Sadie’s 2nd Birthday

oh man. My little girl is two. I’m totally loving this age… all the talking, activities, cuddles, curiousness, singing, dancing, playing… she’s the best! And this party was way too much fun to put together for her. She was really pumped about it too and kept singing Happy Birthday! I went with a bunny theme since there was an abundance of Easter-related things at the stores right now. Here are some pics!

The invitation: I hand-drew the little bunny and included a flower crown of course 🙂

guests were encouraged to wear bunny ears and most happily obliged!

I loved putting together the treats table.

homemade carrot cake and an attempt at birchbark icing!

enjoying a cupcake with her best buddies

pin the tail on the bunny!

loot bags ~ adopt a bunny! Coming up with names was my favourite thing!

{Sadie picked Tulip.}

This guy.

Wes has had too much Birthday and Sadie’s assisting 🙂

 

deck the halls – Sadie’s room!

I have a lot of Christmas decor that is white, mint and gold… which happen to be the colours of my daughter’s room. I thought it would be fun to decorate her room this year. She LOVES her tree. As soon as she wakes up, she wants to turn it on. I loved how everything came together. And those golden animals from my wedding continue to be a hit wherever they are!

 

Teacher gifts

Sadie has been absolutely loving her new school. I wanted to put together a little basket for her teacher with some homemade things that Sadie helped me with. Yes it’s probably a lot easier to find an already-made basket at HomeSense… But I wanted the gift to have a personal touch! Here’s what I included:

• healthy coconut cookies (recipe here, made with Sadie’s help!)
• Christmas Crunch popcorn (recipe here!)
• Celestial Seasonings gingerbread tea
• Starbucks hot cocoa
• Lindor chocolates
• …and tied with a homemade ornament painted by Sadie

Christmas Crunch popcorn

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked fun, easy, and perfect for an item in Sadie’s gift basket for her teacher. I followed this recipe, and have these suggestions:

• I used Smarties (I don’t like M&Ms).
• Instead of combining the Smarties, pretzels and popcorn in a bowl, I arranged them on the baking sheet to make sure they were evenly distributed.
• Sadie could help me with the last step – sprinkles!
• I used Alphabet pretzels for a fun element, since it’s a teacher’s gift.

Here’s how it looked as part of the gift basket! (blog about the gift basket here.)

 

healthier coconut cookies

 

I’ve made these cookies twice now and they’re so easy! And since Sadie is incessantly saying “up peeese” and “help ewww” when I’m in the kitchen, she was my little helper. These cookies are also great to give away as Christmas gifts. Here’s the recipe, modified from here to make them a bit more healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, coconut oil, and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.