Tuesday Talk: Raspberry Ice Cream

I shared a recipe a few weeks ago for healthy ice cream.  It was Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and it was delicious.  We enjoyed it so much that I started experimenting with other flavor combinations.  We ended up with an amazing raspberry ice cream so I knew I had to share it with you.

 Raspberry Ice Cream

3 bananas room temp

1 cup frozen raspberries

 1/3 c vanilla yogurt

1 t vanilla

 Puree everything in a blender until smooth.

Pour into a container with a lid and freeze until hard.

Scoop out and serve.

For some reason this ice cream scooped way easier that the pb chocolate chip recipe.

The color was beautiful and it tasted like a delicious sorbet.

I loved the flavor right away - very fruity and a great healthy substitute for ice cream.

 I made this ice cream with my toddler.

She happily tossed the ingredients in the blender and pressed the blender buttons.

I thought it might be too tart for her or too cold, but she LOVED it.

I gave her one spoonful to try.  She claimed the spoon and told me to go and get another one for myself.  We shared this yummy treat and I'm thinking this will be a really fun summer treat.

I can't wait to try peaches, strawberries, watermelon, berries, cherries, etc.

in my banana ice cream recipes.  I'll be sure to share any other delicious combinations.

It's time to link up with my favorite ladies again this week.

Be sure to join us with your best post.

 

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram 

 Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Emily at Raising Barnes | Pinterest | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stasia at Our Life on a Budget | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Sarah at Abiding In Grace | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Ruthie at Rear. Release. Regroup. | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Laura at Life Is Beautiful | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Christina at Waltzing In Beauty | Pinterest | Instagram

Michelle at Grammie Time | Pinterest | Instagram 

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

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An InLinkz Link-up

New House Inspiration

It's been so fun to start working on house projects and start hunting around for things we love to put in the house.  We aren't buy tons of stuff to fill the house.  We are slowly, but surely picking out things we love to make our house feel like our HOME.

FAMILY ROOM:

We bought couches when we got married... 12 years ago.  We loved the bright red color and they served us well for all those years.  We sold the big couch when we were moving this last time so we just have a love seat now.  We're going to put that in the play room and knew we needed a sofa upgrade for our family room.  We searched around town at furniture shops, looked online and then opted to order a couch from macys.com.  It had great reviews, was on a super close out sale and we got to use coupons and discounts to make it really affordable.  I'm not sure where it's going in the room just yet, but I'm excited to have a BIG couch for us all to snuggle on.

We went with a really neutral couch, gray walls and are bringing in color with the pillows on the couch and curtains.  I've yet to find fabric I love, but this is my color inspiration for the entire space.  I'd been on the hunt for a pillow or fabric that really spoke to me for this room.  I was shopping at TJ Maxx and this set of pillows nearly jumped into my cart.  They were PERFECT and it was a completely different color palette than I was thinking for this room.  It just seem to call my name.  We have green wing back recliners that bring in the green color perfectly and our walls are gray.  I ended up getting 12 or so pillows to add to the couch so I'll have to snap a picture of them all set up when that happens.  They're the prettiest blues and yellows.

 OLIVE'S ROOM

Vintage Floral

We went with lavender walls and are going to work on finding big girl bedding and curtains for her space.  They'll be pastels, golds and vintage elements in her room.  The walls are really pretty and purple isn't a color that I really loved before Olive decided it was her favorite color.  Kevin and my dad did a great job on her room.

 FLETCHER'S ROOM

Boy Alphabet

We are going with a fun, colorful nursery.  Think nerdy book worm :)  I've been collecting things for his walls and his bedding and I can't wait to pull it all together.  He'll be getting Olive's nursery furniture once we move.

I'm still pondering all of the other rooms, but will keep you posted as we start making progress.  I'm still thinking about an area rug, curtains, tv placement, book shelves, a bench, a coffee table, etc to pull this room all together.  I can't wait to have a mantle to decorate again :)

What's your favorite project we're working on??

Where do you like to buy BIG rugs?

Any advice on where to buy bar stools?  I need 3

Lastly, where do you like to buy fabric for curtains or premade curtains?

She's THREE!!!

She's THREE!!!

This weekend our sweet Olive Kate turns three.  

I can hardly believe it because I remember her being born just like it was yesterday.  She has been the greatest addition to our family and she bring us so much joy.  Olive has celebrated every single birthday in a new state and been the best little adventurer.  She's made friends wherever we've lived and is a ray of sunshine.  She's silly, smart and sassy.

Mama LOVES...

your smile

baking with you

doing art projects with you

having conversations & laughing with you

running errands with you

rocking you to sleep and cuddling your face
learning new things

spending my days with you
making new friends together
exploring new cities

Daddy LOVES...
your sweet smile
how curious you are
reading with you

playing on the playground with you

being silly with you

going outside with you
taking out the trash with me
singing songs with you

snuggling you

cheering for Notre Dame with you

Fletcher LOVES...

your hugs

your funny faces

how you take care of him
having you for a big sister

// THREE //

in Indiana

// TWO //

in Mississippi

// ONE //

in Arkansas

 

// NEWBORN //

in Utah

We are looking forward to celebrating her birthday on Sunday 

and working hard to make her feel special.

Purple Dinner Party

We had a dinner party with Kevin's side of the family and we had a blast.  It was Fletcher's first time meeting the extended family members and Olive was thrilled to get to see everyone.

My MIL's flowers were gorgeous and Olive was excited to check all of them out.   I had to remind her not to pick Nanny's flowers.  I'm excited to start working on our new landscaping with my MIL's help this summer.  She's got a great eye for things and knows a lot about caring for plants.  That's not my specialty, but I enjoy learning so I can have a pretty yard.

 Olive barely noticed that Fletcher was getting ooed and awwwed over all night.  He's lucky to have 5 great grandparents and he got to meet four of them at the party.  Everyone was talking about how big he is and were excited to see him in person.

 We grilled out and my MIL made a delicious spread.  Olive had the time of her life being chased around the flowers by her uncle Rex.  His name is actually Eric, but she's always called him Rex.  So now he's convinced her he's a t-rex.  He's her favorite.

 We opened gifts and she got so many fun things.  She's been playing with her new toys all week and she makes us pull her rocking horse into her bedroom so they can both go to bed at night.  She loves that thing!

We even had a purple sunset to wrap up our purple day!  It was gorgeous and we feel so grateful to have so many people who adore Olive.  We headed back home after a day of partying.  Both kids feel asleep after being on the road for only a few minutes.  We swung through Starbucks and had two hours of uninterrupted conversation.  That hasn't happened in a long time so it was a great date night of sorts on the road.

Princess Olive Turns 3 Party

Olive's birthday is on the 29th so we headed down to celebrate with our families over the weekend.  We both have big families so we always do a lunch party with one side and a dinner party with the other side.  It seems like less work to do two smaller parties because both of our moms and families help out and we appreciate smaller gatherings so we can visit with everyone.  It was Fletcher's first visit to our hometown to meet extended family.

We had a great time and Princess Olive was in princess heaven!  She was so pleased with the pink and purple decorations, all of the family and friends and was thrilled to have a party in her honor.  Three is the first birthday party that she's really gotten excited about.  I loved planning it and asking for her input on things.  Her purple princess party was a lot of fun to put together. 

I picked up fresh flowers (carnations, roses and tulips) from Walmart and then my mom snipped some gorgeous peonies from her yard.  They made the prettiest bouquets.

 Our menu was comprised of two things - Olive's favorite foods + easy things to prepare because we got in town about 90 minutes before the party started.

I made food labels that included the characters from Sofia and the food name.  This was probably Olive's favorite part of the food.  She kept wanting to name all the characters.

Each place setting looked like this:

napkins, cups and straws all came from walmart.com

 My sister made cupcakes, I made cookies and we served ice cream.

 We continued our tradition of having guests sign Olive's birthday book.  We picked Purplicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kann.  She loves Pinkalicious so I knew she's love this one and it went with her purple theme.  We have so much fun going back and reading her birthday books.  She wants to compare her hand size and wants me to read all the messages from her guests.

 I found these crowns at Wal-Mart for the little girls to wear and then we gave out favor bags with amulets, bracelets, a wand and Olive's favorite treats.

 It was fun to celebrate Olive with our family.

 Three years have flown by!

I found Olive's Sofia outfit at walmart.com and it was darling!!

She was really happy with it.

Fletcher got to meet the rest of the family and enjoy some snuggles.

 Mimi & Papaw were nice to host her party for us.

Cute cousins and friends wearing purple for the party :)

 Opening gifts was fun.  Olive was excited about each one and it was the first time she realized she should keep opening the gifts without stopping.  She used to open a gift and then want to play with it immediately. 

Baby brother wasn't sure what to think about the gift opening.

 There are 9 grand kids on my side.

Here's our first group picture of the whole crew.

Fletcher was hangry and wasn't feeling it.