The 3rd Birthday Party Invites & Mini Apple Pie Galettes

 

Over a year of being infatuatied with horses certainly made the Horse Party Theme a must for her 3rd birthday.  

As I was making these I kept thinking to grab my camera, but since they were labor intensive and took me what seems to be forever to make..I didn't stop to take pics as I was on a deadline!  I did gather the tools I used and took a photo after the invites were completed. 

That cutting board has served me well for the years I have owned it...one of my favorite things :)  All the paper I had on hand (red tri-fold I bought quite sometime ago thinking I could use them for Christmas cards).  The clipart came via google search.

Also have to share this FABULOUS Apple pie recipe I made yesterday...

Mini Apple Pie Galettes

Gather:

Pie crust dough for 2 open 9 in. pie (dough will make four galettes-cut recipe in half for 2)

5-6 apples-cored, peeled, and cut into thin slices

1/2 cup brown sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. flour

Egg wash (mix one egg with about 1 tbl. water)

Sugar, for dusting

Make:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 Divide dough into four balls. Roll out into four circles on a floured surface.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and place two dough circles on sheet.

In a large bowl mix apples, b. sugar, salt, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice.

Heap a pile of apples in the center of each dough round and fold the edges up and over.

Brush dough with egg wash and dust generously with sugar.

Cut a small piece of foil and "tent" it over the apples (this will help them cook through).

Pop 'em in the oven for 25 min, then lower temp. to 350 and cook another 30 min.

Take off foil and bake for another 10 min. or until brown on top.

I used Red Delicious …as that is what we always have on hand and they were scrumptious.

 Here is my pie crust recipe that I swear by:

Pate Brise (makes 1 double crust or 2 single 9-10 inch pie crusts)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water 

Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. 

Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.

With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube.  

Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky...

don't process more than 30 seconds.  

To test, squeeze a small amount together: 

 If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time

Divide dough into two equal balls.  Flatten each ball into a disk, and wrap in plastic.

Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.  

Can store frozen up to 1 month.

More Birthday Posts coming soon!

Bed Head and Circle Art

Definitely her mother's daughter.

Saw this at Playful Learning via Pinterest.  As she is a prolific painter, I grabbed a few of the repetitive paintings and a large circle punch and let her go at it.  She had to punch on the floor to get the leverage.  (Please forgive the lighting in the pics ... poor lighting in the play room Alaska mornings :)

Viola... very classy cards, prints...lots of ideas. 

Valentine's Day

I would have posted earlier, but there was a nasty bug that found Amelia and decided to make her miserable for a couple days.  She is better this morning and managed to get thru the night without an episode of laundry.  Funny, I experienced many episodes of illness with my nieces and nephews while they were growing up...many that we still talk about!  But, it was never for more than a few hours or a sleepover and their mom arrived and took over...this was quite more extensive and by far the the worst sickness for Amelia thus far.

Besides Amelia getting sick during our dinner of steak, scalloped potatoes, and salad...we had a wonderful Valentines!

From the wonderful man in our lives...

I got flowers and Amelia got ...

T.E. (pronounced Tea) 

It is E.T., from the movie she was afraid of and never wants to watch again...but secretly does I think!  We spelled it backwards as there is an uncanny resemblance :)  She loves it.

And from both mom and dad, she got a whole bucket of goodies.

She also received "The Best Thing about Valentines" book by Mary Melcher.  My mom always used to give me cards done by her for all the holidays and I even have a calendar that I have kept as I loved her artwork.  When I found she had an Etsy site I was so excited and bought a few little valentines ...will give one every year to Amelia ...they are that cute.  She also has a website that I am sure to frequent.   We now have all of her books minus one that is on her birthday list :)  

Will be doing a post on some of our favorite books shortly.  I think Amelia will be an avid reader as each night I will say "one more book and then bed" (this is after reading several) and she says "two" and holds up two fingers.  Two it is ... books I cannot resist.   My sister can attest to that as I left my mother sitting in the mall for hours while I was "browsing" in the bookstore.

We had dance class on Valentine's morning, even though she was not 100%.  She received her first Valentine from a boy!  Her teachers too :)  

The day before Valentine's Day she asked for her bike...Spring fever it seems. 

Oh and Rob loved all his extra special gifts Amelia and I gave him and he was quite pleased that I made him his absolute favorite dessert for dinner (that he didn't have until the next morning due to the sick crisis):

Pecan Pie! You can only eat one piece and then go into richness coma for a bit :)  Another funny story:  For Thanksgiving Rob wanted me to make this for him.  I had all good intentions until I priced the pecans the day before ... the pie would have cost me $20!  I opted for Pumpkin and assured him it was more appropriate for Thanksgiving.  Our friends brought a Pecan pie ... he was happy, but he does love my pies!  His mom sent a bag a pecans upon hearing the story hahahhaa.  Guess now I had no options hahahahah.  Seriously...I really wanted a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!

Coming up: The birthday preparations ... begin.

Valentine's Day Prep

I have been wanting to post a few Valentine's Day decorating pics...but with all the Christmas catch up, it has taken me this long :)  At least I made it before Valentine's Day!

I would have liked to do more crafts as I had a ton in my head to do, but was diligently working on her 3rd birthday invites that seemed to take forever!  (more on that later)

One thing Amelia loves to do is put up decorations...then take them down...then put them up again.  The gel window kind are the best.  Our snowmen family are looking a bit sad in the this pic.  Kind of reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes snowmen if any of you are fans :)  Will have a post on our snowmen shortly as well.

We made a paper garland to go with our dancing snowflakes...

super fun for kids foam hearts...

a card of hearts garland that a certain princess liked to touch...

a had a couple of purchased items too :)

The very happiest Valentine's Day to everyone!

Our Christmas

We arrived home to find our Christmas cookies and milk gone, our magic key returned with a note from Santa!  WOW!

She got to play with her new unicorn that Santa had left when we arrived home and the following morning we rose early and opened presents!  First her stocking filled by Santa :)

I do remember last year she was just too exhausted to finish opening all the presents at home, but this year she was much more attentive.

The dollhouse made it safe and sound in our luggage!

'

Dad had a lot of work to do.

It's official...Christmas is over.  Amelia was quite sad on hearing that, but I assured her Valentine's Day and her birthday are lots of fun too!

Here are a few pics of our trip home on the plane and sleeping at the airport in Seattle.  She is quite the traveller.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Back to real time reality with the next post.

The Burnet Park Zoo (Rosamond Gifford Zoo)

It will always be called "The Burnet Park Zoo" to me.

Quite a few years ago the zoo did a huge transformation and renamed my childhood stomping grounds...oh well. It was for the better, but the name will always be the same for me. 

Since Amelia and I love zoos (we are members of the Alaska Zoo), we always do a trip to when we visit back East.

I love to go in winter too. 

The Burnet Park Zoo is bigger than the AK zoo with walkways and bridges and many indoor exhibits but the best thing is...their tigers are relatives of the ones in AK!  A couple years ago, the AK Zoo acquired 2 brother Siberian Tigers from Syracuse, so we make sure to say HI to their mom and dad, brothers, sisters and cousins when we visit :)  

There was a melt down in the bird building.

We also had some fun with cousin Livvy and more fun outside later in the week.  

Next:  The last Christmas post :)

The M.O.S.T

The Most Museum is a favorite stop for Amelia and I.  Once again, my sister Donna joined.  

The museum  usually has a revolving exhibit and this time it was "The Mammoth" that Amelia was not too fond of...they were a bit creepy :)  They were all motorized and some pretty life like!   

She warmed up once we got to the regular exhibits...
like rock climbing...

and sand tunnels...

amongst other things...

Lots of fun was had.

Next:  The Burnet Park Zoo