Kole’s Tangled Party!

Kole turned 5 on Saturday! I still can’t believe she’s that old! The kids had so much fun and my mom and I had fun planning it all. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that the kids love Tangled. So for Kole’s party, Tangled was the only way to go!

Rapunzel paint as favors and Pascal party blowers! Almost all of our great ideas came from this site.

Kole was in awe of the tower! I was so happy that she liked it, cause it was a pain in the rear to put together! When reading the directions, it seemed simple enough. I took a wrong turn when I decided to do a cake base instead of a styrofoam base like Bakerella said to do…pssh, what does she know anyway? ;) so even though I hot-glued the dowel rod to the cake board, it was still too much weight and it ended up leaning and eventually falling over. We used fishing line to try to salvage it enough for pictures! I guess this is where the ghetto Rapunzel would live!!!

An up close of the jello boats we made. Such a cute idea for any party!

Tangled gifts!  =)

Presley couldn’t figure out how to do it, so she just held it for her Daddy to blow it for her!

The playhouse got a Tangled makeover too! My Dad & Kameron did this with no directions and I have to say that I was impressed! Most of the time if you give men some streamers and balloons and tell them to just decorate it however, it doesn’t turn out this great!!!

No Tangled party would be complete without painting! Even Presley got in on the action, but would only hold the brush for a second, then say “yuck, my hand id stiddy” (sticky) and promptly command me to paint what she wanted to paint. That girl’s a mess!!

The result of the above painting! It kinda stained their skin! Oops!! Presley found the cure though, when she soaked her hands in the watery soap basin for like 15 min. No, she’s not a small genius. She was just having fun playing in it! Her feet though were a different story.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the front door that day. There was a long Rapunzel-like braid hanging on it. Oh well, my mom said she’d re-do the door and get a picture!

Thanks Mama for always allowing me to help with the kids’ parties! I have such a great time doing it! :)

fish fry and weekend fun

Johnny & Vicky (Jeremiah's dad and bonus mom) came for a visit this weekend. We've enjoyed them being here SO much! Here is a recap of the fun things we've done since they've been here and some pictures for good measure!

Friday, Jeremiah had to go in to work for a few hours in the afternoon so we mostly just hung around here. When I put Presley down for a nap, I went to Target by MYSELF! It was awesome! =] random, but I am loving the Calypso St. Barth line there! It just screams summer in the Caribbean and makes me miss St. Lucia! Anyway, back to the point, that night I made PW's meatballs again. Obviously they're something else I am loving! ;) We finally watched The A-Team, it was better and funnier than I thought it was going to be.

Saturday we went to my Mom's for a fish fry. Yum! Catfish straight out of the lake behind Johnny & Vicky's house! It was delicious. When Presley had watermelon that night, I said she looked like a little vampire because of all of the red on her mouth and clothes! Jaden said she looked like she "has a problem with lipstick!" Ha ha! He is so funny! Jeremiah & Johnny also dropped the TV cords behind the wall! Oh my gosh, it looks so awesome!

Sunday we took it easy again (poor Johnny pulled a muscle in his back and has been in some pretty bad pain) and played around here. We had fun with sidewalk chalk. And when Presley went down for a nap, Vicky & I got our shop on at TJ Maxx, Target and Dollar Tree! :) Papa John's was for dinner and watching The Dilemma was for dessert! I liked it but I expected it to be much funnier. I love Vince Vaughn in pretty much any movie though!

Today again we've done nothing! It's been nice! Tonight we are going out to dinner and then calling it an early night. They are going back home tomorrow morning. :( And then it's back to work for all of us. Ughh, I wish it could've lasted longer!

Miscellany Monday

How's this for random: seafood, haircut, drinking out of a big girl cup and a change purse!

We went to Flounder's to eat tonight and it was delicious! I got the shrimp boat platter and it was HUGE! It could have probably fed everyone on a boat! I was crazy full when we left.

My sweet little watermelon at dinner! Have no fear, a few seconds after this picture, she was climbing all over us!

Jaden's new haircut! We all think it's adorable, but he doesn't like it! :( Poor thing! His hair has always grown fast, so it will be crazy curly again before we know it.

Presley is such big girl! I feel like I blink and she's doing something new, something more grown up. She can officially drink out of a big girl cup! Granted I wouldn't give her milk or juice in one yet, but water after brushing teeth works for now!

& lastly isn't this precious? Karri got it for me because we all know how obsessed I am with birds and owls! I love it! It fits my phone, debit card and keys....all that I need! :)

Valentine's Day 2011

Hope y'all had a great day today full of lots of love and good food, and maybe even a little chocolate! :) We had a pretty good day. Poor Jeremiah has been sick with a cold and Presley is still snotty and GROUCHY! I wish we could all stay well for a few days around here...anyways that's a whole other post! I'm not super big into Valentine's Day. We always do super low-key stuff, like simple dinners & cards and oreos for gifts! :)

And this year was no different. We had dinner after Presley went to bed. I made Pioneer Woman's comfort meatballs and oh my gosh, there are simply no words to describe them. These have got to be on the menu in Heaven! ;)

& I made cupcakes, of course! They were pretty yummy and kid-approved!

Presley was saying (& signing) more, more, more! I think she liked them! :)

Presley made out with some pretty awesome gifts from family- stuffed animals, candy, a bear sippy cup and bowl. We gave her a monkey hooded towel which kind-of freaks me out because it has hands and feet sewn onto it. But the face is really cute! She also got a sucker, but we didn't break it out yet, maybe tomorrow she can chow down on that....outside!

The monkey towel also has a tail, which I think is pretty cute! Who knows how it will hold up in the wash though. It might have to get cut off if it ends up too raggedy! Ha!

I'm no Pioneer Woman,

but I can follow her directions! Ha ha! MAN her cinnamon rolls are delish! I, no, WE made them yesterday. I say we because I drove my husband batty with "but they don't really look like hers do" and he so lovingly rolled them out with me! :) So I'm giving him some credit! Everything is from scratch so they took forever to make. Seriously, like hours. But I think they were worth it. The recipe made 48 rolls, so we gave away a lot, ate a lot and still have some in the freezer! In true Pioneer Woman fashion, I took photos of the process. ;) Well, not all of it, because my hands got kinda messy!

raw dough, then below sprinkled with the good stuff

all rolled in a pan...the second batch came out MUCH prettier!

YUM! the finished product!

The icing is very maple-y, coffee tasting. It's good, but I will probably try some other icing recipe next time just for something different. Oh, and her orange rolls look insanely tasty. You better believe I'll be trying that recipe soon!

my Birthday day!

Well, I am officially closer to 30 than I am 20. I don't really feel any older, but the "smile lines", we'll call them, on my face say something different! Ha ha! I had an absolute blast of a day. It started when my sweet friend Karri brought me donuts from Milton Bakery. Mmmmmm! If you haven't ever had them, you are missing out my friends! After our delicious breakfast, Presley and I went to my Mom's house for the day! Then we went to dinner at La Hacienda....one of the BEST restaurants in town. I didn't want an expensive cake so I just decided to make a homemade funfetti cake. I totally didn't mind because I love baking and eating the batter is the best part! But my Mom surprised me with Oh Snap cupcakes! YUM! So I have a whole cake sitting on my counter now begging to be eaten! ;)

I gave myself a present this year...I took a vacation day for tonight. So all I have to work is tomorrow and Thursday night. Hey, a 2 day work week ain't bad! I also got some of the most awesome presents....Twilight, Eclipse, & SATC 2 on blu-ray! An itunes gift card! My lens! and of course my camera!!!! Thank you all so much for the gifts, thoughtfulness, and wonderful company on my birthday! I feel very loved and blessed!

My cupcake has a Christmas tree on top! I always hated that my birthday was so close to Christmas growing up. It's been just recently that I have embraced it and actually come to love it. Oddly enough it was when I was decorating the tree this year that I realized how lucky I am to have my birthday so close to Jesus's! =)

Turkey day 2010!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a day full of good food and family surrounding them. I am so very thankful for the wonderful husband and daughter that I do NOT deserve. & my family and friends that make life so worthwhile! I am also incredibly thankful that God provides me with everything I need and more times than not, more than I could ever want for. He is SO faithful! =)

We had an amazing day full of fabulous food, fried turkey, and (almost) all of our family. My dad is at work but my brother Jonathan got to be with us! =) My grandparents came down to visit as well.

I laughed at his apron because he wasn't grilling! Maybe he needs one that says "King of the deep fryer"! Ha ha!

mmmmmm! My mouth is salivating again just looking at this picture!

The buffet...complete with a handprint turkey from Kole!

Pies! =)

Little Miss Cuteness!

This would have been a better pic if I had a tripod. Oh well!

Anticipate Christmas posts to start soon! :) I don't shop for black Friday unless there is something extremely worth getting out of bed for! & this year there wasn't! So we are going to get our tree tomorrow. I think we'll have to crank the air down and drink some hot cocoa to get in the Christmas spirit!

The 3 day birthday extravaganza!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband & father around!
We love you!

So today is technically Jeremiah's birthday. But we do it BIG here in the P household and celebrate for 3 days! Ha ha, not really it's just the way things worked out! I took him out Saturday night to dinner while our friend Karri kept Presley. That was a present in itself because we hardly ever go anywhere by ourselves anymore! It was nice! We had to do it that night because the restaurant was closed Sunday night. (Most places are closed on Sundays here in Mayberry where we live! Ha ha!) On Sunday we went to my parents' and ate lunch and cut his cake. He's already gotten some gifts but not all of them, so I won't talk about them on here. I know he peruses the blog sometimes! We had to celebrate his birthday early because I work tonight and will only get to see him for about 15 minutes. :( It's ok though, we had a great time & we'll get a 4 day weekend this weekend to spend together. :) Yay!

Oh and I think I've mentioned this cake before.....white chocolate cream cheese with strawberry filing! Seriously to die for! Don't you love how Jeremiah turned 6? Ha ha! They were the only candles we had, so it had to do for turning 33!

lazy weekend

Whew! This weekend flew by! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I only had 3 days off and I'm used to 4. But Saturday was glorious! We woke up with absolutely no plans in mind. The last time that happened was about 17 months ago! Ha! Jeremiah got up with Presley and he let me sleep in. He offers quite a bit to do this, but I feel so guilty because he always hurts so bad in the morning (he has rheumatoid arthritis) and has to wrestle with Presley 3 mornings out of the week anyway. But I decided to take him up on the offer and I think I finally got out of bed around 10.30! Again haven't done that but about twice in 17 months! We just bummed around, watched TV, & napped when Presley did. Glorious! We did go to my parents house and brought dinner over to them. We grilled hamburgers and I made the seriously awesome dip below.

It was so delish! It's just regular rotel dip with a spin. You add crumbled sausage and 1/2 a package of taco seasoning to a huge thing of velveeta and about 1 1/2 cans of rotel. Seriously awesome! =)

Today at church we had a "service on the lawn" to commemorate 27 years of saving lives! Kind of like a homecoming for you Baptist folks! They grilled hamburgers and hot dogs outside and had like 6 or 7 big bouncy things for the kids to play on. I was looking forward to seeing Jaden & Kole playing on them, but Presley had had enough after lunch. She was so hot and tired....so we just packed up and headed home. Where we all promptly napped again! (maybe that's why the weekend flew by! ha ha!) Of course no weekend would be complete without a trip to Walmart to get groceries. So that's what we did tonight. Not too terribly exciting but a pretty good weekend!

Here is a picture of Presley from last night. She was so cute in her glittery star shirt! But, I couldn't get a smile for anything!

the T-REX experience

Here are the pictures from last Thursday night when we went to Downtown Disney and ate at T-Rex. It was awesome! The food, the atmosphere, the decor......it really was an experience! I highly recommend it! There are different themed rooms within the restaurant. We ate in the "geo-tech" room that had the T-Rex in it, as shown below! There was also a "fern forest " that looked absolutely magical! All of the animals were animated and moved everything including their eyes...they looked so life-like! Every 20 minutes there was a meteor shower in which the lights dimmed, stars shot across the ceiling, and the dinosaurs went crazy! Kole & Presley got scared each time!

There was also an "ice cave" room equipped with a huge fossil embedded in the wall. The blue area in this pictures is the actual (well, not really....it's plastic, but still) ice.

This was the "coral reef" bar area which was decorated with all kind of sea life. It's hard to see but there was a huge aquarium in the middle. The GIANT octopus was so cool!

My dad & Jaden

a pretty good picture minus the sippy cup in front!

My mom & Kameron

Jeremiah's Mahi Mahi Tacos. I thought it was pretty cute how they twisted
the foil up to look like actual fish!

& no meal of mine would be complete without dessert! This is the Chocolate Extinction and it's TO DIE FOR! It fed all of us! It was the most delicious chocolate cake layered with caramel and butterfinger topping and of course ice cream. =) Yum! The dry ice in the middle was a nice touch too!

Is your mouth watering yet? Orlando's not that far away to drive for dinner! ;)