with a white chocolate creme filling that I actually also used in Sashi's strawberry-flavored ballerina cake.  (Yum-oH!)  I highly recommend Ghirardelli white chocolate chips - even over Callebaut white chocolate (which I actually didn't like at all!) if you try this recipe.  I also added coursely chopped, roasted almonds to the chocolate cream to accentuate the almond flavor and to add texture. 

:)



The Snickerdoodle cupcake proved a little persnickety and required a couple of trials.  My first attempt came from Martha's Cupcake cookbook - and this time the taste tester (my husband) gave me a big thumbs down.   

In the end, I used this muffin recipe.  I researched (yes I did!) whether a muffin could be used as a cupcake and officially decided that, because the line between the two is blurry, if you top it with frosting and call it cake, then it is cake.  :)  (Cupcake wisdom by Karin.  Amen.)

The morning of the party, I finally settled on a frosting - my bloggy friend Daiana's vanilla bean buttercream - and through the help of my friends on Facebook, went with a rich cinnamon cream in the middle of these.  Pookie helped me with the decorating - a Pirouette cookie and cinnamon sugar sprinkles. 

It took a village, but it sure was fun!

Later that weekend, I made margarita cupcakes for Father's Day.

And then I retired from my professional baking career. 

...unless someone else wants me to try a recipe?
;)

Ode to the Cupcake

The cottage has been replete with the smells of baking recently.  I guess I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted to make every cupcake in Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook! 

I'm dividing my baking time between the splendid tastes of Martha and the decorating marvels of Hello, Cupcake (Hello).  This week, I even got to combine the two to create a whimsical butterfly garden of strawberry cupcakes for a dear friend whose daughter turned 5 today!  (Thanks, Christine, for my first real live order for cupcakes :) !!!)

So, without further adieu, enjoy the baking whims of   Me : : Part-time Baker Extra~ordinaire!  ...??



Don'chu toucha my centipede cupcake  (inspired by Hello, Cupcake!)

 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Mini Cupcakes = Y.U.M.!!!  Inspired by Martha's Cupcakes. 
I gave these away to Sashi's preschool.



Happy Birthday LucieLu!   Enjoy your strawberry cupcakes (Martha) and chocolate butterflies (Hello)!!!
The extras went to the teachers at the big kids' school.





My mom's cupcakes are the best!



I baked roasted banana cupcakes with honey-cinnamon buttercream frosting this week.  I think they may go to church...

Everyday Grace

Today I made chocolate salted caramel mini cupcakes.  They are lovely.  A little salty, but I guess that's the point - beings that they're salted caramel and all.  (Originally, I was going to name this post: "I made caramel today."  Because I am just that proud of the fact that I actually made homemade caramel.  From sugar and water and syrup and cream.  Amen.  [I'll post pictures tomorrow].)

In the meantime, tonight I am directing you to The Nester for an incredible message she recently shared.  I watched the video and I have to tell you - by the end of it I truly felt that I was on holy ground.  "She don't know she's beautiful" amid life's everyday messes = God reminding each of us of His grace in the moment.  I, for one, regularly feel like I am failing at this job of stay-at-home motherhood.  That if I could just get my act together or my energy up or let them watch one more show I could clean my house.

Well.  Not today.  Today I made chocolate salted caramel mini cupcakes.  And now I just have to find someone to help me eat them...

BUGS!

We spent the afternoon today at Spring Advancement for the boys.  Meiners finished his first year as a Cub Scout and MrT is moving up to Webelos. 

I've never been to advancement before - usually it has been cold or Sashi was too little.  I'm glad we were able to go today as a family and watch the kids play in forts and a babbling brook.  Pooks is lucky that two of her good friends have brothers her own brothers' ages - so even she skipped off to unearth 'sea snails' from the river, earth worms, and beetles.

Yesterday, to prepare our part of the meal to be served to all the Boy Scouts and their families at today's ceremony, we unearthed some of our very own bugs here at home.  In chocolate.  Cupcake form.

The three big kids helped along the bug path.  We decided chocolate bugs were a bit of hard work.  But they persevered and ate their fair share of creepy crawlies today.  Chocolate creepy crawlies that is.

Yum?