Carnival Party!

I love to plan a party. And this one was fun to plan. There are so many great ideas on Pintrest and I used them!

My girls turned eight this month! Which is really hard to believe, they were just four like yesterday!  I gave them some ideas for birthday parties, Frozen, Dr. Seuss or a carnival party. I was hoping for the carnival party or Dr. Seuss, oh the places I could go with that...but they decided they wanted a carnival party. So the planning began.

I planned six games. There was the balloon burst, ring toss, lollipop pull, spray away, ping pong toss and knock down the cans game. I also had two quart size mason jars that had jelly beans and gum balls in them and everyone got to guess how many and the winner got the jar of goodies. I put clown noses in a clear glass vase, like a hurricane, and taped a clown what is different game to it and they all got to wear clown noses, that was cute. The kids were really having a great time. I ordered tickets to hand out as they played the games to get their "prizes." The prizes were dollar store items in little zip lock bags. I took a box that I had and put the wrong side of wrapping paper around the box, it was Christmas paper if you were wondering why I used it wrong sided. Then I took clothes pins and a dab of gorilla glue and attached them to the box and hung the prizes from them. You can kinda see it in the photo below between the garage doors. Those are the birthday girls in the photo.

balloon burst

 I did a photo booth with all kinds of different props. My favorite prop was the strong man dumb bell. Which unfortunately one side was popped by my blonde haired child at her first attempt to play balloon burst. My fault for having it so close. She still got tickets. To make the dumb bell I took an empty wrapping paper roll and two balloons, taped the balloons to the wrapping paper roll and spray painted it black. Cute huh?

There was also a concession stand, with bags of popcorn, whole pickles, cracker jacks, animal crackers and cotton candy. The kids got to "spend" their tickets on whatever they wanted.

The photo above was the center piece for the girls table. The wind kept blowing and knocking down the cracker jack boxes. Speaking of wind, everyone was having a great time and the winds started to really blow and then the rain came. It's monsoon season here in New Mexico and I thought it would be a great idea to have an outside party.....We were doing photo booth pictures and the wind started getting bad, as you can see..My poor photo booth. It got way worse but I won't post those pictures.

We had to pack it up and head inside in a hurry. I think I was more bummed than the kids because I had so much work put into it. This mama was tired!!! But they are so worth the work! We did get this shot of our family before the wind got bad.

The girls really are twins. They just look nothing alike! I love when people ask me questions like whats the age difference between them? And I get to say 2 minutes and then get a puzzled look form them. We started attending a new church so I have been getting those questions a lot lately.

We went inside and had corn dogs and little bags of chips. Then it was cake time and then they opened presents. I did cupcakes just because its easier to serve that way. I didn't serve ice cream this time and since it got moved inside I am kinda glad I didn't, last year I did and I portioned it out in muffin wrappers the night before and covered them with plastic wrap so when it was time for cake and ice cream you just put it on the plate with the cupcake and voila. So easy.

Even though our carnival party got rained out it was still a good time. One of the girls told me this was the best day of their life. Love that.

Jen

Camping Part 1

Sleeping in a tent on the hard ground with pine cones making lasting indentions on my back is not my idea of a good time. Don't get me wrong I love to camp, I just like to be comfortable while doing it. Really comfortable. And port a potties are not my friend. 

This was our the first time taking the motor home on a trip. We went to our spot in the Gila Wilderness. It was Rab, the twins, my son Nick and his girlfriend and me. We loaded up supplies and the ATV and dirt bike and hit the road. 

We had a great time. Roasted GIANT marshmallows over the fire and made s'mores. You can't camp without s'mores. It got a bit messy. 

We Went on ATV rides. There are a thousand trails out there to ride and we rode about 237 of them. It was a blast. Except the time we went up the mountain and it got a bit rocky, it got so rocky we didn't want to go back the way we came. Nick wanted to make his own trail and I said no way, man. We ended up making our way down the mountain ok but had to ride on the main road to get back to camp. It was an adventure. I had the dark haired child with me and she is one that if you ask her what's wrong she says, "I don't even know" so I asked her if she was worried and she said, "yes," flat out yes. She was scared we were gonna be lost forever. Once we got back to camp she told the story over and over to her sister. It was like a fishing story without any fish, she stretched the truth a little bit. It was pretty funny to hear. 

Jen

Camping Part 2

It was hot in the forest. I have to admit that we spent a lot of the time in the motor home. If we weren't out riding, walking the dogs or tossing the ball around, we were in the air conditioned motor home. I have to say it was nice to have the option! We played games and talked.

Some good friends of ours live close to where we were so they came and spent the afternoon with us. Got us to venture outside where the sun and fresh air was. So there we were sitting outside under the canopy visiting and it started pouring down rain and hailing. It was insane! Back inside we went. It rained for a long time. The wind caught our canopy and chairs and blew them all around. We still had a nice visit, just inside with the ac. No complaints here;)

Here is a shot of our dark haired girl. Think she was tired? 

They had such a blast running up and down hills, playing "hide & sneek" and looking for pine cones.  

We wonder why we don't do this more often. 

Jen

Fourth of July

This was an unusual Fourth of July for our family. We usually host a BBQ and have friends and family over. This year is was just my little family of four. Everyone was busy or just wanted to be home. I can understand that, I felt that way myself for some reason. It was different but nice.

We still bbq'd. We had pork chops, roasted baby bell peppers and red onions, grilled jalapenos and  macaroni salad. We still did our annual reading of the Declaration of Independence, our family tradition. Then we sat outside to watch the firework show. The town fireworks are done from the fairgrounds, we have a pretty good view from our house so we watch from here and avoid the traffic. Then we did some of our own. We got done doing our fireworks just as it started to rain. And boy did it rain! Our neighbor said we got an inch, which is awesome! It always seems to rain on July 4th here, it's the beginning of Monsoon season.At least we got to enjoy the show first. Here are a few shots of our nigh. 

Sparkler art!

Roman Candles

More Roman Candles, my favorite. 

The Red, White and Blue. The symbol of our freedom that we are so blessed to have.

I hope you had a wonderful and safe Holiday.

Jen

Menu Plan Monthly

Why monthly? Because going to the grocery store exhausts me! Really, it does. It's the finding a parking spot, walking 3 miles to get in the door, wrangling two 7 year olds, the people, the lack of cashiers, the walking, oh, and the people. Then you have to come home and lug all the groceries in, put them away and then it's almost always dinner time so I make pb&j's and call it a day. It's exhausting. So I only do it once a month with the occasional stop to get some lettuce and almond milk or the 5 other things I forgot to get when I did my monthly shopping. 

We don't have too many options for grocery stores in my little town. Just two. One is more expensive but locally owned and the other store is a store that will go unnamed but you know it. Oh yes, you do. The locally owned store has great sales that I do shop when I am feeling particularly inspired to save money but the other store has everything you need, its one stop shopping. When you don't like shopping that's a great thing. It's kinda worth putting up with all the people and the walking.

And I only have to menu plan once a month. I'm a foodie and love to cook so that part isn't the selling part for me because it kinda feels like it stifles my creative cooking juices. If I really want to try something new I will get it when I stop for bananas halfway through the month or start next months list early, like I did for this month. 

This is the big plan for July:

Israeli Cous-cous & cheese w/ pork chops and a veg

Meatloaf (w/ hamberger and pork sausage) mashed potatoes & gravy, corn and green beans.

Sesame Chicken (my favorite!)

Lentil tacos (this is a new one for me)

Black beans ( I use the pioneer women's recipe- tweaked a little)

Black bean and brown rice burgers (these are surprisingly good)

Glug (our version of spaghetti carbonara- A family favorite)

Chick Pea Curry (new recipe) & rice

BBQ Pork Chops, rice pilaf (my Mema's recipe)

Crock pot Chalupas (new recipe)

Farmer's Pork Chops w/ Salad

Steak Sandwiches

Pork Ribs (done on the BBQ) corn on the  cob and salad

Pork Steak w/ au gratin potatoes and salad

Mahi Mahi  Fish Tacos (done on the grill) (these are the best tacos)  w/ mexican street corn

I like to have some meals prepped and in the freezer for those busy days:

Baked Ziti

Shepard's Pie (A family Favorite)

Chicken Teriyaki (ready for the crock pot)

That's only 19 meals and there are 31 days in July, I know. My family, my mom, brother and sister and their families all get together once a week for family dinner. I love that we do this, its really special time. We eat,the cousins play,the women play canasta while the men go on "man walks." We decide on a weekly basis what we are going to make and who brings what, and trust me I try not to have to go to the store!!!! Then there are leftover days, at least once per week so that brings me to 27 meals. Our son is coming to stay with us for a few days while he is on vacation from work, so I let him pick the meals he wants me to make and he hasn't told me yet...AND our daughter and her boyfriend and my grandson Fionn are coming to visit all the way from Mississippi this month. SO EXCITED and I will let her pick her meals too. Guess I will be going to the store a few times this month, but they are worth it!