Minimizing Sibling Rivalry

I read a great post about helping siblings bond the other day and it's been resonating with me all week.

Date Nut Bars

These date bars were perfect for Kaylin's birthday tea party, but will definitely be made again in our house.  They have very little butter and flour and are delish!

Date bars pictured here with my favorite Banana Bread muffins

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup seeded dates, chopped
1 cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
Extra powdered sugar for coating

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch pan with butter or non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, mix together the walnuts, dates, powdered sugar, and eggs. Add lemon juice, flour, butter, and salt, mixing well. Pour into prepared baking pan.

Bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until slightly brown on top. Remove from oven and cut into squares while the bars are still hot. Note: A pizza cutter works great.

Roll the date squares in powdered sugar, making sure to heavily coat them.

Note:  If doubling the recipe use a larger pan and cook for at least 30 minutes.

Storage: These Date Nut Bars will keep, covered, in the refrigerator up to a week.

Makes 30 to 40 bars.

Tea Party

My sweet baby girl is officially six years old. Months ago, I suggested a mother/daughter tea for her birthday party and she blew me off. Then suddenly, a tea party was her birthday wish. Somehow, the moms were pushed out of the picture, but I got to plan and throw my little her little tea party regardless. (*insert snickering here*)

Yesterday, we spent the {rare} cloudy summer day baking a plethora of teatime treats. Don't the kids look like they had fun in the picture below? Yeah, that didn't last long. Mommy had a perfectionistic anxiety attack mid-day and sucked the joy out of the process for everyone involved. As I relented to having a drink (yes, a real one) at 4:30, I texted Mike and begged him to come home before I ruined Kaylin's birthday altogether. 

Thankfully, my mom came over last night and stayed after the kids went to bed to help me get as much done as possible so I wouldn't have another breakdown today.  Today was delightful...not sure what my problem was yesterday, but I will tell you that a babysitter will be hired for Destructo-boy during the preparation of all future birthday parties. Not blaming him for my attitude yesterday, but he was a major contributor to me taking one step forward and two steps back. (*sigh*)

Moving on, the pictures above were of the kids and I making large round sugar cookies that I topped with the first initial of each child's name as their party favor. I placed them in the adorable little peek-a-boo boxes that I got with most of the paper products from Oriental Trading Company, then wrapped them in cellophane bags and tied a teapot shaped lollipop on the front. They were crazy cute, if I do say so myself. (you can make your own Tea and Cookies Party Favor Boxes, if you have that kind of time and motivation)

Here's some of the food we served and the pink, purple and green decor, rose petals, feather boas, flowers and all of that fun stuff...

Date Nut Bars (top plate) and Mini Banana Bread Muffins (bottom plate)

Tea Sandwiches (read: strawberry jelly sandwiches shaped like flowers)

Purple Yogurt Pretzels, cubed Almond Pound Cake and Mini Chocolate Brownies

Berries, Petit Fours and mock macaroons (Nilla Wafers sandwiched with pink frosting)

Each place was set with a place card and a personalized letter cookie (albeit small) - all except the cookies were from Oriental Trading Co.

Pink cupcakes were the birthday girl's "cake" of choice.

This was the favor table. A huge jar full of "pearl" necklaces and the party favor boxes.

A closer look at the party favor boxes. 

I planned on a few other details that I ran out of time to do: I wanted to throw together some cucumber sandwiches, because what kind of tea party doesn't have cucumber sandwiches?!?!?  Well, apparently, mine didn't. 

I also had these Lace Cookies on my list, but didn't get around to baking them.

I baked sugar cookies shaped like the number 6, but ran out of time to frost them or even plate the unfrosted cookies.  We'll snack on those this weekend. 

I also wanted to cut out these Handmade Heart Doilies, which Kaylin and I practiced making weeks ago and they were SO cute and easy!

All of this was well worth the effort because my sweet girl felt honored and special during her "huge play date" today. Happy birthday, Kaylin!!!