big day for the birthday girl

the night before her birthday, Mia helped me bake up some yummy vegan gluten free cupcakes....the eggs and gluten were missing, but not the moist chocolate flavor! we were going to take them to school the next day. Mia spent extra time making sure each friend had a cupcake, then she concentrated on licking the spatula and beaters...a HUGE plus for vegan baking...no salmonella ;)

i had fun covering her birthday breakfast cupcake with bananas, strawberries and a touch of whipped cream. Mia had fun eating it!

after school, we hit Snip-its. Mia was well over due for a haircut. her fave stylist, Britny, wasn't there, but her mama was! Ms. Lisa hooked Mia up with a super cute cute, birthday braids, ribbons, gems and glitter! then we hopped over to Dr. Harry's for her birthday adjustment. Mia had been falling a lot lately...a good adjustment always sets her straight ;)

then we met up with Daddy at Chuck E Cheese's for a birthday dinner. Mia wanted her friend, Izzy to join us. we had a wonderful time watching the girls run off with tokens...they were very into getting tickets. the carousel was a big hit, too. Courtney sweetly took our family photos while Mia blew out her candle. one of the funnies thing i've ever seen was how lil Emmy eats her pizza...she dips it in cupcake icing first. my point n shoot wasn't fast enough to capture her in action, though. Mia had the best time and even got a big birthday hug from Chuck E!

at home, once we put Lily down to bed...she was beyond done...Mia opened up a few little gift we gave her....Daryl built her 'big gift'...her own personal sand box. one night last week, Mia asked for a night light like Lilly the mouse for her birthday. i love how something so small makes her so happy. 'MAMAAAAA!!!! DADDYYYYYYY a NIGHTLIGHT!!! just like Lily the MOUUUUUUSE!!!!'

♥ Hope you had a wonderful birthday, sweet Snapper ♥

♥ we love you so very much ♥

skillz - baking & emotional

I've been so in awe of Mia lately...well I always am, you know what I mean. Like at the Heart-bakers playdate last Friday, it was way more than 'I want to do it myself'....she DID it all pretty much herself. Measured, poured, mixed, rolled, cut...used the spatula like a pro..in all she needed very little guidance. Who is this three year old who can do so much?

At the dinner table, she reminds Daddy to 'thank mama for dinner'. Is incredibly empathetic. I had a rough day yesterday that resulted in some tears. Mia came up to me, snuggled me asked me if she could help...then later asked if I was feeling better. She knows the difference between a happy or sad cry :)

So, even though, Mia isn't 'in' the shot below, I LOVE that she's wielding that spatula, and it's a reminder to me how much she's evolving into such a great little girl, who does indeed have skillz!

for more love hop over to chookooloonks and The Land of K.A.

Heart-bakers

This is Liam.

He and his mama had us over to make, bake and ice cookies for Valentine's Day. It was very hands-on for the kiddos. They got to, with a little help, measure, mix, roll, cut and decorate...oh, yeah, and EAT cookies. Besides being a morning loaded with fun, the cookies came out SUPER TASTY! Lora, I NEED that recipe :)

I'm picking the following shot as my Best Shot because I love this little girl, her eyelashes, her pigtails and her ability to want to try and do everything. She wants to be elbows deep in cookie dough....and life.

for more delish best shots, hit Tracey's

Operation Cupcake

The night before Layla's big party, Jenni called in the troops to help with cupcake duty. We came armed with cupcake pans and cooling racks...she supplied some beer. We had a super fab time decorating and hangin out. When my area was full of decorated cupcakes, I'd call out 'Cupcake Removal!' and someone would whisk the decorated ones away while someone else brought in more cupcakes that needed to be iced. Stephanie and I did most of the icing (I did notice that my area was a disaster and Steph's was pristine...it says a LOT about us), Christen was an Ace with the sprinkles. Mel blew up a bunch of those punch balloons, and Jenni was running around mixing and baking. It was a BLAST!

The next day at Layla's Cowgirl party, all the cupcakes were displayed in all of their confectionery splendor....we were proud and at the ready for any other cupcake emergencies!

this awesome shot of me was taken by Melanie...in processing,

I cropped my allergy swollen eyes out...trust me, it was needed :)

I decorated this lil mini cupcake, and for some reason I grew kind of attached to it.

Isn't it purdy?

Holiday Cookies 2008 (aka Sprinkle Time!)

Mia and I baked up some holiday cookies...regular sugar cookies in the shapes of candy canes and trees then some gingerbread men. Mixing, rolling, cutting out and baking the dough was fun...so I thought. Then came the SPRINKLES!!!!

I'm not sure when the last time was that we had that much fun! Mia's sprinkle theory: icing, sprinkles for me, sprinkles for cookie, sprinkles for me...eat cookie!

In the time it took Mia to decorate one cookie, I did about 25! She's serious about her sprinkles. We may have to have a sprinkle intervention...scroll down to see why! What's even more hilarious was when she 'found' sprinkles on the rug and told Niles (our dog), 'NO! those are MY sprinkles!!!' and then ate a bunch more! tis the season :)

Tree Trimming & Cookie Baking

This year, Mia is a BIG help. She wants to be right in the middle of everything. She's enjoyed laying under the tree while I was putting all the lights up. Daryl topped it very nicely with our star...it's only fallen on me once. Mia was soooo cute trying to hang ornaments on the tree. Her first one, a red apple, she hung on the tippy tip of a light bulb. Then she moved on to attaching ornaments to the wires of the lights instead of the tree branches. Oh, and ALL the snowmen and to be together...like a centimeter apart! Mia's totally into my snow globe collection. She'll sit on the floor with one for a loooong time just turning it over and watching the snow slowing fall...the ones with a music box in the base are her favorites. She's only broken one...now they are up on the counter and will be moved down per her request...one at at time while supervised :)

Then we baked many many many sugar cookies in the shapes of snowflakes, candy canes and christmas trees. I'm waiting for a peaceful block of time this week to sit down with her and decorate away. She had her own little rolling pin, but I LOVED when she used mine that my mom gave to me....it's what she used while I was growing up...very sentimental.

p.s. anytime we do anything christmassy, Mia wants to wear her elf helper hat. I sometimes don my santa hat, but it's a little itchy