EJ loves to climb and has no fear. Fortunately that combination only meant an occasional scrape or bump her first two years of life. That was until recently.

We were getting the car loaded up for DaddyO to go on his first mini cruise with his new job and EJ was climbing around the backseat as we were getting ready to go. She moved quicker than we expected from the side of the car with the door closed to the side with the door opened and fell out head first before we could catch her.

This meant a trip to the ER. EJ has always enjoyed going to the doctors office, she likes the friendly staff and neat "toys" they show her, and fortunately this trip was no different. She was an angel, bruised face and all, as the doctors examined her. The fact that she got to wear a yellow bracelet made it even better for her.

Fortunately no bones were broken in her face and the worst she had to deal with was some swelling and soreness.
It is truly amazing how resilient little ones are, fearfully and wonderfully made! I'm very thankful for her safety and will be even more careful with her climbing after this.

I had fun making this outfit for EJ's Pooh themed birthday party. With a little Pooh fabric applique on the shirt, some honey bee material and ribbon (and this pattern) for the skirt, and ribbon and felt for the Pooh ears, her outfit was complete. She was my tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff.

EJ's favorite movie Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was the inspiration for her second birthday party at Avias. I offered to make the cake and was thrilled to find a honeybee cupcake cake in What's New, Cupcake. I thought my first attempt turned out pretty well!

If was fun to make and quite easy once I figured out how to make the hexagon cookie cutters... ended up bending and taping a piece of roof flashing (only 58 cents).

EJ helped me bake the cupcakes and cookies.

I used this recipe for the sugar cookie. And did a stained glass affect in the center of the cookies instead of honey using these directions. Crushed butterscotch hard candy made a delicious center.

Once the cookies had finished baking and cooled, I brushed them with boiled corn syrup and dipped them in yellow sugar. This is a technique I will use again in the future to sugar cookies. It dries nicely and keeps the sugar from being too crunchy on top of the cookie.

I would usually mix my own cake recipe, but due to the fact that we are in transit living with relatives, I thought this would be a good time to use a box mix. EJ was excited to pick out her cake box... funfetti of course:) That was used for the cupcakes and this was the recipe for the frosting.

I was able to prepare the pieces of the cake (cupcake, cookies) the day before, and then easily assemble the cake the day of her party. I frosted the cupcakes and laid them out in a beehive shape, placed a cookie on top of each and then all I had left to do was put on the bees.

Each is simply a black jelly bean (larger size bought in the bulk candy section) decorated with yellow and black royal icing and two slivered almonds. I used a half recipe for the royal icing, colored it and then used ziplock bags with the corner snipped off to decorate them.

EJ's reaction to the cake when it was all done made it worth every moment spent baking and decorating.


She especially liked the bees!

Grandma let her open a few presents early so she could be in full princess attire (dress, shoes, crown and purse) for her royal lunch.

Grandma made a special princess cake for EJ that was similar to one I had as a child.

I don't think EJ realized it was a cake until she had blown out the candles and Grandma started cutting into it:)




Each month/year has progressively become my favorite age. We are enjoying everything that comes with being two. She is independent yet loves her cuddle time. Keeps us smiling with the things she says and on our toes with the things she thinks up. She knows how to push our buttons but is just as versed at diffusing them.

Our nephew celebrated his 6th birthday at the bowling lanes and we had a blast bowling with him. EJ got to wear her first pair of bowling shoes and even threw a spare.

Since EJ had her first ice skating experience a few days ago, we thought snowboarding was the next logical winter experience she should have.

We headed up to Blue Mountain with Grandma, and my brother and his family to meet up with my semi-pro snowboarding brother and gave the little ones a taste of hitting the slope. It had been over a year since EJ had last seen snow so we were excited to get her on the white stuff. She quickly warmed up to it:)

January is full of birthday celebrations on my mom's side of the family. Since I have recently started making my own cards at home I thought it would be fun to create a special birthday card for my grandma. She loves flowers and I love to sew, so I combined both of our loves into this card.

Simply copy the png below and adjust it to the size card you would like (this is designed for the 4.375" x 5.75" value pack cards). Print off the card, find four colorful buttons, sew them onto the stems and viola, a thoughtful little card ready to send to your special birthday someone.