Celebrating Two with a Tea Party Brunch

We did a Tea Party Brunch for Lenora's second birthday. I LOVE LOVE brunch now! I had so much fun collecting all the trays and cups for her party. I already had a lot of the tea cups/plates from my Bridal Shower (Thanks Hilary) and I went antiquing for all the silver trays and the Tea Pot which to my suprise I found at the very first store and it was $2 (what luck) and I even found a sugar/creamer set at the goodwill for $2 which turned out to be an Oneida from 1908! Fun stuff! Needless to say I went a touch overboard as usuall, but it all turned out gorgeous! We did carnations in glass cups & vases decorated with paper and ribbon (thanks Better homes & gardens) and tissue paper pom poms. We served Muffin Tin Quiche, Sausage Patties, Hashbrown Patties, French toast (from my new americas test kitchen cookbook), Scones, and fresh fruit.

 

Her cake was done by Fred Meyer and like the cupcake it turned out amazing! I couldn't of been happier.

 

For gifts she got some clothes, a movie, some ariel lego's and princess books, and a giant soft "rock" and inside was 9 different stuffed dinosaurs, it's about the coolest toy I've ever seen in my life! Last but not least, we got her a pink Schwinn Roadster Trike.

 

It was a fun and exhausting day. Both me and Lenora took a 3 hour nap when everyone left!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Dinner

 

Lenora turned 2 last week. Her actual birthday fell on a Thursday so to make it special I made her favorite dinner (Homemade Marinara sauce with noodles & LOTS of cheese, and Rosemary Rolls)

I've recently discovered this recipe for Marinara Sauce and I will NEVER buy the jarred stuff again!! It's so easy and it freeze's well, and I can hide ALL the veggies in it (and lenora will never know) She loves it so much, she'll come in to "taste it" while its cooking, and then keep asking for more more more. I puree all the veggies in my blender when its done-except for the bay leaves.

Her cupcake was an "under the sea" theme because nowhere in town could I get someone to do a single ariel cupcake (all the decorations came in kits for cakes). However, the lady at Fred Meyer did an AMAZING job, and as you can tell in the pictures Lenora loved it. She then got to open one gift which was a Fisher Price Little People Ariel Carriage. We love Little People.

 

 

 

Bribing, Funny Faces, and Pigtails.

If someone were to ask us to describe Lenora in one word, we wouldn’t be able to answer. We would however say she is psychotic, lunatic, crazy, goofy, silly, sneaky, smart, and a big helper. Sometimes I wish I knew what Lenora was thinking when she tries to feed her snacks to the people on TV and her Elmo which I’m constantly removing day old snacks from his mouth, or when she comes up and licks your leg for no reason, or why she likes to yell at you until you “pretend” cry so she can hug you and say “I love you”, and why she thinks it’s okay to hide in the pantry until mommy almost dies from panic because she is missing, I could go on forever. Oh and just as a side note-she could finish a whole jar of baby dill pickles in one day (I have never let her though).

Today I tried real pigtails, we usually just do silly ones on top, but I decided now that she is older she deserves a big girl hairstyle! 

Then I of course had to take a photo, and after trying 27 times I cut her off a small piece of an otter pop (To bribe her) it kind of worked.  As I’m prompting her to make all kinds of faces, she does exactly the opposite. These are the results….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROASTING PUMPKIN'S

Last night we cut up and roasted 2 giant pumpkins (also toasting the seeds, yummy). I made extra pie crusts to freeze and have on hand, and also plan on making something called “Pumpkin Butter” with all the puree. We now have 32 cups of pumpkin puree! It took me a couple hours, and it managed to burn up one blender- but I had a second base on backup (long story). So this Fall I’ll hopefully be making lots of pies, breads, muffins, and oooh pumpkin scones!

Back to carving- Lenora was absolutely disgusted by the innards of a pumpkin! She ran away, hid, and kept saying “eww, dirty, icky”, yet she had no problem whacking them with wooden spoons, and kicking them and when Lenora has a wooden spoon or other long object she is not one to be messed with (flash back to my ankle getting hit with her plastic broom, and swelling to the size of a lime almost instantly)  

Enjoy the pictures.

 

This is her go to look now for photos.

 

 



Assaulting the pumpkin.

 

Hiding from us and the pumpkins.

 



Must of got some on her arm.







 

 

32 cups of pureed pumpkin.

PUMPKIN PATCH

Today we took Lenora to the pumpkin patch. It’s so crazy to think that she will almost be 2 years old, and last year when we took her to the pumpkin patch she was only 9 months old and couldn’t even crawl yet (back when we could actually take her places without dramatics) Today she was such a good girl, but strangely did not want to pose for any photo’s like usual.

We took her to a farm today where you could not only pick pumpkins but also pick Asian pears, Fuji apples, Squash (acorn & butternut), and we even got some onions. It was also a very quiet farm, not a lot of people and it was free to get in. All together I think we got 3 pumpkins, 2 butternut squash, 1 acorn, a bunch of apples and pears, and some onions for only $16! Asian pears were 0.50 cents a pound!! Amazing! I think I’ll try and make a pear tart.

 

PUMPKIN PATCH 2011 (LENORA 9 MONTHS OLD)

Outside

Playing outside with Lenora today! It was 82 degrees and the perfect weather for sprinkler/pool. She loves it outside and the poor little girl is just beside herself when it rains, she’ll sit and cry by the sliding door.

She did some swimming, picked some flowers, screamed at the kids in the neighbor’s yard, and barked back at the dogs. It was a good day!  

My Little Helper

Lenora has always been such a great little helper, as you can see from the photos. She recently started helping unroll all the toilet paper but I have yet to catch that on camera. She likes to throw everything in the bathtub because when we are getting ready for a bath I let her throw in her ducky’s, her wash cloth, and her soap, but if I’m not paying attention she’ll also throw in the clothes she just took off, her diaper, the toilet paper and whatever else is in arms reach. Today she was supposed to be helping me with folding the laundry (bottom two pictures) but instead she was doing barrel rolls all over the piles and wiping her snotty nose on all the clothes, which was my fault because she watched me smell one of the towels so naturally she had to as well.  I love her lots, even though she makes a bigger mess for mommy to clean up. I know I could stop her before the mess gets to out of control, but she's generally having fun and I don't like to disturb her. How can you resist that sweet face staring at you while doing a hand stand!