Bianca's Winter One-derland First Birthday

Well it's official, Bianca is 1 year old! I don't think it has actually sunk in that she is now a toddler and not a baby. I no longer have a baby and a toddler, but a toddler and a preschooler. Ugh, I'm so old! haha

I decided on a winter one-derland theme because it was super cute, and I knew I could do it on the cheap! As soon as the Christmas decorations were out at Dollarama I was scouring the shelves for all the ornaments that were white, pink, silver and snowy. I found a ton of great things, and when I combined that with what I could make, the result was awesome. John hung a few lengths of fishing ling across the ceiling in the living room, then attached all the ornaments to those lines using more fishing line to make them look suspended. I also strung some cotton balls on lengths of fishing line to look like snow. I made the giant snowflakes with cardstock. I actually learnt how to make them in grade 3, but luckily Pinterest was kind enough to provide me with a refresher. Of course no first birthday is complete without all of the monthly photos that I meticulously took, displayer for everyone to see!

In the entry to the kitchen from the living room, John hung another length of fishing line and suspended some of our white Christmas bobbles on it along with some honey comb balls. In the kitchen, we hung bobbles, snowflakes, tissue puffs and honey comb balls from the light fixture to act as a centrepiece. You can find tissue puffs and honey comb balls at party supply stores, OR, you can save yourself a ton of cash and make them yourself! I make these same puffs for pretty much every party I ever have and they are super easy. This was the first time I made the honeycomb balls and it was actually super easy.

Onto the food table! Bianca's birthday was from 10am-12pm so we just had some snack items. Buns, cold cuts, cheese, pickles, veggies with dip, fruit pizza, iced tea and melted snowflake water. For some added fun I put together a hot chocolate bar complete with all the toppings you could want in your cocoa! Candy canes, caramels, mini marshmallows and freshly whipped cream! I also jazzed up the to-go cups with some corrugated paper and a "1" medallion. We had a good amount of food left over, but I'd rather have extra than not enough!

After the kids had some time to run around and play, and the adults had some time to visit, it was time to open presents. If you remember from Roman's 3rd birthday, I've started to go the "no gift" route with birthdays, but since it's Bianca's first I thought she should have the chance to open some gifts. Not that she really opened them anyway, but Roman was there to help with that part.

Of course after presents comes cake! This cake was an experiment of sorts. A new cake recipe, a new icing recipe that I used for filling and a new piping technique. A first birthday probably isn't the best time to test new recipes but it turned out delicious! This is a chocolate chip cookie dough cake, filled with brown sugar buttercream and decorated with vanilla buttercream. It was soooo delicious! If you've read the post about Bianca's smash cake then you'll recognize the flowers and the snowflakes from that cake. If you'd be interested in seeing a post, or maybe a video, on how I decorate some of the cakes I make, comment below and if there is enough interest I'll give it a shot!

Bianca LOVED the cake! I mean, she is my daughter after all so I'm not surprised. I was however a little surprised that she dove in head first. Again, not surprised by the giant mess she made. I have to give all the props to John for the highchair decorations. I totally left this to the last minute and didn't have anything planned, and he banged this out in no time flat!

Even after looking at all these pictures, I still can't believe my little girl is already 1. How did this happen?! We're so thankful to everyone that joined us in celebrating Bianca's special day. The best part of putting together parties like this is enjoying them with our friends and family. Happy Birthday Bianca, I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!

Meal Plan - January 20th

Time for more food! Does anyone else get excited about grocery shopping or is it just me? I mean, it's basically an excuse to shop and spend a ton of cash (at least in our house), and since it's something we need it's totally acceptable. Plus I seriously LOVE food and the whole grocery shopping ritual. I set out into the wild isles of Superstore with my two helpers and a backpack of snacks, to find the most delicious food and the best deals. This shopping trip was a little different because John was on holidays so he joined us on the adventure!

I realized the other day that my meal plans might need a little more explaining. I usually plan for approximately 8 meals for two weeks, which might not seem like enough. So this week I wrote down what we ate each night for supper. We ate all of the 9 meals I had planned in the January 6th meal plan and had leftovers 5 nights. We also had leftovers for lunch today and there are still some in the fridge that I need to use up. I try to have a leftover night every 2-3 nights so we don't end up wasting food. At the very least I know it's time for a leftover night when I run out of Tupperware containers.

Here's the eats for the next two weeks!

Fried couscous with chicken
Eggroll in a bowl
Thai turkey meatballs
Homemade pizza
Hash
Chicken lettuce bowls
Spaghetti alfredo with chicken and mushrooms
Spaghetti with tomato sauce

If there is anything I have planned this week that you'd like to see a recipe for, comment below!

Winter One-derland Rosette Smash Cake

It's hard to believe that Miss Bianca is almost one! Well, she will be one by the time this post goes live. It really doesn't seem like it's been a year since she was born but the calendar tells me otherwise. I love birthdays, I love an excuse to make a cake, and since the pictures of Roman's cake smash were so cute I knew I had to do one for Bianca! This was my first attempt at a rosette cake but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

 

I started by baking three 4" vanilla cakes and whipping up a batch of vanilla buttercream. I stacked the cakes on top of each other with layers of buttercream in between, and gave the entire cake a crumb coat. A crumb coat is a thin coat of buttercream that essentially locks in the crumbs of the cake so they don't end up in the final coat of icing.

While the cake chilled in the freezer for a few minutes, I filled a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip, with some of the buttercream. Making a rosette cake is super easy. To make each rosette you want to write a 6 with the icing, but start in the centre instead of at the top like you typically would. Pipe a row of rosettes along the bottom of the cake. For the second row, stagger the rosettes in between the first row. You can the rosettes to overlap a bit and cover up the entire surface of the cake. Continue staggering rosettes until the entire cake is covered. I decorate the cake a few days early so I popped it into the freezer. The buttercream seals in the cake so it will taste fresh when it's time to eat it!

You can't have a winter one-derland cake without snowflakes! I decided to use royal icing to pipe snowflakes. Now I am not very good at free-handing anything, so I printed off some snowflake silhouettes I found online. I placed the images under a sheet of parchment paper and trice right over top with the royal icing. I did the same for the number 1 cake topper. They all turned out great! Make sure to make extra snowflakes because you will have casualties. Once the 1 was filled in, I laid a lollipop stick on the back and covered it with more royal icing. They took a good 12 hours to set but they turned out perfect.

The day before the cake smash, I took the cake out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter. Once the buttercream softened up a bit, I attached the snowflakes to the cake with a small amount of royal icing and stuck the topper into the cake. Now it's time to smash!!

Bianca had a blast smashing her cake. At first she was a little hesitant like she wasn't sure if she should be touching it or not, but that didn't last long. She snapped off the topper and then went to town. After Bianca had a good go at the cake we let Roman get in there too. The pair of them had a blast chowing down on cake and screaming with delight. I would make a cake every week to see them both this happy.

Now that the cake smash is done, it's time to get ready for the main event!

Roman's smash cake: http://spontaneouslycreative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/a-cake-without-future.html

Playroom Makeover & DIY Play Kitchen

When John and I started talking about Christmas presents for the kids, we both thought it would be a fun idea to finally finish the playroom for the kids! With two kids, and Christmas coming, it's only a matter of time before the current state of the toys in the living room gets out of control. Now that Roman is getting older, he often wants to play with his toys in peace, away from Bianca who wants nothing else but to play with Roman all the time. Plus I feel like it's a right of passage to have a play room where you can spread all the toys out and make a giant mess. The best part? I can close the door and walk away :)

This room was in a pretty sad state when we started out. Bare concrete floor, wood panelling in the closet and no ceiling. Unfortunately we didn't have the time, to drywall the ceiling, but I don't think Roman will notice.

The beauty of young kids is that you can have them help with their Christmas present and they have no idea! Roman and I got a head start on the room but spending a couple of Bianca's naps painting! We didn't get it all done in one shot, but at least it's started. Then on one of John's days off, the boys started laying the same laminate flooring that we laid throughout the rest of the house during the flooring marathon. Again, didn't get it finished but it gave us a head start for today!

In an effort to finish this project before Christmas, we shipped the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover (Bianca's first!)! While John finished the flooring, I finished painting the blue and green. I had to let the paint dry for awhile before I could start the middle stripe, so while I waited I got started on the kitchen.

John and Roman had already removed the backing from the stand and cut a fridge and freezer door from a sheet of MDF. We took the doors off, and I got down to painting. We had some leftover white Valspar paint in the house, and it has really great coverage so I didn't think it was necessary to sand the stand first. It took 3 coats to cover everything, but it didn't take too long to complete because I blasted the infrared heater at it in between coats. Once it was completely dry, John installed the bowl for the sink. I had purchased a good sized round bowl from the dollar store but it was too big. Luckily, Superstore's deal of the week awhile back was a set of plastic containers. So we stole one from the set, cut a hole to fit, and glued it in. Roman ended up pulling it out in the first day in the room, so John eventually had to screw it in.

To make the burners on the stove, I traced around a bowl and painted the circles black craft paint. For the fridge door I decided to turn it into a chalk board. Chalk paint is pretty expensive but I got lucky and found some at Dollar Tree in the craft section. I wasn't sure how well it was going to work but I figured it was worth a shot. Be darned, that paint works just dandy!

I finished the kitchen about the same time as John finished up the floor, so I quickly painted the white stripe around the room and we were done! Or at least for today. Just before Christmas John installed the hinges and attached the doors to the kitchen and we filled the room with all the toys we needed to leave the living room.

The kids love the playroom, and John and I loved seeing Roman's reaction on Christmas Eve. There were a few things that I still want to do in the space. Obviously it's going to need a ceiling of some sort eventually, a window box would me nice, and I'd really like to make the closet more functional and cover it with a cool curtain. I also noticed that I forgot to paint the window onto the oven door. I'm sure we'll get to all these things eventually (hopefully before the kids are teenagers) but for now, I'm just glad that they finally have a space that is their own!

Meal Plan - January 6th

How has it already been two weeks since my last meal plan post? It never ceases to amaze me how the holidays can just suck away time like that.

 

With the holidays comes food. A lot of food. We hosted Christmas dinner here, so we had/have the leftovers. I know some people love turkey buns; Mom, Selby and John could eat them for days, but it just isn't my thing. So I used the leftover turkey meat, and one leg bone, to make turkey noodle soup, the mashed potatoes will be the topping for the sheppard's pie I'm making tonight, and that will take care of what is left. We also have a few meals left over from the last meal plan since we had extra food to eat.

Baked Chicken Chimichangas
Chicken Avocado Burritos
Pizza Pulls
Chicken strips and fries
Burgers and fries
Ham & Swiss Stromboli
Chicken quesadillas
Chili

The Ham & Swiss Stromboli was a huge hit last week, hence why I'm making it again. And why I'll likely be making it at least monthly from now on. Plus it's pretty inexpensive. One day I'll have to share how I make my quesadillas. After falling in love with the old version of the Boston Pizza quesadilla, I spent my college days attempting to perfect them so I could have them at home, and I finally did it! The secret will surprise you.

Christmas with the Giulianos!

Merry Christmas everyone! This year was a special Christmas because it was Bianca's first! She isn't quite old enough to understand what's actually going on yet, but Roman make up for that. He was SO excited about everything Christmas. As soon as Halloween was over he wanted to know how much longer until it was Christmas. He's our son!

This year John didn't have to work Christmas Eve, so we started the festivities a little earlier than usual. The kids woke up bright and early, as usual, and Roman was so excited to open his gifts. He quickly shredded through his and proceeded to help Bianca with hers. I think we could have just wrapped empty boxes for him to open and he would have been just as exited. Until he saw the anyway. We bought Roman a Playmobil street sweeper and he thought it was the coolest thing eve, and immediately tried to tear into the box. Bianca got a V-tec unicorn and she was less than impressed, which is par for the course with a 1 year old.

We also bought them some Learning Resources dishes and food. These products are great quality. The playgroup we attend has this food and it's almost indestructible, which is awesome! These gifts lead them to the last surprise for them on Christmas Eve, their very own playroom! John and I have planned to turn this room in our basement into a playroom since we bought the house. We thought this would be the perfect time to finish a renovation and gift it to the kids. It took a few long nights, and a few cuss words, but it turned out amazing! I also bought a used entertainment stand and turned it into a kitchen for the kids. If you want to see the whole playroom process, click here! Roman went crazy when he saw the playroom! He was totally shocked! I know the kids are going to get a ton of use out of this space.

Once all the presents were open it was time for breakfast! After seeing an old blog post I shared on Facebook, John decided to make a special Eggs Benedict breakfast for us! It was sooooo good! The entire process was much easier for John too because both kids were occupied with their new toys.

After our bellies were full, maybe a little over-full, we all suited up to hit the grocery store. Crazy right? It actually wasn't too bag because we were there pretty early. For as long as John and I have been together we have always had a seafood feast on Christmas Eve. The feast usually consists of shrimp, lobster, sometimes scallops, rice and veggies. This year we decided to make it a little more fun for Roman and we bought a couple live lobsters. We made sure to explain to him that they were not pets and that we were in fact going to eat them. He is after-all my child, and I know he will make a pet of almost anything. We spent the rest of the morning playing with toys and doing all the fun things you want to do on Christmas.

After the kids had a much needed nap, it was time to start preparing for the feast! This has always been John's baby, so I sat back and kept the kids busy while he filled the house the smell of delicious seafood. We're pretty lucky in that our kids will pretty much eat everything. Roman loved digging the meat out of the lobster's shell and was even more excited to dip everything on his plate in the melted butter. Bianca couldn't get the lobster into her mouth fast enough and enjoyed every bite!

 After our bellies were full yet again (are you seeing a pattern here?) we loaded everyone into the car to go looking at Christmas lights. If you're in Saskatchewan (not sure if other area's have something similar), I highly recommend checking out www.sparkletour.ca. You can add your house to the tour and see where all the other lighted houses are in your neighbourhood! This is by far the best invention ever!

Why can't kids always go to bed as easily as they do on Christmas Eve? John and I were thankful that they went down so easy because we had a lot, I mean Santa, Santa had a LOT of work to do. While Santa was busy inflating and wrapping some last minute gifts, Mrs. Claus was filling the stockings.

Nothing is better than being a parent on Christmas morning! I love seeing how excited Roman gets (and soon to be Bianca I'm sure) when he wakes up. The first Roman did was check to make sure that Santa and the reindeer had eaten the snacks he left out for them. Once he was satisfied that he had done his part to fuel Santa and his team, he made a dash for the tree. He was extremely excited that Santa had brought him the Scoop toy he had asked for, and Bianca received a toy purse. But no gifts were a match for the farm hoppers. These things will be enjoyed for years to come.

 

Once the presents were opened, and the paper cleared away, I headed into the kitchen to get the turkey into the oven. I seasoned it with some salt, pepper and thyme, and tossed a halved orange into the cavity. Normally I would have used a lemon but I didn't have one on hand.

 

A few hours later, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Selby arrived. The kids were both excited to have new people to play with and share their toys with. Uncle Selby won the "most annoying toy ever" award this year, when he gave Roman a whistling tube. If you're a child of the 80s/90s you'll remember these rather pointless toys. Turns out it the most amazing thing to a 3 year old. Selby would whirl it in the air as fast as he could and Roman would attempt to match the pitch of the whistle with his scream. I'm sure you can feel my enthusiasm for this thing oozing through my words. Insert eye roll here.





 

 

Time for more food! I really did mean to take a photo of the food beautifully arranged on the table, but I forgot. So instead you get a photo of all the leftovers. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and roasted vegetables (brussel sprouts, beets, onion and squash).

 

 

For dessert, I made a vanilla cake in the bundt pan and covered it with a layer of buttercream. Then I covered the whole cake with buttercream flowers, pinecones and leaves. I'm not sure how many people I thought were coming over for Christmas because I made waaay too much cake. I didn't even know that was possible...

 

Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. Spending an entire day with family and not having to worry about getting other things done is the perfect way to spend a day.

 

Thank you for supporting my blog of the past year and I hope you enjoy 2017! Happy New Year!



Home Preschool - January 2017

A new year means it's time to re-evaluate and adjust things. I noticed, especially during December, that we just didn't have time to get to all the activities that I had planned. December is a bit of an anomaly because we're so busy with parties, blog posts, baking, and all things Christmas, but I think it will be good to scale back the activities a bit. I'm hoping this way I won't feel so overwhelmed and won't try to rush Roman through the activity because it "has to get done".

I'm also well aware that we are likely going to spend a good amount of time playing with all the things the kids get for Christmas, and playing in their new playroom!

The only activity we managed to find time for in December was the laminated ornaments. They turned out really well and I think we'll probably make more next year to hang in the windows as well.

Here is what I have planned for January!!

1st-7th: Magic milk paint
8th-14th: Winter Paintings
15th-21st: Eskimo craft
22nd-31st: Drawing with cars

I know Roman is going to love drawing with his cars, and I'm sure the paintings will go over well. Maybe Bianca will also get in on the drawing with cars since she loves pushing cars around too.