Happy Easter!

More Easter fun! We had a little get-together with some missionary friends tonight, and the kindergarten teacher came out in me.

The cupcake toppers are from Skip to my Lou. I love free printables. I would love to cut out the free printables with a cute little scallop punch. I had one in America, but it got cut from the "bring" stack when I came back home to Kenya because it weighed too much. I am thinking it may make the cut on the my next trip home. Cardstock would also help a bit, but it's not so easy to find here.

I do love when I can do little things that are a taste of Ameria. As much as I LOVE my Kenyan life, it is great to have glimpses of America, especially during holidays.

Menu plan board

Meal planning and cooking is a tough task in this country. There are no restaurants that I would want to frequent more than occasional outing (meaning no American food restaurants), no drive-throughs, no easy prep foods, no frozen food section of the grocery store to give you a head start on peeling and chopping vegetables. We don't have some of those staples that you add together to make some quick home cooked meals, which makes looking at recipes on Pinterest quite frustrating at times! You know, things like Rotel, tortillas, cream cheese, cream of mushroom soup, etc. And some things are just SO expensive you can't buy them often, like chicken breasts, cheese, broccoli (when it can be found).

On those long, busy days when you are really just too exhausted to cook a meal from scratch....well, there is no other option. Unless you plan ahead. Having things in the freezer is a lifesaver. But....you have to have them in the freezer ahead of time. Funny how that works, huh? And if you know me, you know that I am the Queen of Good Intentions, but that follow through thing......well, I don't really have that. And that is not really fair to a three year old. She likes to eat food. She kinda needs it, too.

So, thanks once again to Pinterest, I have spent hours looking at and making meal planning ideas. Hours. I tried forever to find a printable that I wanted to use. Then, I just resorted to creating my own. It kind of worked.

But then I saw one on Pinterest that I really liked. So I made it! I actually made it...from start to finish. Well, almost to finish. It still needs to be laminated. Seriously, that follow-through, last-step thing....it's a doozy for me! I saw it Saturday night and I made it Sunday afternoon.

And best of all, I did not buy a thing for it. I had the chalk board that I brought from home, not knowing what I would do with it, but knowing it would come in handy someday. I also bought a bunch of cute file folders with the same thought and intention.

How it works is my favorite part! In the "Meals" pocket, I put a lot of strips of meal ideas. On Sunday, I can pull out all those meal strips, lay them out, keeping in mind what I have on hand, what I have leftover in the freezer, what days are busy and need easy meals, etc, and stick them on the days. As I am putting them up and seeing the bigger picture and realize I need to change something, I don't have to erase or scratch out, I just move it. I can also pull the recipe cards I need for the week and put them in the recipe pocket so they are close on hand.

I realized after I made it that I probably should have made a breakfast column. That is why there are two on the left side.

The key for me is planning ahead and being organized in meal preparations. I know, that is key for most people, but it is an absolute must when there are no "back up" plans, like a Chick-fil-a run or pulling out a frozen pizza. This made it so easy to look at the whole picture and see what all I could make ahead of time, at the same time, or in pieces.

And look! I really did it! And even better....it worked! Well, so far, at least.

And another plus - it's cute. :-) At least I think so. I needed something to cover these drab walls!

Now, the big question....will the Queen of Good Intentions actually continue to use this?! I hope so! It has already made a huge difference this week so I really think I will. We'll see....

More Birthday Pics

Because there were too many great moments and shots not to share.....

 My beautiful girl :-)

 My weird little girl loved chomping on rock salt while helping Papa make homemade ice cream.

 "Thank you for coming to my party" favors ~ Minnie Miniatures packs

 T-H-R-E-E candles!

 and a hug from my baby :-)

 reading a Tinkerbelle book with cousin Lauren

 her new boo-tiful Cilella carriage (beautiful Cinderella carriage)

...finally. taking a break and enjoying my homemade ice cream after everyone went home. 

Getting ready is half the fun!

We had two "Come Meet Julia" parties to welcome Julia to America. My parents hosted one in Midland last weekend, and Kris & Barry hosted one in Houston yesterday. It was so great to see great friends and introduce them to my beautiful daughter.

I love hostessing parties and had a blast with Julia's black & pink zebra parties! I kinda went a bit overboard, but I just claim the fact that we didn't have a baby shower, a first birthday party or a second birthday party, so I crammed it all into one! (or two)

The getting ready for the party is half the fun! I started early with making scrapbook pages to tell "the story of Julia." In her {almost THREE!} short years, she has had a unique journey. Her life is a blessed story and a testament to God's grace and redemption and I was very eager to share her story with our friends.

We also started dipping chocolate and preparing the fun treats for her parties. Thanks to Caitlyn in Midland, and Monica and Kirsten in Houston, who came over the night before to help dip and sprinkle, we had plenty of fun pink, black, and zebra treat!

Julia, of course, had to do her part to help, too. She baked her own cupcakes and "decorated" the kitchen with cupcake wrappers while I busy with other things.

Here is are some of the prep pics. Seriously, getting ready is half the fun!

 Oreo Pops!

 My Mom's trick - get it all laid out, putting things in their bowls/dishes or post-it notes to label what goes in so that others can help get things ready before the party.

Tune in tomorrow to see the finished product of Julia's "Welcome to America" parties!

A Productive Day?

I would say so! And a fun day, too!

After ten years, my best friend just rolls her eyes when I voice my plan for a long list kind of productive day, especially if it involves the kind of thing I always say I want to do, but never really do. That would be something like plan ahead and cook several meals to have in the freezer. In theory, that doesn't sound too hard, but I am notorious for wanting to do that, but never actually doing it. And though it is a normal thing for many women, I just never follow through and do it. So, today is documenting my follow-through!! :-)


And this cooking ahead thing would come in soooo handy here, this place where everything must be done from scratch. I can't just open the freezer and pull out a bag of veggies to defrost and add to a casserole. You have to plan ahead for vegetables because they are fresh and have to be soaked and/or rinsed in dye to kill germs before peeling, etc. 

Finding boneless chicken breasts is like finding hidden treasure in this town, and so expensive I usually can't afford to buy it when I do find it. 

There is no such thing as a back-up, junk food kind of lunch like Hot Pockets either. Oh, how I would love to have some Bagel Bites to heat up for Friday movie nights. That reminds me of my growing up years. :-) 

And tortillas!! Oh, tortillas!! What I wouldn't give to have store-bought tortillas!!! Fajitas, burritos, quesadillas! Mmm!

So, enough ranting. I just had to prove to Kris and my mom that I did actually follow through with a day of cooking ahead! And it is no easy task when making pizza pockets involves making the dough and bean & beef burritos involves making the tortillas. (Although I did cheat a bit on this one and used left-over tortillas from earlier. And to see that homemade tortilla process you can CLICK HERE). 

The menu included a few thing that I didn't take pictures of. Oatmeal for breakfast, cornbread for a treat for the girls at the baby house, (They love cornbread! They eat is as a dessert.) and banana bread.


Then, pizza pockets.....

And baby bean & beef burritos....

And corn dog muffins....

And with help from my special little girl.... 

"Happy Birthday, Jesus" Party

I love traditions. Today, I started a first Christmas tradition that I want to have for my own family. We had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party. 

 My first attempt at a layered iced cake. It may not look so great, but it tasted pretty darn good! The inside looked better than the out. :-)

 We had fun sharing it with our friends, the Brooks's.

 

After overloading on sugar, we made a few Christmas crafts.

LOVE the tiny fingers! Julia is very much into fine motor things. Me taking the stickers off for her just wasn't good enough. 

 More tiny fingers 

Baby Girl had a great time, and we look forward to the many more "Happy Birthday, Jesus" parties she will enjoy!