DIY Summer Ice Cream Buffet

We celebrated Olive's birthday with our families over the weekend and we had the yummiest dessert with my family.  We opted for her favorite treat - ice cream - to be the main menu item.  We planned a giant ice cream buffet for everyone to enjoy.

It was easily the most excited anyone has ever been about a birthday dessert at one of our birthdays.  Everyone loved it!  It would be so fun to replicate for an end of the school year party, happy summer party or any gathering you go to this summer.  People love ice cream!

We had chocolate sprinkles, regular sprinkles, mixed nuts, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, gummy worms, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, waffle and sugar cones, spray whipped cream, hot fudge, caramel, magic shell chocolate, strawberry wafers and fresh strawberries.  Almost every topping you could want in one spot :)  I made homemade cookies and brownies and then everything else was store bought.

 I used a Sprinkle table cloth and sprinkle napkins (both from Dollar General) at the party.  I found the rainbow ice cream cups at Dollar Tree and Meijer.  It felt special to eat the ice cream to eat it in special cups.  The glitter silverware is from Walmart.

We had four ice cream options:

Vanilla

Chocolate

Mint Chocolate Chip

& Oreo

I scooped the ice cream for everyone and then they made their way through the topping buffet.

Everyone loved building their own ice cream sundae plate.  Most people overflowed the toppings onto their plates.

There were a few ice cream toppings that really stood out for me that I had give a shout out to:

Dessert Topping Mixed Nuts from Walmart.

It's a blend of 8 different nuts and they're perfectly chopped for sundaes.  I'll definitely buy this again.

Have you seen these Berryhill ice cream toppings at Aldi?  I was excited to give these a try because you get this giant 16oz jar of toppings for only $1.99.  I got the hot fudge topping and the caramel topping.  Both were delicious and got rave reviews from family.  I think they're a seasonal thing at Aldi so I'll be buying more to stock up for Summer.

The kids loved this Smucker's Magic Shell Chocolate.  It freezes instantly and makes the yummiest shell.

Would your family or friends enjoy an ice cream buffet?

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  Hope you've had a wonderful week.  We've been busy with end of the year school fun, gardening, baking and prepping for Olive's 8th birthday.

Let's talk about the highlights from the week.

1 // Date night

I booked our favorite babysitters and made reservations at our favorite place.  We got dressed up, ate delicious food (crab cakes, delicious bread and pasta for me - seafood and a beer flight for Kevin), had good conversations about milestones we've reached and new goals ahead and were back home in time to put the kids to bed.  Stables is our favorite spot - delicious food in a really fun setting.  Many of the booths are in horse stalls and the restaurant has a really cool vibe.  Then we walked around campus to see all the pretty flowers in bloom.

2 // School Highlights

Olive won a 2nd grade writing contest at her school this week.  Her essay on diversity and loving people who are different than you landed her an award straight from the mayor.  She got recognized in front of her whole class, had  her writing put on display, got a medal and made the school facebook page this week.  We're super proud of her!!  She submitted her essay back in January so it was a big surprise for her to be chosen as the winner this week.  She was really proud!

Fletcher's teacher texted me this picture one day this week.  They were writing their sight words in shaving cream and he told his teacher "I might have gotten a little carried away!"  Oh Fletch.  He's the sweetest little tornado boy.  He smelled of shaving cream for the rest of the day.  I'm so thankful he's gotten to have a really hands on wonderful year of PreK.

3 // Birthday Parties

It has been so much fun to start going to birthday parties and seeing friends again.

4 // Surprise flowers

Kevin came home with these gorgeous grocery store flowers this week.  Leo gave me a run for my money one day and he showed up with flowers after work.

5 // Gardening

Our vegetable plants are growing and seem happy in their spot.  We flipped the tomato cages around the right away - thanks to my  friend Angela for telling me they were upside down haha - and we got rain several times this week.  There's always something to learn about gardening and we are trying our best.

6 // Charcuterie Boards & Boxes

I've been busy chopping and prepping charcuterie boxes this week.  I got some custom orders and then made some meals for my family.  I baked 5 dozen cookies.  MyMemorial Day/Indy 500 boxes just went up for sale.  I'm excited to kick off Summer with these patriotic boxes.  You can order and follow me at Jordan Bakery Box on Facebook or follow me in IG @jordanbakerybox

7 // Pots

My flowers pots are all filling in so nicely!!  I love the new varieties of plants the kids help me pick out.  My sweet potato vines are being attacked by squirrels already :(  I need to head to the garden center to see if I can get some squirrel repellent if I want to keep them around.

8 // Leo is climbing EVERYTHING

Every day he climbs a little big more.  He's getting so strong.  This week I found him on top of the kitchen table, kids table, the couch, the ottoman and standing on the back of the toilet.  He's wild and really could use a bodyguard 24/7.  Serious applicants only :)  And he's very very proud of all his climbing.

9 // Quick Hello

My dad stopped in for a quick surprise visit.  Fletcher got to show him his favorite climbing tree, Leo woke up in time to say hello and we all walked down to meet Olive at the bus stop.  

 

I hope you have a really great weekend.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic and we have fun plans.  Yay!  What are you up to this weekend?  See you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals

9 Ways to do Taco Tuesday

I have mentioned a few times that I'm sticking with some themes for days when I'm creating my weekly menu.  Taco Tuesday has been a fun one to plan.  I love knowing we're going to have Mexican that night and then I look forward to trying a different variety of tacos each week.

I wanted to come and share some of our favorite ways we've done Taco Tuesday this year.

There's no wrong way to do tacos in my book.  I could probably eat tacos multiple times a week and be thrilled.  Same thing with my whole family.

Let's get started!

1 //  Beef & Bean Taco Salad

I cooked meat with black beans and added taco seasoning.  Then we added all the taco toppings to a bed of lettuce and then salsa and salsa mixed with sour cream for dressing.  It was so good for dinner and just as delicious as leftovers.

2 // Baked Tacos

Fill soft taco shells with your favorite meat/cheese/pepper/onion combo, top with cheese and bake.  Then serve them with all the yummy toppings.  These reheat really well.

3// Make Fresh Salsa

Make a delicious pico or Cowboy Caviar to add to your regular tacos.  I love this on top of chicken or ground beef tacos.  Here's my recipe Fresh Avocado Salsa that is another yummy option.

4 //  Build Your Own Taco Bar

This takes a little more work to set up, but is really fun for your family or guests.  If I put this on the menu, I try to chop up all the toppings in the afternoon.  That way dinner doesn't take long to pull together in the evening.

5 // Soft Tacos

This is my easy button way to do tacos.  I try to always keep soft tacos on hand and they're great leftover.  Have you tried the squeeze sour cream yet?  It is AMAZING.  You can just squeeze out what you need for tacos or baking or potatoes and it lasts so much longer than the tubs of sour cream.

6 // Chicken Nachos

We like shredded chicken nachos with all the toppings.  The kids prefer just meat and cheese.  And I've found that if you serve them like this, they feel just like restaurant nachos.  Be sure to spray your pan with nonstick spray first.  That'll save you a lot of scrubbing later.

7 // Taco Pizzas

Give everyone a big soft taco shell.  Add toppings on top and slice like a pizza.  It's easy to do for dinner and great leftover.

8 // Ground Beef Nachos

We love the multi-grain Tostito Scoops so I used those for nachos this night.  They turned out great.  All the toppings on the grown up side and meat and cheese for the kids.

9 // Taquitos

We have also been known to hit the easy button on Taco Tuesday and just bake some frozen Taquitos.  The kids like them and they're also our go to babysitter dinner :)  This is our favorite brand and flavor.

Which one of these would your family love for your next Taco Tuesday?

3 End of the Year Teacher Gift Ideas

Many of you are wrapping up the school year with your kids.  My kids are sort of excited and sort of sad about it.  They've both had great school years, had delays to the start of school and didn't get quite a much school as they were hoping for.  However, they were both learning in person at school since August and October.  I'm so thankful for that when I hear about so many kids still being virtual or not being at school 5 full days a week.

We have 3 teachers to buy for this year so I am always on the hunt for cute, affordable gifts that won't break the bank when I have to buy multiples.

I always check out the clearance at Old Navy at the end of the season for my teacher gift stash.  They've usually got great scarves, bags and accessories.  Then, I look at places like Walmart and Meijer for their seasonal items.  Many of the ideas that I'm going to share come from those stores.

The #1 thing you should do for your child's teacher this year is to write them a thank you note for the things you've appreciated them doing for your child this year.  You can hand write it or email them.  The specific things that you recall from this year will mean the world to them.

I love to add a gift with their end of the year thank you notes.

You can grab a $5 gift card to a local coffee shop, get them a gift card to their favorite restaurant or local place or give them a themed gift.  If you have a bigger budget, splurge on a bigger gift card to Target or the movies or Amazon.  It seems like everyone can find something they would love from Amazon. 

I have 3 easy to replicate teacher gift ideas for you today.

1. Sweet Summertime //

I found these watermelon zipper pouches on clearance at Old Navy a while ago for just $4.99.  They're large, zip closed and seem like a really great quality pouch.  I love them for Summer.  Then I just found these watermelon kitchen towels at Walmart for under $2.  I loved the Sweet Summertime message and the watermelon print.  My kid's teachers will be getting this gift this year.

2. Summer Bag & Accessories //

Pick up a great summer bag to gift to your child's teachers and add in some cute hair ties or Summer bracelets for them.  I love these mesh Summer bags for the pool, ocean or just for Summer errands.  I've got a couple of them that I use all the time.  This bag came from Target.  They seem to update the print and color options every year.

3. Fun Summer Hat & Earrings //

I just picked up this leopard hat at Walmart for $7.98 and I love pairing it with leather earrings.  I'd love to get this gift.  My only warning with this one is to only go this route if you feel like you know your child's teacher's style well.  If you haven't been around them much, it may be tricky to gift them with accessories that fit their personality.  I love the leather earring options and quality from my friend Amber at ADV Designs.  I've been wearing and loving her earrings for years.

As a former teacher, I would have loved any of these gifts.  I hope you find something to give your child's teacher that you know they will love.

Our 1st Vegetable Garden

The kids and I have been talking about planing a vegetable garden for a couple of years.  They were eager to grow their own produce.  Our yard is tricky because gardens typically go in your backyard and ours is pretty shady.  We started looking around for alternate spots and realized our side yard gets a lot of sun.  We think it would be a great garden location.

Since we haven't tried to grow anything in this area, we set up our first garden in planters and large pots.  That gives us the option to move them if our garden location needs adjusting and we can repurpose the pots to another spot in our yard if we decide we love gardening and want to do big raised beds in the future.

I'm going to document our process in the hopes of learning what works best in our yard.  We are vegetable garden growing novices so let's learn as we go together.

Here's our process: We brainstormed a lot of our favorite vegetables and what we could grow.  I did the plant and pot shopping with Leo.  Kevin helped us with all the heavy lifting.  And we had to do a few garden center runs together.  Olive wanted to help plant and Fletcher wanted to play.  It was really fun.

Our Vegetable Garden Menu:

2 Green Bell Peppers

2 Red Bell Peppers

2 Yellow Bell Peppers

1 Jalapeno Hot Pepper

2 Japanese cucumbers

5 different kids of tomatoes - Roma, Pink Brandywine Heirloom, Sun Sugar Yellow Cherry, Cherry and Grape Tomato

2 Zucchini Squash

2 Straightneck yellow squash

2 Butter Lettuce

1 Onion chives

1 Rosemary

1 Sweet Basil

23 plants!  6 cages.  10 pots.  5 bags of raised garden bed soil and 5 excited gardeners!

 

I need to take all the stickers off of everything and then figure out a good way to label each plant.  Do you have any suggestions for garden labels or does it matter?  Maybe we don't need them.

Tips:

Walmart had the best prices on large pots.  These were just $7.68 each.  I saw similar pots at Dollar General for $14.99 and Meijer for $30.

Meijer had the best prices on 33 inch tomato cages.  They were just $1.99 each.

Find friends who garden in your area and ask them for all their help.

 

I'm excited to learn something brand new together as a family.  My hope is that the kids will learn that they can try something new and learn along the way.  That they don't have to be experts to give something a try.  Here's to hoping we will be able to eat things that we grow at home this Summer.

Wish our little garden luck!  And I'll take all of your vegetable growing tips!

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!  It felt like a long week over here for some reason.  The weather was gorgeous, we had lots of fun and we are ready for the weekend - date night, birthday parties and cookies!  Fletcher found $20 in the street, Olive was excited to learn that she gets to keep her school computer over the summer and I'm LOVING watching Virgin River.  Have you seen it??  I'm hooked and cheering for Jack & Mel.

Our favorite moments of the week were...

1. Mother's Day festivities

I felt special and extra loved all week long!  And getting an updated pics with kids which is one of my very favorite traditions.

2. Bees!

We were shocked to find a swarm of bees in our yard.  Actually God was looking out for Kevin because he came very very close to mowing over the swarm.  It was on the ground and was about 2 feet wide.  There were SO many bees.  A friend put me in touch with a beekeeper.  He came out right way.  He moved the queen into the box and the bees followed.  The kids were so curious about the bees and our new friend promised to bring us some honey this Fall.

3. Flowers!

We picked out flowers together over the weekend and then we got busy planting this week.  The pots always look a little naked when we first plant them, but they will fill in so nicely in a few weeks.  The kids picked out several new plants.  I'm hoping they all do great at our house.  I'm also hoping they stay excited about watering all our plants.  They are getting better at better at gardening with me.  They even helped me trim up things in our landscaping and pulled weeds.

4.  King Leo

Leo learning the art of furniture climbing this week.  He can get to everything and is very proud about that.  Me, not so much.

5. Nutella - I introduced the kids to Nutella and they're obsessed.  Strawberries are their favorite dippers.

6. Birthdays

We are excited that friend birthday parties are starting back up.  Olive went to a laser tag party and loved the claw game at the arcade.

7. Buggy Beds Bracelets

I picked up these bracelets for the kids in the hopes that it would keep the mosquitoes away from them. I hope they work.  What do you do for mosquito repellent?

8. Backyard Fun

We've been having fun in the backyard with this gorgeous weather.  Leo loves walking all over the yard and the big kids are climbers.  Did you see our fairy garden tour earlier this week?  It turned out so good this year.

 9. Hiking

I took the boys on a hike this week at a local park.  I just love light jacket weather.  It was really beautiful out and Leo got to walk on the trails a bit this time.  

10. Did you know tomorrow is National Chocolate Chip Day?  I've got several Jordan Bakery Box orders to fill this weekend for Hershey Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yummy!!

 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  

Linking up with Momfessionals