JAMSquared

Sunday afternoon, Amy hosted a pizza and pie birthday party for our friend Lori. The timing was perfect because Jessica woke up from her afternoon nap, I nursed her and then we left for the party, only arriving about 15 minutes late.

Here’s the birthday girl with her party hat. I insisted on taking this picture and Lori humored me.

Jessica went to the party with me. She enjoyed playing with the whole basket of baby toys Amy set out for her.

Here’s Heather and Lori, fellow AMDers. Heather works in the same group as James and Amy’s husband Ken.

Lori is not the biggest cake fan, so Amy made an apple pie and a cherry pie for the party. I had a slice of the cherry pie and it was so delicious.

Of course, Heather brought some cupcakes and the kiddos (well, all the kiddos except Jessica) had fun with those. Don’t you love the frosting smiles cupcakes give kids?

Georgia Rose licked all the frosting off her cupcake and then declared she was done with it.

It was fun getting to hang out with everyone to celebrate such a fun event.

My friend Lori’s birthday is this coming Tuesday. Another friend hosted a pizza and pie party for her. It was a lot of fun. Come back tomorrow for pictures from the party.

This is the card I made for her. Since my gift to Lori consisted mostly of a few TGF stamps, I decided this TGF little girl stamp I have would be the perfect image. I used the color scheme from the ATS Weekly Wednesday Challenge #34 which was to use caribbean, pink and celery. Initially, I thought I would use the Mojo Monday Sketch  #144, but my image turned out too big for that sketch. I decided the Our Creative Corner Sketch #21 would be perfect, although I decided to nix the bow.

Stamps: The Greeting Farm OA-Happy Day; Hero Arts CL038 Number Four (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Tea Party, Paper Prints Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Tempting Turquoise 3/8″ grosgrain ribbon
Markers: Stampin’ Up Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa

Last Saturday, our friend Phap came over to help James pull up the ruined laminate flooring. Phap is quite the eater and whenever he comes over I always send him home with food. For dessert, I made this delicous cake. I did not tell them the name of the cake until after they had eaten their slice. James, my non-vegetable eating husband, found it to be pretty tasty. Phap tore it up and had devoured the 4 slices I sent home with him by the next day. I also took the cake over to Ranger and Clarisse’s house and they enjoyed the cake as well.

Zucchini Fudge Cake

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups shredded zucchini (I used 2 zucchini)
• 3-1/2 cups prepared chocolate frosting (see following recipe I used)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Stir in zucchini.

Pour into three greased and floured 9-inch round baking pans. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Since I placed all 3 pans on the same rack, I rotated them about halfway through baking.) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. (I let cool about 1.5 hours before frosting.) Spread frosting between layers and over the top and sides of cake.

Yield: 10-12 servings

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Source: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (2000 binder edition)

Ingredients:

• 4-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

In medium bowl, mix confectioner’s sugar and butter with electic mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and chocolate. Gradually beat in just enough milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

Yield: almost not enough to frost my cake

When we stayed at Ranger’s house Saturday and Sunday, we took Jessica’s rocking chair with us. She enjoys straps and buckles on things and likes to gnaw on them. The rocking chair’s straps are no exception. I kinda stood her up next to the chair and she leaned over to get to the straps and off she went pushing the chair. Too cute.

James experienced his first Father’s Day Sunday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really any different than most Sundays. Jessica and I had given him his gift the previous Sunday, because my brain wasn’t working right and I thought the previous Sunday was Father’s Day. Then I discovered it wasn’t, so I thought we’d wait and give him his card on the actual Father’s Day. Well, Saturday, we had AC issues again and spent Saturday and Sunday night at our friend’s house, so we wouldn’t have to be in a hot house. Needless to say, I forgot to take the card  and my camera with me when we went. Monday, James went back to our house to work from home while he waited for the AC guy. Fortunately, A+ Air Conditioning & Heating didn’t charge us, since the repair guy missed the clog when he took care of the same issue two weeks ago (he had only unclogged 2 of the 3 things that could get clogged).

James wasn’t ready to have a child until the day Jessica made her world debut. I think it was mainly because he was nervous about having such a small life depending on him. He was great with our nephews, but he was hesitant with his interactions with them until they got older. Now, he has no qualms about little babies and has interacted with our niece and the nephew younger than Jessica while they were small without hesitation. Jessica is truly lucky to have him as a father. He plays with her and loves on her. He feeds her dinner and works hard so she can have her Mommy stay home with her.

This card uses a digital image from Bird’s Cards. She has some really neat freebies. Because of how big I printed the image, I made the card rather large, 5 inches by 6.5 inches. Not a big deal, since I didn’t need an envelope.

Stamps: Bird’s Cards New Dad; Stampin’ Up All-Year Cheer II (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pacific Point
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Frosty Day
Ink: Dell printer; Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Karen Foster mini brads Blue Skies
Tools: Prismacolor pencils