My little kitchen "helper"

My biggest weakness is sweets. Here is the yummy icing recipe I've been favoring lately...

4 sticks of butter, softened just a little bit

One of the big bags of powdered sugar...I think it's 2lbs

2tsp real vanilla...not the imitation kind!

one pinch of kosher salt

Start with 3Tablespoons WHOLE milk (very convenient if you have a baby around who drinks whole milk!)... you'll add as much as you need to get the consistency you want

You can half this recipe...just use a smaller pinch of salt. You can also add crushed oreos or butterfingers...yum! I just piped the icing with a big swirl using a big star tip on top of chocolate cupcakes (use the recipe from the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder box- delicious!) Oh they were so yummy. I wish I had a picture of them.... Look back at Stacy's shower, or William's party. For the big swirl I needed all of the icing, for regular cupcakes or a round cake you probably only need half. But it freezes well if you make too much FYI :-) Enjoy and then hit the gym!

My other new thing to make are mini peanut butter cups. Are you ready for the ease of this....

Wilton milk chocolates candy melts(2.49)

Wilton white chocolates candy melts (2.49)

Wilton plastic/ disposable icing bags...pretty cheap, don't try ziplocs...it doesn't work, I tried!

Peanut butter

Candy molds...I used Wilton (they are $1.99)

Put half the bag of chocolate candy melts in a disposable icing bag. Defrost in your microwave for a few minutes...maybe 2...just until they are soft. Cut the bottom off of the icing bag and pipe or squeeze into the molds...fill them 1/3 to 1/2 way. Malt the white chocolate candy melts just like the others, but in a bowl. When they are almost finished add a big spoon of PB and stir until it melts. Pour into an icing bag, snip the top and fill the molds the rest of the way. I tap mine on the counter to make them smooth. Cool on counter or in the fridge if you're impatient. Pop out of the molds and like WDP says, "Ta-da"...yum! If there's chocolate left in the bags you can squeeze it onto parchment paper, let it cool and then reuse it later. There are sooo many fun uses for candy melts! A coworker told me she eats this with a banana- tried it this morning and she's right- quite delicious.... again, hit the gym when finished!

oops...mommy has looked the other way for a minute....I'll show her how much fun I can have when she's making candy....

uh oh i just wanted to pretend like this was a cup

Gardening

We had amazing weather in TN this weekend- 73 was the high on Sunday...It was just a sneak peak of fall, it'll be 94 Thursday, but William LOVED it! He is becoming my little gardening buddy. Straight from the garden to his tummy....

Check out our cantaloupe!!!!

I have scrapped the idea of having him drink milk from a sippie and we are continuing on with the bottle for now. He won't take a bottle forever I have to keep telling myself! He is into juice boxes now...How cute, right?

Check him out trying to feed himself. Just when Chad and I start to think he's so smart he'll bring us back to reality and eat rocks when we take him outside :-)

Did anyone see my FB status Friday night? WDP was so sweet. When I was giving him his bottle before bed he reached under my arm and patted me on the back while he drank his bottle. I tell you, he is the sweetest baby!!!

Back Pack

So it is becoming apparent that William understands us...maybe not everything, but I'm guessing it's a lot. His new thing is to want to go "Bye-Bye"...or take a walk. He used to bring Chad his shoes and the other day he only brought one and so Chad said "Go get the other shoe" and he did.... Then Chad said, "Go get the backpack" and WDP will chant "packpack" as he walks over, picks up the backpack and drags it over to Chad. It's adorable!!!!!! He's also started throwing his hands up like "I don't know" if you ask him something he's clueless about like "What's the square root of 64?" I'll try to get a video of him doing "I don't know" this weekend...but for now it's the march of the "pack pack." Happy Weekend to you!

Ahh, the fair...maybe this is why I haven't posted in a while...well this and the fact school is back in session, sigh..... back to the fair. I thought I would do better, I mean, my stuff's cute, right? Only one lowly red ribbon for my strawberry jam. The last minute entry, the I didn't think that would win, but I'll just throw it in just 'cause. But a ribbon's a ribbon.Even if it is 2nd place..and $8!!!! Oh yeah, did I mention there's a cash prize? And lucky for someone I'm sending it to them! If you ever click on my blog links, click Twelve and then click his daughter's site...or just click here. She's raising money for a well. So sweet! So My $8 is going there...along with my pencil money from school. Oh yeah, that's right. Mrs. Perry is hard core this year. No more freebie pencils or pens. 25 cents a piece and I don't give change, so some pay $1. That's OK with me. It's high school, they should remember to bring a pencil.....

Katie, do you have chickens like this...I think these should be called "rockstar chickens"

Seriously, this got 2nd? I could've at least taken second place! Sorry, I'm being a spoiled sport, but it hurt my feelings to not win!

We closed out the summer o'parties this weekend hosting a Stock the Bar shower for my dear friend Stacy and her swettie pie Matt. It was quite nice and the best part...I decorated with glassware from the labs at school. We did a major rennovation so glassware came out of the woodworks- the old stuff is sooo much cooler that what we have today. But if I do say so myself I feel like the volumetric flasks were a nice touch on the table. She liked them too and that's all that matters, right?

These were by far my best cupcakes ever.... I need to post the icing recipe- de.lic.ious...I mean worth every calorie, yummy...I'll post it soon, promise!

My next post will be all about that sweetie pie baby who has oh, so many new tricks!

So I began cleaning closets this week...not really because I wanted to, but because I had misplaced all of my powerpoints and quizzes and class stuff...smart me decided to ONLY keep an electronic copy (I did find it in my glove box of all places) but back to cleaning, through cleaning I found more things we don't use anymore and decided to put them on ebay and pulled out William's old bouncy seat. He climbed right in and started hanging off the edges :-) Chad and I couldn't help but remember how tiny he had been in it...remember.....

He was soooo tiny!!!

The fair starts this week. I drop off my jam tomorrow. I've already taken my clothes and his little "William" banner. there were a ton of entries. Now I'm nervous. I like to enter when no one else does...then you can win. Kind of like the Weaverville Firecracker 5K- I'll never forget the year I won first place for my age group...as I'm walking up there to get my prize which I was so proud of the guy announced that there were no 2nd or3rd place entries. Oh well! a victory is still a victory for me :-) keep your fingers crossed for the fair!!!! I want the ribbon...and the $6 first prize check :-)

Here are a few other projects I've worked on...the green and white bubble is at the fair, the rest are already in the hands of their new owners. the sewing room is officially closing after I do 2 more projects for at least a month. I can't start school and want to sew all the time....so I'll clean it up and pack it up...at least until September. I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I start on Thursday....soooo sad!

Just a few more things.....

When we were in Atlanta the other weekend we were lucky enough to be in town for Maddie's pool party. Chad loves to take pictures like these.....

Maddie had the cutest cake...

When we were in Elberton I saw a swingset that I had to get a picture of...as in Chad had to stop, back up and pull over so I could get out and scope the place. Ohhh, I dream of a big wooden pirate ship for William. They had those. But even cooler than that.... a Monster Truck!!! What!!!!

Would that not be the best???? It cracked me up that they even had 4x4 in wooden letters on the front and actual tire tread on the huge tires.... I know we'll never be able to get this, so why don't you get one and invite us over for a playdate???? Here's the order info :-)

Have I mentioned WDP's love of boxes and slides? I think it's that he can get inside both of them... he can't get enough so we try to get him to the park as often as possible, or at least look for boxes for him :-)

I am gearing up for the Williamson County Fair. I want to be all 4H and stuff ...Chad won't let me raise a cow like some other cool blog people I know, but I do enter baked goods and sewing things. A few years back I won a blue ribbon for "my" pound cake ...well William Rutherford's grandmother's recipe :-) and a blue ribbon for a baby outfit. I'm hoping for at least one ribbon this year...and the $6 you win too!!!! I can't decide what outfits to enter. I'm making a bubble for Twelve's (remember him you YL folks???) daughter Tyler and will enter that and maybe the cupcake jonjon since Katie's tip on boiling H2O and stain stick worked! And maybe one other thing...what do you think? His ghost and pumpkin jonjon? The snowman jonjon? And then I'll enter my jam...but if you crush fruit is that jam or preserves? There are two different categories.... ahh, I love fair season, even if it means school is just around the corner, as in one week from tomorrow ! Booooooo

was he not the cutest??????

The party

Party pictures per several requests...although these are in no particular order.... I did try to group them...sorry this is a poor post, it's overwhelming to have sooo much go on and to try and capture it in a few pictures- we can't do either party justice..... Here goes:

The set up for Party #2 in Franklin: our backyard, my motto became"if it's plastic stick it in the yard" The kids had a good time...I think :-) i had pictures up everywhere and the adults got to play a quiz game "How well do you know WDP?" The questions were multiple choice and the prize was a bottle of Merlot or Raspberry Tea vodka...Congrats to Melanie and Aya!!!!

The food: Our friends Shawn and Vanessa brought over lots of yummy BBQ and potato salad. I made pasta salad, nutella cookies, veggies from the garden, hummus and pita chips, watermelon, and of course cupcakes :-) The cupcakes were supposed to have green stars around the edges but I ran out of time, I don't think anyone cared. I made white chocolate "candles" for everyone too! :-)Check out the bar in the pictures right above- Chad made it right when i moved to nashville- perfect for parties. We served wine, beer, and margaritas :-)

We had one "kid" game"Pin the Paci"- I printed a 12x18 picture at Costco...only $2.49!!!! and then went to Kinkos and they blew it up for me on the blueprint machine for less than $5- what a deal. We took a picture of the last remaining paci and cut it out, put poster putty on the back, add a blindfold and viola! Pin the paci! I think the kids liked it! One little sweetie gabe kept peeking, but then would "pin" the paci on WDP's hand...not exactly what I had planned, but still the right idea :-) Go Gabe thinking outside of the box!

Backyard fun: jenna tried to teach WDP how to high five, We had a cool bubble machine which was ahit, and again just lots of plastic things to play with..... yeah for big yards!

Lots of sandbox fun..... the kids were calling it the sand pit. Oh, you can't see it, but Chad built a cool "deck" on the other two sides of the box so you can get out and wash your feet off :-) i'll get a better picture for another post.

Party #1 in Elberton: Everyone was there, I mean everyone! His great aunts, his cousins, my dad and bets, my sister and her entourage, Chad's sister and her new hubby- lots of fun! Oh and a jumpy thing. His cousin just got a little tikes one for his b-day (lucky!) and he was sweet enough to blow it up for us to use- William loved it...and the baby pool too :-)

Hmmm, baby's first watermelon. Noone told me watermelon stained, I'm still trying to get those stains out to enter his outfit in the fair (yep, I'm weird like that, I LOVE county fairs! )

Ahh, the cake.... he had his own #1 (thank you ebay) which he promptly tore apart and rubbed everywhere...we just hosed him down in the sink afterwards.... he didn't really like the cake (not a big sweets guy) but loved the mess!

we said "no gifts" but collected books for a local free clinic- Mercy Clinic. They serve tons of uninsured kids in TN that don't have anywhere else to go...and every kid leaves the doctor's office with a book- How cool is that? We collected 52 books- awesome!!!! I hope each year we can help teach William the joy of giving and sharing by doing something like this.....

Three friends did go in and get William this incredible sand/water transportation table...he can not get enough of it. You put sand on one side, water on the other and there's a train, boats, and lots of other thingys to play with. he wants to sit in it when it's dry and splash everything when it has water in it- very cool!!! A huge thanks to Mel, Michelle, and Rachael!!!!

Ahh, lastly here's my pre-party helpers- William dumped all the plastic forks out while i was trying to roll the silverware and tie a cute bow on it.... boys!

This picture sums up the parties to me...a happy, happy boy on his first birthday!