Every country has its problems. The ones that worry me most in America are guns and racism.
Artist // Modern Calligraphy + Illustration Made in the Bay Area, California
My son turned 2 in June and we had a small birthday party at home with just a few friends and some family.
Today I’m sharing a little bit of the party. This was the main table:
Most of the food was homemade. We had some organic meat empanadas, “chipas” (a gluten-free cheese bread made with tapioca flour), “sopa paraguaya” (corn flour pie with cheese, onions and eggs), organic celery, organic baby carrots, organic grapes, pita chips, cheeses, hummus and some yogurt cilantro dip.
I got the train letter from Ebay. The Festive Pennant Garland was from Martha Stewart Crafts.
I got the white 3-Tier Treat Stand from Wilton for the cakes and I used it separately (2 tier for 1 cake and 1 for other).
I used some of our metal lunch boxes as a food container also giving the idea of “baggage”.
Since it was also my mom’s birthday, I made her a special cake, creating a zebra-animal print pattern (she’s crazy about animal print patterns). I even got those zebra candles at Lucky’s supermarket, they looked great in this cake.
For Marco’s cake I used Wilton’s fondant and a piece of train ribbon (non-eatable) that I got at Michael’s. Both cakes where chocolate cakes filled with cream and cherries and another part filled with dulce de leche, they were DELICIOUS!
We put the train set on the coffee table so the children could play with it.
I sewed the party favors bags some days before and I filled them with some train/car/planes stickers, a small car and a wood train whistle that I bought at a crafts store in Brooklyn through Amazon.
The trains whistles were a little big for the kiddos but the sound was just like a train and they loved it!
Marco opening his party favor and taking out the wood train whistle.
Marco was dressed as a Train’s Engineer. I bought the overall from Osh Kosh and a random white shirt. I got bandana and the hat at Amazon.
He loved his little party and I am so glad that he enjoyed it as much as I did preparing all of it!
Today I’m sharing some of the creations that I did for Marco’s 2nd Birthday.
Since he loves trains, we used it as the theme for his birthday party.
I used Paper53 to draw and my husband used his designer magic to transform it to a cute invitation.
And these were the Thank You notes just using Paper53.
Come back tomorrow for more pics from Marco’s 2nd Birthday Party!
From the things I didn’t know about babies…
Many exclusively breastfed babies have no interest in pacifiers, especially during the first months.
You can find more information about it here.
After experimenting with a lot of challah recipes, this is my favorite. You’ll need:
In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over barely warm water. Add honey, oil, 1 egg, and salt. Add the flour one cup at a time, using the kitchen aid at medium speed.
Knead until it become a smooth and elastic dough but no longer sticky. It will take around 15′ using the Kitchen Aid Mixer.
Cover the bowl with a cloth. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 1.30 hours.
Separate the dough in 3 pieces, flatten a little bit and make a braid. Cover the dough with a clean cloth and let it rest for 45′ more minutes.
After the resting time, you can either use a slightly beaten egg to brush it or just sprinkle the sesame seeds.
Bake it at 350F for 30′ minutes or until the bread is golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let it cool. The result is impressive and delicious!
Enjoy it!
These are some of the things we used to do with Marco during the time we lived in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
Our favorite spots for those cold winter days or for the rainy summer ones:
Playgrounds Review:
Enjoy Brooklyn!
The summer is close to its end but you can still take advantage of the tip I’m going to share with you: carry a picnic blanket in your diaper bag.
I have to tell you, ever since I bought my new portable and cheap blanket from Ichiban Kan, we have been doing a lot of spontaneous picnics!
Of course this blanket is not as beautiful as our JJ Cole one but this cheap blanket was the perfect size, waterproof, light and small enough to fit into the diaper “backpack”.
By the way, that’s another tip. Backpacks are much more easier to use than traditional diaper bags if you use public transportation frequently in San Francisco 😉
A good advice that I can give another fellow mom:
If you have a smartphone, look for the free white noise app. Lots of noises that will help your baby sooth or sleep wherever you are (plane, train, subway, on the go, on holidays, at your BFF’s house… WHEREVER and whenever because it doesn’t need wifi to run!).
No smartphone? Try using some videos from Youtube, just search “white noise” and you’ll find LOTS of videos some even last around 10 hours!
No internet around? Any of the items in the illustration work! Also others as a vacuum cleaner, fan, air conditioning… and of course, the “human white noise”: a quiet but constant “Shhhh” might do the trick 😉
I did some super fun online classes with Lisa Congdon at Creative Bug and I used this pic for one of the activities that we had.