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Welcome to the ValenDiner | Our Valentine’s Day Diner Theme Party

February 23, 2011 By Laura 6 Comments

For this past St. Valentine’s Day, I had the urge to throw a fun little party for our kids. The more I got thinking about the little details, (which I love to do), a theme party sort of started snowballing in my head (which is often the case, when I think), and I got beside myself with excitement (which happens quite easily with me.)

Simply put, my idea, was simply, a St. Valentine’s Day diner theme party.

We invited a family we are good friends with, who have just as many kids as we do! That was enough for me, because frankly….I had never (evah!) waitressed before. But I was about to!

A menu sign welcomed them, as soon as the ValenDiner was open, at 1:00 in the afternoon.

The menu offered all of the specialties any good diner would, as you can see. Milkshakes, in 3 flavors, and even deep fried french fries and onion rings!

( Soon, our home would smell like a real diner too. ; ) )
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Here are our special patrons!! A happy-go-lucky, handsome little crew, huh?? One of our crew, {D}, top center, was even so kind enough to take a shiner at his wrestling match that weekend. I could have taken care of that, with my photo editing skills, of course. But us parents decided it added a nice 50’s sort of touch to our party…..like one of “The Outsiders.” ; ) So, we just thanked him.
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Us moms (a.k.a – the waitresses), took the kid’s orders soon after ‘we opened’. We hung the order up, for the kitchen crew, over the breakfast bar window. (See them?) Me and my side-kick were just like ‘Alice and Flo’. (From that old sitcom, Alice. Remember? I’ll tell you a secret….I had a crush on Alice’s son, Tommy. Sshhhh.) I really got into my role,….more like Flo. (Because it would just be weird, to be Tommy’s mother.) I had fun blowing bubbles with my bubble gum, as I took orders, and asking, “Alright kids, what’ll it be.” <Pop!>

As many of you know by now, we take every opportunity we can, to let the kids learn. It’s personally important to us (4 parents), that our children understand the history and true meaning behind every holiday or saint day. (or anything else, educational, that we can squeeze into them.) So while the kids were waiting for their orders to be up, and being that our celebration on this day, revolved around the life of St. Valentine, they watched a very informative and wonderful (wonderful!) power-point presentation, put together by….well, Alice. ; ) I learned a thing or 2 more, I didn’t know, myself! (More on that later.)

They each got a printout, too.
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Here’s ‘Grill Boy”. (Mel?) He was cookin’ up those hot dogs and cheeseburgers.

We had some unexpected mechanical difficulties with the frialator, that really held things up a bit. But eventually, we got it working right.

The little wait, just made the kids extra-thankful for their food!! Honestly, it melted my heart, to see them join hands, and say grace together.

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A ‘cheers’, with milkshakes…..in vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.
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Yum. It’s hard to find good diner food, these days.

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Us parents loved seeing the kids, all chowing down, giggling and chatting. There was a real ‘hum’ of a busy diner.

<Swoon.> I so wish, I had gotten the shot of this sweet boy’s expression, when he tried that dill pickle. I was a fraction of a second too late. But I think I’ll remember it in my head forever, because it was ‘that’ comical. There was actually a couple of hysterical moments with that pickle. What a blessing this boy is. (Well, that all are. But, you know.)

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The patrons lingered. And our tip they left us, was the echo of their generous giggles, in our hearts.
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All of our kids, made Valentine cards, for each other. (More on that later, too.) But our friend’s sweet girl {S}, above, got an extra-special, unique Valentine, made by our boy, {JM} (with a little wording help from his Mama. ; ). You need to know……{S} is a competitive Irish Step Dancer. So, her Valentine was a 4 leaf-clover, with a heart center. And it read:

* “I-RISH” you’d “Step” into my heart, and be my Valentine! *

Do you want to know the best part? (Of course you do. ) As I type this post this moment, that Valentine card, right now, is in IRELAND!! I’m not even kidding. {S} took it there with her, for ‘good luck’, as she competes against the best Irish Dancers in the world!!

All of the kids, totally loved exchanging Valentines with each other. They were all ‘keepers’.

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{Baby E} loved his Valentines, too! Holding him, is “Milkshake Man”…..a.k.a Daddy! He and
“Grill Boy” get along great.

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There’s my good friend, “Alice!”. I would have never survived the diner crowd on this day, without her. Actually…I may have not survived a few things in my life, with out her.
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The kids partied on, to the 50’s ‘jukebox’ playing.

(Pandora. Whatever.)

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We all partied, until we started poopin’ out!!

Honestly, it’s always a good time of memory-makin’, when our families get together.

And this St. Valentine’s Day celebration, was no exception.

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Before we all parted ways, we each had a Valentine fortune (paper-cookie) to read. They actually came with fortunes already. But because “Alice” and I have higher, perfectionistic standards, I pulled those lame ones out, and re-stuffed them, with our own alternative fortunes. The theme of course, was “LOVE”, and together, we combined our lists of messages about “love”, that we wanted our kids to be sent <wink-wink>, including some Biblical Scripture quotes.

It was a wonderful St. Valentine’s celebration, I think we ALL, always will remember.

If not, we have this post to remind us!

And if that fails us, there is that faint “deep-frying Diner” scent, I swear still lingers in the air.

*** We hope you “LOVED” this theme party post!! As an FYI…..we have more Valentine season ideas/photos from this year, that we hope to share with you next year, pre-Valentine’s Day, if I am still blogging away! Then perhaps you might like to use those ideas too, when you might need them. (I’m sure you all are all Valentine’d out, by now.) There will be some treats under the ‘Recipes’ tab, as well as some Valentine card ideas (complete with sayings) under ‘Crafts & Creations’ tab. And just maybe, I can manage to get that educational power-point presentation on St. Valentine, to share under ‘Homeschooling.’ That’s my plan, if I blog-on, anyway. Hey, a lot can happen in a year! Right?***

Meanwhile, leave us your thoughts, and then….let’s get on with Spring! (Lent, Easter….Alleluia!!)

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Our "Lucky Liker’s" Surprise Giveaway Gift

February 8, 2011 By Laura 3 Comments

Last week, I decided rather spontaneously, to have a surprise giveaway to the 100th ‘Liker’ of our Facebook Page for House Of Joyful Noise. The unsuspecting ‘Lucky Liker’, Tammy N., got a happy surprise, and I had so much fun doing it! I’ve decided that using our Facebook Page, when announcing having such giveaways, and sharing other random tidbits, photos, and inside-info, is the way to go!! SO…..if you haven’t ‘Liked’ our Facebook Page yet, you might want to do that riiiiiight now. Or else, you’ll be missing out. (It just means, you’ll see us in your Facebook feed, and you’ll be in the know, with things not necessarily here on the blog. It’s fun! Please join us. Buttons are in the sidebar. )

Here’s the sweet gift we sent out to Tammy, today!

Custom-designed thank you note-cards, by artist, Jessica Dittmer.

She’s a true artist, in many senses of the word. Painter, graphic artist, photographer, crafter…..it’s ridiculous, really. She has designed for the Demdaco Company, you know. You know…the company with the Willow Trees line? True story.

So I am always watching Jessica’s work, and fell in love with this watercolor snowman she created. I wanted to get some note cards with it, and so inquired with Jessica about it. It was just easier for both of us at the time, for me to just purchase the file. I was finally getting ready to order my note cards from the printer, (for MEEEE!! : ) when I had this giveaway idea. I thought maybe, I should share my set. Even though it’s a little hard! ; )

They were printed on watercolor stock, which is perfect for them. I know you can’t tell the texture in these photos. I didn’t try that hard. lol. But beautiful quality. They are just s w e e t.

Interestingly, I got several extras in my pack, from the printers. That happens sometimes. But, I think this time they got a little print happy, knowing Jessica is, you know… somewhat famous. In this creative world we all float around in, she is. (Maybe outside too, but I’m in my own little world here. lol) The printers certainly know who she is. So this name on the back is her mark, and it makes these custom designed cards extra special.

Of course….I wish the printer sent as many envelopes. (HELLO? <sigh> It’s o.k., I can get more.) But, I did spread the blessing with the extra cards. I gave our winner a dozen, instead of 10! ; ) (Notice I didn’t tell you how many extras I got. lol. But really….it was nice of me to give her more!)

I knew I would find more uses, for my dyed string. ; ) It matches soooo perfectly. I put it next to the cards and was like….“NO SIR!! GET OUT!!!” (And then, per usual, the whole family is calling from various places in the house…..“What?! What’s going on?” Just every day happenings around here. I get excited about the little things, a lot. )

I really had fun getting this little package together for Tammy. Don’t be jealous. There will be more giveaways coming up! It’ not the first giveaway we’ve had…. and it sure won’t be the last. But sure hope you’ve ‘Liked’ us on Facebook! ; )

I decided to use on of my own thank-you note cards, to thank Tammy for ‘Liking’ us. We like her too.
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Here’s her package, all ready for Michael to drop off at the post office, on his way to….somewhere. I forget. I was thinking….it sure would be nice, if the post office offered some nice designer packaging options. Don’t you think? Some a little pretty…..some a little festive for holiday shipping….you know. Like they have special edition stamps. Can I talk about the postal service like that? Am I going to get arrested now? Just saying. I hate making my packages all pretty, and then having to put them in these standard boring boxes. The should hire Jessica Dittmer, for a nice designer line of packaging.

Well, we hope the arrival of this little package at your door, puts a smile on your face, Tammy. Who will our next giveaway gift-receiver be? We’ll seeee!

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Midnight Snaps (Festive Cookies for New Years Eve)

December 30, 2010 By Laura 20 Comments

My kids and I were trying to come up with some themed food for New Year’s Eve, and {JM} came up with this great idea, right off the bat: Cookies that are designed like clocks! (Oh, to have his quick, 8 year old brain!)

Right away I started trying to figure the details, and decided to start with homemade Gingersnap Cookies. To design them, we went with a white icing that hardens, and a bit of chocolate art. The design process does involve some intricate detail work, but if you enjoy the creative process and have a little patience to work with, they are worth the effort! Your party-goers will be impressed with these festive cookies, you made!

First, I’m going to start by giving you this basic Gingersnap Cookie Recipe. This post is not featuring how to make the cookies, with step by step photos, etc., but how to turn them into clocks. So, using the recipe below, bake some cookies and let them cool before getting to designing.

Participating Ingredients for Gingersnap Cookies:

3/4 shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy, then stir in the molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add to the egg mixture, and stir until well blended. * (See foot note below). Roll bits of dough into 1 inch balls. Dip each ball into sugar and place on cookie sheet, sugar side up, about 2 inches apart.

*Now, being the first time we made these, we did indeed use 1 inch balls of dough. However, we found that the cookies were pretty small to work with, and it was difficult making such tiny chocolate numbers! So……we advise that you make cookies twice the size, using 2 inch dough balls, and putting a little further apart on the cookie sheets. That way, your chocolate numbers can be made larger, and it will all be easier to do.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have spread, and cookies have cracked. Let cool on wire rack.

They are delicious straight and plain, for sure! Crispy on the outside, a little softer on the inside, and amazingly good! Surely no one would notice, if just one, was missing. ; )

Again, these are small cookies, and we recommend having bigger ones to work with.

Now, once they are cool, you’ll need to whip up some icing. I am going to guess some of you already have a recipe, and I am sure there many variations out there. This one below is the one I started with. BUT, I really needed to add a lot more liquid than it calls for, being careful to keep it a very pretty thick consistency. Really, this is one of those recipes where you need to tweak as needed, depending on how yours is looking.

Note: You’ll probably want to at least make a double batch of this icing.

Participating Ingredients for Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons milk *
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon of preferred extract (called for almond, I used vanilla, frankly, because I hate almond. )

* I probably had to add at least 2 tablespoons of milk! But gauge for yourself.

Using a piping bag, we outlined a circle around the edge of each cookie, and filled it in, using the tip to push the icing around some, to help get it all covered.
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The icing is bound to drip a little sometimes, but if you try not to be close to the edge where the fall-off is, you should do o.k.

At the back of the photo above, you can see where we experimented with seeing if covering the whole cookie would be easier. It was just too much icing. So we stuck with our original icing plan.

Allow the iced cookies to set, so that the icing can harden.

*****

Now you’ll need to melt some chocolate to work with, otherwise known as tempering. I should do a post just on this process at some point, but you’ll need to know it for this recipe! So I’m going to share with you a quick tutorial. Now, you may have used the double-boiler method of melting chocolate before, but we’ve never had much good luck with that. Then, we learned a quick and easy trick to tempering chocolate, from Barefoot Contessa – and I am going to share it with you right now:

You’ll need: some milk chocolate -shaved or chips (we used Hershey chocolate chips, which as chips are easier to melt), a glass measuring cup, a wooden spoon, and a microwave.

In the glass measuring cup, add about half of the amount of chocolate that you’ll need. Microwave it for about 15-20 seconds. Take out, and with the handle/ butt end of the wooden spoon, mix the chips rapidly. It will likely need more melting, so put it in for 10 second increments, and stir with the end of the wooden spoon very rapidly after each time, until the chocolate is all melted smooth and glossy. Now, just as the remaining half of your chocolate, and stir rapidly some more. You really want to mix it hard and fast – the more you do, the shinier your chocolate will be.

Now that’s a tip we can all use for life!! Thanks Contessa!

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Now below is some writing with chocolate tips. Since I didn’t photograph making the teeny-tiny numbers, here below I am using the photos of when we made the words for Jesus’ Birthday cake on Christmas.

We printed out the words on a piece of paper, having laid out the size we wanted, in the font we wanted. Then we slipped that ‘stencil’ to trace, under a piece of parchment paper. Using a fine tip on a piping bag filled with the melted chocolate, do your writing or designs!

As the chocolate cools, it will harden.

Our words came out nice, and when they were hardened, we just placed them on our cake!

Michael and the kids had chocolate left in the bag, and they just couldn’t stop themselves from playing with chocolate some more.

See how you can just pick it up?

So this is the method we used, to make tiny little number and click hands. They were probably only 3/8ths of an inch, so you can imagine it was a tad difficult. Bigger would be easier. This way, doing the chocolate work on parchment paper first, if something comes out awful, you didn’t ruin a cookie or a cake. You just start a new one on the parchment paper, and use the ones that came out best.

If the icing on the cookies is hardened, then use a bit more icing to apply the numbers and dots to the cookie.
Otherwise they won’t stick and stay put.

So here is how our Midnight Snaps came out!! Not perfect by any means. But we think they are imperfectly cute!

Now I realize I am giving you this grand idea, pretty last minute. (lol….lol….). So I wouldn’t blame you, if you went out and tried to find some large, store bought gingersnap cookies, or maybe even molasses cookies, to just bring home and decorate. That would be a time saver for sure. ; )

May you all rock around the clock on New Year’s Eve, (or at least until midnight) and may we all have a Happy New year!

America’s Hometown Parade & Thanksgiving Day- 2010

December 1, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

With Plymouth MA being America’s Hometown, and where the pilgrims first settled, we have quite the Thanksgiving Parade every year, not to mention a historical culture to enjoy all year long.

For 15 years, hundreds of thousands of people have traveled to the historic Plymouth Harbor and Waterfront to experience a bounty of authentic Americana. The celebration of Thanksgiving becomes history-brought-to-life as Pilgrims, Native Americans, Soldiers, Patriots, and Pioneers proudly climb out of the history books and onto the streets of Plymouth. You’ll see some of that in the photos to come!

There is so much to enjoy this weekend. The festivities include not only the big parade, but a crafter’s pavilion, an educational Wompanoag pavilion, food vendors, kid’s activities, the New England Food Festival, and more. It’s a very interesting and festive event, so consider coming down in the coming years, if the trip is do-able for you and your family. And give us a call while you’re here!

We had a great view of the parade, as we sat on the hill pretty much right across from Plymouth Rock. That hill can be seen in the photo on the top left below. Afterward we did a bit of walking around.

I know Thanksgiving is over and everyone is ready to move on, but I thought I would just share with you a bunch of photos I took, so you can enjoy a little of this event with us. It was a beautiful, and fairly mild day. So use your imagination, sit back and enjoy.

Not much more chatting in this post at all. Maybe just a little.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Many of you know that Michael is a 2nd generation sign maker and letterer. Well Michael’s father used to hand letter the Hallamore barrel wagons you see in the photos above, pulled by Clydesdale horses. That was an interesting piece of family history to share with the kids.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Seeing so much live history, right before your eyes, is a thrill. We are blessed to see some of it all year long, around here. With the Plimoth Plantation so close, we can step back in time, anytime! Photographing it all is so fun. Aside from the modern-dressed people all about, it’s easy to imagine you are back in time. One thing we DID see a few times, that really cracked us up repeatedly, was the evidence of today’s technology, that not many can be away from for very long! To see pilgrims and indians, texting, was a hoot!! I wanted to get a photo of that, but never got one. A funny sight though, as I’m sure you can imagine. All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable family day together.

As for our Thanksgiving Day……..

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-3 ….ours was simply peaceful and lovely. We do not have a lot of close extended family, so we have often spent this holiday just the 6 of us. In the past years, we have opted to cook a ham or cornish hens on Thanksgiving. But this year, we cooked our very first turkey! It came out….perfect. As you can see. ; ) Dinner was delicious, as were the pies. We played games, watched football, and played some football outdoors too.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma The kids set a real festive atmosphere as always, with the creative decorations.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-1 Each turkey that the little ones made, displayed feathers that expressed some of the things that they were thankful for. “Reagan”, by the way (on the last feather) is our other pet: a Republican beta fish. : ) Yep, he’s red.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-2
I really loved {S}’s indian.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-4 We hope you and your families, had a blessed and memorable Thanksgiving as well!

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Pixel the Hedgehog Plays Peek-a-Boo!

November 16, 2010 By Laura 9 Comments

Have you ever met our sweet hedgehog, Pixel?

We haven’t blogged her much since she first came home as a baby in April. She is 7 1/2 months old now.

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get any attention around here! She is rarely in her cage all day. She has got to be the most loved, cuddled, spoiled hedgehog on the face of the earth. {A} is still her main caretaker, and definitely spends the very most time with her. But {JM, O and S} have their own play-QT with her every day too. Pixel is woken up in the morning, played with sporadically throughout the day by someone or other around, and just held and carried around while she takes cat-naps.

Errr….hedgie-naps, I guess.

She’s even settled in for the night at bedtime!

She really is an easy pet, being so quiet, quite clean, and completely potty-trained. We can even tell when she ‘has to go’, so we just put her in her cage, and she runs to her litter pan. Pretty cute to see! (If you stop watching right there. lol).

We had so much fun taking these recent photos of her.

hedgehogs She gets rides now and then.

Being a hedgehog, she loves to get underneath things.
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hedgehogs
There she goes!! She was under there for a few minutes. Then she tried to back out again, but the whole truck was backing up!…..

hedgehogs BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

hedgehogs “We see you, Pixel!!”

“PEEK-A-BOOO!”

hedgehogs Look closely in there….do you see her scrunched up face? SO CUTE when she does that! When she ‘puts her visor down’. (That’s hedgehog talk.)

hedgehogs A little time with {JM}. She gets countless kisses from the kids in a day. She’s quite used to it.

hedgehogs
Pixel spends a whole lot of time in {A}’s hand, just like this, when {A} is on the computer, reading a book, or standing around talking. She is a professional hedgehog handler. Or of her hedgehog, anyway. I’m in awe, watching them together.

hedgehogs She curls right up and goes to sleep, with the slightest sign of a cuddle.

Just look at that face!! That’s the face I love. She has other faces. She’s very facially-expressive.

Hope you enjoyed this recent peek at Pixel. We’ll try to incorporate her in our blogging more, if you’d like. After all, she is very much a part of our family.

hedgehogs The End!

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