Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween Playdate

Happy Halloween! 
I started off the season with trying a new look for the front door (obviously inspired from pinterest).




 Next up was a playdate for my daughters little friends complete with Mandarin orange jack o' lanterns, mummy dogs, jack o' lantern veggie tray, pumpkin poop (cheese balls), and marshmallow ghosts.







 
AND lastly I made some Corn candy Jello desserts. Lemon jello, orange jello, and whipped cream. However, do not put the whipped cream on too early or it melts (even in the fridge)
 
 
Our craft was marshmallow ghosts. Mommies helped the kids make a glue outline of a ghost on paper and then the kids put marshmallows on to make their ghost.
 
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Weekly Meal Plan #49

Sunday was...
Mushroom Chicken Bake

Monday was...
a cool night so CHILI!

Tuesday
Andoulli Sausage Red Beans & Rice

Wednesday
HALLOWEEN! So off to a friends party for dinner and trick or treating

Thursday
Panko Crusted Tilapia

Friday
Pizza Night

Saturday
Pork Tenderloin
Feta Topped Chicken

Tilapia with Spinach and Tomatoes


Grilled Steak
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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Car Birthday - Pinata

The 3rd post in my Car Birthday series is to show off the car pull-pinata that I made. The inspiration for the pull-pinata was from Young House Love. How adorable is that pinata by the way?

Anyway, for my first pinata, I figured I'd go easy and use what I had around the house.
Boxes, Tape, and ribbon.

Priority Mail box and 2 car fruit snack boxes
I made a few holes in the top for hanging the pinata and then flipping the box over I made a "door" and hole punches in the door to thread the pulling ribbon through.

Door on the bottom of the pinata
I started decorating the top of the car with crepe paper. Initially I followed some tips to tear small squares of crepe paper and glue them on the box. BUT that was WAY too time consuming so what I ended up doing was running a strip of glue across the box in a line, and then pressing and scrunching a long strip of crepe paper on the glue until the end point. Then I tore it. MUCH EASIER and quicker (let me know if you have questions on this step. Clearly, I did not take pictures)

 Before decorating the bottom I filled it with the stash. What I didn't picture was how I closed the door. I taped pieces of cardboard over the door with flaps hanging over. It was strong enough to keep the candy and stuff in while hanging there, but once the kids got a hold of the ribbon, it opened easy enough.


The stash of goodies

Final product!
Passing out the pull ribbons

The aftermath :)


Linking up: Keeping it Simple , Under the Table Dreaming , Marvelously Messy , Creating my way to Success , The Girl Creative , Making the World Cuter, My Girlish Whims , Raegun Wear , Gingersnap Crafts , Our Delightful Home , Blackberry Vine , Romance on a Dime , Homework , Our Delightful Home , Chef in Training , Shwin and Shwin , Elizabeth and Co , Vintage Wanna Bee , A Bowl Full of Lemons , Christy's Cuties , Vintage Gwen ,  Someday Crafts , Dragonfly Designs , Trendy Treehouse , Sew Much Ado , Crafty Blog Stalker ,  Delightful Order , Live Laugh Rowe , Between U and Me , Happy Go Lucky , Ladybird Ln , 
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Reorganizing closets...again!

So just the other day I discussed reorganizing my daughters closets (turning coat hangers backwards and whatnot)... well guess what fun I am doing today.

This WAS the closet...

ps - ok so it IS bowed under the weight of the clothes


Here it is now...


Apparently, when those closet extenders say 30lbs is the max, they aren't kidding.

My youngest was having a hissy fit and pulling the clothes off the rack in her sisters closet (even though I told her that HER clothes were in HER closet) and the whole thing not only came apart and fell down (which has happened before), but BROKE!

Needless to say, I was NOT happy.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Weekly Meal Plan #48

SUNDAY
Nothing... we drove 10.5 hours so we munched ALL day

MONDAY
Feta Topped Chicken with Asparagus

TUESDAY
Tilapia (sale) with Spinach and Tomatoes

WEDNESDAY
Girls night out for my 30th birthday

THURSDAY
Clemson is on a Thursday... so grilling out with some friends and football

FRIDAY
Taco Night

Last weeks review
Mish mosh of chicken legs from the freezer, wild rice, and fries

Panko Crusted Tilapia with Broccoli and Cheese Ravioli

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Monday, October 15, 2012

{Pinned there, Done That} [ish] Wear ALL clothes, not just favorites

So the other day I was putzing around on pinterest (of course!) finding ideas and dreams for our new house and I came across this post 52 Totally Feasible Ways to Organize your Entire Home so I pinned it! Not necessarily for the new house... but who doesn't need "totally feasible ways to organize [their] entire home"?! Right? It's mainly for this too-small house that we kind of outgrew 1 kid ago that we have been stuck in!

See we have been trying to move into a new house for.. oh... 10 months now. We have had an offer on this one house since January. Don't get my wrong, we've looked for other houses, but this is a short sale and it's a 5 bedroom, 3 bath, plus bonus room, 2 story house, with screened in pool plus large back yard, in a gated community with 2 playgrounds IN the gates. Plus, a high rated elementary school is right outside the gate. I mean, really?! So anyway... we have held onto this through liens (yes... multiple), loan issues, and all sorts of crud.

Anyway, back to this list... quite a few are really good ideas! But my favorite, that I have (somewhat) already put into practice, is:

15. Turn Your Hangers to Find Out What You Really Wear

Source: rayandjen.com

 Brilliant, really! I actually put it into practice for my kids closets, not necessarily to see what is still backwards by the end of the year (they grow out of it too quick) but to make sure we are using all the clothes in the closet. 

My daughter tends to stick to a few favorites... which is fine, but she wears her princess or Hello Kitty shirt like 4 times to some other shirt's 1... or none. My daughter has quite a bit of clothes; between freecycle, consignment, and my mother-in-law, she is not in need of clothes. But some stuff she hasn't worn and I want to either wear it, or get rid of it if I got it for free and decide it's not my... um.. her... style! 

I've been only doing it for just over a week... but I kind of like knowing what she hasn't worn in a while so I can try to suggest those outfits. Her closet is separated my clothing type so we have some backwards and forwards in each section. Here's what we've got so far...

dresses (left) and skirts (right)

Outfits (Far left, not really pictured) and tops (right)

Once I am no longer pregnant, I think I'll give this a shot with my own closet :) It would help me (a) diversify my wardrobe and (b) purge my closet.

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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Weekly Meal Plan #47

Sunday
I am on day 2 of the 3 day potty training that I did with Charlotte, so I don't want to leave the house. Maybe Chili or Chicken and Spinach Stuffed shells from the freezer... OR I'll see if my mother-in-law wants to bring something over :)
 
Monday
(Day 3 of Potty Training) Panko Crusted Tilapia (freezer) with some veggie that I can find at the local vegetable market
 
Tuesday
Mama has a meeting... so something easy that the kids will eat

Wednesday
Chef Salad with Soup

Thursday
CLEMSON!

Friday
CLEMSON!

Saturday  
CLEMSON!
 
Last 2 weeks recap
Oven baked chicken with roasted potatoes and green beans

Hearty Italian Soup

Pizza Night

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

Pesto Vermicelli with Bay Scallops

Hamburgers
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Thursday, October 11, 2012

{Pinned there, Done that - birthday edition} Balloon Garland

To be honest, much of this car birthday party was {Pinned there, Done that}... but I digress. So I came across this super fun Balloon Garland over at Young House Love and of course... I pinned it.

Since the party was at the park, I wanted to do some easy decorating, but I didn't feel like spending the money at the party store for some balloon bunches. So I decided to do the balloon garland route.

Originally, I was going to drape it from one end of the park shelter to the other across some beams or something .... but after visiting the shelter and taking some pictures I realized this shelter had NO beams whatsoever; it was solid wood.

However, there were posts... so I decided to alternate crepe paper and balloon garland on the posts surrounding the party. And since the balloon garland could be done at home in advance, it would be relatively easy. See... here is my entryway the day before the party.

Voila. Clearly I should have stepped further back for the full effect, but you can see how it turned out! I just taped the string that the balloons were tied to to the top and bottom of the pole and wrapped everything around.


Side note... for the first 2 garlands, I neatly stuffed them into a large black garbage bag for the travel to the park.... I did not however for the 3rd. SO, this is where it ended up... completely jumbled and untangle-able.

Enjoy!

Linking up: Happy go LuckyTatertots and Jello , Young & Crafty , Crafty Moms Share , Bacontime , Shaken Together , Ladybird Ln ,  Creating my way to Success  , Our Delightful Home , 
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Monday, October 8, 2012

Weekly Meal Plan #46

SUNDAY was... 
Corned Beef, Potatoes, Carrots, and Cabbage (my mother-in-laws favorite for her birthday dinner)

MONDAY
I had a Junior League meeting so the kids had mac n cheese and hot dogs and hubby had a steak

TUESDAY
Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

WEDNESDAY
Pesto Vermicelli with Bay Scallops

THURSDAY
Balsamic Braised Pot Roast

FRIDAY
DISNEY... so hubby is on his own

SATURDAY
Hubby has drill, and I think we are starting potty-training my 2 year old ... so something low key


No recap pictures today:( I had to re image my computer and am without my trusty photoshop! But I showed you what Sunday's and Tuesday's dinner look like :)
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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Car Birthday - Overview & Food

Jillie's Big 2nd birthday has come and gone! Phew! So much for it being the low-key event that I claimed it was going to be. But to be honest, if you know me at all, I never "low-key" anything really.

Here are a few of the previous parties:
Strawberry Shortcake
Minnie Mouse
Cupcake

Anyway, so my oldest daughters' 2nd birthday party was at the park, so to keep with tradition, I did Jillie's 2nd birthday at the park. You gotta start small because the parties tend to get bigger... AND whatever you do for one child you HAVE to do for the other child otherwise the younger (or middle) sibling will be looking back and pictures and say, "WAIT JUST A SECOND! How come so-and-so got such-and-such and I only got whatever". Believe me it happens.

Side story, so I have 2 older brothers. For our 21st birthdays mom made each of us this HUGE (you know those 24x36" poster size frames) collage of pictures of us growing up. Well, middle brother CLAIMS that mom never made him one and was all sore because he was the poor middle child. Turns out, when mom and dad moved to GA and unpacked everything, they found his... and guess what, it was the BIGGEST of all of ours.

Ok back to the birthday party... so it was at the park just like big sissy's. AND just like sissy's the weatherman called for rain (ahhh! 20 kids and 18 adults would DEFINITELY not fit in my house). So of course I had to clean MY house just in case there was this huge torrential stormy day. Luckily, I ended up with a clean house AND an absolutely gorgeous (albeit a touch warm) day at the park.

The food is a big part of any party, right? Well here goes...
I stuck with the "stoplight" colors for everything; red, yellow, and green plates, napkins, table cloths, etc.
It was an EARLY party (10am on a Saturday) so we served some breakfast-y stuff (along with all the desserts)

And of course, a refueling station :) I saw some super cute ideas for this online... but didn't feel like carting around pitchers or drink dispensers. If it were at my house, I would have totally done that differently.

Here is a close up shot on most of the food (click individual pictures to enlarge)
I did forget to take a picture of the "Spare Tires", which were chocolate donuts... but you can see it on the main table shot

Jello jigglers (red of course): some car cut outs, some circles

Apple Cars: Apples soaked in sprite over night, assembled with
grapes and toothpicks in the morning

Car & Tire PB&Js: The car cutter did NOT make good use of the
bread... lots of waste. So I made "tires"

Stop light crackers: Graham Crackers with peanut butter spread
on them, add m&m's Assembled morning of; I wasn't sure if the cracker
would get soggy if I did it the night before

Driving Teddies: I put the m&m tires on the day before with
icing leftover from my cake, but didn't add the teddy grahams until the
morning of 

Marshmallow pops with green and yellow flags


Linking up: Shwin and Shwin, Raegun Ramblings,  Gingersnap Crafts, DIY by Design ,My Girlish Whims ,   Handy mann, Crafty Woman  , Dragonfly Designs, Sew Much Ado . Trendy Treehouse , Vintage Gwen , Someday Crafts , Momnivores DilemmaLive Laugh RoweCrafty Blog Stalker ,  Naptime CraftersLadybird LnBacontimeShaken TogetherDelicate ConstructionYoung and Crafty , 
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