Savanna's 10-11 Month Update

I wanted to share a much delayed update with you today.  I mentioned earlier that we did not see as big of a difference between 9-10 months as we had seen between all the other months.  I am not sure why, we just didn't, but boy did she make up for it in month 11.  The biggest update was she finally started WALKING!!  Around 10 1/2 months she took a few steps and then 2 weeks after she was walking more than she was crawling and now she barely crawls at all!  We welcomed the walking, we were tired of her crawling through the mulch at the playground and on the cement and she was with the walker for so long we were ready.  It is soooo cute how they waddle and look like little drunken sailors when the first start :)

She also started to "play ball". If you tell her to go get the ball she will and then bring it back to you. She also does does a miniature throw.  She loves to climb the steps at the park and goes down a small slide while holding your hand.  We started a Mommy and Me Gym class and we also go to a music class at the library twice a week which she LOVES.  She just enjoys being around other kids.  She waves when she walks into class and always follows the big kids around the playground.  She only likes the swings when there are other kids on them. 

She has become more affectionate and will actually give you a little cuddle once in awhile, along with lots of hugs and kisses when you ask.  The cutest is when she reaches for your hand to hold while walking.  

In terms of communication she says mama and dada, but still not directive.  She did learn "more" in sign language and when you ask her where her head is she will put her hands there and of course we learned SO BIG!  We are working on nose next along with eat and drink in sign language.  She now knows "in" and "out", so she no longer just empties baskets :)  In general she seems to understand a lot more when you talk to her.  

Savanna now has 8 TEETH!!! I believe it is a lot for her age, but luckily they haven't been too terrible and I guess we are closer to being done! She used to eat anything you put in front of her, but she has definitely become more picky.  I cannot complain she is a pretty good eater in general, but there are things she will spit out if she does not like them.  She will eat sweet potatoes if I roast them, but not if they are mashed.  She eats broccoli some days....loves pasta, peas and turkey and most. She won't eat frozen carrots but will eat them plain if I boil them.  Her favorite fruits right now are blueberries and grapes.  We are still off all dairy, but luckily I found some great coconut milk yogurts.  We are starting to test the soy right now.  

Luckily, she gave up her stroller strike and is a lot better in the stroller now, but hates the car.  It is good that we are in a walkable town because we can go to all of her classes and dinner without having to go in the car, but once the winter comes we will be in trouble.  

I cannot believe she is going to be a year in less than 2 weeks!  It is true what they say - it goes fast!  

Weekend Recap and Carrot Cake Roll-Out Cookies

Sorry, I was never able to post last week, I had a ton of baking and prepping to do for our first of two parties for Savanna's first birthday!  We had a super busy Saturday this past weekend.  In the afternoon we had her party. We decided to split up friends and family since we cannot fit everyone inside if the weather was not nice.  We did our friends first so we could hopefully have it outside.  Luckily the weather cooperated for us:)  I will share the details of the party with you after I get pictures uploaded later this week. Before the party Chris took Savanna to the Rye vs. Harrison football game which is a long time rival.  There were 5000 people at a high school football game!  From what I heard Savanna loved the crowd and really enjoyed the action.  I made this cake pop tower (sorry not a great picture) for the boys tailgate on Friday night.  

While they were at the game I had my good friend Katie's baby shower at the Larchmont Yacht Club (where her and her husband got married).  I did some cute favor boxes for which I want to share the details with you today.

I worked with her sister to make personalized boxes for Katie.  We decided to make a trail mix of all of her favorite items; almonds, dried mango, raisins, yogurt covered pretzels, gummies and m&ms.  She is having a boy so we did blue for the gummies and m&ms.  

I then made a baby onesie carrot cake cookie (since carrot cake is her favorite).  I also wanted to share the recipe for the cookie.

I had made a soft drop carrot cake cookie before but, I was afraid that wouldn't hold the icing and I would have a ton of waste from cutting the cookies out.  I searched for a roll-out cookie but failed to find one, so I decided to modify one of my own recipes.  My gingerbread cookies have a fairly wet dough which I thought I needed since the carrots would moisten the dough.  So I substituted the molasses with the carrots and altered the spices and it worked :)  The dough was super moist but it worked as long as you let the dough sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours (overnight is best) and used a decent amount of flour.  

Carrot Cake Roll-out Cookies

3 cups flour

3/4 cup brown sugar 

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cloves

6 ounces butter

6.5 ounces shredded carrots 

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer mix dry ingredients

2. Add in butter in pieces

3.While machine is running add carrots

4. Refrigerate dough for at least 4 hours

5. Roll out on floured surface and floured pin to desired shape and size (will need a lot of flour) 

6. Bake 10 - 15 minutes depending on size

A Weekend of Baking Firsts

Last week was a fun but crazy week.  It started with my first cake pop order for the Field Hockey team in town. This was especially fun for me since I played Field Hockey in HS and college :) The Rye Mascot is the Garnets, a precious stone.... yes I know pretty weak.  I was a frog growing up and I did not think I could do much worse but it seems I may have... Oh well they are really good, undefeated actually and that is what counts!

I think the most exciting was my first Gluten Free Cake! It took a few failed flour blends and then I found Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix and that was the winner.  It has no rice flour in it which is why I think it works.  I think rice flour tastes like sand. It is a mixture of garbanzo flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, sorghum flour and fava flour.  My standard vanilla cake had the same great texture and the flavor was very close. My customers were only gluten intolerant so I did not have to worry about cross-contamination.  

After the cake turned out really well I decided to try these pumpkin cookies that we love and they turned out really good too!

Lastly, I made my first cupcake cake! I had attempted one about 3 years ago and did not have a lot of success and put it on the back burner. Someone asked me to do one last week and I was really excited to finally be able to complete one!

A Weekend filled with Birthdays!

We had a lot of birthdays to celebrate this weekend!  It started with this cake I made for one of our friend's daughter's family birthday party. Her favorite colors are purple and orange.  I ordered the cake bunting from Especially Paper and I loved the quality and how quick she was able to get it to me.  I will definitely be ordering again!

On Saturday we headed to Long Island for lunch to celebrate my Grandfather's 94th birthday.  Unfortunately, he ended up in the hospital (nothing major) and we didn't get to see him. We were still able to have a nice lunch with my parents and my dad's sister.  We then headed into the city and visited our friends Joe and Carol who recently had a little boy and they were celebrating Carol's birthday.  They have an amazing rooftop and it was the perfect evening for it :)

Lastly we headed over to my good friend Caitlin's 30th birthday.  Her husband organized a fabulous afternoon of sailing and friends for her.  We didn't make the sailing, but we were able to meet up with them for some cocktails before Savanna expired :)

Our last celebration was on Sunday. We had Chris's family over to celebrate his brother's 27th birthday! We watched the Giants lose again but enjoyed a yummy lunch and some cake pops! 

Unfortunately this picture didn't come out great and don't ask why Savanna is naked :)

Hope you are having a great Monday!

Dairy Free Pumpkin Apple and Sweet Potato Soup

Where do the days go?? I cannot believe it is Friday already! Savanna started to really walk this week (about 5-10 steps at a time) so she has kept me on my toes! I have been wanting to share this pumpkin soup with you all week :)

Whenever fall arrives, all I crave is pumpkin! I have shared my love for pumpkin and the recipes for pumpkin mousse and pumpkin cookies, in the past.  This year the first thing I wanted to make was a big batch of pumpkin soup so I could stock up and have some easy lunches.  I also had a lot of apples and sweet potatoes so I thought it would be fun to add those as well.  I like a lot of spice in my soup so feel free to adjust the spices to your taste! This makes 12 cups of soup so there was plenty to eat this week and plenty to freeze :)

Happy Friday!

Dairy Free Pumpkin Apple and Sweet Potato Soup (Loosely adapted from The Family Kitchen)

3 TBS Olive Oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 apples (about 3 cups) chopped

1 large sweet potato (about 3 cups) chopped 

6 cups of water or stock

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp nutmeg

30 oz pumpkin (2 cans)

Directions:

1. Boil the sweet potato for 15 minutes to soften (takes longer to cook than everything else).

2. Heat a Dutch oven or large soup pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil and heat until it simmers. Add the diced onion, apples and salt. Sauté until onions are translucent, about 7 minutes.

3. Add the water/stock, sweet potato and spices and bring to a boil and cook until apples are very tender, about 5 more minutes.

4. Add the pumpkin and brown sugar and cook for 10 – 15 minutes over medium heat. In batches puree in your blender or food processor.  (You can add more water(or cream if you can have dairy), if desired, to thin out more.))

5. Top with pumpkin seeds and serve.

I Love NY Cake Pops

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.  We have been busy over making these cake pops :)

One of my good friends from when I was working at JP Morgan is getting married today! I started at JP Morgan after I graduated from college and made a group of really close friends through the training program.  Out of the five of us there is only one still there, but we have stayed close which is really nice.  I am very excited for the wedding and honored that I could do the favors.  

We have a busy weekend ahead!  My husband is headed to a bachelor party in Miami this morning until Sunday and I have the wedding tonight. Saturday should be a lot of fun. The library in town is having their 100 year celebration which will include, a petting zoo, Music for Aadvarks and lots of other fun things for Savanna.  On Sunday we have a BBQ with the Rye Newcomers group which should hopefully be a great place to meet other new families. Savanna should have fun too since it is at the Nature Center and they have animals there :)

What's on tap for your weekend?  Congratulations to Stephanie and Fran!!

Leftover Baby Food Puree Ideas and Recipes

Once Savanna got a hold of finger foods, she said bye-bye to purees (if we are on the go she will eat some out of a pouch once in awhile).  I had made some of Savanna's food and bought some jars and pouches for when we were travelling.  Of course she gave up the purees as soon as I stocked up on jars.  I decided to make use them in baking and making other meals. Fruit purees are easy to make use of.  Here are some great ways to incorporate them:

• Stir into oatmeal
• Replace the butter or oil in pancakes or muffins (apple and pear are best for those)
• Make a smoothie

Some ideas for veggies: 

• Carrots and winter squash are great to add to mac and cheese
• Tomato and Carrot Purees are great for making pasta sauces 
• Winter Squash can be used for Giada's Butternut Squash Lasagna :) 
• Most veggies (maybe not broccoli or string beans) can be added to make a savory muffin
• Broccoli can be used for making soup (add some chopped pieces for texture) 

If you have any tomato carrot purees leftover, I made a yummy turkey meat sauce.  I didn't write down the exact recipe, but it was fairly simple. Saute a 1/4 of an onion, a few carrots and turkey chop meat (about 1/3 cup), add in 2 jars of puree and add little salt and pepper.  I tossed it with some small pasta and had dinner for Savanna for 3 nights! I altered my favorite pumpkin bread recipe to make it healthier and use some leftover apples and sweet potatoes (see recipe below). Savanna has almost always hated the purees with meat in them and I have no idea what to do with them so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!  Do you cook with your leftover purees?  If so please share your ideas as well!

Sweet Potato and Apple Muffins

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1/4 cup oil

1/3 cup apple sauce 

3/4 cup sweet potato puree

1/3 c + 1 Tbs milk (we used coconut)

1/2 tsp vinegar

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 + 2 TBS oat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl whisk sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and apple sauce

2. Whisk in squash, milk and vinegar 

3. In another bowl sift flours, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves

4. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well combined

5. Pour into loaf pan

6. Bake for 55 minutes or until tooth pick clean

7. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan 

Weekend Recap and Sunflower Cake

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  We had a sports filled weekend in the burbs :) Chris is coaching a lacrosse team and they had try-outs on Saturday and Sunday.  Being here made it much easier on him and us because we could go watch and spend time with him.

On Saturday night we watched the first half of the HS Football game.  There was a huge crowd and it was a fun atmosphere, Savanna really enjoyed the excitement.  On Sunday afternoon we headed up to Chris's parents to celebrate his Grandmother's 85th birthday and Savanna's 10 month birthday!  I made a sunflower cake for the occasion!  Since I wrote Savanna's 9 month update a little late there hasn't been much change and updates to report from the last month so I am not going to do a full report this month.  We got a new toy for Savanna and of course she enjoys playing with a soft lacrosse ball and the box better :)

Hope everyone has a good Monday and welcome back to school for those that started today!

Personal and Business Update

After 7 (8 for Chris) years of living in New York City we moved out to the suburbs.  It was the right time for us, but still very sad.  We were cramped, but doing ok in our one bedroom apartment because Savanna was such a great sleeper and we were able to keep her in our room for 8 1/2 months.  The catalyst was her cruising.  Once she started that was when we realized how cramped we were. There was no where to hide things and we couldn't baby proof.  It was time for some space and grass.  We could of stayed and rented a bigger apartment, but we knew we wanted to move out within the next year or so and figured we might as well just do it now.  It was a tough decision, but we knew it was the right one for her.  I cried the entire week before we left. We had lived in our apartment for 4 years together (Chris had lived there for 6 total) and had created a lot of memories there. In those 4 years, we got in engaged in Central Park, planned our wedding and got married at the New York Athletic Club.  We were then blessed to have our first child there too.  It was really a home to us and sad to leave.  Besides the memories, most of our friends (from college and home since we are both from different parts of the suburbs surrounding NYC) still live in the city.  

Our apt sunset

Our last dinner outside in the neighborhood.

We moved to Rye, NY which is a town 25 miles outside the city.  It is a great town right on the Long Island Sound with a cute downtown and wonderful schools. From our house you can walk to a lot of places which makes the transition much easier!  There are two parks 3 minutes from our house and town and the library are a 10 minute walk.  I am still sad when I see our pictures of the city, but I love the space and know we made the right decision:)

So now what does this mean for KbyK?  For the moment, I am only taking friends and family orders.  I would like to eventually expand again, but I need to research how it will work here and I am enjoying being a full-time Mommy for the time :)  In the meantime, I am going to blog more so please still follow me to see some of the small projects I am doing and for some fun recipes!!

8 and 9 month update

This is long overdue! Once again it is amazing how far she has come since the 6 and 7 month update.  We are almost at Labor Day (I know crazy) and she was an entirely different baby at Memorial Day.  So far from 5.5 months to 8.5 months has been the biggest leap.  She was crawling at 7 months and by 8 months she was crawling super fast, pulling up on things and walking while pushing a walker.  Between 8 and 9 months she was walking a little faster with the walker, cruising on furniture and standing up for a few seconds without holding on. 

At 8 months, she started clapping and waving, but would only do it as a happy motion.  She did not understand how to "wave hello and goodbye". Between 8 and 9 months we mastered the hello and good-bye wave and loves to seek them (as well as smiles) out when we were in public places. We also started to play "hide and seek", we like to drop items and then look for them and we love to take things out (baskets, drawers...).  One of our favorite new things to do is giving "kisses".  Savanna also loves being at the park when there are a lot of dogs and kids to wave at and watch :) Sometime between 7 and 9 months we learned how to say Dada and then Mama but we only say them in babbles and they are not directive.  

She loves to bang on tables!

We were at the beach for her 9 month birthday, which was very exciting because we finally overcame our fear of the beach.  She loves the baby pool and playing in the dry sand (although as we were scrubbing the sand off her face we were wondering why we wanted her to like the sand).  We tolerated the wet sand and ocean by the 2nd day but every time we went we had to slowly get adjusted to it.

Savanna LOVES to eat now!  She thinks if she is sitting at a table she should be eating, even if she has already eaten.  We are going to start testing the milk and soy at 11 months and besides berries and nuts we eat most things.  Majority of the time she eats pretty much anything you put in front of her, but sometimes she is picky and has learned how to spit the food out.  She doesn't really love purees anymore and mostly eats finger foods but for on the go she still likes the pouches.  Since she still cannot have milk and soy, I could not introduce animal and graham crackers and unfortunately most of the Gerber "cookies" have soy in them.  I made homemade animal crackers but they came out a little too hard (going to try again soon). I found these great Cinnamon School Book cookies and Speculoos cookies at Trader Joes that she loves and are great substitutes if you are dairy and soy free!  She also likes puffs (can't do Gerber ones), mum mums and cherrios.  

I think that is all for now, it is really incredible to watch her grow, learn and experience life's firsts.....

Kristen's Wedding Dessert Table

I am so excited to finally share with you the desserts from Kristen's wedding that I told you about a little while back.  I was honored to not only be apart of her wedding, but I did the desserts AND Savanna was the flower girl! The wedding was in the barn at Martha Clara Vineyards on a picture perfect day the first weekend of June.  All of the pictures were captured by the fabulous Stephen from W Studios New York and he graciously shared them with me.  I highly recommend everything about the wedding, we had an absolute blast!

For the Dessert Table I did a vanilla with raspberry and nutella two tier cake, cake pops, oreo pops, chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate chip cookies.  

My personal favorite is below :)

July Cakes

We have been enjoying some quality family time and have not been doing as many cakes, but I have two fun ones that I wanted to share with you today. Both were for little girls' 3rd birthdays. 

The first was a simple princess cake.  With this cake I did mini cupcakes with edible images of Disney Princesses (I was unable to get a picture of it all together).  

The second party was at Victorian Gardens so I did a carousel themed cake.  The adorable paper carousel was made by Oooh La La Paperie. 

We are enjoying this perfect weather and having fun cruising in central park this week.  

My nieces are visiting so we spent some time with them at my parents pool during the heat wave. We are excited to meet them at the Jersey Shore for a week on Friday!  They taught Savanna how to kiss it is super cute.

Hope you are having a good week and enjoying this lovely summer weather :) 

California Road Trip!

We are so happy that we decided to take Savanna with us to California and make a full week of it.  Besides our honeymoon we have decided that it was the next best trip that we have ever taken.  For some reason I was not nervous about the 5.5 hour flight, I was really nervous about the time change.  I had nightmares of Savanna waking up at 3am and wanting to go to bed at 4pm and us never being able to do anything.  Overall the flights weren't too bad but out of the 2 they ended up being harder than the time changes.  She didn't sleep a wink on the way out and slept only half the flight on the way back and cried for the entire first half.  The only good thing about her not sleeping on the planes is that since she was tired it helped put her back on the times that we needed.  It only took a day for her to get on schedule in California, it actually almost felt too easy.  When we returned it took about a full week to get her back on schedule, but only 1 or 2 bad nights.  So now I want to tell you all about the fun details of our trip!  We flew into San Francisco on Saturday evening and drove straight to my friend Chrissie's house in Monterey where we stayed for the next two days.  While we were there we drove the 17 Mile Drive and had lunch at Pebble Beach where we got the great family shot below.    

My friend Chrissie has a son who is 1 1/2 so we all went to the aquarium one day which was a ton of fun!  It was so nice to just spend time with an old friend with both of our families!

On Tuesday morning we started our drive south along Route 1.  The Big Sur lived up to all the hype.  It had some of the most amazing views that we have ever seen! Although, it was a full 90 miles of cliff driving so slightly nerve racking and took even longer than we thought. The elephant seals just before San Simeon were incredible! As a break for Savanna and some lunch we stopped at Avila Valley Barn.  They had tons of animals for Savanna to look at, pony rides for older kids and lots of shady grass which was perfect!  They also had delicious sandwiches, salads and produce.

 

We then drove to Santa Barbara, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Santa Barbara was gorgeous, especially the pier and great for our overnight stay.  With Savanna, the only thing that we could not add into our itinerary was a wine tour.  Santa Barbara has an Urban Wine Tour which was perfect for us.  There are a bunch of wineries right in the heart of the city (some own their own vineyards and some just buy and blend their grapes from other vineyards).  We were able to walk to them from our hotel.  

On Wednesday we started our journey to San Diego.  We stopped in Venice Beach for lunch and had a lovely visit with one of my friends from growing up.

The only awful part of the drive was from LA to San Diego the 2 hour drive took us a full 4!!!  It was HORRIBLE!  We made it just in time for a fast dinner before we had to get Savanna to bed.  The wedding festivities (the whole reason we started the trip) started on Thursday evening with a bbq and fireworks for July 4th in Mission beach.  During the day we went over to Coronado for the parade which was really cool to see and a great place to be on the 4th! Before we made our way to Carlsbad (where the wedding was) we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was really crowded and we did a lot but only made it through about half because we had to get Savanna down for a nap and be on our way. 

The wedding was for one of Chris's good friends from lacrosee at Johns Hopkins.  There was a great group of Hopkins friends there and it was fun to see some of our friends that live on the west coast who we rarely get to see.  The wedding was at the La Costa Resort and Spa and was absolutely stunning!  A bonus was La Costa was a great place for kids and Savanna had a blast in the 3 different kiddie pools they had! 

Happy 4th of July Parfaits!

We headed out to California for the week for Chris's friends wedding over the 4th of July.  We decided to bring Savanna with us and make a full week family vacation.  We are starting up north and visiting one of my friends who I sadly have not seen in 3 years in Carmel/Monteray! We are then going to drive south to San Diego and finish with the wedding in Carlsbad. I was REALLY nervous for the time change, but we arrived on Saturday evening and so far so good.  Savanna did not sleep a wink on the plane which made for a very long plane ride, although the only time she cried was when we tried to put her to sleep.  Do not ask us what we did for 5.5 hours :)  In the end I think this ended up helping because she did not go to sleep until 930 Cali time so it just forced her to be on Cali time and the adjustment has been easier than I thought.  We are really enjoying our time here and cannot wait to tell you about our adventures!

For today I wanted to share a yummy and healthy 4th of July breakfast with you.  Before we left I made a simple yogurt parfait.  I layered plain greek yogurt with strawberries, blueberries and granola mixed with chia and hemp seeds and topped it with some chopped walnuts.  

I also wanted to share these fun and fairly simple desserts that I saw in Better Homes and Gardens.

If we were going to be home for the 4th I would of definitely make at least one of them.  

Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!!! 

Cherry Berry Shortcake Stars

Sparkler Cupcakes

Friday Muffins!

Happy Friday!  I have two yummy and healthy muffins I wanted to share with you today. I was watching Giada the other day and I saw her make these carrot and zucchini mini muffins (original recipe is here) that were really cute and fairly healthy.  I thought it would be fun if I could make them so Savanna could have them.  I wanted to make them as a muffin for breakfast instead of a treat so I eliminated the frosting.  To alter them for Savanna I used oat and whole wheat flour instead of the the almond and rice flour and made them with oat milk instead of the oil so they were a little healthier.  If your child cannot have eggs you could probably substitute applesauce for the egg but the texture may be a little off.  Savanna absolutely loved these!  I highly recommend. After these turned out well I decided to try a different version for Chris and I.  I had frozen cherries and almond flour so I thought a cherry almond muffin would be delicious!  They are gluten free, dairy free and soy free and even with all of that the texture and taste were wonderful.  When I make them again I will chop up the cherries first since the cherry took up about half the mini muffin.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Carrot and Zucchini Muffins (dairy and soy free)

3/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can do all oat or use rice flour instead here if you want to make gluten free)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup oat milk 

1 TBS sugar or maple syrup (safe for babies unlike honey)

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup grated carrots (from1 medium peeled carrot)

1/2 cup grated zucchini (from 1 medium unpeeled zucchini)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 mini-muffin cups with (1 1/2-inch) paper liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar or syrup, and egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the grated carrot and grated zucchini.

 4. Fill the muffin cups with a small scoop or tablespoon to 3/4 full with the batter and bake until light golden, about 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Cherry Almond Muffins (Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Soy Free)

3/4 cup Almond flour

1/2 cup oat flour (I do not love the taste of rice flour which is why I used oat here)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup almond milk 

1 TBS sugar or maple syrup 

1 large egg, at room temperature (or 1/4 cup applesauce - may be more dense)                                            

1/4 tsp almond extract                                                                                                                                  

24 pitted cherries (whole or chopped)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 mini-muffin cups with (1 1/2-inch) paper liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar or syrup, egg or applesauce and extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the cherries.

4. Fill the muffin cups with a small scoop or tablespoon to 3/4 full with the batter and bake until light golden, about 15-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Zoe's Birthday Party!

Savanna's friend Zoe turn 1 a few weeks ago!  Unfortunately, my good friend Kristen's wedding was the same weekend so we had to miss the party.  Since we were unable to go to the party, I was excited that I could at least do the desserts.  Zoe's party was a farm animal theme and they even had a petting zoo there! Zoe's Mom and Dad went to HS with Chris.  They were a different year in school but last year we discovered that they live around the block from us which has been a lot of fun.  A girl from their HS has a beautiful photography company. She took all of the wonderful shots below.  You should check out the rest of the party here, along with with all of the other amazing work she does.  

Cow, Pig and Duck Fondant Cookies

Mini Animal Mixed Berry Pies

Zoe & 1 Cake Pops with mini cupcakes

I love this one of Zoe digging into her cake!

This is such a cute shot of all the other kids "helping" her :)

This is my favorite!

Little Miss Party Planner Events

I wanted to share some pretty amazing parties with you today.  Seri and Michelle over at Little Miss Party Planner, have been quite busy this spring and they have been keeping me busy as well :) I have highlighted their dessert tables here, but you should definitely head to their website to check all the details out!

I love all their parties, but the first may be current favorite, A Preppy Little First Birthday Party. They didn't do the typical large first birthday cake, instead they made a beautiful and personalized dessert table with a lot of little yummy treats.

Carrot Cake "Ice-Cream Cones"

Gold Painted Cake Pops

Don't you just love their gold spray painted Ball Jars!  I want these all over my home (when I have one :) )

I love these color me cookies from Eleni's , what a fun activity/favor for the kids at the party!

I will continue with First Birthday Parties and share this simple but beautiful first birthday party for a little Gabrielle.

Mazzy's Milk Bar was such a fun and unique theme for a 3rd birthday party and had so many amazing details!

How cute are the cow covers for the cake pops!

Cookie Pops!

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Next is a fun Poker themed party for an 8 year old boy.  Cupcakes with playing card toppers, playing card, heart and spade fondant cookies and a cake just for the birthday boy.

Along the same theme is a Las Vegas Party for a 50th Birthday Party.  I cannot take credit for this gorgeous cake! How amazing is it???  I did the Moustache Cake Pops, brownie oreo truffle mini cupcakes, playing card and chip cookies and cupcakes with the fun playing chip/photo toppers.

I am always in awe of their creative vase / centerpiece ideas.  

Lastly is a Baby Shower for their very own Michelle who is due in a few weeks.  I was honored to do the cake, some mini cupcakes and mini orange meringue sandwiches.

6 and 7 Month Update

Savanna has grown and accomplished so much over the last 2 months, I don't even know where to begin.  I looked back at my 5 month post and saw that I thought it was going to be awhile before she would sit. Sure enough out of no where one day (which is how most things come) around 5.5 months she decided she wanted to sit.  

She was very wobbly at first, we had a lot of falls but by 6.5 months she was very steady and at the same time learned how to get herself from belly back to sit.  She now sits all the time and a lot of mornings we find her sitting in her crib.  I am in love with her little frog sit.  

Around 6.5 months she started to one-arm army crawl and then about two weeks later she was crawling on all 4s a little but will switch to the one arm for long distances.  We are in a good stage right now where she can crawl to get most things she wants, but she is not necessarily all over the place.  She will not crawl from room to room so I can still shower, cook, clean etc.. and she will sit in play.  I know this will not last....

I also thought she would never eat or it would be a constant fight, well just like everyone told me, they will eat when they were ready. Sure enough out of no where one day she decided she wanted to eat and she EATS now! Sometimes I think she is a bottomless pit and will continue to eat if I do not stop (if she really likes something). We are slowly introducing foods, trying to wait 3 days in-between each food.  She cannot have soy or milk still, so I have to be careful with some foods and make sure to read ingredients on all boxes.  She loves when we give her pasta (with no cheese) which is a treat when we go out to eat.  She recently learned how to pick up her puffs when you put some on the tray of the highchair.  It took her a few weeks especially since they stick to her hands when they are wet.  The puffs are the only thing she can grab on her own because most of the other items that I give to her in pieces (banana and avocado) are wet and stick to the tray. 

Over the last two months you can tell she really knows her name and smiles every time you call it.  She now recognizes and will smile to familiar songs - itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus...... She loves peek-a-boo and playing in the mirror.  She also loves turning the lights on and off when we leave a room. Chris has been trying for a long time to get Savanna to recognize and acknowledge dogs and finally over the last month she does!  At my friends wedding at Martha Clara there was a barn and they had some farm animals there and Savanna seemed to really enjoy watching them.  Now she smiles every time she sees a dog. 

We are working on waving and clapping, but she can high 5 which is fun. She really loves her swimming class now and laughs almost the entire time.  It ends next week, but with the summer here hopefully we will have a lot of pool time.  I think that is all for now :)

Memorial Day Recap and Drum Cakes

Hi!  As per usual, I am trying to catch up! I just realized I never wrote a 6 month update for Savanna so I will do a 6 and 7 month one next week :)  I know I keep saying this, but where does the time go??  After Kristen's shower the following weekend we had a lovely Mother's Day Weekend and the weekend following that I had Kristen's Bachelorette in Fort Lauderdale and then it was Memorial Day and we got back on Tuesday and I had to do a 1st birthday dessert table and the dessert table for Kristen's wedding in 3 1/2 days so now I am finally sitting down :)  

I wanted to start with sharing two Drum cakes I did in April and May. The first was a cake for a Fresh Beat Band theme party so I included the instruments from the other characters as well.  The second was for a little boys 1st birthday, I thought it was a unique and cute theme for a first birthday.  

I also wanted to share some pictures and details from our Memorial Day Trip.  For the last 4 years, Chris has spent Memorial Day studying for the CFA so we have not been able to really enjoy it.  I was really excited for this year, so we decided to spend some time down in Bethany Beach, Delaware where Chris's parents have a beach condo.  We were hoping since it was further south it would be nicer, but it ended up not really being a beach weekend.  His parents condo is in Sea Colony which is almost like a resort so we were saved with the indoor pool!  Savanna absolutely LOVED the indoor pool.  We have been doing swimming lessons for about 2 months now and I knew she enjoyed the water, but I think between her being older and spending even more time in the pool she just had a blast.  Chris's mom also got her a little pool that we filled with some water that she enjoyed.  Despite the bad weather it ended up being a good few days.  Although I will say babies are such creatures of habit, Savanna was a little cranky by the end and was so excited when she got home :) 

Kristen's Shower

One of my best and oldest friends is getting married in a month, I am very excited for her and cannot wait for her wedding!  Kristen and I sat next to each other in Kindergarten and have been friends ever since.  We played sports together growing up, she vacationed with my family and then we lived together in NYC after college.  We used to get quite the look when we went out together and we both introduced ourselves with the same name because we are also both petite with medium dark brown hair.  Her shower was this past weekend at the beautiful Glen Cove Mansion.  You can tell they do a lot of showers and weddings there; they were pros, super helpful and very prepared.  Savanna came with me for the first part of the shower and Chris was Mr. Flexible and came out to LI early and then picked her up (He also has her for his first solo weekend when I go to Florida for Kristen's Bachelorette).  Savanna enjoyed meeting some of my friends from High School that she hadn't met yet.  I was honored to do the dessert table for the shower and I wanted to share the details with you.  Per the bride's request I made a banana cake with chocolate filling, chocolate covered pretzels, mini mixed berry pies, cake pops and heart cookies.  Her bridesmaids dresses are a pretty coral from Jcrew so I did a color palette of light pink, coral and white.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend!