Miss E turns 2!

It's amazing how quickly time moves. It does not seem that our little one can be 2 already! She was just a newborn yesterday right?

The day we brought Miss E home

This year's party theme was Winnie The Pooh. Miss E just loves Winnie, and his hunny! 

My mom had a bear shaped cake pan that I used for her cake, and thanks to my SIL Fancy Farm Chic for her Hot Water Chocolate Cake recipe, the cake was super easy to make! Fine the recipe here. I just frosted the cake and left off the toppings.

The bumble bee cupcakes (complete with chocolate chip stingers) were made gluten free with rice flour. I simply halved my cake recipe and used the rice flour in replacement of regular APF. Our niece, Kennady has been gluten intolerant since birth. The other bonus of this cake recipe is also low dairy content. Miss E can have small amounts of dairy with out an adverse reaction, such as a cake with only butter in it would be OK for her. If there was another add in such as milk, or sour cream that would push her into a reaction. 

I used a store bought  frosting  this year to ensure we had good frosting that was gluten, and dairy free. ( I would have preferred to use less processed, home made frosting, but found myself a bit lazy this year.)

We had a houseful of family and friends that are like family. Unfortunately it was 105 the day of the party (which coincidentally was the temp the day Emma was born), and we were all cooped up in the house including the 4 youngest grandchildren ranging ages 5 to 2. Surprisingly all went well, and a good time was had.

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Girl!

Grandma Maurine's Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

My hubby is the type of man who would like to have a hot breakfast on the table every morning. Unfortunately for him, he did not marry the "get up and cook right away" kind of woman. I do however, occasionally feel bad or have an excessive energy and cook something. Other times I make things ahead and freeze them, or just save them for the morning. This is one of those days, and recipes.

Grandma Maurine is my father in laws mother. I never had the pleasure of meeting her, but one thing has always stood out. Grandma loved to cook, and her food is still talked about even years after her passing. My husband's aunt compiled a cook book of some of her favorite recipes. It is by far my favorite cookbook.

This recipe is followed my scores of praise from past students that Grandma cooked for in the school cafeteria to her children's memories of her. Food always taste better with a little bit of nostalgia on the side. 

This recipe can be made super easy by using a quick dough recipe. I used Grandma's which is as follows:

1 1/2 cups warm water ( or part milk)

1/3 cup sugar

4 cups flour

1/3 cup softened shortening

2 packages dried yeast

1 egg

 1 1/2 tsp salt

Put all ingredients together, except for 1 cup flour and beat together. Then add the rest of the flour. DO NOT KNEAD. This is a soft dough. Let it rise for 30 mins. Roll out and spread butter, sugar and cinnamon. Form into the rolls and allow to rise another 30 mins. Bake at 350. (makes 2 dozen)

The Gooey Roll Recipe

Use your favorite roll recipe. In the bottom of the baking dish mix 1 cup cream, 1 cup brown sugar, and one stick melted butter. Place rolls over top of mixture. Allow to rise and bake at 350 for 25-30 mins. After baking turn immediately onto a platter.

If your feeling more health conscious, decrease the amounts of sugar and cream, or sub a different sweetener. There were no actual measurements listed on Grandma's recipe, she just knew how much she wanted.

These were fantastic with a hot cup of coffee in the morning! And didn't last long enough for a good picture :)

Washable bath paints

Have you ever had one of those days, or weekends, or weeks that makes you want to crawl back in bed? We have had that. A drain back up into the basement not once...but twice. Thank the Lord it was only water out of the water softener, or YUCK! And then of course, I have no brain and started to run a bath for Miss E, which of course poured MORE water down in the basement. This wouldn't be so bad, however the previous owners must have filled in the drain, so all the water had to be sucked out with the carpet cleaner. Thank the Lord once again that we have one!!

After all the hooplah, and mess that was and since it was 102 degrees at about 7 last night, I decided Miss E and I needed a bit of extra fun in our lives. Daddy was out at the farm late so it was just her and I  all evening. I found this site on Pinterest and the post about bath paints. Miss E loves to "paint" most of the time she is just mimicking me while I work on other projects, and is always disappointed when Mommy won't let her use the real paint. 

This paint was super easy to mix up. I used just a little of Head and Shoulders with a few drops of coloring like was said. I didn't add much cornstarch because I felt the shampoo/conditioner combo was thick enough.

Needless to say, Miss E had a blast, I didn't take pictures, but she had paint from head to toe as well as all the beautiful paintings on the walls of our shower :)

I left this up for my hubby to see :P

Pretty painter!

Wooden Growth Chart

I'm sure everyone, if your on pinterest has seen a growth chart made in large form to look like a ruler. I thought how easy and sentimental this would be to have. First I thought maybe I can just order one on Etsy, and of course too expensive for my blood. Prices run from 45 to upwards of 90, based on how elaborate the design, or size, etc.

First thing, find a board. Have farmer bring a basically straight 2x8 home from the farm= $0. Next thing is how I should choose to finish the board. I wanted it to be able to be in the main part of our home, so I thought stain. Now we did have some leftover stain from an old kitchen chair project, but not a lot. In fact, not enough to finish it I'm sure.

Then I ran across a pin that led me to THIS sight. Now what better way to stain than with a FREE home made stain, that looks rustic/worn. ( Now I call this free because I already had all necessary components on hand.)

I measured and had my Farmer cut the board to a length of 6'2". This is what would fit best in the area I have in mind to hang this when it's finished. 

2x8 prestain

I mixed up the "stain" a few days ahead of time and it didn't seem to have any negative effect to wait longer than over night to use it. I did discover that I did not think through that I would be staining a much larger piece than Honor at Home Heart Craft and I used up my steel wool poof with the first application. I just cut another section of steel wool and threw it in the jar of vinegar mix while the first coat dried. (Confession: it was cold and snowing when I did this, so I just let it air dry in the craft room, not in the sun. My assumption is it just took longer to dry, a few hours.)

After the first coat. It looks dirty!

Application of second coat of "stain"

Finished Product

Such a cheeser!

Over all, cheap and easy. Looks great! Now to find some liquid chalk or paint pen to mark dates!
On a farm note, just finished up wheat harvest, so it's been a busy 4 weeks! Rain delays, a long with a few broken belts to slow us down. All in all, everything went well.

New Gleaner R67 and the Semi

Unfortunately, no pictures of our Miss E riding along with daddy or mommy in the tractor or combine!