The last two years I have not done any volunteering or donating (except for church). Before Penelope arrived I worked at the United Way of the Big Bend and was active in the Junior League of Tallahassee.
Volunteering was a big part of my life. But you know how it goes, have a baby and everything gets turned upside down.
I am finally in place where I can be giving of resources again. I love both the UWBB and JLT, but I feel called to be giving in a food related way.
I am so, so grateful to have access to real, traditional and organic foods and have the financial means to afford them. I know that not everyone is as lucky as I am and I want to do what I can to give back.
Heifer.org is an organization that caught my eye. I think the concept is just brilliant. The idea behind Heifer, is similar to the notion that it's better to teach a man to fish, so he can feed himself, than to give a him a fish that will feed him only once.
So please, join me in donating money to Heifer.org via the Mama and Baby Love team. I would love to be able to pool our resources together as an online community and donate at least a thousand dollars.
There is over 1,700 Facebook likers on the Mama and Baby Love page, so that is less than a dollar from each of you to reach that goal.
Think of all the chickens we could donate, so a child can get the same benefits Penelope gets by eating eggs from a pastured chicken. With the amount of protein packed in one egg, a donation of one single chicken can make a life saving difference.
Think of how cool it would be to donate a whole cow, or several, so a family could have the healing power raw milk. A good diary cow can produce four gallons of milk a day-enough for a family to drink and share with a neighbors.
Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing, and home improvements. So won't you join me? Thank you so much for your support! 
Or on Facebook!
Finally, the apple party pictures! I know some of you have been chomping at the bit for these, so I apologize. It has taken some time to get back into a routine and groove after her party and traveling for Thanksgiving.
I had so much fun planning this party. The apple theme was a good pick (pun intended!), the inspiration was endless. I could have done 50 million more apple recipes and decorations. I edited my picks down based on ease of creation and cost, but you could really go wild with this theme.
Ok, so here we go! I hope you enjoy! Planning and creating Penelope's parties gives me such joy and I very excited to share it with you.
Just fyi, including food (almost all organic) and all decorations, I spent about $250 for this party. I planned this theme almost a full year in advance and slowly bought supplies, so not to overwhelm our budget.
This picture sums up her mood for the day, she was super excited, but then she would have cranky moments because her molars were hurting. She has had her fingers in her mouth, for what seems like months now, I wish they would just break through. I am SO over teething.
Her outfit was made by my friend Bethany (the one who made the cute appliqué onesie for her and the skirt for me). I was so relieved to not have to make her a birthday outfit. I had already bought this apple fabric, but I can save it for next year and make her a fall dress with it.
The welcome sign and apples were bought at Michael's for less than a $1. I bought them at the end of August, when all the teacher/back-to-school decorations were on sale. Major score. The apple cupcakes. I did not plan on doing sprinkles, but the all natural food dye I used turned my icing into a horrible mauve color and something needed to be done.
The sprinkles do have regular red food dye in them, it was my one unhealthy thing at the party. A yoga teacher once told me as long as you are eating good 80% of the time, you are doing just fine. So whatev.I used this tutorial to get the cupcake into a apple shape. My husband had the genius idea to use a mint leaf instead of candy.I can't even tell you how happy it made me to see these cupcakes all lined up in a row. I am a dork like that.
Oh and the stand is an empty gift box that I wrapped in gift wrap. I still do not have any cake stands or cupcake stands in my kitchen. Santa, are you listening?The food table.Apple-Peanut Butter sandwiches. This was the very last thing I made for the party. I did them the morning of, and put lemon juice on them so they didn't brown too bad.Grilled Cheese with Apple slices. These were a hit. My friend Julie gave me the idea to grill them in bacon grease instead of butter, and man, it really makes a difference! I did these one day before.Apple chips. I had all these over the top dreams of making the apple chips myself, since I have a dehydrator, but in the end, I just bought a bag or organic ones from the store. They went quick and were a hit with the kiddos.I got the apple bushels from Hobby Lobby for a few bucks each.Marshmallow pops. So easy to make, unlike cake pops, but they came out just as cute. These were more of a hit than the cupcakes. I painted the apple tree and number 2. I used an old canvas and painted over what I had on it. It required more layers of paint, but those canvases are expensive, so it was worth the extra time. I really enjoyed painting it too. I haven't painted anything in a long time and it was really calming.I bought these tissue paper garlands from Party City. Last year, I made them, but it was time consuming and bitch to store before the party. I added the stem and leaf to make them look like apples. So easy.I have an amazing juicer that my MIL bought for me last Christmas and I used it to make fresh apple juice.I got scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and cut strips and taped them to water bottles. It is not the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but I did recycle all of them. I had been wanting to do this for awhile, and again, just like the cupcakes, seeing them all lined up in a perfect row made me giddy.
Just to the right, of the above picture, you can see the apple fabric I used in each table scape. They are $2.99 dish towels from Target. Much cheaper than buying designer fabric like last year, and I can reuse them for something else later. Maybe make some towel aprons.I also made Hot Apple Cider. I used pasteurized, store bought, apple juice for this and a package of cider spices and heated it up on the stove. It was super tasty.Ugh. I can't even really look at these. What a disaster. I did the best I could to pretty them up with wrapping, but they did not come out good. The caramel was not the right consistency and did not cover the apples in a smooth manner. People said they tasted good, but I don't believe it.
If I ever get the guts to attempt these again, I will make syrup from scratch.The party favors. I painted apples and each kid's name on the cup. I wanted them to have something to drink the apple juice at the party.
I made the yarn apples from this tute. Crazy easy. I would have preferred for the cups to be all green, but I couldn't find any packages of all green, they were all mixes. But I figured the reds and yellows were apple colors too and it did work.I bought 6 lanterns from Party City and added the same leaf and steam to make them look like apples. Got the idea here.I had four on my back porch and two on my front porch.The backyard. The table had a white tablecloth, then a burlap-type material runner, then the Target dishtowel and a bushel of apples. I printed out some apple shapes from Google images and had them out at her art table in her playroom.Her first guest. She was pretty stoked to answer the door for her party to begin!I was really fortunate to win a face painting party package BJ's Party House on TallyConnection.com. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. We kept the party activities pretty simple, the kids played on the swing set and in the sand box, but I didn't have a jump house or anything else like that going on.These twins, Emma and Lily, crack me up.Grandpa and Nana chillin in on the porch. Peter's mother, Omi, came the week before and was with us for Penelope's actual birthday. It was nice to space out the visits so Penelope could spend quality time with everyone.My Goddaughter Ella. So pretty.Ava the tiger.Even my friend's belly got painted! The birthday girl got flowers and a butterfly. She sat still for most of it.
I let her have one marshmallow pop.The boys doing some coloring. I wish I had a better photo of their outfits. These two make me excited about the possibility of dressing a boy. I think she was a bit overwhelmed at times and needed to cuddle and nurse for a bit. Love this picture. Mad thank you to my friend Lauren, who took pictures for me that day.Happy Birthday time! She had been to so many birthday parties in the last month that she new all about the Happy Birthday song.Happy girl. Scary Mama. Family portrait attempt number 1.Family portrait attempt number 2.The matching hair bow that Bethany also made. I wanted to wear it in my hair so I had something apple themed on, and Penelope was going to wear a regular red bow, but when she saw it in my hair, she was having none of it.Her amazing birthday invitations that The Polka Dot Press did for us. LOVE them. I also got address labels, and it was still very affordable. I made the thank you cards myself. I bought plain white cards and then I cut an apple in half and dipped in in red paint and stamped it on the paper. Then added the leaf and steam.
There you have it! Penelope's Apple themed birthday party. I am sure this is the last year I will be able to get away with picking out the theme, I wonder what she will want next year?
I am already thinking about it! Maybe I will be able to combine a theme, for example if she wants a Dora party, maybe I can do a Rainbow-Dora party, so I can still get to be artsy with it.
What do you think?Or on Facebook!
