What's for dinner? (week of 5-23-10)

Sunday - Angel Hair Pasta w/ Roasted Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans
Monday - Broccoli & Bacon Strata
Tuesday - Crockpot: Indonesian Chicken over Rice (didn't make it last week)
Wednesday - Italian Sausage Calzones w/ my homemade pizza dough
Thursday - Tacos @ my parents house for a family dinner
Friday - San Diego: Possible dinner on the Beach!
Saturday - Sea World!

We are taking Garrett to San Diego & Sea World for his birthday for Memorial weekend (post to come)!

*I have linked this meal plan to I'm an Organizing Junkie for her Meal Plan Monday, check it out!

Imagination Avenue

Last week I took Garrett to my parents house to spend some time with them and to stay over night. I decided while I was there I would cross something off my Summer Challenge list and take him to Imagination Avenue. I had never heard of this place until I saw it on another blog. I was wishing I had known about it sooner.

Garrett had such a great time playing in all the different little rooms. I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought I would be, however. It was a little small, and each individual room would only allow for 2-3 children. But, Garrett could have stayed all day & that's what counts. It gave us something to do together and he was so happy he didn't want to leave even after 2 hours of fun.

He "baked" me some sweets and sat down to "eat" them with me.

He loved telling me the shape of each cookie cutter.

He had so much fun in the "grocery store" taking out every item and placing them into the cart. He told me what each fruit and vegetable was. He's so smart he actually knew 90% of them!

He was making me a hot dog & hamburger w/ "dip" (ketchup).

He was talking into the walkie-talkie to his "gramma". He must have thought it was a telephone.

All in all it was a great time. The next time we go I would love to do a playdate, because the children keep themselves busy and the adults basically just sit around watching. Would be a great chance for the mommies to actually talk!

What's for dinner? (week of 5-16-10)

Sunday - On the Grill: Cheeseburgers & Corn on the Cobb
Monday - Chicken & Penne w/ Pumpkin Cream Sauce
Tuesday - *Crock-pot: Indonesian Chicken w/ Peanut Sauce over Rice
Wednesday - Lasagna Roll-Ups w/ Spicy Marinara Sauce & Broccoli on the side
Thursday - Leftovers ( I have an evening meeting)
Friday - Daddy/Son night (I have a girl's night out)
Saturday - Bar-B-Que at a friends house!

*My goal for the summer is to use the crock-pot once a week and to try and grill more. This will help eliminate additional heat in the AZ summer.

I have linked this meal plan to I'm an Organizing Junkie for her Menu Plan Monday, check it out!

Summer Challenge

I have given myself/family a summer challenge. Since it is so hot in AZ it's hard to be outside, and I hate being stuck indoors with nothing to do, so I have found a few places that I want to go with Garrett that I think will be fun for Eric and I too. Or for playdates w/ some of Garrett's friends. Yes, now that he is 2, he has actual friends :)

The challenge is to go to 2-4 different places each month for 4 months; May-August.

Here is my list & feel free to leave a comment and give me some suggestions of other places for us to go. I still need 2-4 more places.

McCormick Stillman Railroad Park (done)
Imagination Avenue (done & pics to come)
Sea World
The Beach
AZ Science Center
Children's Museum for the Free 1st Friday
Challenger Space Center
Hall of Flame Firefighting Museum
Indoor Mini-Golf

Cock-a-doodle doo, Garrett is two!

Garrett loves animals, especially horses. Everything needs to be a horsey. I decided to throw him a "Barnyard Bash" with all the fun barn animals and especially horses. We were so blessed to have 30 of our family and friends to help celebrate Garrett's birthday. It was the best party I have ever thrown. It was very fun, relaxed and stress free. My sweet mother came over the day before to help me prep all the food for the party. She was such a tremendous help, I got almost all of the food prepped & that evening Eric and I cleaned, then decorated. The morning of, all I had to do was plate everything and make the drinks.

The party started at 10am, so I opted to do 3 rounds of food instead of having it all at the same time, which really was a great idea & cut down on the stress of needing everything ready at the same time. I had a veggie tray, fruit tray & chips n' dip for the apps. Pigs n' a blanket, Bar-B-Que beef sandwhiches, turkey tortilla roll-ups and peanut butter and jelly roll-ups were the main course with sides of cowboy beans and pasta salad.

I put bandannas on the pitchers to "cowboy" them up!

I was really happy with all of the decorations I found. These party hats are adorable. The favor bags consisted of a little 10-page coloring book that matched the bag, a barn animal, a whistle, cowboy type stickers, and a fun dip :)

This was the centerpiece for the table so the kids could play with it.

We had 3 activities for the kids to do, this bean bag toss game pictured above. Balloons w/ animal face stickers (pig, cow & chicken) for the kids to blow up and decorate. The balloons were a HUGE hit, I forgot to take a picture but the kids decorated and played w/ them for at least 20 minutes. The third activity was planting seeds like a farmer. We got little clay pots, soil & flower seeds for them to plant and take home. They really enjoyed this and it was a nice touch that went along with the theme.

Here's Garrett eating lunch with his cousins, Lemon & Sparrowe. He was so happy, this was probably the best day of his life :)

Here's my best-friend's girls, Reagan & Mati playing in the tunnels. Unfortunately this is one of the only pictures I got of the backyard ambiance. It looked so good & the kids were super excited about it. We has hay bales out for them to play on, a picnic blanket, a slide, a child sized 4-wheeler, tunnels, etc.

So here is the main event, the cake! I was so pleased with the way it all came out, not to mention it tasted delicious. The red barn cake was chocolate & the animal cupcakes were white cake, both with cream cheese frosting. I had 8 cupcakes of each animal, pigs, sheep & chicks. I used mini-marshmallows for the sheep and I food colored coconut for the chicks. I am so glad I made it myself, I almost bought one at the store because I was afraid I would mess it up.

Garrett loved everyone singing to him, he's such a ham! One of the kids blew out the candles for him, so I had to relight them quickly so he could do it himself, we have been practicing.

We got Garrett his first tricycle. It is Mickey Mouse and it plays music sings songs, lights up, just perfect for Garrett.

Yee Haw! My parents got him this horse. Oh my goodness was he thrilled. He bounced forever.

But, his favorite gift of the day was this skateboard & helmet. He has been asking me for a skateboard since he was 18 mo. & a helmet since about 21 mo. He played with it all afternoon, we couldn't get him to go outside with us, and he went to bed an hour late.

We had such a fabulous day w/ all the people who love us and our son. It was a great day & I feel truly blessed.