Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe

I have been trying to incorporate whole wheat into everything we eat instead of using regular white wheat.  I grind my own whole wheat each week.

 

 I buy the white wheat so the color is much lighter than the red wheat or other varieties (my kids haven't noticed the changes at all).  I have been trying different whole wheat pancake recipes each week and every one has been ok but not quite what we prefer.  So, after much tweeking, here's my recipe.

 Combine in a medium bowl:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp Sugar

Mix together well.

Now add to your bowl:

1 1/2 cup of buttermilk

1 1/2 cup of regular milk

2 table spoons of melted butter (if you use unsalted butter, then add 1/4 tsp. of salt to dry ingredients above before adding wet ingredients)

2 well beaten eggs.

Stir together until it's all combined.  They will be more fluffy if you don't over beat them.  It shouldn't be completely smooth.  Then cook on your skillet with a little butter or oil to grease the pan.

 They are so yummy.  You won't be dissapointed.

I also mix it up and add fresh berries or chocolate or cinnamon chips.  Have fun!  

Chevron Baby Blanket

Have you seen this new chevron minky?????  Oh be still my heart.  Heaven.

I have 2 close friends having babies this summer so I had to pick some up for their gift.  Here's the first one for a little girl.  It's grey minky on one side and a pink flower from Robert Kaufman.  It's a very soft brushed cotton flannel.  

 To wrap up the blanket I took a scrap of the minky and sewed it down one side making a tube.  I tied the ends so it wouldn't fray and used this to tie a bow around the blanket.  

I love how this quick little blanket turned out.  I have several quick ones like this that I've ended up using so much with my kids and they still drag them around.  I think this one's a keeper.

 To complete the present, I wrapped it in this adorable chevron wrapping paper I found at TJMaxx.  I love it!!  Now I'm ready for the baby shower.

 

8th Birthday Outfit

Every year I make my daughter an outfit to wear on her birthday.  It's always a shirt with the number on it and a cute skirt.  This year she's really into turquoise and pink so that's the combo we went with. I love how it turned out and I just love this little girl!!

 Instead of a ruffled band on the bottom, I went with a straight band and I really liked it. I decided to add a matching headband this year.  I used the scraps to make 3 flower rosettes and attached to a metal headband covered in pink ribbon.

Strawberries & Cream Cake from Southern Living Magazine

 Ok.  I love Southern Living Magazine (even though I'm a born and bred CA girl) and I LOVE this recipe I got from the April magazine (Click Here for Link).  The bad part was that it is a super involved recipe.  Everything had to cool for about 8 hours in between each thing.  So it took about 24 hours to make the cake.  The good part was it was worth it.  It was soooooo good and everyone loved it.  I didn't have 8 inch cake rounds.  Mine were 8 1/2 so I ended up with only 4 layers instead of 6, but it still turned out awesome.  I'll definitely be making this again.

Movie & Slumber Party

For my daughters birthday we decided to have a late-over/movie party.  Basically it's like a slumber party, but they don't spend the night. 

 

 We got lots of blankets and pillows setup for the movie viewing and glow in the dark dance party.  I also did a "concession stand" for the girls for the movie.  

We had lots of different candies and boxes of popcorn.

 

  I found these adorable popcorn boxes in the silhouette store.  I just got polka dot and plain cardstock and cut it with the silhouette.  They were so fun and just the perfect size for the party.

 For the drink station, the girls got different soda's in liter glass mason jars with the flower lid tops and paper straws.  They each got to make their own pizza for dinner and they painted nails while it was cooking.

 The table was pre-set with hot pink plates, a turquoise hemstitch table cloth, lots of streamers, and puffs made from tulle.  Her Strawberries and Cream cake from Southern Living Magazine was the centerpiece.  I'll have the details on that in a different post.

 

We setup a table near the door with the party favors.  Each girl got a cute turquoise pail filled with bubbles, jump rope, ring pop, and bubble gum.  They were pretty excited.

 I love these fun silly girls!  It was a fun party!

Teacher Appreciation 2013- Mahalo

My friend and I chaired Teacher Appreciation Week again for our school this year.  This year we chose the theme of "Mahalo" and decorated Hawaiian.  I think it turned out really cute.  Here's a few of the decorations.

This was the front of the school where you walk in.  The 2 poles are palm trees.  The coconuts are brown balloons.  We decorated the night before so that's why it's dark in the pictures.

We did another palm tree by the office and some additional decorations. 

 

This was inside the teachers lounge.  We brought in a full catered lunch every day for the whole week.  So this was our main table area for the food.

 These were the tables.  We had these cute Hawaiian table toppers and beach hats.  Last year we used flowers and had to worry about watering them and keeping them fresh.  These were much easier and still cute.
  It was such a fun week and the teachers loved it!

Pop Birthday Party Invite & Baptism Invite

May is a big month.  I've been spending the last few weeks of April getting things ready for May events.  2 of the big events are my daughters Birthday Party and her Baptism.  These are the invitations we sent out for both events.

For my daughters birthday this year we are doing a "late over" (like a slumber party but the girls go home around 9 and don't spend the night).  We're doing dinner, dance party, movie, and lots of treats,  Everything is a polka dot theme or pop theme, so popcorn, soda pop, bubble gum.  So for the invite we did a ticket and made our own little envelope out of polka dot tissue paper.

I used the silhouette to design and cut the ticket.  I did it fairly large and wrote all the party details on their ticket.  The party is Saturday so I'll post pictures of that next week.