Simple Girl

  Anyone who has ever hosted a sleepover party for a dozen 10-year old girls knows this:  A bowling party is SO MUCH BETTER!   When Arielle turned 11, we invited her friends to some Friday Night Bowling.   Advantages : No need to clean the house 16 friends is not a crowd! Easy cleanup! Mom gets a good night's sleep Everyone has fun! Add a few cute details and you still qualify for the cool mom award!    First Thing:  Make some cute iron-on bowling T's. Matching T-shirts are great for crowd control AND the girls loved them!   Michael's is a great resource for inexpensive T's. I downloaded this cute bowling design from Scrapendipity Designs on Etsy.  The design cost only $2.50 and I was able to fit two images on each iron-on transfer sheet. I ordered these "Bowling Ball" Cupcakes from our local bakery, but you could easily make them yourself.  Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing ...

The St. Patrick's Day "Green Lunch" started as a family tradition many years ago when the kids were little and we lived in Atlanta. #momhumor.  I made sure that I was on school lunch duty when they first opened their "all green" lunch.  I couldn't stop laughing. Tears streamed down my face when I saw their puzzled expressions. #ithinki'mfunnierthanireallyam. The big surprise came only once, but even now they still remind me, "You're going to pack us a green lunch on St. Patrick's Day, right?" #familytraditionsrock. Happy St. Patrick's Day! xo Rachel

Life is full of surprises. Like when my 11-year old chose Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for her birthday this week. It's not your typical kid birthday cake fare.  Where's the chocolate?  Where's the sprinkles? Where's the purple dinosaur? Oh, wait. She's 11. Nevermind. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.  I'm pretty sure she came out of my womb as a full-fledged 13-year old. She had attitude. She had style. We ate Chinese food together. Why wouldn't she want a grown-up, retro-inspired piece of the past? I found this particular recipe by Paula Deen and I have to say, it had me at buttermilk. In my opinion, any baked good recipe containing buttermilk is a guaranteed winner. Despite growing up in a family that avoided butter, eggs and any other type of saturated fat at any cost, I followed (most of) the recipe. Do you see that brilliant yellow color?  That's from 2 sticks of butter and five eggs. Sigh. It really is the most delicious th...

It's my brown-eyed girl's 11th birthday! When we lived in The South, March 4th always marked the day that the daffodils bloomed. Clearly, we are not even close to blooming here, although despite the fact that we have had some 50+ days of below zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures this winter, the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a turn toward spring.  I love the Farmer's Almanac.  How can they always be right?  As you can see, we are attempting to bring some spring into our day with our brand new spring birthday outfit (Thanks, Aunt Rita!) and this very spring-like gum cake!  A Sugar Free Gum Cake is as close to dessert as school allows.  Leave it to Arielle to make a more beautiful cake than her mother! You can get some step by step instructions HERE ! And as long as we are reminiscing, How about this sweet photo of Arielle and Ella? They were little flower girls in cousin Sherah's LightHouse Oregon Coast Wedding. For the record, I am so glad...