Let's pretend it's March 26 instead of May 26

and let's pretend that I uploaded pictures and posted about my precious daughter on the day of her birth and not actually 2 months later.  I've always had a very active imagination...

Ella turned 7 on March 26.  We had fun planning her birthday party together.  She was very involved and had some specific ideas and opinions.  Some of those ideas I went with and others I steered into different concepts. :) 

Since her actual birthday was a school day we had our birthday morning [pan] cakes topped with whip cream, sprinkles, and a candle.  Ella wore her number 7 shirt to school and took cupcakes to her class that she and a friend decorated together.  Ella's birthday dinner request consisted of her 2 favorites:  1. Famous Dave's cornbread muffins and  2. coffee.  That was easy.  She was very surprised when I said yes to the coffee.  We ordered a pan of muffins from the restraunt 5 minutes away and made frappaccinos in our blender! 

The next part of this birthday post will be a lot of pictures from Ella's "sweet treats" shop.  Ella had a friend sleepover on a Friday night and she and the rest of the kids decorated about 3 dozen cupcakes together.  They had a blast!  This was a very fun birthday party.  I still cannot believe how much sugar exploded in my kitchen that night.  There were sprinkles and colored sugar crystals and blobs of frosting everywhere!  The cupcakes were masterpieces though and they were very proud of their creations. 

Ella's craft idea for the party:

And here's the workshop:

The "favors" for Ella and her friend were mixing bowls and spatulas and measuring cups and spoons from the dollar store.  We also purchased 2 corrdinating kitchen towels from the dollar store and made them into aprons.

Did I mention there was sugar everywhere? :

On their way to make cupcake deliveries to various neighbors:

happy heart day

making valentines for J and E's classmates:

making heart garland with the top half of the cellophane bags (They were too long so we had to cut them off and I couldn't throw away the extra!):

making heart cookies for the K5 class at school:

meditating on what it means to have a happy heart as a child of God:

snack time

with the little two

 Kate is such a ham.  I hardly ever get a "normal" face from her when the camera is out.  I guess this IS "normal"!

Home: bring'n home the bacon

literally...
Trying new things has always been a part of what "home" is to me.  Jason cured his own bacon!!!  He's been reading about how to do it and just had to try it.  It was so awesome.   He bought the pork belly from a butcher and created a rub with fresh herbs and special salts.  The process took about 10 days.  I must say that this bacon endeavor was a huge success and we will be repeating. frequently. :)  

YUM... blt's, omlets, salads w fresh bacon, sandwiches, soup toppings, and more.

My parents always told us when we wanted to make something that "you can do whatever you want to do as long as you clean up the mess!"  And then they supplied us with EVERYTHING- scraps of lumber and other building materials and tools (my dad is a general contractor), fabric, paint, and all things crafty (my mom was Martha Stewart BEFORE there was an Everyday Living empire) and free reign of the kitchen.  There were many many crazy concoctions in the kitchen, lots of ugly paintings hanging around our home, little wobbly stools and tables and boxes constructed with wood and nails and clothes sewn in funny misshapen ways but there were also priceless lessons taught about ingenuity, creativity, resourcefulness, and imagination.  We never left a store without hearing from my mom, "we could make that!"   I think I could go on and on and on with examples and stories about growing up with this mentality.  I won't do that here, but I want to pass it on to my children.  Please share ways that you try new things in your home.   I'd LOVE to hear!

Home: "mommy, can I help?"

Is anyone else out there good about letting your little ones "help" in the kitchen?  It's usually a little frustrating and makes the job take much longer, but I never regret it!  I say "no" far too often, but  making the mess and taking the time is worth the memories made and the lessons taught while cooking with my little helpers.

rub a dub, a babe in a...

s i n k

hope of spring

Kitchen

We hosted a book review at our house on last Friday night.  That's probably funny for those of you who know that I'm not a reader!  While I was cleaning the house I thought it would be fun to take some pics of some of the rooms.  Here's the kitchen- our work in progress.  There are a lot of small things here and there to do, but I love having more projects than time, money, or energy to do.  Ok... "love" is strong.  Perhaps "enjoy" is a better way to put it.  How boring would life be to live in a perfect house?  (some days I WANT "boring")

The kitchen bench is working really well.  It's easy to clean up after meals and shove the table into the corner of the room.  I still need to paint those crates underneath.

This is a section of countertop that I didn't used to have.  It's so great to have this!  It's the perfect spot for rolling out cinnamon rolls.

The contents of these jars are always changing, but I recently got a TON of free oatmeal (PTL!) and with the raisins I bought in bulk it seemed obvious that the third jar should house the oatmeal cookies we girls made this week.

That square wood clock above the girls door holds a little surprise behind it... when we moved in that clock was there and I moved it one day and discovered a big hole in the wall just a little bit smaller than the clock.  So, the clock still hangs.  I want to decoupage it or something fun. .

(ok, i just deleted that pic and that's frustrating.... also, this underlining won't stop!  Does anyone else get so annoyed with blogger sometimes!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

above:  Here's the assembly line for the grilled chicken kabobs that we had for supper.  They were YUMMY!  below:  the all important coffee corner

below:  There's a section of wall paper above the sink that needs to be scraped off.  This tea towel is from Anthropology  -my favorite store!  Oh, and the backsplash needs to be tiled.

Here are the kabobs all ready  to go

They just looked so yummy and colorful (they match the kitchen!) and I was so hungry that I just kept taking pictures of them.  I'm so weird!

Those lower cabinets are missing doors that are waiting to get painted and put on and the whole kitchen floor needs to be redone and I'd love to do something different with the light/ fan, but one thing at a time!  Thanks for "visiting" my kitchen.  I'd love to share a hot drink with any one of you for REAL.   Y'all come back now, ya hear?