Pink Birthday Party

Can I start by saying that I am not a fan of the color pink?

But somehow, my precious girl loves it!  All she wanted for her 3rd birthday was pink balloons and pink "ice cleam".  I figured I'd be able to give her at least that, right?! So over the months leading up to her birthday, I kept my eye out for deals and clearance items that could be fun... Hello Target $1 bins!  I bought a roll of pink paper to put on the tables and 2 shades of pink balloons for my idea of a balloon chandelier... and a clearance package of pink cookies.  And this was my party plan.  I really didn't have any energy to pull much else together.

But one day, in my refusal to do real work, I made a Pinterest board.

I took a look at our calendar and realized that La Chula's birhday would fall on our regularly scheduled church College Group night. That made it really easy... we'd invite the students to our house for a game night, feed them pink food, and tell La Chula that it was her party. Done!

It turned out to be the sweetest party and she felt so loved by all the friends that came and wore pink in her honor. 

Here is the pink spread... something I embraced was that it didn't have to be perfect for anyone to enjoy the sugary desserts or for my birthday girl to feel celebrated! These were simple foods that the kids could help with too!

 {Sources: Plates, napkins & pink paper - Target}

 You could call this an Ombre Cake Pinterest fail... or you could call it a successful Dr. Seuss cake. 

Not exactly like it looked here!

Red Jell-O... it's kind of pink, right?  Kids who don't get Jell-O often are really excited by it... so are college students.

Not shots...Just jello ;)

My sister sent me the pin for the dipped wafer cookies.  We ended up using all 3 flavors because I wasn't about to buy 4 packages just to get enough pink ones... leaving the others around my kitchen for weeks.  Side note: these cookies should be prepared on the day of the event.  Even though I made these the night before and kept them in a sealed container, they were stale by the next night. Boo.

Circus Animals and Dipped Wafers

I call the punch in the punchbowl "Church Punch".  I remember it being served at weddings and showers.  The recipe is as follows: Half a container of sherbert (I used berry - of course) and 1.5 bottles of ginger ale (I guess that makes it 3 liters?).  Side note: nobody sells sherbert in cardboard boxes anymore...they will look at you crazy if you ask for it.

{Source: straws and mason jar lids from Pick Your Plum}

This picture (outfit 2 of 3 for the photo shoot, by the way. That's how the birthday girl rolled!) just gets me!  I think it's her crossed feet... they remind me that she is still little.  Also, the Sophia the First "statues" (also known as tattoos).

She climbed right up on the stool and blew out those candles like a pro.  She even was offered an encore performance! Also, college students dressed in pink... did I mention how cool they are?!

Once you look inside the cake, you forget how crazy it looked on the outside... kinda :) Also, pink sprinkles in the Target $1 bin at Valentines Day... Score!

 Ok, so sliced, it was way cool! We also served pink ice cream... it was Red Velvet flavored... FTW! Savvy shopper tip: Lots of junk food is on sale around Super Bowl.  We bought 2 cartons after Super Bowl and kept them in our freezer.  It lead to great anticipation of her birthday every time the freezer was opened.

And just because she's my silly girl... and I love her!

 Happy 3rd birthday my precious Chula girl!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Happy Monday Friends!

Around my house, we opt for natural peanut butter.  They sell it in bulk at our Costco and it simply has WAY less sugar than the regular stuff.  Here's the catch to the natural peanut butter - it never comes in chunky/crunchy at our Costco.  So for years, this crunchy peanut butter lovin' family has been doing without.

Enter The Hubs.

Last week, he willingly took the kids to Costco and did our shopping to give me a break. {Sweet hubs, right?!}  Unfortunately in all my pre-outing, direction-giving my "only buy natural peanut butter, even though it doesn't come in crunchy, and if they are out buy the almond butter" request came across as "if they don't have the natural peanut butter buy crunchy".  Funny how that worked out, huh? :)  Needless to say, he came home with a double-pack of non-natural crunchy peanut butter.  And because I am a sweets addict who can't stand the thought of returning delicious, sugary, crunchy peanut butter to the store once it has already entered my home, we are now using said peanut butter for lunches, etc.

Since I've already mentioned peanut butter 8 times in the last couple of paragraphs {you went back and counted didn't you! I would too} you are probably already thinking about what I am going to share with you right now: Peanut Butter Cookies.  I simply can't think of anything better to do with crunchy peanut butter than to make delicious cookies.  Anyone with me?!

So here's what I did.  I looked up "peanut butter cookies with apple sauce" since things made with apple sauce are usually healthier than the version made without apple sauce.  Plus, I had to make myself feel better for using the sugar-filled variety of peanut butter - redeeming the situation, right?  Chocolate Covered Katie came through for me!

{via}

These are vegan cookies, coming in at a whopping 65 calories each! And they are so seriously good that I had to share them with you!  You need to make them now and at least double the recipe.  They are THAT good!

And since we are on the topic of peanut butter, I just want you to know that I am going to try these from the same blog soon.  Let me know if you get to them before I do!

Easy BBQ Chicken Salad, Tea Party & a Child's Thought

Recently the Hubs has taken on some extra stuff at work.  While I know it is only for a season, it is sometimes hard to remember that it won't last forever when the day seems like it will never end. (I know there are some of you who can really feel me on that one!)  In the last couple of days I've tried some different things to see if I can help our family experience a more peaceful evening.  Here's how it went down:

YESTERDAY - Strategy: give them something productive & calm to look forward to after nap.

I told the kids as they went down for nap that when they woke up we'd have a tea party.  This was actually motivation for them! They slept well and actually woke up well too.  I told them to wait on their beds until I called them upstairs to the balcony for tea. (Bonus points to me for thinking of a cool place to have a tea party on a rainy day!)

I made some caffeine free blueberry tea, put some berries and graham crackers on plastic plates and took it all upstairs on a silver tray.  When the kids saw the tray, they were beside themselves.  We sat and sipped tea and looked at the rain together.  I don't know about you, but my kids are usually starving when they wake up from nap - which makes for a miserable time between nap and dinner.  And who can cook anything under all that stress?! This little tea party made a great transition to play time and gave me some peace and actual quiet to get dinner ready.  Genius, right?!


TODAY - Strategy: get a simple, healthy dinner ready with minimal mess.

I've slacked off at working on my weight and realizing that the baby is going to be 2 in a couple of weeks has reminded me that I really want my body back.  Whatever that means.  Just not what it is now.  So I've been trying to make dishes with a lot more veggies and a lot less carbs.  I want to share with you a dish that I've made twice this week that meets my "healthy choices" standards and requires so little prep and clean up that I can actually enjoy a peaceful meal.  It's my BBQ Chicken Salad!

Not in the picture since it was already in my bowl when I
thought of taking a picture: lettuce, cilantro, avocado. 

Here's what you need:
- Lettuce (I use anywhere from a few leaves to a whole head of romaine - just depends on how many you feed)
- BBQ Sauce (I got my Sweet Baby Ray's for $0.99 a bottle before Super Bowl - stocked up!)
- Chicken (Earlier this week I shredded up Costco rotisserie leftovers, today was Costco canned chicken)
- Can of corn
- Can of black beans
- and whatever else sounds good from veggie drawer or pantry (cilantro, red onion, jicama, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, avocados)


I shred (or open) the chicken into a bowl, squeeze a little bit of BBQ sauce in and mix it up.  I microwave it for about a minute.  I don't know why... something about it being hot before I eat it seems right, but I suppose if it is already cooked, you could just eat it?  Next, I chop/tear and wash the lettuce and throw it in a large bowl.  Rinse and drain the corn and black beans; throw them ontop of the lettuce.  Chop any veggies you might want to place in the salad; throw them on top.  Toss in the chicken and toss the whole thing together.  You can leave out the bottle of sauce for folks to add more to their liking. Just remember that it does contain sugar... so be careful not to indulge too much if you are trying to watch your weight ;)

Simple, right?

Since it was sooooo easy, I decided to make a soothing ambience to see if that would make for a peaceful dinner.  I set the table and made the kids wait in the living room.  I turned off the majority of the lights and lit some floating candles in a bowl for the table.  And I turned on some peaceful worship music.  Can I tell you what a difference that made?!  I don't know if the kids were more calm because it was new or because these things actually worked, but I am willing to find out.  Dinner still had messes and sibling quabbles, but it was far more pleasant than usual.  I even had a pleasant conversation with kids about the candles.  I asked questions about what they looked like, what they did, how they would feel, etc. (Very educational of me!)  Here's where the biggest blessing of the night came in.  D$ said, "Dios hizo todo la luz. Y el nos dio todo la luz que tiene." [Translation: God made all the light. And he gave us all the light that he has.]

I don't think my son realized what he was saying (though I am impressed that looking at a candle made him think about God making light and giving it to us out of his goodness). What really struck a chord with me is the idea of God being creator of all light, all good, all hope and God giving us ALL that he has.  What a profound privilege it is that we are given his light, his goodness and his hope.  And what an awesome responsibility we have to give it to others - as freely as he gives it to us.  We were created for this.

How humbling is it to us that we are the bearers of HIS light?  I don't know about you, but I often feel like I am the worst vessel that God could choose to carry his light.  And what is more humbling is that somehow others can see how amazing his light, his hope, his goodness is - through my facades, through my messiness, through my humanity.  God is so good that his light, his goodness, his hope can be seen, even through someone like me.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
 2 Corinthians 4:7