Valentine’s Day was my favorite holiday growing up. Making home made Valentines for my friends, glue sticks and heart doilies. With my kids it was decorating bags and fun toys to give to friends. Recently though, our school district decided to do away with Valentine’s Day, or Friendship Day, as it was most recently changed to. It made me a little sad. The kids did a little something with their class, but it wasn’t the same. I understand about things not being equitable, but it feels sad none the less.

Meanwhile, we decided to keep doing fun things at the house. We made our own mailboxes and put them up on our doors. We left notes and Valentines for each other in the week leading up to the actual holiday. Here is mine. I attached them to the doors with 3M Velcro, easy to put up, and even easier to take down.

This was the pre-teen inspired Valentine I gave to my daughter, who isn’t even a pre-teen yet, but has all the makings of one

All things Taylor Swift in our house, so sticker mosaic art book, sparkle freckle temporary tattoos, and a Taylor Swift claw clip, all from The Paper Store. The conversation heart NeeDoh was too cute to pass up, although we did manage to make it explode by squeezing it too hard And we loved the smell of the Touchland velvet peach scent.

On Valentine’s Day, I added these cute frosted sugar cookies to the kid’s lunches for an extra sweet treat.

Does your school still celebrate Valentine’s Day?

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We thought it would be fun to do a taco truck birthday theme this year so we called on our friend Sarah to do this really fun cake topper for the “mom made cake”. I basically just said, let’s do something fun and Sarah took off with the idea. I mean, how cute did it come out? We added some other fun pinwheels to the cake (to hide my not smooth icing) but the truck did all the heavy lifting!

We had a make your own taco bar for guests which was a big hit – and a big hit with me because there was so little clean up!

Three is still a little too little to have a friend birthday party in our house (we just aren’t ready yet), so instead, we put together these fun packs for friends at school. We are in a dog phase right now, so we picked up a Scooby coloring book (I think they were $1), some Crayola crayons, and some graham cracker Scooby Snacks. Each friend had their name on the coloring book on a dog bone

What fun birthday themes have you loved lately?

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Looking for other things to do with your friends than just dinner and drinks? I always am. While dinner and drinks or coffee are always welcome, I like to look for fun experiences. I have known about Weesh Bake Shop for a long time. Elyse’s dad used to be our vet when I was a kid. At my most recent job, before having kids, a lot of friends had her make some amazing cakes! When I saw that she was offering cake decorating classes, I grabbed my best baking friend, and we met in the Seaport for a fun night out.

The event was held at Travelmug Cafe in the Seaport. The cakes are already crumb coated when we arrive and we practiced icing techniques before decorating the actual cake. So fun to see that we all started with the same blank canvas, and everyone’s cake turned out so unique! I kept mine pretty simple. It was a small group of lovely ladies, and we decorated and chatted while sipping some complimentary wine.

We even got to bring home a complimentary signature Weesh tart! Elyse offers private classes at the Roslindale location of her bakery. Check out all of her offerings here.

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We were headed to our first sleep under, and decided to bring some fun party favors to keep the night exciting! We had these cute clear pencil cases that I used my Cricut to personalize with the girl’s names. They were having dinner and then watching a movie, so we decided to put in some fun movie candy to go with the microwave popcorn inside. Every girl got something different so that they could share. They each got two packets of mix ins for their water in fun Starburst and Skittles flavors, along with an Essie nail polis and and Burt’s Bees chapstick. A fun night was had by all, a total success!

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As I was just talking about my sprinkle collection, I thought I would post a few pictures of cupcakes that I have done lately. I made these cute Pokemon cupcakes for a birthday party. Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with pokeballs from Amazon.

Here is what they look like without the Pokeballs.

These are some of my favorite sprinkles, the blue sanding sugar with the gold stars!

So this was technically not a cupcake, it was a cake, but I loved the contrast of the chocolate cake with the vanilla frosting swirls and the bright colored sprinkles.

Here are the cupcakes to go with the cake. I don’t usually do chocolate cupcakes, you have to be one of a select few to get me to make them!

Lastly, these are pretty simple and fun, but love the color combination of these.

What is your favorite sprinkle color combination?

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We decided to pack up the car and spend February vacation with a few friends in Vermont, skiing at Okemo. I went to Stowe, Vermont as a kid during February break, so I was excited to try somewhere new. The car ride was uneventful, a little over 2.5 hours from where we live. We were tightly packed in the car, which meant not much room for anything besides people and skis. We stopped in town on the way to our condo to grab some pizza. We picked up the last two pies before they closed for the night, at 7pm. Then, headed out to the local grocery store to buy food for 3 days that cost us the same amount as sopping at home for a week. Slim pickings, so if your kids are picky eaters, make sure to bring food with you in a cooler.

We booked our condo at Winter Place through Vacasa, and literally paid an arm and a leg for a place that was at its prime back in the 90’s. We were on the top floor of a three story building, which was a plus. The unit had a washer and dryer in the unit and a ski locker outside so you didn’t have to haul your stuff up and down the stairs. The location was good, ski on ski off, and close to the pool. *Note that if you are going to go to the pool, puddle jumpers (bubbles, floaties, whatever you might call them) are not allowed in the pool. You also need to bring your own towels. Our bath towels from the condo for showers were thin, and about the size of a wash cloth, so they were not ideal for the pool.

Day 1 of vacation started at ski school. Very well organized drop off and the program itself was good for my kids. They had a smaller area for little ones, with their own small magic carpet, which was also close to a bunny slope. Bigger kids meet up at the chair lift and ski on the mountain. Groups were small and they gave you a report at the end of the day, noting what to work on and what skills were accomplished. Lunch is provided and there were plenty of breaks to play and warm up. Outside conditions for the older kids skiing were super cold and windy, so we called it an early day.

The second day we had a snow storm and the kids had different levels of tolerance for the cold. We went for a swim, went sledding, and did a little shopping in town. There are plenty of things to keep you busy here. If we had more time, we would have loved to have tested out the mountain coaster, gone snow tubing, or taken a sleigh ride.

Does your family like to go skiing? Where is your favorite place to go?

Lift Tickets: https://www.okemo.com/plan-your-trip/lift-access/tickets.aspx

Lessons: https://www.okemo.com/plan-your-trip/ski-and-ride-lessons/category/child.aspx

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Cupcakes are my go to baked good to make for any event – birthdays, holidays, bake sales, teacher treats, you name it. We recently had friends over who had never been to the house and she said, “I kind of expected that you would probably have a shelf full of sprinkles in your kitchen”. I have mason jars full of them. All different colors, shapes, assortments, and holiday mixes. I pick them up where ever I see them, because they just make me (and other people) happy!

Now that it is winter, I’m baking up a storm. Keeping busy but also keeping that oven on and keeping the house smelling good

Tell me what your go to baked good is?

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Sometimes, after you reach a certain point, you just stop counting birthdays. My husband hit that point years ago

So this year, for his birthday, we decided not to even put a number on his cake. The “OLD” was made with melting chocolate in a silicone alphabet mold, nonpareils on the bottom. Just a fun little way to brighten up the cake.

The cake itself was requested to be vanilla with vanilla frosting. Piped with white and shades of green. Overall, a big hit for the big birthday!

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In our house we have a tradition where we get the kids a “fancy” store bought cake and then I make them a homemade “mom” cake. It helps make the birthday celebration last a little longer! I have to admit, with all the things that I bake, cakes are not my jam. I can never get the frosting smooth and I’m not a great decorator (even if the frosting tastes delicious). But it is the thought that counts, right? So here is the final result. I printed and cut out a number 5 and traced it out on the cake with a knife and then piped on flowers inside in shades of blues and greens.

What are your birthday traditions?

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We had a moment when we went through a very serious shark phase. We took out every single book from the library about sharks, I could tell you every shark’s name and some fun cocktail party fact about them. This came right after our dinosaur phase. My friends made us this incredible cake for the big day.

I think that he loved the Swedish fish the best.

I picked up these pinatas from Target and attached them to the wall for a fun shark themed photo backdrop.

The shark balloon was from Party City and the blue stars were from the Dollar Store. The Dollar Store is the best deal in town if you are looking for balloons. The number balloons are in the $5 neighborhood, but simple ones, like these stars are so affordable!

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