Nacho Cheese Dorrito Chicken Casserole

I so wish I would have taken a picture of this delicious dish last night, but we were hungry! I don't make this dish often enough, but it was the 1st time that Gretchen actually tried some of the chicken in a casserole- probably b/c we told her she was eating chips and dip!

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts
Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
Can of Cream of Celery Soup
Can of Rotel
Mexican Cheese Blend
Nacho Cheese Dorritos- crushed.

Directions:
Boil chicken breasts and shred into a baking dish. Add crushed dorritos and mexican cheese on top of chicken. Mix soups and rotel together and pour into baking dish. Cover with more cheese and more dorritos.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, covered with foil. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes.

It may not be the healthiest of dishes, but it is sooooo good!

A New Dress by GG

I don't have much time to post today; I'm swamped! But, I wanted to post pictures of the adorable dress that Gran made for Gretchen! My mother and step-dad were able to escape the snow storm in Arkansas and spend the weekend with us for Gretchen's birthday party! Gretchen couldn't say "Gran", but said "Gee" instead! So, Gee it is (for now anyway!)

So, here's the adorable dress that Gee made!

My child loves to color, so I had to include this picture of her coloring in her new dress.

The dress is made with navy cordouroy and has a monogrammed "G" in pink. It's perfect with a pink turtleneck and her pink kufi hat!

Gee made pants to go with the dress, but because she doesn't see Gretchen often, the pants were a bit short! It's a good thing that she can wear it with leggings or with pink tights! I have to add 2 pink bows to the top of the dress, and I might add a 3rd along the bottom! The bows will pin on so they can be removed for washing!

I love the dress, and can't wait for it to warm up a bit, so Gretchen can wear it! It's still a little cool here for her to wear dress (except for when we go to church), but if it can stay in the 30s (yes, the 30s here is warm right now!) then, I'll let her wear it to daycare one day! It's just too adorable!

Ladybug Party

Gretchen's 2nd birthday party was on Saturday. We planned an adorable ladybug themed party!(Maybe I'm a bit partial?) For my final birthday post, I wanted to share with you how I made our theme come to life!

First, I chose her outfit. I purchased the outfit from Castles and Crowns. You can find them here and request a catalog! They are based out of Mobile, AL. so if you're in the area- stop by there store! Since her outfit was hot pink and black, I decided to go with a hot pink ladybug theme rather than the traditional red ladybug theme. If you decide to go the red route, check out Hobby Lobby for some cute red ladybug items in their store now! Of course, I make everything difficult on myself, as I did with this by choosing the pink theme rather than red! In order to make it a tad easier, I added an accent color of lime green!

We brought in her picnik table so the kiddos would have a place to play and eat! I set it up with some coloring pages, so the kids could have something to do while all of the guests arrived. I printed off ladybug coloring pages (just google for some free ones), as well as regular crayons, ladybug shaped crayons (purchased from Etsy), ladybug pop-ups from a local party store, and paper yo-yo's in our hot pink, lime green, and ladybug theme (also purchased from a local party store).

I set up our kitche island with the cake and food! I purchased hot pink plates and napkins, and green utensils. My mother brought up the cake stand that my wedding cake sat on, and we purchased a ladybug cake from a local baker. Last year, I purchased a small plate and dish for Gretchen's very own personal cake and ice cream dishes for her to eat with every year! I also purchased a party hat from Etsy. These are displayed on the island as well! I sat out a platter of delicious pink iced sugar cookies, as well as pink, white, and red (so, I compromised a bit!) m&m's in a clear glass vase. Thank goodness her birthday is close to Valentine's day! I also displayed the ladybug marshmallow suckers in a large glass margarita serving dish!

Here's a close up of the cake! The cake was chocolate (yes, it's my favorite!) with hot pink icing. The ladybug on top is edible as well, so we had enough to serve 30+ people with some left over! The head was edible as well, and my husband called that piece! I simply took a few pictures and ideas to the baker, and this is what she came up with! Do you see the baby ladybug on top?

I made the birthday banner with help from a friend! I also found the instructions at Brown Paper Packages. You can find the instructions here.

For games, we played "pin the ladybug on the leaf" and we decorated a giant ladybug! I simply made ladybugs out of construction paper, and different size black dots from construction paper. For decorating the ladybug, I had all of the kids in the kitchen, and explained that the ladybug lost her spots. Then, we took them into the living room where all of the spots were layed out on the tables, chairs, and floor for the kids to "find".

The kitchen table was covered in a pink plastic tablecloth. I added black construction paper circles and taped them in place. I also made the watering can. You can find out how I did it here.

I sat the party favors on our buffet table. Green buckets for the boys and pink for the girls.

I filled each bucket with lime green krinkled paper to look like grass. Each child received a ladybug pop-up, and a paper ladybug yo-yo. I ordered ladybug shaped crayons from Etsy, and each child received one. I added a crazy straw, bug shaped gummies, and bug shaped graham crackers.

Phew! It was a lot of work planning and preparing, but I wouldn't change a thing! Gretchen had a wonderful time, and we enjoyed the time with our family and friends! Later this week, I'll get around to posting pictures of the party, and I have to update on some of the adorable hair bows that I've been making!!!

Marshmallow Suckers: Tutorial

I made these fabulous little marshamllow suckers as party favors for Gretchen's birthday! Here's a quick tutorial so you can make these darling things yourself!!!
Ingredients: Sucker Sticks (purchase at Hobby Lobby for $1.99- but print off a 40% off coupon online), Marshmallows (yes, I used the Wal-Mart brand), Sprinkles (any kind will do, but I used chocolate), food coloring (I wanted pink, so I used a neon food coloring), white chocolate almond bark (find this in the baking aisle)

Place 1-3 marshmallows on a stick. I only used 2 because I wanted to leave enough room for the kiddos to grab onto the stick. Don't push the top one down too far or your stick will be exposed!

Melt a few blocks of white chocolate almond bark. Stir in a few drops of your food coloring.

While holding the marshmallows by the stick, and while the chocolate is still wet, pour sprinkles around the sides and on the top. Now, here's where I "oopsed": purchase a piece of foam so that you can stick the sticks in and allow the chocolate to harden. If you don't do this, you'll have to lay them down onto wax paper to dry, which, still works, it just flattens one of the sides.

And, Voila! I did wrap these little suckers with fold over sandwich bags, and tie with a coordinating string! I also ordered ladybug stickers on Etsy, that said "Gretchen's 2nd birthday" on them. Each adult received a marshmallow sucker, and the kiddos had 1 in their favor buckets!!

VARIATIONS: Don't use a stick, and dip 1/2 of the marshmallow in chocolate and add sprinkles. Dip into white chocolate and add buttons, nose, eye details for a snowman! Use a pretzel stick as the stick.

Watering Can Centerpiece: Tutorial

I made this watering can centerpiece for Gretchen's 2nd birthday party.

1. I purchased the watering can from Meijer. It's lime green plastic and was about 6.00.

2. I wrote on one side "Our Little Lady's 2" and on the other side drew a big number "2" with a Sharpie.

3. I hot glued 2 ribbon ladybugs around "Our Little Lady's 2"

4. I cut scrap lime green and pink tulle and knotted it around the handle.

5. The inside is filled with pink crinkly paper.

The table cloth is made from a plastic pink party table cloth, and is taped underneath the table. I cut black circles from construction paper and taped them on the table to look like ladybug spots.

The Day Before Her Party!

It is finally here! Gretchen's 2nd birthday party is tomorrow, and I can heave a sigh of relief, knowing that I am almost fully prepared!

My parents are here, my house is "clean". I think I've accomplished almost everything on my "to do" list, that I had posted on Monday.

I have made the ladybugs for our game.
I've finished the door "sign".
I made the marshmallow suckers- I'll post a tutorial on these next week!
I have everything for the goody bags.
The center piece for the table is finished.
The banner is complete; although some of the letters keep falling off, so I'm going to have to super glue them!
We'll pick up the balloons and cake tomorrow!

I can see it all coming together, and I've relaxed a bit about not getting my house completly clean. After all, won't guests just mess it up a bit, and I'll have to clean again???

I'm so excited for the party tomorrow, but I know that we'll have a very busy weekend!

Stay tuned next week for pictures and tutorials!

And, thanks to everyone for entering the blog giveaway!

I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend!

Frugal Friday Meals: Taco Rice

I was browsing through the blogs posted today and came across "From My Kitchen to Yours" Frugal Friday Meal Ideas. I decided that I would link up and post one of my favorite quick, delicious, and frugal meals- TACO RICE!

Taco Rice:
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (I use ground turkey)
1 package taco seasoning
1 can of Rotel
1 can of Water
1/2 can of Minute Rice
Shreded Mexican Cheese blend

Directions:
Brown and drain the ground beef/turkey. Add taco seasoning, rotel, and water. Stir then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add 1/2 can of minute rice. Let sit 5 minutes. Top with shredded cheese.

I serve this with tortilla chips and cheese dip. You can also add a few tablespoons of pureed carrots to sneak in some veggies. We've used this once as an enchilada filler- spooned into tortillas and poured enchilada sauce over the top!

Valentine Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Kelly of Ovards blogspot! You've won the Valentine clippies and bow for your adorable little girl!!!

I didn't see your email address, so I left a comment on one of your blog posts! If you can, email me your address and everything will go out on Tuesday!

*I still have some giveaway winners that I haven't shipped yet, but those will go out on Tuesday as well!

Congrats again Kelly!

Today's the Last Day!

Go HERE to register to win 2 Valentine Heart Clipies AND a Valentine Hair Bow!!!!

Today is the last day to register, so hurry!

*Don't forget you can earn an extra entry by following "Honey Pie Accessories" on Facebook, and grab my new button!

Well, it's Wednesday....

My goal for Wednesday was to come home from work, exercise, and then spend the remainder of the evening cleaning the house.

I did most of the above: got home from work, changed clothes, put a pull up on Gretchen, worked out at the Y for about 45 minutes, came home, and cooked an easy dinner of chicken nuggets! I was cleaning the kitchen when Gretchen informed me she had pooped, so we took care of that and started to run the bath water. Gretchen did not want a bath at all, so I let her put in one of her magic water changing color tablets to entice her- which, it did not! She stood in the tub crying, so I managed to get tons of water on the floor!

Afterwards, I admittedly, put on Mickey Mouse and Barney, so I could clean some more, until her bedtime.

I did get the kitchen picked up (though, I really need to do some more), and the laundry taken back to the bedroom (it's not even put away), her bathroom is clean (though not the floor), and I've vaccuumed 1/2 of the living room!

And, I'm pooped! I'm relieved that I have the day off tomorrow, but I also have 2 appointments and my parents will be here (Yeah!). I'm really hoping that my mom will help- A LOT because I haven't gotten as much done as I've needed, or wanted to!

Wish me luck that tomorrow is more successful!