Happy Birthday Alice!

It was Alice's first birthday party yesterday! Her birthday isn't until Tuesday, but we wanted to have her party on a weekend, and that was the last weekend in August. 

This was her invitation, which is a poor knock off of the beautiful invitations seen on this blog. 

Birthday Girl. I had that bow made at a local flower shop for $2.00

My mom hung balloons from the trees

The porch, all decked out for Alice's birthday

A rainbow of fruit tray and rainbow roses!

Kool-Aid Magic Punch. I made ice cubes out of every color of the rainbow and  let everyone choose their flavors. As the cubes melted, the flavor of the drink changed!

The whole food table. Under the towel are turkey sandwiches.

I dipped waffle bowls in pink tinted white chocolate and dipped them in rainbow nonpareils. Birthday Cake Oreo's got the same treatment but with  rainbow colored white chocolate. I also made Fruity Pebbles treats! My friend Lisa who helped set up came up with the idea of putting the pinwheels in the birthday hats.

I put mini-daisies in baby food jars decorated with rainbow ribbon. Unfortunately, I forgot to put water in them, so they shriveled up :(

Baby's breath and mini daisies by the table with the gift bags. We had crazy straws, rainbow crayons, stickers, rainbow notebooks, punch balloons and kazoos! 

I made a banner of faces, one for each month of Alice's life, plus the day she was born, and at her Daddy's request, her first ever face picture (marked "-1"). This banner would have been much more effective if her face had actually changed in 12 months! 

Alice's Number 1 cake. I had big plans for this cake involving every color of icing, that were happily abandoned when time got short. Also, it was so hot out that the homemade buttercream melted within 5 seconds of the piping bag being in my hand. Luckily, I had some nonpareils left over from the ice cream bowls that I used.

The inside of the big "1" cake. Was a little time intensive, but not hard to do.

Here is Alice's smash cake! I baked six thin cakes in a small square pan, and then I used the largest circle cookie cutter from the Wilton circle cookie cutter pack to make them round. I wanted everyone to see the colors, so I only iced between the layers. 

The whole set-up. I bought the high-chair from Craigslist for 10 dollars, then I made the banner out of felt, glue and ribbon. It was super easy (I freehand cut out the letters). Then we blew up balloons and tied them to the side, although we took them down before we put Allie in the chair because the wind was too crazy! I also hung tissue paper balls (that I made from a kit from Party City) from the climbing tree in the yard.

Alice wasn't sure what to do with the cake at first! We tried to light the candle, but it was too windy. Also, you can see better here the plate that her cake is on. The plate is Sesame Street and was mine as a kid (like I said, my Mom saves EVERYTHING!)  It has the alphabet around the edge in rainbow colors and was a perfect addition to the party (my mom's idea at the very last minute!)

Mommy had to help her smash the cake a little

So I'm SUPPOSED to use my hands?

Mmm! This tastes pretty good!

This is way easier! Alice ate her cake this way for the rest of the time! 

Cleanup after the cake

Alice loved opening her presents! She even squealed when she opened up clothes! Here she is on the couch that my Dad and Step-mom got her, meeting her Rody (a gift from her Great-Grandma)

It was a long, fun day!

Steak, Taters and Corn on the Cob

A few nights ago, I made dinner at my mom's house. We had marinated New York Strip steaks, mashed potatoes, grilled corn on the cob and Alice also had some sweet potato. As a bonus, she got to eat out of a really neat bowl that fills with warm water to keep the food warm and suctions to the table. Also, that bowl belonged to me when I was a baby! My mom really does save everything. 

Alice fed herself, with guidance to make sure she didn't pull out the corn skewers. It was hit or miss for a while with getting the corn on the cob to her mouth, but we eventually figured out that having only one skewer worked the best. It was a corn-sicle!

Corn-sicle not pictured.

I think we have a winner for Alice's favorite food! She is just nuts for corn on the cob! She really enjoyed her steak too, but mama had to cut it up a bit smaller than what was pictured and nuked it for a few seconds to get rid of some of the pink. The sweet potato was a hit as always, but she only ate a few of the rolled up mashed potato balls. And I don't blame her. We made the mashed taters out of a box...in the microwave. That used to be just fine when I didn't care what food tasted like because I doused it in salt and shoved it down my gullet, but now they are kind of gross.

Alice's Approval Rating

This girl is a serious carnivore! She inhaled her steak and was crazy about the corn on the cob. She was not so interested in the mashed potatoes, but the sweet potato did pretty well. She didn't eat all of it like she did the steak, but she went back a few times for sweet potato bites during steak breaks.

Daddy's Thoughts

Daddy likes his steak medium-well to well done because he wouldn't know a delicious medium-rare steak if it was sitting right in front of him...which it was! We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Once I threw his steak back on the grill, he really enjoyed it. He loved the marinade (a mix of Worcestershire, soy sauce, garlic, A1 steakhouse marinade and Italian dressing) so I think I will do that again. Even if I do have to waste it on a well done piece of boot leather...er...steak.

How did I do?

Well, I know that corn and potatoes are not the healthiest of vegetables (and I should know, if you add green beans to that list you will have a list of the only veggies I ate while growing up), but I am pretty happy with this. I put a little butter on her corn, but no salt. Also, I'm happy with the amount of protein she got.  Overall, this is just going to have to be one of those family dinners that don't count for too much as far as healthy food goes, but make for a nice time with family.

Mama's Birthday!

The 16th was my 25th birthday, and what a difference a year makes! 

I weigh exactly 75 pounds less in the picture on the right, but who knew I would have a 50 pound baby in there! Just kidding, of course. My weight was out of control and there's no blaming that on Alice! I gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy, and only 7 pounds 11 ounces of that was sweet little girl. 

Anyways, we ate at Finley's for both birthdays, taking advantage of their free birthday meal. Here is what I ordered for both birthdays.

WOAH BABY!  That is a chicken breast, 4 shrimp, steak kebab and a baked sweet potato. Not pictured is the french onion soup and bread. Last year I put most of that away, and was only stopped by the baby pushing up on my stomach. I probably would have eaten more if I could have! This year, I had a different goal in mind when I ordered this meal...

LEFTOVERS! Man, I love leftovers, they make a perfect lunch for the next day (or two!) ID was really looking forward to having that chicken breast and potato and steak leftover for lunch the next day. On top of that, Daddy ordered steak and ribs, and had 100% of his steak leftover for the next day (because Daddy notoriously hates leftovers of any kind). Unfortunately, we forgot our doggie boxes in the car, so no leftovers for mama!

Daddy's dinner...also lost to staying the night in the car.

As for Alice, she ate a little bit off of Mama and Daddy's plates, mostly sweet potato (no toppings) and bits of bread and a little bit of the middle of Mama's chicken. She made up for it later by nursing to her little heart's content.

The next day we went to the county fair and had a wonderful time! Alice was TERRIFIED of the "Roaster" chickens. She screamed and screamed until we rushed her out of there. Can't say I blame her, they were molting and scary looking (and stinky and loud!) The best part of the fair, for me, is the roasted corn on the cob, and I didn't get any last year so I had been looking forward to it. 

Alice really liked it too!

Alice's Approval Rating

If Alice could talk, I'm sure she would say "that was pretty good Mama, but where's my portion and why didn't I get to feed myself? And what was with that sour yellow thing that you let me bite on?!?"

How did I do?

Terrible!! But that's okay! It's good to have a little celebration once in a while, as long as you don't overdo it and can get back on a healthier track again after it's done. I don't want Alice to be afraid of food, especially on holidays, but to be able to enjoy eating in moderation. On a positive note, I personally didn't gain any weight from those two days, and even lost a half pound! And Alice is FINALLY over 20 pounds, having been stuck at 19 pounds since April (her doctor is not worried since she has been gaining height like crazy!) and I will be moving her into her 12 month clothes later tonight!

All in all, a nice birthday. My mom was even thoughtful enough to bake me a low-sugar orange cake with applesauce in place of the oil. It was so yummy and I am inspired to do the same for Alice's first birthday party (which is in a week! Yikes!)

Turkey Meatloaf and Veggies

Today, I made a nice sit down dinner and we ate at the table as a family for the first time in a long time. I can't even remember the last time we ate at the table, but I can tell you for sure that it was before Alice was born. I made individual turkey meatloaf's in a muffin pan, cinnamon carrots, peas and red potatoes. Alice had a half meatloaf and a little bit of each veggie. She also had a bit of pumped breastmilk. I just landed a new job for the first time since I had Alice, so I am a bit new to pumping, thus the tiny amount. 

Besides being the first time we ate at the table as a family, it was also really the first time that we let Alice go wild with feeding herself. Normally, we would have given her a few bits to choose from, but today we let her have access to her whole plate! She did wonderfully! I was so proud. A bit ended up on the ground (a mix of missing her mouth and deliberately trying to feed the doggies). For the most part though she would pick up a pea in her fingers and pop it in her mouth then pick up a piece of meatloaf and in the mouth it went! All in all a relatively mess-free event.

Daddy was super hungry tonight after only having 450 calories to eat for the whole day, thus the big plate! I ate about half of this. I put our potatoes in the stand mixer to mash them, but I left Alice's cubed to make them easier for her to eat on her own.

Alice's Approval Rating

For the most part, Alice really liked her dinner. She ate the peas and carrots happily and loved her turkey meatloaf. However was is not so into the red potatoes. She only ate them if I offered them to her, but ignored them (or tried giving them to the pups!) otherwise.

Daddy's Thoughts

Not too bad. It's pretty hard to get an opinion out of him, but I was told that the meatloaf could use less shallots next time, and that my mashed potatoes just can't live up to his mom's :) Besides that (and the salty carrots...see below) he enjoyed it and cleaned his plate.

How did I do?

I am happy that I made a nice meal from scratch and served my daughter a lean protein and lots of veggies. But I was not so happy with the amount of salt I used. I used kosher salt in the water that I cooked the veggies in, and I used too much! I love salt, but too much is not good, especially for the little one! I may buy a steamer basket and explore steaming the veggies next time. The peas were steamed in the microwave and were not salted at all. With less salt, I would make this again.