St. Patrick's Green party

I invited all the ladies in my book club plus their spouses over for a St. Patrick's day party. It was fun to eat dinner and laugh with everyone. We had a great time, and enjoyed some great food. And, I had another excuse to make (and eat!) more cupcakes. I'm starting to look like one, I'm afraid. More zumba, less cupcake. I had fun coming up with green decor; the green thingies in the glass jar are furry little styrofoam baubles I got from the dollar store. But I was reminded of Ireland when I saw them; they made a great addition. Here's the big table decor:

I was determined to get the dumb limes on the glasses. But, the dumb things kept tipping over. Solution: put ice in the cups first.

Secondary, banquet table: I bought the beer mugs for something else, but they made such nice vases, since this holiday is really all about drinking, right?

Drink table. Scott did this one himself. It was really yummy! See my little "Irish kissing ball" there? Oh, I shoulda hung it up! Next year.

And, my favorite, my cupcake display. I had to have variety, of course, cuz it's cuter, and if it's not cute, why eat it? I made green velvet cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and leftover cookie dough frosting (ssshhh! It was still good!). Then, my favorites, were the mint chocolate ganache-filled thin mint chocolate sour cream cupcakes with white chocolate mint frosting. (Say that 3 times fast!) Yum! Can I just say I LOVE ganache? I could eat it all day long. I practically did eat it all day long. Good thing Zumba is on Monday again!

A close up of the little darlings. I love my new cake tips! How come no one told me before how fun it was to squirt frosting out of these little metal miracles? And, is it weird that my cupcake stands make me really happy? Because they do. Isn't this one adorable? I sense a collection starting...

In honor of the drunken holiday spirit, I made green Jello shots. Basically just jello made with hot water, plus a cold beverage of your choice, usually something with alcohol it in. I chose to use Sobe's Green Tea drink, plus I added a tad bit of cream to add a little "je ne sais quois" quality to them. That's where the lighter frothy layer comes from. They were good little suckers. Jello is always better in small quantities, dontcha think?

I did not make these, but I thought they were cute. All we need is some ham. {hee hee!}

Everything everyone made that night was awesome!

Food table

And dished out. Dontcha just love the all green food, and then the shot of color, with the rainbow jello? Like the gold at the end of the rainbow. So pretty! I made Thai cilantro chicken with fettucine. I was amazed at how everyone brought something different and green. So obedient! haha

We had a full house; every couple came but one.

After dinner we played a game with a silly story I made up, then Loaded questions. I think we learned a lot about one another with our answers! It was a fun night! Next up, Cinco de Mayo! Get out your sombreros, muchachas!

St Patrick's Day 2010

This year for St Patty's day, we started out the day with Lucky Charms cereal. I usually have done a big, homemade breakfast in the past, but my kids are weird and prefer cold cereal to eggs or pancakes. Strange, I know, but I love 'em anyway.

Then the girls had a green lunch at school:

Then we had a green dinner. Here is Keaton, starved and not too happy about my pause in getting his meal to snap a few pictures.

The menu consisted of chicken rice casserole with spinach and tomatoes (dyed green, of course!), steamed broccoli, beans, and pot o' gold jello, without the pot. I love this holiday! I can feed my kids all the green veggies I can stuff into them and, in the spirit of the holiday, they eat them! Also, because Scott's heritage is Irish, and I believe in celebrating your roots; but mostly because of the veggies. Plus I just love ALL holidays!

Waverly wasn't happy either, for the same reason. I love her in her red rainbow, Walmart shirt! I couldn't find anything green in her spring clothes. Gotta go shopping!

We found this shirt in our hand-me-downs from an older cousin, and now it's become Brighton's favorite shirt. Maybe because he can do up the buttons? I couldn't conceive of any other reason.

And, for dessert, this rainbow green jello cake. The sprinkles look cheesy, though. Shoulda dyed the cool whip blue instead. It was yummy!

And here's the inside... Loved the ripple effect. Brighton exclaimed how beautiful the cake was made up. He was sad to cut it up. He has an eye for beauty and without any prodding, has told various women that their homes were beautiful...Oh no, does that mean my son is going to grow up to have a life partner? Hopefully not! Well, we had a fun green day together. I was thinking, though, that some colors really get the shaft. Red has a role in Christmas, Independence day, and Valentines. Green is St Patty's and Christmas. Blue is Independence day. But what about yellow, orange, and purple? Maybe I'll institute the first National Purple Day at our house. Hmmm...food choices would be fun!

Molly Ballerina

Move over, Angelina! There's a new four-legged creature in town! Our girls thought Molly needed a little sprucing up and gave her this haute-couture outfit. Tres chic!

Gonna catch a Leprechaun!

In keeping with tradition, we made leprechaun traps last week for FHE. This year I just set out a bunch of random items and the girls went to work creating their own. Savannah is cutting fake gold out of this butter box.

Brighton was excited to join in this year. He had no idea what exactly a leprechaun was, but he knew he wanted to catch one after his sisters gave him the 411 on what the leprechauns give you if you do manage to trap one. We borrowed from last year's trap and concocted this simple trap.

This is Savannah's finished product. I loved how she decided to duct tape the box to the hearth this year so the leprechaun couldn't upend the box and escape. Creative problem solving, Savannah!

Irelynd's was a little more simple, but similar.

Update: the kids got up St. Patrick's day morning to find that, alas, the little men escaped yet again! Left behind were some shiny new pennies (usually they leave gold dollars, but, we are in the middle of a recession, ya know!), and some gold chocolate coins. Irelynd's leprechaun had had help getting out; we found a piece of ribbon tied to the fireplace handle and thrown down the hole to the trapped leprechaun's rescue. Savannah's used the popsicle stick sign to climb out. Brighton's didn't seem to need help. Darn tricky little Irishmen!

My SIL, Sallie, brought her girls and crafts over last week for some St. Patrick's day fun. The girls had fun making badges; I had fun later sweeping up glitter. In fact, I'm still having fun with it:) My kitchen floor is bling-y!

No, they're not that excited over badges; I happened to get this expression as their favorite song, Fireflies, came on the radio. Cute, huh?

What a grin; looks almost evil.

Brighton was too young and just observed the fun. He found this pair of goggles recently in our swim drawer and somehow thought they looked so cool to wear. He's seldom been without them. Future aviator, or deep-sea diver?

While the girls had their fun, I had mine, making cute flower clips for the holiday. Where were these when I was young enough to wear them? Love them! So fun to make! This may become my next craft obsession.

Minnie Mouse lives at our house

Just some cute photos taken recently of Waverly. With the bow, she resembled Mickey's girlfriend.

"Oh-oh! Where's my shoe?"

Peek-a-boo!

I see you!

And this is why time-outs in our house may not be so effective.

Waverly had to sit in her first time out ("mout") last week for hitting Keaton on the head. It's a common practice for her. I think she likes the sound it makes. I sat her here, went and set the kitchen timer for one minute...

...and came back to this. Not so effective, but how cute is that? Keaton sat to keep her company.

Rainbow bright

Inspired by my sister-in-law, Sallie, Brighton and I made a foot rainbow. He loves to paint and asked me for days if we could paint. Like the wonderful mother I am, I pushed him off so I could get my cupcake party stuff done. Finally, one weekend I pulled the stuff out and we painted. Oi. That was an adventure. Good thing it's washable!

To make one, first you start with big white paper (I used a roll of white wrapping paper) and draw a rainbow on it.
Next you squirt out your paints onto paper plates.

Then you apply the paint to the feet and walk along the drawn lines. I meant to get a photo of this "step" (haha!), but couldn't afford to let go of Brighton's hands. THere is no telling where he would go with painted feet.

After we were done, this is what feet smeared in 6 different paint colors looks like:

Not sure why this photo didn't turn right side up, but here is the artiste, so proud of his work.

I cut around the rainbow a little, since our lines were a little drunken; here it is on our wall:

Ta-da!

UVMOM cupcake party

This month I hosted a cupcake party for my twins mom group. I was having blenvy, drooling over this party, and wanted to copy it, in a smaller scale, of course! There were 10 ladies that came; we decorated cupcakes and overloaded on sugar and buttercream frosting. I think we all left in a sugar daze:) It was fun to chat with everyone and enjoy each other's company over my latest obsession: cupcakes!

Waverly had to wear her cupcake outfit today, of course:) She sports a sentiment I feel deeply: So many cupcakes, so little time. She sampling my cupcake pops. So much better the next day, refrigerated.

Table display.

Close up. Aren't they cute? And, if it's not cute, why eat it?

The girls and I made our cupcake jewellery again.

I found the recipes for THE BEST cupcakes. Yum! For chocolate sour cream cupcakes with peanut butter frosting go here; for raspberry-filled white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate frosting, strawberry lemonade cupcakes, or chocolate chip cookie dough with cookie dough frosting, go here . Oh, they were so good! The secret to good cupcakes is apparently coconut milk. Makes them moist and yummy! I'm drooling as I talk. Surprisingly, the last 3 were vegan recipes; I used skim and whole milk instead of soy, but there are no eggs in the recipes! Who'd a thunk it? I'm converted.

I made this cute cupcake tablecloth, copying the one from Kara's cupcake party, of course. I still have to add the ricrac; my sewing maching was acting up that night, but it turned out so cute! And, I realized I can still use it for birthdays too! I might just have to give the girls a cupcake party now that I have all the stuff for it!

Sallie hard at work.