Pirate Parrrrrty! (Goodie Bags)

For Jordan's 7th Birthday, he's doing a swim/pirate party at the YMCA! I, the queen of themes, got a little carried away, but I'm okay with that :)

Since we have such a large range of kiddos (age 3mo - 9yo), I tried to personalize the goodie bags appropriately  and this is what I came up with:

For a 2yo boy:)

Fake tattoos, glow bracelet, ring pop, chocolates, bubbles, pirate ducky and bandanna!

for 1yo girl - seriously, how cute is that rubber ducky!?

9yo boy

pirate teeth, ring pop, tattoos, chocolates, glow bracelet, treasure map magic trick, bandanna

Can't wait for the kiddos to get their LOOT! 

S'more Sundaes (please!)

A drive-in Custard Stand in our town has this sundae, but I was always disappointed that there was no Marshmallow in a S'MORE Sundae! So, I brought it upon myself to do a little experimenting... boy, was I glad!!! the ingredients are SO cheap and it's fairly simple to make! 



You'll need:
Vanilla Icecream
Hot Fudge
Graham Crackers
Marshmallow "Fluff" (you can find it anywhere near the frosting). 

(Jordan wanted to add a piece of the chocolate bar to each of ours - that's totally optional!)

You'll need to:

1. Crunch up the graham crackers (we use our Ninja, but you can break them up in a ziplock baggie instead).  Set aside.
2. Scoop as much icecream as your heart desires into your bowl.
3. Take a dallop of Marshmallow Fluff and pop it on top of your icecream!
4. Melt the hot fudge (or just warm it up in the microwave) and pour over icecream/marshmallow mix.
5. Sprinkle your concoction with graham cracker crumbs.
6. Devour. 

Crock Pot Roasted Almonds!!!

Saw this recipe on Pinterest and immediately had a craving for them! Seemed super easy to make, so I decided to give it a try! The nice part about this is that you more than likely already have all of the ingredients on hand at home! I've changed the amount of ingredients because there ended up being WAY too much excess sugar at the end.

Time to Prep: 2 min:)
Time to Bake: 3 hours (but oh, so worth it!)

You'll need:
1 lb bag of Raw Almonds (got mine @ Menards for about $5)

1 1/4c sugar
1 1/4c brown sugar
2T cinnamon 
1/8t salt

2t vanilla extract
1 egg white

1/4c water (for later!)


You'll have to:

1. In a BIG bowl, mix the dry ingredients together - Set aside.
2. In your 2nd biggest bowl, whisk the egg white and vanilla extract until they begin to froth.
3. Add the almonds to the egg white and vanilla mix. Coat all of the almonds well.
4. Pour the almonds into the sugar bowl, and mix well!
5. Pour into your crock pot and set on LOW for 2 hours. Mix every half hour or so. 
6. After 2 hours, add the 1/4c water and mix well. Set the timer for another hour, mixing every 20 min or so.
7. Pour onto 2 cookie sheets to cool - make sure to break up any big "chunks" of almonds.
8. Store in an air-tight container (if they aren't devoured within minutes!)

SO excited to get little containers to gift these for Christmas!  Jordan, after tasting them, said they were "so rare... and tender... and so good!" :)

& here's the wrapping job we did for Jordan's teacher:

Enjoy!!!

Reusable Candle Jar - Totally Works!

I am always super skeptical when it comes to trying out things from Pinterest cause, well, we all know the Fails that can come of them! However, this one seemed like a pretty easy, no loss, kind of pin. When one of my candles was no longer use-able, I stuck it in the fridge for a few hours. When I took it out, the wax came out in seconds - painlessly!!! Washed it with soap and water and... voila! Brand new beautiful container! 

Baby Name Art!

I am the proud auntie to another little blessing; my newest nephew, Beckett. This was just a little welcome-to-the-world gift:

Drink the 8!

Every morning, I drink 1c skim milk w/carnation breakfast powder and a large coffee. Every day for lunch I drink 1c skim milk. Every night with dinner I drink soda or maybe some water. That means that every day I've been drinking NONE of the 64oz of water that I need. Yikes. 

SO. I busted this bad boy out of the pantry:

1/2 gallon water bottle that I got from Walmart for like $1 last summer.

1/2 gallon = 64 oz

Recommended water intake = eight 8oz glasses

Well, today was my first day with this new plan and my goal was to drink just half of it during the day, and then finish the other half when I got home. At the end of the work day, it was gone! Granted, I had to use the bathroom every hour and a half (literally, after every class I taught), but I feel so great knowing that I drank so much water without even realizing it! 

Homemade Sweet Potato Fries

SO, I've been craving sweet potato SOMETHING for awhile now. And I figured this would be the easiest/quickest recipe to make: Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Deliciousnesssssssssss

I used one sweet potato (since Bruce, of course, doesn't like them). Ended up eating 1/2 for dinner and putting the other 1/2 in the fridge for tomorrow. 

I mixed up 2T olive oil, 1T pumpkin pie spice and a few dashes of salt - they were DE-lish.