Party Pom Pom's

I kept the decorations simple, but these Pom Pom's are super cute and very easy to make. I found the instructions at Martha Stewart's website

The Birthday banner was also very simple and even comes with a printable template. I printed the letters out onto coloured card stock and weaved them through some ribbon.

I bought some purple flowers and out a cute cupcake ribbon on the vase, and used my fancy 3 leveled tray for the sandwiches that we served for lunch, along with(not in picture) some fancy white tea cups and saucers that were lent to use by some great friends.

Cupcake Purse and Cupcake Soaps

Are these not the cutest things you have ever seen!
My great friend made these for all the girls that came to the party.
We used them as the gift loot/party favour bags and all the kids collected the pinata goodies and put them inside.

We also tucked in a little cupcake soap into the cupcake bags, which smelled so yummy you could eat it.

I bought the cupcake purse pattern from Amy Gaines on etsy, and I bought the cupcake soaps from LulliLiscious at esty as well. Check them out, both shops have fantastic stuff. The soaps were also all chemical free!

Cupcake Pinata

I don't know if it is where I live or if the cupcake theme isn't that popular. But trying to find a cupcake pinata was nearly impossible.

So I made one! and you can too. I was inspired by this website, all-about-cupcakes.com, click on the link for the isntructions.

Mine doesn't look quite the same, but you get the idea, and it was fun to make and I saved myseld $20 by not having to buy one.

It's a Cupcake Party and you're Invited!

Birthday Party Invitation

"Princess Carissa is turning 4!

Please join us for Cupcakes and more"

I just used pink card stock and printed the wording on white paper. Then I cut the white paper and glued it to the pink card stock. Added a wribbon and a cute out cupcake. Nothing fancy, but it was affordable and fun to make.

Save the Date Card

Wording inside simply says

"Save The Date

for Carissa's 4th Birthday

on August 14th"

I have a mild obsession with cupcakes, anything cupcakes and I want it. I don't collect cupcake stuff by any means but I can't help but think how anything made to look like a real cupcake is the cutest thing going.

My daughter celebrated her 4th birthday and we had an oh so cute cupcake theme. I am going to add, over several posts what we did for her party. It was so much fun and the ideas I found online were fantastic!

First, for the save the date card I found this template for a Cupcake Box and Cupcake Card. I just used the card template, and it is all for free!

Reading Organic Labels

After watching the movie Food, Inc. I decided to buy the book to read a little further into what the movie didn't get a chance to say. I have to say I am enjoying the book a lot and have learned so much about our food industry.

One thing I didn't know was the Organic label and the laws that are set around it. The word Organic doesn't mean that the entire product is organic nor does it have to be. Here are the tips I learned about reading labels. write them down if you need to, but remember these three things when shopping for organic foods.

"The term "100% Organic" is fairly self-explanatory and refers to foods and fibers that are indeed produced at every step, from field to store shelf."

"The Second level, simply "Organic" requires that at least ninety-five percent of a product's ingredients be organic, with the remaining five percent strictly limited to ingredients on USDA's National List of allowed and Prohibited Materials."

"The third category, "Made with Organic", means that at least seventy percent of a product's ingredients are organic."

My only concern with this is the very long list of materials that are on the USDA's National List. Curious about the materials? Click on the link above for a full list of stuff in alphabetical order.

The Best 100% Whole Wheat Loaf

I have been a long time maker of homemade breads. I have tired my fair share of recipes, some worth keeping and others just down right nasty. My kids have grown up on whole wheat bread and I honestly don't think they know the difference between whole wheat or white bread. They just eat what they are given.

For anyone who makes whole wheat bread themselves they will know that it can be hard to get a nice light loaf. They tend to be more dense over the white loafs and they are by nature just harder to make.

But I am happy to say I have finally found the perfect whole wheat recipe. I very well may never make a different recipe again.

I do cheat a little and use my bread maker to make the dough for me. I have never been good at doing it by hand and always seem to kill the yeast. But if you are a master and making bread 100% from scratch then go for it. Otherwise I highly suggest you buy a bread maker, it is one appliance we can never live without in this house. 7 years and counting for when we bought our first bread maker.

Maple Whole Wheat Bread

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 4 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select wheat bread cycle; press Start.

More often then not I only put my bread on the dough cycle of my bread maker. Once the dough has finished rising I take it out, flatten it and let it rise for another 30-50 minutes. I bake it in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes.

"I don't want to eat pigs"

Those are the sweet words my 5 year old son said to me after we saw some very cute piglets at the Minnesota Zoo this month.

I have never really pushed my children into not wanting to eat meat. They just haven't been eating very much of it unknowingly. I feed them "hot dogs"(once in a blue moon) and they eat them up like it is the original hot dog they ate many times before. They eat "pepperoni" on their pizza with no questions asked, and they eat "meat loaf" now more then they ever did.

They love beans and rice and can not get enough fruits and veggies. One other thing I am very surprised at is that they don't ask for milk very often since I stopped giving it to them. My son has only asked for cheese and crackers a couple times, but their desire for dairy has pretty much been eliminated. They willingly eat "ice cream" made from coconut milk, soy or rice milk and enjoy every bite. They have willingly replaced rice, almond and soy milk for cows milk.

When my son saw those piglets and decided on his own that he didn't want to eat them, I was very proud of him making the choice on his own. I think children don't want to eat animals that they think are cute and cuddly and when they get old enough to realise what they are eating they start to ask questions. Some children refuse outright to eat meat even if their family does, but many children eat it because they feel they have no other choice.

When we were at the Zoo we had the opportunity to watch a dairy cow get milked. Now it wasn't the old fashion way with doing it by hand, but rather at the Zoo they have a few cows that they used for their dairy source and they are milked by machine. I was not excited to watch this being done and I already knew what the process was, but I was glad for the opportunity so our children could see what really goes on. It was a great learning experience for them, and for me to explain to them why we don't drink milk.

The process at the Zoo was fairly humane, but the sad reality is, the calf's born to those cows are not shown with the words "veal" written on their pens. The process at the zoo is not nearly as degrading and unsanitary as it would be in a huge production line of 500 cows being milked 4 times a day, which makes the cow milking "show" 100% false in my opinion.

People will walk away from that show thinking that the cows are being treated well with a lot of care and love, and I seriously feel that the cows on the farm are treated that way. But the milk you are drinking is not from those cows at the Zoo.

I will not and do not force my children not to eat meat or dairy. I want them to come to the realisation themselves that by them not eating meat or dairy that they will be healthier and not contribute to the suffering of animals. Nor will they be sucked into societies view of what you should be eating.