Annabelle's Princess Painting Birthday Party

 Today, I share with you our daughters princess/painting birthday party, what a blast it was. Well, to explain the obvious here, our Annabelle loves princess' and painting (ANY painting or crafts) so we combined the two and had a great party.

Here is a look thru photos of the decorations, cake and painting fun. (for privacy of the other kiddos and their families photos don't show them all)

Yes, I dressed up like Ariel, she loved it so it was worth it!

We had everything laid out and ready, aprons, brushes and palette, and everything (including floor under tables) covered with brown paper and pink duct tape... ummm, yes we anticipated messes with 18 toddlers and young children painting!

Loved this idea... Chalkboard (wood we painted with spray chalk board paint) and her age and fun questions/answers!

 

Now to show you the cake... And how it came to be, be sure to scroll down and see the finished product. It is simple and fun, Annabelle loved it and that is what matters!

 

 

 

 

Party favors were candy, princess sticker and command strips to hang their art work at home without messing up mommy and daddy's walls. The mini paint cans were an adorable touch. They can be found at... Oriental Trading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a wonderful little play ground at the party location, of course that was a hit with the kids too!

Happy Birthday our Princess!

 **photos labeled were taken by my husbands cousin, Abby, with Charming Rose Photography. She did a wonderful job and we thank her so much!
**** Oriental Trading, if you haven't used them in the past, they have an awesome selection of party supplies, plates, decor, party favors etc. Visit them at Oriental Trading Home Page

Breakfast Time! Waffles.

Lately I've made allot of pancakes, they are easy to freeze and the kids love them, especially with the addition of cinnamon/sugar in the batter and sprinkled on during cooking, YUMM! and no syrup needed with that so its an easy no mess one for my toddlers. That being said, I wanted to make some waffles, my mother in law made them some at a sleepover they had at her house recently and they enjoyed it so I thought I would try some too. After a great hit, thought I would share.

Waffles:
2C Self Rising Flour
1/3C Sugar
1tbsp. Vanilla
1tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 1/4C milk
1/4C Butter, melted

Melt butter and set aside to cool slightly (to avoid cooking the eggs when adding to batter) Add flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, egg yolks and milk together in a separate bowl and mix well until no lumps. Add butter in to the batter, mix well. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until meringue texture forms, fold in to the batter right before cooking. Now time to cook them... ENJOY!

Whats for Dinner? Chicken Casserole!

So I haven't posted a recipe in a while, just haven't taken the time to do it. However, making this today I was thinking allot of my grandma and her making Chicken casserole so I thought I would share.

What you need: **for a 9x13 pan
NOTE: I will list spices but I don't measure them in this so do what looks right.

2.5lb chicken (leg quarters on bone)
1/2c olive oil
chili powder
garlic powder
salt
1 can sweet peas
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
1 can of chicken broth (or a can of water and 1 bullion cube)
1 bag egg noodles
1 egg
1c bread crumbs (or saltines crushed)
3/4c shredded cheddar cheese

Lets start with the chicken, one thing I always remember about Grandmas chicken casserole is the chicken itself tasted so good, and it made the casserole even better. preheat oven to 250. Mix in a bowl olive oil, chili powder, garlic, salt and rub all over the chicken. Brown chicken on both sides in a pan (about 3-4 minutes each side) then place in baking dish in preheated oven for 1 hour. Raise oven heat to 425 with chicken still in it, bake for 15 minutes, flip chicken and bake another 10 minutes. Remove chicken and let it cool while you boil noodles in salty water. Mix in a pot cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, chicken broth and simmer 5 minutes on medium. Pull chicken off the bone. Mix chicken, cooked noodles, cream of/broth mixture, peas in 9x13 baking dish. Scramble egg in a bowl and mix into baking dish as well. Mix in a Small bowl bread crumbs and cheese and top the casserole. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. ENJOY!

And yes... you just need good home made biscuits with chicken casserole!

Packing up Christmas. Quick Tip.

Christmas has come and gone yet again. At this time of year I find myself hopeful for a new year but a little sad as Christmas is my favorite time of year. As I write this, I would like to say I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year and pray ya'll have a wonderful 2014!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This year while packing up I tried something new, something that I would LOVE to take credit for, but, can't quite do that. Found it on Pinterest, DUH! Every good idea comes from there lately huh? However, I have seen it several times from different pinners and not sure the original. This is one of those, "Um, why didn't I think of that?" ideas. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           ARE YOU READY FOR IT????                                      ...                                         So, here it is...                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                            
                                          Using just a few cheap items you can make packing up Christmas ornaments so much easier, and, surprisingly a fun game for the kiddos too.                                                                       
What you need:
--Cardboard sheets cut to fit inside your storage totes (cake boards from the Wilton section at wal mart are cheap and were the perfect size for me...I had some on hand so used them instead of cutting boxes up)
--Plastic punch cups
--Regular plastic solo cups
--Hot glue gun and a good bit of glue sticks
Glue around the bottom of the cups and place on the boards until its full. The ornaments fit quite well into the cups and you can stack them because the cups provide a barrier.
Of course some will not fit perfectly but most ornaments will go pretty easily into the cups. 

The kids putting ornaments away with me!

Another quick tip: Place each strand of lights in a large zip lock to avoid DE-tangling the strands next year.
 

Zaccheaus Sunday school lesson and craft!

Lately, my daughters favorite song is "Zaccheaus was a wee little man..." With that, it's been on my mind allot (of course) so it's ended up being a Sunday school lesson recently which turned out quite well. 

For the lesson: Luke 19:1-10 kjv

Zaccheaus was a small stature man so he couldn't see the Lord. Like with kids, sometimes views are blocked. The goal is, don't let anything stop you from seeing the Lord, tho it may be easy to say I can't or I'm not ... Enough, we are to (like Zachaeus did) move ahead and do what we need to do for the Lord. 

Zaccheaus climbed up in a sycamore tree to be able to see. He was NOT a popular man, as a tax collector and a crooked one at that, people didn't like him. However, the Lord past that way and looked up in the tree an told zaccheaus to quickly come down. Jesus was going to go to his house. 

All the people were bothered and talked about Zachaeus was a sinner. Now, zaccheaus was saved tho and said he was going to return what he took from people unmerited, and return it fourfold. Below you can see the craft we did, cut outs, glue and writing captions next to the scenes it shows a brief storyline of the zaccheaus story. Enjoy and God bless.