Pizza Night!

It had been a while since we made pizza from scratch. 

So hubby came home to us spreading out the dough. 

Adding the pepperoni

Yum, yum. 

My two pizza boys! 

Pirate Party

 My son turned 4 on January 10th. It's hard to believe where my little 'baby' went and every time I ask him that he says "I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy!" Yes, you are! *sigh*

 

The banner came from supermommoments.com

 I used the invites from there as well.

 The first thing the kids got to do was go outside (in the cold and snow) and search for a treasure. Earlier in the week, my son and I made treasure maps using paper, tea water and crayons to help the kids find 'X marks the spot'- inside the treasure box (spray painted to look like a treasure box) was their gift bags with their names on them. They thought it was great! The treasure box was 'hidden' under a tree in the front of the building. I used these signs on the box to keep everyone but our little pirates out, it wasn't out there very long, so it worked!
 

 Great photo of almost all the kids- we had two younger ones that were with parents off to the side. Birthday boy is the one with the black pirate hat on. I made the spyglass and hooks from supermommoments.com pirate play date. The patches, bags, and bubbles (they were in the bag) all came from orientaltrading.com. Aren't their outfits great? The hooks and spyglasses really help!

The cake, the idea for the cake came from familyfun.com,we added the sand (brown sugar), and his shirt came from JC Penny's. I made his necklace- the kids also got beaded necklaces or bracelets that I made them in their gift bags! What's a pirate without jewelry?

One of his gifts was a black sled- all the kids jumped in and it was immediately a pirate ship-- arrrggh!! Great gift!  Complete with straws and spoons for swords would make any pirate proud!

 The kids played 'Pin the Flag' on the Pirate Ship- you can see how well that turned out! Some were blindfolded and some were not.  I found the ship clip art online, and spruced it up a bit by adding color. Download my version here. Download the Jolly Roger flags here.

 I found some Pirate Talk words online and put it in a frame (no glass) and used a snorkel mask for decoration.  Download the Pirate Talk sheet here.

The pirate treasure maps were put in a glass jar half full of sand, the treasure maps were crumpled up, then laid flat, rolled and tied with string. The kids are playing a pirate board game I found that's part of a Pirate Preschool Lapbook over at Homeschool Creations while the pizza was cooling.

The birthday boy and his daddy, while an empolyee gets the whole restaurant to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him!  This is the one time I told my husband it would be okay to wear that holy shirt in public! He looked great!

Awesome party, thanks for coming everyone! My son had a blast and I had fun making everything! 

Wedding Shower

My brother in law is getting married on Feburary 4, 2012- yikes! So while the happy couple took some vacation/ school break time off my mother-in-law and I decided to throw his fiancé a bridal shower last Friday. 

The theme was "Bed Bath & Bridal Shower" My husband, the great designer of our family did a paradox of the Bed, Bath & Beyond logo.   The idea behind this was that the couple doesn't have a full or queen size mattress set, so if people didn't want to give a traditional gift they could bring money to contribute to a mattress fund. It was a great idea, and it worked out great- one gift came with crumpled up cash ($1 dollar bills) in a puzzle box! The bride was very excited about that 700 piece puzzle!

 The banner I made- it looks great!  The font is MTF Chubb and I found it over at MissTina.com for free!

 I downloaded this free print from eighteen25 and ordered the canvas from The Canvas People. The print looks red on screen, but when it came it looked more orange-red, but that's okay because both the bride and I love orange! This was my gift to them.

 My mother-in-law made a little bed underneath the gift table and the red blanket is a reversible comforter for when they do get their bed. The bears were from the church nursery! 

 Cupcakes

 The punch had to be the right color- Dark red, so I mixed Cranberry Apple with 7up and bingo!

 This was well thought out Ice Cream Sandwich "Mattress" Cake my husband made- man, he's talented! We like watching Cake Boss, so he pulled a 'Buddy'. Ice cream sandwiches followed by Cool whip topping, followed by more ice cream sandwiches and  let that harden over night. Then rolled out the fondant and covered it all, shaped it, and even used a little tool I picked up at Wal-Mart to make it look like there's a quilt on the bed, a little bit of white frosting beading and frosting ruffles at the bottom. He took the time to make pillows out of fondant as well. The headboard is graham crackers covered in fondant and black lettering for the bride and grooms first names. It had to be done in several steps otherwise the cake would have melted, but it turned out great and was a big hit at the party- despite it being December 29th in Iowa! 

 For those who didn't want punch or wanted to warm up after eating their cake there was hot chocolate available.

 

 When my mother-in-law got married a few years ago I created this 'Love' design from 1 Corinthians 13, so we were able to use this for decoration.

The sign-in table with a basket for cards, a photo of the couple, a candle in a mason jar, some roses, a Mr. & Mrs. sign, and something to write advice/ recipes on. 

 The gift table with a few gifts on it, the photos of the couple when they were younger, the "tub" container we used for decoration was also a gift for the couple. I even took an old velvet heart that my hubby gave me once full of chocolates was now used as decoration. 

 I had these old shower curtains in my basement and hung them up so as people came into the fellowship hall they could feel like they were walking into a shower. 

Two unsuspecting guys who were volunteered by the best mans mother to participate in the festivity.... of you guessed it- toilet paper dress making. I'll spare you the photos, because truthfully I might have a very mad hubby on my hands, and a not happy brother-in-law! But the bride voted and actually chose my husband as having the best designed dress. 

The bride got tons of laughs from having the boys dress up! I think she had fun- it was a great way to wrap up 2011. While it wasn't New Year's Eve, it was the best bridal party I'd been to in a while! 

Holiday Treats

'Tis the Season.... 

for Holiday Treats.

Here's an easy-peasy recipe to do by yourself or involve the kiddos!

1 bag of twisted pretzels, 1 bag of Rolos, 1 bag of pecan halves

Turn oven on at 350, place pretzels on top of parchment paper or aluminum foil on oven sheet, place 1 Rolo on each pretzel. Leave in the oven for 3-5 min., or until chocolate is soft. Take out of oven and place one pecan half on each chocolate. Let cool.

Children can help with unwrapping the Rolos, placing pretzels on pan, or putting Rolo on each pretzel. If they do help with the pecans- the chocolate will be hot, or warm!

Happy Holiday Baking!

Des Moines for a day

So hubby had a one-day conference to go to in Des Moines about Social Media. It was decided that his brother would drop him off, since he was going back up to school in Ames, Iowa anyway. That left hubby in Des Moines all day without a vehicle, but that was okay because he could walk to get something to eat on his lunch break.
That left the lovely wife and son back in our hometown, about an hour and a half away from Des Moines, but we had decided the night before it would be okay if after lunch I could drive up and spend some time with some friends- more about them later- and then pick hubby up when he was done at 4pm.

My first stop was the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on University Ave. Last weekend on Focus on the Family Weekend Magazine I heard about a book called 'Guilt-Free Motherhood: Parenting with Godly Wisdom,'  by Dr. Julianna Slattery.  A must have book for any mom, although I haven't actually got my hands on this book yet- it's on the top of my list of books to buy.

You have to realize that this was really brave of me to go off on my own in Des Moines, a city I'm not from and didn't grow up near- I grew up near Minneapolis-St. Paul and almost anytime we go to Des Moines hubby is driving around the city- not me. I pretty much know how to get around, but I was thankful that I had my Des Moines map in the car yesterday!

So I didn't find the book there, nor at another bookstore we stopped at later- the only answer I was given was 'I can order that for you.' Great. Except, I don't live in Des Moines.

Last summer- the 2 year olds
playing together at camp. 

After one failed attempt at finding my book I want I headed off to my friends' house. I had never been up to visit them, and although my friend Jessica had to work yesterday, we still got a little time to talk, before she had to get ready. Jessica and my hubby have known each other since they were young- middle school, maybe? Her dad is still the pastor of my church after 18 + years of being there! Jessica and I were pregnant with our first born children at the same time. Her daughter was born in November 2007, and my son was born in January of 2008. The now- three year old's played really well together while we were there. Since then, she's gone on to have twin girls who are about 6 months old now. So that was fun for me- especially because I got to hold each of them! These precious babies have been in cloth diapers since they were born- can you blame the parents? I can't- I know we saved a lot of money by putting our son in cloth diapers when he was a baby... the diapers they have now! The ones the babies are using are called Fuzzibuns, and I've heard of them, I'd just never gotten the opportunity to use one- well, I did because one of the girls needed a diaper change! Her dad walked me through it, and he said I even got it on right, but the little girl wasn't just wet- she left other surprises in there for me! Guess she must like me!

So after my diaper-changing adventure and I was reminded of why I'm not having any more kids, I left the girls in the perfectly capable hands of their dad.
I drove to where hubby was having his conference to pick him up and somehow because of my rush to get to Des Moines (yes! out of this little town!)  I forgot to grab lunch, so we checked out the 2nd bookstore and then headed to the Jordan Creek area of West Des Moines. I decided we should eat at Red Robbin. It had been a while since we ate there, and when we did our son wasn't with us, but we knew he'd like it. I had the Banzai Burger (pictured above)... it was super yummy and I saved half of it! Our son pointed to the Onion Rings on the menu so we ordered those right away, we found out he's a big fan of the breading, but not of the onions! Oh well. He did eat most of his Mac & Cheese he ordered.

We decided we needed to walk off some of the food we had just eaten, so we headed over to Jordan Creek Mall. I promptly headed to the Lovesac store.  Our lovely hand-me down (twice before us) furniture in our front room is driving us crazy. It doesn't work in the room, so we've been looking for the best solution and we think we've found it.

They are called Sactionals... and they come apart, just like Lego blocks. The sides come off, the bases come apart, so you can have different configurations. We've decided that instead of blowing some money now and getting the furniture we would use it as a reward for paying off all our credit cards- we have 2 large ones left! Kind of a motivation for becoming debt free, and no we would not walk in there and put it on a credit card- we'd pay with cash! We can't wait to finally buy some 'grown up' furniture- something that's not passed down, or found at a garage sale and something we can even change the covers on! Awesome, huh?

It was a fun trip, but although I took my camera I didn't take any pictures- I told the hubby that and he said 'good for you.' The photographer in me says 'No! That's bad!' Oh well. Hubby already thinks I take to many photos as it is. What can I say? I'm a shutterbug! I guess in Des Moines I was to busy driving!

Fun, Food, Friends, and Fishing!

Friday night we had some friends over. We invited more, but some were busy- that's okay. We had about 12 people including our family. It was so much fun to get some new and some old families together- meaning some that have hung out before together with one family that hadn't. There were 5 kids under the age of 4! The 3 three year olds were fun (Stephen, Christopher and Be'lin), they've hung out together before. But then again there was a finger slammed in the bathroom door, bubbles dumped on somebody's head and marshmallow stickiness smeared in the same person's hair! Then there was Lola- she's 2, and sometimes she was in her own little world, but got into playing with the other kids eventually. Then there's Veronica, who just turned 1 and wants to do everything the 3 year olds were doing! We started the party inside (silly rain), but it stopped raining later in the night so we could move outside and let the kids run off even MORE energy and make some s'mores. One person in the party had never had s'mores before- can you believe it?! Crazy! But he liked them!
What an awesome way to kick off the summer with food, friends, fun and good times! 

On Saturday- Christopher got to spend some time fishing with Grandma, his Aunt Vicky and Uncle Mike while they were in town for a day.

Waiting for the fish to bite... hard to believe he's 3 1/2 this month! 

Cutest fishing boy I know! 

 He caught one! 

Christopher had a pretty great weekend, spending 2 whole nights at grandma's house- which is rare, because usually grandma can't keep him over on Sunday nights because she works. He was really good, and was lucky enough to stay up late and even slept in early- why is it he does some things at grandma's house that I can't get him to do at his own? 

Summer has begun and we have our summer reading books for the week- even mommy joined the adult summer reading program at the local library! Grand prize is an hour long massage from a local massage place called 'Time Away.' I won't win, but just thinking about getting an hour long massage makes me start to relax! All Stay-At-Home moms need relaxation time! 

"So did you have a _______ time?"

I asked my husband that very same question on our way back from our weekend getaway today. I said it just like that.

Good. Couldn't classify it as a good time.
Boring. Nope. Not that either.
Horrible. Nope.

There really doesn't seem to be a word for the weekend mini-retreat that my hubby and I just got back from. We went to Honey Creek Resort for a Geocaching event. We knew about it ahead of time, and we knew that we'd get a great rate for the weekend- I scrimped and I saved my money in a jar because if I put it in an envelope that's in my purse I will spend it. This past Thursday was our wedding anniversary, on May 12, 2002 I married my husband. Nine years later we are at Honey Creek Resort enjoying, or rather trying to enjoy our time.

The weather: was cold, and rainy, and windy, and drizzling/ misting. Yuck!

Hubby thought of a great idea to bring our bikes along. So we could get more Caches around the area. We didn't count on the weather being icky. We found a few caches on our bikes, and then we looked at each other and said: "Why are we doing this? This isn't fun! Let's go back and warm up!"

Hubby finding one of RedDarlings Geocaches.... but you don't need a GPS unit for this one! 

(They aren't EVER this big!) 

Here's a photo from a while back: Getting a geocache with my dad, photo taken from his iphone in Kentucky. I showed him how to do it and now he is a geocacher too!  The great thing about Geocaching is that they are everywhere- all over the world! My dad and I are excited to take our GPS units with us when we go on our family cruise next year and get some then!

Side note: It's funny that this weekend was cold and overcast cloudy. That's exactly how my wedding day was. Cold, and windy. My mother-in-law will never let me forget how cold my wedding day was! All because this girl thought she had to have an outdoor wedding in mid-May. Perfect, right? Not always in Iowa! On my wedding day I don't remember being cold- I had layers upon layers of gown on- and being nervous that the wedding would go off without a hitch probably prevented me from getting cold.

So we sat by the resorts fireplace for most of the late morning and afternoon. It helped that some friends loaned us their ipad2, it was kinda fun! Hubby played on the Wii that was there in the lobby for a little bit, and we did some people watching too.

We ate lunch at the Lakeshore Grille, which I must say was the BEST meal I've had out to eat for a very long time. I had to warm up, so I ordered a French Vanilla cappuccino- which was better than Starbucks that I can't get in my town anyway! I opted for the Tenderloin sandwich, while hubby had the special- a sliced ham with goat cheese sandwich on toasted rye bread. I had a few bites- and I loved it. The ham was amazing. I even saved room for their Cheesecake with Raspberry drizzle- super rich and one of the rare times I was allowed to order dessert!

We tossed around the idea of staying another night, but I don't think there were any empty rooms and we left the little man at home with the babysitter and figured out it wasn't financially worth it to stay another night. Unfortunately, we weren't impressed with the hotel side of the resort, some major Architectural flaws that we happened upon by accident just going where we thought we needed to go ended us up in the laundry rooms of the hotel. Whoops! Minor things such as HGTV being listed on the channel list, but when I turned to that channel it was QVC, and they didn't know anything about it at the front desk. Hubby took a while to figure out some electrical switches in our room- and the decor was nice, but not superb- plus the room had a bit of an echo when you talked. Sometimes it's just good to sleep in your own bed (says the lady who couldn't get to sleep until 2am!)




ps. I found 14 Geocaches this weekend, despite the weather! Most of which I found while Hubby escorted me around in the truck on our way home.

Free Food Printable

For my first freebie, I'd like to offer you a free food printable. In our home we have a freezer in our basement that stores other food until we are ready to use it. Such as hamburger from the mother-in-laws cows, or bacon from her pigs (yummy!), we also visit the local bread store and buy bread cheaper than at the grocery store, and we freeze it. Sometimes hubby's work sends home a ham or turkey for the holidays. Thus the need of the freezer.

 Back of my basement door

With Bread missing

 

Bread on the front of my basement door

My problem came when we don't always remember to bring up the ever-important bread for sandwich making. Thus these cards are my solution. I've affixed them to the back of my basement door with sticky-tack,  so hubby or I can move one or two from the back of the door to the front of the door, so we can remember to go to the basement and get that item. This is only if we don't go right that minute or if hubby wants to tell me he wants pizza for dinner and I'm not awake yet.

These could also be used for your kids as a matching game of food that you might regularly serve at your table. Younger kids can match the pictures, and older kids would have to read the words and spell them too.  Each square is 3 x 3, so its easy for small hands, as well as manly hands to handle.

So here's the links, 2 pages to download- enjoy!

DownstairsFood

DownstairsFood2 

If you do download, please comment so I know you are getting good use out of them! 

Happy Eating and Happy Easter!