Category Archives: Fun

Back To Earth

After an “out of this world” weekend celebrating Holden’s Happy Day, it’s Monday again and we’re back down to reality!

A to-do list awaits me (and it’s a cUtE to-do list, I might add):

There are thank you notes to be written for all of Holden’s fabulous gifts…

Birth certificates to order and appointments to be made:

Laundry to be done…

And laundry to be folded:

Floors to be vacuumed:

And groceries to be fetched:

Just when all the excitement is over from one celebration, there are a hundred more filling up the calendar ~ Art Night @ E’s preschool, Popsi visiting, Holden’s actual birthday on Thursday, Baby Shower, St. Patty’s Day, Lolo & Lola visiting, Easter, Spring Break, E’s 5th birthday, E’s preschool graduation and her very first official dance recital!

So much to look forward to over the next few months.

Never a dull moment.

LiFe keeping us on our toes.

The good. The bad.

It’s LIFE and eVeRyDaY is special…

…so I will get to it and start checking off my to do list for today.

Hope your Monday is also filled with one check mark after another!

100 & 3

Today is special for a couple of reasons…

We celebrated Holden’s 3rd birthday.

This is my 100th post.

I’ve been at this blog thing for almost 4 months now and already at 100 entries. Wow! I didn’t think I had that much to say!

I’m having a lot of fun with it and am looking forward to the next 100! If I stay at this rate, we will be at 200 around the first day of Summer. Another reason to celebrate.

Speaking of celebrations, today we had a houseful of astronauts, robots, martians and aliens. Hard to believe my little space cadet is already THREE.

This was Holden when the guests started arriving:

Oops!

It was a BLAST! (pun intended)

Thanks again to all our little astronaut friends for coming to our planet for an afternoon of fun!

Below are a few recipes and links to the extra terrestrial eats:

For the “taco bar” I just browned up a couple packages of ground turkey and chopped onion and added 2 envelopes taco seasoning and a little water. I set out crunchy shells and small flour tortillas with all sorts of toppings lined up ~ shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, mango peach salsa, sour cream, jalapeƱo rings, cilantro lime corn salsa & guacamole. Everyone created their own taco masterpieces ~ super easy!

Battlestar Bean Dip

2 cans Campbell’s Bean soup with bacon

1 pint sour cream

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then transfer to an oven safe dish. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with Fritos Scoops or your fave tortilla chips. (Another yummy recipe from Melanie Corona!)

Pineapple Limeade (AKA Solar System Citrus Punch)

Midori Martian Margaritas

Cosmic Cake

Layered Cupcakes

Alien/Martian Sugar Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix

McCormick NEON food coloring

1 small container (12 oz.) white/vanilla prepared frosting

Gingerbread man cookie cutter

“Red Hots” candies

Prepare cookies as directed on package for “cutout cookies”. Roll out dough, as directed, and cut out with cookie cutter. Place only about 8 cookies at a time on cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes @ 350. Let cool and then frost with lime green frosting.

Lime green frosting:

I used about 25-30 drops of the green in one small (12 oz.) container of frosting. Frost cookies and then add Red Hots candies for the eyes!

Band-aids, Ballet & Battlestar Galactica

I took this picture to show off Miss Elliott’s new tap shoes.

She looked so darling in her new navy blue unitard with hot pink hearts, silver sparklies and cute little ruffled sleeves. Her shiny new tap shoes tied with a neat bow.

Then there is the band-aid on her knee!

The adhesive bandages that she wanted NOTHING to do with months ago are now flying off the medicine cabinet shelves. We had Curious George, Hello Kitty, Sesame Street and Disney Princess varieties and still, about 8 weeks ago, there were NO takers. Now we’re just down to the “adult”, plain, generic, boring skin-colored version and, still, those are seeing popularity. Any little itch, pain, scratch, dry skin, you name it….they need a band-aid.

The same thing goes for those temporary tattoos…one day she wanted not a thing to do with them and now she wants me to apply them weekly ~ and those things stay on FOREVER!

Maybe she’s watching too much Miami Ink. {wink}

Jay captured this picture last night at dance class.

It’s the quintessential dance pose, isn’t it?

(I thought this was taken during the ballet portion of her class, hence the “Ballet” in the post title. Somehow “Band-aids, Tap & Battlestar Galactica” doesn’t have the same ring to it, so I’ll leave it as is. Just wanted you all to know that I noticed this discrepancy) {my OCD coming out}

Today is Holden’s big outer space birthday party.

We are heading to another universe this afternoon for some space travel.

I’m glad the solar system is working in our favor right now and we have SUN! Hip hop hooray!

More cosmic photos to come……

Happy Weekend!

Fancy Rassy

We love the Fancy Nancy series in our house!

If you have a little girl(s) and haven’t discovered these darling books yet, check them out!

You can view the fanciness here.

Auntie Bucky sent the Fancy Nancy Christmas book last year which made a cute addition to our more traditional holiday reads. We also have Fancy Nancy and The Posh Puppy…which Elliott calls “The Polish Puppy”! But, I think my favorite so far is the original F.N. story.

Looks like we have a “polish puppy” of our own….

I hope you have a fanciful, fashionable, feathery and fUlL oF fUn FrIdAy!

{ROCK} A Bye Baby

We do things a little differently around these parts…

and I’m NOT 100% proud of it, but I want the kids to learn how to express themselves through dance.

We have a little family tradition that we do before the kids go to bed on non-school nights (Tues & Thurs) ~ the kids have a “Dance Party”! (on school nights we read our favorite books ~ Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, Three Little Pigs, etc.)

We have a “retreat” off of the master bedroom and Jay has the stereo set up there. Holden turns on the stereo, Elliott pulls the antique step stool away from the edge of our bed into the middle of the room and Jay starts playing the music from iTunes on the laptop!

The Dance Party starts off innocently with songs from Glee or her Sarah McLachlan fave “Ordinary Miracle”…Elliott dances around, twirls, kicks and jumps off the step stool. Holden follows along…

Well, last night I came home from the gym to the whole house shakin’, rattlin’ and rollin’ and went up stairs to find them dancing to this:

OK, this is NOT my song of choice (clean version, of course!), but we were in complete hysterics watching these two dance. Holden started a new move that he does with his arms and then breaks out into some robot motions. Elliott is borderline locking and popping….it is so interesting to me that they can switch their style of dance from flowy and graceful during the Glee soundtrack to hard hitting, more sharp moves for LMFAO!

We NEED to have the video camera ready at the next Dance Party!

Superbowl Eats

OK, this will be the last of the recipe posts for a bit…I’ll be eating rice cakes and water for the next week and those two aren’t very blog worthy! I feel like ALL I’ve been posting lately is FOOD, FOOD, FOOD…so this next week, I am going to shoot for some calorie free topics. But……..

Today we had some neighbors over for the Superbowl and I tried to keep things simple with some quick and easy favorites, but I’ve been wanting to try these Cranberry Meatballs since the holidays, so I HAD to make them for the big game today. The verdict is that they were a hit because when I went to take a picture of them all nestled in the crock pot swimming in their sweet cranberry sauce, there were only about 5 remaining:

This recipe is a keeper and next time I may try them with turkey meatballs although they were just perfect with the beef variety. Super easy AND a big hit? That’s a good recipe in my book.

Then there was the always popular Sonoma Salad

which again, when I went to the bowl to snap a pic this was all that was left:

This is a great salad because it’s so versatile and can be switched out with different goodness:

{switch out the butter lettuce with spring mix or baby spinach}

{substitute gorgonzola or goat cheese for the blue}

{use dried blueberries, cherries or raisins in place of the Craisins}

{honey roasted almonds can easily replace the glazed walnuts}

{pears can take the place of the apple}

The possibilities are endless and that is why I love this go-to salad! Again, thank you Melanie for bringing this to us almost 3 years ago when we brought our sweet baby Holden home! This salad also brings back happy memories every time I serve it!

And then there is the Artichoke Dip that tickled my taste buds so many years ago in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot! I’ve loved it and made it LOTS ever since. No oven necessary!

Normally I use quartered artichoke hearts, but Albertson’s was fresh out of them this morning so I tried these artichoke bottoms and there was nothing sacrificed. I just chopped the bottoms in my mini food processor and that was that ~ not any real difference than with the quarters.

And there she is….served with a multigrain baguette and some Ritz crakers…sheer perfection on a carb! Can’t go wrong with this one folks, believe me!

I realize that my decor looks more like a bridal shower or Mother’s Day brunch and not reflective at all of Superbowl Sunday, but nobody seemed to care…these recipes are all a hit and I hope that you try them sometime soon! Whoever is on the receiving end will thank you!

We washed all these yummies down with a good ‘ol Cape Codder or vodka cran with lime!

It was a great game with a great menu spent with great friends….another weekend down! Bring on Monday!

I hope you have a “super” week ahead!

Corny Condiment

Tonight I’m having a Mommy’s Night Out of sorts…

I’m. So. Excited.

I’m going to “Bitch Bingo” (pardon my French!). My good friend, Hollie, introduced me to this FUN, monthly get-together of women and we play bingo. Now when I think of BINGO, I think of old people with their colorful bingo dotters sitting in a smoke filled room, but this new version of the game is much more fun and since it’s Ladies Only and once a month, it gives me something to look forward to and a chance to have girl talk, laugh, sample lots of different yummies and sip on a nice adult beverage!

This is how it all goes down:
Every chickie brings an appetizer or sweet to share, a drinkie poo of their choice, a $20 “gift” pertaining to the month’s theme (this month is “Romance” for February ~ should be interesting!) in a brown paper bag and $5 to add to the pot. We play as many games as there are brown bags and the winner of each game picks a brown bag or steals a gift from another woman (that’s where the bitch part comes in!) There is NO limit to the amount of times a gift can be stolen so there is a whole lot of bitchiness goin’ on. Fun stuff!

At the end of the night, the last game is played and that lucky lady wins the pot which usually consists of $100 give or take! Pretty cool, huh? I think so!

Tonight I am taking some guacamole and this Cilantro Lime Corn Salsa to go along with the Mexican theme.

I. Heart. This. Salsa. The link above will take you to the pork soft tacos that go along with this yummy salsa. The pork soft tacos are fabuloso, too! I have made them TONS. (I use cumin instead of the paprika). Anyhoo……this corn salsa is great on anything Mexican or added to a salad, so if you decide to make it, makes LOTS! I imagine it’d be great with some chopped tomatoes added in and chips, too!

Have a super, spicy Saturday night…..I know I’m planning to! {wink wink}

P.S. Jay is taking the kiddos to Chuck E. Cheese….so glad I got a hall pass out of that escapade! Thanks, babe! XOXO

Friday Five

1. Superbowl menu is set….making it easy:

Cranberry Meatballs (as seen here)
Sonoma Salad (find it here)
Artichoke Dip (check it out here)

Superbowl sipping will be vodka crans with a twist of lime.

There…..done! That was easy!

2. Elliott made all her playdate friends some paper chains – one for each child. She was busy, cutting, taping and creating this morning…this was all HER idea! Love that girl…

3. I’ve been bitten by a creativity bug….all these cute blogs that I’ve discovered…the only thing is is that I’m not a sewer or a scrapbooker or a gardener, but I am feeling inspired and am going to look around the house and see what I can CREATE or REARRANGE or ORGANIZE and give the place a little kick in the pants for Valentine’s Day! So glad it’s on a weekend so we can celebrate as a family and I can try some new recipes! Stay tuned…

4. I am feeling a little selfish lately and am looking forward to reserving a teeny bit of this year’s tax return for MYSELF. (Don’t worry Jay….I only need a few bucks (relatively speaking, of course!) There are some goodies that I have my eye on….nothing expensive, just a couple things on Etsy, The Pioneer Woman Cookbook and a couple apothecary jars….that’s about it.

5. Countdown to Holden’s 3rd birthday party…I am having fun planning the menu, getting the favor bags all figured out, picturing the decorations all hung and working out the FUN cake that I have planned…

I am also excited to see how low I can keep the budget on this party ~ so far, so good:

*Invites were under 10 cents a piece
*FREE bounce house thanks to MEG!
*Decorations from Dollar Tree and 90% off Christmas stuff @ Target
*Making my own cake

Should be a “blast”!

Happy Friday!