Baby Hostess with the Mostess

My really good friend Teresa is having a baby next month! Since she is one of my dearest and most wonderful friends, another girlfriend and I threw her a baby shower. We've known Teresa since college and we are in the same sorority together...go AXO! Teresa even introduced me to Mr.E on a drunken night when we lived together. Since Teresa has been with me through all the good times and a few bad, she deserved a fantastic shower!! So I decided to get my craft on! I made a banner with baby's name on it. Ok Dena embroidered the letters, but I sewed the rest! One of the easier, but made a big impression crafts was the door initial diaper wreath. It cost a whole $7 to make!!
The theme of the baby shower was Childrens Books. We named all the menu items off of books.

The cookie favors were super cute made by one of the teachers from LL's school.
For dessert, I made from scratch! red velvet, chocolate, and vanilla cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting!
The party was a success and everyone raved about all the hard work we put in to make the shower special! I can't wait to meet Little Wesley and I know Teresa is ready too!! :)

New Moon Party Cupcakes and Brownies

Last night my girlfriends and I had a New Moon party. New Moon is the 2nd book in the Twilight series and the DVD just came out. If you haven't read the Twilight Series, I'm not sure you are from this planet :) All of us have read the books and of course taken sides as too who Bella should be with Vampire Edward or Werewolf Jacob. (I'm a Team Jacob fan all the way!!) I decided to make Vampire cupcakes and a Werewolf Brownie tray for the party. It started with my usual superb baking skills.....cupcakes and brownies from a box :) For my Vampire Cupcakes I *borrowed* the idea from another website of making red velvet cupcakes and frosting them with white cream cheese icing. I then punctured 2 holes (vampire bites) and adding blood (red glaze). They made me want to suck your blood....snort :)
Werewolf brownies were a little trickier. I couldn't find any great ideas to steal especially using brownies. So I had to improvise :) I thought about my cake decorating and decided I could DRAW a werewolf on the brownie tray. If you know me or are one of my former students...I CAN NOT DRAW!!! But after using my favorite tool....GOOGLE...I had a sort of template.I told you that I can't draw :) However, I was able to see what I liked/didn't like and was able to make this.I placed my much improved template on the brownie tray and outlined it with left over cream cheese frosting from the cupcakes. I used my standard ziplock baggie with the corner cut off. The face features I had to do free hand. Not bad, huh???? All of my friends were impressed :)

Our party was fun! We had spaghetti for dinner (Volturi are in Italy and that's what Bella and Edward had to eat the first time). My desserts for dinner. And during the movie we had popcorn drizzled with blood (butter with red food coloring). I love having friends that enjoy the fun things in life and of course it's always great to hang out and talk with the girls!!

Breaking Dawn!

Since I am a stay at home mom, I get a little break in the afternoon while Little Lion snoozes.  During this time is when I blog, surf the net, and read....notice I didn't mention cleaning :)  Well my new favorite young adult series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is coming out with the 4th and final book on Saturday, Breaking Dawn.

For the past week, I have been rereading the first 3 books, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.  I remembered how much I enjoyed these books.  Granted it is a young adult series, but it is a true love story between a girl and vampire with a werewolf thrown in.  As cheesy as it sounds, you fall in love with all the characters.  Bella is a teenager who falls in love with Edward a vampire and wants to become one so she can be with him forever.  Of course they have many problems with other vampires trying to kill her and jealousy issues with Jacob the werewolf who is Bella's best friend and in love with her.  To not give away too many spoilers, I recommend reading the series.  Love, Action, and Happy Endings...what more could you ask for???

Also the 1st book Twilight is coming to the theaters in December. The actors wouldn't be my first choice of who I pictured in my head, and hopefully the movie does the book justice. Nonetheless, I will definitely be there!

I am anxiously awaiting Saturday to get the final installment.  They are even having midnight release parties at all the major bookstores....very Harry Potteresque!  Do you think I should go at midnight???????  I want to, but then I'd be up all night reading which would make me be a crabby mommy on Saturday.  Hurry Up Saturday!!!  BUT it needs to slow down after that since my birthday will be on the following Friday...EEEEKKKKKKKK   30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!