Bee has a slight cold again (remnant from last week) so she's home this week.  Early morning and she's already asking me to do craft with her.  I don't feel so well myself to I told her later.  While resting I try to think up something for us to do as I am low on craft materials.  I think I'm just going to get her to do water coloring. 

Then while separating our recycling bin I came upon an empty egg carton and it reminded me of all the egg carton projects I saw.  I took it and dug out all the paint I had left.  Mostly pink colours but they'll do !

I really like Craft Smart acrylic paint from Michaels.  They sell for something like $1.50 each colour (59ml) and they come in an array of colours.  The paint is non-toxic, permanent, water based and the best part is that it cleans up with a little soap and water.  Knowing my girls, they often paint themselves and the table :)

I used an exacto knife to cut up each egg cup then used a scissor to trim the top of each cup.  We're making flowers so I cut a variety of shapes.  Then off we go painting them !  Easy right ?  

Our finished flowers were glued onto a piece of card stock paper.  Bee asked me to cut her some green leaves from construction paper.  The girls had a lot of fun and so was I !  We will do this again for sure.

Painting is messy business !  Good thing it's water friendly.  Our hands, hairs, clothes, paint brushes and table all got a water bath after and all came out clean !!!

Bee is home sick so for the 2 days she's home we baked each day !  She asked to do craft but I was busy with a cranky baby that likes to spit up, so we opted for baking.  It's not too time consuming and I don't have to participate full on.  After whipping up the ingredients, the kids get to do the cutting or pouring, then we let it cook in oven (no need to monitor).  Once done the kids get to decorate and eat their creations.  This keeps them busy, while I can still feed baby or take a shower to clean myself from the spit up !  

I also get to decorate a few cookies and cupcakes and eat them !  So yummy !  Recipes below.

CUTOUT SUGAR COOKIES RECIPE BY Kelly Senyei 

Prep Time: 90 min (includes refrigeration)

Cook Time: 11 min

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Store-bought or homemade frosting
• Assorted sprinkles
• Equipment: Assorted cookie cutters

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, then add the vanilla.

3. Turn the mixer off. Add the flour and then beat just until combined.
4. Remove the dough, shape it into a disk about 6 inches wide and wrap it securely in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 1 hour. (See Kelly's Notes.)
5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut it in half. Roll half the dough between two pieces of wax paper until it's about 1/4-inch-thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out your desired shapes and place them roughly 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining dough. (Leftover scraps can be re-rolled.)
7. Refrigerate the cut-out cookies for 15 minutes. (This helps them keep their shape when baking.)
8. Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes until pale golden, and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Frost and decorate as desired.
9. Kelly's Notes:
10. The dough can be refrigerated overnight, however when you remove it from the fridge, you will likely need to let it rest at room temperature for some time before it's soft enough to roll.
11. When in doubt, remove the cookies from the oven just prior to them turning pale golden. The cookies will crisp slightly as they cool, so removing them while slightly underbaked guarantees your cookies will remain soft. For crispier sugar cookies, bake them the full time.

EASY CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

1 1⁄2cups flour

1cup sugar

1teaspoon baking soda

1teaspoon salt

1⁄2cup cocoa powder

1cup water

1⁄2cup vegetable oil

1teaspoon vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Mix all of the dry ingredients well with a mixer or wooden spoon first then add in all your liquid ingredients. It should be brown and smooth, free of lumps.

Bake at 350 F for 15-17 minutes if you are baking cupcakes for a cake I'd say 17-25 minutes.

Lovebug loves Frozen and it's no surprise she wanted a Frozen birthday party.  She talked about it since after Christmas but we wasn't going to throw her one as Peanut will just be born and our hands surely will be full.  We planned to have one just with our family.  However after talking about it, C and I really want her to have a her own party (as she probably have to share her next one with Peanut).  We'll have a low key party and will re-use whatever decorations we have around.  Love's been looking forward to her birthday and we don't want to short change her.  At 2 they might not know it but at 3, Love has been counting down to her birth date.

Love was very specific with her birthday.  She wants a pink birthday with blue cake with yellow flowers (Frozen Fever) and friends :-) and she wants Frozen characters on the cake.  While a cake is pretty to have, our family (minus me) and friends and their kids are not big cake lovers.  I googled around for home made cake ideas and decided on rice krispies cake for her !  We all like rice krispies so rice krispies it is !

The day before the party, C and Bee put up the decorations.  Bee blew over 15 balloons on her own.  Such good helper she is !  She also drew a picture of Elsa and Anna and cut them out to decorate the giveaway basket.  Then she and C both left to attend her classmate's birthday party.  Peanut was sleeping so I started on the rice krispies cake !  I used a cake pan to mold the rice krispies marshmallow mixture then covered it with melted white chocolate.  The melted chocolate will act as an adhesive to the blue fondant I will be making.

The fondant was a nightmare !  my 1st time making it !  The recipe is of mainly melted marshmallow with confectioner sugar (recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/marshmallow-fondant-255227, I used butter instead of shortening).  It was easy to make however having a new born and a toddler around makes the whole thing mission impossible !!!  Needless to say, the fondant didn't turn out the way I planned :-( I rolled the fondant to a good thickness but when pulled up from the board, it thinned out and when it went on the cake, some parts stretched and left holes on the cake :-(  and it can't be peel off as the white chocolate held on really tight.  Standing back and looking at my lumpy blue cake, I was about to give up !  Then I thought why not patch it up with random flowers.  Thank God for the flower cutter !!!  4 hours from start to end, adding some mini Frozen figurines (Disney Store, $17) and the finished cake looked kinda OK !  not what I had in mind, but it will have to do as I don't know how to fix this !

I took Lovebug in the kitchen to show her what I made.  When she saw the cake, she squealed and hugged me.  She said "thank you for making me blue cake mommy !  It so pretty !".  Her words make the whole crazy ordeal worth it !  She was super happy and keeps checking up on it throughout the evening.  Seeing her happy makes me feel pretty awesome actually.  I'm glad I attempted it.  Will I ever do this again ?  Probably not.  One can never say never though !

WHERE TO BUY:

- Pink polka dot popcorn/treat holder, Dollarama $2 for a pack of 6
- Frozen mini figurines, Disney store, $16.97

GOODY BAG: 

- Windup toys for babies, Michael, $2 each
- Blue & white Playdoh, Walmart
- Kinder Surprise eggs, Walmart (Frozen Kinder eggs can be purchased from Toys R Us)

Bee is such a sweet girl.  She woke up early on Valentine's Day, around 6:30am to make a card for us (I heard noises in the kitchen).  I got up and came out around 7:30, to see what she's doing.  She made us a card and a necklace for everyone, even baby.  She asked me to cut her up paper hearts for her to put on her card and the necklaces.  She's so sweet and thoughtful.

Craving something sweet that morning, I asked C to get donuts for breakfast.  Without any hesitation, C puts on his hat and left to pick them up.  Whoa, and here I am thinking he might say "bad sugar first thing in he morning ?" !  Maybe he's doing it because it's V day :) or that I have been asking him to buy so much junk food that my request no longer surprise him anymore and best not to question.  I am being spoiled a bit at the moment :)  

When C came back he got me a bouquet of flowers and donuts !!!  We all put on the heart necklace Bee made for us and had a small tea party.  Donuts taste so good for breakfast.  The girls love it (expected of course).  We definitely will do this again.   

The MORNING OF BIRTHDAY:

Baby Love turned 3 ! This past year she discovered Lego and princesses.  She can play Lego hours on end and most day she's in her Anna get up.  If she sees Anna on screen she would refer to her as herself.  She would tell me "look at me on TV, I'm marry to prince Hans", and refer to Elsa as her sister.  I thought she would be a tomboy but am I ever wrong.  She loves dresses and head wears and all things shiny and pink.  Love dressed herself everyday and can put together a mean outfit. 

Love is LOUD !  always on top of her lung.  Even her inside voice is loud !  We are not sure what to do but keep on encouraging her to not scream when she talks !!!  Love loves food and loves to eat so I don't have to stress over her.  In the morning she would dress herself then go into kitchen, survey what's on the table and asked me to get her breakfast.  Depending on mood, she'll ask for cereal with milk with a side cup of milk, or pancake, banana, yogurt, xoi (sticky rice), or yogurt with crushed cereal on top.  Love is not a food snob like her sister !  She eats everything, from caramelized fish to spicy curry, she's up for anything.  Adventurous she is.

Love is a toddler with a large vocab.  From last year to now, she went from a few words to full on sentences and can even tell stories !  I can now carry on a decent conversation with her about pretty much anything and she'll have some inputs.  Her comments are often funny, at times thought provoking and surprisingly, very clever.  Like one time I told her "don't eat too much candy, your teeth will fall out", she said "No, when they fall out I get new one.  Dr. Jenna (Jennifer) will put in a gold one for me.  It'll be shiny!" (she's referring to crown).  Another one is during our walk home from picking up Bee, she was running before us.  Bee grabbed her and told her to be careful of cars, "you don't want to be dead right ?  cars hit you, you'll be flat!", and Love, with a big smile, said "and I would look so cute !".

Love does everything with passion!  She fully commit to anything that she set her mind on, which is a problem at time when she encountered a hiccup.  Like round piece of Lego won't fit into a certain spot in her Lego house.  And when she's frustrated or angry, she does it with passion too !!!  

Love likes to tell me "I love you to the space ship" and recently she changed it to "I love you to pluto far far away", after her sister pointed out that from earth to spaceship is not that big of a distance.  Once after bed time prayer, she asked why we can't touch the heaven.  I told her because it's really far from earth and she said "we need a really long ladder".  What I enjoy most now is how happy she is each morning, chirping "I didn't pee in my underwear !!!".  She's been saying this phrase for months and months now because she's really proud of it and we're too. 

Love's favorite show is Paw Patrol, Masha and the Bear, and Monster High (the rollerblading episode).  She loves to watch all things Frozen and Kinder Surprise on YouTube Kids but the ipad is always out of battery :-)  it's done on purpose so viewing time is very limited.  We don't want our kids to spend too much time in front of devices.  They are so good with playing on their own and with each other and we don't want to ruin it.  They both are creative kids and love all things artsy and that to us is a wonderful gift both C and I need to encourage and foster. 

I enjoy Love's company very much.  She's funny, cranky, cute, demanding, passionate and animated.  She's fun to have around and she gives really good hug and kisses.  Happy 3rd birthday to my darling.

Bee spent an afternoon locked in her room to make cards for Love !  She wants it to be a surprise.

The girls are obsessed with the new boy in the house.  They would wake up during his early morning feed (around 7am) and crawl in next to me, waiting for me to finish feeding him so they can hold him.  When I'm done with baby, their battle begins.  "He's not looking at me", He's not facing me", "I can't see his face", "He's smiling at me, not at you", "I hold him first", and they keep going back and forth like that and each time their voice and frustrion kick up a notch.  

This has been going on for a week now and my solution is to ask each girl to kiss baby then take him away for diaper change !  Whether he need it or not is beside the point.  I just need them to stop fighting over what side should the poor boy face.  They refuse to accept that he's just a baby !  despite me tirelessly explaining to them over and over again that he's still very young, he has little control of his head, he has no favourite and that he loves them both the same.  "Oooooh, he doesn't love me !  *hic*" the little one complained.  Arrggg !