Ready For The Red, White And Blue

For the past 2 years I have posted a 4th of July nail idea, you can see them here and here, so keeping with tradition...here is my festive fingers for this year!

For this years look I used Sally Hansen-Natural White, Sinful Colors-Ciao Bella, Stop Nail-Red and Sally Hansen No Chip Top Coat. I also used a pin stuck in the eraser of a pencil.

After I painted my nails with two coats of Natural White I poured a bit of Ciao Bella and the red onto a plate. I dipped the top of the pin, the round part, into the Ciao Bella...

 ...then I dabbed the top of the pin onto my nails making nice round blue circles. When I made all the blue dots I wanted on all my nails I wiped off the pin then did the same thing using the red.

And there you have it, my 2014 4th of July nail art! Fun and festive!

Father's Day Dinner & DIY

The saying "a way to a man's heart is through his stomach" rings pretty true for my husband, I am always trying to make his favorite restaurant meals at home which he absolutely loves. So for Father's Day this year (we are celebrating it today since we are busy tomorrow) I made him a copy cat recipe of his favorite meal from our very favorite local Italian restaurant DiCicco's for lunch. DiCicco's was where we had our very first date, he ordered the Rigatoni Scarface and I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo. We are still pretty frequent visitors but I've changed up my order since then, I am obsessed with their White Pizza, but my husband has stuck with the same thing...the Scarface.

 Italian White Creamy Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter
 3 tablespoons Flour

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
 3 tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

Salt

Scarface Ingredients:
Chicken Breast

Mushrooms

Rigatoni Noodles

 First things first I filled a pot with water then put it over high heat to boil.

While waiting for the water to start boiling I chopped up the mushrooms...

...and the chicken.

After my water started boiling I threw in the whole box of Rigatoni and let it cook. This is when it got fun, I had a pot or pan on every burner!

To make the sauce I put the butter in a pot over medium low heat and let it melt. I then added the flour and stirred until the butter and flour were totally mixed together. I then added the rest of the ingredients and mixed it all up until it was nice and creamy then I took it off the burner. 

At the same time I was sauteing the mushrooms...

...and grilling the chicken.

After my noodles were cooked I poured out the water leaving the noodles in the pot. I then added the grilled chicken, sauteed mushrooms and the Italian White Cream Sauce to the pot and mixed everything together really well. I let the pot sit on low heat until I was ready to plate it.

While I set the table I placed my French Bread in the oven to warm up.

Ta Da...our "fancy" lunch DiCicco's style. 

The Rigatoni Scarface was delicious, I was pretty impressed with myself! I wanted my hubby to feel like he was actually at DiCicco's so I used the same color of napkins that they use, the red and yellow.

One of our favorite parts of DiCicco's is the massive screen that they play some of the most amazing opera music videos on, so to make our lunch seem even more authentic I had Andrea Bocelli's Radio playing on Pandora....love him!

Lunch was a big hit with my husband and our son. The smile on my husbands face when he saw the table, heard the music and tasted the food was amazing.

For a Father's Day card my son and I scrolled through Pinterest searching all the cute DIY cards. As soon as my son saw this idea he was stoked cause he knew he was going to be able to paint his foot...such a boy!

Supplies:

Paper

Daddy's Shoe

Kiddos Foot

Paint

Sharpie

The first thing we did was paint the bottom of Daddy's shoe. At first my son picked out blue for his Dad's print but changed his mind at the last second. 

So we ended up painting the bottom of Daddy's shoe green then pressed it onto the paper making a nice big shoe print. 

We let it dry for a bit.

Then we painted the bottom of my sons foot blue, he was so excited about this part.

We carefully placed his foot over Daddy's print making a cute little blue foot print.

After the paint was fully dry I wrote the poem that my son had picked out for his Daddy then wrote a sappy little Father's Day note. 

It was such a cute, easy, fun way to show Daddy how much he is loved and how much he means to the both of us.

Handfelt Mother's Day DIY

I wanted to make my mom, grandma and mother-in-law personalized Mother's Day gifts this year and I wanted our son to have a hand in making them each a gift....literally. So I came up with three different ideas using my sons hands and feet to decorate each gift. 

 My Supplies:

An Apron

(Michael's)

An Oven Mit

(The Dollar Tree)

A Folded Piece Of Construction Paper

Red Crayola Paint

White Puff Paint

Red Fabric Paint

Black Puff Paint

Small Paint Brush

Medium Foam Sponge Brush

Green Marker

Black Marker

First I painted my sons right hand with the white puff paint using the foam sponge brush, then I had him press his hand onto the red oven mitt. I then used the small paint brush and more of the white puff paint to write the words and the year. 

Next using the red fabric paint and the foam sponge brush I painted the bottom of one of my sons feet then had him stand on the apron with his foot at a slight diagonal angle. We did the same thing using the other foot but we made sure the heal of this foot covered the heal of his last foot print which made a heart shape. I then used the small paint brush and black puff paint to write the words and the year.

Last I painted both of my sons hands using the foam sponge brush once again and the red Crayola paint. I then had him press both his hands on the unfolded construction paper making two red hand prints. I then drew stems using the green marker and wrote the words using the black marker. I let the paint dry then folded the construction paper in half once again. 

My son had a blast making all of these Mother's Day gifts and he is so excited to give them to his grandma, his grandma MiMi and his great grandma. And I know that they are all going to love getting their personalized Mother's Day gifts from him...I mean how could you not!

Happy Easter

I am very excited about Easter this year since my son and I get to spend it with my family in Oregon. Easter with my family has always been so much fun! We all get together at my grandparents house, color eggs, have an Easter egg hunt competition, stuff ourselves with a big dinner, over do it with sweet desserts then finish off the night playing board games and laughing our butts off...like I said fun! This is going to be my sons first Easter here in Oregon so I wanted to make it extra special.

When my son woke up this morning he was so surprised to see his bright green, toy filled Easter basket which the Easter Bunny had left for him. The Easter Bunny had also left some big bunny foot prints on my parents floor.

Easy! Self made stencil and some flour.

For lunch I made a cute Easter themed meal.

Supplies:

Foil

Red and Yellow Food Coloring

Crescent Rolls

I made a couple cone shapes out of foil then I wrapped the twisted up crescent roll pieces around the cones.

I mixed some red and yellow food coloring with a bit of water to create a dark orange color. I then brushed the food coloring mixture onto the crescent rolls and placed them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

After they were done baking I wiggled the foil out from inside of the crescent rolls making a small cavity in the middle of each roll which I filled with some egg salad.
This was such a fun, cute, creative, Easterish way to serve up lunch and most importantly my son loved it.

For a little sweet snack I made some Easter S'mores using bright colored, egg shaped marshmallows which I found at Walmart.

I made the s'mores in the oven which was set on broil. I left the s'mores open faced so the marshmallows would bake.

And bake they did! They looked just like they had been cooked over a camp fire.

The s'mores were so sticky good, everyone enjoyed them!

So far our Easter has been very special and its about to get even better because its time to head to my grandparents house...let the games begin!

 What are your plans for Easter?



Fun And Easy Easter Basket

My son turns into the Tasmanian Devil when he eats to much candy so you can imagine what our candy filled holidays, Halloween and Easter, are like. We are spending this Easter with my family in Oregon and I have a feeling that Great Grandma's Easter basket is going to spoil my son rotten so I thought it might be a good idea to make our Easter basket a fun, non edible one so I took a quick trip to The Dollar Tree.

The Dollar Tree had a couple aisles full of fun Easter themed gifts like the Easter sticker book, the blue stuffed rabbit, the awesome rabbit sun glasses and the chick book full of shapes.

I also found some great toys in the regular aisles as well. The spinning sound tube (I don't know the proper name for it obviously), the monster truck, Mickey and Minnie puzzle, number flash cards and the Mickey bubbles.
As you can see I did throw in a tiny green Easter Bunny that has some gum balls in it, I thought this might come in handy when we fly home. I give him a small piece of gum to chew on take off and landing to help his ears.

And instead of buying a regular Easter basket that will most likely end up broken or in our garage I decided to buy a canvas bag in my sons favorite color. This is something that he can use over and over again.

 

So here it is, my fun mostly non edible Easter basket! What will you be putting in your kids Easter Basket this year?!

 



St. Patrick's Day Sweets

Having a bit of Irish in all of us, my family and I love celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We don't get all crazy but we do get in the spirit. We deck our selves out in green, my husband and I drink a Guinness and I make my husband Corned Beef And Cabbage, I have done this for him since we first started dating. Since St. Patrick's Day is during the week, Monday, and our week is pretty super busy with physical therapy and doctors appointments we decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day early...today. So you lucky people get an early Paddy's Day post, a sweet St. Patrick's Day treat idea.

I surprised my son with this yummy candy jar after lunch, he was so excited and thinks that its pretty cool lookin. He hasn't even opened it yet, he has just been carrying it around because he doesn't want to mess it up.

(As you can see all you need to make this fun colorful treat is Rolo's, Mini Marsh Mellows, Skittles and a clear container. I used an old salsa jar which I painted the top of to make it more festive.)

If you are a Paddy's fan like us, check out my posts from last year...

"Skinny" St. Patrick's Day Drinks 

Lucky Nails 

Corned Beef and Cabbage

For My Very Special Valentines

Yesterday was Valentines Day and like always I tried to make my son and husband feel extra special. I had been plotting and planning for about a month and both surprises, one for my son and one for my hubby, turned out really well. Our Valentines Day was a lot of fun and was really tasty too!

For my son's surprise I made up a Valentines Day treasure hunt...

My Supplies:

Scissors

Ribbon

Stapler

Note Cards

Treasure:

Valentines Day Balloon

Chocolate Kisses

Toy Car

Maze Game

Mini Lego

Kool-Aid

Book

Leap Pad Game

My husband took my son to the park so when they came home my son found this on our front door.

Clue: "Valentines Day is a day of love, now go to the place of the bubbling tub."

His treasure and his next clue were hanging over our hot tub. 

Clue: "We love your hugs and your kisses, now go to the thing that cleans our dishes."

His treasure and his next clue were hanging on the dish washer. 

Clue: "You wheelie are our favorite little boy, now go to the thing that holds your toys."

His treasure and his next clue were in his toy box.

Clue: "You are a-MAZE-ing that's for sure, now go to the thing that's covered in fur."

His treasure and his next clue were sitting on our dogs bed.

Clue: "We will never Lego of you...we'll never let you down, now go to the place where you climb high off the ground."

His treasure and his next clue were laying on the top bunk of his bunk bed.

Clue: "You are one Kool kid indeed, now go to the place where we read."

His treasure and his next clue were sitting in the chair in his room.

Clue: "Your #1 in or book and in our hearts, now go to the room that hangs Great Grandma's art."

His final treasure was sitting on our bed in our room.

"Your final prize: a new game to play! We love you Little Man, Happy Valentines Day!"

Our son had a blast with this treasure hunt and loved everything he got, the smile on his face made my heart melt. I will definitely be doing this again!

For my husbands surprise I made him a copy cat dish and dessert from TGI Fridays...

For dinner I made his favorite Sizzling Chicken and Cheese. 

I used this recipe from Recipe Secrets for the chicken, peppers and cheese and this recipe from What's For Dinner? for the super yummy mashed potatoes. 

Dinner was tasty...

...but dessert was amazing! 

I made a Brownie Obsession and it was melt in your mouth delicious!

I made the brownies from a box mix but I didn't let them cool like the directions on the box say to do. Right after taking the brownies out of the oven I cut out a couple slices and put them on our plates. I topped each of them with some hot chocolate fudge, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce and a bit of chopped pecans.

Yum-yum-yummy

I hope you all had a great Valentines Day filled with love, happiness and surprises... 

Happy Valentines Day!