Pumpkins and Pumpkin Pie {A Recipe!}

Every year, like many of you, we carve a pumpkin to set out the week before Halloween. This year we ended up with three pumpkins, and we only carved one of them. The girls wanted to paint their pumpkins, and I don't blame them. I don't like touching the insides either.

The night finally came to decorate the pumpkins. We usually do this on the Sunday before Halloween, since we have more time on Sunday afternoons. We also don't want our pumpkins to rot before Halloween. We set the mood by listening to "Monster Mash Radio," a station we created on Pandora by typing in The Monster Mash. Pandora somehow finds other songs that are similar. You know, silly not-so-scary Halloween songs from the 50s (or whenever). We also drink hot chocolate, because lets face it, we live in Indiana, and it's usually cold at the end of October.

Big E drew the face she wanted on the pumpkin, and J carved it out. The girls painted their pumpkins with acrylic craft paint. It's probably not the best choice for painting pumpkins, but it's washable and that's important. You can see, in the pictures below, how the pumpkins turned out.

Do you like my ghost? I got the idea from Pinterest, of course. It's a tomato cage turned upside down. I wrapped Christmas lights around it and covered it with a sheet. Then, I glued some felt eyes onto it. I stuck a big flower pot under the cage so that it wouldn't tip over in the wind. 

So, Halloween came and went. We threw out the carved pumpkin because, well, it was gross. I do not, under any circumstances, recommend making a pie from a carved pumpkin. I'm sure there is lots of bacteria  that you don't even want to mess with. Just use the painted pumpkins or buy a new pumpkin if you want to make pies. 

There are many different kinds of pumpkins. They actually sell pie pumpkins at the store, and they are really good for pies. They are small and sweeter than other pumpkins. While our painted pumpkins were small, I don't think they were pie pumpkins. We got them at the pumpkin patch, so they weren't really labeled.You can use any pumpkin for pie, they will just have slightly different flavors. Now, that we have that settled, here is the recipe for the best pumpkin pie I've ever made.

This was adapted from Alton Brown's recipe. I used a frozen crust, but this gingersnap crust sound amazing!

I forgot to pre-bake the frozen crust! Everything turned out fine, luckily!

Pumpkin Puree

Pumpkin

• Preheat oven to 400*
• Cut the pumpkin in half, and scoop out all the seeds and strings.
• Lay the skin side up in a foil lined pan.
• Bake the pumpkin about 30 minutes, or until it's tender.
• Remove from oven, and cool for about an hour.
• Use a spoon, scoop out the flesh, and put it in a food processor. Process until smooth.

Pie Filling

2 cups of pumpkin puree (made above)

3 Tbl butter + enough milk to make 1 cup

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

• Bring pumpkin puree to simmer in a saucepan. Cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. 
• Add milk mixture, pie spice, cinnamon, and salt. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat and cool about 10  minutes.
• Whisk brown sugar and eggs. Add in pumpkin mixture. Pour into pie crust.
• Bake 45 minutes, or until edges are just set.
• Cool before slicing.

Halloween 2014: Fairies, Cops, and Robbers

Each year for Halloween, my mom likes to plan a theme for all the costumes of the grandkids. This year, the theme was cops and robbers. When I first ran the idea across Big E, she was not thrilled. She was pretty insistent  that if there were no sparkles, wings, princess, or girly things she wanted no part of it. We compromised and let her pick another costume to wear to various other Halloween events, and then use the robber costume for family trick-or-treating. The compromise worked, and she picked to be a fairy. Tinkerbelle to be exact. So, this year I made two costumes for each of my two girls in addition to the costumes that I made for customers (Check out some customer orders here!).

First up, we have the fairies. Big E wanted to be just like Tinkerbelle. We picked pink for Little E, since she doesn't really care too much right now. We told her she was Rosetta, but she said she was, "Pink Tink." Basically, I used the bodice of a princess dress pattern that I have to make the top. I hand-shaped the petals and attached tulle on the bottom. I used this free pattern from Create Kids Couture to make leg warmers for Big E. These were the costumes we wore to ballet, ZooBoo, and trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Do you like my chalkboard sign? I saw it on Pinterest, and I thought it was a cute to leave out with the candy while we were trick-or-treating.

Now, on to the cops and robbers theme. My mom saw an idea on Pinterest, and that is how it all began. It was a big secret until the day of the reveal. There were lots of guesses on my facebook page, but no one got it right. We took lots of pictures that highlighted the theme well. Doesn't everyone drive around town looking for metal gates that look like prison bars? Well, there is a metal gate...and it was at a cemetery. A friend, who is a policeman, let us take pictures with his car too. Then, we visited a lot of our friends and family. Big E kept making "mean, robber" faces the whole night. So funny!

The girls both got super girly, super poofy dresses. I bought a pattern that will make a perfect party dress, and I plan to use it again in the future because it fit so well. The bottom portion of the dress had to be adjusted to fit our theme. I made tutu's to wear under the dresses so they would really stand out. I used this tutorial to figure out how to make them as big as possible....Let's just say a size 6 tutu has about 18 yards of tulle! I didn't add a ribbon to mine since I just used it as an underskirt, but I'm thinking of adding the tutu's to my shop if you are interested. My younger nephew wore a striped shirt paired with those cheap gloves and hats from the store. All the robbers had face paint masks painted on to complete their look. My older nephew had a policeman costume.  All the kids used shoe bags with a $ painted on with fabric markers. 

Learning: Big E in a Bigger World

     Big E is getting ready to go to Kindergarten! I can't believe it. When we registered her, we were given a packet of things each student could work on before coming to the screen at the end of the summer. Examples of things in the packet include the alphabet, counting to twenty, and writing name. Out of about 50 things, there were only 2 things Big E didn't know! (Thank you PBS, Preschool teachers, and lots of other people!) The two things were her address and phone number. Since the screening is next week, I thought I should find some way to teach her these things.
     I went to my go-to site for searching for creative ideas; Pinterest. A couple hours and distractions later, I finally picked something. I made some changes to the original post I saw to fit our needs. I really needed to include the address and phone number on our project, so I added them. I also wanted Big E to practice writing. I think every five year old needs help there!
    To get ready, I Googled images of my city, state, country, etc. I copied them onto a document and printed them out. I also printed a map of our neighborhood for our address. I let Big E cut them apart. While she was cutting, I cut some construction paper to make our flip book. To do this, I cut about an inch off of the second to last page, two inches off the next one, three inches off the following page, etc. Then I stacked the pages (longest on the bottom) and punch two holes in the top. I put some yarn through the holes to hold the book together. Here's the picture of the final book, but you can see what the stacked pages look like.

     Once everything was ready, we got to work. First Big E wrote the category on each page: My phone number, My address, My city, etc. Next, she sorted the pictures that went with each category and glued them onto the correct page. Finally, she wrote her address, city, etc and glued those onto the correct pages. Here is a collage showing you what most of the pages looked like when she got them finished.

     There are so many ways to use this flip book! We talked about how the planet is the biggest page and it's the biggest part of where we are. A phone is a tiny object in a house, in a city, in a state, etc. 

     Writing your address one time is not enough to learn it. Big E already knew the name of our street, so we just need to learn the numbers. Here are some other ideas we are using to  learn  address and phone numbers:

Turn it into a song or here I love using songs. My kids really respond to this. If they can memorize all of "Let it Go", they can memorize their address :)

make up a story using the numbers

write letters to far away friends

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

     Many of you know that we recently celebrated Little E's 2nd birthday. This posts includes all the details that went into planning her Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party.
    The idea for the party all came from one of Little E's favorite books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This is a book she wants to read just about every night. Once we decided on that theme, we searched all over Pinterest for ideas. Our goal was to have fun, while being mindful of our budget. With that in mind, we made a lot of the activities for the party.

The Activities

1. Read the book.
2. Egg on leaf spoon race
3. Feed the caterpillar game
4. Cocoon race
5. Butterfly catch

     We made a lot of the supplies for the activities. In fact, I didn't have to buy anything! Here is the rundown of our lifecycle activities:

• For the egg on leaf race, we cut out a leaf shape and taped it to a large spoon from our kitchen. We used a plastic Easter egg. 
  
• The Feed the Caterpillar game was made from a diaper box! Basically, we cut the box into a triangle so it would sit on the ground. Next we made openings and decorated it to match our theme. I meant to make beanbags with the extra fabric after making the Hungry Caterpillar dress, but I ran out of time. Instead, we used some balls from one of our toys. 
  
• Next we had a cocoon race. I got feed sacks from the local feed store. I guess I asked nicely, because they gave them to me for free! Even the littlest kids had fun with this...some adults helped them jump. 
  
• Finally, we had a butterfly catch. We made butterflies by coloring coffee filters with markers. Then we sprayed them with water and let them dry. Once dry, we folded a pipe cleaner in half and wrapped it around the filter so it looked like the body and antennae of a butterfly. For the game, an adult threw butterflies into the air, and the kids tried to catch them in butterfly nets. The kids picked out butterflies to take home with them at the end of the party. 
  

The Food

     Planning the food was pretty easy since the Hungry Caterpillar eats a lot in the story. We used that as a starting point, and then filled in some other things to make it a meal. Because of some special dietary restrictions, our party was gluten free (with the exception of buns and cones). Any of these recipes could be made with or without the gluten, depending on what is needed for your guests. Food is where the majority of our party budget went to.

     Because I couldn't find affordable Hungry Caterpillar party supplies, I used Happy Birthday napkins from Target that looked "Eric Carle-ish." We used a variety of solid color plates and red cups.

     On the menu we had:

• Fruit salad which included fruits the caterpillar ate (strawberries, blueberries, apples, oranges, and pears)
• Salami, pickles, and salami/pickle rollups
• chips
• watermelon
• Slices of swiss and colby jack cheese
• hot dogs and chicken/pineapple kebabs...The kebabs were a huge hit!
• chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
• vanilla cupcakes that looked like cherry pies
• cake pops
• marshmallow ice cream cones 
• Drinks: 2 liters of soda, water, and juice boxes
  
  

The Decorations

     There weren't many decorations since we had the party at a local park. We had white tablecloths and a green mesh runner that I bought on clearance after Christmas. I made centerpieces for each picnic table by printing off images from Google. I cut them out, pasted them to construction paper and added a dowel rod. I stuck the dowel rod through an upside down styrofoam cup and hot glued that into place. Once it was set, I put the cup into a pail and added tissue paper. I got the pails from the dollar spot at Target, and used the Cartwheel app to get them for $0.80 each! I'm not sure why we didn't get a picture of them at the party, but I took one today so you could see them. 

The Favors

     Big E made soap for her preschool teachers end of the year gifts. She really liked making it, and wanted to make more for the party favors. Each child got butterfly shaped homemade soap, bubbles, stickers, and tickets to ride the carousel.

     The soap is pretty easy...Go to your local craft store and buy a soap base and essential oil to add to it. Melt it and pour it into a mold. We already had all the supplies to make this, so we didn't have to buy anything. We also had the bubbles from a previous birthday party. We did have to buy 4 more bottles, which are $0.15 each at Party City. We bought the Hungry Caterpillar stickers at the Dollar Tree.

     We made cocoons to use as gift bags. You probably already have the supplies on hand. It's time consuming, but simple and such a cute way to stick with the theme! To make the cocoons, you'll need to make a paste by boiling 2 heaping tablespoons of flour and 2 cups of water, stirring constantly. After it comes to a boil, remove from the heat and add some green food coloring. While the paste is cooling, blow up some water balloons. I like the size and shape of water balloons for the cocoons. Once the paste is cool enough for you to handle, brush it on the balloons and use it to stick strips of green and yellow tissue paper onto the balloons. Allow these to dry for several hours. Then, repeat the whole process to make a strong cocoon. Once the second layer is dry, pop the balloons and remove the pieces. Fill with goodies and string and tags.

     We didn't spend a whole lot of money on this party, but we had a blast! Be creative and look for things you can make with the supplies you have on hand. Kids will remember having fun, whether you spend a ton of money or just have cake at a park and let them run around like crazy people!

Happy 2nd birthday, Little E! We love you!

Father's Day Pop Box

     I love to put together themed gifts. I'm not sure if I could function if I just threw a bunch of random stuff together in a bag. So, this year for Father's Day was no different. Our theme was "Pops" since that is a name some people call their dad. This gift doesn't have to be limited to Father's Day. It could be given on any day or special occasion.
     I asked Big E what kinds of things had the word "Pop" in it, and she thought of popcorn. That may have been a question too big for a five year old. I thought of a few things, and called my sister who helped me think of a couple things too. Then, we set out on the adventure of finding everything. We started in the cereal aisle, and we found the Pops cereal. Big E is just starting to read a little bit, so we looked at the word Pops and she figured out what it said on her own. Then we headed down a few more rows to gather more gifts. All the items could be found at any local discount store with one exception. The Pig Popper was bought at a local bookstore.  You can also find them on Amazon and other specialty stores. There are also many other animals to choose from. Big E chose the pig.
    Our box of "Pops" for Pops included retro Mountain Dew soda pop, popcorn, Corn Pops cereal, Pop-Tarts, Popsicles, Pop-it's  (fireworks), Pop Rocks, and the Pig Popper. I put all these gifts in a box and stuffed tissue paper in it. Since we had the soda, the box was sturdy enough to handle the weight. Try to keep that in mind when you are packaging your gifts!
Other ideas we thought of but didn't include were ring pops, push pops, and tootsie pops.

Princess Ee's: The Blog

     Last year I started a Facebook and Etsy store selling crafts and clothing that I make in my free time. That hobby is just a small part of who I am. Another, bigger part of who I am is a mom. My two Princess Ee's are the basis behind the name. They are who I spend my time with, who I create dresses for, and the reason I get to stay at home. 
     Before kids, I was a teacher. I taught third grade for seven years. After Big E was born, we made the decision that I would stay home with her. The price of daycare these days is outrageous! Yes, it has been hard. No, it has not always been fun, but overall we feel that is the best decision for our family. I get to stay home and play, laugh, and learn with my girls. I'm so thankful for that opportunity. 
     So, you are probably wondering what this blog is all about. Well, I always have people asking me about crafts that we make together, or about my schedule and how we make that work. It's not that I claim to know something you don't know. I don't. But, this blog is a way to share the fun things we do together. I will post about crafts that we do. I'll post a little about doing "preschool" at home with a toddler. I'll post about our birthday parties, and all the diy things we make for them. I'll post about a little bit of everything.