The Life

Happy Birthday Joey!

Posted on March 19, 2016

Joey is 2!

It’s crazy to think that we just celebrated Joey’s 2nd birthday last week. It feels like yesterday I gave birth to him. Time is going by so quickly! Joey has turned into quite the toddler these past few months and I have a sneaking suspicion the terrible two’s are upon us. Especially since his favorite word is “noooo”.

Joey loves playing with anything that has wheels and loves to do puzzles. He also loves anything Juliana is currently playing with. He is doing so great potty training and now wears big boy undies out when we run our errands. His favorite foods are macaroni and chicken cutlets. He also has a bad granola bar habit. We are trying to cut back. haha!

We had our friends over to the house to celebrate last weekend. Luckily the weather was perfect! It’s been sort of back and forth here, and it’s been raining a lot. But we lucked out! The weather was ideal for an outside BBQ. Joey was so excited to wake up on the morning of his party and see that Grandma Nancy + Grandpa Pat came to surprise him and celebrate with us! (Juliana was also so excited but she waited up until 10 pm the night before to see them arrive!)

We had such a fun afternoon with our friends hanging out, watching the kids bounce and eating some yummy bbq food! After being indoors for so many months during the Winter, it was so enjoyable to just hang out on the deck and cook out.

I served my “cheater’s sangria” and it was a total hit! All you need is a bottle of Sangria (I grabbed a couple at Costco) and a bottle of Sprite/7-up. I filled mason jars with ice and some sliced fruit (lemon, lime, orange). Then poured the glasses half full with sangria and topped them with sprite. I decorated the mason jars with ribbon and finished the drink off with a colorful paper straw. They were perfect!

Monday was Joey’s actual birthday and the celebrations continued. He opened all of his presents from family and I cooked a huge dinner with all of his favorite foods! The kids stayed up so late playing with all of his new gifts. I would say his birthday celebrations were a total success!

The party details were super easy for me, and I’ll tell you why. After each party we have I take all of the leftover, unused decorations and pack them away. I pack away bowls, serving dishes and even banners I have made. I knew I wanted to do a primary color theme for Joey’s party and when I looked in the boxes of what I had and saw all of Juliana’s Sesame Street party decor, I saw that Joey’s BBQ was already half done! The “Happy Birthday” banner hanging on the drink table used to say “Happy 1st Birthday Juliana”. The “Joey is two” huge banner that we hung on the deck used to say “Sunny Days” (Sesame themed, remember?). I found yellow and red plastic bowls and a few unused table clothes. So I really didn’t have that much to buy in order to decorate! As I told Mike, this is when my hoarding tendencies come in handy. 🙂

For the party favors I used my silhouette cameo to personalize cups for all of our party guests! I love the way these came out! I just filled them with some colored paper filler that I grabbed at the dollar store. They took no time to make and I just love giving little personalized gifts.

I did want to make a small balloon arch to hang over the front door. Luckily for Grandpa, he was the only one in the kitchen when I pulled out the helium tank and got stuck helping me blow up, tie, and string 50 balloons onto a piece of fishing wire. Ha! He was such a trooper! Unfortunately it was so windy that it was really hard to hang the way I wanted it, so I just tied it outside on the deck as one big balloon column.

Joey got a bounce house from Grandma + Grandpa for his birthday gift and the kids had a blast jumping in it! It really was the greatest idea to just buy one to own instead of rent. Obviously, it wouldn’t work for a ton of kids/and or/larger kids, but it worked just fine for our party. It was just a bit more then renting one and now we will have it for future parties/playdates/rainy days (because you know I’ll plug that in right in the living room..haha!). I linked the one we got here but I also loved this one, and this one!

Happy Birthday Mr. Baby Joey! We hope you had as much fun as we did! XO

Hope you enjoyed partying with us!

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Freezer Egg Breakfast Burritos

Posted on February 29, 2016

Happy Monday!

I want to share a really easy breakfast tip with you. I have zero desire to start scrambling eggs in the morning before pre-school drop off. It’s hard enough trying to get everyone dressed and out the door there’s just no way I want to start making a mess on the stove. One weekend morning recently I made these simple egg + cheese burritos for the kids to eat for breakfast and they were a total hit. What made them even better was that they are easy for little hands to hold. And unlike breakfast sandwiches, if they are rolled nice and tight, the fillings don’t come spilling out all over the place.

The next weekend Mini requested the burritos again and I decided to make a big batch so that I could freeze them for an easy weekday breakfast.

What you need

8 eggs

6 tortillas

Shredded cheese (I used a half cup)

Saran wrap

Aluminum Foil

Instructions

Scramble the eggs. At the very end of the cooking process, toss in the shredded cheese and let it get all melty onto the eggs. In the meantime, lay out the tortillas on your counter top. Once the eggs have cooled for a second, scoop an even amount onto the center of each tortilla. (See photo). In order to roll the tortillas tight you need to tuck in the sides and roll from the bottom to the top. If you can’t figure out how I am sure there is an instructional youtube video to help. If not, let me know and I’ll make one, haha. Once they are rolled, place them seam side down while you of course eat one.

Wrap each burrito first in saran wrap and then in a piece of aluminum foil. Toss them all in the freezer until you are ready to eat them. When you want one, take it out of the aluminum foil. Place the burrito in the saran wrap into the microwave. Microwave the burrito on 50% for 1 minute. Flip it over and do it again, 50% for 1 more minute. Then unwrap it and enjoy!

My favorite part of this is not having to wash a pan just because we wanted breakfast burritos. I also add different things in mine so feel free to get crazy. We have tried diced ham, pepper + onions, sauteed spinach, chopped sausage and different cheeses. Let me know what your favorite combo is!

Here’s to hoping this makes the mornings just a smidge easier!

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

The Life

and I miss them…

Posted on February 18, 2016

It’s a strange feeling to look back and see how far you’ve come in life. Pictures will remind you of times that are older then you can even remember. Stories told will transport you back to a place that seems like such a distant memory. Even closing your eyes and listening to a song can make you feel like you are back in that place, in that time, with those people.

I am finding myself so nostalgic for the past lately. I miss the carefree days. I miss the freedom. I miss my metabolism. More and more lately I find that I am looking through old pictures or trying so hard to remember what a certain day felt like. To even for a second be reminded of a moment 15 years ago. And suddenly it hit me. I don’t miss the past. I don’t miss my youth.

I miss them.

You see, I met the loves of my life when I was only 11. I don’t even know if I knew what was happening back then. How important meeting them would be. How meeting them would in fact change my entire life.

There are three of them. And we are each so different that upon meeting us all individually you would never understand how our friendship is possible. But it is. For 19 years we have brought out the best, and sometimes the worst in each other. Been there for every birthday, celebration, graduation, wedding and birth.

And I miss them.

Sure, I am acclimated to my “adult” life. I got married. I had babies. I moved far away. I made new friends. Lots of new friends. I am busy now. Sometimes Mary Poppins busy and sometimes struggling to keep my head above water busy. Time and distance have proven to be difficult obstacles. Much like branches on a tree we have all grown to go our separate ways. We all chose a different path. It makes sense, you know. We couldn’t hang out in the car at the drive in movies forever. We followed our own hearts and paved our own ways for ourselves.

But they are my roots.

They are where I come from. They know me better then I know myself. They were there for every silly crush, failed test and broken heart. They knew me before I knew how to use a blow dryer. And they loved me anyways.

And I miss them.

I know how lucky I am to have them. All three of them. True love in friendship doesn’t happen to everyone. And not a day goes by that I am not grateful for them. For the unconditional love. The accept each other for who they are and love them anyways kind of love. The understand each other’s faults and not hold it against them kind of love. The feeling the same happiness when they are celebrating and hating the world with them when life is hard kind of love. And life is hard.

And I miss them.

So I’ll look at some old pictures, watch some of the 300 hours of video footage we have taped over the years, dance to Britney Spears in my living room and transport myself back to my youth. Back to when seeing them was a part of my daily routine. When we didn’t have to schedule vacations and buy plane tickets to meet for a drink. When we didn’t have any careers or school stopping us from meeting for a cup of coffee. I will transport myself back there, even if only for an hour.

And then I will call them. And tell them I love them. And maybe look up cheap plane tickets and fantasize about a girls weekend. Start a never ending group text that will end up with someone sending incriminating photos of themselves. Because that’s what we do. That’s who we are. And I live for that.

They are my people.

And I miss them.

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

The Life

3rd Annual Valentine’s Day Tea Party

Posted on February 9, 2016

Mini and I hosted our 3rd annual Tea party this weekend and let me just tell you, we had such a good time! She was so into planning it with me this year. From the decor to the menu she had an input on all of it. Everytime I did anything this past month either in the craft room or the kitchen she would ask “mama, if that for the tea party?” I love how excited she is getting over our yearly tradition.

We invited all of the girls in her class this year so we were expecting a pretty full house. I planned on serving brunch and having a craft activity for all of the girls to work on. Almost all of the girls Mini invited came with their moms and they all looked so pretty in their Valentine’s Day outfits. I was impressed with how well behaved all of the girls were. Last year it was a bit more chaotic with a bunch of 3 year old girls running around but this year the girls sat at their big table and ate lunch and chatted just like little ladies. Such a difference one year made. It was so cute to see them all sitting and talking together as they munched on tiny sandwiches and sipped their lemonade. They all worked on their craft and even decided they all wanted to color pictures after.

Party Details

Food + Drinks:

We had little tea sandwiches that included: egg salad on wheat bread // chicken salad in mini croissants // heart shaped pb&j. I served spinach and cheese mini quiche and for the first time ever a ham and swiss puff pastry pinwheel. (My friend Christina and I literally assembled and threw that in the oven last minute and it was pretty tasty!)

Of course we needed a dessert bar. Which all the girls were happily enjoying before having any thing to eat for lunch 🙂 I just picked up some items at the store as to not make too much work for myself. We had mini powdered donuts // mini vanilla and chocolate cupcakes // blueberry scones // chocolate chip muffins // lemon bar + pudding individual treats. A few of our friends generously brought us some muffins and lemon bars to add to our sweets table! Lastly, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen I made a batch of chocolate covered rice krispie treat pops last week. Well, we had so many sweets that I ended up wrapping them for the girls to take home! You can see the picture below.

For drinks I grabbed some raspberry lemonade for the girls. I also made a batch of Tazo Iced passion tea lemonade (it’s SO good!). And of course, I had a make your own mimosa bar for the moms! I put out a few bottles of prosecco on ice and had carafes of grapefruit juice and orange juice so moms could make their mimosa to their liking. PARTY TIP: I take a 12 count cupcake pan a few days before the party and pour water into all the cupcake holes. Then I stick a little slice of lemon in each one. I freeze the tin and when it’s frozen pop out all the big ice cubes. It is perfect for keeping pitchers of water and tea cold and you can even see the slices of lemon floating around the drinks.

The Décor:

I set up on big kids sized table for the girls so that they could all sit together while they ate. I have a few IKEA Lack tables in the playroom, so I pushed them together with another kids sized table that I had to create one long, rectangular table. I needed a table cloth big enough so I went to the fabric store and picked an adorable printed fabric. I had them cut how much I needed to cover all four tables. (I won’t tell you how much I accidently spent on said fabric after the store wouldn’t take my coupon, but no worries. I just told Mike I would make a pair of palazzo pants out of the fabric so it wouldn’t be a total waste. If anyone wants a pair of palazzo pants, let me know, haha!)

I had leftover pink disposable plates from Mini’s 2nd birthday party (this is why I don’t throw anything away..) so we set the table with those. I bought small clear cups for the girls and personalized each one with their name in vinyl. It was so fun to watch them find their spot at the table and use their very own personalized cup. I picked up a bunch of simple flowers from Costco and trimmed half of them down to make table centerpieces. I used stemless wine glasses as the vases and they were the perfect height!

I strung some garland that I made with my silhouette cameo in both hearts and X + O’s on the wall beside the big table. Mini just loved it. (After the party I took the garland off that wall and strung it on our fireplace!)

The Craft:

I originally planned to make salt dough heart ornaments for all of the girls to paint. Well, I did make salt dough hearts. I made a ton of them. I had them drying on the dining room table for days. The night before the party, I thought that some were still a little soft, maybe because we have had such cold weather. So I stuck them in the oven at 200* to finish drying out the dough. Well, as soon as they came out of the oven they all started to crack into pieces. Insert panic mode here. The party was the next morning, and we already bought all the paint for this project.

My GENIUS of a best friend suggested that I have all the girls paint pieces of the salt dough in the colors that Mini picked at the store, then glue them all onto a board to make a mosaic out of them. Well that is exactly what I did. And I am so in love with this project. (See it in the pictures below!) It is the perfect keepsake from her tea party that all of her friends had a part in making. Mini can’t decide where in her room to hang it, but she thinks it is just “awesome”!

Our Valentine’s Day Tea Party tradition is becoming on of my favorite days of the year. I love planning the details with Mini and including her in all of the decisions. Seeing her face when it all comes together is just priceless. I am so grateful for these memories that we are making and canhardly wait to start planning for next year!

Hope you all enjoyed + maybe decide to throw your own Tea Party!

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

The Life

My Heart Belongs To Target

Posted on February 6, 2016

As if you didn’t love it already…here are my top 10

10) It’s completely normal for cocktail sauce, diaper cream and tennis balls to all end up in 1 shopping cart.

9) They have the largest family bathroom ever. That room will fit a cart and double stroller. Trust me I’ve done it. Even better then that…if you have a cart full of items that aren’t supposed to be in a bathroom until purchased.. Just ask the guy at customer service to keep an eye on the cart while you run your toddler in for a potty break. They might silently judge the fact that you left your baby sleeping in the cart, but as long as you’re quick you’ll be fine.

8) Popcorn and soda combo. Best $1.99 ever spent. Every single time we go.

7) The clearance end caps. Um, hello. Don’t you love filling your cart with things you didn’t know you needed at a margin of the price? It’s the reason I have tried every body wash ever created and have a surplus of lightbulbs.

6) The stock up and save event makes me feel like I’m at Costco without having to show my $45 membership card to anyone. 2 years supply of Dawn dish soap? Check. 384 Chewy granola bars? Check.

5) Archer farms apple fritter bread. Toast it. Butter it. Make french toast out of it. Rip the package open before you even back out of your parking space. I don’t care what you do with it, just buy it. You can thank me later.

4) Cartwheel. What can be more exciting on a Tuesday morning then saving 5% on a package of strawberries. Seriously though, did you know you can go through your cart and scan barcodes to see if there is a cartwheel on your items? It’s like winning the lotto. The $.18 lotto.

3) Starbucks + Wifi. Enough said.

2) You’ve got a pharmacy, optical center, photo counter and mobile station all under one roof. It’s like running an entire days worth of errands in one shot.

1) The #1 reason I love shopping at target is that the surplus of over-sized 2 seater wagons make me never too far away from a yoga pant wearing, messy bun mama trying to grab everything on her list before her kids lose their shit.

#momslovetarget

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Older Posts

Newer Posts