Birthdays and Parties

Apparently I like to throw parties.

Alyssa had her birthday last week so I planned a birthday party for her. I got the idea for the cupcakes HERE.  I made egg-free cupcakes and egg-free chicken salad sandwiches (info below) so my nephew could safely attend. We had the party at a local park so I didn't have worry about cleaning my house, but that backfired when I realized the park did not have a bathroom so our guests would probably be coming to our house to use the bathroom (which a few did) and then half of the party migrated to my house after anyway. Good thing I had everything ready for the party the day before so that I actually had time to pick up the house before the party.

Not even a week later, I am at that same park with a couple of my friends and their boys and we start talking about having an Easter egg decorating party.  So what do I do?  Host it.  At my house.  The very next day.  Good thing my wonderful neighbor had given us some single serving milk cartons (like the kind at schools) and I had a nearly empty gallon of milk.  I emptied the cartons and rinsed them out for an Easter basket craft. 

Have you ever been to http://familyfun.go.com/?  I discovered this website while looking for crafts to do at the party, and I absolutely love it!  We made the EASTER BASKETS  had a fun COLORING PAGE, made some cute TUMBLE BUNNIES and of course colored Easter eggs.  I found a really cute EDIBLE EASTER BASKET, which my friend tried out for me.  Unfortunately the balloons kept popping so we were not able to have those for the party, but I think I figured it out.  Don't blow up the balloon too much!! Use a regular large balloon for a 4-6 inch basket, and a small water balloon size for a 2-3 inch basket. 

The party was a huge hit for one being thrown together in less than 36 hours.  I think we may just do it again next year, maybe not during Priesthood Session of LDS General Conference though, that way our hubbies can enjoy the egg decorating fun with the kids too :)  And just maybe we will figure out the chocolate baskets before then.




EGG-FREE CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES

You can use any chicken salad recipe that you like, mine called for chicken, halved grapes, celery, green onions, salt, pepper and mayonnaise... this is great, except for the mayonnaise.  At first I thought I would just use an egg-free mayonnaise (vegan-aise for example) but when I saw that it was almost $8.00 for a bottle smaller than the regular mayonnaise, I thought I would try something else out.  I read somewhere that you could substitute yogurt, or sour cream, and I had both so I tried each of them out.  I only had Vanilla yogurt, so it was quite a bit too sweet for the flavor I was going for, and of course the sour cream was too sour.  Then I had the idea to mix the two, and it was PERFECT!!! I used equal amounts of each (half of what the recipe called for of each to make the full substitute amount).  Now, all I need to do is call my sister and tell her about my discovery :)

Holy Hannah it has been awhile...

Well, about a million things have happened since my last post.  Most importantly:

- We had baby #2 (Alyssa) last March.
- We are expecting baby #3 this October... :)

Oh yeah, and we have worked and worked and worked on the house.  We now have a brand new sprinkler system in our back yard, just need to hook up the timer and off we are to a yard full of grass!!!! (Well half full - the other half is composed of our two gardens and our massive storage shed. 

What can I say about Alyssa?... She was a smaller baby than Jessica, so a much easier delivery (5 minutes of pushing instead of an hour, literally).  She definitely has attitude, and knows how to scream at Jessica when Jess does something she doesn't like.  She just started walking two weeks ago, on Feb 21st (while I was at Relief Society and Jacob was at home with her and she also stood up in the middle of the room that night too... I was so happy that he got to see those major milestones!)  She can say mama, and just figured out the "d" sound today, so hopefully that will turn in to dada soon.  She signs a few words: all done, yes, thank you, please (only sometimes).  She loves to watch big sister signing, and tries to mimic anything we sign to her.

Jessica has progressed majorly in the past year and a half.  She now has well over 100, possibly 200 signs she knows.  I am not even going to try to name them all.  (anything on baby signing time, and several of the signing time videos she totally has down and then a few)  Jessica LOVES to sign, so I have been considering buying the Signing Time videos instead of just getting them from the library, but have you seen how much they cost?!!  I did find a MUCH cheaper set, but we have spent a lot of money recently (mostly with the new Van in preparation for #3)  We have been attempting to potty train since last Christmas, but not really seriously until this past Christmas.  She was doing really good for awhile, but then she decided to have accidents nearly every time, so I decided to stick her back in diapers because I was tired of having 5 pairs of dirty clothes in the bathtub that I was rinsing/drip drying each day. 

More to come later :)