What is better than having 1 birthday party down… having 2 birthday parties down! That’s right! 2 birthday parties all done for another year!
Because the beginning of the season is so busy, we decided to have HBear’s birthday on her actual birthday. This means however, that we had a birthday party with 10 nine-year-old girls on a Friday evening 😳.
HBear chose a pottery birthday party so for goodie bags I got my MBesty at Beyond the Stitch to make personalized art aprons for each of the guests. HBear chose their favourite animal/picture to personalize them even more! They were absolutely adorable! I am so happy with how they turned out! They were practical too because none of the girls got there pretty party clothes dirty!
Instead of cake we did Art Palette Cupcakes! I made jumbo chocolate and rainbow sprinkle cupcakes and bought 10 different coloured sprinkles. Dad helped me fill each paint palette with the sprinkles and we placed the cupcake in the middle. I frosted cupcakes with white icing and they each had a clean palette to design their own artistic birthday cupcakes! Again, super happy with how this turned out! It was another creative way to enhance our art theme 🎨.
So, the Birthday party went super well! 2 hours flew by. All the Girls made baskets and filled them with beautiful clay roses. Each one of them cut their own piece of clay… This was very exciting to them 😊. They did a little drawing, each got to “use” the pottery wheel, did cupcakes and then presents! All the kids got to take home their art project, their apron, and their paint palette.
I had a great time and so did HBear! Successful birthday party number 2 in the books for 2017!
This past weekend was crazy. Like C-R-A-Z-Y. On Saturday evening, Ninja and I took 2 hours out of the craziness to have date night. Of course, we recorded it all just for you! Check out Episode 42: The Fiasco Around Us.
I make this chicken dish that we all absolutely love! I kind of do my own take on Alice Springs Chicken. So, when I saw this recipe for a Alice Springs Pasta, I was super excited! We tried it right away and I am so happy we did! This one is going in to our heavy rotation 😊. It is SO flavourful! Not going to lie, this isn’t the healthiest dish but this is a definite cheat dish. It is rich and cheesy and the leftovers taste even better the next day!
Alice Springs Pasta
Adapted from Food Fanatic
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 teaspoon oil
3 chicken breasts, chopped
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1 cup white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup honey
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 bag dried rigatoni
1 teaspoon paprika
2 cups smoked cheddar cheese
Remove the bacon grease from the skillet and place skillet over medium heat. Add oil to the same skillet. Add chicken and season chicken with seasoning salt. Cook chicken until no longer pink, remove chicken and set aside.
Add mushrooms to the same skillet. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt. Cook mushrooms for about 5 minutes or just until they begin to soften. Remove mushrooms and set aside.
Combine mayo, mustard and honey together in a small bowl.
Combine chicken broth, water and mayo mixture in the skillet and bring to a boil.
Add rigatoni, cover and cook for 12-15 minutes or until pasta is al dente and liquid has reduced and thickened slightly. Return chicken and mushrooms to pan.
Stir in 2 cups of cheese and half of the bacon; stir. Top pasta with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and the rest of the bacon.
Broil pasta on low until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Something else super cool that happened this past week was we received a package in the mail! We live in a small town and I do a lot of online shopping so normally this wouldn’t be something that I talk about. However, this time it was a special package from our podcast friends that live in Calgary! Check out their family fun podcast Full of Fibre! We were surprised to open the package and find a autographed copy of Canadianity! How freaking cool is that? Ninja is a huge Jonathan and Jeremy fan and we were both blown away by their generosity and thoughtfulness! I know I have gushed on the Podcast already but I just want to say, again, thank you!
For SBean’s birthday she received 2 tickets for a date night with Daddy to see the movie, Coco! They went this week and enjoyed themselves immensely. Both of them raved about this movie so if you haven’t seen it yet… Do it!
We began HBear’s birthday at 6:30 AM with a FaceTime with SweetPea and CabbagePatch! When we were done, it was off to the annual Toys for Tots breakfast. This year it was at a new location and we had to wait quite a while for our breakfast. It was well worth the wait though as the food was amazing! We were able to listen to the choir sing carols, drop off our gifts, eat an amazing breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and still make it to school in time for HBear to be called out of the office for her special birthday pencil 😊.
We gave her Ninja’s old phone. It doesn’t have a SIM card but it has a few apps, email and her calendar. The first thing they did was watch a video from Santa himself wishing her a very Happy Birthday! I love PNP!
After presents with the family, a very quick dinner of HBear’s favorite, tacos and the pottery birthday… We came home with 3 extra girls for a birthday party sleepover. The Girls were super well behaved and asleep by 11!
In the morning Maynard made his first appearance! All the Girls were very excited! In fact, one of the girls got all the girls to go to sleep 11 to make sure that Maynard came that night 😂. Thank you GR1Besty for the fabulous idea! In the morning we made cinnamon raisin French toast and the Girls picked up the keyboard, ukulele, guitar, and drums and saying Hey Jude… Over and over and over again. I think it is so cool that my Dad‘s favourite band is the Beatles, one of my favourite bands is the Beatles, and now my daughter and her friends are singing the Beatles! Obviously a band that stands the test of time.
At 10 AM SBean was dropped off from her fun filled sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I got all the kids ready and we were off to the first performance of the day! HBear and SBean we’re both performing with their musical theatre groups at the Lakeshore for their Christmas celebration. Carolling at 11 AM is the perfect way to start the Christmas season! They all sang beautifully!
After the performance we strolled through the market taking pictures and decorating gingerbread men! Then it was time to go to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and take all the friends home.
After a quick lunch we headed to the museum/Library for HBear’s S.T.E.A.M presentation. Grandma, Grandpa and Papa joined us to see all about the coding that HBear has been doing in her after school coding club. It’s pretty freaking amazing what these kids can do! Super impressed with the program! HBear was on the cover of the brochure! On the right with the grey shirt.
After a quick costume change LOL we headed back to the Lakeshore for the Girl’s second carolling performance of the day! It was even more special because the sun was setting and the lights were absolutely beautiful! Even though it was raining it did not dampen our Christmas spirit! We were a but early lol so we did pony rides!
From carolling we walk down Main St. to watch the annual Santa Claus parade. Again, the rain was a bit disappointing but the temperatures weren’t as cold as they were in years past so we were all pretty happy. I’m not gonna lie we all slept well that night 😂😊.
Later the next morning Ninja headed down to the crawlspace and we began our Christmas set up. By dinner the house look like Santa’s cottage and Christmas has officially begun!
For the Girl’s “special” ornaments this year, we picked out a snowy owl for HBear and a crystal snow fairy for the Bean.
After a weekend like that I enjoyed a well-deserved evening out with the ladies enjoying a few Wobbly pops 😉🍻.
Wow! What a week! I have to admit I’m happy that it’s over LOL but I am so grateful for all the amazing memories that we made 💛.
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