Happy New Year / Celebrating Mr. W's Birthday

Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

I hope you don't mind me wishing you a Happy New Year as this is the first time I've checked in with you since the  holiday season.  I never intended on taking a break from blogging....it just happened quite naturally.

During the break we celebrated the holidays, many birthdays and had lots of fun times.  I'll be playing catch up and posting pics to document what we did for me to reference down the road.

Last week we celebrated Mr. W's birthday.  Can you believe he is five years old?  He is such a sweet and loving boy.  And charming.  This boy is so charming.  :)  I'm his favorite girl unless Nonnie is around.  Then it's all about Nonnie.  :)

He chose Centercourt Pizza for dinner.  They have really good food.  Afterwards, we all went to our house so he could open his gifts from us and Nonnie and Uncle Brad.  We have had the wrapped presents since the first week of December.  We buy birthday and Christmas all at the same time.  We stored the bean bag chair in the game room.  Every time he came over we moved it to the closet and back again.  :)  I can't believe he never saw it.

 

Here's Sweet P guiding him to open his presents.

We gave him the helmet similar to the one used on Jurassic Park.

I love the wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby.  It is so nice and thick.  However, the grandkids have a hard time opening it as it doesn't tear easily which is why I like it so much.  I don't tear it when I wrap the gifts.

He shouted really loud when he saw what it was...."this is what I wanted".  But we thought he said "this is what I didn't want".  We laughed so hard.  I mean, it could happen.

His mom said he has been playing with it a lot at home.

Nonnie and Uncle Brad gave him some artwork for his bedroom and an Avenger's light for the wall.

We sang happy birthday and he blew out his candles with a little help from his dad.

How cute is this?

They played a lot of air hockey until it was time to go home.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Mr. W's birthday.

Hope you have a wonderful evening!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

 

We celebrated this sweet girl's birthday on Super Bowl Sunday.  The theme she chose for her party was Wonder Woman.  

So..... she asked me to make her cake and of course I said yes.  I needed to get a visual of what she was looking for so I introduced her to Cake Central.  She loved it!  :)  I set her up a Pinterest board (under mine) and showed her how to pin her favorite cakes.   :)  She found a cake she wanted so I attempted to make it for her.  She was pretty excited when she saw her cake.  Mr. W was pretty impressed, too.  He wants me to make a pirate cake for his birthday.   In two weeks.  :)

#pinterest

#cakecentral

#wonderwoman

I love the bright colored streamers hanging from the ceiling.

Sweet P chose to celebrate her birthday on Super Bowl Sunday even though she

doesn't watch football.  :)    

#superbowlsunday

Tiffani made homemade lasagna rolls.  They were delicious!  Like really, really good!  I'll have to get the recipe from her so I can learn to make them (I'll share the recipe with you).

After we ate it was time to open up her gifts.

 A girl can always use a little "spending money".  :)

#lovemoney

#letsgoshopping

Sweet P loves to read (much like the rest of the girls in our family) so we got her a couple of books to add to her collection.

Aunt Nonnie and Uncle Brad gave her several more books to add to her collection.  Aunt Nonnie treated her to a manicure and a pedicure on the day of her birthday.  

I ordered this cute leo for her from Aelitedesign on Etsy way back in early December.  I think she looks adorable in it.

After we ate, we played LOLZ (shared with you here) and Catch Phrase.  We laughed and laughed until we had tears rolling down our faces.  Seriously!  Those two games are so much fun.  Let's just say I'm not very good at giving clues for Catch Phrase.  I need to work on giving clues without saying one of the words.  :)   From what I've been told, I give one clue and look at my team like can't you figure it out?  :)  Everybody thinks it's so funny....all while I am so serious trying to come up with a clue that doesn't get me in trouble!

#lovelolz

#lovecatchphrase

#gamesarefun

We all watched the Super Bowl game to the very end.  What a game!!!!  I had anticipated a good game but it certainly exceeded my expectations.  I was conflicted as to who I wanted to win...the New England Patriots because Tom Brady is such a "stand up" guy (great role model) or the Atlanta Falcons because they had never won a Super Bowl game.  I thought Lady Gaga did a great job at half time.

Today is Debbie's (my SIL) birthday.  Happy birthday Debbie!!!  Love you!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and an even better rest of the week.

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

Ms. A's Birthday Celebration

Ms. A's birthday is on New Year's Day.  And yes, she won the big beautiful basket of goodies!

Ms. A wanted to celebrate her birthday at the Best Shot Shooting Range so we did.  She had been a few times before with her dad so it wasn't new to her.  This was my first time at a shooting range so I didn't know what to expect.  I was excited to see if I was going to be able to "hit the target" as I did last year when we attended the Kickapoo Kamp weekend.

#gunrange

#hitthetarget

#somuchfun

My first time to shoot, with a .22 handgun, I hit the target.  I couldn't believe it!  Maybe I do have some shooting skills!  I was so excited!  I didn't shoot much after that because I wanted the girls to have as much time as possible shooting.

Here's a pic of the birthday girl!  Eleven years old...where has the time gone?

Justin was so good in reminding us of gun safety, how to lay the gun down, etc.

Here's a pic of Sweet P watching her Uncle Brad load the clip.

How cute is she?

She is having to stand on her toes to be able to shoot.

Knowing Sweet P, she is probably supervising her Uncle Brad and telling him what to do.  :)

I love the way Ms. A has one long ringlet in the middle of her hair.

Everyone had a really good time.

Afterwards, we all went to Luna's Mexican Restaurant for dinner.  I tried to get a pic of Mr. W but they all came out blurry.  He was so excited he didn't want to keep still.  :)

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

Brooke's Birthday Celebration

Brooke's birthday is on December 24th.  Yes, she was born on Christmas Eve.

The story goes something like this.  The hubs and I sat down and discussed when we wanted to have a baby.  We both agreed we didn't want a baby born in December or January so we decided we'd shoot for February.  I'd place my birth control pills on top of the dresser and my neat freak husband would put them in the drawer.  Out of sight out of mind...bingo!  I was pregnant and her due date was December 18th.  But she held out for December 24th.  Christmas Eve!!!  Poor Tiffani!  Not only did she get a sister instead of the brother she wanted, she also had to wait 3 days to celebrate Christmas.

From the day Brooke was born, we made a promise that she would have a birthday party and her gifts would be wrapped in birthday paper.  I can honestly say we have held true to that promise.  I'm sure there were some years we over compensated with a couple of birthday parties.  One at Thanksgiving in Lake Charles, one at the babysitter and one party at home.  She certainly hasn't been shortchanged.

We typically celebrate her birthday on Christmas Eve with the meal of her choice.  She usually chooses gumbo but this year she chose spaghetti.   After cake (yellow butter cake mix and milk chocolate icing) and presents, we open Christmas presents.  After presents, we go to church.  :)  It is quite a full day.  This year she realized Brad was going to be working on Christmas Eve so she switched it to the Thursday before Christmas so he could be here to celebrate with her.  We all liked celebrating it on a different day than Christmas Eve so we may stick with that in the future.

I made sure we had Crackers.  We love going around the table reading our jokes or riddles to one another.  This year we had really fun prizes.

#crackersaresofun

#christmastradition

I totally cheated and used a topper I had for her a few years back.  She is a huge fan of Tinkerbell.

I bought two dozen roses, one white and one red to place on the table.  I think fresh flowers really dress up the table (for only $20) and I get to enjoy them for a week.

This year I decided to embrace the season and put together a hot chocolate bar.  There were four toppings to choose from miniature snickers, chocolate covered cherries, Bob's peppermints and chocolate sprinkles.

#hotchocolatebar

#bobspeppermints

I also had miniature marshmallows and Reddi Whip.

#lovereddiwhip

#marshmallows

The hot chocolate was delicious!!!  OMG!!!  It was the first time I had ever made it in the crockpot and it won't be the last.  I got the recipe from Mix & Match Mama.

This makes enough to serve a crowd!  Depending on how big your mugs are, depends on how much this yields.  You will use a gallon of milk for this recipe…so you should have plenty for a party!  This recipe is simple to divide as well, so you can make half as much if you’re only serving your family.

Shopping List

2 (14 oz) cans of sweetened condensed milk

2 (12 oz) bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 gallon of milk (I used 2%)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Marshmallows and candy canes to garnish, optional

For easy clean up, use a slow cooker liner.  

In your slow cooker, layer in your sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips. Turn slow cooker to high and stir every 15 minutes for the first 30 minutes (this will help it melt faster).  Once your chocolate chips have melted, whisk in your milk and vanilla.  Cover and continue to cook on high as you serve this cocoa for the next 3 to 4 hours.  Continue to stir periodically.  Garnish with marshmallows and candy canes if you like.

That’s it!  Keep it cooking on high so that it stays warm as guests enjoy it.

Sweet P made sure her place setting had the cracker she wanted.  She is so funny!

After dinner we played Smart Ass (grandkids think it was Smart Ace) and Uno.  We had a lot of fun.

I hope you are slowing down and enjoying this time of the year even if you are working.  The hubs is on vacation this week so we have been running errands and taking care of odds-n-ends.

Do you have any special plans for New Year's Eve?  If the weather permits, we will be getting together to celebrate Ms. A's birthday (her birthday is New Year's Day) with fireworks and roasting marshmallows.  She wants to go to the shooting range on Sunday.  Should be a lot of fun!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie