The Most Fabulous Valentine's Party

Tonight Kevin and I attended one of the coolest Valentine's Day parties every (in the top 2 with our Night O' Love with the Westphalen's and Whitfield's).

Our friends the Kent & Becki and Steve and Laurie really outdid themselves and through an amazing bash.

They had LOVELY decorations all over the house hanging from the ceilings, on the doors, in the windows and more.

They had every little detail covered from lip stickers on the champagne glasses, to oversized cupcakes, cups of Twizzlers, chocolate covered marshmallows, gift bags filled with American candy, a huge punch bowl of mojitos with limes and mint leaves frozen in the ice cubes. They made amazing sweet and savory treats along with everyone else bringing some goodies to share. One thing you can say about our American get togethers here that we really go all out with the food.

They had loads of fun games to play as well for the couples in attendance. We started out with a "Name that Love Song" which Kevin and I, well I did really well on and helped us move on to the next round. The second round was Kent's game which consisted of each couple blowing up 7 of the tinniest balloons and popping them. Kevin and I did well in that one as well but I think we cheated a little because we didn't tie our balloons we just blew them up a bit and smashed them between our hands and legs. The third round was Steve's game of each couple holding an apple between their heads. He gave commands and if you dropped your apple you were out. Kev and I prevailed and made it into the final found of a toned down "Newlyweds" game. Kevin and I did really well there too but I said I worried most like my mom and Kevin said I cooked most like my mom. He was so sweet, but we lost by one!!!

Our friends Simon and Sarah have been adopted by our American group. I think they had a really good time. It's so great to share such a wonderful time with such wonderful people. Sarah and I have become very good friends over the past 2 1/2 years and she's been so vital in helping us feeling so welcome when we first moved here and I'm glad she is my friend!!!

We didn't get to take a group picture, but a couple of the girls left towards the end all posed together. From L to R you have Lana, Holli, me, Becki, Laurie, Miranda, and Sarah.

The Newlywed game was so popular that they threw together another round with three new couples. Simon and Sarah took the top prize which was a box of Hamburger Helper. A very funny story behind it all. Jeanne Schaefer talked about making Tuna Helper for her family and Simon as a truly witty Brit piped up and asked it if was giant fish that came knocking on your door to help you with house work. He's so full of it, but some of us tried explaining what it really was. Steve and Laurie happened to have a box of Hamburger Helper at their house so they awarded it to Simon and Sarah so they could enjoy some American "convenience" food.

12 Pounds and Counting...

For the past 4 1/2 weeks Kevin and I have been hard core on losing some extra weight for health reasons and to fit back into some clothes. It has been almost 1 1/2 years since I had Harrison and I just got tired of only being able to wear 3 pairs of jeans, so I wanted to get serious about doing something. We have both tried the South Beach Diet in the past and thought we would really follow it and not try to be too extreme and I took on a personal challenge of trying to find make meals and foods that didn't make us feel like we were on a diet.

Well, we have both worked really hard and I am now 12 lbs lighter than I was at the first of the year!!! I am 138 lbs and I haven't been at that weight since college and I'm loving it!!!!! I am fitting back into a lot of clothes and I've found that other clothes are now way to big. Kevin has lost 18 lbs and is looking great and feeling great as well.

We are still sticking close to the Phase 2 of the South Beach until we reach goal weights. We have had some splurge moments - going out for Burns' Night and a few days over Addie's birthday with all the sweets in the house, but for the most part it's working great. It has been hard not being able to eat pasta, rice, and potatoes but it's all been worth the short term for the long term effects.

You'll have to wait to see pictures when we reach our goal weights but keep praying for us that we can keep at it. I have been working hard to find "legal" foods for us to eat and have got some great new recipes for them so if you are interested in trying out the diet for yourself check out my other blog site for all our weekly menus and recipes!!!

thingsiliketomake.blogspot.com

A Day at Toddler Playgroup

On a more regular basis now, the kids and I have been going to the Glinton Toddler Playgroup on Wednesday mornings up at the village hall. I had switched Addison's preschool to Monday and Tuesdays so we could make it all work. Playgroup starts at 10AM and for about an hour they get free play with loads of toys and some kind of craft to do. Today the kids got to make pancake faces. They all got little pancakes and then used icing, raisins, chopped apricots, gummy teeth and lips.

Harrison really gets along good with jumping right in things now.

Around 11PM it's Tea Time and while the Mum's get tea and coffee the kid's get juice and biscuits. Today they get extra treats of their pancakes and birthday cakes from some of their little friends. After snacks, while the mummy's clean up and put away the toys someone reads a few stories to the kids. Then we do a little sing-song time with a parachute and sometimes musical instruments. It is a lot of fun and Addison has made quite a few little friends that she now goes to pre-school with. Sad thing will be that most of them will be starting reception come this fall so they will be at school all day everyday, but she'll probably be going to preschool 5 days a weeks so she'll be busy herself...ahh the life of a 3 year old!!!

Addison's Royal Princess Birthday Party

Today is the BIG day - Princess Addison's Royal Birthday Party!!!!! Here is our little princess in her brand new pink princess dress that Mommy made for her just for the party. It was my first attempt at anything of this scale - with a zipper, puffy arms, full skirt and hemming up over 6 inches on the dress (which I really need work on but it turned out okay). For my first time making a large scale dress it was pretty good. We put a few curls in her hair and a little make up on her face and she was ready for the royal ball.

Once all the other little princesses arrived they went into the living room where I had some tables set up to make pink and purple magic princess wands.

We wanted to make sure the glitter glue got dry before we whisked off to the royal ball so I had a little hair dryer set up. I think the girls liked being able to use the hair dryer because they actually went back to get more glitter glue so they could dry some more.

Once all the princesses were ready I had all the mommies go into the "ballroom" (our conservatory) and then all the princesses paraded their way through a curtain of pink and purple streamers into the magical ballroom for their princess party. Harry accompanied Princess Addison.

The first game we played was "Pass the Frog." It would be pretty similar to Pass the Parcel but I had the girls pass around a little squeeky frog and when the music stopped they had to squeeze the frog and then they could pick a little present out of the magic bowl.

Addison watched very intently as the frog passed her by each time because she had been dying to get a little present ever since she saw me wrap them up a few days earlier. It was really funny because some of the girls would hold on to the frog forever waiting for the music to stop but then others would throw it as soon as the music stopped so they wouldn't have it. It was also so cute to watch when the music stopped right after it was passed to see which of them would claim that they would get a prize...to precious.

While they all sat on the carpet eating their special treats, we played a game called "Kiss the Frog." Each girl was blindfolded and given a little set of lips to put on the frog to see who could turn him into a prince. Addison was pretty close but her friend Madeline took home the prize but no prince.

Next each girl had a go at pulling a string on our castle pinata. We had to see who had the magic touch to release all the treasures hidden inside. (I had a total blast making the pinata out of some old cereal and juice boxes and crepe paper. It turned out great.) Addison was the first to pull a string and the expression on her face when it didn't open was priceless, she was so upset that she didn't have the magic touch...yikes! Well, her friend Lauren had the magic touch and out dumped the treasure.

And like all good princesses they all dove to grab some candy. That's when I handed out to them their goodie bags to put their treasure in. They were little satin purses that I made out of the extra fabric from Addison's dress. They all were monogramed with each girl's letter of their first name with a silver draw string. I also had a little bag of Cadbury's Chocolate Buttons (Addie's favorite), a little sparkly bracelet, and a candy necklace (had an interesting time trying to find those here).

Then the little princesses sat down for a royal feast of fruit, veggies, yogurts, heart shaped pizzas, turkey and ham wraps, chocolate covered marshmallows, birthday rice krispy treats, crown shaped sugar cookies, chocolate coated pretzel wands, and purple homemade marshmallows.

After our feast we got ready for the cake!!! I was so excited to finally get to make one of these Princess Cakes where the cake is the skirt of the dress. It took me from 9AM to 11PM to start baking, cooling, freezing and frosting this thing but it turned out amazing. Also as you can see I joined in the fun of dressing up as well. The bridesmaid dress I had from my sister's wedding matched the colors perfectly and so I splurged and wore it for a second time (not common with most bridesmaids dress).

Addison seemed to beam from ear to ear with smiles as everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she worked hard to blow out the candles without spitting on the cake. The cake tasted awesome and I indulged in a piece myself (heck with the diet today, it's a special occasion).

Here are all of Addison's princess friends - Kylie, Robyn, Robyn, Lauren, Gwen, Emily, Ella, Alana, Elise, and Madeline!!!

Addison seemed to open a lot of her presents as her friends arrived but she had a few yet to open towards the end of the party so her little friends helped her out.

After everyone left I got our little princess to pose by the castle I had made out of our toy storage unit. She is loaded up with sugar and ready to go....straight to her nap!!!!

First a quick picture with Prince Harry!!!

Just a few pictures of the party before the party started....here is a tiered tray of the chocolate covered wands, the sugar cookies, and rice krispy treats shaped in little muffin shapes loaded with frosting!!!

This was the place settings for each girl. Each one had a pink plate (Addie got a special princess plate), but then they each got a cookie wand and a cute little wine glass with straw.

Here are the goodie bags I made for the girl's...had them displayed on the Princess tea tray Addie got last year for her birthday!!!

These turned out great and tasted absolutely amazing - chocolate covered marshmallows!

The princess cake adorned in PINK icing and filled with chocolate goodness. I tried decorating it too look like Addison's dress that I made her.

Here is the castle I made out of the toy unit - just some old packing paper that came with my Pampered Chef stuff and some water color paints.

Kevin helped me hang pink and purple balloons from the ceiling in our conservatory. I also drew out some of the faces of the Disney Princesses and painted them to hang on the windows.

Emily came over the night before and helped me hang streamers from the light to the walls and Addison's birthday banner that Grandma Sally made for her finished everything off.

How My Baby Has Grown...

Addison Marie's "Birth" day

1 year old birthday

2nd Birthday

Now she's 3!!!!

The Birthday Fun Continues....

Today Addison's birthday packages arrived from Grandma and Grandpa, along with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lindsay's. Grandma and Grandpa sent money earlier but today Addie got a fun stamp and sticker set along with some Valentine's treats that we immediately hid until Sunday.

Grandma also sent this super cool heart scarf and Addison was so excited to have her own scarf like what Mommy wears. Kevin tried helping her put it on and Addison quickly corrected him in saying that "You only wear scarves outside, Daddy" She got a cute tutu skirt and a heartshaped necklace from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Lindsay and Cousin Emma. They also sent some great V-Day gifts that we have stashed away.

Harry wasn't left out...Grandma Sally found a really cool book on Trucks for Harry.

Today was a really busy baking day for mommy and the kids helped out a lot (whether mommy needed it or not). They were my royal taste testers...Addie had to make sure that the chocolate coated wands tasted okay. She ate one and said, "Mommy, I don't want my friends to have these." I asked her why, did they not taste good. She said, "No, they taste really good, I just want them for me."

Harry helped me clean up the beaters from the three different batches of chocolate cake I made for Addison's princess cake.

The kids helped me make mini heart pizzas for the party.

We made sugar cookie wands...

And late at night after they were dreaming away I started working on constructing her princess cake and decorating the "royal ballroom." I was up pretty late but had some help from Emily and Kevin with the decorations.

Happy 3rd Birthday Addison Marie!!!!

Today is Addison's 3rd Birthday!!!!! We've all been pretty psyched up for this day ever since Christmas was over. It is actually really nice to have something in the middle of the lull of winter to look forward too. We had lots of things planned for today so we started things out in full swing with her getting to open some presents. Auntie Min and Uncle Danny had ordered an Aqua Pad from Tesco to be delivered the day before her birthday. She absolutely loved it and it was also a great toy for Harry to play along with her.

Ironically, Addison has been going on for weeks about how excited she is for her princess party, but for her birthday present she wanted a choo-choo train!!! A Thomas the Tank Engine one of all things. Well, I figured it would be a good way to start a nice collection of train tracks for both of the kids so we got Addie the Figure 8 Stop and Go set.

Before he headed off to school, Sammy stopped over with a gift for Addison. Simon and Sarah and family had gotten Addie a super cute apron that said Mummy's Little Helper and also a Dora light that changes colors. She as so excited!!!

We had to get our breakfast done and all of us had to get ready for toddler playgroup where we got to bring brownie cupcakes for all the kids to share and Addison got to ride on the parachute as we sang Happy Birthday to her and her friend Ella who's birthday was last week.

After playgroup we had a surprise for Addison. We went to go pick up Daddy from work and got to have lunch at McDonald's. This was a special treat for all of us since Kevin and I hadn't eatten French Fries in over a month while being on our diets so I savored every single one of them!!!! The kids enjoyed their fish finger happy meals and balloons and then we had to head home to get Addie's birthday cake made.

We got out the train set so we could play with it and between that and the Aquapad the two kids were pretty busy all afternoon.

Well they really got entertained when I decided that I was sick of how messy the closet was and started sorting out some winter items that we didn't need downstairs anymore. The kids dug through the basket of hats, scarves, and mittens and got themselves dressed up. They completely refused to take any of it off for almost an hour, but they had fun and I got my closet cleaned out.

That night we had a nice "healthy" supper after splurging at McDonald's and I made a "healthy" chocolate cake for us to share as a family. Yes, I used Splenda and whole wheat flour to make this tiny chocolate cake so it fit with our diet. (Sorry Addie but you get the full fat, full sugar one on Saturday!!!)

Addie didn't seem to mind the healthy cake...chocolate is chocolate!!! I did manage to dress it up with some pretty sprinkles, candles and one of her little princess dolls. She really enjoyed blowing out her candles and asked for more presents after dinner. We told her that we got to all wrestle in the living room and that was better than opening any presents for her.