Showing posts with label birthday cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday cake. Show all posts

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Birthday Wishes


My little girl turns eight this week. Instead of heading to the movie theatre or the bowling alley for her party like we usually do, we decided to party old school this weekend, inviting some of her girlfriends over to our house to celebrate.

When it comes to little girls, the party theme usually starts with the cake. Once she settled on a pumpkin cake, it was all simple from there. There's certainly no shortage of pumpkin-themed items in stores right now!
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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Papa's Party, part one


We had more than one reason to celebrate as we gathered together for my father-in-law's 75th birthday party this past weekend. In addition to reaching a significant milestone in years, "Papa," as the kids call him, has just finished chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer, and he is recovering nicely.


The party took place at the lovely rural home of my sister-in-law. I have shown photos of her rustic retreat before, here and here. My SIL is the perfect party host, taking great care to ensure that special touches abound. Above, her son helps set the outdoor tables for dinner. 

The girls enjoyed eating at this special table, with logs for chairs.


The kids (including my niece/our hostess's daughter, above) appreciated the colourful curly straws.


Here are Papa's four granddaughters (including my daughter, second from left).


We dined to the tinkle of wind chimes and paired our food with some homemade wine (mixed with ginger ale in my case).


Our hostess, in a rare moment of rest.


I discussed some of the party food on Wednesday. The woman behind the amazing tofu lasagna is my mother-in-law, above right.


Here she is with her eldest grandson.


 Papa with his son (my husband).


And, with his daughters. I think you can tell from the photos that Papa is a kind, gentle soul.


Here he is enjoying his birthday song.


Papa with all of his eight grandchildren, four boys and four girls.

More photos to come, including a new animal in my sister-in-law's menagerie!

Linking up to Photo Friday at The Hollie Rogue.

Give me your best shot at Better in BulkPhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and Lolli
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Monday, April 16, 2012

Thrifting at mom's house


I didn’t have time to visit a thrift store this weekend, however I still ended up with lovely treasures. On Saturday, we were at my parents’ house celebrating my dad’s 85th birthday. Here is grampy with my kids (on the left) and their cousin. On Sunday, we visited my lovely sister-in-law and her family—husband, four children, large dog, two cats, rabbit, turtle, rooster and chickens. I’ll have some photos of that visit to share later this week.

So, because I am enjoying my thrift store finds so much, I went “shopping” at the best possible place—my parents’ house. My mom is happy when I “adopt” items from her extensive collection of vintage dishes. And this means shopping is free for me. Isn’t that the best kind of shopping? Also, she has better stuff than many thrift stores, because her finds was hand-picked over the years at flea markets, auctions and garage sales. So, without further ado, here are some of the items I scored.


My mom was kind enough to give me this Blue Mountain Pottery Lazy Susan. It was in our house for as long as I can remember and my mom would serve special meals like Thanksgiving dinner in it, with mashed potatoes, carrots, etc. in the sections. I need to put it to use myself!


I also got a Blue Mountain Pottery tiered stand. I can’t wait to use this.



My mom had previously given me this Blue Mountain Pottery bunny in the same gold and brown tones.

How much do you love this James Kent Old Foley Staffordshire plate? It is an image of Frans Hals’s “The Laughing Cavalier.”

I also scored two of these little tin serving trays. Love the retro pattern in brown and blue.

I had admired this little pedestal dish that my mom used for her keys. Now it’s mine! These candies won't last long.

I took six of these little wine glasses. She has six more for me to take later. Not that I need another wine glass.

I went home with this lovely green serving dish.

And the same vintage glass serving dish in a golden yellow colour.

How about you? Any great finds to report?




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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

It's beginning to look like Christmas & making a Cola Cake


We haven’t had much snow yet this year, so it took me awhile to realize that Christmas is coming soon. No, I haven’t done all my gift shopping or baked my holiday cookies, but at least we have the outdoor lights up and the Christmas tree decorated. Baby steps…




When I was growing up, we had the colour-coded artificial tree. You had to match the colour on the stem of the “branch” to the colour on the “trunk” of the tree. Trouble is, the colours wore off. After that, nobody in my house was eager to put up the Christmas tree. Maybe that’s why nowadays I prefer the real Christmas tree to the fake, although I am sure that will change when the kids get older. We alternate between cutting one down at a local farm and buying a fresh tree at the store. You might notice that the angel's head is touching the ceiling. Our last house had a very high ceiling in the family room. I can't quite get past that, so we get as large a tree as possible.



My favourite ornaments are the pewter picture frames my mom gave the kids. 







Jolene likes to cozy up on a chair in front of the Christmas tree. She is a rescue dog, with unknown origins. We originally thought she was street-wise and tough, but it turns out she doesn’t like to go outside when it's cold (she actually pees on the deck when there's snow) and she prefers to sleep on a soft blanket.


Jolene gradually seems to grow tired of my picture-taking.

Coca Cola Cake

We also celebrated my husband’s birthday this week, with a quiet family dinner. I decided to make a cake I’ve never made before - a cola cake. I settled on this recipe for chocolate cola cake that I spotted on Pinterest. It is more decadent than my usual recipe, but nobody seemed to mind. It turned out to be quite delicious, nice and firm with lots of chocolate icing. Adding cola to your cake might not seem like the healthiest of ideas, but then, it's cake!

Here's the fam, just waiting to dig in.


 How are your holiday preparations coming along?

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Kids in the Kitchen

My darling daughter celebrated her seventh birthday this past weekend. She chose a party at the movie theatre and invited the girls from her class at school. Like many mothers, I am shocked by the types of parties that kids have today, the amount of money that is spent on them and the value of the loot bags. But that is a topic for another day.

We all know how important the selection of a cake is for our children. My daughter spent a great deal of time perusing a book called Birthday Cakes for Kids. All of the ideas in the book are relatively simple, thank goodness, because I have no experience with creating fancy iced cakes. She considered the options, debated them with her brother and finally decided on the Lollipop Garden Bouquet cake.

Keeping it Simple


To keep things simple on a very busy day, I used an organic chocolate cake mix and purchased some icing (although I found the ingredients absolutely frightening). Once the cake had cooled, the fun began. Both of the kids got involved with spreading on the icing, laying down some “soil” (blended chocolate cookies), putting on the candy and making “leaves” for the lollipop “flowers” out of green leathery candy. We added some gummy worms, emerging from the dirt, since it is a garden cake and Halloween is fast approaching.

Kids in the Kitchen



Although I have read many parenting and nutrition articles that tell us how important it is to get kids involved in the kitchen, I have to admit I am more comfortable doing things quickly and efficiently on my own. I try to involve them in baking whenever possible, but I have to bite my tongue when flour starts flying around the room. For the most part, it’s my daughter who wants to help, but lately my son (who is nine) has started to enjoy making tea, and he often makes me a cup. I always accept his offers of tea, even if I don’t want it, because he is so proud to do it, and his offering is a cherished display of affection.

So, as we decorated the cake, I tried as best I could to suppress the urge to “fix” their work. They couldn’t have been happier about the fact that the cake was loaded with candy, and my son pronounced it the “best cake I have ever seen.” We all had a quiet moment admiring it together before we moved on to the whirlwind of activities preceding the party.

The Jaded Cook


In Mitten Strings for God, Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, author Katrina Kenison notes, "The media tells us that cooking is drudgery. What better way to sell more fast foods and heat-and-serve dinners than to convince us to stay out of the kitchen? Or at least to get in and out of there fast! But children know better. They are drawn instinctively to the warmth of the hearth and the magic doings that go on there. If you have become a jaded cook, just hand over your wooden spoon to the nearest child and ask for help…They are delighted to offer their services, for they know, of course, that cooking is play. Best of all, though, it is play that results in something good to eat. Surely making food from scratch is one of childhood’s simplest pleasures—and the source of a great sense of accomplishment as well."

She adds, “If we go about our own tasks with joy and mindfulness, our children grow up knowing how to take pride in their work. They will come to love the challenges life sets before them, rather than avoiding them. If we make light of the chores that must be done, children learn that work can be play.”
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