The chowdah (gotta say it like you are from Boston) and cookies were highly successful yesterday, thanks for the inquiries.

I am actually away from the house (Gasp…What? I Know!) at the moment, so I’ll post the recipes later on tonight.

But, yes, it was nice to have some good homemade nutrition for dinner. I think J. enjoyed his soup, it has jalapenos in it (totally optional), which he loves, but come to find out, it is not so nice to kiss someone who has indulged in them. So remember that. Be nice to your significant other if you make this chowder and/or if you would like any cuddling later on in the evening.

And the cookies! Let’s just say I’ve “tested” the cookies several times since last evening and they keep getting better with each taste test. So we may have a winning recipe. Finally. Now I need to slowly (s-l-o-w-l-y) wean myself off of them. Will you all just send me some random emails? Just title them “Carrie – Step away from the cookies. Now.”

Must. Stop. Eating. Cookies.

Because soon, our house will be flooded with cakes, cupcakes, puppy bone cookies, puppy chow and hot dogs.

We are on T-2 days and counting til A.’s birthday party. That is our menu for the event, so far. It has been really kind of fun prepping for it. I haven’t figured out, or bought, any of the food yet, but the girls and I have been putting together all of the “crafty” stuff for it.  J. and I cut 12 pairs of puppy and kitty ears out of felt the other night. (This is what constitutes a “hot night” at our house, aren’t you so jealous?) And then Em helped me glue them all together yesterday. And I made some little cards that have puppies on them and say “Doggy Bag” for the kids to take their goodies home in.  Em was so excited to glue them onto the little bags, so I expect that is what she and Denise are doing right now.

The hard thing is that I have to remember that A. is only 2, (although sometimes she acts like she is 4, like Em) and yet a lot of the kids that are coming are 4, 5 or older. You invite one child, and have to invite the other sibling sort of thing. Then it all snowballs. Anyways, I’m trying to do fun things for Addie that the big kids will still get “into” as well.

I’m also trying to decide whether to have a “pin the collar on the kitty” or a “pin the bone in the puppy’s mouth” game. I have some craft paper and I’m just going to draw it out, but I don’t know what would be cuter.

I was leaning towards doing more of the “puppy” side, I found this really cool doghouse cake that I thought she would flip over. So we are in the craft store and they actually had the pan, even though it is sold-out all over the internet. I showed it to A. and she said, “OH!  Puppy. Puppy in a house. Cute puppy.”

“Sweet,” I thought. And then A. squeeeeaaals, “Mama! A Smokey! A Smokey, Mama!” (All cats are “Smokey” right now.)

Sure enough, she found the only cake pan in the mountain of pans that can be made into a kitty. And as she pulled it out to carry it around, I realized the doghouse was so not going to happen.

So we are making a “Smokey” cake. Em thinks we should make it gray, black and white like our Smokey. Which I think is a fine idea, because black frosting is so much fun to work with and clean up.

Sigh.

I know. I know! It will be gray, black and white. Don’t worry.