More cars stuff...

More pictures from the party:

A couple of weeks back I made these  box-cars for the race.  

Cars sinage I found here via pinterest.com

I found the instructions for the Mater sandwiches here.  I used cheese slices and green apple for the sandwiches.  

Cars Birthday Cake

Here's the Cars birthday cake.  I made the bottom layer root beer cake and the top layer is vanilla white cake with a vanilla buttercream, so the end result was a root beer float cake!  I used this recipe for the root beer cake.  I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 13" x 9" x 3" pan for about 45 minutes.  For the white cake, I used this recipe, doubled and baked in the same size pan, again for about 45-50 minutes.  The "stands" were made with rice crispie treats covered in marshmallow fondant.  The cars on top were baked in this cakelette pan from Williams-Sonoma.  I only decorated Lightening McQueen and Mater, because the cakelettes were a bit more labor-intensive than I had hoped, but still cute anyway.  I had made marshmallow fondant for all the cakelette characters and perhaps I will be able to try to do them later this week.  Personally, I think the cakelettes taste just fine plain!  :)

All in all, a success!

MPM - 10/24/11

Menu Plan Monday - 10/24/11

I missed last week to post my menu.  It's been pretty busy around here.  LD's birthday later this week, party for him on Sunday and my parents are coming to visit.  I'm keeping this short and simple because I feel like I have a thousand things to do today including working out in anticipation of all the "celebrating" later in the week.  Oh, and Halloween is coming up too!  Oh, and Miss D has a school project that she needs baked goods every Wednesday.  So, "we" will be baking cookies, etc. every Tuesday until December for Mini-Real.  What else?  I know I must be forgetting something...oh, well.

Menu:

Monday:  Manicotti (frozen)  with sauteed spinach.

Tuesday:  Leftover  Spaghetti and Meatballs

Wednesday:  Grilled Chicken, salad

Thursday:  Out to Dinner

Friday - no clue,???

For more menu ideas, please visit MPM at orgjunkie.com

Cars...(i.e.Project Birthday)

 Saw this cute idea for a Cars Birthday party from How Does She? on pinterest.com.  So today's project was to finally paint the boxes that have been consuming my dining room table for the past week.  Anyway, I think they turned out pretty well.  I'm trying to hold back being too perfectionistic and critical.  The kids love them, and that's all that really matters, right?  So, what do you think? 

Googly Eyes...or Candy Dots, Part 2

Googly Eyes...or Candy Dots, Part 2

Using the same recipe as the candy dots I made back in June, I colored about a third of the batch black and left the remaining white.  I plan on using some for the "Cars" cakelettes I'm baking for LD's 3rd Birthday, but the rest I think will be for some Halloween treats (TBD). 

MPM- 10/10/11

Menu Plan Monday - 10/10/11


Gearing up for Sukkot this week, "we" (i.e. my husband) was very busy building a Sukkah in the backyard.  Here's a picture (three trips to Home Depot later) of the frame, a few lights, and  Miss D dancing underneath:

I trimmed a bunch of trees/bushes yesterday to drape on top, but now we just need some "walls".  I'm thinking a trip to Big Lots is in order for the day.  Unfortunately (and fortunately), rain is in the forecast.  We desperately need it.  We've had such a long dry spell now, but what timing, huh?  I'm hoping by the end of the week we can eat some dinners outside.  We'll just have to wait and see.  I will post progress pictures later.

Anyway, the menu plan (so far):

Monday - Breakfast for dinner:  buttermilk waffles and leftovers from our Breaking the Fast meal, fruit smoothies

Tuesday - Pasta with red sauce, garlic bread, salad

Wednesday - Chicken burgers, grilled sweet potato wedges, pumpkin apple butter pie.  I'm going to try to make it in a slab-pie fashion, rather than a traditional pie plate.

Thursday - Homemade pizza (maybe on the grill?)

Friday - Roasted Chicken, veggies, Challah

Looking for more meal ideas, please visit MPM at orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - 10/3/11

Menu Plan Monday - 10/3/11

October already? Need to start planning for LD's birthday at the end of the month. I hope to find time to prep some things, like the MMF and shortbread cookie dough. Years ago I read a recipe from Nigella Lawson where she described making "number" cut-out cookies for her childrens' birthday. I thought it was such a great idea, it's now OUR tradition for the kids' birthday to do "number" cookies for every birthday. (and yes, the "2" and the "5" look suspiciously similar.)

Monday - Turkey Burgers, oven roasted fries


Tuesday - Baked ravioli with spinach

Wednesday  - Shredded Beef Tacos with avocados

Thursday - Homemade Pizza

Friday - Tonkatsu Chicken (Mrs. Y's recipe), Challah, salad

Saturday (breaking the fast) - Bagels with lox, spinach frittata, cheesy grits casserole, fruit

For more recipe ideas, please visit MPM at orgjunkie.com