Frozen Cake

  

My Frozen cake. The customer wanted to use the plastic figurines for the cake so I obliged. I prefer using all edible items on my cakes but it still came out pretty cute. I mean it is Frozen and who doesn’t love frozen!?!? Hahaha!

You can’t tell in the picture but there is a lot of sparkly edible glitter all over the snow too. Zaiya has been begging me to make her a Frozen cake now. More on that soon! ❄️

Cookie Monster Cake

 
It has been a while since I have had time to post. I’ve been busy chasing a toddler and I started getting serious about making cakes on the side. I’m going to post a bunch I’ve recently made to share with everyone. I hope you enjoy!!

This one is a Cookie Monster cake I made for one of Zaiya’s best friend’s 2nd birthday. She loved it and the evidence from the blue teeth around the party says it was a big hit. 

  

 We clearly had a blast at the party too! ❤️ 

The Big, Big Girl Bed

  

How is this kid getting so big, SO fast!! A couple of weeks ago we switched Zaiya into her first big girl bed. She could reach her gymnast leg up to the top of the crib so we knew it was time. A friend gave us the toddler bed. It was a hand me down to her, so we sanded and stained it and it was like new! 

I took Zaiya to the store and let her pick out her blankets for the bed and Frozen prevailed. Or as she calls everything Frozen, “Elsa Anna.” My parents came over to help put the bed together since Ede was working. Let me tell you this was one SUPER happy girl with her new bed!

  
She has slept every night with no problem and has yet (knock on wood) to try to climb out at all.

On Sunday we had dinner with friends and they were moving out a twin size bed and offered it to us. We knew we needed one eventually because even though our girl is tiny, a toddler bed won’t last forever so we jumped on it. Ede and I set it up and you can see the results in the top pic. She is sooooo happy. We call it the big, big girl bed haha! All these fun milestones packed into a small timeframe. 

Now fingers crossed she doesn’t start getting herself out of bed at night EVER or falls out while sleeping. My two biggest fears. Thank goodness for the video moniter with sound still hooked up and the guard rail and mound of blankets on the edge keeping her in. Haha!

  
She also received some awesome costumes she LOVES amongst other goodies. Thank you Hennesseys. ❤️

Dora’s Birthday Party

  

Yesterday Zaiya asked if we could have a party to celebrate Dora’s birthday. Well who can say no to this face!!?!  So she helped me bake a double chocolate fudge cake. Then after nap today we decorated the cake with the frosting she picked out at the store.

  
I think she did a pretty awesome job! 

Next she picked out all of Dora’s best friends and put them on the table giving Dora the seat of honor with her. We put hats on all of the friends and we were ready to celebrate!!

   

Zaiya is a pro at blowing out the candles. Luckily we had a leftover hello kitty candle from another one of her birthday cakes haha! 

Zaiya insisted that Dora gets her own slice of cake which was so cute so we all had our own pieces…… 

 Until she finished hers and wanted to eat Dora’s! After telling her that one piece was enough she said, “ok let’s sit down.” Then she danced over behind Dora and gave her a kiss on the head and said, “Happy birthday.”  Then she said, “Here Dora I’ll help feed you.” She cut a piece with the fork pretended to put it to Dora’s mouth then quickly stuck it in her own mouth!! LOL!!

I am in troooooooooouble with this one haha! But man does she keep me smiling and laughing all day.

Happy birthday Dora! 

 

Chopsticks Master

Tonight Zaiya mastered the art of the chopsticks! She’s pretty darn quick too. Next task is to catch a fly. Haha!
❤️

Circles

Today we were drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk and Zaiya drew her first intentional circle. She told me to draw a circle then drew her own saying “circle, mais (more in Portuguese) circles.” I know this sounds small but it’s so cool watching my girl develop new skills. This is why I love being a stay at home mom so much. Every single one of these moments. Every smile, giggle and even tantrum. The good, bad and ugly are all mine and hers and I’d never trade it for anything.
We also hung out at the Guilford green with friends this morning.

Those kiddos crack me up!
We are LOVING the warm weather finally! We spent the afternoon running around and playing in our yard. Life is good!

❤️

Dislocated elbow

At the beginning of Spanish class my poor munchkin fell forwards when she was standing up. It wasn’t super hard and she was overtired so I didn’t think too much of the extra tears. But then she kept crying and crying and saying “boo boo hand.”
After class we went home and I kept an eye on her. I moved her wrist around and no tears so I knew it wasn’t broken. She wasn’t using her hand to pick up anything and was crying when she moved it on her own though so I was starting to really worry.
I called the doctor and they said to bring her in right away. The thoughts of broken bones and x-rays crossed my mind and I felt sick to my stomach. Having my heart walk around outside of my body is hard enough. Seeing that heart crying with a boo boo that could be major and longer lasting is gut wrenching.
We got to the doctor and Zaiya had fallen asleep. She woke up to her bending her elbow up and back in place. That’s when we learned it wasn’t her wrist at all she had dislocated her elbow! I didn’t even think about the rest of her arm. Thank goodness we went in. We went to try to get her to play in the waiting room using that arm. It was still hurting her after 10 minutes so the doctor popped it back in one more time. That one seemed to do the trick. She’s doing a lot more with the arm. It’s definitely still tender but she should be better within a few hours. So that means she gets to watch baby tv and snuggle with mommy to lay low today.

She still has that beautiful smile and positive attitude. I love this girl SO much! Fingers crossed that by tomorrow she’s completely back to normal or we have to go back in. Crazy how things change in the blink of eye!
❤️

Egg Hunt 2015

Today Zaiya took part in a super fun egg hunt at our friends house. I took better pictures with my “real” camera but am terrible at uploading them so I don’t know why I bother haha!

Zaiya had so much playing with new and old friends. I had such a great time catching up with friends and meeting new mommies too! Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. 😄
Of course having our besties there made it all the more fun!

Check out this girls dress! She put it on herself this morning.

After a fun filled morning and afternoon we had our first mani pedi session of the season haha!

When time for bed came the new Dora underwear HAD to be worn under and over the pjs haha!

I love this girly so much! I’m super excited for Easter tomorrow! Every day brings more love, surprises and adventures.
❤️

I love you forever…now I get it

As a pre-k teacher for many years I always read this book and thought it was kinda creepy. The mom rocks her child to sleep throughout her sons whole life. She creeps in his window when he’s an adult to rock him….creeeeepy. Buuuuut now I’m a mom. I’m currently rocking my almost 2 yr old who’s fast asleep and doesn’t need me to fall asleep but I need her. I need this moment and want to hold on to it forever. I might BE that mom crawling in my kids window when she’s an adult LOL! Ok ok maybe not but I’ll certainly be dreaming about these moments and missing them when they’re gone.
You got me Robert Munsch.

I love you forever, sometimes in a creepy, stalkerish mommy kind of way.
❤️

Homemade food pouches

Making your own food pouches is actually very easy and doesn’t take very long compared to how many you end up with. The most important part of it is that you know exactly what is in the food you are feeding your child unlike store bought ones. Don’t get me wrong I have some store bought ones as back up because they don’t have to stay refrigerated but I definitely prefer my homemade ones.
There are millions of different combinations you can make but I’ll show you how I made some while I was here in Brazil. Yup, I brought my food pouches with me and have cooked and frozen a ton to take on the go for healthy quick snacks or meals.
This is the machine I use to make them. I bought it at Babies R Us and it is relatively cheap. Click here for the link.

These ones are not reusable. I keep meaning to try out the reusable ones but for now prefer making a ton of them and freezing them so I’ll stick with the disposable.
You start by choosing your ingredients. I found a butternut squash, acorn squash and some sweet potatoes to bake in the over until tender.

I also boiled a bunch of carrots and peeled and chopped a mango.

Next you mix whatever you want your combo to be in the blender. I use the juices in the bottom of the pan to make it a little more watery and easier to suck out of the pouch.

I’ve learned that it is better to write your ingredients and date on the pouch before filling them with a permanent marker. There is a refrigerator magnet that comes in the box telling you how many days the pouches stay fresh in the fridge and freezer.
Next up you attach the empty bags until they click in place on the machine and twist the plastic part on top. Then fill each one to the line with the mixture from the blender.

Then you push down the food with the plastic thingy (technical term haha.) I do one at a time because it is better to push it down and twist it off then cap it before pulling the plastic thingy out again. If you pull it out it causes the food to come out of the pouch a little and makes a mess.
Repeat the process for all three.

If you’re doing other flavors just rinse everything and do the same thing for them as well. As I said easy peasy!!
The combos I made here were sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot and acorn squash, mango.

I put them all in the freezer and will pull a few out in the morning to take with us. By lunch or snack time it’s thawed out and I don’t even need a freezer pack in my lunchbox. I love eating them myself as well!
Bon appetite!
❤️
What are some of your favorite flavors? Share in the comments below