We love making Smores, but making them outside isn’t really the best option. So we make them in the microwave. It’s super easy, not messy, and doesn’t require any fire, ha. The fire is Melody’s favorite part, but we just save that for camping!
Birthday Party Kid Fun
For Melody’s 3rd birthday party we were faced with a dilemma…what do we do with all of the kids. For Melody’s first birthday party, she was obviously so young, and there were not that many kids. And the kids that did come were young too. We had a few things outside that Melody played with, but the kids primarily stayed inside and toddled. For Melody’s second birthday party, we had it at my best friend’s house due to our remodel, and there were three kids. That was easy.
Disney Halloween Snacks
While at Disney back in AUGUST, they already had the Halloween snacks out. I took a few pictures throughout our trip of the snacks, but the only thing I had was the apple. And it was amazing as always. I LOVE white chocolate! There are WAY MORE snacks than the ones below. Lots of restaurants have specialty ones along with ones offered at the Halloween parties. But below are a few you can find this year!
Disney August 2019
So back in August, we made a 100% completely spur of the moment trip. Like we started discussing it a week before leaving. And we didn’t even decide we were officially going until the day before. Brad was getting the Disney itch, my annual pass was still good, and we had points to that would cover the costs of the hotel. We would literally only pay for food, gas, and Brad and Melody’s tickets. It was also Brad’s birthday. And what better way to spend your birthday than at Disney?? So we pulled the trigger and went!
Spinach, Egg, and Sausage Open Face Sandwich
I kind of made this recipe up after seeing some instagrammers make something similar. Mine didn’t turn out perfect, but you can really make this more about what you like. You can add more of less of anything. The big thing I would do differently is use less turkey sausage. But otherwise it was really good.
Staging Our Home
So it is no longer a secret that we semi-recently moved into a new home. And as I mentioned before, we LOVED our previous home, but we outgrew it. We looked at houses for about a year, then we decided to just pull the trigger and put our home on the market. With the way the market was, we expected it to sell fairly quick and that would give us the money we needed for a larger down payment for a bigger house. Well in order to sell quickly, I knew we needed to stage it as best as we could. Our house sold within 4 days when it first went on the market. Those buyers backed out. When we put it back on the market, it literally sold within 10 minutes. No joke. Staging may not have played a part, but it couldn’t hurt! Check out what I did below.
Snow White Birthday Banners
For Melody’s third birthday I did a Snow White themed party. I ended up making all of the party banners because it is near impossible to find exclusively Snow White things in the store.
Potty Training
So I have been questioning whether to do this post a lot. Because let’s be real. No one method of potty training works for every single kid. What worked for us, likely won’t work for you. That is something I discovered over the last year and a half. I read lots of ideas and blog posts myself, but nothing seemed to work. However, I thought maybe, just maybe someone can take away something from my posts. So here goes.
Kabobs
So a while back we grilled kabobs. We don’t do them super often because I am not a huge fan of the vegetables, but I do let Brad do them on occasion and I make another vegetable for myself. Plus they make great lunches for Brad too.
Goat Feathers
While at the beach back in July, we tried Goat Feathers on 30A. We had actually planned on eating at a different restaurant on that evening, but they had live music inside and it was really loud. So we passed and found this restaurant. It was just the three of us, and it was fairly early. I had read some decent reviews prior, so we thought we would give it a try.
First Night in Our New House
So as you have likely read, we have recently moved into a new house. I already told you about our last night in our old house, but now it is time to tell you about our first night in our new house. The first night we OWNED the house, we did not stay there. Instead we stayed with our friends Emily and Justin who recently moved too, and it happens to not be too far from our new house. Anyhow, we decided to do this because the previous owners had three dogs, and we knew we wanted to clean the carpet before moving any furniture. Plus we would need help which didn’t start arriving until the next day.
Galaxy's Edge
So this isn’t like most of my Disney posts. Usually I post about my trip itself, then post about all the other big details. Well this couldn’t wait! Back in August, we made a spur of the moment decision to go to Disney for Brad’s birthday. We had no intention of going to Hollywood Studios, much-less Galaxy’s Edge. We were going to be in the parks August 29 and 30. I really didn’t want to even consider dealing with the crowds. Well late Thursday night, I read people were getting in the land without boarding passes. We decided to check after we did a few things in Epcot Friday morning. And sure enough, no boarding pass was required. So we headed over and literally walked right in without any issues. It really made Brad’s birthday getting to experience it on his actual birthday. I would definitely recommend devoting more than the 3 or so hours we spent there. I am sure we could spend a whole day just here! Well here are some pictures from our few hours and the few things we got to do!
Grilled Corn
So for July 4th, we bought corn to grill along with our smoked ribs and potato. Well we were out of aluminum foil, and I didn’t realize this until right before needing to cook it. So I attempted a new method…grilling the corn in the husks.
Paw Patrol Shields
For Lydia’s 3rd birthday, Emily did a Paw Patrol theme. I helped with cutting the parts to the invitations, and I also made cookies. Well I also used my Silhouette Cameo to cut some “shields” from the show to use as added decor.
Beach Happy
As you may have read by now, I love to do small “happys” whenever we take trips or for other special occasions. Well we recently went to the beach and I did a happy for all of the girls. Check them out below.
Summer Break 2019
This summer seriously flew by! It didn’t help we spent the first part staging our home to sell. Then the middle selling and buying a home. And at the end we spent it packing and moving. I really had big hopes for our summer, but we didn’t accomplish half of what I thought we would. However, after looking through all these pictures below, I realized we sure did have a lot of fun even during the chaos!
English Muffin Pizzas
So I make these pizzas on just about anything when I have all the ingredients (today is English Muffins). And let’s be real, I almost ALWAYS have the ingredients on hand considering they are frequent BOGOs at Publix, ha!
Brad's 36th Birthday
We celebrated Brad’s 36th birthday last week in a very unconventional way for him…we went to Disney World! His birthday was on Friday, and we decided Monday to head out Tuesday evening after he got off work.
Pan Fried Chicken
So this was a very thrown together dinner I made a while back. I had planned to use cornmeal or breadcrumbs but we were out. So flour it was.
Last Day at our First Home
As I posted a few days ago, we recently moved into a new home. We absolutely loved our last home, but we outgrew it not long after getting married. Brad bought the house before he knew me, and we both knew this wasn't going to be our forever home. We started looking at homes over a year ago. And with the market how it is, we needed the equity from our home to buy a new one. And people aren’t really taking contingency offers. Homes are going too quick to want to wait and see. So in June we finally pulled the trigger. I plan to write all about our move, our staging, and our new home later.