Ava's First Birthday Party!

After weeks of planning and collecting all the ideas from Pinterest and hunting out the actual supplies and decor items on the web, everything came together perfectly for Ava's first birthday party. I knew I wanted something soft and pretty for her, a cute little brunch. Originally the plan was the make majority of the items which I also found from Pinterest, but as I got closer to the party date, I had to improvise and search for items that didn't require too much work but would fit into her brunch. 

Store bought lemon curd from Trader Joe's and fig jam from the local supermarket went perfectly with simple scones I made that morning.

Tossed the berries in a little bit of sugar, except the strawberries

Decided to get prints of photos of Ava since birth to put as the background.

 Anything with a vintage and french flair I found through the website Save-On-Craft. The website has every kind of supplies you would need to decorate a wedding, baby shower, birthday, and/or any occasion. The mini milk bottles I got was much cheaper than other places I've seen. The paper straws was ordered from Etsy.com through a store that allowed you to select the styles you wanted for a set price.

The mini bottles were a hit with the different style paper straws

 Originally from my previous post, I did a test run on the pink ombre cake that I originally was going to make for her birthday, however due to time restraints, I ended up purchasing a cake from my favorite dessert restaurant in San Diego called Extraordinary Desserts. I got Ava the Shangri-La which is AMAZINGLY delicious. The cake contains white chocolate mousse, guava mousse, fresh strawberries and whipped cream are layered between vanilla cakes moistened with kirsch. I also love how the outside has off white and pink!

I ordered washi tapes from Etsy.com and made a little banner to put on her cake.

Costco mixed cookies in a jar!

Here is the final set up with the drinks in as well! I love it! Majority of the food I found at Costco, and surprisingly Trader Joe's carry a lot of miniature sized appetizers!

I was able to also make the pressed Italian sandwiches from the previous night using torta buns, salami, provolone cheese, pesto, and mayo all from Costco. The morning of the party, I cut each torta to make three small mini sandwiches and I wrapped it with parchment paper and pink/white baker's twine. Also since the food theme was more of a brunch, I decided to make a quick potato hash that I sauteed with onions, green bell peppers, and salt/pepper. I put a little in the mini cupcake liners I found at Michaels.

The two kinds of meatballs were also found at Costco that my friend sauteed and warmed up the morning of the party.  To cut time, I bought raspberry lemonade and guava juice I found at the market for refreshment.

The hardest item to find for her party was the cake stand. I saw so many beautiful white cake stands but with them costing $40+ just for one , it would of been extremely expensive to have multiple. I eventually came across this beautiful teal/blue 3 tier cake stand from Kohl's!! It was already on sale, plus an additional 30% off and free shipping, it was too good to pass up. In the end it gave the brunch table a nice pop of color and I was able to coordinate that to the strings for the balloons.

The strings attached to the ballons are just strips of plastic table clothes I found at PartyCity. This idea I also found on Pinterest!

Birthday girl enjoying her cake.

Ava playing with friends :)

Overall it was a perfect first birthday party for Ava, the party I had envisioned with the help of Pinterest came through and everyone had a wonderful time. Food was great and all the kids had a lot of fun. Now with two kids, I will have to start earlier planning for each of them since every birthday is special. Pin It Now!

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It's a Happy Halloweenie with lots of candies!

Finally Ava's first Halloween! Having Halloween definitely made things a bit hectic this year. I had to bring a potluck item to work and also a potluck item to a neighborhood Halloween Party. I found some great ideas on Pinterest and decided on the chocolate covered pretzel rods. Simple enough right? Dark chocolate was easy but the white chocolate was a little harder to work with. So here's the end result, was a total hit at the neighborhood Halloween party for the kids!

Eye catching sprinkles and ghosts!

Someone brought these wormies! I have to find out how to make these!!

For Ava's first Halloween I knew I wanted her to be Snow White. I've been lugging around these 7 dwarf plush from Japan for probably 15 years!! Joseph's costume was....well easy enough. I had to just get him a t-shirt for his Minecraft Steve character.

My Snow White Princess!

There is my Minecraft Steve and Ava in her Radioflyer carriage!

Joseph as Minecraft Steve

Part of any baby's first holiday, it's a must to get those fleece suits. So since we had some time before the actual trick or treating started, we put her in the outfit for some photos! Her little pumpkin top headband I found in the dollar bin at Target. Best place to find cute and cool knick-knack stuff.

It was definitely a great Halloween. Joseph's first with his baby sister and Ava's very first! Can't wait to start brainstorming for next year :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!

"PRINCESS AVA COMING THROUGH!"

Living the life in her carriage with her entourage!!

We even had baby T come visit!

Little Chef! Super cute!!

Angry Bird pumpkin!

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Breakfast: Egg White Spinach Soyrizo Panini

Macho looking=YES? Macho bad ingredients=NO!

Not that everyone has soyrizo sitting in their refrigerator all the time, I decided to finally take it out of the fridge and do something with it. Soyrizo is basically tofu with more spices than you can count put into a link of sausage but meatless. TASTE JUST LIKE CHORIZO! (With less grease of course). So I thought let's just do a good ol' breakfast panini. Simple to make and easy to eat. This panini is easy to fool the veggie haters.

One for me, one for mom.

All you need in this macho looking panini is just FIVE ingredients:

Sliced sourdough bread
Baby Spinach (sauteed in pan with a little salt)
Soyrizo (sauteed out of casing)
Scrambled egg whites (I used about 5)
Shredded mexican four cheese

Put in any order you like preferably with the cheese next to the sourdough. Put in panini press and it's done in no time. I did brush the outer parts of the sourdough with olive oil so it would be nice grill marks.

For those with weak teeth, regular texas toast would work..grilled cheese maybe?

Crunch, crunch, crunch..

The soyrizo is pretty spicy just like regular chorizo. By using egg whites and sauteed baby spinach, it helps neutralize the spices. You can do any combination by either adding more egg whites to the soyrizo, or more spinach to the panini, or more soyrizo and less of everything else. In the end it's a great breakfast panini to perk you up! I think if I did a blind test, most people would say there's egg yolks and meat in this sandwich!

This one came out with the nice grill marks.

I actually meant to add avocado to the panini to help with the strong flavor of the soyrizo. But I totally forgot so that ended up in a smoothie my mom and I concocted. I will just use the extra avocados and left over soyrizo egg white scramble and work it into a nice burrito tomorrow. :) Until then, enjoy!

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Pinterest Mondays

Here are the stuff I'm adding to my dinner recipe list. It's not that I'm lazy to make dinner (well MAYBE sometimes), but it's usually my problem of wanting something else by the time dinner rolls around. The following pictures of food not only looks mouthwatering, but seems quick enough to make for a week night dinner. Enjoy!

Source: blogcritics.org via Robin on Pinterest

Source: healthy-delicious.com via Robin on Pinterest

Source: spoonfulblog.com via maria on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Sandie on Pinterest

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Paris map framing comparison

Take a look at photo 1 and photo 2 below. Which do you think cost more? Please disregard the photo quality in terms of choosing your answer.

Photo 1

Photo 2

If you said photo 1 probably cost more, well, I hate to tell you but it is not!!! I got this print back in March when I was shopping for thank you cards at Paper Source and saw this with all the pretty and pricey wrapping papers. I just had to have it (and it was only $3.95!!) I didn't immediately think "oh I would love to use this to wrap a present with!" Instead I was thinking "OMG OMG OMG I want this framed in Ava's room!!" So I started looking for frames for it. Come to find out, I would need a frame that was pretty much 20"x28", so nothing I would be able to just walk in and buy. I went to Michael's the other day and asked about custom framing. I was told it's not a cheap thing...well..the nice saleslady quoted $180!!! Without any matting!! AND that's for the cheapest frame!! Um no thank you I will just thumb tack this to her wall instead. The only reason I didn't jump on the quote (and I even had a 70% off coupon that day) was because I found this same picture in a frame from The Land of Nod for $99. So I knew I wasn't going to pay more than that.

Discouraged I did a search and found a result that IKEA had such a frame. Really?? Why didn't I come across this sooner?? I checked it out and literally my jaws dropped open...$19.99 and with mat included!!! OH-MY-HAPPY-GOODNESS! This frame is part of their RIBBA collection. I know, I know, IKEA's quality are not top notch, but $180 vs $19.99..gee I'd be dumb to pay a gazillion times more for a frame for the Paris Map..excuse me, "wrapping paper" that cost me a whole whopping $3.95.

So yes, Photo 1 is the Paris Map I framed in the RIBBA frame, whereas Photo 2 is The Land of Nod one. It's pretty amazing how you can easily find things you like from upscale stores for wholesale prices elsewhere. It takes a little searching, but once you find the company or the name of the product, it is not that hard. In the end, I only burned about $30 vs $180+who+knows+what+else, so I would consider myself a TRUE WINNER! Pin It Now!

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Family who eats together stays together...

You might wonder where do I even get the time to write a posting day after day considering I work a 40 hour week at a desk job, have two kids, afterschool stuff, and etc?? First of all, everything is restricted at work, ESPECIALLY blogs, food blogs!! So my typical workday is drop Joseph off at school (My godsent mom watches Ava for me), then I go to work, come home from work with Joseph (with exception of Tuesdays and Thursdays I take Joseph to Taekwondo practice), try to come up with something for dinner, eat dinner, then bath/bed routine for Joseph, and somewhere in between I nurse Ava, I or husband will put Joseph to bed (over and over and over until he falls asleep). Then Ava goes to bed, then FINALLY I can get on the computer OR wait until husband is done then FINALLY FINALLY I can use the computer! I'll admit, it is pretty hectic but it's not really that difficult once you get the hang of it. Obviously having mom help out is 1000x more helpful but she deserves her break once I get home.

Just what the doctor ordered for the working mom! Or any mom! "Dinner A Love Story" Blog

I recently came across a blog that discusses the importance of having dinner together as a family. Joseph has always sat at the dinner table with me for each meal (ok, not really EVERY meal, sometimes not breakfast but dinners for sure). But ever since having Ava, I've definitely been slacking in delicious dinner category. So the blog "Dinner A Love Story" is a great inspiration to help me organize and learn how to organize the little time I have to make delicious dinner for my family while still holding on to the importance of having dinner as a family. In my Forks and Kisses world, I want to make it more enjoyable, more refined, and slow it down so everyone can cherish these times we have together to discuss day to day stuff, accomplishments, school stuff, or just chit chat.

I did not buy the book yet, but is available at Amazon. Since I figured alot of the recipes and ideas are all written nicely in her blog I'll try that route first. In her book it goes into more detail about the planning process and some other stuff I have no clue about because I don't own the book yet haha. So once I purchase her book I can do a more thorough review. For now, the recipes look easy and delicious since they are those "tried and true" recipes, so I'm excited to try it. Check out her blog and stay tuned for hopefully delicious dinners serving up at Forks and Kisses!!! Pin It Now!

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Pinterest Mondays

Ava just turned 6 months last Thursday and I've been plotting out ideas for her 6 months photoshoot. My photographer suggest I should wait until she can fully sit up in order to get better pictures. I think that's a great idea because that will give me more time to buy more outfits! Lately I've been searching far and wide for ideas and outfits. Pinterest is the ultimate ideas website!! Unfortunately you have to get an invite to join!? I got mine through my cousin. Nudge at me if you need an invite! Here are some Pinterest photos I'm loving for Ava:

Source: amywenzel.com via Vivien on Pinterest

Source: freakingcutebabies.tumblr.com via Vivien on Pinterest

Source: jinkyart.com.au via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: martalocklear.com via Vivien on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Leanna on Pinterest

This last one I already got off Etsy and I swear it is THE MOST CUTEST THING EVER! I wish I knew about photographing baby's milestone for my first one. But I think I took enough photographs to make up for it. Pin It Now!

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