First "Real" Fireworks!

Happy Monday to you!
Up until last night we had a pretty uneventful weekend here. Saturday we didn't leave the house ALL day. It has been quite a while since we have done that. Even though we were home, we were anything but lazy. Russ had some yard work and I had a battle with the weeds that were invading the playground area. I have been unmotivated to go after them until I invited some friends over for a play date later this week. Then that motivated me to clean things up!
Yesterday was church, "naps", bike riding and real naps. We told the girls they would have a special surprise later that night if they took naps and guess what, it worked! Those two have not simultaneously napped in almost a year and they were both out in a matter of minutes. I am sure it probably helped that we didn't start naps until 4:00 but we were both impressed and thrilled.
We grilled pizza, cleaned up the house and headed off to our surprise. A trip to see the BIG fireworks! I have been wanting to take the girls to see them for years. But it is always so late and they were so little it just didn't seem like it would work well. We finally decided to go for it and I am so, so, so glad we did, 

First stop was a trip to Sonic for half price shakes! 1 medium chocolate (M & E), 1 small coconut cream pie (my fav) and 1 small cookie dough (disappointing) for Russ and I to share.

We got there early and set up to watch. The girls were so excited they just kept jumping and yelling BANG, bang and then they would giggle and squeal. I am sure the ice cream high helped out a bit with the excitement.

The display started about 10:00. I have never been so close to fireworks as we were last night. It was AMAZING. Emily went from a little unsure and scared, holding her ears to so happy and squealing, screaming out all the colors. They kept saying that some of the gold ones looked just like pixie dust. We laughed at the girls and were mesmerized at the amazing display that just kept going on. 

Such great memories with our girls that I will never forget, I hope they don't either.
How was your weekend?

Five On Friday/ Pirates, Summer and More

Friday... again.

I really, and I mean REALLY like Fridays but they are coming and going WAY to fast this summer. This summer has been loads of fun but WOW, the weeks pass by like crazy leaving me thinking how is it Friday again. And how is there only 6, yes SIX weeks left before we start school.

This weeks FIVE!
{ONE}  Photo-booth pictures
Remember our first sleepover post from Monday? I took the girls to a photo booth and posted this picture. 

Well, yesterday the pictures that were taken were finally posted to the photographers website.

Haha, Oh my what cuties. They were all pretty shy about it. Can't wait to take the girls back next month and see what the theme will be then. 

{TWO} Pirate Princess
While we are on the subject of dress up my girls have became obsessed with this movie

Marissa received it as a birthday present and naturally days later it was released on Netflix. I think the girls have watched it 4 times in about a week. We have always loved Tinkerbell movies and this one just may be our new favorite. It is also the first Tinkerbell movie that little boys would probably enjoy as well.

Marissa has taken a strong liking to Zarena the pirate fairy and can be seen roaming around like this most days.



If you haven't watched it yet, do it! 

{THREE}

Hello Canva, where have you been my whole life. I may sound a bit slow. But, I JUST discovered Canva yesterday morning. It is an AMAZING tool and bloggers best friend. You can EASILY create beautiful Pinterest friendly/ Blog images.
I made both of these in about 15 minutes yesterday.

Check Canva out!

{FOUR} Coors Summer Brew
My favorite new beverage of summer, I love this stuff. I am not a huge beer drinker. But man this stuff is amazing. 

{FIVE} Pool time
Last weekend Russ was away so the girls and I spent some time at my parents little pool. It was awesome. We need to go back again soon. 

What are your weekend plans?

Easy Chocolate Syrup {Recipe}

In an effort to save money and cut out as many unnecessary sweeteners and preservatives I have done A LOT of experimenting in the kitchen over the past year. If I can make it cheaper and/or remove an ingredient I try it. One of the switches we have made has been from buying already made chocolate syrup from a bottle to making our own. This has been a very welcomed change. I find the flavor to be less sugary leaving more of a chocolate flavor. Even better is how easy it is to make! 

Chocolate Syrup

Ingredients 1 1/2 Cups Sugar

3/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa

1 Cup water

Dash of salt

1 tsp vanilla

Directions.  1. Pour sugar and cocoa and salt into a medium sauce pan, stir with a whisk to mix and break up any clumps.
2. Stir in water, over medium heat slowly bring mixture to a boil stirring occasionally. Cook for 1-2 minutes after it begins to boil. Remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes then stir in vanilla.

3. Allow syrup to cool until room temperature. At first it may appear bumpy/bubbly but it will smooth and thicken up as it cools. Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate. FYI: This recipe fits perfectly in a pint size mason jar 

It's The Little Things/ Trampoline Fun

Marissa received a trampoline for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Don't worry, it wasn't a surprise to the Mr and I. My parents had asked about it months before and after we did some thinking we decided to give the green light. It may just be one of the best decisions we have ever made. In  just over two weeks the girls have spent hours on it. Sitting, prancing, laying, somersaulting, rolling, JUMPING and having so much fun. I have laughed so hard at them playing, playing with them and watching them play with Russ. It has been AWESOME.
A few random thoughts on trampolines 1) Best place to sunbathe.... EVER 2) How did we not break every bone twice BEFORE a genius became a millionaire with the cage invention.
3) Why did I never think of putting a sprinkler underneath one as young kid.
Last night they were playing, while Russ and I were working and doing some watering in the yard. They kept BEGGING me to spray them but I was pretty focused on finishing up the watering and didn't. When I was done Russ and I did some plotting on a way to surprise them with the hose and these pictures are the result.

They were SOAKED!

This is how summer memories are made!

Frozen Birthday Party

Last week Marissa turned 6! A week later I still can't believe she is that old. This year she chose to celebrate by having a small family party and a sleepover. I shared our first sleepover post yesterday. Today I wanted to FINALLY share some pictures from her small, simple birthday party.
I didn't go crazy with the decorations or the food. Honestly I think I spent under $5 on the decorations. Most things I made with stuff I had around the house, or found things to print off online and revamped them to make them a bit fancier.
 Blue and white streamers, snowflakes, pint size mason jars, Epsom salt and frozen figurines to decorate the mantel.

More streamers, snow flakes and her sisters Anna doll.

Since I couldn't find a banner to buy, I made one. Construction paper, yarn and some printables.

I used these Frozen Characters other Frozen Images

Do you want to build a snowman?

Centerpiece made with Epsom salt, pine cones, candles and a plate I had lying around.

Streamers and snowflakes

Of the 20 + snowflakes I made, this one was my favorite!

That was it for decorations!

Her cake was chocolate, with chocolate icing per her request. I am NOT a cake decorator. I did make the 3 layer chocolate cake from scratch but when it came to decorating I just slapped the icing on there and attempted to make some snowflakes with melted chocolate.

I also made the Queen of Ice an Elsa cape. Boy oh boy was that "fun".

But she loves it, even if it didn't turn out completely perfect. 

 All and all it turned out great. Especially seeing it was a very small family party.

All of the decorations stayed up for a whole week the girls LOVED having them around and I had worked so hard on them, I didn't mind either.

With the girls birthdays over for this year. My  Birthday party planning for the year is done!