Festive July 4th DIY Centerpieces!

 Can you believe it is almost time to celebrate our nation's birthday? I can not believe the month of June is almost over and we are getting ready for cookouts, fireworks and family time! I am all about quick and easy projects to transform a party. Last year I posted these easy DIY centerpieces and they were a huge hit, so I am bringing them back. Chances are you have everything you need right in your pantry for this project and if you have little hands that love projects, make sure to enlist them for some summer fun!

Ingredients:

Vinegar
White Rice
2 Small Tupperware Bins
Red Food Coloring
Blue Food Coloring

Directions:

Measure 1 cup of rice, place in Tupperware.
Add 1 tbsp vinegar and about 12 drops of food coloring. 

SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! I enlisted some very cute help!

Spread out the rice onto the cookie sheet, allow to dry. I used foil on mine so I wouldn't have to clean up blue and red cookie sheets! I also popped mine into a fridge to expedite the drying. 

Wait about 1 hour and start layering! I decided to put little candles into the mason jar, along with the rice, I think they will be perfect outside!

When you are done decorating for the season, throw them in a bin and have some sensory fun! We love to have trucks and ping pong balls in the rice, but the possibilities are endless. Things can get a bit messy so having a sheet under the bin is a must! 

I love a fun DIY! Hope you have as much fun making this as we did! 

Happy July Fourth!

Happy Diy'ing,

Easy Cinco De Mayo Celebrations

Are you celebrating Cinco De Mayo this year? The fifth of May is not a celebration of Mexican Independence Day, as many think, but rather a day to celebrate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Living in the southwest, we are surrounded by the Mexican culture and it has been an amazing experience for us and for Luke! 

I thought it would be fun to tell you how we celebrate Cinco De Mayo! Typically, we celebrate with our friends, all of us bringing something different to the party. We are responsible for the the enchiladas and margaritas. Ryan has perfected an easy enchilada recipe, that even my Granny requests when we go back to Ohio. There are so many ways to make enchiladas and yes, we have had better but Ryan makes a pretty good (and easy) enchilada bake! 

Ryan's Enchilada Recipe 

Ingredients:

Yields 6-8 large enchiladas

Use my chicken recipe, here ! It is perfect for this recipe!

1 can of red enchilada sauce

1 can of diced green peppers 

Packet of 6-8 tortillas 

Mexican Blend Cheese

Directions:

Grease a 13X9 baking dish. Pour in the enchilada sauce until it covers the bottom of the pan. 

In a large mixing bowl, add in the green peppers to the chicken mix. If you use my chicken crockpot recipe, it will already have black beans and tomatoes in the chicken. If you are using a rotisserie chicken or other chicken you will want to add in a can of black beans, a can of diced tomatoes and seasoning.

Put 3-4 heaping spoonfuls of the chicken mixture in the middle of the tortilla and roll up tortilla. As you assemble, place in the pan. When they are all assembled, cover with enchilada sauce and as much cheese as you like. They can be as thick or as thin as you want them to be! Use as much of the chicken mixture as you would like. 

Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes, uncovered. 

This is also a great freezer meal, so double the recipe and make one for the future! 

No Cinco De Mayo party is complete without a big pitcher of Margaritas! A few months back I shared my Margarita recipe, and it was a huge hit. I will say it is ten times better than the store bought Margarita mix and not quite as sugary.  I have made it for numerous parties and people always comment on how good it is and they are always so surprised by the "secret" ingredient, beer! 

The Perfect Margarita

 Ingredients:

1 can of frozen limeade 

(use the empty can as a measuring cup for the remaining ingredients)

1 can of 7-Up

1 can of Tequila 

1 full Dos Equis Lager or Corona beer 

Two full sliced limes

Directions:

Combine all ingredients, place sliced limes in the pitcher and serve well chilled. You can always dilute with a can of water, as well, or add more 7-Up. The non-alcoholic version is to add Lemonade instead of the beer and tequila!

Enjoy! 

Lastly, the salsa. Our good friend makes the BEST salsa, like award winning salsa, and she has been kind enough to share her recipe with me! Consider yourself lucky, because this recipe should go in your recipe book and never leave!

Lisa's Salsa



Ingredients:
1 large can of S&W Tomatoes (they sell them at Costco)
3 Whole Embasa Jalepenos (canned brand)
½ white onion, chopped
Cilantro - which is sold in bunches, use roughly half
The juice of ½ a large lime
Garlic salt to taste 

Directions:
Chop all veggies, onion and jalepenos. Combine all ingredients, using only half a can of the tomatoes per batch, in a food processor and blend well. If you double the batch, use the full can. You can store extra in mason jars to keep fresh. 

Trust me, this salsa is AMAZING! 


 How are you planning on celebrating Cinco De Mayo? Celebrating holidays can be so fun for kids, and adults, so hopefully you live it up and enjoy a fun night with the family!

Happy celebrating, 

a very merry weekend recap

I literally can not believe that Christmas is THIS week. Is everyone prepared? Are all of your presents bought, wrapped and under the tree? We have tried really hard to do lots of festive things with Luke this year since it's really the first year he is super interested. He loves Christmas music, love Santa and he loves giving presents! 

This past weekend was our 2nd annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, and we had such a good time. I love themed parties and is there any better theme than an ugly sweater? I think not!  Ryan and I had been crafting away all week (no, seriously he helped a lot this year) so we were ready to unveil ours this year. A Christmas tree and a present! He was a good sport and I am so happy we were able to pull it off!

Everybody had such cute sweatshirts, but unfortunately my camera died at the beginning of the party. I was able to snap a few before it went dark, but I swear everyone looked so good!! As always, Luke and his friends had such a fun time running around eating all the sugar they could sneak. 

I love hosting parties and I have definitely found that the more you can do throughout the week, the better. The day of the party we mainly just had some picking up to do, last minute decorating and drink making. Luckily, my house gets festive pretty early in December. We didn't have too much to add, except some fresh flowers and a few candles. 

Mimosas may be my favorite drink, but since this was a night party, I knew I had to change them up slightly. So, for the signature drink I did a Cranberry Delight!

Cranberry Delight

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of Sparkling Apple Cider 

1 Bottle of Brut Champagne

2 cups of cranberry juice
Double (or triple!!) if needed

Mix all together and add in some frozen raspberries for some added flavor. I also did a non-alcoholic version, using a very watered down lemonade instead of champagne and no sparkling cider. 

We made the pulled pork for the party and everyone brought a side to share. I love doing potluck parties, because we have friends from everywhere. It is fun to see what people will bring, and how different your favorite dishes can be. It was very successful! Look for my pulled pork recipe in the next few weeks, it is absolutely amazing!

Luke and I made these super cute reindeer (pictured at the top of the post) and they were SO easy. Thanks to Jamielyn, from I Heart Naptime, for the fabulous idea. Who doesn't love rolos and pretzels? I added them to the top of some of my cupcakes for an added bonus.  

My favorite dessert by far were the Oreo/Pretzel balls that I made. They were so good and pretty easy to whip up during Luke's nap. 

Salty Oreo Surprises 

Ingredients:

1 family size Oreo pack, finely crushed

1 8oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups pretzels, crushed 

2 packages of chocolate melts (white or chocolate)
Dash of peppermint

Directions:

Crush the pretzels and the Oreo in a blender or food processor. Pour into a bowl and add in the softened cream cheese. Mix with your hands until incorporated. Roll into 1-2 inch balls and freeze for at least 1 hour. 

Melt the chocolate in the microwave and dip the frozen balls into the melted chocolate, completely covering. Add whatever toppings you want.  Place on a wax lined pan and pop them back into the freezer, so they can set. Keep in fridge until you are ready to serve! 

So easy!! While I love baking for the holiday, it is important to me to not completely over due it. I was asked recently to review a product called MealEnders. Part of this review was to share them at my party and see what guests thought of the product. I have used them for a few weeks, and am definitely a fan of them! 

"MealEnders Signaling Lozenges are a revolutionary way to help beat overeating, master portion control and curb snacking by clearing cravings from the mouth and mind. MealEnders’ combines the best of food science and behavioral psychology to offer a stimulant-free way to fight the urge to overindulge." - MealEnders.com

They offer so many different flavors, my favorite being the cinnamon. "MealEnders consist of two components: a sweet, outer reward layer and a cooling/tingling inner core. The outer layer provides a measured dose of “dessert” associated with the end of a meal, while the inner core engages the trigeminal nerve (the nerve that senses “taste”) with long-lasting cooling/tingling sensations that cleanse the palate (MealEnders.com)" 

Now I have not noticed a huge change in my cravings, but I do think they taste good and I think the theory behind them is genius. So often our mind thinks we want something sweet and savory, but in theory we are just bored. I am a huge fan of everything in moderation, but when I have already used up my daily dose of moderation, these were a "go to" for me. 

I loved sharing them with the guests and I was even able to give out a few packets for them to try at home or during their next holiday craving! 

You have a chance to win 4 packets of MealEnders! This is a huge value and trust me, you will love them. These will be the perfect addition to your New Years Resolution! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am already planning next years ugly sweater! We love hosting this party, it always gets us in the holiday spirit. Spending the holidays with friends and family is my favorite part of the year.

What is your favorite holiday treat? 

Happy holidays, 

spreading the holiday cheer

This is the first year in my adult life that I felt like I had enough people to justify giving out a fun and festive goodie bag. I am a regular at the gym (ugh, I know right) so that means gifting the parking lot man, the front desk ladies and my beloved child watch ladies some yummy goodness. Luke is a huge part of my passion for the gym (free child watch, anyone?!?) so I wanted him to help pick out the goodie bag and help make the goodies. I want him to grow up knowing that Christmas is more about giving and less about receiving. I want him to put as much effort into gifting as he does looking through the toy magazine. Huge dreams, right? Well, I am on my way! 

Michael's is dangerous any time of year but luckily around Christmas they are the JCPenny of craft stores, everything is on sale, always. I got these cute Reindeer to-go boxes on deep discount. I believe they were marked down to $3.50. 

I already posted about the amazing sugar cookie recipe and annual decorating contest here. Luckily we keep most of the cookies, so we had a huge amount to give away. This was after a few days of attempting to keep them in my house and them disappearing daily. 

I wanted another easy, but good, Christmas cookie. While looking through my Facebook feed, the Kentucky Butter Cookie popped up. I clicked on the link and thought that it looked really good and REALLY easy. I was right on both thoughts. I did not change the recipe, so check out the Cookies and Cups Blog for the recipe. Interestingly enough, Luke did not like these. Everyone else I sampled them on, loved them and thought they were yummy. I even had some with my morning coffee (whoops) and thought it added a nice bonus. 

We handed the goodie bags out well before Christmas, so I think  we had a bit of a surprise element, which was nice. I loved seeing Luke hand them out and the huge smile he had on his face. We even took a big pan of the cookies to our local firehouse. Ok, so this wasn't just us being nice to our local firemen.... when we bring them goodies, Luke has free reign to the fire trucks. Which, he loves and it kills a good hour of our night. 

If I could hand out a Reindeer Goodie Bag to each and every one of you, I would! Thank you for letting me share my life with you! I truly appreciate you all! 

Holiday love, 

very spidey pumpkins!

I love making Halloween decorations. Particularly ones that I can redecorate after October 31st, and make them more Fall looking to last through Thanksgiving. Usually, when I get the Michael's emails, I look for good coupons and keep scrolling, but recently this craft came along and I knew that Luke and I had to give it a try. 

What you will need:

Hot glue gun

Pumpkin (faux or real)

Little spiders, big spiders, any kind of crawly spiders you want!

Directions:

Hot glue the spiders on the pumpkin. You can do them crawling up the pumpkin or placed all around the pumpkin. We opted for a real pumpkin, the glue stuck, but it definitely was not permanent. This was OK for me, since I want to use the pumpkin after Halloween, but if you want a more durable pumpkin or if you want to place it outside for more than one night, use a faux pumpkin, they will stick better!

Remember, hot glue is very HOT. I had Luke hand me the spiders, I applied the glue and than placed on the pumpkin. This was perfect for him, since he wanted to play with the spiders anyway!

This is the perfect decoration for a front hall or to place on the porch. Super simple and super cute! 

Happy DIY'ing,

07.04.2015

We had such a fun July 4th weekend! Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays, not only because we are a military family, but also because it is such a great excuse to hang with friends and family and celebrate this great country we live in! The weather was actually pretty overcast and cool all weekend, with a few storms throughout the southwest. We never complain about cooler days in the desert summer, it was perfect! 

We started the weekend with date night. Date nights are so vital to a relationship. We are lucky to have sitter who loves Luke and that we trust. I feel so invigorated and revived after a good date night. We aim to do two a month, sometimes that means waiting to eat our dinner until after Luke goes down, and sometimes that means going out on the town. Ryan and I went for drinks/dinner and then saw Jurassic Park! I am a huge Jurassic Park fan, this one was fun, but not up to the original. And also was anyone else totally bummed there wasn't a Jeff Goldblum appearance? 

I love having people over and I have also learned that surrounding yourself with friends during the holidays is the best thing do when you don't have too much family close by. We live super close to a casino, and they always put on such a good firework show. We have the perfect view and we just recently finished our backyard, so we thought it would be fun to have friends over for a cookout and to watch the fireworks. I went simple on the decorations and menu, but everything turned out perfectly. It was so much fun! 

I found the perfect USA tank top for the party at SweetTsDesignShoppe, you can find some other cute shirts here! They even have a sale going on currently, check them out!

S'mores by the fire!

My little sister and her fiance also came into town for the weekend. Her trifle was a huge hit at the party. So patriotic and yummy, also really easy. I am hoping I can talk her into doing a trifle guest post for me (hint hint)! 

We were all pretty tired Saturday, and tried to sleep in as much as possible with a 2 year old in the house! I woke up to a huge mess in my pantry, somehow a big bottle of bubbles had leaked all over. It was a sad morning of having to throw out food and mopping up a sudsy mess. After an afternoon of naps, we decided to stay in that evening. We made yummy hamburgers with french fries, had a friendly cornhole competition and played some Cards Against Humanity late into the night! It was the perfect July 4th!

Sunday I woke up to a yummy kitchen, filled with scents of bacon and pancakes. Earlier in the week I had noticed that the International Wildlife Museum was doing free entry for military all weekend. I love when museums and parks do that, so after Rachel and Zach left, we headed over to see the animals. It is an interesting place, filled with all sorts of  taxidermied (is that word) exotic animals, that have been donated. Luke loves it and Ryan had never been with us, so it was fun to see them run around! 

Needless to say I was not wanting to spend much time in the kitchen after a long weekend of entertaining. Thankfully I had popped some chicken into the slow cooker Sunday morning, so we came home and had yummy chicken tacos for dinner. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend. You can check out that chicken recipe here.  

I love holiday weekends! This holiday was extra special and it meant so much to me to be surrounded by family and friends. Of course we missed "home" and the family we weren't able to see, but this year I am definitely counting my blessings!