Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Unicorns & Rainbows

My sister threw the cutest 6th birthday party for her daughter Allie a few weeks ago.  The theme was unicorns and rainbows.  It turned out to be such a cute party and I'm excited to share the details with you today.  It seems like unicorns and rainbows are everywhere these days so maybe these ideas will help you throw a themed party of your own.

Unicorns & Rainbows
Haley DIY'd the gold unicorn and made a cake from scratch.  She added a horn to a horse, then sprayed it gold and made a mayonnaise chocolate cake.  It was delicious and gorgeous!

We ate the rainbow with a salad bar for dinner.


 A photo op with the birthday girl and her cake!

All 9 of the cousins on my side were there plus some friends.  Olive loved collecting the balloons and loved the rainbow themed treat bag.


Fletcher got to sit in a high chair for the first time and he loved it!!  This was his face when he realized he was eating a spoon and we were all eating some delicious CAKE.  No fair :)  I'm not a big icing fan, but this chocolate icing was delish.

 Haley had this cute unicorn sign on her entry table to greet the guests and then we all tried to figure out what our unicorn names was during the party.  It was funny and we all had some good laughs.


Great party, sis!! 
She posted some more details and pictures on her blog so head over and say hello :)



My sister also has chickens in her backyard.  All the kids were playing in the yard and having a blast together.  She came in to tell me that Olive had been snuggling chickens.  You won't find me snuggling with the chickens with all of my allergies, but looks like Olive is doing enough snuggling for both of us.  She sent me the following pictures of Olive and Cutie.  Looks like she really does love chickens :)







We are always excited when we can head home for a fun birthday party with family.  It's much more doable with us just being two hours away now.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Tuesday Talk: Indoor S'more Bars

Last week was National S'more Day.
Did you celebrate it??

These made up holidays are kind of silly, but I do love celebrating ordinary days with fun things.  The weather was too warm for a bonfire so we compromised and made our S'mores indoors.

They were delicious, super easy and gone in about one day.  My toddler helped me prepare them and my whole family enjoyed them.


Indoor S'more Recipe

6 or so cups of Golden Grahams
1 bag mini marshmallows
4T butter
two handfuls of chocolate chips

Recipe makes one 9x13 pan of bars.

Directions:
Grease pan with 1T butter saving 3T butter for the bars.
Melt butter, 1 handful of chocolate chips and most of the marshmallows in a sauce pan.  Save one handful of marshmallows and one handful of chocolate chips to sprinkle over the bars once they're done.

Heat butter, chocolate and marshmallows until everything is melted and well combined.  Remove from heat and add approximately 6 cups of Golden Grahams to the mix.  Stir until the cereal is well coated.  Dump mixture into buttered 9x13 pan and then spread out evenly with a knife.  Sprinkle handful of chocolate chips and marshmallows on top.  Let cool, slice into squares and serve.


It's time to link up with my favorite ladies this week.
Be sure to join us with your best recent post.

 

Polka-Dotty Place

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Monday, August 15, 2016

August $10 Target Haul

I picked out my $10 Target Haul items in record time this month.  I walked into Target, headed straight for the Dollar Spot and it only took me about one minute to gather my haul.  I knew I had to have these wire baskets for my pantry as soon as I saw them.  My only debate was which color - gold, mint or blush.  I thought about getting the mint ones for my master bathroom, but opted to stick with the gold for my pantry.  They're the perfect size, great quality and I'm debating going back for more.

wire baskets = $3/basket = $9
thank yous = $1
total = $10

 I write thank you notes all the time so I loved these.  Polka-dots, cute saying and fun colors.  I should pick up some more while they have them.

I put nuts, pasta and kid snacks in the baskets and could easily buy three more for the pantry.  They're such a great size!


It's time to link up with my Target ladies!
Join us and show off how you spent your $10 budget this month.
I'm curious to see if anyone else picked up these wire baskets and I always enjoy seeing the things everyone was tempted to buy.


Becky at bybmg // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Courtney at Sweet Turtle Soup // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Elizabeth at Chasin' Mason // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Rachel at Garay Treasures // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Tif at Bright on a Budget // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Whitney at Polka Dotty Place // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest


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Friday, August 12, 2016

High Five for Friday!!

This week flew by at my house.  We packed in errands, appointments, rainy days and work around the house.  We made plans for the last few weeks of summer and are excited to get to see as many family and friends as possible.   We are LOVING watching the Olympics.  I think gymnastics, beach volleyball and swimming are my favorite events so far.  I get so nervous watching team USA go for the gold.  My toddler now shouts GO FOR THE GOLD at the TV and it's adorable.  Are you watching?  What are you favorite events??

The best parts of the week were:

// 1 //
SUMMER OLYMPICS
We are wearing, eating and loving all the red, white and blue for team USA!  Olive wants to learn to fly like the gymnasts, swim like those fast swimmers and is constantly showing off her athletic moves to me.  It's so sweet to see her get excited for the olympics and we are really enjoying cheering on team USA every evening.
 I rounded up my favorite patriotic treats in a post this week.
// 2 //
HOUSE PROJECTS
 Pint Sized Picnic Table
Kevin and his brother spent several hours building Olive her very own picnic table.  She loves it and I can't wait to get it sealed, stained & painted so we can use it.  It's such a great size that we can all sit at it and she's already planning to have friends over to eat with her.
 New Dishwasher
I must be getting old because one of my highlights of the week was getting a brand new dishwasher!!  The one in our home was beyond repair so I've been hand washing dishes for weeks.  Turns out that cooking a ton and then having to hand wash a ton is a ton of work.  So I'm really thank we have a new stainless dishwasher :)

// 3 //
OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Target: We don't have a Target in our town (a fact that I've yet to get over after living here for over a year now) so I always plan to go to Target when we are in a city with one.  I loaded up the kids after a night of not much sleep for anyone and strolled around Target.  We got what we needed (and then some) and our moods were all improved.
Haircut: I have been needing a haircut for a while so I was thrilled to make back to back appointments with my sister to get our hair cut.  It felt good to have someone freshen up my cut and we both left vowing to make joint hair cut appointments a thing for the two of us.

// 4 //
 SALADS
I didn't eat quite as many salads as usual this week.  I ate tons of peaches and really enjoyed this BLT salad.  It's got tomatoes, avocado, sweet corn, bacon and a head of romaine lettuce with vinaigrette dressing.  It was so good that I ate it a few different times.

// 5 //
Favorite Kid Pics of the Week
Fletcher got his 4 month old pictures taken and he looked so handsome.  He was pretty serious for the photographer and wanted to save all of his smiles for mom.
 Olive just turned three and I caught a glimpse of teenage Olive while we were running errands together this week.  She's so sassy and funny that I'm mostly enjoying having a three year old.

Best posts of the week:




I hope you have a really great weekend!!
Do you have any fun plans in the works?
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Thursday, August 11, 2016

5 Things I'm LOVING Right Now

I wanted to share some of my current favorite things with you.  They're things that make my life easier, happier, more fun and are things that I LOVE.  

1. International Delight Mocha Light Iced Coffee.
My husband is a HUGE coffee fan.  One time when moved, he had SEVEN coffee makers to move.  I about died and he thought it was hilarious that he had a coffee maker and back up for his offices and home.  Since then he's paired down his collection a lot and just has a couple.  Anyways, I have never been a big hot coffee drinker so he is pleased as punch that I'm jumping on board the coffee train in some form.  Little does he know that having two kids will drive a person to start consuming more caffeine just to survive.  This coffee is so tasty, inexpensive (a half gallon is cheaper than one Starbucks drink) and SO GOOD!  It's the highlight of my afternoons.  It's definitely something that I do every day to take a little break and enjoy the day.
 via Target

2. Kate Spade Earrings
I have two bow pairs of earrings from the Kate Spade outlet - a white pair and a rose gold pair.  Both pairs were for sale for around $15 each and I wear them every single day.  One pair is over a year old and the other is just a few months old.  They both look brand new, have held up so well and I'm going to have to pick up some more pairs the next time I'm at a Kate Spade outlet for myself and to give as gifts.  They're such great quality and you can't go wrong with a good bow.  Do you own any Kate earrings??

3. Wire Baskets
These cute baskets are my current favorite way to organize things.  I pick them up everywhere - Target, TJ Maxx, Wal-Mart - and I have them in all different sizes.  I have all of our bottle pieces, baby feeding items in a wire basket on my counter, wire baskets for Olive's hair accessories, wire baskets of books and wire baskets in my pantry to organize my food.  They're so cute and practical.

4. Wal-Mart Workout Capris
My local Super Wal-Mart has already started clearancing out their summer workout attire.  I strolled through that section and was surprised at the huge selection of cute capris that were on sale.  These capris are amazing and they're under $8/pair.  They stay put, come in tons of great patterns and are so comfy.  The Danskin brand seems like really great quality stuff.  I picked up three pairs recently and wear them all the time.  I tried on a few different sizes and ended up sizing down one size from my typical size because they seemed to run big.  I tend to wear solid color fitted t-shirts around the house so I made sure that I had a few t-shirt options to go with each pair of pants I picked up.   I have this pair and then a blue/black pair and a pink/black pair.
5. Return Address Stamp
I'm loving my new return address stamp from the etsy shop Simple and Pretty.  I look forward to buying a new stamp for each place we live since I send a ton of snail mail.  I love buying from handmade shops and was thrilled to find out that this shop was based out of Indianapolis, IN - just an hour from me.  Their shop is filled with beautiful things and I love the stamp I ordered from them.  The shop owners are great to work with.  You get your proof really quickly, they make any changes quickly and my stamp arrived in just a few days.  The quality is great and I love the way the stamp looks on my cards.



What things are you loving right now??
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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

USA: Patriotic Treats

I'm LOVING watching all of these Olympic events and following stories from the athletes.  I'm finding myself especially interested in the stories of all of the women and moms in the Olympics this time around.  We are watching the games together as a family and I think beach volleyball and gymnastics are my favorite so far.  Swimming always stresses me out even though I love it and I'm really excited to check out all of the other events.

What are your favorite events to watch??

I have resisted the urge to decorate my house in red, white and blue, but that hasn't stopped me from making festive treats.  I made mini applie pies a few years ago and they were so cute.  I'm hoping to find some good apples to make them again this year.

We're cheering on the USA by eating some delicious red, white and blue classic American foods while watching these super athletes compete :)  My mouth is watering at this apple pie and vanilla bean ice cream!  The kids have been wearing red, white and blue and Olive now shouts, "GO FOR THE GOLD!" at the TV during every event.


All of my instructions can be found here and here's a little sneak peek:




I am also planning to make some all American meals to enjoy during the Olympics.  Kevin will do the grilling and I'll plan the sides.

USA Monster Cookies

Red, white and blue goodies

USA *** USA *** USA *** USA *** USA *** USA *** USA

Happy Olympic game watching!!
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