"They like me. They really like me!!!"

Am I dating myself with the above quote?  Google it, kiddos, if you don't know it already.  
I've been nominated for a Liebster award! Out of all the blogs she must read and follow, My friend Jasmine over at FleurtyandFit nominated my little blog for a Liebster award. And I am SO grateful!!   The Liebster is an award for bloggers, by bloggers.  It's a way to discover new blogs, promote each other, and recognize each other's awesomeness! In Order to accept the award, you must follow a few rules.....  1. you must link back to the person who nominated you  2. you must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominator
3. you must pick 10 bloggers to be nominated for the award (with a small following)
4. you must create 10 questions for your nominees
5. you must notify your nominees



My questions from Jasmine: 1.  What was the first blog you ever read? Marksnews.com Mark is one of my oldest, dearest friends, and he posted the most interesting, funny stuff!  I wish he'd blog again.  Plllleeeeeaaasssseeee???   2. What are your top five pins on Pinterest? My Protein balls, my turkey and cheese pinwheels, Franks crockpot chicken,   my stuffed mushrooms, and my garlic and meatball dumplings  3. What is your go to easy recipe for dinner each week? Bacon wrapped chicken bites. Recipe HERE 4. What is your favorite social media site? Facebook, IG, Twitter, others? Facebook and Instagram!  5. Where do you see your blog in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? Oh gosh, that's a tough one.  I'd love to be doing what I'm doing now but with way more followers.  Blogging can be so time consuming, so maybe I could be making more money off of it then, but still doing what I love, cooking, crafting and creating with my kids, and still living a fairly healthy lifestyle and being an inspiration to others.   6. What is your favorite thing to do for fun? Play with my family.  Doesn't matter if we are at a playground, playing a board game, riding bikes, swimming, it's all fun with them.   7. Who is your best friend?  I have two.  Jaime and I have been best friends since we were 10.  She moved away 10 years ago but through years and miles apart, she has been at my side. She is the Godmother to my children and my unbiological sister.  I couldnt ask for a better female bestie.  Billy is stuck with me forever.  He was my ex-Fiance's best friend, and when we broke up, Billy stuck by me.  He can make me laugh like no other and is my kids' Godfather.  Jaime and Billy aren't just best friends, they are family.  And I'm so blessed to have them.   8. How do you promote your blog?  Mostly on Facebook.  An occasional shout out on IG, and numerous Pinterest pins.  And word of mouth has been my best support so far.   9. What is your favorite Disney Movie? The Jungle Book or Toy Story or Bedknobs and Broomsticks and I could pick a dozen more!   10. If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, with unlimited funds--where would you go?  Disney again.  My family had so much fun when we went back in March.  And then maybe Aruba.  And I'd love to take my family to Portugal to see my roots.  
Now I nominate: The ladies over at http://www.capecodmommies.com/mommy-blog.html Jannelle over at Sweet Connolly http://sweetconnollyphotography.com/?page_id=24 katie over at http://sasealiving.blogspot.com/ Ellen at Designing Main Street http://designingmainstreet.com/ Alison over at http://thealisonshow.com/   Miranda at MP Photography http://miranda-mpphotography.blogspot.com/  Cara over at  http://www.marvelouscara.com/ Mark at Marks News http://www.marksnews.com/  The ladies over at http://www.yourfamilynest.com/ NatSpencer over at http://glitterandthegirls.blogspot.com/ Melissa over at https://www.facebook.com/disneybf  Now, my questions for you are: 1.  What was your life goal when you were a kid? 2.  If you could move anywhere in the world, where would it be?  3.  What is your favorite book?  4.  If you could eat one thing every day without any negative side effects, what would it be?  5.  Is there anything you feel like you've failed at?  6. What is your dream job?  7. You have a Saturday morning to yourself.  No work, no schedules, no deadlines.  What do you do?  8. Who has been your biggest inspiration?  9. What is the weirdest thing about you, in your opinion?  10.  What do you wish you could do? 
Thank you so much, Jasmine!!!!  

Ohhhhh fuuuuuudgggggge

As you know, I'm always on the lookout for new ways to make recipes a little, or a lot, healthier.  I have a wicked sweet tooth and love my chocolate.  A friend posted a recipe very similar to this and it looked so yummy.  I'm always trying to make sweet recipes with a healthy kick.  Sometimes these recipes work, sometimes they don't.  Fortunately, this one totally works.  Its a "healthy" candy.  Definitely NOT healthy, by any means, but it has fiber, high protein, and probably lower sugar and fat than most fudge and candy out there.  And it is delicious.  REALLY delicious.  Here we go.

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter (I used 1/2 cup Jif, 1/2 cup Nuts 'n More high protein no sugar Toffee flavored peanut butter)
2/3 cup honey (Mine is local!)
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups of oats, not instant
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (I used the same amount in crushed up dark Hershey's chocolate because that is what I had on hand)
3/4 cup of any other toppings that you choose.  I picked peanuts.  You could use almonds, dried cranberries, coconut, sunflower seeds, etc)

Directions:

Melt together the peanut butter, coconut oil and honey in a saucepan over medium heat.  Remove from heat when fully melted together and add the oats, chocolate chips and toppings.  Stir until combined and the chocolate chips are fully melted.  Spread into a 9x13 pan.  Refrigerate until hardened, about an hour.  Store in the refrigerator.

Our Gabba party

My little one turned 2!  I can't believe it.  Time flies so fast, and it seems it goes even faster with each child.  The past two years have been so extremely busy but so outrageously fun.  My little one is a bundle of energy.  She is a little wild woman.  She is petite in stature but her personality is HUGE!  She can certainly run the house and boss the big kids around.  She is my little dynamo, a tiny terror, and my sweet baby girl, all in one.  And can we talk about her hair?  I mean come on, how awesome is this?!?!

Her favorite things these days are Frozen, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Yo Gabba Gabba.  Since my older daughter also had a Gabba party when she turned 2, we decided to go with the same theme.  The planning began and soon I hit a brick wall when it came to decorations and party supplies.  Even though you can order the Gabba party stuff online, the local stores all had their Gabba Gabba items discontinued a while back.  So pickings were slim. Of course I took this as a challenge and was able to improvise a lot.  And we had a blast at the party!

I was able to find a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba wall decorations,

some napkins and the candles but I ended up making a lot of the table decorations.  Buckets to hold the snacks,

The yellow bucket said "Plex mix" on it, with a homemade Chex mix that had all of my daughter's favorite snacks inside, the green one said "Brobee Booty" with Pirate Booty, and the red said "Muno's Munchies" and had blue corn chips from Food Should Taste Good.  The pink bucket didn't say anything, it just had Foofa's signature flower, and it held Food Should Taste Good's yellow corn tortilla chips.  

 the 2 table centerpiece which I made here

and the juice containers were turned into Gabba characters easily.

 I had homemade Foofa flowers, too.  

The cake was made by my wonderful friend who owns Cape Cakes by Kristen.  Check her out here.  She makes all sorts of cakes, cupcakes, cocktail cupcake shots and she can ship her cake pops across the country.  I highly recommend her!  

The top layer was all strawberry and the bottom was chocolate, as requested by my little one, with an oreo buttercream filling. 

And that dress my daughter was wearing?  It was a sheet from my older daughter's Yo Gabba Gabba toddler bed.   We had it made by my good friend Candice, who also made my daughters' Christening gown out of my wedding dress.  We are VERY lucky to have such talented friends.  

And for your viewing pleasure, Im adding a couple of my favorite pictures.  Last year, as we were wrapping up my daughter's 1st birthday celebration, we captured this on camera. 

One of my closest friends, Mark,  fell in love with the picture, had it blown up to poster size, and shipped it out to us.  We have had it hanging up over my daughter's crib ever since.  The night of her birthday, we decided to pull the picture down and try to get her to make the same face.  This was the best shot we got, and it's a doozy! 

I crack up everytime I see it.  Although she isnt making the same face, her hands are almost in the exact same positions, and that was something we didn't even try to get her to do.  We laugh all the time over this picture and can't wait to try to re-create it again next year!  

Disney's pineapple Dole Whip recipe

One of my top priorities when I was in Disney was to get a Dole Whip.  I had heard so much about them and was told it was a not to miss treat while I was there.  So one night in Magic Kingdom, my family made the trek across the park to get me one.  I ended up ordering the vanilla pineapple.  The rest of my family all ordered different ones, and then we all indulged.  If you've had a Dole Whip, then you know how amazing they are.  Even though the signs say it is dairy free, it is creamy, fruity, so yummy.  It is a tropical treat.  If you've never had a Dole Whip, then you are missing out.  But you also came to the right place.  Disney has shared their Dole Whip recipe with me, and now I'm going to share it with you all. 

What is a Dole Whip?  It is a  frozen pineapple or orange treat.  Almost a sorbet, but soft serve.  You can get either flavor, mix the two together, or you can mix either one with vanilla for an ice cream like treat.  Official Dole Whips are sold in the Magic Kingdom, at Aloha Isle, and at the Polynesian resort (in a self serve Dole Whip machine!) but other parks have knock offs.  We did also indulge in a knock off Dole Whip made with coconut rum while in Epcot.  It was almost as good as the one in Magic Kingdom, but a bit too strong for me since I don't drink.  It was yummy, though. 

If you don't remember, a while back Disney sent me a suitcase full of goodies, including tee shirts, Craisins, measuring cups, bingo cards and recipes.  One of those recipes was for the famous pineapple Dole Whip.  So thank you, Disney, for sharing.  My family has been having a blast making our own Dole Whips at home.  Last week we rented "Saving Mr Banks" from Redbox and we made our own homemade Dole Whips to go along with our Disney movie night.  For what it's worth, "Saving Mr Banks" is a terrific movie.  I definitely recommend it.  So if you're looking for a fun Disney family night, grab "Saving Mr Banks" or another Disney favorite, and make a Dole Whip.  Your family will thank you. 

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen pineapple
1/2 cup milk ( i used coconut milk)
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

 

 I tossed everything in my Ninja blender (but you could probably use a YoNana machine, or another type blender) and whipped it all together until fully blended. I then put it in a storage bag, froze it for an hour, and then divided it into 5 cups for my family of 5 and ate it all up. 

 

My family loved them and this is a treat that we will definitely be making over and over again.