Why A Photo A Day?

I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten what I did yesterday.  It seems like we are always on the move.  We rush to work, to lunch and back to work. After work we rush to pick up the little ones, rush home to make dinner and it just doesn't end until we go to bed.  It's so easy to see your life as one big blur. 

That's why I decided to do a photo a day.  I may miss a day here and there but it's not really about the number of photos at the end.  It's slowing down despite life's fast pace and enjoying the journeys of our lives.  

Someone once said, "It isn't the destination but the getting there that makes it worth it" 

I encourage you to join me by taking a photo a day maybe even doing some photo challenges to get you on your way (look for my September Photo Challenge).

~XO

September Photo Challenge

1. Light

2. Labor Day 

3. Good Morning

4. Shoes

5. Books

6. Family

7. Tree*

8. Makes you Happy

9. Layered

10. Something treasured

11. Journey

12. Textured

13. Hands

14. Tree*

15. Before bed

16. On your table

17. Good time

18. You, then

19. Growing 

20. On your mind

21. Tree*

22. Quote

23. Goodbye summer

24. Apple

25. A warm drink 

26. Pumpkin

27. Something red

28. Tree*

29. Sweet

30. You, now

*Take a photo of the same tree to see how it changes over time 

You can follow me on Instagram: CattarinaAM 

DIY pink cupcake liner piñata

I decided to make a piñata for my little one's fabulously pink birthday which was inexpensive and fun to do with my 3 year old.  

Things you'll need:

Water 

Flour 

Balloons

Cut newspaper

Cupcake liners 

Glue gun 

Rope 

Candy

Basic piñata requires a balloon and a 50/50 mixture of water and flour.

 

 Some cut newspaper works well for a piñata.  No one will see it so don't stress over making it coordinated with your party theme.  

 

Once your 50/50 flour and water mixture is made and balloon blown to desired size begin coating strips and placing on blown balloon one at a time.

 

Cover balloon one full layer at a time.  Allow time to dry between layers (I did 10 layers) This is tedious but well worth it. 

Once your final layer is dried you can pop your balloon.  Cut a 3-sided trap door and drill a hole at the bottom.  Fold the clothes line in half and knot the bottom.  Pull top threw the drilled hole and out the top to hang.

Fill the piñata with candy.  You can add additional layers over the trap door and secure around the rope or just duct tape it, which is what I did. 

For this piñata I found some really cute polka dot cupcake liners in pink and hot pink. 

After folding both packs of cup cake liners in half I began gluing away (starting at the bottom and covering the knot) alternating colors.

 Here's the finished product.  It could have come out better but really a piñata is destined to be broken before the party ends, so why stress over perfection?  

I hope this post helped :)

~XO

 

 

 

 

A Thanksgiving for 2 plus 1

This year my husband has to work and I'm pretty bummed but we are still determine to have a small dinner with just the 3 of us.  So here's my first draft of what's on the cooking board:

Black Turkey

Pumkin Pie Croissants

Regular croissants

Homemade macaroni and cheese

Roasted garlic broccolini

Sweet Potatoes and apples in carmel sauce

Sweet Potato Pie (maybe something else...)

Pumpkin Pie Croissants

 

Keri of Shaken Together shared these easy to make Pumpkin Pie Croissants on her blog.

The recipe looks really easy made with pre-made ingredients which will help in cutting down some of my cooking time so I can spend more time with my hubby before he heads in to work.  

What You Will Need:

2 tubes of refrigerated cresant rolls

Pumpkin Pie Filling:

1/2 8 oz. block of cream cheese

1c canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 tbs. sugar or splenda

Directions:

1. Roll each crescent roll out and cut lengthwise in

2. Mix together the pumpkin pie filling. Beat together until fluffy and creamy.

Spread 1 tablespoon (or more) of the filling along the crescent roll and roll it up.

Mix together 4 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice; Roll each pumpkin pie croissant in it.

Bake at 375 F degrees for 15-18 minutes.

	

Tender & Flaky Rolls

Okay so I found this recipe on another blog site as a result of pure curiousity.  With a blog named  Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake can you blame me for being slightly curious?  Jonna seems really confident that these rolls are the best you or I will find and I love confidence and don't they just look delish?  

YOU WILL NEED:

 

*2 packages (1/4 ounce each) Active Dry Yeast

1 cup warm water

1 cup boiling water

1 cup shortening or butter 3/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoonS salt

2 eggs, beaten

7-1/2 to 8 cups all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine boiling water, shortening, sugar and salt. Allow to stand 3-4 minutes or until shortening is melted and sugar is dissolved. Add the yeast mixture and eggs; mix well.

Add 2 cups of four; beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. When ready to use, roll out and shape dough. Place rolls in pans, or greased cookie sheets. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown. YIELD: 2 -1/2 dozen.

Jonna's Tip:

When doing it in one day simply add enough extra flour, to make a SOFT.....non-sticky dough. They still are fabulous. Make sure you let the dough raise until generously double. Then place crescent style shaped rolls on your greased cookie sheets. Let raise again until double, before baking.

Sweet Potatoes and Apples in Carmel Sauce topped with Marshmellows

Recently I tried acorn squash with granny apples, craisens and raisens which to my suprise was a hit with my fussy 3 year old and husband. So, I'm thinking this recipe will be a "tasty" vamp from our traditional homestyle sweet potatoes.

Another recipe from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake.

YOU WILL NEED:

5 medium yams or sweet potatoes

or

2 cans of canned yams or sweet potatoes, drained well

3 Tart apples

Cook the yams until they are not quite done. Skin them & cut in small chunks. Or Drain canned yams, and layer with the chunks of apples in a 9×13 glass dish. Now prepare the sauce:

BROWN SUGAR GLAZE:

2 cups boiling water

1 cup Brown sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

pinch salt

1 Tablespoon Butter

Mix the brown sugar with the cornstarch & blend well. Add 2 cups of boiling water, slowly, along with the salt and butter. Cook over medium heat until the sauce has turned clear in color.

Pour the glaze over the yams and the apples. Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees, or until the apples have softened. Melt mini marshmallows over the top under the broiler. Watch closely as they brown very quickly.

Garlic Lover's Broccolini

Ingredients:

1 bunch broccolini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Kosher Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a cooksheet with foil. In a small bowl, mix olive oil together with a hefty pinch of salt and pepper, add garlic to the mixture. Clean you broccolini by trimming about 1 inch of the bottom. Spread the broccolini evenly on the cooking sheet. Using a pastry brush, apply your olive oil mixture evenly to each head and stalk. Finish with an additional pinch of salt. Roast in the oven for about 12 minutes.

My boss actually got me hooked on this recipe which he does a little different but I'm hoping to one up him ;) with a little help from cookingshorts.

 

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

 

When I first made this recipe it required several kinds of alcohol.  I'm not a drinker so I felt like a fish out of water walking into a liquer store but my co-workers came to my rescue in exchange for a slice.  They loved it and asked if I was making this recipe again this year....hmmm, hint, hint?!  So, yes, I will make this recipe again but with white chocolate morsals and I may change the crust...maybe brownie or oreo...not sure yet.  But, here's the recipe:

Yield: 12 Servings

FILLING:
3 lbs Cream cheese at room temperature; softened
1 c Sugar
3 tbs vanilla
3 tbs lemon juice
dash of salt
6 Jumbo eggs
1 c Bailey's Irish cream
(opional) 1 cup semi-sweet white chocolate chips

Filling:
Mix cream cheese until fluffy in appearance. Add Sugar, vanilla, salt, lemon juice and mix. Add eggs one at a time. After crust as baked and cooled poor half the batter on top. The remaining half add bailey's and mix then add on top of 1st split batch.

Bake on 350 degrees F for aprx 40 min or until toothpick can be poked in middle and come out clean.

After cooling remove spring form pan and set over night.

More to come so check back...

The Big Dipper

The Big Dipper all-you-can-eat ice cream festival was a fun an inexpensive outing with Olivia.  It was hosted at Elm Park from 10:30am - 5:30pm and offered a wide variety of inexpensive family fun and all-you-can-eat ice cream was available for an admission fee of $5 for ages 10 and up, $2 for ages 5- 9 and free for children under 4.   

Tickets were $1 per ticket and activities ranged from 1 ticket - 3 tickets.  Activities included Moonwalks, face painting, bookmark decorating, coloring tables and a food tent with grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cold drinks and snacks.

We enjoyed the bubble table which required no tickets and consisted of bubble soap trays and a variety of objects to blow bubbles.  Objects ranged from traditional shaped bubble wands to non-conventional objects such as potato masher, several different slotted spoons, foam door hangers and other "who-would've-thought" around the house objects.

The Polar soda mascot made an appearance but despite his friendly demeanor Olivia was terrified.  I tried to get a picture but she was so scared I had to literally run as far away and in the quickest time as possible.   

There were also clowns which is another common phobia of children Livi's age.  But, to our surprise Livi wasn't scared.  She was hesistant but not terrified.  Maybe this was impartly because they weren't as done up as your typical circus clowns.  Whatever the reason she was quite content with her purple dog shaped balloon made by one of the clowns  This was another activity that required no tickets.   

The other piece of amusement that Olivia enjoyed was the Moonwalks.  There were two moonwalks one for ages 8 and up and one for ages 7 and under.  The only issue I had with this activity was that it wasn't really organized.  People were all lining up in one line rather than 2 and it wasn't timed so you had to wait in line at the mercy of a child having a bouncing blast to come out.  It was a difficult wait for parents like myself who had toddlers as it was extremly hot with no shade and the length of time was making them restless and cranky.  When it was finally our turn we were told that my niece who was 9 (we noticed the sign on the ground at this point) could not go in with Olivia and said we would have to go to the moonwalk for ages 8 and up.  I thought we would have to wait in line yet again but like I said the other one had no line.  So we could have saved ourselves 30-45 min standing in the hot sun.  But, what counts is that Livi had a blast once she was finally allowed into the Moonwalk.  This activity was 3 tickets=$3 per child regardless of age.

 You could also enter raffles for prizes in exhange for x amount of tickets.  Walking around there was political persons trying to collect names for ability to have their name on ballots.  There so many occassions in my life where I have to pay attention to detail, facts and so on but I just felt this was not one of them.  I tried to listen to there pitch but really it wasn't why I was there.  I just wanted to enjoy an outing with my daughter, husband (who came into town on a surprise visit), sister and niece.  I eventually found out that if you say you're not a registered voter they will walk on by as quickly as they made themselves visible. 

Organizations such as NEADS puppies, The Lions Sightmobile were providing free hearing and vision screening, and Child Protection Resources offered free fingerprinting and photo/ID's for the kids.  The fire engine was also present later in the day for children to interact with the firemen and touch the hose. 

All proceeds benefited the programs of Children's Friend founded in 1849 and is the oldest child and family service agency in central Massachusetts.

For food we went to the hot dog/ ice cream truck which had a hot dog special (2 dogs, chips and soda for $4.50) and ate under an oak tree by the playground.  It was a nice way to spend a Saturday.  I think we'll attend next year but I hope there's more activities for the younger children Livi's age.      

A Dentist and a 2 yr Old

So Olivia had her first dentist appointment.  The facility was gorgeous although I don't think they completly thought out the atmosphere for a family dentital practice.  Upon entering you are blown away by the marlble tiles and curved arches that run and meet throughout the waiting room.  The receptionist greets you under a shimmering chandleir and as you sit on leather chairs that swivel you notice a koi pond well pool under a huge flat screen tv.  The children can sit on minature leather chairs (which are the cutest things I ever seen).  However, Olivia was overwhelmed by the spectacular surrounding that she ran from the minature chairs to the oversized chairs, to the leather stools at the koi pond-pool and back to me.  I was crossing my fingers she doesn't trip and fall into the solid thick wood coffee table, the floor or fall into the pool.  Despite the relaxing intentions of the waiting room I found it quite difficult to relax with a 2 yr. 

As for the dentist himself.  He was very patient.  Olivia did not allow the assistent to examine her mouth.  The assistent put a lot of effort introducing the instruments calling them "toys" and playing with her with the backwards straw, water and air hose.  Olivia smiled but when it came time to open wide Olivia's mouth was SEALED.   The assistant gave up and went to get the dentist.  Once the assistent left, Olivia opened her mouth WIDE.  I couldn't believe the little booger.  But, when the dentist came in Olivia's mouth was once again SEALED tight.  He was very patient and was able to count her teeth and visual check for cavities by having her sit on my lap and laying her head on his lap.  As she cried he utilized her open mouth to the best of his ability. 

We were not able to do the cleaning but he assured me she had no cavities and bring her back in 6 mos to try again.  Man, I hope her eye appointment isn't this tough. 

To Olivia With Love ~ Mummy

Two years you have given me TWO wonderful years with you.  I read and I’ve been told that these are the critical years.  Your ability to soak in everything around you makes me understand why these are the critical years.  Everything you learn now will resonate throughout your growth and development.  As your mother, I would like  to teach you the importance of communication before you actually need to work at it and also the value of work.  But, before you can comprehend such lessons I must first instill in you certain behaviors such as manners, the value of money and how to stand up for yourself. 

At the age of two you are already showing signs of compassion and empathy for your peers and those around you.  These attributes are why you have earned the nick name “little mama”.  You are always checking to see if those around you are okay.  If someone cries you rub their back  and ask “are you okay?”  When your sister is crying after being scolded you cry a heartfelt cry until you are able to ask if she is okay and give her a big hug.  I hope that you retain these attributes as they are essential in life.  But, guard them.  Hold on to them tightly and close to your heart because if you don’t they will turn into jadedness and contention leaving you to always feel incomplete. 

Over these 2 years I have observed your curious nature.  You question everything to no end.  But despite your curiosity there is a sense of cautiousness.  It is an accompaniment that most toddlers don’t possess at your age.  I hope that you can use both of these to your advantage but don’t let your curiosity get the best of you or your cautiousness impede on your discoveries. 


You will come into contact with many people, most of whom you can or should cast aside as useless to you, but there will be a few you will need to hold onto for various reasons.  And if you follow your intuition you will know exactly who these people are right away.  That intuition comes from the foundation that your father and I are working hard to build right now.  We hope to build it strong with a bright guiding light so please do not doubt that part of you, because it is the greatest gift we can give you.

You my sweet little girl are the things that dreams are made of, perfectly assembled, conscious, and full of life.  Your smile, your strength, you feistiness….yes you are a feisty one.  It’s actually a quality I admire although we have to work on it so that in the future it works for you and not against you.  You are beautiful, so amazingly beautiful.  But, it’s okay if you don’t see it, someone else will be sure to tell you long before you realize the implications of what it means.

One thing I admire about your father is that he has a growing capacity for greatness, he doesn’t settle for less and has a desire to improve himself and understand me in my entirety—and I can assure you, it’s not always easy.  There are days he falls short but he doesn’t let failure keep him down.  He gets back up and tries again.  And this, I implore you, is what you search for in each individual you want to build some sort of bond with.  I hope you select people of meaning, of substance, to hold in your heart, but I hope you learn by playing with everyone. 

There is one important piece of wisdom I wish to impart upon you during your youth: Do not do anything that you feel compromises your ethics.  It is important to learn to compromise between you and another in order to see things through, but don’t think it is ever necessary to compromise between you and yourself.  Doing so will most definitely prove to be shallow and based on nonsense.  Anyone who demands that you compromise between yourself and your ethics is asking you for your soul, and that is your identity, which you should NEVER sacrifice. 

Olivia, I enjoy being your playmate and I don’t mind being your pillow (even though you tend to move around a lot) but, I want you to know that before all else I am your mother and that is a bond that can never be broken only modified.   As your mother, I will do my best to protect you from the occasional head bump or fall but as you get older I’m afraid it will get harder for me to protect you from the hurts, pains and bruising life will cause you.  So yes my little one you will get hurt in life and as you get older you will do things that will cause hurt and other kinds of bruising found on your psyche and ego.  But, it’s okay to have these.  They build character and serve as a frame of reference when learning new concepts.  It may sound dreadful but trust me, you’ll be fine.  Most importantly know that you are not alone.  You have a resource of support, knowledge and our undying love at your disposal.  As your parents we have the ability to alleviate some of that unnecessary suffering by instilling in you common courtesy and defining how and what to value. 

My sweet little girl.  I have loved you from your birth to the cute little craft projects you’d be sent home with from daycare to the time we spent in car rides, playing at the playground (and waiting for the new one to open its gates), reading and bedtime prayers.  Every moment with you is ingrained in my brain.  Your Barney, your bath time duckies, your bear hugs, your contagious belly laugh and fascination with belly buttons (BEEP,BEEP!).  I have enjoyed every minute of it.  You are well rounded, loving and caring and you have two parents who love you tremendously. 

I wish you could stay like this forever.  But, then when I think about it and how awesome you are now, I can’t wait to see how much more awesome you become as you grow.  I thank God for allowing me to be a part of that and hope that I can keep up with you to nurture  and nature your goals.  You have so much potential.  Oh, luv bug I see SO MUCH potential in you, I can only hope someday you will see it too. 

I love you very, VERY much. Happy Birthday Olivia!

(((((big, biG, BIG Hugs))))

 ~Mummy~