Lovebug's 1st Birthday {Part III- Our Sweet Girl}

We were so very blessed to have 55 people come to celebrate our Sweet Girl! We couldn't imagine our lives without her and she's brought so much joy into our little family! Happy Birthday Sweet Girl.

 

Insta-Friday!

It's FRIDAY! I feel like with a little one running around, I get excited for the week's end... Bri can spend time with us on Saturday and Friday night we have dinner with my family, and it just feels nice and slow and relaxing. So here's what we've been up to this week...

I worked on making a very large pile of ruffled goodness for my baby sister's

classroom... corregated border? No thank you! I'll post some pictures when her room's all done!

Spray painted an old wire basket for some MUCH needed toy storage...

I'm drooling over THESE, but not at that price tag!

Baby girl LOVED the racecar cart at Home Depot... makes my life easier

since I'm pretty sure we'll be there a LOT as we get all the house projects done!

Date night with my hubby... seriously one of the best meals

of my life... seriously.

Finishing the day with Cinnamon Roll cake and a jar of milk...

perfection.

Tired Mama = easy peasy and super yummy french bread pizza.

I'll write up a post about this soon!

Spontaneous Sunday afternoon date with my Love... wonderful.

Building industrial shelves at girl's night... so FUN! Stay tuned for

how these turn out!

Grilling out on a rare cool evening! It's been so hot here in

Missouri this summer!

Our new bed arrived... and baby girl has decided it's pretty comfy!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Lovebug's 1st Birthday Party {Part II- The Food}

Every good party must have good food right? Well this Mama LOVES breakfast food, and I knew that doing brunch would be easy to do too!

 I talked about the cake in {Part I.} Sweet Lovebug is the only one who enjoyed that delicious butter-cream delight... well, Bri and I might have helped her out later that night.

 I had seen berry and donut kabobs on Pinterest, and knew that they were definitely going to be a part of the party. We {my awesome parents} bought all the strawberries and blueberries at Costco and the donuts came from Lamars... the best donuts in the world, 5min down the road here in Greenwood.

Since I have a crazy sweet tooth, and the best bought cinnamon rolls you can buy are also a short drive away at Neighbor's Cafe, I sent my dear Gramma to get a few dozen for the party, since she's there every morning anyway.



I searched and searched for the best breakfast casserole and THIS was the winner. It was definitely a crowd pleaser since we made 4 casseroles and there was NONE left when we went to clean up!

We couldn't forget the littles at the party, so I set out Lovebug's cereal jars along with cups... although most of the littles were too busy eating off their parents plates full of sugar! Smart kiddos.

The drink bar was filled with mason jars wrapped in turquoise baker's twine with happy pink and yellow striped straws... more on that in {Part I.} My mason jar drink canister was bought at Target for $25! It's filled with Pioneer Woman's Iced Coffee... YUM! That recipe is HERE. I put out a jar of sweetened condensed milk and cream for the coffee... delicious! We also served Milk & Juice for the littles, and non-coffee drinkers. It was obviously a success as well, since there wasn't a drop left and I made TWO GALLONS!

All the paper plates and napkins were bought at a local party store, and Target. I ordered the straws, twine, and striped Happy Birthday sporks at Shop Sweet Lulu!



In {Part III} I'll share the photos of the party and our sweet girl!







P.S. I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar!

A Great Summer Salad Recipe...

I'm always looking for a light, healthier recipe this time of year. It's been a refreshingly cooler 90-something for the last few days and goodness gracious, this girl is ready for Fall! Until then, we'll be eating lots of burgers with fresh fruit and potato salad, and lots of recipes like this one...

Here's what you need:

(ignore the green peppers- I've since realized that they are pointlesss... use jalapenos!)

Southwestern Chicken Chop Salad                                 Lauren's Latest {modified by me}

Salad:
2 cups cooked chicken (cut up into small chunks)
2 or 3 large jalapenos (seeded and diced)
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can sweet yellow corn (drained)
2 roma tomatoes (seeded and diced)
2 large romaine hearts (chopped)
1/2 bunch cilantro (finely chopped)
2 just under ripe avocados (diced)
2 cups crushed tortilla chips
Dressing:
1 cup organic sour cream (it has a much better consistency!)
1/2 tablespoon spicy ranch seasoning
1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning
Splash of milk

First you'll get your chicken tenders cooked. I just put a bit of EVOO in a skillet, season both sides of the chicken tenders with S&P and cook them over medium heat for 4min on each side. Otherwise, you can just buy a rotisserie chicken at your local grocery store.

Then I set to chopping all the veggies... there's something cathartic about that I think. I usually leave most of the ingredients seperate, just in case we've got someone picky over for dinner. I put the romaine in one large bowl. Then add the beans, corn, tomato, jalepeno, cilantro in another. I leave the chips in another bowl, and the avacado gets chopped up last to avoid browning. You can, of course, just mix everything up in one large bowl like the original recipe, but that means it all needs to be eaten pretty quickly too... soggy salad, no thank you.

I just mix up the sour cream, seasonings, and add milk to get the right dressing consistency. The original recipe called for mayonaise... but I am anti-mayo. It's just the way it is. Why the weird globby white sauce in a jar? Anyways... I've never heard any complaints about my version.

Serve it up with extra chips on the table and some yummy salsa! Enjoy the rest of the hot summer months y'all!

Insta-Friday!

Happy Friday! Not too many pictures were taken this week... I was just too busy soaking up the days with my sweet little toddler. 13mo and she acts like such a big girl... Sigh.

Afternoon cuddles with my girl... never gets old.

Drooling over her Birthday Party pictures. That post Here.

MORE painting. Hopefully the master bedroom will be finished soon... as in this year?

 LOVE our new house but will it ever be fully furnished/finished?

Hannah the Mama. Someone please stop time! She insists on wearing the Tutu... ALL the time.  

Have a great weekend y'all!

Lovebug's 1st Birthday Party! {Part I}

I've been so excited to show y'all the lovely pictures of our sweet Lovebug's 1st Birthday! There's so much to share, that I think I'll break it down into a few posts... Mmkay?

First we'll start with all that crazy preparation in the days leading up to the party... I LIVE for this stuff, so of course I was super excited to get started on all the DIY goodness. I knew I wanted to incorporate lots of vintage linens, flowers, my collection of blue mason jars, and of COURSE, bunting. I also had a dream cake in mind, and wanted a brunch! Since we just moved into our new house, we have yet to add a dining table to the dining room, leaving a really large room that flows into an open area toward the kitchen. This left plenty of space for a large food table, drink bar, and 4 card tables. We rented the chairs from a local vendor for 75c a piece. We also used the breakfast table, and counter with bar stools for more seating.

All the vintage linenes are from THIS shop. She's so sweet and helpful! The LOVELY photos were taken by April @ Freeland Photography! We love them... so easy to work with and they take great pictures!

                                                        

I searched all over for cheap frames, and ended up catching two of Hobby Lobby's 50% off sales... score! I spray painted them and used all of Lovebug's weekly picture collages, with no glass... making the frames even cheaper! The drink bar is our dresser-turned-entertainment cabinet found HERE. I bought/borrowed all the mason jars and wrapped them in twine that I bought HERE, along with the adorable striped straws! More about the drinks in the next post!

The cake design was based on one I'd pinned HERE. I made the paper bunting by punching out circles from scrapbook paper and the folding them over a piece of twine. I just used 2 straws and a piece of extra bunting for the topper. The actual cake was baked and iced by someone locally, and I was so pleased with her work! The bottom two layers are actually false, since we only needed the top as a "smash cake" for Lovebug! Those adorable pictures will be in the next post!

For the centerpieces of each table, I used my collection of vintage blue Ball mason jars (LOVE them) My sister and I bought the roses at Trader Joe's the day before the party- they were only $5/bouquet! I also used Anthropologie fruit baskets I already had, lined with parchment paper and filled with fresh berries. The table linens are also from HERE. I simply cut and hemmed the vintage sheets to fit the tables I borrowed.

That's it for the decor! Next I'll share the yummy food! Then I'll share the photos of our sweet girl on her special day! The cake pictures are pretty darn cute if I say so myself!

 





P. S. I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar!

Insta-Friday... San Diego Edition

Soo... I'm a little behind. Life has been super-duper busy with settling into the house, the big 1st Birthday party, and recent trips to the lake, and San Diego! I've got a whole lot of blog posts to write, and can't wait to share all the DIY goodness of Lovebug's party, and what we're working on in the house! In the meantime, here's a quick catch up & our week in sunny SoCal!

Just lovin' our sweet girl & enjoying Summer!

Landed with a sweet sleeping baby. LOVE my moby wrap! :: First stop? Brunch @ Cafe 222 in Downtown San Diego... GO THERE if you're ever in the area :: Introducing my girl to the locals ::

Passed out cold at Daddy's work dinner.

Sprinkles Cupcakes = YUM! :: Dinner with my wonderful San Diego friends that I missed SOO much in the last year! :: Beach Baby. Girlfriend loved it :: Baby's 1st burger had to be In & Out, duh.

 Just 3 girls hanging out at the beach :: Sand is apparently very tasty and we had to drag this little beach baby away :: Sister love- so helpful on Lovebug's 1st big trip! :: A date at our old spot with my Hubby thanks to my wonderful sister