Productive day...

Inspired by the sewing and craft blogs on my sidebar, I made a birthday outfit for Lauren's Kai-lan party at the end of March. I repurposed a $5.00 t-shirt from Walmart to make the skirt and borrowed some clip-art off the web for the iron-on. I think it turned out darn cute...



Here's a couple of pics I posted on Facebook, but didn't post here. They are from Saturday afternoon...I told her to give me a cheesecake smile and I certainly got one!

This and that...

I've been off work for four days and we had a great weekend. It's back to work tomorrow, but at least it's just a three day work week!

We got Lauren's bangs trimmed on the eve of CNY. I think she looks a little older with bangs. Here she is on Valentine's Day morning...


Her hair is finally starting to grow in on the sides. It took a full year to go from the super short cut she had in China to this...


My super splurge for Lauren's b-day next month just arrived today. Kai-Lan is the theme and these plates just came out and only a couple of places on the web carry them. I wanted the plates and tablecovers and finding them both in stock at the same time was a chore. I was checking the party web site every morning and finally they were both available...


I'm making most of the decorations myself. Thank God for the Nick Jr. website and all their printable crafts. Here's a sneak peak of what I have planned...

Happy Chinese New Year!

We had family and a couple of friends over for dinner to celebrate CNY. It was a really nice night and I wanted to share some pics.

We picked up some decorations at a Chinese supermarket. For you locals, it was Mekong Plaza at Dobson & Main. It was just like being back in China...the smells, the food, etc. They had lots of fun New Year decorations.





Here's Lauren with Uncle Jim and Josh...


Lauren wore an outfit we brought back from China. It was different than anything else we saw there. It's cotton instead of silk brocade and has a really cute print...



On the menu for dinner was shrimp with white sauce, pea pods and edamame...


kung pao beef...


and sweet & sour chicken...



Here she is showing off her red envelope stash for her piggy bank...


She LOVES having Josh over to play with and he is great with her...


All in all, it was a really nice night! I'm exhausted and ready to hit the sack!

Playdate fun...

Joe takes Lauren on a playdate every Wednesday to meet up with other families with kids from China. On Tuesday night we made cupcakes and valentines for Lauren to hand out. She had fun helping to crack the eggs and work the hand mixer. She thinks she's such a big girl when she gets to help out.



Joe brought the camera and took some pics of the kids exchanging cards...




Yum, cherry chip with cherry frosting...


A couple of pics from the gymnastics place they went to. They call this the Blueberry Pit and Lauren loves it...

Facebook...

I finally gave in and joined. You can click below to find me there.

Yummy pizza...

We made barbeque chicken pizza for dinner using the Pioneer Women's pizza crust recipe from her cookbook. It was so good! We baked it halfway on a cookie sheet and then lifted it off with the pizza peel and put it straight on the oven rack. This helped the crust crisp up a bit on the bottom.


I had always wanted to make my own pizza crust, but had a fear of any recipe with yeast. Since conquering my fear with PW's cinnamon rolls, I decided to give this a try. I'm glad I did and can't wait to try this crust recipe with other toppings. Pesto, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil are calling to me.

Pics from the weekend

Just have enough time to post some quick pics from the weekend. Joe was at a softball tournament on Saturday, so I took Lauren on a play date at the park. We met up with our friends, Nancy, Brian and Lily. Here's Lauren with Brian...


She has become quite a little monkey at the playground...




It's next to impossible to get a posed picture with a 2 and 3 year old. This is what you end up with...


Later that day at the grocery store, Lauren found a friend...


On Sunday we headed out to a birthday party. Lauren loved her horsey balloon...