chicken soup for the soul

It has been very cold in Connecticut. I wish that if it was going to be cold we could at least have some more snow to show for it! Of course, with winter and freezing temperatures come stuffy noses and sore throats. I have been laying low and drinking lots of tea and am already feeling much better. My sweet friends have taken such good care of me. One took my littlest for play date and returned him with a delicious quiche for our dinner! Another friend made me some delicious chicken tortellini soup! It was like a hug in a mug. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends.
Whenever I am out shopping in January and February and see all of the beautiful Spring flowers for sale, I simply cannot resist them. A vase of white tulips reaching in different directions for the sun does wonders for my soul.

Even though there isn't any snow in the forecast, I managed to make it snow in the kitchen with some snowflake cookies for the teacher's luncheon tomorrow. I love making sugar cookies and often make them a week in advance and then freeze them. I take them out the day before and frost them. This was especially helpful this week considering I am not feeling 100%. I love frosting cookies, I find it extremely therapeutic.

So, I hope that wherever you are reading this from that your days are filled with people (and flowers) that warm your soul.

that's a wrap

 A fun gift for a friend who celebrates a winter birthday is to fill a mug with some cozy gloves and a hat! I placed the mittens/hat in the mug and wrapped it a in some cellophane and attached some fun ribbon and a craft paper tag. We got some snow here in Ct. last night! The kids had an early dismissal yesterday and a two hour delay this morning. I love when it snows. Hope you all have a cozy day.

a third brrrr-thday

On Saturday my son celebrated his third birthday! Since we didn't have any snow to have a sledding party which I had originally planned, we invited everyone over for a snow themed party at the house. We started the morning as a family with some snowman pancakes and presents!

We invited a few 2-3 year old friends over for some hot cocoa, snacks and crafts. I set up a table in the living room for the children to eat at. I turned some milk bottle into snowmen wearing felt scarves and black buttons. I glued a snowman gift tag onto a clear straw and added a snowflake sticker to his hat. The kids loved them! The favors were placed in a wooden sled behind the table and a silver tree branch held snowflake frames with the quote "If snowflakes were kisses I'd send you a blizzard.".

 

 

 

 

I served all of the food in the dining room so I kept it to a fun b&w color scheme. We had a hot cocoa bar with lots of toppings to choose from. The hot cocoa was in the crockpot and was easy to throw together the morning of the party. I also served popcorn, pretzels, baby carrots, s'mores on a stick, powdered donuts and cupcakes!

 

 

As is my style, I had five activities set up around the house and let the children pick what they wanted to go to. It was very informal. I offered snowflake cookie decorating and candy sled assembling, snow finger painting, snowflake coloring and white glittered play doh. We also played "pin the part" on the snowman. I tied a scarf around the children's eyes so they couldn't peak.

 

 

 

The favors were packs of hot cocoa and marshmallows and pairs of fleece slippers! I made heart candy canes (by melting two small candy together and very low temperature) and attached them to the outside of each package with twine.

On Saturday night the children made snowman shaped pizzas and enjoyed snow cones for dessert!

I know everyone says this, but I can't believe my baby is three! It was a wonderful celebration of the special little man he is.  Hopefully everyone else had a fabulous weekend filled with lots of reasons to celebrate with all of the ones you love.

birthday prep

As I mentioned last week my baby is turning three on Saturday!! I was really hoping to have a sledding party with hot cocoa served tailgate style, but alas our snow has all melted. So instead we are going to have a bunch of 2-3 year olds doing some fun snow themed activities here at the house. I made some snowflake shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate at the party. I figure if it isn't going to snow outside I might as well make it snow inside.  Check out my son's first winter "one"derland party and his second puppy paw-ty and come back next week to see all the details from this winter themed party.