Celebrating One, With Bubble Bath Fun!

Baby Girl turned ONE a month and a half ago. I can’t believe how long ago that already is and feels, and how quickly her first year went by. We had a wonderful celebration with family and friends. First birthday parties are special in our family. They are one of the big, everyone-is-invited celebrations. I promise Matt that subsequent birthday parties come around to or under the ten-kid limit. But there is something special about our children’s first birthdays (and their naming ceremonies :-)) that I feel should be celebrated with our wider community. Perhaps it’s just that we survived haha! But truly, there is so very much to celebrate in a baby’s first year … from the tiny instinctive movements of grasping fingers to running and climbing everywhere, what a huge leap in development, in change, in life. 

I make a birthday photo book for each child for every birthday and I think it really helps to capture and remind me all that has happened in the past year, and how much these beautiful children have grown. In addition to the pictures, this is the place where I jot down all the baby book stuff ... teeth popping through, developmental milestones like rolling over, crawling, walking, first words and favorites. One of Aviella’s favorites this past year has been bubble baths. So I knew I had to do her birthday party in a bubble bath theme.

But bubble baths … in October … in a drought ... in a park?! Yeah, it’s weird. I leaned heavily on the bubble aspect since I couldn’t very well invite everyone over to actually splash around in a real bubble bath. But I tried to include some bath themes where I could. I think she had fun despite the need to stretch the theme :-)

This was our first park birthday party … I’m not convinced it’s easier than at home haha. It was absolutely lovely being able to start the party with the house a complete disaster haha but I found it challenging to schlep everything over to a park, even one that was so close. Took numerous cars and numerous trips, and extended family helped with the schlepping back! And having to remember every little thing—matches, cake cutter, extra folding chairs, and having no extra time to set up. That was hard for this planner who likes to have things set and ready well before go-time. But no matter, even with the napkins covering the food because the flies were a nuisance and the bubble balloon bath quickly making its way to a car trunk since the babies discovered how much fun it could be to bite the balloons, there was sun, friends, family, older siblings racing around and younger ones jumping in bubbles and laughing, and Baby Girl was smiling the entire time. 

Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate our very special girl. Any tips for park parties in the future? Kalev's is just 2 weeks away now! Boy is fall busy!

Happy Birthday Aviella!

A very special thanks to Megan Pimentel for the beautiful pictures of Aviella. You can tell which ones they are because they are so much clearer than my iphone ones haha!

Menu: pasta salad bubble bath, fruit bubbles, cheese bubble & crackers, Israeli cous cous bubble salad, pink lemonade, pink lemonade + ice cream bubble bath punch, water

Easy peasy decorations: fabulous Aviella banner made by the wonderful Diana for Aviella's naming ceremony, jars with pink ribbon, pink runner over white tablecloth, clear plastic Christmas ornaments to look like bubbles on the table, a few rubber duckies, and pink balloons, of course

Bubble bath cake inspiration: CakeCentral

Bubble bath cake bubbles how-to: Globalpost

Bubble favors: Maison de Pax

Chocolate cake recipe: Add A Pinch

Buttercream frosting, per Matt's request: Martha Stewart (of course!)

Cheesy Cauliflower and Brown Rice Casserole

This is the most amazing recipe I discovered and adapted from the Sprouted Kitchen months and months ago. It may sound kinda weird but everyone I've made it for loves it, including the baby, the kid, grandma, and my mother-in-law. A winner definitely!

I adapted it from the Sprouted Kitchen recipe to make it simpler, faster and to use fewer ingredients. I also discovered that if your husband ate the brown rice you had saved in the fridge just for this meal you can totally use frozen black eyed peas instead! Say what? Totally random but Matt looked through our fridge and freezer and that's all he came up with and since I don't believe in going to the grocery store for one last minute forgotten ingredient we tried it and it was a total hit! And probably healthier since it added all the goodness of a legume, all that protein etc etc.

To make this dish, grab your cutting board and cauliflower. Rinse the cauliflower and use your fine grater microplane to shave off any dark spots. Did you know you could do that? Super easy. Another brilliant Matt idea. Cut the cauliflower in half, then cut the florets off. Now get your almost four year old and put him to work breaking those florets into small pieces. You can leave them as chunky as you want but I've realized I like most of my food in small bite sizes so I can scoop a spoonful of the finished product and be good to go, no cutting with a fork or whatnot. After the pieces are broken and put into a microwave safe bowl you microwave it for about 4 minutes. I know, I know, boo yucky microwave. You can totally steam them on the stove instead. But when I'm entertaining a four year and have the baby on my hip or trying to get into the dog food at my feet, I opt for speed when I can and when it doesn't seriously compromise the health or taste of the food.

Once you prep your cauliflower, add your leftover brown rice to the cauliflower and mix. You can make fresh rice too of course but this meal is perfect for using up older rice.

Now for your super rich and tasty sauce: add your diced onion to the melted butter in your pan and sauté until tender. If you don't have any red onion using a regular onion is totally fine. It's a great way to use the other half of an onion that often finds it's way into our fridge. Add the minced garlic and cook until you smell that amazing aroma. Is there really anything better than onions and garlic sautéing in butter? Yum! I find most recipes tell you to add the garlic when you add your onion but the onion takes so much longer than the garlic to cook. And no one likes burnt garlic! When the garlic is ready add your flour and salt and pepper and stir for a couple minutes. You want that flour to be cooked. Then slowly add your milk, a little at a time, stirring as you do so. I'm often in a hurry and add a lot of milk at a time. It's fine, the dish still tastes good, but if you can slow down and really stir and heat the milk with the flour mixture the sauce really comes together and thickens wonderfully, instead of a thinner sauce. You should add the milk, see the mixture thicken and bubble and then add a little more milk, stirring, stirring. Add the shredded cheese, stir until it's melted then pour the cauliflower/rice mixture into the sauce pot and toss it together, making sure to cover the rice mixture with the sauce. The cheddar cheese we've been in love with for the last year is the Oscar Wilde cheddar. It is so delicious! It works wonderfully as nibble cheese, on its own or with fig or berry jam, and also in cooking. Yum! You can add the parmesan at the end and stir to mix, leaving some delightful chunks of it.

Put in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish and cook for twenty minutes at 400 degrees. It should be bubbly and smell of cheesy goodness. Then hit the broil for 1-2 minutes (don't let it burn!) and you're good to go!

 Casserole with the black eyed peas experiment

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower

2 cups brown rice, cooked (or cooked beans)

½ red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper

1 ½ cups milk

6-8 oz cheddar cheese, grated

½ - 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop up or break apart cauliflower into bite size pieces. Cook in a microwave safe bowl for 4 minutes. Add your brown rice to the cauliflower and mix to distribute ingredients. Saute your onion in butter until it softens. Add your garlic and sauté that for a minute or so. Add the flour, salt and pepper to taste, and stir while cooking for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add your milk, whisking well as you go. Let the sauce thicken then add your grated cheddar cheese, stir to combine and melt the cheese. Take sauce off burner and add parmesan, stir to combine. Pour sauce over cauliflower/brown rice mixture and stir to combine. Add mixture to greased 9 x 13 baking dish and cook for 20 minutes. Broil for 1-2 minutes at the end for a browned and bubbly top.