Gender Reveal

Did you hear? It's a BOY! We are so excited. I've been having a hard time working the past couple of days because all I want to do is look at baby boy clothes and toys. Read all about how we told our families here.

There are some things I learned from our little gender reveal weekend that I'd love to share with you all, in case you'd like to do something similar one day.

1. If baking isn't your specialty, leave it to the pros. I had a great experience with Crumbs, but I'm sure other bakeries would accommodate similar requests.

2. Skip the cupcake flags or any other decoration that might accidentally reveal the filling early. Cute it theory, but not practical.

3.Choose dark colored frosting. I wanted chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and frosting so people had a choice, but the white frosting didn't hide the blue filling that well. I'd do all chocolate if I could go back in time.

4. If possible, get both sides of the family together for the reveal. It was fun to be able to do it twice, but it was hard to keep the secret for the side of the family that had to go second (and friends who were dying to know). It would have been so much fun to have both families find out together - the more, the merrier, right?

5. Enjoy yourself! Any time I plan something like this, I have a hard time relaxing and enjoying the moment once it arrives. If you're anything like me, try to take a deep breath and remember what's important - celebrating with family and friends!

Would you ever do a gender reveal party or gathering?

It's a...

If you remember, my husband's 30th birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. We thought we might open our card the night before, but we were so exhausted from going to a friendsgiving dinner, that we decided to wait until the next morning when we would be fresh. All night both of us had multiple dreams about opening the card and for both of us, every time we opened the card in our dreams it was a boy.

Well...

Our dreams came true!! Right after we opened the card (which also had an ultrasound picture of the genitals that I've decided to keep private), I gave my husband his other birthday present.

He's a huge Raider fan and I ordered this onsie thinking it could work for a boy or a girl, but it REALLY works for a boy.

As for our reactions? I didn't cry right away. I think my husband did, but he'd probably deny it. Later, though, when I went to pick up the cupcakes and to Starbucks, I was crying every five minutes. I would see something that made me think of our little boy and cry. It was quite overwhelming.

After picking up the cupcakes, we decided to try some to make sure the filling was the correct color.

They got it right! Crumbs was just great about this whole thing. I definitely recommend them for your custom cupcake needs.

I just know our little boy will grow up to be as handsome and kind as this guy. I can only hope he will be as silly :)

Then, we headed to my parents' house for some cupcakes and champagne, followed by Thanksgiving dinner.

Here's our plate of cupcakes with my little question mark flags. They were super cute, but not super practical. Nobody wants to bite into a cupcake with a toothpick in it, so you have to take it out first, but with the surprise filling, you run the risk of seeing the color on the toothpick before the big bite. It was a nice idea, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I love this picture! They haven't even seen the color yet, but they're so excited!

Can you see my brother doing the fist pump YES! ? He was super excited, as were my mom and stepdad.

After some more cooking and football watching, it was time for dinner. My parents make the BEST turkey ever. The breast is so moist and flavorful, even the next day out of the microwave.

After dinner we played games and had underdone pumpkin pie (that I made - whoops) while watching Christmas movies.

The next day, we headed to my husband's parents' house for our second reveal and third thanksgiving. However, we wanted to wait until my husband's sister, nieces, and friends arrived the next day, so we had to hold in our news. It was so hard and I think my husband slipped once, but he tried to cover it.

Finally, everyone (well, almost) arrived and we got another plate of cupcakes ready.

This time, only a couple of flags in the middle.

From left, Molly (sister-in-law), Ann (mother-in-law), Gwen (niece), Stella (adorable baby), and Caren (our sweet friend). My husband's dad and our other niece Ava are just out of the frame of the picture.

Yay! It was so funny to see if people would bite into the cupcake or rip it in half to see the color.

This will be their first grandson (they have two granddaughters), so they are so excited.

Our friends Paul and Jackie arrived a little late, but we saved cupcakes for them!

Jackie lost a bet on this one!

Then, it was time for dinner. My husband worked hard carving out 12 mini pumpkins for a delicious butternut squash soup that Ann made from squash from her garden.

Adorable and delicious!

I wasn't quite sick of turkey yet, but this meal might have put me over the turkey dinner edge. Delicious!

More games, toddler play time, and lots of talking about our future baby boy and it was time for bed. What a weekend!

The majority of you guessed that it would be a boy in my poll, so as a reward to all of you, even those who guessed wrong, I'm going to have a little giveaway! One lucky winner will receive 12 delicious mini cupcakes from Crumbs! They are not sponsoring this post, I'm paying for them out of my own money because I love you. Leave a comment on this post to enter and be sure you are signed in with your email address or leave it in the comment! Comment by Friday at 11:59pm.

Get ready for lots of nursery inspiration, baby boy clothes, and more fun baby related posts!!

Must Have Thanksgiving Food

I'm hungry all the time lately, so it's natural that I'm really looking forward to pigging out on Thanksgiving this year. Here are the things I must have on my plate each year:

Brined turkey. Do it. Start like now.

Mashed potatoes made with real potatoes, lots of butter, and heavy cream. Throw in some fresh roasted garlic for good measure. Use this recipe from Martha or this one from my stepdad.

Cranberry sauce made with real cranberries. I like the canned version to spread on sandwiches for leftovers (dude: use hawaiin rolls, mayo, canned cranberry sauce, turkey, lettuce, and stuffing - omg yum - thank you Ann for introducing me to that), but the real stuff is delicious for the actual meal.

Something green. I have this weird thing where I have to have something green on my plate or I feel like I'm not getting a balanced meal. For Thanksgiving, I like green beans or brussels sprouts. I'm making this recipe for a friend's potluck Wednesday night.

Stuffing without any fruit in it. Fruit in savory dishes is not ok with me.

This is the only thing that I think is better not homemade. I have to have my flaky layers biscuits. I offered to bring them this year because I want to make sure we have the right ones (one year my mom got crescents and I was super disappointed).

Pumpkin pie. This has to be my favorite dessert EVER. I'm making it for the first time this year and I really hope I don't have to run to the store for a replacement only to find that they're sold out. Here's the recipe I'm using (with premade dough).

I like gravy and yams, but those are not on my must have list. Actually, gravy is pretty necessary, but I have no clue how to make it, so I leave it to the pros.

What's on your must have Thanksgiving dinner list?

Halloween Dinner

I made this meal for the first time last year a couple of days before Halloween when we carved pumpkins. It was so yummy and fun that I decided to make it again this year and I hope I can keep the tradition going. It was a little hectic making it on Halloween night because I was running to the door in between preparations and we had to keep getting up for the trick-or-treaters while we were eating, but I think it makes an excellent pumpkin carving night meal.

I made a meatloaf hand, a la Not Martha:

It fell apart a bit (last year's looked way better), but notice the onion fingernails and wrist bone!

I don't use a mold like Not Martha does, I just shape it by hand. It would probably be prettier if I cooked it on a rack so the juice just drips off, but I don't have one so I either use a cookie sheet or pyrex.

For sides, we had Brussels sprout eyeballs and monster mashed potatoes (thanks Andy for naming those last year):

Yummy!

I used this recipe from All Recipes for the meatloaf.

The mashed potatoes are my stepdad's specialty (he's a chef).

4 russet potatoes
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz butter (1 stick)
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and boil potatoes until tender. Meanwhile, heat cream and butter together until melted. Once potatoes are cooked and drained, mash them up and add the cream and butter mixture a little bit at a time until it reaches desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste (sometimes I add roasted garlic for added deliciousness).

He also taught me how to make really yummy Brussels sprouts - by the way, I never knew there was an s on the end of brussel when talking about the vegetable. Boil them until fork tender, but still bright green. Just before they're done, heat some butter in a pan. Let it turn light brown and smell the heavenly aroma. Drain the sprouts and sautee them in the butter until browned a bit. If you want to boil them ahead of time, rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process and sautee with the brown butter right before serving. Soooo good.

Not the healthiest meal ever, but that's ok for a once-a-year treat. For dessert? Way too much candy. Last year we ran out of candy and had to give away some of my brother's, so this year we over-compensated and now we have way too much left over. Dangerous!

Do you have an unusual Halloween tradition?

Another Acronym: BLW

Read all of my Spearmint Baby posts here.

Have you heard of Baby Led Weaning? Here's a quote from the website:

"Based on a paper written by Gill Rapley, Baby Led Weaning just means letting your child feed themselves from the very start of weaning."


That's right, no baby food, no purees, no mush. The argument is that babies who eat purees from a spoon fed by the parents learn how to swallow before they learn how to chew. They don't get used to the texture of food and as a result can become picky eaters later in life. Babies between the ages of 6 months and 1 year get all the nutrition they need from breast milk or formula, so the food they eat is just for learning and exploring. No need to force them to eat, just give them a tray full of a variety of soft foods (cooked carrots, beans, fruit, etc) and let them go at it.

Our adorable niece Ava

The downside? First of all, it's really messy. You can't give a baby a bath every single time they finish a meal, but that's what wipes are for, right? Feed them in nothing but a diaper and wipe them down after. Secondly, they might choke. The website says it's better to learn what to do when a child is choking than to constantly worry about it happening. They say to make sure that risky foods are cut up properly (grapes cut in half), but really since they're learning how to chew/gnaw before they learn how to swallow, they won't choke as much as a baby food fed baby might.

I plan on trying out this new method of food introduction. I'm not saying it's the best way or the only way to do things. I do think it seems a whole lot easier than buying or making baby food and spoon feeding it to a squirmy baby.

What do you think? Have you tried BLW? Would you?

The cutest thing I've seen all week

Instagrahams!

Bakerella made homemade graham crackers and, with a little fondant, turned them into these adorable cookies. I wish I was as awesomely creative as she is!

Do you Instagram? Follow me and I'll follow back! @amyc83

Happy Labor Day!

I'm going to be laboring all day grading papers and planning because I put it off all weekend, but I'm sure I'll have time to enjoy my favorite treat as of late:

Image from here.

I can't get enough popsicles lately! I especially love lemonade flavored ones. So refreshing and delicious!

What treats will you indulge in this Labor Day?

MIA

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I apologize. This week has been crazy what with getting acclimated to my new school and students. I'm hoping to make some time each weekend to write up my posts for the following week, but if I continue to blog less regularly, don't be surprised and please don't unsubscribe!! I have exciting news to share soon and want you to stick around to read all about it.

This weekend is my 10 year high school reunion and I have cold feet. Do I have to go? I did pay a lot of money (for me) for the tickets and got a new dress for the occasion. We'll see if I have the guts or if I suddenly feel really sick that night.

What are your plans for the weekend? I'm ready for fall and Trader Joe's pumpkin bread mix. Anybody else?

Image from Simply Recipes.

Sleepy Anxiety

I start at my new school one week from today. I'm terrified. The dreams should start any night now. I always have scary dreams about work at the end of big breaks (summer and winter). I wonder if that will ever go away...

I'm tired. All I want to do is eat and sleep. This is making it difficult to prepare lesson plans and set up my classroom. I'll get it done, though. I always do.

This weekend we my husband almost finished our entryway. He wanted the record to show that I did not help AT ALL. I just paid for the paint.

I took this picture of the paint chips because we were buying the paint, but I already had picked out the colors from swatches we have had since right after Emily styled our house. She told us what would compliment the dark purple in the living room and we listened. I will tell you what color we went with once it is all done.

Saturday night, we went to my friend Michelle's parents' house for a BBQ. I had fun playing with her adorable son, Carter.

We went to church on Sunday morning and afterwards my husband made breakfast. Love that guy.

I feel kinda bad that my husband worked so hard this weekend on the entryway while I sat around and did nothing. But, not THAT bad.

Ok, back to worrying myself to sleep. I hope you had a great weekend!

Homemade Pizza Pies!

Our friends Erika and Josh had a facebook giveaway frenzy because they were moving across the country to Florida. I was sad to see them go, but glad to scoop up some fab freebies! The first thing I scored was a Beaba Babycook. They had used it for their son Oliver, but it is good as new. I have heard that it simplifies baby food making, but it doesn't make very much at one time. However, it was free, so I was glad to take it and try it out, eventually.

The second thing I snagged was a pizza stone. The day after we got it, we made pizza for the first time!

We went the easy route: pre-made dough from Trader Joe's, jar sauce, shredded cheese, and tomato and basil from the garden.

First, we put the stone in the oven to preheat. Don't worry, it's clean, just very loved.

Then, we stretched out the dough on our lightly floured pizza peel. I got this one at Target for around $8.

Next came the sauce...

And then the cheese...

And then our toppings.

The transfer into the oven didn't go as well as we had hoped. We needed more flour under the dough. We eventually got it on the stone, though.

After around 20 minutes, we had pizza!

We tried one more with wheat dough and stretched it out a little more to make the crust thinner. We topped this one with spinach, red onions, and jalapenos.

The pizzas were delicious, but the crust was just too thick. Next time, we'll divide the dough in two and stretch it really thin to try to get that yummy crispy thin crust. I also want to try it with fresh mozzarella. Yummm...

Have you ever made pizza at home? What are your favorite toppings?