Yes, I Know the Muffin Man

The rainy weather outside forced us to spend our entire evening inside, but it didn't dampen our fun!Earlier today, E was watching one of his favorite DVDs of children's songs. One of the songs on the DVD is the muffin man song. He loves this song. Any time we see cupcakes or muffins or anything of that sort, he starts saying "the muffin man" over and over and over again. Today when we were watching it he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want cuh-cake!" We didn't have any cupcakes, so I replied, "Honey, we don't have any cupcakes. Maybe we can make some later." And so we did.

After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, pulled out our aprons and made cupcakes. I had discovered earlier in the day that we were out of yellow cake mix, and we had purchased two huge containers of strawberries at Sam's earlier today, so I Googled for a recipe for strawberry cupcakes from scratch. Most of those recipes called for you to puree the strawberries then strain out the seeds. We didn't have time for that! So I went with a plain cupcake recipe and added small strawberry pieces.

We had so much fun making these cupcakes together, as you will see from the pictures below!

As soon as the muffin tins were brought out, E started yelling, "The muffin man!" As he put the liners in the cups, he continued saying it, so we asked him, who is the muffin man. He told us that HE is the muffin man!

They were delicious! The basic cupcake recipe can be found here.

The muffin man himself approved!

It was a wonderful night of family fun and tasty cupcakes!

The Hope of an Iris

Earlier this week, I noticed that my Irises are about to bloom. This caught me by surprise. I was thinking that they bloom much later in spring. But it also made me smile. Tomorrow marks what would have been my Grandmother's 73rd birthday. And when I see an Iris, I always think of her. She always had tons of Irises growing in her yard. They were, and are, beautiful, just like her.

There are still days when it doesn't seem real that she is gone, even though we sent her on to be with Jesus over two years ago now. I miss her as much today as ever. But the promise of the coming bloom that will bring beauty and new life to my yard in the coming days reminds me of the beautiful new life that she is experiencing with Jesus. Cancer had made her so very weak in her last days. It was painful to watch such a strong woman decline. She was so brave. But while it took her health and even her mind in those last days, it never took her hope. And it's that same hope that I am reminded of as the earth comes out of the deadened state brought on by winter, springing up into new life all around. It's the same hope that comes with the empty tomb which we will celebrate in a few weeks on Resurrection Sunday. It's the hope that she has passed on to others through a life lived for Christ. And the hope that lets me know I will see her again some day! It's the hope I will share with E as he grows and learns about a loving God who gave us Jesus, God's only begotten Son, so that we could experience true life, everlasting life.

Thank you God for the life of my Grandmother. Those who knew her were truly blessed. I pray that the life I live will leave the kind of legacy for others that hers has for me.

Earlier today I introduced a new devotional blog that I have been working on for some time now. The first post talks about my Grandmother's legacy. The blog is called Your Traveling Companion. If you have a moment, I encourage you to check it out. It talks more about her legacy. I hope it will inspire you to live a life that will light the way for others.

Turning 2 is AWESOME!

Since E is a huge Yo Gabba Gabba (YGG) fan, we decided to use that as a theme for his party this year. Unfortunately, YGG party supplies can't be purchased in party stores; you have to order the stuff online. That means is addition to the cost of the items, you also have to pay shipping. We decided this wouldn't do, so we took matters into our own hands.

Mommy made E a cute "Brobee 2" shirt to wear for your party. We picked up some table cloths and paper supplies in bright YGG colors. We also purchased some balloons in those same bright colors. Daddy, Meowmaw, and Mommy made some cute YGG character decs to add a special touch. The sunroom looked so cute, and E loved it!

We topped it all off with some adorable homemade cupcakes that looled like the YGG gang. Mommy used royal icing to create the features and homemade buttercream icing for the base colors. They were yummy!

 

 

  

The guests arrived, and the party was under way! It all started with some "cooking" activities for the children. E loves to "cook" with mommy, so we wanted that to be a part of his special day. He and his cousin D mixed up a fruit salad and some party mix for the guests to enjoy for the party in their tummy! Sure, no actual cooking was involved here, but it didn't matter to E. He got to use a big wooden spoon to mix the treats, so it was enough to satisfy him, and Mommy didn't have to worry about anyone getting burned. It was a win-win situation for sure!

Then the party in our tummies was underway! Guests enjoyed the fruit salad, party mix, cheese cubes, carrots, and Chick-fil-a nuggets. Everyone's tummies must have really enjoyed the yummy treats because the food was practically all gone by the end of the party!

After everyone had eaten, it was time for cupcakes! E absolutely loved having us sing the birthday song to him. He also loved blowing out the candles...so much so that he insisted that they be relit so he could blow them out again! Just look at the joy on his sweet little face!

After he finished blowing out his candles, he was ready to dive into his cupcake!

After cupcakes came the presents! He enjoyed opening them, as most kids do.

Notice the paper flying in mid-air. 

Ahhhh! Buzz Lightyear! After opening this bag full of Toy Story goodies from D and Z and family, it was hard to get him to move on to the rest. He was SO excited to have his own Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

But with a lot of prodding, he finally managed to open the rest.

After opening the presents, it was time to head outside! He spent some fun time playing with all three of his cousins, D, Z and L! The four of them don't get together very often, so it is always a special time when they do. They had a great time posing for a group photo around E's new Lightning McQueen power wheels from Grammy, Papa S, and Aunt C.

They make a great team. L may be the next Danica Patrick with her cousins as her pit crew!

It was a fun ending to a super special day! Thanks so much to everyone who came to help him celebrate. Several of the guests drove an hour or even three to be here to celebrate with us. E is certainly one well loved, very blessed boy! And we are even more blessed to have him in our lives!

Happy 2nd birthday, E! Turning 2 really is AWESOME!

Happy Birthday to E!

My baby turned 2 a couple of weeks ago! It is so hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday we headed to the hospital early one morning to be induced. And now that precious little bundle has turned into an amazing little boy!

The morning of his birthday, he was greeted with Brobee when he came to Mommy and Daddy's room. He was very excited to see him. Then we brought him downstairs where he received his other gifts from us. He was so excited, exclaiming, "My pesants!" He tore right into them!

Then he got to choose what he wanted for breakfast. He proudly proclaimed that he wanted "Kispies" also known as Rice Krispies. He has recently decided that he really likes them.

 He even shared some with Slinky Dog, or "Sinky Dog" as he calls him.

We asked him several times before his birthday what he wanted to do on his special day. He got to choose between going to the park, the zoo, or the aquarium. Every time that we asked he responded, "Carium. See shocks and fishies!" So that's what we did. After some time to play with his new toys, we loaded up the car and headed to the aquarium.

He wore a special shirt that Mommy made him specifically for this day. Since he loves seeing the sharks at the aquarium and also enjoys watching Finding Nemo, I wanted to include those elements in his shirt.

Speaking of Finding Nemo, he had a great time watching the fish inside the Finding Nemo inspired tank.

No visit to the aquarium it complete without a visit with the penguins or "pig-ones" as he says. He loved laughing at them as they swam around and played.

After the aquarium, we had lunch at Salsarita's since the birthday boy wanted a quesadilla for lunch. We also made a stop off at Toys R Us where he got a free balloon and birthday crown and was able to spend his $3 gift card that Geoffrey Giraffe had sent him. He used it to buy a Ramone car from the movie Cars. Then we picked up a Hot 'n Ready pizza and came home for a pizza picnic.

After supper, he enjoyed the cupcake with candles that he asked for earlier in the day. He knew that people blow out candles on their birthday, and he talked about it on the way back from the aquarium. We hadn't planned on doing cake and candles that day since his party was the next day, but we couldn't deprive the birthday boy of candles on his birthday. So thanks to the Kroger bakery, we enjoyed watching him as he enjoyed having the birthday song sung to him as he blew out his two candles.

After blowing out the candles, he wasted no time getting into the cupcake. He plunged right in face first and then sat up and declared that he had icing on his nose.

He enjoyed that cupcake for a good 30 minutes. It was so fun to watch. After some outside play, he came back inside to enjoy an ice cream cone. We normally wouldn't have let him have this much sugar in one day, but it was his special day, and the ice cream came as a surprise to all of us! He had shared ice cream cones with mommy and daddy before, but he had never had his own. He enjoyed it so much!

It was the perfect end to a wonderful day. After his ice cream it was time to go to bed. He had a big day ahead of him the next day. But that will have to wait for another post...