6.21.2016

Avenger's Themed Birthday Party

Well my little buddy, Eli, turned 3 on April 17th.
It's so bittersweet for kiddos to grow up.
I am notorious for saying "this is my favorite stage" 
but I swear 3 is so so precious but also can be a little challenging with lots of training opportunities. 
This year we let Eli choose the theme for his party and of course he chose Avengers. 
He dresses up in his superhero costumes almost everyday + knows every last detail about every superhero (Justice League included) so we couldn't resist letting him celebrate Super Hero Style! 
Here is our little Hulk's party. 


We chose to use a venue in Frisco, Texas called The Coop
for this party instead of having it at home as 
Caroline Carlisle had just turned 5 months old and we thought it would be easier! 
The venue has a ball pit, electronic dance pad, bounce house, and lots of different toys and books! 
Onto to decor, we loved the gorgeous glass vases filled with paper shavings and decorated as the superhero skyline. We added tons of little signs all around to nail the theme home! We chose cute red table cloths with white polka dots and made sure to add paper fans from the overhang to fill the empty space. The Coop does balloons so we ordered a few dozen to add around the room for height! 
For every party I love to add the birthday boys name to make sure he feels special! 
I always have fresh flowers at every party too! :) 

 I love a cute dessert table and love making a huge, personalized banner for the backdrop! 
I think pictures of the birthday boy add a sweet, personal touch too! 

We always do custom stadium cups too but never got a picture of them! Boo! 
Cake is my favorite part of a party!!! Lol! 
We looked on pinterest and found pieces of cakes we loved and then had our friend and amazing baker at the Sweet Life Cakery make this cake! 
We went with a 3 tier as we had 40 kids plus parents there and I like to have flavor options ha!!
This year we tried something new and had cotton candy pops made, they were pretty yummy! 
Cute cookies from Sweet Life Cakery! 
Love the cute cake pops! 

 
 
Our photographer and friend, Lori Latch, set up this cute Photo Booth! 
She brings her iPad and the pic's are priceless! 
 A party tradition we love is having a book as the sign in book!
Cute kids table centerpieces! 

We invited Hulk (which was almost a total heart break when the original Hulk graduated and went to college early!), Iron Man, Spiderman and Captain America to the party. 
Y'all, Eli was so cute when they showed up! 
He hugged them so big and hen started showing off all his super hero moves.
He was just one of the guys!!! 









Well, there you have it! Eli's 3rd birthday party! 
It was a total success! 
We have to thank our family + friends for celebrating our little guy! 
We love you all big! 
Below are some fun party pic's!!! 
Enjoy! 
My princess! So precious!!! 







































































5.27.2016

Homemade Organic Baby Food

After resisting baby food for the last month I finally gave in.
I am not ready for my princess to grow up but she is ready for some grub!
She is reaching and trying to grab all the food on our plates and forks 
(she takes after her mama + daddy, we LOVE food!!) 
I went to look for our Baby Breeza (baby food processor I used to make all of Eli's food)  today and can't find it. I almost ordered a new one off Amazon but wasn't in the mood to spend $59 so I just decided to use what we already own!!! 

Here is how I make pureed organic carrots:
I buy the pre-cut and peeled organic carrots from Trader Joe's.
First, I wash the with natural Fruit & Veggie Wash. 
This particular one I get at the Farmer's Market and is locally made in Frisco, Texas! 
Then, I boil filtered water in a medium saucepan, once boiling I reduce heat and 
add the steamer part to the sauce pan and dump in the carrots! 
Cover and let steam until tender (10-15 minutes). 



Next, I drain and wash the carrots in cold water to stop the cooking process. 
Lastly, I dump the carrots and cold water (about a 1/4 a cup) into the blender and puree.
Pop it  into a mason jar and voila, you're done! 
I put 1 in the fridge to cool and 1 on the icebox to freeze.
Baby food in the fridge is good for 3 days and in the icebox is good for 3 months.

I'm excited to feed my princess for the first time over this Memorial Day Weekend! 
Such a bittersweet time! 
Hugs,
Lauren 

5.25.2016

Sweet Tea, y'all!

I may or may not have a slight addiction to sweet tea (drools just writing the word).
Recently I made strawberry jam and in the process thought,
"I bet if I made peach syrup it would be bomb in some sweet tea"
I was right.
YUM! 

Ingredients: 
Syrup:
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup water 
3 organic rip peaches, sliced

Tea:
3 cups water for boiling 
2 lipton tea bags 
2 cups (I think...?) cold water

Instructions:
Wash peaches with natural fruit wash  
Slice them thinly 
Bring sugar, peaches and water to a boil in sauce pan 
Lower heat and mush peaches with a wooden spoon
Once the sugar is dissolved remove from heat and let sit about 20 minutes
Boil 3 cups of water in separate pan for tea 
Once boiling, remove from heat, add 2 family sized lipton tea bags, cover and let it sit for about 6 minutes 
Pour sugar into pitcher (this is totally preference but I do about a cup!)
Pour hot tea over sugar and stir until dissolved 
Fill pitcher to top with cold water 
Pour peach syrup into a mason jar over a fine mesh strainer
Pour tea over ice into glass
Add as much peach syrup as you like 
(and if your Mitch, add more sugar!! Ha!) 






Homemade vanilla ice cream

It's Memorial Day Weekend 
 which means an extra day with my hubby 
and HOMEMADE ICE CREAM! 
This is one of my favorite family traditions and we honestly make ice cream an embarrassing amount of times though the year but it's so stinking delicious (and I know exactly what is going in it!!!) 

Ingredients:
1 cup organic whole milk 
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups organic heavy cream (I swear Trader Joe's brand taste the best)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 

Instructions:
Freeze Cuisinart ice cream freezer bowl for 24 hours 
In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine the milk, sugar and salt until it's dissolved
Stir in heavy cream + vanilla
Turn on Cuisinart ice cream maker
Pour mixture in frozen freezer bowl
Let mix 20 minutes
Place ice cream in gallon sized glass tupperware bowl
Freeze another 20 minutes in icebox 
ENJOY!! 




This is from fourth of July last year, but is still one of my favorite pictures ever! 

Eli + Mitch (and well really most everyone!) love homemade ice cream! 
It's so nostalgic of childhood, my mom used a huge blue ice cream maker and had to use the whole salt process! So thankful my ice cream maker is much easier!!! 

Also, don't forget to bust out your decor! 
I just placed out bow American Flag on our wreath- I got the bow last year at dollar tree! 
Also, target dollar aside has really cute paper plates, cups, mason jars, and even $1 banners (I got the "Stars & Stripes" one) right now! 


This is also from 4th of July last year, but cute idea for Memorial Day too!  
Easy way to make food into decor!!