Our Sofia the First Party!

We finished our 4 days of Sofia the First with a party, inviting our little friends over to dress like princesses and have fun!

I put up most of the decorations after the girls had gone to bed so the next morning Capri woke up and started checking everything out. Her comment, “it’s amazing!” and that pretty much made it all worth it! Here she is checking out the craft table.

I really tried to go as inexpensive as possible. So vinyl table cloth from the grocery store and the craft table and our coffee table were covered in butcher paper with princess stickers. I made a banner with paper streamers and also found other places around the house to hang the streamers

Of course we had the cupcakes we had baked the day before. I got the toppers from Hobby Lobby. They were funfetti cupcakes (from a box) with vanilla frosting and purple sprinkles.

Cheese and crackers. I planned to use my cookie cutters to cut the cheese but ran out of time. I did get to use some cookie cutters on some peanut butter and honey sandwiches (honey because it doesn’t stain like strawberry jam We also had veggies and hummus and some goldfish crackers.

These glass cups were such a great investment! This is the 4th party I’ve used them for in less than a year and I just keep changing out the ribbon and getting different paper straws! I couldn’t resist the purple chevron ribbon!

I’m not really into party favors, but I did end up getting these little tiaras to hand out!

Our guests arrived and we put on our princess gear (except for Harper who didn’t want to wear her dress – you win some you lose some!) Capri started a little dance party to the Sofia soundrack with this little friend who was very into it as well!

First craft we did was decorate our purple cups with some foam princess stickers!

More crafting.

And then a little princess snack break.

I got a great princess craft from Hobby Lobby – foam princesses that came with all the decorations – dresses, tiaras, jewels, etc… Here is a little Cinderella getting her craft on!

Glammie came too!

Everyone was pretty worn out after the party. Capri normally sleeps the longest but on this day she woke up first so she had a little snack and watched Mickey Mouse.

And we just recuperated the rest of the day! Now getting ready for 2 weeks of If You Give a (Mouse/Pig/Dog/Moose)….

Sofia the First Day 3 in Pictures!

Day 3 began our second week of summer! Harper was sad when she arrived but perked up a bit when I told her we would be making cupcakes!

Aren’t they just the cutest little bakers!?

Then we made princess wands…tiny ones. I didn’t realize we were out of regular sized marshmallows. But the little ones worked just fine and they had a lot of fun with them!

We had a snack time tea party which of course included a mini cupcake sans frosting. They also got to pick out their tea from the tea chest

Then they made their way outside to the sandbox…where Capri dumped sand in her hair and after that we did some time in the pool because I really don’t know how else to get all that sand out of hair! The rest of the afternoon was spent in the pool, naps, pool again, snacks, and a movie. I think they may have done some more coloring but I really don’t remember!

If You Give A…All Planned Out!

With 2 Weeks of Sofia the First behind us we are ready to tackle the second half of June! Who doesn’t love Laura Numeroff’s “If You Give A…” books? We love them! So much that Jeremy and I can read them with our eyes closed and Capri can recite them from memory too! We have 6 of the books. We received this awesome gift pack with 5 of them and then Glammie bought us If You Give a Dog a Donut at a book fair! So with 6 books I decided to do one each day, which is perfect because Harper will be with us 6 days the 2nd half of June! I referenced Pinterest, as you can see in the picture, but didn’t really get a lot from there. The books have so many obvious activities that I just went with those. Oh and that great notebook paper…that has someone else’s name on it…It’s part of my Thirty-One sample pack but I totally love it!

Here we go! I don’t know what order we will do these in yet…

IF YOU GIVE A DOG A DONUT

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) Make kites!
9:30   Pirate treasure hunt
10:00  Snack (donuts and apple juice!)
10:30  “Pick apples” find paper apples hidden around the house
11:00   Water play – water fight and bandanas
11:30   More Water play
12:00  Lunch
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30   Play baseball
4:00   Dance Party
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

IF YOU TAKE A MOUSE TO SCHOOL

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) Science experiment (TBD from Pinterest)
9:30   Put notebook and pencils in backpacks (and color)
10:00  Snack
10:30 Write a book
11:00   Water play or park
11:30   Water play or park
12:00  Lunch (in a lunchbox!)
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30   Make a shoebox mouse house – use play dough for furniture
4:00   Chalkboard or soccer/basketball/skateboard
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

IF YOU GIVE A MOOSE A MUFFIN

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) bake muffins
9:30   Sew on a button (maybe these or get some lacing cards from Hobby Lobby)
10:00  Snack (muffins with blackberry jam!)
10:30   Paint scenery on cardboard
11:00   Water play or park
11:30   Water play or park
12:00  Lunch
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30   Make sock puppets
4:00   Puppet Show
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) Farm Crafts (got some like these from Hobby Lobby on clearance!)
9:30   Take pictures and mail to friends
10:00  Snack
10:30   Dress up and dance party
11:00   “Bath” outside in the pool with rubber ducks and bubbles
11:30   more water play
12:00  Make pancakes with syrup for Lunch!
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30   Decorate ‘treehouses’
4:00   Pack suitcases and pretend to go on a trip
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) bake cookies
9:30   bake cookies
10:00  Snack (cookies and drink milk with straw and use napkins)
10:30   Make mouse beds
11:00   Park or water play
11:30   Park or water play
12:00  Lunch
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30  Make mouse masks and also draw a picture, sign it, hang it on the fridge
4:00   Clip and paint nails /  sweep the house
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PARTY

8:00   Arrive, hang out
8:30   Talk about day, read book
9:00  (Colette naps) make party hats and dress up
9:30   play hide-n-seek and have a pillow fight
10:00  Snack (ice cream or Popsicles)
10:30   make ‘bumper cars’
11:00   Park or water play
11:30   Park or water play
12:00  Lunch
12:30  Watch a show and chill
1:00    Nap
3:00   Snack and a movie
3:30  build a fort and decorate it with balloons and streamers
4:00   Play in fort or have a party with the stuffed animals
4:30   Clean-up
5:00   Go Home

Sofia the First Day 2 in Pictures!

And we made it through Day 2! The morning was a little harder for us and we started to run out of things to do…and then they were super tired after ‘swimming’. But I felt like they played super well together in the afternoon which is always fun!

We started out making pasta necklaces. Unfortunately the whole saga wasn’t overly successful. If you follow me on Instragram you probably saw how I tried to dye the pasta purple (like Sofia’s necklace) but I didn’t do it right and so they really weren’t purple. I tied the string to a pipe cleaner so it would be easier for them to thread. It worked ok but they lost interest very quickly and Capri also had to go to time out during the whole process so not awesome.

And then we did some painting! Huge success! They loved it. We had to set the timer for every 2 minutes so they could keep trading the colors but they had a lot of fun!

Of course, Colette wanted to do some painting too!

And then it was time to break out the pool! I got this same pool last year from HEB and it didn’t work very well but when I asked Jeremy to pick up a pool he got this one again…It actually worked really well yesterday! The girls LOVED it! I had to force Harper to go inside because she wanted to keep playing!

So cute!

They were pretty wiped out after being outside so we put Winnie the Pooh on and chilled for a little bit before lunch (they wanted blankets so they could be cozy because they were ‘cold’ after swimming).

So ‘we’ made this Sofia the First craft. Super cute but I don’t really recommend it. It was a pain to cut out and even more of a pain to put together. I used tape instead of glue. I put it together for them and then surprised them with it. Capri loved it! Colette got a hold of Harper’s though and crushed it a little bit…

We ended the day with a little Sofia the First dance party…which they were SUPER excited about.

They love each other so much!

 

Sofia the First Day 1 in Pictures!

Ok, so you saw how I had it all planned out…well here is a little recap of Day 1!

Sofia the First Dresses! They were both pretty excited which made me excited because I had kind of prepared myself for the possibility of disinterest…because you really never know with 2 year olds!

Watching an episode on the iPad!

Sofia Tiaras – look at that face! This drama queen cracks me up! Harper was a little more into this than Capri, who tore hers up moments after I put it on her head!

Tea party – they love this and wanted to do it again in the afternoon, but I had just cleaned it all up! Jeremy had tried to get me to get rid of those little tea cup/tea pots but now I’m so glad I saved them! Having their own individual tea pots was awesome!

 Coloring (although in this picture they aren’t actually coloring anything Sofia the First related!

All 3 girls loaded up and going to the park…we didn’t get to stay as long as planned though because I’m not quite used to potty training and we had to come home to use the bathroom

Sofia cut-outs. Capri was way more into these than Harper was…Capri really loved them. She was playing with them, naming the different characters and making them talk to each other!

And that was Day 1! The only thing we really didn’t do was build a fort so maybe we will do that another day!

And My Obsession with The Sprouted Kitchen Continues…

Sprouted Kitchen’s Roasted Cauliflower Capellini. I love cauliflower and I’m pretty sure everything is better when it’s roasted! So I really enjoyed this recipe, but Jeremy didn’t really like it. I think the word he used was ‘funky’. I think it was the nutmeg that threw him off. He wasn’t a big fan of that taste with the cauliflower and pasta. The changes I made included using regular balsamic vinegar instead of white, I didn’t use hazelnuts because I couldn’t find any at my grocery store but I put some toasted pine nuts on top instead, and we used Parmesan instead of Pecorino. I liked it, but like I said, it wasn’t a huge hit in our house so I’ll give it 3 stars.

Sprouted Kitchen’s Moroccan Stuffed Squash. So I was nervous about this one a little bit, but I love acorn squash so I knew I wanted to try it! My changes – no cumin because of Jeremy and I used goat cheese instead of feta because that’s what I had on hand. So Jeremy arrived home as this was cooking and I knew he wasn’t too sure about it. Then he told me that he thinks he is allergic to coconut…so I quickly put some water on the stove and made him a separate serving of quinoa sans coconut milk. He also didn’t eat the squash which was covered in coconut oil. Luckily my brother was visiting for dinner so I got to share the full meal with him (oh Capri ate too…except she put one bite in her mouth and spit it out and then preceded to eat yogurt and granola).

Sprouted Kitchen’s Mushroom and Brown Rice Veggie Burgers. Jeremy has been a little hesitant entering our kitchen as of late, which seems unnecessary to me with more successes than failures but still he wasn’t sure about these either. Initially I was going to make them over the weekend and he informed me that they were not ‘weekend’ food. So I made them on Monday and he said, “make some fries or something so we dont’ have to eat ‘just that.’ He took his first bite and made a weird face and then he said, ‘not bad’ and by the end of the meal he was saying, ‘I have to stop eating this, I’m too full!’ So it all worked out in the end! Capri declared them ‘delicious’ but then didn’t eat very much so I’m not too sure if she liked them or if she was just copying daddy. I left out the garlic and I think that would have really changed the taste. Next time I’ll use less fennel. Maybe with the garlic it wouldn’t seem so strong but it was a little more than I wanted it to be. I’ve made veggie burgers before and these were both easier and tastier. They can be made ahead and then baked for 15 minutes so it could be a great meal for guests. The toppings were great – hummus, avocado, and caramelized shallots! Oh and we used spinach instead of arugula. 5 stars!

4 Days of Sofia the First All Planned Out!

Ok so the summer has started! We are kicking it off with two weeks of Princess Sofia! I have Harper here two days for the first two weeks and since we had a lot of Sofia activities the first two weeks will be centered around Sofia the first!

Look at me all organized! What? Your summer plans aren’t neatly organized like this? It’s probably because you need one of these awesome Thirty-One Fold N’ Files – only $25 and if you spend an additional $10 this month to hit $35 you could also get our Large Utility Tote for just $10 (normally $35!)…ok shameless plug over. However, it really did motivate me to start getting it all ready to go. Sadly I only had those ugly army green hanging files to use…maybe I need to go buy some hot pink ones to match!

So because I am a freak I have mapped out the 4 days by 30 minute increments so that we can attempt to keep on our toes and do lots of activities! Just know, it’s all in good intentions. I have no doubt we will veer from the schedule very quickly but I think it will help me when they start to fuss at each, I can just look at the schedule and ask, “ok, what’s next!?”

So, if you want to use it too, here you go (sorry I didn’t take the time to make an amazing photoshop version for you…I just wrote mine out on some awesome Thirty-One notepads (really I’m done, I promise!)

DAY 1

8:00   Arrive, hang-out
8:30   Discuss the day, give them the Sofia dresses that I made (more on this in another post!) and play dress-up9:00   (Colette takes a nap) girls watch an episode of Sofia the first while I finish picking up breakfast and other things
9:30   Craft time! Make tiaras (will use this link)
10:00  Snack Time (tea party!)
10:30  Coloring pages (lots available here)
11:00  Go to the Park
11:30   Park (probably still on the swings
12:00   Lunch
12:30   Watch a show and chill
1:00   Nap time!
-
3:00   Snack and a short movie while they wake up
3:30   Sofia Cut Outs (found here)
4:00   Build a fort (or castle
4:30   Clean-Up!
5:00   Go home (and I go cook dinner! because there is still 3 more hours to go with my two kids!)

DAY 2

8:00   Arrive, hang-out
8:30   Discuss the day, dress-up/free play
9:00   (Colette takes a nap) girls watch an episode of Sofia the first
9:30   Craft time! Make Sofia necklaces with pasta dyed purple
10:00  Snack Time (tea party!)
10:30  Coloring/ painting (lots available here)
11:00  Water time in the backyard
11:30   More water time or take a break to pain our nails purple!
12:00   Lunch
12:30   Watch a show and chill
1:00   Nap time!
-
3:00   Snack and a short movie while they wake up
3:30   Sofia 3D Paper craft (found here)
4:00   Play-dough or dance party
4:30   Clean-Up!
5:00   Go home

DAY 3

8:00   Arrive, hang-out
8:30   Discuss the day, girls watch an episode of Sofia the first
9:00   (Colette takes a nap) Bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s tea party
9:30   More cupcake baking and rolling marshmallows in sprinkles!
10:00  Snack Time (tea party!)
10:30  Coloring (lots available here)
11:00  Go to the park
11:30   Still at the park
12:00   Lunch
12:30   Watch a show and chill
1:00   Nap time!
-
3:00   Snack and a short movie while they wake up
3:30   Make wands and/or Princess Amber fans
4:00   Treasure hunt with Sofia printables and/or make other tiara (found here)
4:30   Clean-Up!
5:00   Go home

DAY 4

8:00   Arrive, hang-out
8:30   Discuss the day, put on dresses and start to decorate!
9:00   (Colette takes a nap) watch an episode/decorate the house
9:30   Prepping for party
10:00  Sofia Tea Party!
-
12:30   Lunch
1:00   Nap time!
-
3:00   Snack and a short movie while they wake up
3:30   Make Father’s Day Cards
4:00  Put all of our stuff in our ‘books’ (I have scrapbooks to put all of their summer activities in!) and talk about the week and start talking about next week!
4:30   Clean-Up!
5:00   Go home

Summer Plans

Ok, so I’m a planner. That’s how I manage to stay sane. So the summer is almost here and this summer we are going to have so much fun! Because Capri is a little older and because Capri’s friend, Harper, will be with us 3 days a week! I think it’s going to be awesome, but I also think that I need to do some serious planning to keep two toddlers and an almost 1 year old busy! So I’m making plans. I’m pinning like crazy. I’m searching the clearance racks at Hobby Lobby and Target. I’m printing coloring sheets. I’m preparing to sew!

I’m going to share my plans with you. I would love feedback and ideas. I would love it even more if you did some of the activities too so we could share in the fun!

It worked out best in my mind to theme each week and focus on activities surrounding that theme! I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty excited about this!

Now the first week is the only one I really have fully planned but you can check out my Pinterest boards for all of them to see what I’m thinking and I will try to post my planning updates as I pull stuff together!

Week of June 3rd and June 10th – Sophia the First. I went with two weeks for this one because I have plenty to do and we only have 2 days, plus I’m sure we’ll make some father’s day stuff too. We are a little obsessed with the girl we call Princess Sophie in our house. So I have plans to make some purple tulle dresses, we have lots of coloring pages from the Disney Jr site. Some things we are going to do – make necklaces out of pasta, make tiaras, make wands, build a castle fort, paint our nails purple, and bake cupcakes for…our Sophia the First tea party! Yes! We are inviting our little friends over for a tea party where the girls can dress up, do crafts, drink tea, and have snacks! It’s going to be so fun! We will also also be watching some episodes during the week. We have one downloaded and Disney Jr has a new one on the site every week. If I can get a hold of a copy of the movie we’ll watch that too. We also own the CD of the music so I’m sure there will be plenty of dance parties!

Week of June 17th - If You Give A… We own 6 of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books by Laura Nuemeroff and we love them. There are plenty of activities to do with these! I think we will be doing some fun stuff in the kitchen as well as some cool crafts!

Week of June 24th – Back Yard Bible Clubs – Our church is doing clubs and we are hosting one in the morning so that will take up our mornings that week and I think the afternoons will be spent recovering and just doing regular fun stuff like painting, coloring, swimming in the pool, etc…

Week of July 1st – 4th of July – So we will make an attempt at being patriotic with crafts and recipes this week! If anyone has any good pre-school appropriate books they recommend that would be cool…maybe we should watch Fieval! although I kind of remember that being really scary to me when I was little…

Week of July 8th – Cinderella - We love Cinderella in our house. She is a good princess – humble and kind! Plus the little birds and mice are super cute. We have a Cinderella coloring book that we will use. I’ll rent the movie from the library…maybe we will even check out the sequel. I might make something like this for them to wear! I have also found some paper doll printables and such. Maybe we will decorate a pumpkin! I also have some color on wood princess castles that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby that we will probably use for this week.

Week of July 15th - Doc McStuffins – I think this will be fun too! We will watch some episodes and see if we can get our hands on some books. I have some little felt messanger bags that I got on clearance a while back and I think I’m going to make them little doctor kits! I’m sure there will be a lot of pretend play this week with our stuffed animals and we will also do some coloring and other crafts to go with it!

Week of July 22nd – Queen Esther – Because for sure we should do a biblical princess too! I’m thinking about trying to get the Veggie Tales version of this story but I think we will also read a couple of versions from the different kids Bibles we have and I’ve found some good activities on Pinterest for this as well!

Week of July 29th – Madeline - Again, renting movies and books from the library and using Pinterest to inspire some crafts for us!

Week of August 5th – Butterflies – We just have so many books about catapillers and butterflies that I thought we could certainly fill a week with this stuff. There are lots of crafts and I think it will be fun.

Week of August 12th – TinkerBell – Capri already has a fairy costume from last Halloween so we will see what Harper has…there are some adorable ones on pinterest that I am tempted to try! I’m thinking we might have a little party for this one too…we could make little fairy houses!

Week of August 19th - Belle - Belle was always a favorite of mine so I couldn’t leave her out! I know I’ll want to make this in yellow…but we will see…

Week of August 26th – Brave – I’ve only seen this movie once but people seem to really like it so I threw it in there too…however I know there is a chance we won’t need it but if we get that far I’m sure I can find some good stuff!

So that’s the plan! I will try to update as much as possible! Let me know what your summer plans are or if you have any wonderful ideas for me to add!

 

More of What We Are Eating

Sprouted Kitchen’s Edamame Dumplings. These seem like they are going to be hard but actually they were not difficult and didn’t take too much time! But I was worried…I wasn’t sure about the flavor. I thought they might be weird – BUT they were not! They were awesome! The more I ate them the more I liked them and I even thought they were better the second day! So I didn’t use the lemongrass because I couldn’t find it at my grocery store. I also couldn’t find mirin so I just used rice wine vinegar. I also skipped the microgreens/pea shoot garnish because I don’t have a lot of extra cash right now. I took the suggestion to sear them on each side first. I just used olive oil since I thought that much sesame oil might be strong for us. I love what it added to both the texture and flavor and none of mine came apart while steaming as a result. We gave these 5 stars! So good!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Ranchero Breakfast Tostadas. This is what we made for our family (including my parents) on mother’s day. I love breakfast but I tend to go heavy on the carbs and I wanted something that would taste somewhat healthy and fresh but that my dad would also think was awesome. Of course I turned to my Sprouted Kitchen cookbook because clearly I have some sort of obsession! These were sooooo good! They were everything that I wanted them to be! The only change I made was to leave out the cumin because Jeremy can’t eat it but otherwise we followed the recipe. Sometimes with a recipe after I make it I wish they would instruct on how to eat it because we were a little unsure. My first attempt I cut it with a knife…the 2nd one I made I went ahead and crushed my tostada up first and then piled on all of the toppings. It wasn’t pretty but I didn’t care! We liked it so much that the next day when we were make regular breakfast tacos we decided to make the beans that way again – mashing and mixing in a little sour cream with salt and pepper. 5 stars!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Pumpkin Pecan Granola. Have you ever been making a recipe and realize it uses way less of an ingredient than you thought it did so you decide to just double, triple, or whatever the recipe so that you use it all up? Well, that’s what I did with this recipe. I opened my can of pumpkin and then realized I only needed 1/3 a cup so I decided to…wait for it…quintuple the recipe! This was going swimmingly until I realized that I was going to end up using my entire bottle of (new) organic maple syrup (plus what was left in my Mrs. Buttersworth bottle), use all the oats left in my house plus a cup of steel-cut oats, and not have enough pecans or raisins…It’s all good though! I made Jeremy a batch without nuts anyway and have just been adding the raisins in as I eat it. I love pumpkin and I love granola so there really was no way I wasn’t going to like this recipe. I do like it. Although, not gonna lie, I’m still partial to the granola I grew up eating…Capri, however, couldn’t probably eat this day and night with a little yogurt to go with it – she absolutely loves it! 4 stars!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Toasted Millet Salad with Arugula (Spinach), Quick Pickled Onions, and Goat Cheese (with roasted chicken). So I was nervous about this one too…I wasn’t sure I would like it. I LOVED it! I used spinach in place of arugula because sometimes I don’t really like arugula. I also added some shredded roasted chicken that I had left over from the night before (it was a good call). This was so great. We ate it warm the first night because I was not going to wait for the millet to cool down and I actually preferred it that way even though I had it cold as leftovers later. I also used regular balsamic vinegar instead of white because that’s what I had on hand and thought it worked out just fine. I think this may become one of my go to sides to bring places! And those pickled onions – so good! I can’t wait to try them on some fish tacos! 5 stars!

Look forward to more reviews for The Sprouted Kitchen as I plan on trying the Moroccan Stuffed Squash and the Roasted Cauliflower Capellini this next week!

Fun on the Run Summer Special!

Get ready! My 2nd special of the summer is now available!

1 Large Utility Tote in Pink Cross Pop with embroidery “Fun on the Run” in black (retail value $42)
1 About Town Blanket in Black with stars icon and embroidery “Super Star” in hot pink (retail value $50)
1 Fresh Market Thermal in Pink Pop Medallion (retail value $50)

Have you added it up? That’s $142 in retail value and I am offering it to you for only $105!!!
Check out the picture for the full effect. So if you love this Fun on the Run package, post a comment to let me know that you are ready to purchase! First person to comment and commit gets it!
*Some of the items have been used for display purposes
**Embroidery cannot be changed
***Standard sales taxes will apply