Beach Bingo ... End of School Year Swim Party Food

A few weeks back I posted an invite I made for a end of year swim party for the boys and their classmates.  It was originally scheduled for this Saturday but due to a change of Rick's schedule we had to bump the party up to last weekend.  We had a few kids show but it was a lot of fun and really when compared to other parties I do this was VERY low key.  I made a few cupcakes and found food that went with the theme.  We were so blessed one of the dad's actually maned the BBQ and cooked up all the hot dogs, while Rick gave all the kids rides on the Jet Ski and I played life guard watching the kids in the water.

Here is a quick glimpse of the food that we did, the following two days I'll show the cupcakes I made in the theme.  Food was really simple and the food labels were a FREE printable on Hostess with the Mostess.  She was so sweet and had it in a PDF or  JPEG file.  I used the JPEG file and copied into a word document that I then added a text box and added the fun wording.

Cole Helping me get the labels together:

Here is how the table looked:

Food to Munch on:

Cupcake Station:

Hot Dog Station

Veggie Dip

Gummy Circles

 Gum Drops 

Pool Noodles

Gummy Life Savers

Beach Themed Cookies I bought

Cut Fruit

Tiki Punch

If you're looking for the invites I did here is the post.  I'll include a picture of the invites I sent out.

My little munch kin enjoying the day:


And my trial run of my swimsuit and cover up went well I think.
Sorry for bathroom picture it truly is the ONLY mirror I've ever allowed in the house.
And I didn't have time to have someone take my picture.

Hope you have a GREAT day and get the grill on!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Celebrating My 37th Birthday ... This Sunday will finally be the day I get to go off diet and eat (well not crazy off but something special)

Every few years my birthday lands on Father's Day and this in my year to share.  I guess I can lol just playing the older I get doesn't really matter.  I am really excited I have been so good on this diet for 10 months or so I haven't cheated (well once in February I had a sugar cookie when I was at a plateau and a friend suggested eating something to jumpstart my system.  Besides that I have stuck to it and as you can see have been doing pretty darn good!  I'm down 104.8lbs and 9lbs for my goal weight (well the one that I first set I may go an extra 10 after that but that is another thing).

With Sunday being Father's day the restaurants are going to be crazy.  I've been dying to try Cheesecake Factory since my friend Debby at Just Breath told me about a low carb cheesecake they have.  I've resisted but I made a promise to myself that on my birthday I would have cheesecake!  And a low carb version at least doesn't make me feel too guilty.  We do have to go early since Rick's work schedule changed, so maybe I'll do their breakfast with cheesecake ... LOL. I've been promising myself cheesecake for over a year now so I don't care what time of day it is I'm having it!

PLUS my women's group ladies are going to take me out to dinner on Saturday night!  I'm so excited to go out!

On my list to try:

Thai Lettuce Wraps (minus the sauces)

If I have to have breakfast I'll do the Steak & Eggs (minus potatoes)

And for desert - Low Carb Cheesecake (mine will be minus fruit)

And for my birthday Gift Rick bought me this.

I want a bigger one but that will come hopefully in a few years.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I'm very excited to celebrate my birthday this year with some great friends and the hubs.

End of School Year ... Thumb Print Tree & Thank you Letter from Child

One more teacher gift, this one was made for Caden's Kindergarten teacher.  I must say she is one heck of a lady.  I wish I had found this school when we had Cole in Kindergarten.  She was amazing at helping the kids read, do math and all kinds of fun things.  They would take a walk each day.  Over the course of the school year, Caden was so excited to get his 20 MILE token!  He is a super reader and a wiz at math, I'm so excited that he loves school and loved his teacher.

As you remember I did a thumb print tree for our PTF president, sadly the one I had to do for her was shorter notice so I couldn't personalize it.  This Thumb Print Thank You Tree I actually had ordered first so it was personalized with her name and the very nice lady at Plum Adorable added a memory verse Psalms 1:3 (He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.)  Remember this Thumb print tree can be printed for free or you can pay to have it personalized.

I was able to get all the kids to do thumb prints and write their names and then I picked up a nice frame at Micheal's.  Caden's teacher was so sweet she gave me a hug with tears in her eyes and told me how much she would miss having me part of the class.

Sorry not the best picture.

My Camera ate the photo of the framed finished project.

Caden also wanted to do a little something special, I found this great FREE Fill-in Teacher Thank you letter on Lil Blue Boo.  I asked him the questions, he asked me to spell the words and he wrote it all by himself.  His answers are so sweet!

These are all so cute and so easy to do!  And really makes such a heartwarming gift.

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

End of School Year Gift ... Orange You Glad it's Summer (Teacher Appreciation Gift)

Sorry gang it is going to be a quick post tonight.  My digital camera decided to corrupt all my pictures and I was the dummy that hasn't downloaded or saved them to a CD.  So I've spent almost 4 hours recovering and trying then turn mpo files that my camera changed to back to the original jpeg file!  I'm exhausted and I still have to set up my new laptop.

I made this gift for Cole's teacher, I wanted something that was on the manly side and thought this was a fun idea.  A basket of all orange items, I wish I could find a orange basket but I couldn't find one.

What you need:

Orange Pop

Orange Cup

Orange Gum

Several Orange Candies

Orange basket (I had to use white)

Card Stock / Printer

Ribbon 

Tissue Paper

Add all items to basket, I added a little tissue paper in the bottom to help keep everything stable.  I found this super cute orange tag that I added a whole and tied with a ribbon.   Go over to Coley's Corner for this super cute FREE printable.

Easy gift to do and you can find everything at the dollar store!

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

End of School Year Gifts ... Plus Helps with Dead Brain for Summer Time

I wanted to do something special for Caden graduating Kindergarten and I found on pinterest and idea of a basket full of things to prep them for First Grade (forgive me for the life of me I can't find my link I saved, so if it is your's PLEASE let me know and I'll add).  Well I couldn't do one just for Caden I have have one for Cole to so I made a end of 3rd grade basket also.  This was a very simple one to make but the boys were so excited to dive into it. My plan is each day they are to do one or two pages out of the workbooks to keep us from hitting the dreaded Summer Dead Brain as my mom use to call it.

For these I hit up the dollar store, yup it really is packed with activity books and you can load up and make a great gift with out going bankrupt.  I did also add some fun Memory books for the kids to fill out so I can put them in their scrapbooks (yup when I get around to making those).

Caden's Basket!

Cole's Basket

What you Need:

Activity Books (Reading, Math etc)

Flashcards

Puzzles

Reading Books

Coloring Books

Colored Pencils / Crayons / Pencils

Bins

I had some extra bins from a project I did a while back (I'll show that one soon).  I fanned out the material so the kids could get a glimpse of everything in the bin.  Cole will be entering 4th Grade so I found material for 3/4 grade and he LOVES mechanical pencils so I bought him a whole pack (I think he was the MOST excited for those).  Caden will be entering 1st Grade so I found material for 1/2 grade and he LOVES color pencils so I bought those for him.  He is my reading bug like me so I put in an extra book for him.  If I had more time I would add a little ribbon and a tag but I they loved it!

Kindergarten Graduation Gift Basket

3rd Grade Gift Basket

I wanted to do a little some fun for the kids to fill out and I'll put in their scrapbook (ummm humm ... reminder to self get those done).  I went to my favorite site that I used when I was doing newsletters for the PTF, Teachers Pay Teachers Website.  I found these super cute books that I printed off on my home printer and stapled together for little books.  The ones I picked were FREE downloads but you can always use the pay for one's also and they are really reasonable.  The 3rd Grade Memory book I found HERE.  The Kindergarten Memory book I found HERE.

Easy gift to do and makes summer learning fun!

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Pasta Palooza ... Taco Macaroni and Cheese

As most of you know the boys love anything with noodles!  And then you add their love of anything Mexican food then we have a winner.  So then when I came across this Taco Macaroni and Cheese on Cassie Craves, I just had to give it a shot.  This was a hit with Rick and the boys, it sure did smell good (only smells for this girl until I'm done with this diet).

Ingredients:

1 pound macaroni or shell pasta
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 serving of taco seasoning (or 1 packet of store-bought seasoning mix)
1 cup salsa
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into chunks
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

2. Meanwhile, brown ground beef and sweat the onion together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the beef is completely cooked through, drain off excess fat, return to skillet, and add garlic. Cook and stir 30 seconds. Add taco seasoning and salsa and stir to combine; reduce heat to low.

3. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add cream cheese, milk, and sour cream and stir to combine. Cook until cream cheese is melted and mixture is thick and bubbling. Stir in shredded cheese.

4. Add cheese sauce and ground beef mixture to pasta and stir to combine. Top each serving with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

A super easy recipe and I had everything on hand!

Hope you give it a try!

What's on your menu tonight?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.