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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Honey Lime Shrimp


For Whatever Wednesdays  Alissa and Shay, okay more Alissa then Shay...wanted us to post a recipe. (Alissa if you want more of my recipes click on my recipes tab, created just for you today, seriously.)

For our picnic in the park, I decided to make my quinoa salad and then I thought that some shrimp would be a really good picnic food. So I set off to find a recipe. I came across this recipe on what other then Pinterest. It has only 8 ingredients, and 6 of them I already had in my pantry, win for me. So here it is.

Stole this picture from The Dough Will Rise Again

We were supposed to meet friends at 6pm at the park, I started this at 4, should have started sooner, but I was napping, which felt great and I woke up refreshed and ready to tackle a concert in the park.

What you'll need:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (although I used 1 pound with the same amount of marinade and it worked great)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
Juice of one small lime, or half a large lime (2-3 T)
Zest of one small lime, or half a large lime
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Step 1:

It says to use a Ziploc bag, I figured I would put the ziploc in a small bowl so that I wasn't messing with trying to keep the bag open while pouring in ingredients.




Step 2:

Add Olive Oil


Lime Zest


Lime Juice


If you don't have one of these bad boys, you must go get one right now! Life saver and you get all of the juice out!

2 Tablespoons of Honey


2 garlic cloves - recipe says smashed, but I went the easy route and just used my garlic press


1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and 1/4 tsp black pepper. I just winged this, close enough, and I didn't want to make it too spicy in case one of the kids wanted one. Also my measuring spoons were currently in the dishwasher.



Step 3:

Mix ingredients



Step 4:

I used the frozen shrimp from Costco (2 pounds costs $20), I used half the bag, apparently I can't read and I thought the recipe called for a pound of shrimp, guess I was wrong, but it worked out in the end.


Step 5:

Put shrimp in bag and put in fridge to marinate. I've read on the comments that people do this anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. I did mine for just 40 minutes because that's all the time I had.


Step 6:

Cook shrimp in skillet, no need to add any more oil, it already has enough.



I did it in batches and had two skillets going. It only took about 10 minutes to cook all of the shrimp. We were out the door with it still hot and got to the park just as our friends were arriving. Perfect timing!

In the haste to get out the door, I forgot to take a picture of all of the cooked shrimp, just look at the 1st picture and think, with tails on. Mine pretty much looked the same.



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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

One Of Those Pregnancy Posts

First I would like to say, I hit 40 followers, woo hoo! Watch out world, here I come! And thank you to everyone who keeps coming back to read what I have to say.

I figure I don't talk about pregnancy that much, so I'll go ahead and do one of those pregnancy posts. Because I know you are all wondering, if not, then wait till tomorrow, I'll have something else.

Weeks: 32 Weeks

Ignore the toys, that's Noah's Ark, most of the animals are missing because Baby Fox thinks they're his babies and carries them around until he loses them, and then goes to fetch a new one. At least there is two of each animal, takes twice as long to lose everything. Oh and please excuse the way I look, it's right before bedtime and I've been up for 15 hours already.
 Belly Button: Creepy outtie, seriously, it's creepy, like where did it come from and I hope it goes away the minute this alien comes out. Oh and when you push on it, it's squishy, you're welcome for that visual.

Feeling: Sorta crappy. Gotta admit, I'm not one of those girls that loves being pregnant, it's a means to an end. Although do I really want a crying newborn? Hmm...I hope she's snuggly at least. I don't sleep and I wake up 2-3 times a night to go pee...waking up at 5am (technically 4:54am) to go to work doesn't really help either though.

Also feeling like oh my gosh we have 8 weeks left till due date, 6 weeks if she comes as early as Baby Fox did, and the room is no where near ready...when I say no where near ready, I mean we just ordered Baby Fox's furniture this past weekend, and we just got her bedding in the mail, and have NOTHING else.And the room is still full of my crafting stuff, and I have no idea where to put it...hmmm...???

What Happened This Week: Went to the doctors yesterday, going to the doctors every 2 weeks now (this is getting real!) Although all they do is have you pee in a cup, doc measures your tummy (yep it's getting bigger) and listens for a heartbeat. That part was cool, it goes, swoosh, swooosh, swoooosh, ah, music to my ears.

I can't remember what else people write...OH...

Looking Forward To: Maternity leave...4 more weeks baby! And of course meeting baby girl, wondering what she'll look like, how big she'll be, will she be small like Baby Fox, or will she be big like her cousin (he was 9.5 pounds) I'm hoping for something smaller then 8 pounds... please be less then 8 pounds, I thought pushing a 6 pound baby out was hard enough, I can't imagine 2 more pounds, yikes!

Scared of: The Epidural, I had a bad experience the first time around. I'm hoping that same doctor isn't on staff this time around. I told her if she walked in to give me my epidural this time around, I would seriously consider going with no drugs, yep that's how bad my experience was. Those that haven't had one, the epidural was seriously a life saver after she got it in and it started working, but it shouldn't have been that traumatic.

Baby Fox: Is excited for baby sister to come, he wants to feed her all of his food and drinks. Sometimes he'll walk up to my belly and point his cup or food towards my belly and make a noise like she's eating/drinking whatever he has. So cute, we keep telling him that she'll be too little to eat his food/drinks. I think he's going to be a great big brother, that is after he gets over the jealously thing.

Mr.: He's been great and really supportive. I can't believe how lucky I am to have him in my life and how my love for him has grown exponentially since having kids. Watching him with Baby Fox is the best things ever.

While Mr. was taking pictures of me he said, do one of those silly heart pictures...haha, for whatever reason we both think those pictures are hilarious. Here's my version:


And in case you wanted to see a side view. I think this picture is really deceiving, I am really bigger then that in real life. Seriously, I think it's the black skirt, it's slimming or something.


How She's Like Baby Fox: She gets the hiccups at least twice a day if not 3 times. She has them as I type this out. Feels strange, but makes me know that her lungs are developing with each hiccup.

I think that's it, probably more then you wanted to know. Don't worry this will be my first and last one of these.

Until tomorrow!

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Monday, July 29, 2013

Weekend Recap

Gotta say this weekend was AWESOME! It was just the Mr., Me and Baby Fox and it was a great weekend. Trying to really enjoy these last 8 weeks with just Baby Fox. I can't believe I'm down to single digits left. I guess we better start getting her room ready, I've cleaned out some of it, but can't decide where to put stuff. She really doesn't need the whole closet to herself right? I can take up some of it still.

Mr. is in physical therapy, because he's old, no because he did something to his back which then made his hips hurt, see old. Anyway, he's supposed to do these stretches twice a day, Baby Fox wanted to help him.

We like to think of our decor as Daycare Chic

Saturday we decided to keep it low key and we packed up one backpack worth of stuff and headed to the beach for some playtime and lunch. We didn't have the stuff to make our own lunch so we decided we were just going to stop by at a restaurant that we normally go to overlooking the ocean. Turns out that they changed their menu, don't you hate when that happens?


At this point I realize that I have forgotten a change of clothes at home so we took off his shorts so at least he would have something dry. Kids in diapers are okay right? 


First sand castle, which promptly got stomped on


We didn't even have a beach blanket, Mr and I both just sat on our shoes. When I said low key beach day, I really meant it. 

We watched the sailboat for a while.



We finally got hungry and headed for some lunch. The patio at this place is a first come first serve place. So if you see a table you need to stand by it like a hawk. While walking over to the restaurant, I saw this table open up in the corner, I yelled at Mr. take Baby Fox, I see a table, and I ran to get the table. People were there looking, but since this table was off on it's own no one could see it was available unless you were on the outside on the sidewalk, score for us!


Sunday we went to swim lessons, I didn't get any photos, but I did get this video of Mr and Baby Fox playing before lessons.


Yep that's right, Baby Fox got out to kiss baby sister and got back in the pool. 

Sunday night we went to a concert in the park. I had no idea it was going to be so big, we had to park quite a bit away, but it was totally fun and worth it.


We met up with some friend who have a 5 month old, Baby Fox played peek-a-boo with him which baby thought was the funniest thing ever. I love baby giggles.



Concert started, it was the Pacific Symphony, so good! Baby Fox got tired of it after about 40 minutes, but he loved every second of it.


Baby Fox did NOT want to sit still for a picture, but we made him anyway.


All in all it was a fantastic family weekend! Trying to wrap our heads around that this is the last 8 weeks of just us three, we're going to make the most of these last few weeks. So far this is a great start!

Linking up with Sami and Faith, Sarah and Megan
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Friday, July 26, 2013

Construction Themed Party

As promised here are the details to Baby Fox's 1/2 birthday construction themed birthday party.

When I picked the construction theme for Baby Fox's party, it didn't dawn on me how hard it was going to be to find things to fit the theme. I searched Party City, nothing, which meant I was going to have to make stuff and scour the internet. I found some cute things on Etsy, but they were printables, which is great, but I didn't really want to use that much ink from my printer. But on Amazon you can buy some signs, but I knew I wanted a lot, so I wanted a cheaper option. So I decided to make all of my own signs.

I made all the signs using my Cricut, if you don't have one, go get one now! It saved me money on this party big time! I'm going to go ahead and assume this baby is going to save me some more down the road.
I bought some silk type ribbon to string up the banner, and some painters tape to stick it to the wall.


 Sticking with our taco theme, the two orange signs say "Taco Construction" and "Nacho Building"


I bought some caution tape from Home Depot for $6. The orange sign says "Mouths Loading"

 
Yes we alternated the orange and yellow napkins by hand, it didn't come that way.


Close up of the "tools". If anyone wants the Word document I made to make the "tools" tags, shoot me an email, I'll send it to you.


Being 31 weeks pregnant we decided to go easy with the food and get tacos from a local place. We got pork carnitas, chicken and beans, a can of nacho cheese and chips so people could make supreme nachos or tacos, totally easy, I highly reccomend it. 

I took this picture before the guacamole and sour cream were put in the bowls


The signs are held up by wrapping  few small square boxes with a slit in them. I also figured that not all kids were going to like tacos, so we did have hotdogs available for the kids, along with that gorgeous fruit display. All the fruit was gone by the end of the party. 

 
*Tip - Party City sells those black tongs and spoons for very little. Go get them, they're washable and you can take them to the next potluck and not have to worry about getting them back.

I forgot to take a picture of where we put the part favors.

I had two different favors. I bought these construction duckies, for the smaller kids coming, and I bought the little dinosaur toys from the $1 bin at Target, even though it was $3 for 4.


For the older kids I bought this poster with the below tag attached. And then I bought some crayons from Big Lots and put them in it's own little bag with a Thank You tag. Those little construction pictures on the bottom, I got from this free printable. I actually used Photoshop Elements to put everything together, but the pictures came from that printable.


I bought some clear plastic bags from Micheal's for $2 ish  (using my 40% off coupon), then made these tags and stapled the goodies inside. Looked like I bought it like that, but nope, I made them.


Let's move onto the drink table. I unfortunately don't have any close ups. But the "Birthday Zone" tape was bought off of amazon. I bought that little orange bucket with the Gold Fish at Hobby Lobby for $3. I bought a bigger orange oval bucket that was holding the thank you toys in it for $6 at Hobby Lobby.


The wheel barrel holding the Capri Sun was bought from Big Lots for $5. There was ice/water in there, but you can't really see it in this picture.


Some of the signs I made I ended up buying some wood stakes at Home Depot (I think it was 12 for $6).



 Since it was a swim party, I made signs that said "Caution Kids Swimming" and "No Life Guard on Duty"


There was more signs I made that were out front, but I completely forgot to take pictures. I made a sign that was about 12 x 20 that had an arrow and said "Party in Progress" and 12x12 "Kids Zone"

And no party would be complete without cake right?

I decided since it was a half birthday I would make half of a birthday cake and then with the left over cake batter I made some cupcakes so there would be enough for everyone. I wanted to try and get the dump truck to look like it was dumping out cupcakes, but it didn't workout.


A friend bought some construction candles from a bakery shop. I used crushed up Oreo's for the "dirt".



*Tip - Put Oreos in baggie, use rolling pin to roll the heck out of the suckers. You basically have to keep rolling until all of the cream in the cookie gets absorbed into the cookie. I used a sandwich baggie, but I should have used a bigger one, made it harder to really get things combined.

And all of this made many happy and full guests.





And a very happy 1/2 Birthday boy!





Now you have all the ingredients for a great construction themed birthday party! Hope you have as much fun planning as I did!


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