It’s the first long weekend of the summer here, and definitely time do some barbequing. We made these yummy and easy cheese and bacon sliders, and corn on the cob. It doesn’t get much better than that. I’ve kind of fallen in love with these mini burgers, especially now that the mini buns are available everywhere. Everything seems to taste better when it’s mini, and you can have a few.

I made easy mini burgers with a pound of lean beef and one envelope of onion soup mix -that’s it, so simple.

We grilled them up and served them with cheese and a slice of bacon -cause every things better with bacon. Yum. Let the summer barbequing officially begin!

Happy Friday!

This year for Mother’s Day I decided to put together a little brunch, and invite my Mom and my BFF. We had a lovely time, and my husband did most of the cooking so I could enjoy it too.

I was inspired by the beautiful spring weather to use yellow as the colour scheme for the party. I don’t own a lot of yellow, but since I used yellow with white, I didn’t really need too much. A few strategic hits of yellow had a big impact. I started out wanting to do a grouping of pom poms and paper lanterns over my kitchen table, that incorporated my fun light. I made paper doily pom poms, and used some yellow paper lanterns for big impact.

For the table I used a simple white linen runner, and layered on some simple sweet yellow candles with some garden bouquets in mason jars. I don’t have many yellow flowers, so I used white, added some yellow spray roses that I bought, and tied the jars with different yellow ribbons. I love how it turned out.

I wanted to eat outside in the sun, so we set up the table buffet style. I found pretty polka dot napkins, and these sweet yellow striped paper straws.

For drinks we served Irish tea, along with lemonade for the little girls, and mimosas for the grown ups. I found this bottle with the fun stopper at the dollar store. The colour didn’t match our decor, so I wrapped it in a paper doily and ribbon. I love how it turned out.

I decided to serve granola with yogurt, honey and berries, so we could make our own parfaits. I made homemade granola for the first time, and it was a hit. I found the recipe here at “theKitchn“. My guests loved it so much that I sent them all home with a little for their breakfast the next day!

We also served a hash brown casserole, bacon, sausage, and quiche. I used this recipe for the quiche, and made one with broccoli and cheddar and the other with Swiss cheese and spinach. I made them the day before and just re-heated for the brunch. Worked like a charm.

The whole brunch idea came about because my husband makes the best buttermilk pancakes. He made plain, blueberry and chocolate chip.

We served them with vanilla whipped cream, warm maple syrup, and blueberry syrup, which I made by cooking blueberries in maple syrup. Yum.

For dessert we had some donuts, and I made the chocolate chip oatmeal muffins again, see the recipe here -one of my new favs.

Some little people really enjoyed the donuts.

I wanted us all to enjoy the warm weather so I set up the outside table with our yellow theme too. I hung my regular white candle lanterns with some pretty yellow ribbon and I made a yellow and white planter for the table.

I wanted to add a little more yellow, and thought the garden gnomes were a really fun addition.

I got some $2 garden gnomes at the dollar store, and a ceramic mushroom and gave them a few coats of glossy yellow paint. I love the bit of whimsy they add to the table. I will probably re-spray paint them pink later -my favourite colour these days, and add them to the garden border.

The brunch was so yummy, we all enjoyed the sun, eating and drinking and making our way back to the buffet for seconds and thirds, while the kids played tag and enjoyed the swing and sandbox together. It was a very happy Mother’s Day!

With a brunch like this…life really is a party!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, and Whipperberry.

I got together with some girl friends this morning for tea, and thought I would make these yummy muffins. I found the recipe at Girls to Grow. They are really delicious.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup oats
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

1. Combine oats and milk and let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Stir egg, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and chocolate chips into oat mixture.
3. Combine three dry ingredients and add to the liquid mixture. Stir until moistened.
4. Use paper liners or cooking spray in a 12-cup muffin pan. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in a 4oo degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

These are delicious for breakfast or a snack. The kids loved them since they include chocolate chips, and I liked that they had oatmeal in them too. They’d be great as part of a Mother’s Day brunch this weekend. Enjoy!

It’s Friday night, and the weather today was finally warm and beautiful. As the sun goes down we’re sitting on the back deck eating strawberries and cream -okay ultra-low fat cool whip but still, you get the picture. No school tomorrow, a warm day and a sweet treat. TGIF. Sometimes life really is a party -a small party, but a party none-the-less. Happy weekend!

We had such a great time celebrating Maddie’s 5th birthday with a cupcake bakery themed party. Today I want to share the food with you.

The drinks for the party were pink lemonade and bottled water, I found the mini bottles which were the perfect kid size and wrapped them in cupcake scrapbook paper.

Our kid friendly fare was hotdogs wrapped in crescent rolls, veggies and dip, a fruit tray and a favourite around here “Paula Deen’s crock pot Mac and cheese“. I tripled the batch and put it in the crock pot in the morning, by lunch it was ready and delicious, and left-overs were great too. If you don’t have a good Mac and cheese recipe this one’s great.

For the adults we made a nice salad and created a panini bar, with lots of different meats and cheeses, grilled veggies, and fun condiments like pesto, tapenade and sun dried tomatoes, along with all kinds of fresh breads from the bakery. Guests were invited to create their own sandwiches and then grill them on one of three panini grills we had set up. They were a great success.

Lunch was lovely, but it was the sweets table that we were all waiting for!

I think I set a new all-time record preparing for this party I used 3 dozen eggs and 5 lbs of butter! That’s a lot of baking!

The sweet stand inspired the whole party. My sister and brother-in-law made this great stand for my girls for Christmas. They had their eye on the Melissa and Doug market/lemonade stand in the catalogue, but Uncle Shaun decided to create his own version. My sister had the “Sweet Shop” banner created just for Maddie, and printed at a sign shop.

I wanted to fill all the fun baskets with treats so I baked three kinds of cookies, and marshmallow pops, and wrapped them individually so it would look like a real bakery.

These cupcake marshmallow are easy to make. I put the marshmallow on a stick and dipped the whole thing in melted milk chocolate. After it dried, I dipped the top in melted pink chocolate, and while it was wet added sprinkles and red smartie cherry-on-top. We wrapped them in little cello bags and tied them with simple ribbon.

I also baked chocolate chip cookies, one of the birthday girl’s favourites, and tied the bags with pretty pink bakers twine.

I also made a family favourite, jam jams. Find the recipe here. Don’t they look delicious with their raspberry jam filling!

The prettiest cookies were the cupcake sugar cookies. I iced them all in dark pink, light pink and white icing, with white and pink sprinkles. I love how they turned out and they were so delicious.

The wrapped goodies were a hit, and easy to send home with the guests after the party too.

Up on top were, of course cupcakes, and few other sweet treats.

I made the Barefoot Contessa’s Coconut with Cream Cheese Frosting, always a big hit with the coconut fans. I also made chocolate with chocolate frosting. I tried a new recipe from Martha Stewarts Cupcake book for chocolate chip cupcakes. I frosted some with vanilla and some with chocolate chips and sprinkled with white or chocolate chips. I also used the Barefoot Contessa’s Coconut cupcake recipe to make the vanilla cupcakes, just leave out the coconut, and they are my very favourite.

I made some sweet little cupcake pics for the party, using scrapbook paper, cupcake wrappers and some scrapbook embellishments. I love how they turned out!

Along with all the cupcakes I served some pink cotton candy in plastic shot glasses, served on sweet pink gingham paper boxes.

Also made home made chocolate pudding with vanilla whipped cream. I saw the recipe at Whipperberry a few weeks ago, and knew the party was the perfect occasion to try it out. I served it in sweet little mason jars, and it was delicious and very, very chocolaty!

After hours and hours of baking for the party, it was great fun to enjoy all the sweets with friends and family! On Friday morning, feeling a little overwhelmed with all the baking I had to do, I asked Maddie if she thought I was making too many sweets for the party. And her response, “there’s no such thing as too many sweets”! And that is why this was the perfect party for our little sweetie!

Happy Birthday Miss Maddie, you make our lives so much sweeter!

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakershop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party DecorationsThe Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello.

Our cupcake bakery birthday party was so much fun, and one of the highlights was the cupcake decorating!

They started out decorating some cute little paper mache cupcakes, I found at Walmart. I put out pink and white paint, and an assortment of jewel, and pearl stickers, along with red pom poms and glitter glue.

After the craft and some playing in the pretend cupcake bakery, it was time to decorate the real cupcakes.

I set up the dining room table for the decorating. Everyone had a cute little cupcake apron waiting for them on their chair, see how I made them here.

I bought cupcake bakery boxes for everyone to be able to bring their cupcakes home in.

I baked four kinds of cupcakes for decorating, chocolate chip, coconut, vanilla and chocolate.

We made vanilla frosting, and tinted it dark and light pink. We also made chocolate frosting. I had grand visions of putting the icing in piping bags for all the kids, but forgot to take the icing out of the fridge on the morning of the party in all the rush, so…we stirred it into submission and set out bowls and knives. Of course the highlight to the decorating were all the fun sprinkles and toppings. I was collecting for weeks finding every pink decoration I could.

The sugar roses from the bulk barn were a real hit with the little girls. I also used some pink chocolate to make some 5′s. I just melted it and put it in a zip lock with the corner sniped off to pipe them onto wax paper.

The kids loved their decorating, and took it very seriously.

Here’s a few of the finished products…someone likes cherries.

The cupcake decorating was a real hit, everyone enjoyed it, and loved taking their little aprons, and finished cupcake masterpieces home in their “real” bakery boxes. With pink sprinkles in every shade, cherries, marshmallows, silver balls, pink chocolate fives, little heart cookies, chocolate chips, chocolate sprinkles, sugar roses, decorating sugars, and pink parties…life truly is a party!

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakeshop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party Decorations
• The Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes
• The Sweetest Sweet Table Ever

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello.

This past weekend we celebrated our baby turning 5! She loves all things sweet so we went with a cupcake and bakery theme for the party. Weeks and weeks before the party I started hunting for cupcake fabric to make aprons for all our little guests.

I stumbled upon some cupcake tea towels at IKEA. These were perfect! They weren’t expensive, and already had some of the sewing done for me. I am not a great seamstress by any means, but with my Grandma’s old sewing machine, and a few straight seams I managed to make ten sweet little aprons.

I started out cutting off the top of the tea towels to make the aprons short enough for little ones, and create the apron shape. I ironed and sewed the seams.

I really wanted the aprons to be more pink, so I used some pink polka dot ribbon for the neck and ties, finished with a little fray-stop to ensure the ribbons don’t unravel. I also found ready made pink ruffles to add to the bottom. For the boys -cream coloured ties and no ruffles.

I just love how they turned out, and the kids seemed to really like them too. There we three different patterns to choose from. The aprons were also part of their party favour at the end of the party. When the kids arrived the aprons were hung over the backs of the chairs, ready for the little bakers to decorate their cupcakes and cookies with.

They were a labour of love, time consuming but pretty simple, and worth the effort in the end.

Our two have all the chocolate frosting washed off now, and they’re ready for future baking adventures! With aprons this cute, life really is a party!

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakeshop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party Decorations
• The Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello and Whipperberry.

• The Sweetest Sweet Table Ever

Ever since I made a special ice cream towel for my oldest daughter, the younger one has wanted one too. For her cupcake bakery themed birthday party, I decided to make a cupcake towel for her. It was really simple, and inexpensive. I started with a nice white towel, and applliqued a cupcake I cut out of felt, and a little pink ric rac trim.

Before sewing on the bottom, I used the sewing machine to create the signature cupcake paper lines. I have a full tutorial here, making the ice cream towel with the same technique. The ice cream towel has become my daughters regular bath towel and after a year of regular washing and drying it has stood up really well.

I found this sweet cupcake soap at the Toronto One of a Kind Show. The special towel and soap looked really “sweet” in the powder room on the day of the cupcake bakery birthday party.

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakeshop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party Decorations
• The Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes
• The Sweetest Sweet Table Ever

This post is linked up at Whipperberry, and Tatertots and Jello.

We had the best time celebrating Maddie’s 5th birthday with a cupcake and bakery theme. For weeks we’ve been decorating and I wanted to show you some of the fun details.

We greeted guests with our “Help Wanted” sign on the front door -cute and easy.

The dinning room was set up for cupcake decorating -more on that to come, and the living room was our pretend play bakeshop and cafe.

We used 3M hooks that come off with no damage to the paint, to string up a combination of tissue paper pom poms and paper lanterns.

I made this sweet little “Hello Cupcake” banner on my Cricut machine with some cupcake scrapbook paper, and added in the felted sweater heart garland I made for Valentine’s day.

The entrance way got dressed up with pink, and sweet little cupcake candles that I bought years ago for another cupcake event.

I decorated the fireplace mantel for the party too. I love putting out some baby pictures of the birthday girl -my how she’s grown! The cupcakes are more candles. I also used this cupcake banner. It’s made from simple felt flags stitched to some seam binding. I made several years ago, and add different felt pictures depending on the birthday theme. Love these sweet cupcakes with sprinkles and cherries on top!

There was also a Happy Birthday banner, with the same cupcakes.

And, another banner decorated the front of the pretend bakeshop.

One of my very favourite details were the sweet little cupcake flower arrangements. I was inspired by How Does She, but wasn’t able to get the containers here in Canada. One day, while in my favourite store (Dollarama) I came across cupcake liner shaped little ice cream bowls and spoons -angels sang.

They came in bright summer colours, but me and my BBF -spray paint, we fixed them right up! We left the one bright pink, and painted the yellow, green, and blue ones light pink. I sent them to my sister, at La Petite Fleur, and she filled them with a little floral foam and white mums -thanks Auntie Heather! I had some candles in just the right size, which were the finishing touch. Aren’t they the sweetest? I heart them -a lot.

In the kitchen, I also used one of Maddie’s sweet, and tiny bakery toys and arranged it on this beautiful cake plate.

It looked so cute, and was a great way to share it with little friends, without losing any of the teeny, tiny little pieces in a house full of people.

Everything was so pink, so cupcake-y and so cute, I hardly wanted to clean-up after the party and put everything away. With house decorated with cupcakes, life really is a party.

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakeshop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party Decorations
• The Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes
• The Sweetest Sweet Table Ever

For Maddie’s cupcake bakery party this weekend we wanted to include a pretend bakeshop and cafe for everyone to play in, since the ice cream shop was such a huge hit at the ice cream party. We converted out living room for the party. Guests were greeted by this fun “Help Wanted” sign on the door.

We started out with Maddie’s sweet pink kitchen, bought at Target a few years ago on a cross border shopping trip.

I cleared off some of the book shelves, and we stocked them with bakery supplies. I used an old egg carton and some plastic Easter eggs, as well as some empty packages from sugar, flour and cream. Kids love using the “real” stuff, just like Mom and Dad.

I also found these cute little fabric bags and used stamps to add the words “flour” and “sugar”, and then filled the bags with some white cotton balls for the kids to bake with.

Along with these I shopped the house for all the baking and cooking toys I could find, and made a little work area for the bakers. I also added a few of my cook books.

We used the toy box as the store counter, complete with cash register,phone, little bakery boxes and brown paper bags decorated with cupcake stickers, and paper and pencils to write down orders.

My sister even made little business cards.

We used the chalk board as a menu for customers.

On the other side of the counter we set up some tables and chairs for the customers. We bought Maddie the IKEA dish sets for her birthday and used them in the cafe.

I found the little wall decals at Dollarama, and they added a fun touch to our little cafe. Maddie added a little dandelion bouquet, to “make it look like a real cafe”.

The kids really enjoyed playing in our little pretend bakery and cafe, and it was really pretty easy to put together. Almost everything we used were things we already had.

With a bakery set up in your living room, life really is a party!

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello, and Whipperberry.

Check out all the other great posts from this cupcake bakery party:

• The Cupcake Birthday Dress
• The Pretend Cupcake Bakeshop and Cafe
• The Cupcake Bakery Party Decorations
• The Cupcake Towel
• Cupcake Aprons made from Tea Towels
• Decorating Cupcakes