snapshots from a soccer birthday party

There are plenty of blogs out there that feature birthday parties with creative themes, amazing decorations, exquisite styling, and professional photos of the happy event. This isn’t one of them.

When I host a party, I’m usually so busy getting everything set up that I feel lucky to find a moment to take pictures before the guests arrive. So here are just a few very basic snapshots of the soccer-themed birthday party we hosted in our backyard to celebrate our happy six-year-old.

Doing a photoshoot with a giant number has become a tradition at our kids’ birthday parties. It only costs a couple bucks to make (I stock up on foam core at Michaels when it’s 50% off), and then we use the large number in their bedroom as a big, fun decoration until their next birthday rolls around. They love it and so do I.

The kids always ask me to create a treasure hunt, so I made a photo-based treasure hunt for the gang of energetic little boys who are still learning to read. For the hidden treasure (which doubled as the party favor), I bought a reusable water bottle for each kid, filled it with sweet treats, and strung up a tag with each boy’s name on it so they didn’t accidentally eat each other’s Skittles.

My favorite little detail for the party was the cupcake topper I created — and I was so proud of myself for planning ahead and making them a whole week before the party. Ha! I found a soccer ball graphic on the internet and designed a simple number six in a circle for the opposite side of the cupcake topper. Then I just cut them out with a circle punch and glued them together with a toothpick in between.

Another summer, another round of family birthday parties complete!

back-to-school pizza

A brand new school year begins tomorrow morning, and as it often does, Sunday evening found our family gathered around the table eating homemade pizza. As he was chowing down on a slice of cheese pizza, our newly-minted six year old suddenly said, “Wait! You didn’t take a picture of the pizza!” I had already snapped a photo when he wasn’t looking, but I love that he remembered my project of documenting all of my homemade pizzas this year.

2012 homemade pizza tally: 15

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been neglecting as much as I reasonably can in favor of two main pursuits — watching the Olympics and designing a brand new look for my blog. It’s undergoing a major renovation, and I can’t wait to show you the new layout when it’s ready!

Meanwhile I’ve been trying to keep up with the essentials like laundry, soccer games, shopping for maternity clothes, and eating homemade pizza. The kids were away at “Cousin Camp” on Sunday evening, so I made a slightly smaller pizza for just Tim and me. One half had pineapple; the other did not.

A few years ago, I almost made Hawaiian pizza for Tim for our second date. (My favorite must be everyone’s favorite, right?) Thank goodness I asked what toppings he liked!

I’m curious. What pizza toppings are your favorites? Which ones would you pick off if they crossed the line onto your side of the pizza?

pizza number 14

Our summer weekends have been filled with so many things that I hadn’t made pizza since the first weekend in June! Last evening we enjoyed pizza #14 before settling in to watch more Olympics… which, of course, is what I’m doing right now. Go Team USA!

basil hummus

My four little basil plants are growing like crazy! I recently found a recipe for basil hummus, which sounded great, so this evening I cut a bunch of basil and mixed up a batch for dinner. My mouth was watering just looking at the ingredients.

I chopped up the basil and garbanzo beans in the food processor…

…then added the rest of the ingredients (plus three cloves of garlic!) and kept processing it ’til it was thick and creamy. I spread the hummus on a small slice of homemade Italian bread, and of course it tasted just as delicious as it smelled. Next time I wouldn’t use quite as much garlic, as it almost overpowered the basil.

I served the hummus and bread for supper with homemade broccoli cheese soup (slightly modified from this recipe). It was a perfect meal for a rainy summer evening.

Do you have any great recipes that feature fresh basil? (Besides the obvious pesto, which I’ve actually never made.) I’d love to hear your suggestions!

summer kickoff party 2012

The first day of summer is just around the corner, so we were delighted to have a bunch of friends join us on the patio last evening for our now-annual summer kickoff party.

Let’s take a closer look at those toppings on the ice cream sundae bar, shall we?

We served just one kind of ice cream (vanilla) with ten topping options: sprinkles, mini marshmallows, gummi bears, peanuts, mini M&Ms, crushed Oreos, peanut butter chips, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. I’m not sad that we have leftovers.

The kids outnumbered the adults 15 to 11, and they entertained themselves with five beach balls, one stomp rocket, and loads of glow bracelets. Michaels sells glow bracelets in tubes of 15 for $1, so I love to hand them out generously at parties like this.

The first official day of summer isn’t until tomorrow, but it feels like it’s already here. Welcome to summer!

I made mozzarella cheese

On Sunday afternoon, I made mozzarella cheese.

I started with whole milk, citric acid, rennet, and salt — and ended up with 14 ounces of delicious mozzarella cheese. I followed the instructions step by step, and it actually worked! I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was (and still am). It was art, it was science, it was magic.

I’ve been wanting to make mozzarella cheese for years, so six months ago, I finally added a cheese-making kit to my Christmas wish list. The kit has been waiting patiently in my pantry ever since the holidays. So why didn’t I make cheese sooner? Well, I thought it would take a long time. I thought it would be more complicated. I thought I would become frustrated. I thought it seemed mysterious. I thought it wouldn’t turn out.

And you know what? It did take longer than the instructions said it should. It was a little frustrating when the curd didn’t develop properly. It was certainly more complicated than buying fresh mozzarella at the store. And I still think the process is rather mysterious. But it was actually pretty easy. And it turned out just fine.

I made cheese.

And now I can’t wait to make more. Last night I did some online research to see how I can get the curd to separate from the whey better, and I’m eager to tweak the process a bit.

The photos I hurriedly snapped with my iPhone along the way aren’t great, but dinner last evening definitely was.

I made the mozzarella cheese, grew the basil, baked the bread, and bought the tomatoes at a local produce stand. And I’m still a little surprised that I made cheese.

pizza number 13

Sunday night is movie night at our house. After eating homemade pizza, I pop some popcorn and get drinks ready while the kids change into their pajamas. Magen gathers up a basket full of stuffed animals and we all head to the basement for a kid flick. It’s a nice little routine.

But that’s not how it happened this past Sunday.

Just as the pizza was coming out of the oven, a thunderstorm was brewing and the wind was really picking up. The kids were already in the basement, so Tim and I took the pizza downstairs to eat while we watched the movie… and the kids never realized they should be scared.

This is the award-winning photo I snapped in the basement just before we dug in. (It’s hard to be creative when you’re hungry!)

picnic sandwiches for four

When you’re me, this is what it looks like to pack a picnic lunch for an afternoon at a local state park.

Not pictured: carrots, cucumber, cheese, watermelon, pretzel sticks, chocolate chip cookies.

Also not pictured: wet, muddy clothes and two tired parents!

pizza number twelve

I told you so!

As we were polishing off a whole pizza for supper on Saturday, I knew I wanted to make pizza again soon. So I waited three whole days before making another pizza. It was exactly the same as all the other pizzas I’ve been making… except that I forgot to grease the pizza pan. Oops! We ate quickly so we could enjoy a little fishing excursion after supper, so I even managed to capture a bit of pizza-cutting action.