Back to the 80's Birthday Party

Addie turned 11 years old last week. Sniff, sniff. We decided to have an 80's theme party. The funny thing is, when I was 11, it WAS 1985! She asked everyone to wear neon and we started off the evening at home with tacos and rice for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. I really didn't know what to do with myself this year. No baking required! She wanted cupcakes from the boutique cupcake shop in town. After dinner we took the girls to a new/old place in town called Arkadia Retrocade. For 5 bucks, you can play all the retro arcade games you want. After the girls got their fill of pac-man, centipede, and frogger, we headed home. I had 80's style candies for them to munch on while they watched a movie and we took some fun pictures with photo props I found on Etsy here. I had as much or more fun doing this as they did. I think the party turned out totally tubular dude! Here are some of the highlights.

Candy: Walmart, Party City, EZ Mart
Glasses and Gloves: Party City
Asteroid Drink Markers and Party Plates: Target
Skates: Mine, from my Mom's closet
Photo Props: Here on Etsy.  I sent them to Office Depot to print for around $5.

Peanut Free Puppy Chow

Poor, peanut butter passionate Addie pined for puppy chow.  (Try to say that 5 times fast).   So she set out to make a peanut free version due to Caroline's allergy.  It turned out fantastic!  Now, I'm coming off of a three week cleanse so pretty much EVERYTHING tastes good to me right now, but everyone else in the house was eating it like crazy too so I'm taking that as confirmation of it's goodness.  Addie used a basic recipe on the back of a cereal box and substituted the peanut butter with this handy dandy product.

This is the best tasting peanut butter substitute (or "fake peanut butter" as we call it) I have found.  Besides the taste, other positives are that it contains non-GMO soy and is made in a 100% peanut, nut, gluten, and dairy free facility.  This is the creamy version, but a crunchy one is available as well.  I tried to get some photos of Addie in action but as usual, I didn't get much cooperation.

And I had a couple of photo bombers.

It was a fun family night in the kitchen experimenting with a new twist on an old snack.  I had to remove myself from the room after it was made though.  It was so good and I didn't want to totally sabotage my cleansing efforts!

Peanut Free Puppy Chow (adapted from the back of a cereal box)

9 cups Toasted Rice squares cereal
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup Wowbutter
1/4 cup real butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Measure out the cereal and set aside.  In a 1 qt microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, Wowbutter and butter uncovered on high for 1 minute; stir.  Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour this mixture over the cereal and stir.  Pour all into a large resealable plastic bag, add powdered sugar, seal, and shake until coated.  Spread out to cool.  (We really didn't do this, everyone was too impatient and started eating it immediately.)  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (if you have any left!).

Holiday Catch Up

I took a little blogging break while the kids were out of school so I'm playing catch up on some of the highlights of the Holidays.  Here we go.

I won a cookie contest!  My cookie recipe was chosen by a local baker as one of the top 12 in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette 12 Days of Cookies contest!  I won free Hiland Dairy milk for a year!

The girls made more Gingerbread Houses.

We made Christmas cookies.

We wrapped and decorated presents.

We opened fun presents.

We spent time with family.

We played a new game.

We played in the snow.

And finally, the girls got haircuts in preparation to go back to school.

And now, back to reality.  Happy New Year!

Scenes from the Weekend

Due to recent events, our family time this weekend seemed even more special to me.  And we had quite a bit of it!  Friday evening, Mike and James went to see The Hobbit, so I took the girls to Rise of the Guardians.  The BIG theater was crazy busy, so we went to the GHOST theater.  There were a total of 7 people watching the movie.  It was a good flick.  Saturday, we dropped the girls off for Christmas Play dress rehearsal, then Mike and I did a little shopping then headed over to a Holiday get-together thrown by my friends Beverly and Robert.  We enjoyed some wonderful southern cookin'!  Saturday evening we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and I actually made something I pinned from Pinterest!  The Grinch Drink.

I made mine a little different than the one on Pinterest which called for Jones Green Apple soda and vanilla ice cream.  I wet the rim of the glass and dipped in green sugar crystals.  Then I just added lime sherbet and sprite and that was it! The girls seemed to love it!  After they went to bed we watched Christmas Vacation and the guys pulled out the Moose glasses and enjoyed some Egg Nog.

Sunday morning, Mike made Rudolph pancakes.

Then we headed to church for the Christmas Play.  The title was Fear Not Factor and it was about angels getting their assignments during the time of the birth of Jesus.  Our Pastor said he learned that Heaven was in Arkansas because where else would angels wear camouflage and cowboy boots.

Sunday afternoon, we all went to the Girl Scout meeting for the family gingerbread house making event.  So much candy!

I ended the evening helping Addie learn to Cast On a knitting needle and making these Cream Cheese Cookie Jewels for the teachers and staff at her school.  It is one of the winning recipes in the newspaper cookie contest. You can find the recipe here.