Birthday Shenanigans

Happy Birthday to me and google and my friend Kathryn!! And anyone else I missed! I have heard of two babies being born today too, so it's a good day!

We celebrated both mine and Molly's birthdays yesterday since Justin's parents were in town. Molly's birthday is October 7th, so it's a bit early, but hey, she didn't mind!

We are starting with the cake! Here it is.

(Please ignore the missing frosting spelling Molly's name. The kids were fascinated with the cake and oops! There went some of the frosting!)

Before you ask, no, I'm not that talented! This lovely lady, Amy, is the baker of the cake! She did an AMAZING job! Thank you so much Amy!

Isn't it to die for? I want my next hobby to be fondant cakes!

It was equally delicious! White cake with strawberry cream cheese filling. Yummy!!

The party members (Grandpa Galbraith, my parents and Justin's parents, my brother, my sisters and their families, Justin's brother and his family)

I found a pin the tail on the donkey game at the store the day before and thought the kids would love it. Yes, it was a big hit! It used stickers, such a genius idea! (Target for $1.27 in the party area)

Then on to the presents!

Molly was so good. After she opened a present, we had her give a hug to the giver of the gift. She was very obedient and we know that's tough when you are so little and there are MORE presents!

She also had a little help from the other cousins :)

The primary songbook cd. She was very excited.

She loved the skirt I made her...she was trying to put it on!

Don't worry, I got a turn too!

Justin got me a very cute vest! Thanks sweetie!

And back to the cake

She was so quick to blow out the candles after we sang! I had to have her do a re-do to get a picture!

She really liked the little crown on top of the cake.

Grandma and Grandpa Pendleton gave her a sleeping beauty costume and she had to wear that of course! She also got a magnetic princess dress up doll...and much, much more. She was VERY SPOILED. Thanks everyone for all of the gifts. You are way too generous!

Major giving a thumbs up after his cake and ice cream experience! I think he liked it!

Ali slept through most of the fun. We finally woke her up so she'd go to sleep that night!

With grandma and grandpa. I made sure I got one of them before they left but forgot to get one with my parents and Molly!

The fun continued for us today. Justin made me breakfast (yesterday too!) and I met up with my sister for lunch with our kids. We saw her new house and went to the park! My mom is picking up Cafe Rio for dinner and I plan on watching Castle with my mom. Justin probably won't be out of class until 8 or after so we will celebrate this weekend. This past weekend we went to dinner with my parents, so we've been plenty spoiled!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes/texts/calls from everyone!! I appreciate it! (Phew, sorry that was long, but it is MY birthday! Ha ha!! ;)

Good idea?

My cousin Erin posted about a fun thing her little boy likes to do. So I thought, hey, I bet Molly would like that too! Before I jumped in the shower yesterday, I got out a pan, some flour, cookie cutters, and some other spoons and things for her to play with.

She obviously enjoyed it!

But it wasn't very long before she had flour pretty much everywhere!

Oops!

It's hard to tell in this picture, but flour was all over the floor, the table and the chair! She was definitely entertained, but it took a bit to clean her and the disaster area up! She had to get into the tub and I don't think I got all the flour out yet! Ha! I guess it was still worth it, right? She was entertained for an hour, I'd say. Thanks for the idea Erin!!

Dress Up

Molly is very into dress ups lately! She even got me to wear this lion mane thing :)

It's a Miracle

Molly ate chicken enchiladas last night for dinner for the very.first.time.ever!!!!

Easy homemade jam!

Like everyone else posting on their blogs as of late, I would like to share my favorite way to make jam! This is the way my mom makes it and it is SO EASY, really!! So here we go!

We use Ball brand Instant Fruit Pectin. One packet calls for 4 cups of strawberries (or other fruit of your choice) and 1 1/2 c. of sugar (or other sweetener). That's it! 2 ingredients, you can't beat that! And there's no cooking at all involved.

Find some pretty strawberries. I just bought a big container of strawberries (so the amount shown in the pic, but in one package) for $2.75 at Sam's Club! So run over and get some before they're gone!

Then you cut, cut cut. Next puree them however you choose. I used a food processor, but a blender would do just fine!

Next mix the pectin with the sugar until combined and then pour in the strawberries! Stir for 3 minutes. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture while I was stirring) Then ladle into jars and let it sit for 30 minutes. That's it! You are done!!

Then admire your jam! I doubled everything so we can have jam all year round...or until it runs out, whichever comes first. I never add fancy labels since we use the jars over and over and it's kind of a pain to scrub the stickers off and add new ones. But they are definitely cute if you want to do that! (For some cute free jam labels, go here)

Skirts and dresses

I saw the cutest corduroy fabric at the store and knew I had to have some! I used Dana's tutorial, the market skirt, to make a skirt for Molly. I'm giving it to her for her birthday and since she doesn't check my blog too often, I thought it'd be safe to post pics here in advance.

It's cute, isn't it?! I just love the fabric. It's corduroy, by the way, but it's a thin corduroy.

Also, I made a dress for Molly a month or so ago but never took any pics, so I made sure I did when she wore it yesterday.

The pattern is Retro Mae by Jane Mckinlay Cluff.

Molly's cousin Major was interested in the photo op too.

They did this profile shot on their own.

And Molly thought of this pose herself. Sorry, I didn't think of getting a pic of the back...whoops!

Molly had so much fun playing with "Majey" this weekend! They really played quite well together, which was so nice!

They even had a horsey ride!