February {Happy Things}

It's time for this month's installment of my happy things.  Almost every day I write down something happy that happened that day.  I love remembering special little moments in my day and the simple  practice of  writing one thing down a day has really helped be thankful and filled with gratitude.  You can find January's post here and the HUGE post I did at the end of 2016 here.

1-Book club talked about one of my favorite books this year-A Man Called Ove 

3-Ava scored 3 3 pointers at her game! 

4-Cooperstown with Donna and Inez

4-Lisa's birthday party wa

5-Super Bowl party at our friends T and T's house 

6-Garden  Club meeting lots of planning for future events 

10-Awesome student leadership conference at work!  

11-Great Saturday work out at bootcamp and date night with G and friends 

12-SNOW DAY!!  We went sledding and had a great day with our neighbors outside
14-my Dad's 70th birthday!  Dinner at home with G and the girls for Valentine's Day!

15-I hosted Bunco at my house 

17-craft night!  We made burlap state canvases

18-Shopping trip to Bing with Ava

21-a quiet dinner at home with G

22-girls night at the Bside 

23-good run outside in warm (for February!) weather 

24-Ava scored 21 points at her game!  

25-Fun craft Day with friends and hot tub night with the girls!

26-Oscar Party 

27-Got lots checked off my to do list today!
28-Made a krispie king cake and will celebrate Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras with the family tonight!

February FLEW by!!  It was a great month minus the few days that I was sick with an awful cold.  In March we will celebrate Ava's 15th birthday, Brock and I will spend a week in Florida with my Dad and sister, I will spend a weekend in Florida with some dear gal pals, and I have two big conferences at work.  It's going to be a BUSY month!

Xoxo

28-Mardi Gras breakfast with family 

Impromptu Oscar Party

Last night I hosted an impromptu, informal Oscar party and it was lots of fun!  I love the Oscars and I really tried to see all the movies that were nominated this year.  Sadly I didn't get to see Moonlight but I am hoping to see it soon.  My friend V usually hosts a fancy Oscar party this year she couldn't so I hosted a casual party.  We had a great time.  

My neighbor and friend Kelly's twin sister was AT the Oscars!!   Kelly is next to me in the glasses.  She is an animator for a Disney.  She sent us pics of herself on the red carpet and we sent her this picture of us on my red couch 😂

 

I served Oscartinis as the signature drink.  They were delicious. 

 

I printed ballots and we voted on our favorite films.  

 

Vicki brought this amazing cake from NYC.  It was angel food and it tasted delicious. 

 

I made homemade popcorn and bought movie sized boxes of candy for snacks.  I thought it was a cute idea and my friends loved it. 

  

 

On our chalkboard I added a little poll and had my friends vote for their favorite movie.  

 

I was really hoping Hidden Figures would win best picture.  This was my favorite Oscar moment from last night.  I loved that the real Katherine Johnson got to come and be at the Oscars. 

 

It was a fun night!  I'm glad I had the party.  Sometimes last minute parties are the best.

Xoxo

Friday Favorites

Today I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea to share my Friday favorites.  I am soooo happy it's Friday!  We have some fun plans this weekend and I'm ready to relax.  It's been a looonnggg week!

 

Here are my faves this week

I've got spring fever! The weather has been beautiful in NY his week.  Yesterday it got up to 65 degrees yesterday!  I took a walk with my friend Jenn on my lunch break.  It was lovely to be outside in the sunshine  in February.

 

I also have been buying a few plants for our house.  I got these hyacinth  blooms at Aldi's yesterday.  I think they are so cute!  I also got some succulents for our dining room table.  Love them❤❤

 

 

 

Yesterday they started milling the lumber of the tree.  The lumber from the tree is going to go to Habitat for Humanity.  They sent us a few pictures of the milling process.  I think it's so interesting and I'm so happy the wood is going to build a home for someone.  

 

 

Tonight Ava has  a basketball game. It's the first round of sectionals.  We will be there cheering her on!

 

I've hoping this girl has her baby today. April is a giraffe that lives at Animal Adventure park.  We went there last summer.  It's a small zoo close to our house and it was a fun day trip.  Any day now she's going to have her baby!!  Ava and I have been watching  the live stream on Facebook.   

 

I hope you've had a great week!!  

Xoxo 

Life lately

This week is winter break.   Ava still has basketball and G and I are working so sadly we couldn't go anywhere this year :-(

Ava and her team have been practicing all week because they have a big game tomorrow night. 

 

 

I've been doing an 8 week fitness/healthy eating challenge with my dear friend Jenn through the Y.  Tomorrow is the last day.  I've lost 9 lbs!  We have learned so much and are going to keep up our healthy habits after the challenge because we'd both like to lose more weight.  

 

I am on the planning committee for a fundraiser for our Boys and Girls club.  The event is next Saturday!  It's going to be so beautiful.   I cost wait!

Our exchange student Anne is in Costa Rica for the week. We can't wait until she gets back.  Before she left she decorated an ice cream cake for Ava.

 

I'm still working on our tree scrapbook. I was going through my pictures yesterday and found this one. It's amazing to me that they were able to get it out of our back yard!

 

 

Last night I went  some girlfriends to celebrate national margarita day!  We had dinner and of course margaritas. It was so fun!  

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed a peak at our life lately. 

Xoxo

Craft night {burlap states}

Friday night Rachael and I had our monthly craft night.  This month we made adorable burlap states and they turned out so cute!  They were easy to make and it was a great craft night.

Here is the room before people came.  Since we live in NY most people wanted to make a New York. One lady did Massachusetts since  she is from there.  We used the silhoutte to make vinyl cut outs of each state.  We stuck the states on the burlap and then traced around them in chalk.

 

We had lots of paints and brushes so people could get crafty and creative with their states.    Since I'm from Illinois I made that as a sample for the class. 

 

Everyone worked hard on their projects.  

 

Here are the finished projects.  It was a great night! 

 

Next month we will be making terrariums :-) 

Xoxo

Snow Day Fun

We got lots and lots of snow on Sunday.  Everything we had scheduled was cancelled and we enjoyed a fun afternoon playing in the snow.  

After lunch Ava, Anne and I took a walk around the neighborhood.  Isn't the snow beautiful?

 

 

 

 

We met our neighbors at the CC for sledding.  The CC has the best sledding paths and we spent hours going down the hills.

 

 

Our little neighbor N built a snow fort which I thought was so cute.  

 

I love any day I can spend outside with the people I love!  It was a great day.

Xoxo

Sunday Supper {chicken parmesan and breadsticks}

Yesterday we were all snowed in so we spent the afternoon playing in the snow and then we came in and had a delicious dinner. We all love chicken parmesan so I decided to try to make it at home.

Chicken parmesan is a heavy dish and to make it a little lighter I used a skinny taste recipe.  I really liked this recipe and my family loved it too.   Since we were snowed in I had time to make homemade bread to go with our meal  It was a real treat!



I used my own homemade marina for the sauce.

Angie's marina
1/4 onion finely chopped
garlic ( to taste I used 4 cloves)
1/4 cup sugar
2- 28 ounce cans diced tomatoes (tuttorosso is best)
basil to taste ( I used the squeeze tube from the grocery store since there was no fresh basil to be had)
1 t oregano
1 t onion powder
1 T salt

Cook onion in olive oil for 3 minutes, add garlic and cook for one minute stirring often, then add tomatoes and seasonings and simmer on stove for 2-3 hours stirring often.

I made the bread dough this morning in my mixer.

The bread-sticks were SO amazing and tasted very similar to Olive Garden's bread sticks!  I will make these again for sure!

 

It was a perfect snow day meal!
xoxo

Valentine's Day 2017

We had a great Valentine's Day!  My Dad turned 70 yesterday so I talked to him in the morning to wish him a happy birthday.  We are going to celebrate as a family when we get together next month in Florida. 

 

I set our Valentine's table early so we could enjoy it for breakfast and dinner. 

 

 

 

For  breakfast I made heart shaped pancakes on the griddle.

 

 

 

For dinner G picked up pizza and wings on his way home from work so we had that.  We also gave  the girls their Valentine's Day gifts.  

 

On Tuesday's I teach two fitness classes at the Y so o made healthy paleo muffins for my classes as treats. 

 

 

Here's the recipe if you want to make them for yourself.

Paleo Muffins 

8 eggs

4 bananas

1/2 cup almond butter

A splash of vanilla

Mix all ingredients with a mixer for 5 minutes and then pour into muffin tins.  I usually eat these for breakfast and  use extra large muffin tins and this recipe makes 6.  This time I used a bundt pan and cut them into smaller pieces so I could get the 18 slices I needed for my classes.  

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Xoxo

Saturday Snack {Cinnamon Rolls}

On Christmas Eve my friend Rachael and I make the Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls for our friends and family for Christmas morning.  Its a fun tradition for us.  Each recipe makes about 8 pans.  We did a triple batch and we had a few pans left over so I put them in the freezer.  Ava and Anne were craving something sweet last weekend so we baked them.  They were just as delicious as they were Christmas morning.



For Christmas morning we packed up the cinnamon rolls with plates and napkins so our friends could enjoy them right away.

We don't add the coffee to the icing and we don't use quite as much butter as the Pioneer Woman other than those two things we follow the recipe exactly and they always turn out great!

These are a delicious treat!
Happy Saturday
Xoxo