My Very Own Cooking Show

I just love the Food Network.  When we had cable, it was my absolute favorite to watch. And it's pretty much the only reason I'm sad that we no longer have cable.

I also love food.  I love to read about it, buy it, cook it, bake it, and, of course, eat it.  I also like to pretend that I'm Rachel Ray or Alton Brown or [angles singing] the Pioneer Woman (oh my goodness, isn't she amazing!?) or any other number of celebrity chefs with their own cooking show.  And I've always thought it would be so fun to have my very own cooking show.  Prior to Henry, I would pretend in my head and no one would know.  But now that Henry is here, I have a captive audience on which to practice my cooking show.  I just plop him up on the counter in his Bumpo and start working, talking through the various ingredients I'm using and the multiple steps taken to create a delicious dish.  He's learning many interesting things and will hopefully one day enjoy cooking for his family as much as I enjoy cooking for mine.

Learning the proper technique for chopping onion


Juicing and zesting lemons for Lemon Bars


Making the yummiest chocolate chip cookies in the world


Cutting more onion; we use a lot of onion. And garlic. Yummmmmm!


Even Daddy got in on the fun and taught Henry how to make brownies

Twin Boys Vintage Toy Baby Shower

One of my good friends, Laina, has a sweet little girl who just turned one.  Last year, some friends and I threw a baby shower to welcome sweet baby Kaylin.

About 7 months ago, Laina found out that...surprise!  She was pregnant again.  And even more surprising....she was pregnant with twins.  As you can imagine, Laina has a lot to prepare for.  In just another month or so, Kaylin will be getting 2 baby brothers. And yes, they'll only be about 13-14 months apart.  Yikes!

Seeing as Laina will be needing doubles of almost everything, and that most of her current baby stuff is all pink, I decided she needed another shower.  Plus, it gave me an opportunity to plan and host another party, which I love to do.  So I enlisted the help (and amazing party-hosting house) of my friend, Sara, and threw a vintage toy baby shower for Laina's "2 Sweet Boys."  We were very pleased with the results--both of our party planning and of all the good and much-needed stuff Laina received--and decided that we should probably start a party-planning business.  So if you ever need a party planned for you, you know who to call.  :-)

Sara painted this sign--she's an amazing painter!

We held a diaper raffle--one baby goes through tons of diapers; just imagine how many 2 go through!






We decorated with tons of vintage toys; some we already had and some we bought. I love vintage toys and hope to eventually compile a bunch for Henry to play with.


Twin sock monkeys!

Sara painted the "Toys" sign on the mantle (like I said, she's amazing). We'd seen something similar (a tin, maybe?) on another blog and decided we needed one. She also painted the ABC blocks.



We played Mommy Memory, which was super fun. Basically, match baby/maternity terms and receive a prize that goes with the word. For instance, match "Twins" and win Doublemint gum.

A table full of sweet treats for to celebrate the arrival of Laina's 2 sweet boys!





Blurry picture of AMAZING oreo truffles. Oh my goodness, they're SO yummy and so easy to make!





Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with a Chai Cream Cheese frosting. Oh. My. Delicious-Yumminess.


This tin had ice and milk--next time I'd try to find a smaller tin--this one was a little big.



I made all the windmills--super cute and easy little project. And AK was kind enough to drink all the soda so we could use the bottles to decorate.



This is part of the invitation that someone used on their gift--such a cute idea!

The beautiful mommy

A much needed gift: My Breast Friend nursing pillow for twins

Mommy and Me and Kaylin

Pink

What's red and white and pink all over?  My laundry.  More specifically, my cleaning rags and towels.  Apparently, I've never before used hot water when washing the red rug.  That's ok.  I like pink.  Not sure AK will love using pink towels to wash the car with though...  :-)