The First of Many Birthday Celebrations

My babe turns one at the end of the month. I can't believe that it has been a whole year already! My husband's family came over to visit tonight to celebrate the little guy's birthday. I felt that since I was a mom now, I should make my son his first birthday cake. I can't remember that last time I make a cake from scratch! It is amazing the things I have done this past year as a mom - baking a cake is one of them. I am very daring in the kitchen; so I tried a new recipe from a Cooking Light cook book. It was called something like Ultimate Chocolate Cake. I topped it with a homemade Cream Cheese Frosting. I even colored some of the frosting to decorate the trim. That is about all I dared to do! If you read my previous jogging post, then you know that I stopped in at a local cake decorating store and bought Sesame Street characters to top the cake. I bought a single Elmo candle for the babe's cupcake. Well after presents, we put the babe in his high chair and gave him his cupcake. This is the baby who didn't even eat Cheerios until about a month ago. He picked up the cupcake and set it down. I think that he liked the Elmo candle :) I broke off some small pieces of cake for him to try, but not a bite! Maybe next weekend when we see my family he'll be more daring, but probably not! No cake for the babe tonight, but he did like his baseball set from his Auntie Becca and wagon and stuffed animal from his grandparents. Although the babe did not have any cake, the adults enjoyed it and the cream cheese frosting went well with the chocolate cake - not too sweet! Tomorrow the babe and I are going to a baby shower. We'll see how that goes!

Mama's on the Run

My new Bob jogging stroller was delivered yesterday. Today's task was to assemble it. Of course, the babe decided to help out! I got about half way done and it was nap time. So I put the babe down and finished putting the stroller together. I was going to add a completed photo, but forgot the camera when we went out for a jog. I had a destination in mind, Rite Aid. It is 1.5 miles away, a good starting distance for someone who hasn't jogged since 2002. I wanted to buy some of the large lawn and garden bags for raking the lawn tomorrow. We got to Rite Aid and they did not have the bags. I felt pretty good, so we continued another mile to the Aubuchon Hardware Store Downtown. On the way, I saw a cake decorating shop that I had never noticed before. The babe is turning one this month, so I bought some cute Sesame Street character toppers for his cake. We proceeded on to the hardware store. Luckily, they had just what we needed. I also bought myself a new pair of gardening gloves and some seeds for my flower garden. Unfortunately, I don't think that I inherited my mother's green thumb - but that doesn't keep me from trying! Now about 2.5 miles from home, I start our journey back. The nice part about shopping on the run is I had time to catch my breath in each store. I jogged most of the 2 mile return trip and walked the last half mile for a good cool down. Thankfully, I remembered to stretch before and after jogging, but this mama's still a bit sore in parts that I had forgotten I had! It was a beautiful day and with all of our stops, we were gone for about an hour and a half. I am so glad that I bought the jogging stroller. I look forward to many outdoor excursions with the little guy this summer!

Snoopy Quilt for the Babe

I stumbled across some Snoopy fabric that I fell in love with instantly. I decided to make a quilted blanket for my little guy. I thought that it would be nice to have a photo of him and the quilt together. I tried to get David to pose with the quilt, but once he saw the camera, he made a bee line in my direction! So, I decided to take a photo of just the quilt :) He LOVES the camera! To make the quilt, I took cotton snoopy fabric and blue minky and then quilted them together with a soft batting in the middle. I used a speckled turquoise fabric for the binding. The quilt's dimensions are 26"x30" I love it and it is just the right size to take outside in the stroller. I will be making one more like this for My Etsy Shop in the upcoming weeks.