Cookies and Milk Party

Thanks to pinterest I'd had Lexie's first birthday party mentally planned, pretty much since I found out she was a girl. (Sad to say as much as I don't want her to grow up any more than she already has, I already have an idea for her second birthday too) 

What could be sweeter for a sweet little girl than a cookies and milk party? 

I kept it simple (once you got past the wide array of cookies and cupcakes that I made all from scratch) as far as activities went. To start a guess the number of cookies in the jar guessing game. There were 266 in case you were wondering. (Abby guessed 1,000 and Micah guessed 4) 

Then came all the tasty goodies... oatmeal, lemon and sugar cookies.

Alexis' smash cake

Cupcakes (because it isn't a birthday party without cake!) These were cookie dough cupcakes from Annie's Eats. A brown sugar cupcake with chocolate chips in it, eggless cookie dough filling and a cookie dough frosting. So yummy! (Lexie's smash cake is the same as the cupcakes just with no filling)

And more cookies - chocolate chip and macarons (of course!) 

Then we had white and chocolate milk to drink.

The whole set up with Lexie's birthday banner and all. 

Then to keep the bigger ones entertained we had cookie decorating.

Both Abby and Micah wanted to help Lexie blow out her candle so we blew it out twice. 

Mmm... maybe this looks tasty?

Trying a tiny bite of her cake.... well a cookie off the side.

Nah... I'd rather eat my oatmeal cookie..... no cake covered baby at this party. 

Such a fun, sweet (read: sugar overload) party. I'm gonna say it one more time... I can't believe this past year went so fast and she's already one! She's looking and acting more toddler-ish lately and it makes me happy and sad all at  the same time.

Hug your babies

The weather here is beautiful. Spring, practically summer - highs in the mid-70s. We headed outside after we finished spelling words to play. Abby finally was ready and had the confidence and dedication to learn to ride her bike. We've tried many times and she wanted to give up because it wasn't easy (and it wasn't easy to teach her when Micah and Alexis wanted to play and she wanted to play with them instead of learn to ride her bike) She took off and in no time was riding on her own. Such a proud moment.

Miss Lexie had fun toddling around outside and look at those sweet curls she's starting to get. I love baby curls.

Sadly however about 30 minutes after we went inside, Beau was leaving for the gym and saw several ambulances, a fire truck, police and an EMS command/first responder vehicle. A little boy in Abby's grade, down the block and around the corner had been riding his bike on the side walk (waiting for the ice cream truck) when a 17 year old, unlicensed, speeding, drunk driver reached for his phone he had dropped, drove his truck onto the sidewalk, hit and killed that little boy. Such a sad, sad end to the day.  

It scares me enough riding in the street when teaching Abby to ride her bike because of all the cars parked on the street that kids can hide behind but now we have drunk drivers jumping on the curbs. My heart aches for that family. 

Insta+lately

Well the birthday party is over and aside from the banner that's still hanging and the few remaining cookies, we've mostly recovered from the party excitement.  

• Friday before the party was a busy, busy day. I spent most of the day baking as I wanted everything to be as fresh as possible. All the cookie dough was premade (by me), frozen and ready to bake but I still had to make the macarons and cupcakes. The baby got lots of snacks (even some she usually doesn't have like tastes of frosting) when I needed her occupied to get batches of cookies out of the oven.  (Gotta fatten her up anyway!) 
• That night after all the littles were in bed, I finally got to work on her birthday banner. 

•  Packing up leftover party goodies afterwards. Lots of yummy goodies... I might have gone overboard but I couldn't leave out someone's favorite type of cookies. Ha! 
• When did Lexie get this big? My parents gave her a wheely bug for Christmas and she translated scooting on that into scooting on Micah's balance trike. 

• The weather has been beautiful. Perfect spring weather.... only it's January. I personally would love another month of cold weather before it warms up like this (it was 75 today - nearing sweating outside in January no thank you!).... Our bulk trash comes and picks up this month so we have some mattresses waiting to go out next week. I laid them flat and the kids had a blast jumping and doing gymnastics on the mattresses. Seriously they need a trampoline but that scares Daddy... 
• Watching Lexie walking (!) and wanting to join and play with Abby and Micah was one of those "I really have 3 kids" moments. She looked so much less like a baby walking around wanting to play... (insert sad mommy tear) 

insta+lately

It's been a busy week around here. Most notably a certain sweet girl's first birthday and now prepping for her first birthday party this weekend. 

• I already shared some pictures from the zoo but I think Micah just looks so handsome here. My little boy is growing up and looking less like my little toddler and more like a pre-schooler. I suppose it's time though since we'll be signing him up for pre-school next month. 
• I successfully made it a year nursing my sweet 3rd babe. It just seems natural being that I made it this far with Abby and Micah as well but it's still something to be celebrated. I think the nurse was confused at Alexis's 12 month visit when she asked if she was 'off the bottle' and I said she never took one.  Nursing this long is not something they see often.... which to me is very sad. 

• Just an ordinary Saturday morning around here... ha! The kids have such a great imagination. (That and boxes always make great toys!) They 'built' pirate ships and tied a gator to the back. They were sailing around the kitchen and having a blast. Maybe Santa should have just brought more boxes? 
• Alexis went to town on her blackberries at dinner. Not so much into her pasta (as usual) or her peas (usually a favorite.) Blackberries however make for a very purple baby.

• Alexis had her 12 month appointment on Tuesday morning. She is my little peanut, following in her bother's footsteps. She was 17 lbs 6 oz. Unfortunately 4 oz less than her 10 month weight... Busy, busy little girls who prefer their fruits, veggies and meats and don't much like 'filler' foods like pasta, grains, carbs... don't gain weight as fast. I'm happy she's a healthy eater and likes her fruits and veggies so it's a delicate balance to not discourage her love of these but to enough high calorie food to get her to gain weight. On a good note she's meeting all her milestones and her pedi knows us and Micah's case so no weight checks. 
• However, sadly we did have to do blood work. It's never a good sign when the phlebotomist is worried he can't draw enough blood for all 6 tubes he needs for the various tests. Not fun at all - especially when we'd already been there 2 hours, no nap and everyone was hungry and ready for lunch. So we'll hope that it all comes back normal. 

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Make Cookies Monday: Dark Chocolate Chip

Today ended up being a much longer afternoon that I imagined. Originally 'the plan' was Micah and I were going to make cookies during Lexie's afternoon nap. However her morning nap was late and meant her afternoon nap was after Abby got home from school and right before we had to leave for a playmate with a friend from school for Abby. So our afternoon ended up being great - with a first playdate for Abby with friend from school, then the gym. (The gym I was regretting on the way home as the kids were tired and hungry and my legs were dying... but it was worth it) So to cheer everyone up from the overtired and hungry crankies we made cookies while I fixed dinner. 

If you cheat and soften the butter in the microwave they really don't take too long to make. Micah was my helper while Abby choose to have a little downtime and watch a show. 

We didn't choose a fancy new recipe this week. Just tried and true chocolate chip. This is also not just Make Cookies Monday - it's make cookies week as we make lots of types of cookies for Lexie's birthday party.

My sweet little helper adding in and stirring the chocolate chips in. 

 And the best part of making cookies... taking a lick of the beater. 

We let them cool while we got ready for bed then it was time for a sweet, pre-bedtime treat. 

MMMM.... yum 

Even Lexie got a piece of cookie (and she liked it a whole lot more than she did her cupcake on her birthday!) 

Sorry not the greatest pictures as I didn't want to get the real camera so I apologize for the less than steller iphone shots. It's the memories that count anyway. :) 

Happy Monday! 

Cookies and Milk invitation

We are having a little tiny birthday party for Alexis. I wanted a little more distance from Christmas to her party and to make sure I had time to get everything together so even though her birthday was last Thursday, it won't happen until this weekend. So I debated and searched pinterest for idea for her birthday invite. I love the idea of an invite with her first birthday picture on it, or one that shows all 12 months of her growing up. However I ended up going a whole different direction and love how they turned out. 

So during naptime, I got out my papers, laptop and silhouette and got to work. 

With the Silhouette, this was pretty simple. I downloaded a cookie dicut, a milk bottle and a straw. Then I cut them out and put them together. 

I printed out the details on pink, and put it on a background of brown with the cookie and milk bottle. (Pic is cropped to cut off all the details at the bottom) 

And my pinterest inspiration. 

Source: catchmyparty.com via Katie on Pinterest

More party details will probably come later this week/weekend after I have more together and of course after the party on Saturday.

Sunday Scenes: Sweeties in Chevron

This morning we made it to Church after missing last week due to being sick. The littles looked so precious all dressed up. So spur of the moment on the way home, passing the field across from our neighborhood, I decided we'd attempt a super fast mini-shoot before lunch and I changed them out of Church clothes. (and by super fast I mean under 10 minutes from swinging by the house to pick up the chair and camera to back at home)

Not the greatest technical photo as I couldn't get the light at the right angle to not have cars/the karate studio in the background but still pretty sweet. Definitely going to attempt pictures again (after I get Micah a pink shirt - Beau's gonna love that! Ha!) but I couldn't resist trying today. 

Happy Birthday Alexis!

On Thursday, Lexie's birthday we planned to celebrate as a family that evening. We'll do a small party for her next weekend and I'll be busy baking for that all this week. So that morning Lexie, Micah and I headed out to get some cupcakes. Well being that we have to get Abby up and off to school, we were ready early so we headed out to the bakery. (I was thinking Lexie was ready for a nap and would sleep in the car anyway - but I was wrong about that.) We got to the bakery about 25 minutes too early for cupcakes. 

Well the zoo was right down the street so we headed there to kill some time. That's one of the benefits of a zoo membership. I'm just glad I had a stroller in the car! Micah loved this and since it was early, it was breakfast time for a lot of the animals and they were out and waiting for their breakfast. 

After an hour at the zoo, we head back and made the tough decisions of what flavor cupcakes to get. 

My sweet itty bitty Alexis. Hard to believe this was a year ago already. 

Lexie took a teeny nap on the way home and after lunch we played for a little while before her afternoon nap. I was delaying it so I could get a good picture of her at exactly 1:19 when she was born. 

And she cooperated. She's a ham 90% of the time when the camera comes out. I couldn't love this sweet girl more! (Same bow a year later too)

After the birthday princess woke up from her nap it was present time since Abby was home from school. She's figured out this whole present opening thing a little bit with all the practice from Christmas. (Sorry Daddy, I focused the camera on the baby and managed to cut off you head in 95% of these pictures... whoops!)

A little taste test to see if this one is a good one. 

 Abby and Micah were very excited about her presents as well.

 She watched Daddy showing her all her new presents.

 Daddy's got skills.

Then it was time for those delicious cupcakes. (And I do mean the best bakery in San Antonio)

 Lexie wasn't quite sure though. While she's loved the bite of the mini-carrot cake cupcake I gave her, she didn't know what to do with her very own and all the icing on her fingers. After that all she tried to do was sweep it off her tray. Not quite the traditional messy, covered in cake baby.