9 years ago...

on the weekend we had a "little" party for our daughter, ella, who turned nine years old. she and seth have both started taking skating lessons and so she wanted to have a skating party. i booked a room at the local rink and we got all the girls in her class and a few neighbours' kids to meet us all there. everyone had a blast!
i ended up making 24 regular cupcakes, 48 mini ones, and a small one layer cake (for her actual day). in last year's april issue of living there were little crepe paper flowers and birds. the flower for january is the snowdrop and i made a bunch of them for her cakes. when ella saw the picture in the magasine, she definetly wanted a nest, too. off to michael's! i picked up 2 tiny little blue birds there as well.
and some bees

happy birthday ella! thank you for being such a great girl

merry christmas!

merry christmas everyone!

we're spending the day at home enjoying hot chocolate, eggnog lattes, fresh scones and opening presents from santa... as well as the most awesome turkey dinner (i hope)!

gingerbread village

we spent a good 3 hours last night building our gingerbread houses to give away. it was a lot of fun with all 4 of us making the 6 houses (including one for us). we got pretty inventive with the candies making trees, logs, and even a sled!

check out last year's houses... and here's the link to the recipe.