Birthday Time

Well, it's that time again.  Birthday time.  Which means birthday planning time.  Leif's birthday is coming up soon, and he'll be four!

He used to look like this:

But now he looks like this:

I've been working on other projects seeing his birthday as some hazy event in the distant future, but egad!  It's nearly here!  There's so much to do:  Spray painting, sewing, baking, balloon buying, snack making, gluing, decorating, wrapping, and there's still another present I want to get him.  And that's the easy part.  Mostly I need to sit down and write out what to do and when to do it.

Rose's birthday went over pretty well.  She had a mermaid theme, and I like how it came together.  

See?

The best and funniest thing about her party was the way the pink octopus candies came out.  They look positively terrified.

Which, if you had seen the massacre that followed, was quite apropos.  

Here's a peek into the pre-massacre.

I still laugh when I see these.

Run, Octopus, run!!!  Oh, nooooo....

I'm hoping my kids won't completely inherit my twisted sense of humor.  

Leif has requested an airplane birthday.  I've been collecting ideas on Pinterest for his party that I'll post soon.  I'll try to keep you up to speed on the preparation projects if I don't get too overwhelmed.

Like when does that ever happen?

Hahahaha......haha....ha....hmmm.

(For instructions on how to make those fun octopus treats see:  Octopus Marshmallow Pops by Wants & Wishes.)

My Swedish Kid

I haven't posted in a couple days, because I've been working on, well.... work.  When it rains, it pours. 

I've also been working on silly things like this, because it's Rose's birthday tomorrow, and I would like her to have some stylish, crafty things in it.  So I was up late last night mostly working on this:

You can't really see it, but we're having a mermaid-themed party, because Miss Rose likes mermaids for the moment.  I thought this would be pretty and fun, and I really am liking the idea of having festive decorations you don't have to throw away.  She can hang it in her room after.

I got the pattern from Little Lizard King.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  The fabric is from Nauvoo Quilt Co.  These two shops are lovely and speedy with tons of cute stuff, which basically will eventually translate lots and lots of -- well, let's call them necessary -- purchases.

But let's go back a bit.

First, I love this place:

And of course a good part of the reasoning for this is it's a cool store with furniture I can afford.  I actually had a brief moment of insanity where I almost bought TWO cute craft bins at Joann Fabrics -- two at $17.95 apiece!  People need organization, right?  Right???  But can you imagine?  Then I came to my senses and remembered to just jot it down on my running list for a future Ikea visit when I had enough on there to rationalize the amount of gas to get to the store.

Phew.

Another part of the reason is the cafeteria is actually pretty darn yummy.  And, once again, economical.  Sometimes, I can feed my kids there for free.  I don't usually plan it that way, but sometimes you just get that extra happy grace.

What I usually get there (except for breakfast, because it's woefully unavailable) is this:

But as I haven't been there in a while, I decided to make my own and experiment on my family, because what are family for except the leeway to experiment on people who have to love you no matter what?  I had made Swedish meatballs before, but this time I used this guy's version:

Because when I make his recipes, they usually turn out awesome.  (For recipe, see:  Alton Brown's Swedish Meatballs.)  Also he doesn't use sour cream in his gravy, which is good because me mum does not care for the stuff.  And while she's family and, as aforementioned, therefore well-placed for experimentation, it would not do to experiment with things you know they don't like.

Unless your kids have a fatal aversion to vegetables, and then it's just tough noogies.

In my opinion, the recipe was much better because of it.

This is my sous chef.  Or at least my sous chef for the evening.

She apparently, judging by her shirt, had some sort of Italian dish at school that day.  Nevertheless, she's good to have in the kitchen.  Whereas Lily is good for serious culinary training, Ivy is good for morale.  For me, anyone three feet tall who can fall off a two-step step stool and laugh about it is okay in my book.

So here is my sous chef on the floor.  It's so easy to find good help these days.

Side note:  My kids are a motley cultural blend of Welsh, German, Mexican, Norwegian, Lithuanian, and a little bit of Swiss and Irish just for fun.

Ivy is now all of this and half Swedish.  She ate enough of the resulting Swedish meatballs to be practically fluent in the Swedish language.  She's been listening to ABBA ever since.  She's planning a viking raid that I'm not supposed to know anything about.

Actually, I think she was doing that anyway.

I'd have taken a picture of the actual meal, but min familj inhaled them too quickly.

I shall have to explore more Swedish cuisine in my off time from now on.

Have a lovely day!