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.

Garrett's Growing Up!

Garrett will be 2 years old next week. Wow, time sure does fly. I am amazed everyday by how much he has grown in these past 2 years. He really is no longer a baby. He is talking all the time, it cracks me up. I enjoy listening to him, he so funny. It amazes me how much information he retains and then spits out at a later time. It's like this whole past year he has been storing everything I've been teaching him up, and now he is using it in everyday life. I'm surprised everyday by something he does or says. For example, yesterday he bumped into me and he said, "excuse me." Really??? I didn't even know he knew that!
Here are a few things about him that I wanted to share :)


He is obsessed with skateboards, he wants one sooo bad. He finds anything he can inside or outside of the house and pretends it is a skateboard. It is very cute and very annoying. He loves them so much, we had to get him one for his birthday.

He does the cutest things. He picked up my cell phone yesterday and pretended to call Eric. He said, "Hello Dada. Horsey, goat, yes. Bye, bye!" What??? Too funny! I always know what's on his mind, horses (most animals really, or skateboards).


He is extremely smart. He can count to 19, he know most shapes, most of the alphabet and all the colors. I think his favorite color is black, he always picks out his black shoes to wear and when I ask him what color he wants to wear he says black.

He has recently decided that he needs friends to sleep w/ him. So at nap time & night time he picks 1 stuffed animal to go to bed with him, it's usually the same 3 he trades off with. When he wakes up he is so happy to see his friend I can hear him in there talking to them :)

That's enough about Garrett for today, next week I'll post all about his amazing Barnyard Bash!

Finding Courage

I have begun to realize that if I want to do something, I can't count on others to do them with me, or to ask me to do something with them, so I am now just doing it on my own. Being the co-dependant that I am I don't often enjoy doing things on my own, so I have really been branching out.

The first thing on my list to try on my own was MOPS (mother's of preschoolers), 2 years ago and that has worked out wonderfully and I have made some great friends.
And that was basically it for the past 2 years, short of going to the store and getting my eyebrows waxed, I haven't done anything on my own.

So a few months ago, for the umpteenth time, I was again upset because a friend did something I wanted to do w/out me. So I prayed about it and decided to find the courage to do things on my own. I have made a list of interests etc. and have started to tackle it.

Now, every Tuesday morning I take Garrett to the local library for their toddler story/song time and then to the park after to play. It has been such a rewarding experience for me to see his growth from these story times. He now sings along with the songs and knows the hand movements. He now sits quietly and listens to the story being read. In contrast to the the first few times when he would just sort of run around the room etc.

Last week I took my very first cooking class. Cooking and baking have always been a passion of mine. Something I have enjoyed doing as long as I can remember. After I was married I even toyed w/ the idea of going to Culinary School, but Eric and I thought it would be wasting money since I would just being staying home once we had a child. So, when I read an article about local cooking schools last February I jumped at the chance to take a class. Again, I asked a couple people to take it with me and of course they said no. At first I was upset thinking, once again I won't be able to do something I really want to do because no one will go with me, then it hit me GO ALONE! So, I called and registered. When Eric came home that evening and found out he was shocked and sad for me to have to go alone, but also impressed that I decided to do it. It was such a great experience, that I have decided to try to take one class every month, schedule permitting.

By being fearful of doing things on my own I have really been missing out on wonderful new experiences and meeting new people through them. God is stretching me and I like it!
It does make me sad however to not have a friend to enjoy these things with, but God is always teaching me something new, so here's to losing my co-dependence and gaining some independence. Courage through Christ!

Wildlife World Zoo

A couple weeks ago Eric and I took Garrett to the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium. I had already taken Garrett there w/ a friend a month prior & I could tell he remembered being there. It was such a great family day. We went right when they opened, so all the animals were out and about. We got to see a lot of them eat their breakfast. The boys watched an alligator get fed dead rats, obviously I did not watch that :) but Eric LOVED it.

Now that Garrett is talking, it is so fun to hear him say all the animals names, run over to them and get really excited. Next to horses, giraffes are his favorite animal. Garrett was ecstatic when he got to feed the giraffe, it was priceless.
Then we walked over to the kid area, there is a large play structure and a small petting zoo. Eric took Garrett in and he walked right over and talked to the baby goat & deer. The deer must have been teething or something because he kept biting every one's shirts, even the babies! Next to the petting zoo, there was an area where you could "pet" the tortoises. I loved this area :) One walked right over my foot!
Lastly, we went to the Aquarium. They have 2 areas where you can touch the sea life. Garrett touched the star fish & sea urchins. Eric got to touch some sort of shark. Of course, I touched nothing, being the big scardy cat that I am :) Oh, and Garrett refused to take his sunglasses off inside the Aquarium! He is a stubborn boy!
It was a fantastic days w/ my boys creating fun memories.

Mushrooms

Are you tired of your mushrooms turning brown before you can use them? I have a great tip.
As soon as you bring them home from the store, take them out of the package and put them in a brown paper bag, roll it up tight and put it in the fridge. They will last a little longer.
Also, you shouldn't wash your mushrooms, you should just wipe them clean w/ a paper towel or a kitchen towel.

Silpat

Anyone use, have, or heard of the Silpat mat?
I LOVE this thing. I got it for Christmas from my sweet husband & it is now one of my favorite kitchen items! It is a non-stick mat to use when baking. Baking anything from cookies to fish sticks. And when I say non-stick, seriously it is non-stick. The very best product out there & so much better than having to cut parchment paper to size.
Also, when baking anything greasy, all the grease drips right off and doesn't accumulate on the food for you to blot off ~ Fantastic!

If you don't have one, take your BB&B coupon and go pick one up, NOW! :)