My Baby is 3

Amazing how fast my kiddos our growing up.  Today my baby Baby turned 3.

3!

I clearly remember her birth.

She is looking older.  And expresses so much.

Baby loves to play with friends, on the computer, read, climb and still is a joker.

She is doted on by everyone and probably always will be.  Can't get away from being the baby.

Delivering her birthday party invites.

Practicing her candle-out blowing.

 

 

 

Love all her expressions!

 Gift opening.

Gift from Gpa & Gma D.

 Duck hooded towel and books from family.

 "The reach in."

 Yummmm!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa D!

  

Snow cones and fun with friends and family.

We love you M!

Thank you for bringing so much happiness to our family!

Happy Birthday!

Photos by M1 and Mwa.

My Birthday Party

This year, like every year, I added another number to my age.  To some this age may seem like life is now on the downside.  Others don't care.  And a few find this new number exciting and a time for new adventures.  Well, for me, I feel the latter.  I don't know why, but I do.  The number:

 

Oh yeah!

I am excited for the future.  Maybe it is timing with other things happening in my life.  Hope is in the air.  I feel like I fit into a mature age group now - not that I feel mature by any means, but by default of my age I am in that group :)  

I thought that since I was going to be turning the BIG 4-0 I needed to throw myself a party.  A friend mentioned that a couple of her friends had a birthday dance party together.  What a great idea I thought.  Then at church for Valentine's Day, they had an adult dinner/dance party.  That event solidified the idea of throwing myself a birthday dance party.

This made turning 40 exciting.  I love to dance and couldn't wait for my party.  My girls joined in on the excitement.  
My color choices: black and white.  Not colors at all but all colors there or absent.   Rob said Black was elegance and White for wisdom.  Yes, that's right.  I have the wisdom showing in my hair lately.  Which is another thing I'm excited about.  I know.  Weird.  You can read a little about my white/grey hair thoughts here. I'll see how my thoughts are on the hair subject once more wisdom shows up.
Anyway, back to the party.

We, Rob and I, decided on a place to hold the party.  It's called Noah's.  You can go here to check the places out.  We used to adjoining rooms: a billiards room with a movie section and an open room for the dancing.
Miss M received a Karaoke machine for Christmas and thought that would be a good idea for the party.  I was a bit hesitant to use it when she kept saying how she was going to run things during party.
I got busy making decorations. 
It wasn't in the budget to feed that many people and so I asked everyone to bring a treat to share.  I brought chips and salsa with cream cheese.  I also went a little cupcake crazy and made 126.  I used a buttercream frosting that I hadn't made before and it turned out great.  I'm glad that it did because I made it the afternoon of the party for the first time.  ;0)
My Birthday Party finally happened.  It was GREAT!  So many people were able to come even though many others were out of town for Spring Break.  I knew a lot of people would probably be out of town, but the day of my birthday was the best option for the party.  Dancing didn't happen like I had hoped, but that's okay
. (I wanted to Dance All Night Long)   The little kids were dominating with the karaoke.  And it gave me the opportunity to talk with everyone.
It is always difficult for me to host a large party.  I love throwing the party, but feel bad that I can't visit with everyone as much as I would like to.  As long as they are enjoying themselves though, even without me interacting directly with them, I'm happy.  I want everyone to come and have a good time.  Because that's what a party is for!
So, it seemed like everyone had a good time.  It was nice to visit with everyone at least a little bit.  Some friends I hadn't seen in a long time.
The following are some photos of the larger room.  I was rushing to take photos before people showed up.  I didn't even take photos of the other rooms and during the party.  Oh well.  I was too busy having fun!
The photos didn't turn out too great, but here they are.

I went to shut the window blinds but got distracted and never took another photo of the room.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great birthday!  Thanks to those who couldn't come but sent birthday wishes and were there in mind!

Food Friday: Regular and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have tried different buttercream recipes and this is The One for me that I tweaked a little from the original.  It has a delicious and smooth taste.

Buttercream Frosting: Makes 6 Cups
1 Cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1 Cup butter - BUTTER
1 - 2# bag powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Use clear vanilla for a white colored frosting.  I didn't have any and didn't want to try and find it.  It is a special item and I would think that a baking store would have it.  And yes, I know white isn't a color).
5 Tablespoons milk


Mix until smooth.
Add extra powered sugar, if needed, To Thicken to decorate.  I didn't need to thicken for the frosting style above.  For the style in the photo I used a #12 tip.
Add milk, light corn syrup or water To Thin.


Chocolate Frosting:
Same as above Except:
1 Cup Baking Cocoa (I use Nestle's)
6 Cups Powdered Sugar