Thursday Thoughts

I went on a mini vacation with my husband last weekend.  Let me rephrase that: I went on a kid-free get-a-way with my husband last weekend.  I ate delicious food.  There were no kids saying they didn't like what was for dinner. I got to have conversations with my husband without being interrupted.  I got to watch cable TV.   It was awesome!  And hot.

Seriously people, who are enjoying actual fall like weather and not triple digit weather (at the beach!), I am jealous.  Seriously!  I just want to drink a hot latte without breaking into a sweat.  I want to open up my house and let the cool air flow in.  I want to wear a sweatshirt and dress in layers.

We don't have cable.  I know, weird, right?  We have netflix, and I feel like there is plenty of stuff to watch on regular TV alone (Seriously, stressing about fitting it all in. . . and I am sooo behind).  But, when we go away, I love to watch cable tv.  I love the Food Network and HGTV, and all those other crazy cable channels.  This weekend, I finally got to check out Jen Hatmaker's show My Big Family Renovation.  I LOVED it.  I think my husband did too, because we watched several episodes of it before we forced ourselves to leave during a commercial break.

Speaking of TV, here's what I am watching this season:  Castle, Bones, Big Bang Theory, Scorpian, NCIS, NCIS LA, NCIS New Orleans, The Mysteries of Laura, Hawaii 5-0, and I am probably forgetting some.  I'm also trying to catch up on Once Upon a Time from last season (It's my binge watching show),

I am currently working on some projects to decorate my house for Fall. I can't wait to show you!  I am trying some new things and even helped my husband cut some wood.  It's going to be awesome.  In the meantime, we can't find our dining room table.

I am buckling down and getting super organized, too.  It's pretty awesome.  So far.  Right now, everything is on hold until I find my house.  I'm not sure what happened, but cleaning just hasn't happened in over a week and I am going crazy.  My husband is going crazy.  I am just not sure where to start.  Good thing, tomorrow, the only plans we have are to stay at home.  First time all week.  We sure are having fun, but this house really needs to get clean.  We even have wood chips on our floor. . . I think my son brings them home.

Now, I'm off to go find my kitchen.  Dinner time is calling.  Enjoy your day!

More of Ethan's Lone Ranger/Cowboy Party

I can't believe I almost forgot to finish Ethan's birthday round-up.  I have some absolutely amazing recipes to share with you next week, so bare with me while I finish!  (there will be something yummy later this week, too!) 

Ethan didn't want to go with cupcakes or even a cake for his birthday this year.  Instead, he wanted one of his most favorite desserts. . . S'mores!  I thought it went great with the theme of the party, so we went with it!  I even made homemade marshmallows (best decision ever!).  

It actually took me about an hour before I realized the marshmallows weren't even out! ha ha  The were great!  I will share how we roasted them and how I made them.  I will even share my favorite recipe for s'mores (all in my next post!).  

I really love how my chalkboard art came out.  I copied it from Pinterest and just winged it.  Not to shabby!  To make the pennant bunting, I used this set of framelits for the Sizzix Big Shot.  Absolutely loving it.  It's actually still hanging out on our mantle. . . it's kind of fall-like, right? 

We even had photo props set up to take some fun pictures!  I got some cute ones of our family and friends.  I stuck them in a milk bottle (from this party) filled with dry beans.  I love the way it came out!  

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Okay, so these are my favorite sliders. ever!  When I started planning Ethan's birthday party, I knew that I wanted these sliders as a menu item.  I apologize ahead of time, my dining room is not that great with lighting and so pictures always come out weird.  

You can catch more of Ethan's party here.

Ham and Cheese Sliders
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
24 Hawaiian rolls, halved.
24 slices honey ham
24 small slices Swiss cheese
1 1/2 Tbs yellow mustard
8 Tbs melted butter
1 Tbs minced onion
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
poppy seeds

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lay ham and cheese on halved roll.  Cover with top part of roll.  Place all 24 sandwiches on a baking sheet.

Mix mustard, butter, onion and W-sauce in a bowl.  Brush the tops of rolls with the mustard sauce and sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Cover with foil and bake for about 10 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for 2 more.  Serve warm.

Ethan's Lone Ranger Birthday Party

Howdy!  Ethan's party was probably the hardest one I had visualizing out of all the parties I have thrown over the last few years.  Especially throwing a Cowboy-ish party for a 6 year old for a decent budget was really hard, and I will confess, this is the most I've spent on a party in a long time.  But, still It wasn't as high as it could have been.  But, I think it came together nicely in the end.  I picked red, kraft brown, with blue accents as the color scheme.  I used burlap whenever I could.  The burlap table runner I found on Pick your Plum. Paper products came from Target, in the red collection of party supply stuff.  The tin containers are IKEA.  

I loved the look of the paper mache letters.  I bought mine at JoAnns.  I stamped lassos around the food labels.  I used Stampin Up's new set, Yee Haw.  It came out just in time to use for Ethan's party!

Gummy worms work great for rattle snakes!

The party was from 11 to 1, so I wanted finger foods but didn't want to serve a full lunch.  This worked really well.  

The Menu:

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Pigs in a Blanket

Wagon Wheel tortilla Roll Ups

Tortilla Chips and Cowboy Caviar

Buffalo Wings

BBQ wings

Caramel Corn

I can't wait to show you more from this party!  

Ethan's 6!

September is almost over, which means he's been 6 for over 3 weeks!  I cannot believe how quickly the last 6 years have gone!  He loves building Lego's, watching Star Wars and Marvel cartoons, and playing video games with his dad.  He is creative and loves to learn!  

For his party this year, he picked the theme Lone Ranger, because he loves playing it with his Dad on the infinity and he got to watch some episodes of the original show with his Grandpa earlier this summer.  This week, I will give you the low down on his birthday party fun so make sure to check back this week to see how it turned out.  

Make a Wish! card!

It's Saturday and kids are napping (are rarity anymore), but we were up super early to go see the hot air balloons take off and then planting our winter garden.  So much fun and all before 10!  So here's a quick post before I go hop into the shower before we go celebrate a sweet 6 year old and eat S'mores! 

This summer, my mom bought some new stamps and then took off on a 2 month road trip.  This translated into 2 months of play time for me!  I mean, she couldn't take them with her, right?  

These cards were super simple and incredibly easy.  They were so easy, that they went really fast. . . which are sometimes the best cards to make a bunch at at a time so you have them on hand.  I saw the idea here via Pinterest.  

Stamps are Perfect Pennants, by SU!, Chevron border punch  by SU!, and the Banners Framelits by SU! The embossing folder with arrows is from this cricut set.  All papers are from various scraps laying around the house.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

zucchini love!

My garden was somewhat successful this year (as in things actually produced fruit).  I've got two plant zucchini plants that I really thought were done and suddenly started shooting out zucchini again.  Seriously.  I blame the Fresno heat.  I don't mind, though, because my heirloom tomato plant started making tomatoes last week.  Not kidding.  We must do things slow here.  My jalapeno plant is also going crazy, which means I should probably make something soon.  But, in the meantime I am going to share with you a super yummy recipe that might just make you feel better about your chocolate chip cookies.  Because, the very fact that you have loaded them with shredded zucchini makes them healthy.  Just ignore all the sugar and butter.  

Zucchini-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Nestle

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1.2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup quick oats
1 cup chopped nuts (I didn't add these)
1 pkg. dark chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.  Beat well.  Add in dry ingredients.  Add in zucchini, oatmeal and chocolate chips.  Mix until just combined.  Use a cookie scoop to drop onto lined baking sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.  Cool for 2 minutes before moving.  Store on a wire rack until completely cool.  Eat with a tall glass of milk.  Share with a friend!

Enjoy!