A Luau Potluck

During our Memorial Day weekend we hosted a luau themed potluck for our friends and family!
Lets just say it was a blast!
Thank you to everyone who came to hang out and brought a dish.

 

We had fruits, cookies, shrimp, punch, chicken, pork, drinks, chips, marshmallows, beer, wine, mixed drinks, mixed in with TONS of laughter, Frisbee, water balloons, a splash pad, bubble, a bon fire and good music!

 

All the men had to try out the coconuts :) 

Frisbee in the rain :)

190 balloons gone in 10 seconds!

Pinterest win!

My babies :)

 

 

I can not wait til our next one!

 

Thank you to:

Terry, Reesa, Aaron, Max, Tracy, Joey, Greg, John, Whitney, Courtney, Dallas, Kristyn, Christy, Michael, Dakota, Alora, Aaliyah and the Hubby for making this such an amazing and memorable luau!

 

So sorry we missed all of our other friends!



2 Pinterest Wins for Our Luau

When we host potlucks and usually theme it to help set the mood of the parties. With May being national Luau month that was the theme this time. I have never Bering to a real luau so I was really confused on food.

besides fresh fruits I decided to contribute a shrimp dish, a pina colada punch, and pulled pork.

I researched pinterest for inspiration and took 2 leaps this time for food. (I usually only pull one off per potluck)

First up Pina Colada Punch:

Pina Colada Mix

Pineapple Juice

Ginger Ale

Simply mix the mix and juice together and chill over night with the ginger ale and then mix together before serving.

Not only was this simple but a huge hit for the kiddies at the party! 

The second recipe I did was a shrimp dish. 

Another simple dish!

1 stick of butter

1pound of shrimp 

1 lemon

and italian seasoning

Melt the butter on the bottom of the dish

slice the lemon and layer on the lemon slices.

Place the shrimp on and sprinkle with your seasoning!

Pop that bad boy in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes and TATDA your finished!

Easy peasy! 

While We Were Out: Memorial Day Weekend 2014

All I have to say is I really need another 3 day weekend to recover form this last one.

We were BUSY BUSY!

Friday the hubby got off work early and we treated ourselves to a lunch date.

 

Since he LOVES fried chicken (me not so much) He wanted to hit the local Popeye's. For the Cajun style chicken they offer.

Then it was off to get the food and all for the luau that we were hosting the next day. We spent the evening cleaning and setting up and helping a friend with her new home as she needed some lighting "expertise" and the hubby is an electrician.

 

Saturday morning it was a luau prepping!

 

That night we hosted the Luau and we had an AMAZING TIME! (details to come this week)

We had a great turn out and got to see an old friend.

The girls had M and A stay the night with us and they were all sorts of excited.

(they love those boys)

 

Sunday morning Lo and A were off to my Godfathers to spend the remaining of the weekend there to swim and just chill.

 

M, D and Boo all hung out with us Sunday morning and we did a little shopping and treated the kids to Moe's for being such good shopping sports (M HATES shopping)

 

 

M's mom was kind enough to steal D and Boo and take them over to her new place and have them stay with her for the night which was SO nice and unexpected that we had no idea what to do with ourselves and were n bed at 9:30pm! (We party hard let me tell you)

 

We got up early yesterday morning and went to breakfast at cracker barrel 

 

and did some window shopping before getting the kids back. The hubby also needed to go hang some lights for our friend in her old house so we took the time to go there while she was keeping them entertained.

 

We spent last night lounging around the house working on odd and end cleaning things and early bedtime for us all. We were all exhausted and really looking forward to the shortened week ahead!

 

 

 



Memorial Day Weekend Plans

Memorial day weekend is the "unofficial" holiday that kicks off the summer and we are so excited for a 3 day weekend.

 

As we all have our cook outs, trips to the beach or lake, I have to say that the REAL reason we get to celebrate and spend the time with our family and friends is because of the AMAZING men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice and died for our country...



And thank you to their families who supporting them!

 

As for us we have a fun and jammed packed weekend planned for us.

 

This weekend we are hosting the luau potluck with friends and family here. We were to have it last weekend but Mother Nature rained on our parade with well rain and cold temps.

 

We are ready to distress with good friends, good food and drinks!

 

 

I am sure Sunday will be a day of recouping and putting the house together, and some family time.

 

Monday the girls are out of school for the holiday and I have thought about taking them to Lemon Tree one last time.

 

Lemon Tree announced that they will be closing their doors and I am so sad to hear this!

I guess we will be on the look out for a new fav spot...

 

 

Do you have a favorite yogurt shop?

 

Organized Choas: Getting Back on Track

When life spirals around you it is very easy to get overwhelmed and there for off track!

As a mom of 3 girls, a wife, a student, a "baby" sitter, and a biz owner of 2 small businesses life has started to manage me instead of me managing it.

While cleaning out for a neighborhood yard sale I quickly realized that my organizational skills have gone from close to OCD to unforgivably chaotic.

I made a pledge to myself to get it together, not only for my sanity (which is thin some days) but for the sanity of my kids and hubby who is on board with me in this insane roller coaster ride that we call life.  

My first step to this was cleaning out of course for the yard sale that is quickly approaching. Of course what we don't sale we donate the rest to local charities to give to people that are in need and not only does it help them but it helps us not to have all the clutter back in our 3 bedroom home.

This last weekend I decided that since there is a possibility of me going back into the working force sooner rather than later that it was time to get the kids involved in household chores.

Since we have not done chores for about 3 years now I wanted to re-introduce them slowly and have them do things that helped lighten the load but did not take all of the chores away.

The kids have simple things like make beds, dust, clean the bathroom and put away their own clothes.

I kept the laundry, dishes and things of that nature until they are ready to take on more things.

The next BIG task is going through and starting a better filing system for my filing cabinets.

This will be chore in itself and I am so afraid to take it on but it offers a good summer project while the kids are between grades. (More on this later)

I also want to reorganize our bathroom cabinet since we have 4 girls in the house you know we have a TON of stuff from make up, nail polish, hair products and more (poor, poor hubby)

How do you keep from life managing you?



Working Wednesday Featuring 3 Little Birdz

3 Little Birdz Boutique is a home based business ran by the AMAZING Dawn Bailey!

She was kind enough to allow us to feature her and her work her on our blog, so please be sure to check out ALL the stuff she offers and send her some love!

About 3 Little Birdz:

Serving your custom sewing & monogramming, children & adult design, and
painted wall art!

Description:

Most orders are custom made. If you see something you like Dawn can make most children's sizes.

 If you don't see what your looking for, send Dawn at 3 Little Birdz a picture or description and she will work her magic and do her best to accommodate.

Location:

3 Little Birdz is located in Benton Arkansas and on Facebook!

Sneak Peak:

Contact:

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The World of Art

Towards the end of the school year the elementary school that my girls go to host an annual art show.

They spend one day in an art class with an amazing teacher.

The kids learn about all sorts of techniques and create some amazing pieces of their own art utilizing the things that they have learned.

The end of the year art show displays 1 piece of art from each and every child in 1st to 5th grade.

The gym turns into a gallery, hosting the 100s of pieces.

(This is not even half of the work on display)

Boo was so excited to see her "Frog" be the pick of the year.

Lo was excited to see her "Safari" on display but so NOT thrilled I pulled out the camera on her..

The art show always offers crafts for the kids to do while they are there and this year was not an exception.

The girls really enjoyed their sand paper art and magnet making!

With life becoming organized chaos with the girls getting older I thought it would be a great idea to reintroduce chores for them.

They have had these before but I got overwhelmed having them redo it because they did it half assed, that we spent more time with do overs then it would have taken me to do it on my own, plus when I became a SAHM it was easier for me to do it all.

With the thoughts of going back into the working force and biz, building the studio, my school work and my baby sitting gig it was time for me to delegate some tasks to the kiddos.

I will share more about these later in the week and other ways I plan to re organize our lives.