"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" birthday party! {finally...}

I wasn't sure I wanted to do a 3rd birthday party for Abby. Then I got an idea for a theme. Then I searched Pinterest for that theme. Now I'm wishing her birthday wasn't still three months away...

But I got to thinking, did I ever make a post about Abby's 2nd birthday party??

Nope. Oops.

It happened about the same time as my big blog overhaul, plus I was 8 months pregnant, so the big party post never happened.

So here you have it! Nine months later... :-P

Feel free to pin away!
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I decided to theme the party around one of Abby's current favorite books -- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. When searching Pinterest, I was surprised by the lack of ideas specific to the book series (see what I did find here). Luckily I figured the kids were too young to really enjoy any structured activities, so I just used some decorating and food ideas.

I've been taking pictures of Abby, in the same corner of the same couch, every month (I stopped at 2 years -- I'll probably just do yearly now). So those had to go up to show how she's grown!

Color-wise, I chose to go with the green, white, and brown of the book as well as pink to make it a little more girly.

The print-out of the book cover I found via Google images. The 5 books were a box set that Abby got for Christmas. I found the mouse for a dollar at a yard sale (that's actually what convinced me to go with this theme!). Add some homemade chocolate chip cookies and a milk station -- and the cake of course, more on that in a minute -- and voila.

We ended up putting ice-filled balloons in the tub to keep the milk cold (from this pin).

"Accent Cookie Dough" font -- printed with dark brown ink, lightly colored in with colored pencil.

Life is Good "Smart Cookie" t-shirt. My one real splurge. :) Although it was big on her then, and fits her well now, so we've gotten lots of use out of it!

Abby had 4 guests at her party -- 3 girls about her age, and a little boy who was 2 months old at the time, the son of my best friend, so they had to come too. :) 

Our only activities were free-play with Playdough, and blowing bubbles outside.

We were SO disappointed in the weather -- for the first weekend in June we were hoping for sunshine and the chance to splash around in the lake. But it was cold and rainy -- in fact I remember it being the last measurable rain for the majority of the summer (2012 was a really bad drought).

Oh and Daddy had to show Abby how to fly the kite she got for her birthday. (shortly after this picture was taken, Abby couldn't hold on any longer and the kite took off. Rocky jumped in the lake up to his knees to save it. What a good Daddy. :)

And finally we had CAKE. This was THE most amazing cake EVER. 

The secret?

Cookie dough (egg-less) in the middle.

(yes I made those photos extra-large so you could drool over them)

Oh my goodness. Everyone raved about it, and for good reason. I found the recipe here, and just used a box mix for the yellow cake. Served it with ice cream. The perfect end to our cookie party!

Now I'm so excited for this year's party -- the kids will actually be old enough for some games and crafts! I can't wait!! (and I promise I'll try to get that recap post up sooner than 9 months later ;-)

1000 Gifts: #51-60

51. Successfully weaning my 6-month-old from the swaddle.
52. Daily routines (especially naptimes!)
53. A 2.5-year-old telling me she needs to go potty (even when nothing ever happens on the toilet... it's a start :)
54. Finding plane tickets for $300 less than the others we'd been looking at the day before.
55. Tax refunds.
56. The opportunity for a week-long vacation with my husband this summer.
57. Pinterest activities that occupy my toddler.

58. Fundraisers at church that allow Rocky and I to enjoy a kid-less, candlelit dinner, and great conversation.
59. Hot showers.
60. Sunshine in Michigan in February.

Click here for more of my gratitude...

I [less than three] my husband

(I know that <3 is supposed to be a heart in the tech-y world, but every time I see it I read it as "less than three"... I must be married to a math teacher or something.)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you a post dedicated to a link party.

[Rocky's probably gonna kill me... he doesn't know about this...]

Kelly at View Along the Way and others are hosting this crazy Valentines-ish "hey girl" meme. I must not follow the right people on Pinterest, because this was the first time I read about the Ryan Gosling "hey girl" photos. 

I love my husband. He works hard all day teaching high school students, coaches tennis in the fall, leads the music team at church, serves on our church council, and still finds opportunities to serve me and the girls. He'll occupy them while I cook dinner. He'll pick up groceries on his way home from school. He'll put Abby to bed while I rock Ellie. He even enjoys doing dishes...

What a guy. Our 8th anniversary is in May. Happy almost-Valentines-Day, Rock. I don't know what I'd ever do without you...

And if any of you (or your spouses) enjoy math, physics, and astronomy -- he blogs too.

My "flowers"

Aren't they cute?!

Ellie is six months old today! So crazy! She's got 2 teeth, long hair, and every day is stretching her muscles more and more for rolling and trying to crawl. You can read her birth story here (if you like that kind of thing. :) )

What's in a name?

We knew right away what we wanted to name Abby -- even before we found out she was a girl. It was just something we liked the sound of, and when we learned what it meant it was even more special. "Abigail" means father's joy, or delight of the father (think of the Hebrew word for daddy, which is Abba).

Ellie was a little more difficult. We liked the name Ellie, but had a hard time choosing a full name to shorten to it. We tossed around three different names for months -- Rocky and I each liking a different one of the three at different times -- before we settled on Eleanor a couple weeks before she was born. "Eleanor" means light, or bright one.

Did you know that flowers have meanings too? The floral industry really capitalizes on the meanings of flowers, asking what message you're trying to send to whomever you're buying the roses/daisies/lilies for.

I did a little digging, and found a couple of flowers that I think match my "flowers" well. From pioneerthinking.com:

Calendula -- Joy

Buttercup -- Cheerfulness

And of course they're both yellow flowers -- my favorite. :)

Does your name/your kids name(s) have special meanings? Are there any flowers you really like that have a cool meaning?

Happy half-birthday Ellie!!

My 2013 [Veggie] Garden Plans!

My garden, June 2012 (it's on a slight hill, so those rocks separate the flat levels)

Alrighty! After learning from last year, and giving y'all some history of my gardening experience, plus a look into where I get my seeds from, it's time to look ahead to this year's garden!

I've come to realize there are certain things I will always plant in my veggie garden.

1. Green beans
2. Zucchini
3. Peas

These are things I know will always grow (although I've had trouble with squash bugs getting my zucchini plants the last couple years), and things that I will always have use for. I love cooking and baking with fresh zucchini. Beans and peas are great to blanch and freeze, and eat throughout the winter as well as fresh during summer.

(I'm still undecided on carrots... lately I've grown them each year and been able to harvest some, but unless we eat them fresh, the only reason I'd chop and freeze them would be to use in soup... which might be once a month throughout the winter??)

I try to limit myself to one (maybe two) "new" things each year. I've tried (and failed) with broccoli, peppers, lettuce, watermelon, and sweet corn. While I might go back and revisit them someday, for now I'm content to buy them from a farmers market instead.

So what will my new item be this year?? I've considered:

1. Cucumbers -- Rocky doesn't like them (can't even stand the smell!), but I really do and I might be able to convince Abby to eat them with me. :) 
2. Potatoes -- There are so many ways to eat potatoes, and they store well.
3. Pumpkins -- For decoration more than for eating. Abby is at the age where carving or painting pumpkins next fall would be super fun.

As you can see from the photo above, my garden isn't very big, so I want to make sure I keep enough space for a good crop of the veggies I know will grow...

What do you think my "new" veggie should be?? Anything else not listed that I should try?

Why I don't start seeds indoors

The first year I had my own garden, I went all in.

I purchased seeds for peas, carrots, green beans, lettuce, broccoli, peppers, watermelon, zucchini and maybe more that I can't remember.

It was waaaay too much for me to start with.

I had visions of grandeur as I pictured my mom's huge flourishing garden, and reminisced about the seeds she would start indoors during the cold snowy winter.

I started seeds indoors that year. Broccoli, peppers, and watermelon. I had this cute little hutch I'd gotten at the local Meijer (along with my seeds that year) that lived on our dining room table (the best access we had to a window facing south).

Photo by Rachel Ross

I had the cutest little spindly green plants popping up. They grew and grew. Finally it was warm enough to transplant them outside.

Let's just say it was a total loss.

I had a couple broccoli plants survive, but they bolted before I could harvest the tiny crowns they produced. The pepper plants all died. The watermelon plants all died.

Oh and even though I didn't start the peas and lettuce indoors, those plants all got eaten by some little creature...

It was a rough first year.

Now that we are in a new house, I've decided to forego starting seeds indoors -- at least momentarily, perhaps forever. I don't have a decent place to put starter trays in a southern-facing window. And the time and money I devoted to it before just isn't worth it to me.

There are some vegetables that I will gladly buy from a farmers market. They include broccoli, peppers, and watermelon. Oh and sweet corn (that's a story for another day...)

Do you start seeds indoors? 

How I Choose My Garden Seeds

"Always choose your garden seeds from a company
with a climate similar to your own." --my mom

I grew up on a 10-acre homestead with chickens, rabbits, pigs, goats, and the occasional other 4-H animal. And a huge garden. Some of my earliest memories are of "my" garden -- a small corner of mom's surrounded by 2x6 boards for me to walk on so I wouldn't step on any plants.

(This photo is actually inside mom's greenhouse. I searched and searched for a photo of me in the garden -- I do know at least one exists of me with a green pumpkin -- but couldn't find any. Not sure where they're hiding.)

Every year after Christmas I remember my mom pulling out her ice cream pail of seeds from the previous year(s) to the kitchen table. She would sort through them, then make a list of what she needed to order, then pull out her trusty Jung Seed Catalog. For as long as I can remember, my mom has sworn by Jung. They are located in Wisconsin, and she always had great success with their seeds.

Fast forward 15-20 years, and here I sit with four different seed catalogs on my kitchen table. This year I received two from companies I'd never heard of before, and I expect I'll still get my usual Johnny's, Burpee, and Gurney's soon. Whenever I get a catalog in the mail, I always check the return address to see where it came from. If it's from anywhere in the southern U.S., I toss it right away. Jung (Wisconsin) and Johnny's (Maine) and maybe one other will stick around.

I take a sharpie marker and start circling things I'm interested in (more on those interests in my next post!). The nice thing about keeping more than one seed catalog on hand at first is that they all have slightly different descriptions for the same exact seeds (especially Johnny's -- it's a huge catalog with a ton of great information!). After I've narrowed down which varieties of which vegetables I'm most interested in, I compare prices across companies.

In the last 5 years or so that I've had a garden, Jung always wins. Usually by only 10-30 cents per packet, but it's enough to keep me coming back.

I haven't ordered my seeds yet this year (why let them sit on my counter when I can't do anything with them until late March?? [and no, I don't start any of my seeds early, that's a post for another day]). I'll be taking my time browsing catalogs. I'm still trying to decide what to plant this year...

Where do you order your seeds from?

*As much as I love Jung seeds, I am not writing this as a promotional post. They don't even know my blog exists. I'm just sharing my insight and experience with you. :)  *

Linked up to the Grow Write Guild: 

 

Cabin Fever: Reflections on my 2012 Garden

I must be crazy.

Here's what our weather forecast looks like the next few days:

And here's my reading material of choice:

I actually got my first gardening catalog of the season on December 22. I swear it gets earlier and earlier every year! (kind of like when I worked in retail and we put out the Christmas stuff in October... then September... then Labor Day weekend...)

Before I drool too much over the plants and seeds I'm looking at for 2013, I probably should step back and see what did and didn't work last year.

I planted peas, carrots, bush beans, sweet corn, and zucchini from seed, and a couple tomato plants (got for free - I probably wouldn't grow them otherwise). I try to only choose one "new" thing each year -- this time it was the sweet corn -- so I mostly have tried and true things that I know I can grow!

I felt that considering I was pregnant during the worst of summer (Ellie was born August 4), I did a decent job of weeding and watering.

Yet in spite of my best efforts, my garden was a flop.

• I harvested a half cup of peas. Total.
• My zucchini plants got eaten by squash bugs, even though I put them in the opposite corner of the garden from where they were the year before when the same thing happened.
• My green beans (which I typically have an abundance of) were either fried or something was up because I noticed tons of tiny ants in the soil...
• I had about a half dozen ears of sweet corn, which never developed properly and eventually became nasty.
• I did harvest a small bowl of small carrots, but didn't take the time to chop and freeze them properly so they went bad too.

I was sooooo disappointed! I guess it was just a rough year overall. The majority of the country experienced a drought and really high temperatures. I'm hoping next year will be better...

Let's learn from the past! How did your 2012 garden turn out overall?

Stay tuned for my plans for my 2013 garden!

Since everybody else is doing it...

I haven't been writing much lately and I apologize to those of you who look for new posts from me every day... Life with a 2.5 year old and a 5 month old is pretty crazy, and any time I do have a chance to write a post I often feel like doing other things instead (like sleep, or shower, or zone out with a book).

But since I've recently read year-in-review posts from my sister-in-law and husband, I thought I could add a little one myself. Especially since I created a poster of pictures through Shutterfly -- something I've done the last three years, which gets hung in our dining room. In chronological order:

1. Abby is old enough to enjoy playing in the snow.
2. NorthPointe's homecoming.
3. Debbie was about 36 weeks pregnant and I was about 20 weeks at Critter & Ian's wedding.
4. Abby loves books, and Abby loves Curious George (we got an iPad this year and she watches cartoons in the mornings)
5. Rocky graduated from Cornerstone with his Masters Degree.
6. Rocky and I went to the Alive Music Festival with the youth group -- when I was 34 weeks pregnant.
7. Abby loves hanging out with Opa and Oma at the lakehouse.
8. More lakehouse fun.
9. Abby's first Detroit Tigers game, with Staperts, Westrates, and Poppens.
10. Go 'igers!
11. Abby & I went to storytime at the library each week.
12. Abby's ready to be a big sister.
13. The year all this stuff happened.
14. Eleanor Gracelyn was born on August 4.
15. First sister pic.
16. Ellie is constantly active and alert.
17. Abby still loves Sami -- unless Sami is sitting in her chair. Or on her toys. Or in her room.
18. Just a cute pic of a sleeping baby. :) 
19. Rocky's dad got a Hobie Cat -- one of the highlights of the lakehouse summer.
20. Abby is following in her mommy's footsteps -- she loves music. 
21. Hanging out with Presley & Lucy. 
22. Ellie's baptism
23. Happy baby
24. Abby was Doc McStuffins for the lakehouse Halloween party. 
25. Just another cute pic of Ellie. :)
26. Ellie and James -- 4 months apart. First crush? 
27. Abby and daddy love playing at the park
28. Sisters!
29. Abby's Christmas tree
30. I love my girls.

It's been a great year, here's to a great 2013!

1000 Gifts: #41-50

41. Two children napping at the same time
42. Nursing by the light of the Christmas tree

43. Dancing to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with both girls
44. Long holiday weekends
45. Leftover pecan pie
46. A husband who likes to do dishes
47. Morning cartoon & cuddle time with my 2.5 year old
48. Non-fiction books for information and inspiration
49. Fiction books for relaxing and enjoyment
50. Waking up to a light dusting of pure white snow

Click here for more of my gratitude...