Cousins Are So Much Fun!

Max has a cousin here, I have a cousin here, there are cousins all around!  We had a great weekend hanging out with Christie and Adam. They are thinking of moving from NC to our area and we are excited!  We toured them around a few areas and found some promising places they will look into. Max got 3 new pair of shoes and an ADORABLE outfit to wear to Jen's baby shower next weekend.  The adults don't have anything to wear, but as long as the kids are cute that's all that matters right?

All the cousins.  You can't tell that the kids don't have pants on so now that I told you you're in the know.

I love my little Hadley.  Max saw us hanging out with Hadley and wanted to come over for a picture.  I joked that this is what it looks like to have your baby look like you because Hadley has dark hair and eyes. She's such a good girl, always happy and willing to just hang out.  When she's tired though watch out, she'll scream!

Max was being so sweet all weekend and we'd just say to him "go give Hadley a kiss" and he would gently go over and kiss her.

 

Sweet Girl. 

Friday Letters & Food Friday-Broccoli Ravioli Bake

Dear Friday, Yay! You are here. And with you here means that my sister, Hadley, James and Maddie are visiting!! They got in early this morning (1am) and I got to hold and love on little Miss. Hadley for a few minutes.  My cousin Christie and her husband Adam are also coming to visit this weekend so I'm excited. Hurry up day.  Dear Weather, Blah- Rain all weekend. Not cool. Dear Person Who Stole My Debit Card Number, not cool either. They used it at a Federal Express in Memphis or so it says. Good thing I'm a freakin bank stalker and caught it within hours.  Dear Self, April is almost over (crazy right) and you didn't finish most of your April goals... Better step it up next month.

This Food Friday recipe comes to you from Mix and Match Mama (Sean from the bachelors' sister). I modified it a little bit. This is SO simple to make and takes less than 5 minutes to put together. The rest of the time is just baking.  This makes the perfect week night meal that everyone will LOVE.

Ingredients-

1 package of frozen ravioli thawed in refrigerator (any flavor) or you can use refrigerated ravioli but those are more expensive and you need more of them.

1 box frozen chopped broccoli

1 (16 oz) jar alfredo sauce (I liked the Newmans Own she recommends)

1 cup milk (I used almond milk)

1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Layer in a 9x13 baking dish, ravioli, broccoli, Alfredo sauce and milk. 

Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together in a small bowl your Panko, Parmesan and Italian seasoning.  After the 30 minutes is up, remove the foil and spread your breadcrumb mixture over the top.  Pop the casserole back in the oven uncovered and bake another 15 minutes or until slightly brown and bubbly.

All done! How simple was that.  It was a hit in our family so I wanted to make sure I archived it on the blog.

More Garage Sale Finds & Tips

I feel like I should have a weekly post on this at the rate we're going.  This past weekend we were back at it going to some garage sales. We went to another fantastic community (Windemere, where we got married on their golf course) to see if we could find any outdoor furniture, baby stuff and good deals.  I'll show you some bargains steals we found.

This lady was AWESOME. She sold us this table for $20 and the chairs for $1 a piece... seriously $26 total. The table got chipped when her husband moved it from the basement, but David glued it back together. We are thinking of sanding and re-staining (the bench is not part of this).

The table goes smaller and I'm thinking of putting it in our breakfast nook.  It actually fits really well there and makes our space look a lot bigger than our tall square table we have in there now.

I found these cute canvas wall art that I thought I could use for my t-shirt project but they were way bigger than I thought they were.  I got 3 of them and the 3 beautiful picture frames for $8 total.

One of the other big steals of the day was this outdoor couch set.  The cushions are a bit dirty, but other than that everything is in great condition. It came from the same lady as the table set from above.  She wanted $50 for it but David talked her down to $30!

We found this water table for Max for $5 that David wants to modify and add things to.

We also found some fabulous baby gates (I think I have a baby gate garage sale addiction) and David bought a box of door knobs (completely normal right?). Included are a really nice front door one just like we have and some interior ones that will be great for our basement remodel.

Garage Sale Tips-
-Go early. This is common sense maybe, but if the sale starts at 8am make sure you are fed and out the door by 7:30. You need to arrive about 15mins early to start scoping out.  Drive around to get a feel for where the sales are and the big items if that is what you are looking for. To us, we don't bother going to sales after 9:30am, it's pretty much over for us. Unless you are looking for small decorative pieces or baskets (there seems to always be baskets).
-Furniture and bigger items go FAST.  I can't tell you how many times we came up to a sale and people were walking away with beautiful rod iron lawn chairs and lawn mowers.
-Don't look like a million bucks. No one will make a deal with someone in a suit, David goes to the way opposite spectrum, but just a t-shirt and jeans are cool.
-Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. If it says $25, just ask nicely would you take $20 for that instead? Most the time they will or leave a little more wiggle room to have them negotiate up.
-Always be polite when you go to a sale, say hello, how are you and when leaving (even with nothing) make sure you say thanks. You are rummaging through peoples personal belongings and this makes them feel more open and friendly towards you (Davids tip and it works great).

The Pinterest Party Results Are In!

We started the pinterest party off with yummy food and beverages.

On the menu was Kerry's delicious Eclair Cake.

Erin brought this amazing skinny funfetti cake dip via a recipe she found on Pinterest. My picture doesn't do it justice. It tasted JUST like the cake batter, but its safely edible and delicious!

I supplied the margaritas,

Some dip and I made my M & M bars. We had way too much food for us, but we didn't mind one bit.

One of the highlights of my night was getting to use Erin's cricut machine. I love it, but it is a lot of pressure to make sure your design is straight when applying the vinyl.

My first project was to clean my make up brushes with hot water and vinegar followed by rinses. I thought this would be an easy task, but I have to say...

Pinterest Fail.  My makeup caked up to the top of my brushes and did not look good.  Mom ended up just washing them with some dawn dish soap and that worked WAY better.

My next project was converting t-shirts to wall art via canvas. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased 8 x 10 canvas for a decent price and used a staple gun to staple the t-shirt to the canvas. It was a fairly easy task, but the staple gun was harder to press than I anticipated so it hurt my hand.

 I only ended up doing Max's Wild Thing T-shirt and 1 old Cheer shirt. They came out great though and I will finish them at some point. Success!

Erin made these adorable magnets from scrapbook paper

And helped me with this monogram vinyl for this clear cup she had. How cute is this!

Action shot. You can see Mom hard at work on covering our kitchen bar stools. 

This is the fabric I chose.

It takes a long time to do one and we were all too busy talking, drinking and eating to do a complicated project. This is our finished product... JK. She used foam padding and batting around the chair. It is quite comfy now and I can't wait till we finish (pics to follow-someday).  Yay Mom!

Kerry really embraced pinterest for her project. She decided on a burlap wreath. Now, haven't we all wanted to make one of these?! She found a GREAT tutorial and was able to make this faster than any of us with our projects.

 

I mean seriously, this looks professionally done. Fantastic Job Kerry!  Success!

Here we all are with our projects.  We had a few gals who were unable to make it to the party, but we will definitely have another one so hit me up if you are interested.

David was taking the pictures and said "OK, now look away." Apparently Kerry and I were the only ones to take direction.

Kerry and Erin

 I love my cup (and the cricut, and Erin)!

Max was outside with David and David (David's BFF) and this is what they were doing (apparently Max was pretending he was the dog). I'm linking up with these lovely blogs below.

You Can't Get Any Cuter Than This

I took these after he got his hair cut and you just can't get cuter than this! 

 I think this was after a nap because his hair is sticking out on the side. Adorable though.

 He loves to play hide and seek around the couch and column we have between the family room and kitchen.

 He lays down and just laughs and screams (in a happy way)