First school dance!

J1’s first school dance. 

Oh boy do I remember my first school dance.  Actually, that makes it seem like I remember a lot about it.  All I remember is that I wore this one dress that I had to have because my best friend Adriane had it (sorry about that!) and it was pretty dang tight.  I don’t know that we actually even danced so much as hung out in a darkened gym and talked to our friends and gossiped about boys. Sound familiar?  Oh how things have changed…. And not. 

My son went to his first dance the other day and while I was excited for him to be having these experiences I’m also saddened at how quickly they’ve come upon us.  He was adorable {he was told more than once he looked like Justin Bieber much to his chagrin!}.  From the scoop I got it seems that the junior high kids of today do much of the same milling around talking to friends, except this dance had the added element of fun of being able to purchased water balloons and having a water balloon fight {outside of course)}  Hey, anything to raise money right?  Anyway, here’s a picture of us before he left.  And yes, he’s officially at least an inch- or two- taller than me.

Check out those Halloween decorations!

Did I mention he'll be a teenager next month?  *sigh*

So tell me, what do you remember about your first dance?

I'm PIN-ning out of control! (Part two)

(This is the second in a two part series about the all encompassing website that is Pinterest!)

Ok, I think we all have to admit we're a little addicted.  Hi, I'm Jennifer (insert your name) and I love Pinterest!  There, feels better right?  I can't help but to visit this site every chance I get.  And when I see a great idea, recipe, or outfit I can't help but to click PIN.  This has lead to a few very full folders of ideas.  But what does one do with all those ideas?  I had a great idea.... are you ready for it?  A Pinterest Party!  Wouldn't that be a great way to bring your friends together and you all can make and create all these thigns you see and want to do but probably wouldn't make the time for otherwise? 

Before I could plan said party I happened to have a day off so my sister and I went ahead had our own party.  I decided to tackle to recipes first.  I mean they all look so delicious and who doesn't want to pig out all day right?  RIGHT?  So we headed to the store with our two pages of ingredients.  Don't judge- we planmned on making a lot of food!  I had printed off about 10 recipes and figured we'd have a make-a-thon, it's like a bake-a-thon but with some savory dishes in there as well!

Apparently we didn't plan it all that well because once we dove in to making everything we realized some of the things needed to be cooked first (like chicken), some of the dough needed to chill for an hour, and something even needed to be made the day before. Rude!  Didn't they know we wanted it and wanted it right then?  JEESH!

Anyway, we finally made them all and I'm happy to give you the scoop on them.  These you've probably seen because I know I've seen them pinned and repinned.  Some were amazing and I'll be trying again for sure and others were ok and probably not really worth the time and effort.

First up the savory (yes, you have to eat your dinner before you have dessert).  We made:

-Chicken bundles.  Pretty good.  But I guess you can't go wrong with anything wrapped in a crescent roll.

-Doritos casserole. This was delicious.  Even my parents liked it and they don't like anything that's different!

-Meatball hashbrown casserole.  This I was not a fan of.  It was OK but my sister took it home and paired it with salsa and said it was perfect as a breakfast food. 

-Stove top chicken wraps.  These were not from Pinterest but I made them the same day and wanted to share.  They're so delicious!  My friend in NY made them for me and I couldn't believe how much I liked them. It's chicken stuffed with Stove Top covered in french dressing.  Super simple, quick, and full of flavor.  YUMMO.

Next up dessert.

-Pumpkin crunch cake.  This was an absolute winner across teh board.  So gooey, and yummy, and mmmmmmm!

-Banana cream pie.  Also a winner.  Homemade whipped cream- who knew?  I will never buy Cool Whip again!

-Peanut butter, chocolate chip, pretzel cookies.  These were really good.  But they had a lot going on. I didn't mind it but I only liked one a day- more than that and it wasn't so good.

-Cake batter rice krispie treats.  These were the biggest disappointment of the batch.  I increased the cake batter slightly to get a more cake batter-y taste and it still wasn't very flavorful.  And the kids didn't much care for them either.  I did use a cheap cake batter mix so maybe that made the flavor difference?

-Salted caramel bars.  I probably shouldn't include these because mine were an epic fail.  I got a phone call while making these and ended up slightly distracted.  And that meant I put 1 stick of butter instead of 1 pound of butter.  And that equaled a crust and crumble topping that was basically four cups of flour.  I had to just throw it out.  And by that time I'd already used the caramels so I couldn't try to remake it.  *sigh* I will try this again soon.

Recently I've also made homemade donuts and cheeseburger bake as seen on Pinterest.  They were both a huge hit!  I hope to continue to try new recipes and maybe add a few things to the list of things that my insanely picky children will eat!  :)

So what has Pinterest inspired you to make?

I'm PIN-ning out of control! (Part one)

(This is the first of two posts on the subject of the all encompassing website that is Pinterest.)

Pinterest. 

I don’t even know where to start. 

My mom first introduced me to this site a while back.  I didn’t understand what it was or what it meant so I never signed on.  Then my friend Katy mentioned something to me about something that I knew I had to check out so I went back to the invite my mom sent and signed up.  It’s been downhill since then J 

I could never have imagined how crafty I wanted to be.  Or how much I actually wanted to cook and bake.  I don’t think my favorite thing to make will ever stop being reservations but I can tell you the other day I made something I saw on P and the response I got was so positive I wanted to cook more and more!  And don’t get me started on all the home décor crafts.  Hello, who knew you could make 417 different things with a door or window frame?!  And where on Earth do you find said door or window frame?  And I would have never ever said I was a fashionista but I tell you some of the premade outfits on there make me chanel my inner diva and make me want to pay attention to what I wear every day!  Even the funny sayings have me cracking up and wondering who I can send them to. 

I’ve had the kids peek over my shoulder a few times and even want me to look at this or that or repin this or that.  I do still love Facebook but I just can’t spend as much time there anymore as I can getting lost on P.  Can I just tell you one night (or morning as it may have been, oops) I was on there and there were literally no new pins.  I was crushed and had no choice but to go to bed!  How can that be?  Maybe I don’t quite have it all figured out just yet but I will make it my mission to do so! 

So…. Do you pin?

Why, hello again!

Ok ok so I apologize because I took the summer off and then that became kind of a semi-permanent thing!  I didn’t mean to I promise.  Blogging was and is a great way for me to get out what I have on my mind so I promise to be better at it.  And since FB is such a dud these days I better get it all out on here, right?  Since this is my first post back there’s so much to say!  Where to start?

These past few months we have done lots of fun stuff.  Went to Six Flags...

She won this ball!

... week long Boy Scout camp (that was nothing short of a disaster- over a third of the kids got sent home early because they all shared a bug including J1, there was a fire close to their camp grounds so one night was spent huddled in the mess hall for safety, and I'm pretty sure he didn't get half the badges he was supposed to because of all of that).

Our group before- half of them got sent home sick!

...Target, Hawaiian Falls, Target, slept in, and guess what?  Went to Target J  I also was able to sneak in a trip to California and saw my first surrobabe (the shy guy on the right- how precious is he!?)...

 ... and went to Vegas for the first time. 

My poolside view- it was as fabulous as it looks.

Then the kids went back to school and Jensen and I took the biggest trip of them all- we went to Paris!  That deserves its own post so be on the lookout for that but here's a few amazing pics.

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Delicious food!

Arc de Triomphe at night!

Truly it was a great summer and last several months.  I am happy that we had the time to be able to just lay low, hang out with each other, and be with friends and family.  I fear that as the kids get older that more and more of their time will be spent away from the house, away from me, away from us a family and I am so thankful we had this time just to ourselves.  Does that make sense?  I’ve been told I’m obsessed with my kids but I don’t think that’s a bad thing!  I mean I know they can’t live with me forever, but surely until they’re at least 35 right? ;)

And now I'm back on the blogging train... I promise!  Also, a special shout out to my dad today because it's his birthday!  Even if we are still emotionally scared from when you scared the crap out of us the other day (dude- at 8:30 at night he banged on my back door and scared us all half to death.... he will get his don't worry!) we still love you and are glad you are in our lives!