Happy 1st Birthday Lilly Anna!

September 15th was Miss Lilly Anna Banana's very 1st birthday! We celebrated w/presents and a special cake that I made for her! She was so darn cute! She wanted absolutely nothing to do with opening her presents! When Bella turned one she was more interested in ripping off the wrapping and then playing with that, but not Lilly! When we tried to show her that she could rip the paper all she wanted and that there was a goodie inside, she gave us this look like, "That's nice parents, glad you are so excited about that, but I think I'd rather play over here." She just would give us this look and then walk over to her favorite old toys and play! Haha! Once Bella took all the wrapping off for her and she saw all of the fun stuff she got, she was much more interested!

Bella would push the buttons on her toys for her to show her what they did, and then Lilly would clap and say Yay! Uh, I love my girls!!!!!!!

The cake was by far her favorite part of her birthday! I set her up with a big piece of cake. She just took little bites and then would nod in approval! So funny! She was sooo happy! I did my best to get some pics of the birthday girl but every time I pulled the camera out to take a pic she would turn her head away! She thought it was hilarious!!!

I cannot believe that my little baby girl is already 1! She is walkin' and talkin' up a storm! She even runs a little! At her one year appointment the doc said that she was pretty advanced for her age. So I guess we are doing something right! LOL! She gets funnier everyday! Words cannot even describe how much we love this little monkey!!!! Her big sis is her best friend! They are our little comedians and keep us laughing all day long!

Lilly has changed so much over the past year! We have had so much fun already! I love watching my little girls grow! They are just amazing!

Happy Birthday Lilly Bean! We love you so so much!

Pretty Cool!!!

The Father's Day Baseball cake that I made for Robby is now on coolest-birthday-cakes.com

Go here if you want to check it out!

Cake!!!

Mommy: "Bella, How do you like the cake that we made???"

Bella: "Mmmmm. It tastes like baseball! Delicious!"

Happy Father's Day!!!

Husband,

Happy Father's Day!!! Thank you so much for being the best Daddy our girls could have ever asked for! Our babies adore you, and so do I! We are your biggest fans and love you like crazy!

Love,

Your Girls

Today Robby got to go golfing all day with his friends as a Father's Day gift. So Bella and I baked him a cake! Then Bella and Lilly made him a very special present! Here are our creations for our favorite Daddy!

This is Robby and Rocco in matching baseball jerseys! Haha!

This is my favorite! I got the idea over at Tip Junkie.

We had a pretty good day! Happy Father's Day Babe!

(A BIG thank you to Summer over at Summer's Cakes for the marshmallow fondant recipe!)

Here are just a few of the cute memories that we have been able to catch on camera!

Works for Me Wednesday!

Don't you hate it when you have a recipe you really want to make, but are missing ONE ingredient? I do! We currently have only one car, so when my husband is at work, I unfortunately cant go to the store and grab it. This was my situation today! So...I improvised!!!

I wanted to make no-bake cookies, but was missing the key ingredient...the quick-cooking oats! Fortunately I did have a big box of Quakers Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal!

Crisis averted!!!

They turned out perfect, and DELICIOUS!

Here's the recipe!

Maple & Brown Sugar No Bake Cookies

What You Will Need:

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

8 packets(3 cups) of maple & brown sugar instant oatmeal

1 tsp. vanilla extract

wax paper

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Then, stir in the peanut butter,

then the oatmeal and vanilla.
Mix well!

Drop spoonfuls onto your wax paper, and let cool until hardened.

Yum! It doesn't get better than chocolaty, peanut buttery goodness!

Enjoy!

Note: If you wanna make plain old no-bake cookies, omit the packets of oatmeal for 3 cups of quick-cooking oats.

Bella's Birthday Cake & A Blog Bake Off!

They are having a blog bake-off over at Summer's Cakes! Check out her blog! Her cakes are Amazing! I thought about baking another concoction for my entry but this is my favorite creation that I've made so far! So here it is...Bella's birthday cake!

So for some reason I decided that I would make Bella's birthday cake this year. On top of that I decided that since she is having a tea party themed birthday, I would make her cake in the shape of a teapot. I drew out a few different designs and had Bella pick one. Not really sure what I was thinking! HaHa! This was a huge challenge! But for the first birthday cake that I have ever made...I think I did a pretty good job.

The teapot is a yellow ball cake covered in buttercream frosting and then fondant. The teacups are chocolate cupcakes also covered in buttercream and then decorated in fondant. The saucers are sugar cookies in buttercream n fondant.

This isn't a very good picture. I used neon colored fondant. It looks alot brighter in person!

Thank goodness I only have to do this once or twice a year!

Italian Night!

So tonight is Italian night! What does that mean??? Well it means that the theme for our dinner is Robby's favorite...Italian!

I made lasagna, caesar salad, warm Italian bread, and l'olio saporiti e l'aceto for dipping!

What is l'olio saporiti e l'aceto??? Well...it means tasty oil and vinegar in Italian. For short we call it "the speal." Its my little take on the classic oil and vinegar that you dip your bread in as an appetizer, and boy is it ever tasty! Don't believe me? Try it for yourself! Here's how to make it!

What you will need:

A small plate

Balsamic Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Minced Garlic

100% Grated Parmesan Cheese

First you will need a teaspoon to a tablespoon of minced garlic, depending on how much garlic you like.

Then spread the minced garlic evenly around the plate, as shown above.

Next, cover the plate & garlic with your grated parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup).

I then make a sort of spiral of balsamic vinegar over the cheese.

Lastly, I zig-zag the extra-virgin olive oil over the top.

Slice some Italian or French bread for dipping and enjoy!

Its a big favorite at my house! Let me know how ya like it!