Denver Botanic Gardens!

Earth Day meant it was a free day and Denver Botanic Gardens so we invited Tori and her kiddos and made a day of it. 

 Water fountains are always the best!

 Looking at all the pretty flowers I just kept thinking "My mom would love it here."

 Mckenna was super happy when she got to get out of the stroller, (actually I think it was the sucker that made her so happy). 

 Cute kiddos and my handsome hubby!

 These are my super photogenic children.

Definitely a fun day!

Pinterest Challenge Wrap-up!

I had so much fun trying new things for the past two weeks! I did have to spend all day yesterday cleaning my house because it was feeling neglected but I think it was worth it. 

Okay here goes!! I made this Chocolate Eclair Cake! I chose to make frosting because I don't like chocolate syrup (I am a bit of a chocolate snob) and I thought that was a good choice on my part. Eclairs take a lot of work but I honestly think this cake only saved me about twenty minutes and while it was yummy I like my homemade eclairs better so I probably will stick with them.  

I tried out this Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake and it was super yummy! Alex had a ton of fun helping me in the kitchen. It takes almost an hour to bake and then the blueberries are roughly the same temperature as boiling lava so you have to let it cool for quite a while too, so of course my kids had already eaten by the time it came out. I couldn't let their pieces go to waste so I helped out and finished them. I like that they come right out at call this a cake, it is really sweet and I think in the future I will eat it as a dessert. 

This tutorial guided me in making these two cake stands. I chose to use plates instead of painting a platter because I wanted to be able to put the cake on the stand without having to put anything under it. These were super easy to make and I love how they turned out. They are way cheap too and I think they would be an easy way to decorate a refreshment table for a party (maybe for triplets or something). My wonderful hubby did keep asking where we are going keep these, I'm still trying to figure that out. 

The cake stand was perfect for the birthday cake I made to celebrate my Mom's birthday. 

I have been trying to find healthy recipes to incorporate into my meal rotations. This sounded great and I really wanted to like it, but it didn't turn out yummy at all. The chicken was overcooked and a bit dry and the lemon flavor was too strong. I feel like if I made a meal of all these ingredients separately it would be good so I may try that in the future. 

Even Mckenna was not a fan. 

This Oreo Peanut Butter dip was amazing!!! It made a perfect lunch for a rainy Sunday afternoon. We tried it with crackers, pretzels, apples and strawberries. My favorites were the strawberries and the pretzels. I mostly refrained from eating this dip by the spoonful but Mckenna did not show as much restraint and stuck her spoon right in. 

I have been meaning to make one of these headband holders for a long time so this challenge seemed like the perfect time to get around to it. It was way easy and since I happened to be going to a baby shower I just whipped out another one too. 

Since I  discovered how awesome I am at covering circular containers with fabric I decided to make this plastic bag holder to put in the car. I have no idea if the method of folding the plastic bags works because once I got them in I wasn't willing to pull any out. 

When I make breakfast smoothies I pretty much make the same one every time. I am always on the lookout for good recipes but I am kinda picky when it comes to the fruits and vegetables I eat. Bananas really make me gag so I tried out this smoothie using yogurt in place of the bananas. I blended up the almonds first because I didn't think they would blend up very well later. Even doing that this was still pretty chewy. The flavor was good but I think I will experiment more with this one.

 I made these cranberry chicken wraps and Alex asked why I keep making meals he doesn't like. Andrew thought they were good, I think I would rather skip the wrap and eat it as a salad.

 I tried out this recipe for Crispy Green Beans, I didn't get a picture so this is the one from the website, mine did not turn out so well. I was in a hurry and I didn't take as much care as I should have to coat the beans. I also used crackers crumbs. The coating didn't stick on very well so I told everyone to grab some crispy bits to go along with their beans and it was still tasty. 

This grilled BBQ pizza was tasty and fun and perfect for a Saturday night with my cute little family. 

 

Okay honestly I tried more outfits than just this one but there are a few definite reasons why I am not a fashion blogger the main one being my lack of photography skills. Other ones include my inability to get a picture of my outfit before me and my kids spill food all over it, or that i just forget. So yeah I tried out this outfit only in reverse because though I have looked and looked I have not yet found a cute cobalt blue shirt like this one. 

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 This was my favorite craft! I do realize it is a winter wreath but I went ahead and made it while I was accomplishing things. My sweet hubby helped me cut out the flowers because I lack many artistic skills and with his help we got this done in about three hours. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the Pinterest challenge! I had a blast and I hope I get to see some results!!