Well it's a Sunny Day....

Peep and The Big Wide World!

If you've never seen an episode of Peep and the Big Wide World, than you don't know what you're missing!  You don't have to have kids to appreciate this show...to LOVE this show!  Here's one of my favourite episodes!  

Peep of a Different Colour

Party Time!

 

 

 

Peep lives in a tin can and loves to explore the big wide world so I gave each child a tin can filled with a list of things to create a scavenger hunt as well as the items themselves.  I also crocheted a small peep for each can!

Peep pattern can be bought on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/28082975/peep-and-the-big-wide-world-set-crochet

The scavenger hunt idea came from the Peep and the Big Wide World website: http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/printables/pdf/Peep_safari_childactivity.pdf

...and a cookie for the road

OK, I'm back! Sorry for the long absence

Almost that time again!

No, not back to school...time to start party planning!!

This year Sophia will be 5 years old!!!  I tend to go a little overboard with birthdays but I love it and look forward to it all year! 

I was so excited when I found out that my due date was October 24th...a Halloween Baby I thought!  Well, she was born on October 30th, even closer than expected.  Her first two birthdays had Halloween themes, but the last couple of years we've strayed from the Halloween theme and I think we might again this year.  There will be plenty of Halloween birthdays to come, I don't want to use up all of my ideas in the first few years!
Her first birthday had a bit of a "pumpkin theme", so cute!

I made these pumpkins using a mini bundt pan.  A simple yellow cake mix with some canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice added to give them a true pumpkin taste.

The birthday girl thoroughly enjoyed her first taste of cake!

Her BFF Maxx was born about 10 days later and has always been the life of the party since the beginning.

A pumpkin sugar cookie as a parting gift.

I always use the Wilton Royal Icing recipe to ice cookies.  It uses meringue powder instead of egg whites which is safer when serving to little ones.

Father's Day Cookies

The quickest way to a man's heart is through his tummy....well the quickest way to my husband's heart is through Sophia so this is a double whammy!   We had a friend over this morning and they created these yummy Father's Day Treats.  I think they did a great job!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

1/2 Cup Butter (room temp)

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Egg yolk (slightly beaten)

1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 Cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

3 Tbsp Milk

1. Preheat oven to 375º
2. Cream butter and sugar together until pale.
3. Add egg yolk and vanilla and mix until just combined. 
4. Sift all dry ingredients together.
5. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, alternating with milk.
6. Shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (at least 3 hours)
7. Roll out dough to 1/4" thick and cut out shapes.

Place shapes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until just golden brown around the edges.  Let cookies cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Decorating

 To decorate the cookies I use the Wilton's Royal Icing Recipe which calls for Meringue Powder instead of using egg whites.  It can be purchased at Michaels or the Bulk Barn.  For a small batch of cookies I would only make half the recipe (with plenty left over) and follow the instructions to thin the icing so that it's easier to spread.

You can easily colour this icing with Food Colour Gel and put it in piping bags and make fancy decorations but when I make cookies with Sophia (4 years old) she just spreads the icing onto the cookies and then cakes them with sprinkles.  Lots of fun!

Enjoy!!