Firefighter Birthday Party

My baby is 5!!  He is obsessed with fire trucks right now, so we did a firefighter themed party.  His favorite color is blue and fire trucks are red, so we went with red and blue for his colors.

We started his party with a trip to the fire station where the kids were given a tour and got to see all the cool things that are in the fire trucks!

After our trip to the fire station, the kids went though Tea Fire Academy Basic Training to become an official junior firefighter!  They jumped through fire, rescued a kitty from a tree, and then put out a fire.  No children or animals were harmed. :)  After completing Tea Fire Academy Basic Training, the little firefighters were awarded a certificate of achievement.

And then they ate goodies!

After the party, the kids left with bags of gumballs as a little thank you.

All the printables came from Just a little Sparkle.

No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

These No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls remind me of the refrigerated Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.  If you love Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, you're going to love these!  And they can be on the table in an hour or less!

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, sour cream, buttermilk, and oil. Mix until it's well combined and forms a soft dough.  Sprinkle your counter with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick.  Combine brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon and mix.  Spread softened butter on the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Roll the dough and slice into 12 rolls. Place the rolls in a greased 9x13-inch baking dish.  Bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Frost with your favorite frosting while still hot.  I used my favorite Coconut Buttercream.  My Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting would also be amazing on them!  Serve warm.

Recipe from Back for Seconds.

Vanilla Butter Syrup

I'm a HUGE breakfast fan.  Especially when it comes to things like pancakes and french toast smothered in syrup!  We love my Maple Syrup, but this Vanilla Butter Syrup seems to be the favorite around here.

This time we ate our Vanilla Butter Syrup on my Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast.  Yummers!

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup canned milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine butter, sugar, and canned milk in a medium sized pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Cook until the mixture comes to a boil and remove from the heat.  Mix in vanilla, and then baking soda; mix well.  The mixture will bubble up a lot!

Recipe from The Royal Cook - an original!

Banana Cake

I never seem to have shortage of overripe bananas.  I don't mind, really, because we LOVE Banana Bread!  But after a half dozen batches in a month (I guess I kinda overbought bananas!) I wanted something a little different.

1 1/3 cups  sugar

1 cup  sour cream
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups overripe bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together sugar, sour cream, eggs, and butter. Mix in the mashed bananas and vanilla. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Pour the batter into the greased baking dish and spread evenly.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

I frosted with my favorite frosting, Coconut Buttercream Frosting.

Cake recipe from Cooking Classy.

Kool-Aid Popcorn

My little pixie is turning 7 and I made this super tasty Kool-Aid Popcorn for her birthday party!  If you love Kool-Aid and popcorn, this recipe is for you!

My little pixie's colors were turquoise, lavender (heaven help me if I slipped and said blue and purple!), and pink.  Just pink.  I used grape Kool-Aid for the purple, and fruit punch for the pink (red?).  I really hoped it would turn out more pink, but even if the color didn't do what I wanted it to, it still tasted great!

12 cups popped popcorn
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 packet unsweetened Kool-Aid
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Combine butter, corn syrup, and sugar in a medium pan and cook over medium heat, stirring until butter is melted. Increase heat to medium-high until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the Kool-Aid and baking soda; mix well. Pour the hot mixture over the popcorn and stir until it’s well coated. Pour the popcorn out onto a large, rimmed, baking sheet that's been greased, and spread evenly. Cook for 40 minutes at 250, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Recipe from Our Best Bites.

PJ Party

My sweet little pixy is turning 7 and wanted to party in her jammies!  She chose lavender and turquoise for her colors (if I accidentally said purple and blue, I was in BIG trouble!) and we added in pink as well.

 Because she didn't want a lot of friends, I did a small dessert table with....

 Chocolate Covered Marshmallows (Seriously, SO good and addicting.  And did I mention they're EASY!?!?),

 Crispy Rice Treats (another SO good, addicting and easy treat! Recipe link at the bottom.),

Chocolate Covered Oreos (Guess what?!?  Even another SO good, addicting and easy treat!),

 and some of the most amazing cupcake EVER with my favorite frosting!  (Recipe links at the bottom.)

And we can't for get the chocolate!  Mini Hershey bars in darling little wrappers!

 The girls munched on pizza and this super tasty Kool-Aid Popcorn (Recipe coming soon!).

 For the activities, the littles made Froot Loop necklaces

 and decorated their own pillowcases to take home.

  

They also took home little bags of chocolate bars.

All of the darling printables are from Just a Little Sparkle.  She does pretty amazing work!

Recipes (as promised :D)

Crazy Good Crispy Rice Treats

White Almond Wedding Cake (I made the batter into cupcakes and baked for 10 minutes less than the cake time.)

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Yellow Summer Daisy Party

School is finally out!  My cute little 9 year old decided we needed to PARTY!! to celebrate.

 We decided to go with yellow and white for the colors and a mild daisy theme.

 White chocolate covered Oreos.  SO good!

 White chocolate daisy suckers.  Love, love, love how the little pots turned out!

 The lunch boxes were so cute!  They had Uncrustables, apples with caramel dip, Pringles, and lemonade.

 Little flower pots for the girls to paint, along with soil and seed for them to plant at home.

My cute little artist!