Deux Petite Amie

Project: Holiday Wish

Have you heard? Olivia’s Ultimate and Go Go Goldfish are teaming up on a very special project this holiday season! Because both OU and GGG admire companies who are actively involved in philanthropic acts and because we both desire to give a little back and help in some small way, OU and GGG are giving away a brand new mini-wardrobe to one little girl this Christmas! Collaboratively designed, this mini-wardrobe will consist of several OU and GGG mix and match pieces. In our endeavors to find our sweet little someone, we are asking our fans to write to us with your nominations of someone who could use a new mini-wardrobe! Please address all nominations to either oliviasultimate@gmail.com or gogo.goldfish@yahoo.com. Be sure to include the name of the child being nominated, her age, size, a mailing address, and why she needs a new mini-wardrobe. Nominations will be accepted through Friday, October 28th. And thank you, friends, in advance, for helping us make someone’s holiday just a little bit brighter!

 

My Baby is 2!

and since I'm sooooo late with this post she'll probably be 3 soon. ;)  Summer's been hounding me (and rightfully so) to post about Emily's minnie mouse themed birthday party.  AS much fun as the kids have at bounce houses and all the other fancy party places these days, birthday parties at home just seem wholesome and the most fun to me.  OK, Here you go.... (and I apologize in advance for the heavy amount of pictures to this post)

Beautiful but windy Saturday morning.  Guests walked up to the door and saw my red tissue paper wreath with a glittery mickey head.

I cut a piece of scrapbook paper with her initial to personalize it a little more.  Most of the mickey heads you will see I just cut from black foam board. :)  Really inexpensive and easy!

This cutout was also placed on a stake on the edge of the driveway so people knew where the party was.  There were also polka dot helium balloons tied to it but unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of it outside. :(

Out in the backyard I rented to long kid tables (did you know you can rent child sized party tables and chairs?) and chairs.  Luckily they had red and white!  I threw a long piece of fabric over the two tables for a table cloth.  However, the night before I realized the cloth was about a foot short.  So I took black and white dot fabric and sewed them to the two ends.  The perfect "finished" table cloth! TA DAH!

If you're wondering about the hats I made them from Pellon Fusible webbing, fabric, pom poms, rickrack, ribbon, and the ears are from that heavy felt material at Michael's/Hobby Lobby.  What it's called I haven't a clue but it worked!  I glittered the edges of Emily's ears to make it stand out and placed a number 2 on the front.

I also rented 3 round tables and chairs so that parents and friends could sit and enjoy themselves.

If you know me well, you know the food is the most important part for me!  The food table has to fit in the with the theme! 

I tried getting a shot with the banner right above the table but couldn't find my wide angle lens.  Absolutely adorable and I didn't do it justice with this photo.

Party plates were from Hobby Lobby (they could also work for Over the Hill, could they not? LOL), Mickey Garden statue, table tents I made from card stock and ribbon, and I covered paper mache letters with Disney scrapbooking paper.

Menu: Pizza (make it easy for yourself and don't make everything...I bought WAY too much though I thought we needed 15 pizzas for 55 people.  Try 6.), BLT pasta salad,  crudites (doesn't that sound so much better than veggie tray?), fruit platter, 3 different flavored popcorns, chocolate covered oreos, peanut butter pretzels...oh, and caramel apple mickey heads (like the ones we saw at Disney World, only they make it look SOOOO much easier than they are to make.  Don't laugh at my misshapen ones!

And of course there were cupcakes.  I had a buttercream DISASTER at 5 in the afternoon the day before.  Randall's bakery to the rescue!!!  I did happen to be able to salvage the fondant Mickey heads I made so all was good.  I just topped the store bought ones instead that morning.

Party Favors!  I happened to be in Walgreens waiting on a prescription and I was perusing the Easter goodies when I found a whole Mickey/Minnie section!  Bubbles and key chains!  Ding ding!  Add a few shiny stickers and stick them in a bag with a cutout that I glued and we were all set!
Don't forget the parents though!  Big kids like little take aways too (besides the big boxes of pizza I asked everyone to take home so we wouldn't be eating for a year).  These cute mickey pops are from All Chocolate Shop on etsy.  She mailed them on time, nicely wrapped, and with 2 ice packs so they wouldn't melt.  Highly recommended!

Here's the birthday girl!  I can't believe she's looking so big and grown up!!! Outfit was from Baby Grace Designs. She does the cutest sets!  Hair clip is from Creme de la Gems.  Her hair cookies are TDF!!!

Hope you get some ideas of your own from these pics for your next shin dig!  Feel free to ask any questions if you want more info on anything!

Spinach Ravioli Lasagna

I couldn't pass posting this recipe. It is one of those recipes that taste like you spent hours making it but it really doesn't take much at all to prepare.

Spinach Ravioli Lasagna

1 (6oz.) package of fresh baby spinach, thoroughly washed

1/3 cup refrigerated pesto sauce

1 (15 oz) jar alfredo sauce

1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 (25 oz.) package frozen cheese-filled ravioli

1 cup shredded Italian blend shredded cheese

Garnishes: fresh basil and paprika

1. Preheat oven to 375. Chop spinach and toss in a medium bowl.

2. Combine Alfredo sauce and broth. Spoon one-third of alfredo sauce mixture (about 1/2 cup) into a lightly greased 11 x 7 inch baking dish. Top with half of spinach mixture. Arrange half of ravioli in a single layer over spinach mixture. Repeat layer once. Top with remaining Alfredo sauce.

3. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake 5 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Garnish if desired.

Monsters, Monsters and more Monsters!

My Lex turned 4 a few weeks ago and we had a Monster Bash. It turned out super super cute. Lex and I think all of the other kids had a blast and all of the parents enjoyed getting to visit for a while.

I'm only going to do one giganto post about our monster party since Miss Emily's birthday party is tomorrow. Olivia should have Mickey Party goodness for everyone next week. :)

I ordered a shirt for Lex that I thought was crazy cool. He loved it and has worn it a ton since I gave it to him. 

And since Lex had a shirt you know I had to make Layla a monster dress to wear. I think it turned out pretty cute. The top is just a cheap little tank top that I added a knit skirt and applique to.

Lex insisted that we have popcorn for the monster party. So, we had monster cupcakes and a popcorn buffet. We made Peanut Butter & Jelly Popcorn which I know sounds crazy but it was actually really good! We also made a Pina Colada Popcorn which was good but definitely everyones least favorite. And the clear winning recipe was the Frito Crunch Popcorn. The Frito Crunch is super easy but makes a lot of popcorn.

I found the plastic popcorn containers at Dollar Tree for $1. The sticks are just dowel rods with a clothes pin hot glued to the top and I designed the monster tags. Hopefully they will be in the shop soon.

FRITO CRUNCH POPCORN SNACK MIX

1 Box of Kix Cereal

1 Bag of Fritos

1/2 Bag of Pretzels

1 Bag of Popped Microwave Butter Flavor Popcorn

1 - 2 cups pecans

1 package of almond bark or candy melts if you want to do a specific color

Mix all together then spread out over waxed paper. Melt almond bark in microwave according to directions. I added a little drizzle of vegetable oil to thin the chocolate out. Then drizzle over the snack mix as much or as little as you want. I drizzled a lot and I mixed in some orange candy melt drizzles as well. Let the mixture sit until the chocolate sets.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I cheated a little on the cupcakes because of time constraints and honestly I felt guilty all day for not making the buttercream like I normally do. I used the new Duff's icing from MIchael's and it was actually quite tasty and the colors where beautiful. It does have a different consistency from the buttercream that I normally make. I used white gumballs for the monster eyes and then I just put a dot of black icing on them for the center.

Lex chose the "L" "E" "X" candles instead of a number. And I bought the little monster circles here. This lady has such cute little boy party ideas. I bought the cupcake wrappers too but I just couldn't make them fit the cupcakes without knocking the icing off. I don't know what I was doing wrong. The photos I took of the cupcakes in the stand are horrible but they will have to do. 

Next up is the lemonade. I found a new plastic drink dispenser exactly like I've been looking for. I knew the glass kind had a really good chance of getting broken at a kid party.  I added monster eyeballs and a mouth to make it super monster-ific!

Next up is the stash I ordered from Oriental.com. Monster Pops, Jumpers, Rubber Duckies and crafts.

I think these are just the cutest little three eyed monster ducks. lol.

And here's Kyra with her monster visor that she made. She helped the little ones make them too.

And here are some of the little monsters that attended including the birthday boy who was near impossible to get a picture of. 

 

I think that is it for our monster fun. I'll try to post a tutorial of the monster iced cookies for a few post ago next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Housekeeping Note

Housekeeping Note:
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Since we're talking Strawberries I thought I would post a few fun strawberry items that I found on etsy. 

Strawberry Hat & Booties. Seriously could it get any cuter?

How cute would my sink be with this in it?

She got me at Strawberry Shortcake! I'm a child of the 80s so I love just about any cartoon from that period. And I can still remember that weird strawberry smell of Strawberry Shortcakes hair. Strangely that smell makes me crazy happy because it reminds me of my childhood. {I know I'm a dork, you don't have to tell me. lol} Someone better order this before I do!

Oh and look at these cute ruffles. Perfect for strawberry picking. 

My kids would flip over these. I swear they like to wear mitten when they eat popsicles. Cute and clever.

Don't these cookies look delish?

Ok gals. That's all of my strawberry madness. :) I'll be back tomorrow with monsters, monsters and more monster party craziness!

Strawberry Syrup

So, the day after we made Strawberry Jelly I realized that I didn't double the sugar in either recipe. So, we have about 24 jars of Strawberry Syrup... still good for all kinds of things like over ice cream (homemade of course), pancakes and cheesecake. Maybe we can come up with some new recipes to use the syrup with. 

With some more of my strawberries I made what I think is the best Strawberry Sorbet recipe ever. It is from the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cookbook. I made mine in my KitchenAid Ice Cream Bowl attachment. I bought this last year and I absolutely love love love it. I keep it in my freezer all the time and have made lots of great recipes with it.

This is what you'll need to make your Strawberry Sorbet:

1/2 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

3/4 cup sugar

Juice of 1 large lemons

1/4 cup corn syrup

2 cups cold water

First combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate covered at least 1 hour. Don't they look yummy!

When you are ready to freeze the sorbet, mash the strawberries until pureed. You can leave them kind of chunky if you like it that way. Add corn syrup and water and stir to blend.

Transfer the mixture to ice cream maker and freeze according to your machine's directions. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the final product because it was gobbled up too quickly.

This makes about a quart.

Yummy Strawberry Jam

I got to spend the afternoon with two of my favorite gals, Olivia and Gayle. We made 4 batches of Strawberry Jam and I am still overrun with strawberries. 

First you will need the following ingredients:

1 box pectin

5 cups crushed strawberries

12 Jelly Jars

7 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

We tried a few ways of crushing the berries. First we used a potato masher. This method works fine but is a bit messier than the other.

The second method was super easy. Fill the a gallon ziploc with your berries and get to squishing! :) This method doesn't get the berries as fine so you will have larger chunks in your jam. 

Next you have to sterilize your jars and lids. I have a sterilize function on my dishwasher that I use but you can also boil the jars and lids in hot water. 

Sterilizing:
1. Put clean jars, lids and rings in a large pot filled with water to cover. Be sure the pot is large enough so that the jars do not touch each other. Bring to a boil and keep at the rapid boil for five minutes.

2. Turn off the heat and leave the equipment in hot water until just before using.

3. Remove jars, lids and rings carefully with tongs.

Strawberry Jam:
In a very large stock pot, mix crushed strawberries, lemon juice and pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that can not be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly. 

Add entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off all of the foam on top.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch space from the rim of the jar. A wide mouth canning funnel makes this job really easy. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band tightly.

Place in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed. 

Ta-da! You now have Strawberry Jam. Come back tomorrow for a super cute printable label to personalize your jam jars. :)

 

 

Strawberry Fields Forever

Summer, a few friends, and I set out for Froberg's Farm, south of Houston in Alvin, TX, for some good old fashioned strawberry pickin'!  Who knew doing an honest days work out in the fields could be so much fun. 

With the amount of rain we had the day before we were lucky enough to have Summer remind us all to take our rubber boots. Muddy fun mess!

The strawberry patch was abundant with growth.  We're still early in the season so there were still a lot of flowers and baby green strawberries that weren't quite ready yet.

But there were plenty that were!

Working so diligently to find just the right ones.

Some of us had to try a few in the process.  A little evidence left on our faces...

 

Think we picked enough strawberries?  Each bucket is about 5 pounds! 

So what do you think Summer and I are going to do with all these strawberries?  Hmmm..... ;)  Might have to come back this week and find out!

The Monster Bash!

Where going to be having a monster of a time at Deux Petite Amie next week... My sweet baby boy is turning 4!!

Our cookies turned out so yummy. I want to gobble them all up!