Two Lambs and a Bear: birthday

The Birthday Celebrations Continue

Whew....birthday season is over at our house. My husband just celebrated his big birthday on Monday. In this house, we have four birthdays all right in a row. Mary Ellie and Fenley are November 25th. Bear is November 27th. Joe, my husband, is December 6th. This makes for the craziest time of year if you throw in Thanksgiving AND preparing for Christmas too.
I made Joe dinner for his birthday. Pretty yummy if I say so myself. I made per his request the following menu: steakhouse steaks in the oven with my special mushroom sauce, roasted rosemary potatoes, asparagus, and he got his favorite cake from his favorite bakery to top the evening off.
The next night his family came into town and took him (us) out to celebrate at a fancy, yummy restaurant in town. So needless to say, I think I should never eat again after all these cakes, cupcakes and celebratory meals. The crazy birthday season has come and gone. I can rest on my laurels for another year! Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet family! Thank you for letting me be part of your big day(s).

We celebrated the twins' birthdays on Thanksgiving right after their nap. Mary Ellie was soooo worn out and miffed. Her motto was "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to". I hope she appreciates what a little character she was when she sees these pictures of herself in the future.

Mommy and Daddy trying to NOT burn down Honey's house with the candles while trying to rouse the sleepy children into a festive mood. I think the Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving meal, nap and birthday celebration all in one day was maybe a little much for them. Happy Birthday anyways, Twins!

Not a huge fan of me-pictures but I could not resist this sweet picture taken of Baby Bear on his First Birthday. (the real birthday not the par-tay). He never sucked his thumb until the week before his birthday. Maybe he was having a 1 year life crisis? :) It is pretty cute and I love this picture of my baby.

Oh Bear....Happy First Birthday! Mommy cannot believe you are 1. My how time flies.

Mary Ellie celebrating Bear's first birthday. I am still debating whether she is cleaning her face or determined to not miss a lick of icing.

This is Fenley who is a trooper to wear his hat to celebrate Baby Bear's birthday. To be fair, Mary Ellie wanted to wear hers but the ribbon fell out and by the time I fixed it she had moved on to the cupcakes and lost interest in her hat. Fenley was engrossed in the cupcake and did not mind at all!

I asked my husband if he wanted all ??? candles on his cake for me to sing to him (solo, the kids were in bed). He decided he did so this is what a really old guy's cake looks like. Just teasing, Joe! Happy Happy Birthday to you!

And I could not resist....this is what it looks like when you blow that many candles out...there is SMOKE everywhere. I told him if he keeps wanting all the candles lit I need a bigger cake next year too! Until the smoke clears....here are the yummy recipes he got to enjoy that night as well.

Steakhouse Steaks by Ina Garten (my hero and directly copied from her with my notes in Festive Green)

2 (10-ounce) filet mignon
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (don't hold back here, I did and they stick to the pan)
1 tablespoon fleur de sel (i did not have this. note to self: pick this up and try)
1 tablespoon coarsely cracked black peppercorns (i actually did not have peppercorns either but i have a grinder that finely grinds...whatever)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, optional (again...USE butter, when has something been bad with butter)
Roquefort Chive Sauce, recipe follows (I omitted this because the hubby wanted Mushroom Sauce. I will write that recipe out)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat a large, well-seasoned cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot, 5 to 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, pat the steaks dry with a paper towel and brush them lightly with vegetable oil. Combine the fleur de sel and cracked pepper on a plate and roll the steaks in the mixture, pressing lightly to evenly coat all sides.
When the skillet is ready, add the steaks and sear them evenly on all sides for about 2 minutes per side, for a total of 10 minutes.
Top each steak with a tablespoon of butter, if using, and place the skillet in the oven. Cook the steaks until they reach 120 degrees F for rare or 125 degrees F for medium-rare on an instant-read thermometer. (To test the steaks, insert the thermometer sideways to be sure you're actually testing the middle of the steak.) THE PAN will be SERIOUSLY HOT. She fails to mention this and I burnt my hand. So, I drank more vino to dull the pain. Haha.
Remove the steaks to a serving platter, cover tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Let the steaks rest while you whip up the mushroom gravy.

Mushroom Gravy Ingredients:
12 baby portabellas, sliced
12 shitake mushrooms, chopped
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
2 c. beef stock

Directions:
preheat large skillet over medium heat. Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil to Pan. I throw in butter after that as well. Season mushrooms to taste in the skillet with salt and pepper. Saute 3-5 minutes until tender. Do not overcook or they get rubbery and tough. Sprinkle in the flour and cook 2 more minutes and whisk in the stock until thickened. Viola! Mushroom gravy that Joe loves and claims he could eat on anything. Nothing fancy and the steaks are easy. Yum! Yum!
Also, a side not, really, do not overcook the meat in the oven because it still cooks under the aluminum foil. I am sure everyone else knows this but alas, I did not!

Okay, I wrote these recipes and edited in haste because we are off to load the car and drive back home to visit our familes for an early holiday trip. I will add the Christmas pictures tonight to get this blog into the spirit of the season too. This blog entry took me all week to finish due to the craziness of the week so fingers crossed there will be more downtime on my trip.

Birthday Bash

Our family just had a big birthday bash. Our twins are 367 days older than the baby so we combine all the birthdays into one big celebration. This year we did a our theme based on 1 Peter 5:2 "Take care of the flock God entrusted to you" and ran with it. The basic theme was sheep and an old fashioned farm ambiance (if that is even the right word to describe 2 two year olds and a one year old's birthday party). It was a labor of love. I have to thank so many people that made it even come together because basically the idea was in my head and the small details did not materialize until the week of the party.
It took a couple of months to illustrate and have the fabulous Robin draw the design, but once we got it hammered out, she was so timely and helpful! Then, thanks to Emily, who did a lot of small labels, stickers, and gift tags to pull the theme together. And a HUGE thanks to Shelley, my sweet friend that listened to my ramblings, made the birthday cake banners, and helped with the handmade cones for the veggie straws and hay. HUGE thanks! Also, I am pretty sure my family and husband would never ever help me again if I did not thank them for the assembly line and team effort during the party favor stuffing the night before the big event.
I did not take near enough pictures but I will try to describe in some detail some things that made the party come together nicely. The main thing was, besides the fact I had fun planning the whole event, it celebrated my sweet little children. Their arrivals into the world are still so vivid and feel-like-yesterday to me. My husband and I laughed at all the small things that happened the days of their births and enjoyed remembering their big days. I really cannot believe the twins turned two and my sweet little baby turned one. In a lot of ways, I am amazed we survived the year. We are still exhausted and in a bit of shell shock. Mary Ellie, Fenley, and Bear welcome to the world, and we are so glad you are here. We loved celebrating your birthdays and look forward to so many fun memories with you in the future. Happy Happy Birthday, babies! Children truly are a gift from God and there is not a day that goes by that we do not know it.
Back to the basic party details: We did burlap and not red check or any kind of checks to do "farm". We put burlap on the childrens' table and serving buffet tables. The invitations had sage scalloping so I pulled in lots of greenery such as green and cream ticking striped cloth tied with twine over baskets, green apple sauce in squeeze pouches, and green Crisps bags. I also tied regular sage napkins and utensils with twine for a burlap look as well. We also had orchard apples, animal crackers in tiny brown lunch bags with Animal Cracker stickers and little food labels such as "Eat Your Veggies" next to the cones with individualized servings. These were a big hit. There were also had "Farmer's Market Berries" and "An Apple a Day" little signs. To continue the farm theme, I put sunflowers in mason jars, galvanized buckets for drinks, and galvanized pails with faux hay(no need for real hay near the eating tables) for the centerpieces. The center pieces had various "Flock Here for Coloring and Playdough" or "Flock Here for a Pettting Zoo"or personalized little sheep on them and the childrens' names. They turned out cute!
Robin made the the adorable cupcake flags and Susan made the cute cute little lamb cookies (delicious!). The cupcakes stands, handpainted flags, and sweet lamb cookies made the dessert table so yummy and fabulous. Shelley made the adorable "Happy Birthday" banners for the cakes that I made for the children. Shelley tied these together with twine so they went with the theme and they turned out perfect.
There was plenty to do with a Coloring & Playdough station complete with farm pictures to color and galvanized pails holding the crayons, a ballon artist and face painter dressed as a cow, and the wonderful petting zoo. The children sent their friends home with favors to keep the fun going: a personalized coloring book, box of Crayolas, Homemade Playdough, a wooden rolling pin, and a cookie cutter. It was a perfect party at our home celebrating the children and their birthdays. Happy Happy Birthday, Mary Ellie, Fenley, and Bear!

"happy birthday flowers" as Mary Ellie would say to describe the sunflowers

dessert table

setting up

snack table

sign on the petting zoo gate

setting up the drink table with galvanized buckets

cones for feed and hay for the petting zoo

centerpieces

*A small footnote: I am in no way a party planner, claiming to be or really fabulous at party planning. When putting this together, we (my hubby, me and Shelley who I dragged into my craziness), we thought of what our children loved most (raisins, applesauce, animals, cookies, playdough, etc) and went with it. Everyone was so kind and sweet about the party, and really complimented our efforts to celebrate the children. I decided to add these picture and party details for all my friends who asked for them. Thanks for your encouragement. If you need more ideas or where to run and get stuff, contact me! It truly was a labor of love, like I said before. Enjoy the pictures!!

** Here are the pictures of the kiddies enjoying their party.