Weekend Recap: Easter Addition

Happy Monday! This weekend was a busy one.

We started off with PE for Tots at our local gymnastics studio for the little one. L loved it! It was 50 minutes of pure joy. He got to run on a trampoline, balance on a balance beam and do a variety of obstacle courses. We're still learning how to follow the leader/directions, but I can tell he enjoyed it. That's great news for us as we have him signed up for the next 3 months of classes!

Easter Sunday was spent celebrating with family and we had a busy morning! So much so, that I was still cooking and in my pajamas when it was time to leave for mass with the family. I had to miss out so I could finish getting ready, and while I'm bummed about that, I was so excited to see Easter through L's eyes.

The Easter bunny arrived bright and early and left baskets for everyone along with eggs scattered throughout our yard. After collecting eggs and opening baskets, little man and husband went off to mass with the family while I finished cooking Smitten Kitchen's Ham, Cheese and Leek Egg Bake (it was so good!) Afterwards husband picked me up and we headed off for a yummy brunch with the rest of the fam!

That night, Kevin and I had a date night planned and we headed downtown for some drinks and a concert at The Knitting Factory. While the headliner was Greensky Bluegrass, we actually went to see the Shook Twins. They were so good! We watched them open and then headed over to the Davenport for a nightcap!

Overall it was a great weekend. Hope everyone has a good week!

Friday Faves: Easter Prep Addition

TGIF! I'm bringing back my friday faves with the ultimate friday favorite!

This past Wednesday, the whole fam bam got together to dye easter eggs and decorate cookies. I'm calling this a "tradition" now because we've done it two years in a row! Here's last year's post about it! 

This year everyone got to join in the fun. We set up an Easter Dying station and as soon as those were done, we swapped out for the cookie decorating. I got the most adorable Easter sprinkle kit from William Sonoma and used the same Target cookie cutters I bought last year. I couldn't find the same ones but these little Target bunny cookie cutters are pretty adorable!

I also made little party favors for everyone using a kit from Target and attaching the decorated bunnies to chocolate easter eggs a la costco.

It was a fun night!

Weekly Menu

I mentioned last week that I was going to start posting our weekly menu plan I type up each week in case anyone's looking for ideas or inspiration. I forgot to include it in yesterday's weekend recap, so here it is today! 

For anyone searching for a St. Paddy's Day dessert idea, I highly recommend these:  Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. I'm hoping to score some brownie points at work so I'm bringing these in on Thursday. 

Monday - Protein of Choice + Roasted Broccoli, Carrots and Sugar Snap Peas. I just toss the veggies in some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and roast for about 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. 

Tuesday - Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon pasta via Smitten Kitchen. 

Wednesday- Cobb Salad 

Thursday - Happy St. Patrick's Day! Slow cooker Corn Beef and Cabbage! To drink: All the Guiness you can stomach and  A lucky Irishman

Friday - Chicken Gnocchi Soup (we had this frozen from a few weeks ago, so it was any easy thing to defrost for us this week.

Saturday -  Pesto Pea pizza from What's Gaby Cooking. This has been intriguing me for a while now, so I'm going for it. Peas on pizza...we shall see!

There you have it! This week's meal ideas all in one place. 

Happy cooking!

Weekend Recap: St. Paddy's Day Parade

Happy Monday! This post is coming a little late in the day because it was a busy first day! New job started today and it went awesome!

But more about that later. This post is all about what went down this weekend.

I got off work early on Friday and K and I got to work on setting up L's big boy bed! The bed was fairly easy to put together and we had everything ready to go in time to pick little man up from daycare. We ran a couple of errands and then headed home to show our little guy his new room. His reaction: mixed. He seemed fairly excited about the bed, but not overly so and he didn't seem scared at all, which I'll take as a win! The first couple nights of him sleeping in his bed have gone well too. I'll cross my fingers this keeps up!

Saturday we woke up and got ready for the St. Paddy's Day parade! BUT not before whipping up an amazingly delicious (and super sweet) batch of Cinnamon Streusal Pancakes via Two Peas and Their Pod. They were crazy good, but definitely special occasion pancakes.

It was L's first parade and I definitely think he was a fan! He's really into animals right now, so seeing the dogs, horses and even llamas had him super excited! The fact that they threw candy into the crowd was the icing on the top! It was cold and rainy so we didn't stay for the entire parade, but for the 45 minutes or so we were there, it was a definite success!

Prior to the parade we took L to see the Easter Bunny. It went about as well as the visit to Santa this past Christmas. There was no way he was sitting on that guy's lap even with his cousin O there, so I got in the photo with him and let him sit on my lap while we got pictures taken.

We made sure to get all of our errands done on Saturday so we could have a low key Sunday! It paid off. Sunday we were able to relax as well as get in a little Sunday Funday by heading over to our favorite local brewery for a few beers and playtime.

Sunday evening was spent at home, cuddled up on the couch with my two favorite guys! The best way to end a fun weekend.

And now we're off and running with a new week!

Friday Faves!

TGIF! Today is a great day! It's my last day at my old job and the start of a fun weekend.

In standard Friday fashion, here's what I'm loving:

-one-

Breakfast with my favorite green masked avenger! This little super hero has me super excited for a weekend full of fun!

-two-

Saturday is the St. Paddy's day parade in our little city, so we're planning on taking L downtown to watch it. We might hit up Mobius as well because they're making Leprechaun traps with the little ones. L and I made one last weekend, but you can never have too many traps to try and catch those tricky Leprechauns! I think the Easter bunny is down at the mall too, so we may try and get a photo with him. Judging by our Santa attempt at Christmas though, I'm guessing this might not go down very well. We will see!

-three-

I mentioned in the Weekend Recap that L climbed out of his bed in the middle of the night and fell last weekend. I also mentioned that we went ahead and purchased his big boy bed, mattress and bedding. Everything is starting to arrive and I'm getting excited to show him his new big boy bed! I purchased the bedding from Target's new Pillowfort collection and will share photos soon! Time will only tell how the transition to big boy bed officially turns out. ;0p

Image via

-four-

I am having issues in the clothing department. Not good ones either. My clothes don't fit and the ones that do make me feel frumpy. I need to lose weight, but I also need to look decent/professional and so I went ahead and ordered a bunch of items from asos this week. Can't wait for them to arrive and hopefully for some of the items to fit decently!

-five-

I ordered girl scout cookies from a my girlfriend's daughter, and I'm feeling inspired by these cakes!! And this pie!! Bring on all the girl scout cookies!!!

Survey Time!

One of my favorite types of blog posts to read is surveys. (I'm fully aware of how weird/boring that might sound to some people). So I thought it would be fun to do one here! I found this over on PBFingers and thought I'd take the survey too!

It's all about what's going on currently!

Currently Cooking:

I posted my weekly menu on the weekend recap and here it is again!

Sunday - One pot French Onion Pasta  

Monday - Chicken Tawook Quinoa 

Tuesday - Chicken Tortilla Soup  (Her recipe calls for turkey but I used a store-bough pre-cooked chicken).

Wednesday - Chicken Spinach Meatball Soup with Rice 

Thursday - Polish Sausages with Potato Salad

Friday - Leftovers or Breakfast for dinner (my favorite!)

Our days got a little mixed up so we haven't followed this exactly, but so far I've made the Chicken Tawook  (we substituted rice instead of quinoa and tzatzki instead of the garlic sauce and I added a few more toppings in) and the Tortilla Soup and both were DELISH!

Currently Anticipating: 

Starting my new job! I start on Monday and I seriously cannot wait! I even already have my first work trip on the books which (again, call me crazy!) I'm super excited for. Growing up I always wanted a job that allowed me to travel and it looks like I'm about to start one.

Currently Listening to:

I have been in a musical rut lately. It seems like having a baby (I know toddler) means that a lot of your interests from your pre-baby days go out the window. Music used to be a huge part of my life and Kevin and I made a point to try and go see some of our favorite bands all the time. These days, if it doesn't play on the radio, I probably haven't heard it. That being said, I saw a post on Little Baby Garvin yesterday with a Spring Playlist on it, and immediately decided to download and listen to each and every song. You can find the playlist here. 

Also, if you have recommendations on songs I must listen to, please let me know!

Currently Craving:

Italian food. Someone posted a picture of gnocchi the other day and I instantly had a craving for the Chicken Gorgonzola from Italian Kitchen and the Chicken Gorgonzola pasta from Europa. Somebody take me back to Italy. Right. Now.

Currently Drinking:

Coffee. All day. Every day. And water. ;0)

Currently Day Dreaming About: 

A vacation! I would love love love to go to New Orleans for a long weekend getaway this fall for our 4th Wedding Anniversary. I've never been and desperately want to experience both Bourbon Street and some authentic beignets from Cafe du Monde. Currently accepting donations. ;0p

Image via

Currently Indulging In:

PIZOOKIE!!!! I saw this last week on What's Gaby Cooking and it has been on the back of my mind since then. I finally caved and made it last night for dessert for husband, little man and myself. Clearly between the Italian Kitchen craving and this little indulgence, carbs are on my mind. I'll be treating myself to a salad at lunch thank you very much. (insert sad face emoji here).

Currently Avoiding: 

Working out. It's so bad. So so so so bad. Every day I wake up tell myself I'm going to workout after Lincoln goes down for bed, and more often than not I end up making an excuse to not work out. It needs to stop. Reason #1: Pizookie indulgences among other things.

Currently Needing:

My hair did. My nails did. And a number of other grooming items. READ: Currently looking like an aging hot mess. ;0)

Currently Coveting:

This bag! Totally not in my price range.

And these shoes!

Currently Loving:

These two guys! How could you not right?

Currently Reading:

I just finished What Alice Forgot and need a new book! Recommendations?

Currently Watching:

We don't have cable but do have Netflix and Hulu. I'm definitely watching Fuller House, Empire, Greys Anatomy  and Scandal. I'm almost caught up though so now I need a new show! I lost interest in Orange is the New Black as they tried to make it raunchier and raunchier and I can't get into House of Cards. Maybe Mad Men? I know it's an oldie but I need a good show to get sucked into!

Weekend Recap #8

It's Monday again, which means it's time to help yourself to lots of coffee and a little weekend recap!

This was a busy weekend once again (when are they not?) and a fun one too! As I get older I feel like the weekends are full of cramming in lots of errands, a little fun and even more cleaning and other to do's that didn't get done during the work week.

Friday night started off with a little Restaurant Week action. We had wanted to check out Fleur de Sel in Post Falls, but when we called to make reservations they were booked for Friday evening, so we went with option numero dos and headed to The Blackbird Tavern+Kitchen. It was delicious. The pre-fix menu offered 3 courses for $29 along with local drink specials as well. I started with the French Onion soup which was served inside of a whole onion on top of a thyme crouton, the Flank Steak with Gnocchi and a Balsamic reduction and finished with the "Coffee and Donuts" which consisted of three fried donuts, sprinkled with powdered sugar and a chocolate coffee ganache to dip them in. It was amazing! I also enjoyed a "Millionaire Manhattan" which consisted of cayenne spiked bourbon, brown sugar and a bacon garnish. So good!

Kevin had the Truffle Mac and Cheese, he also ordered the flank steak and then his dessert was a Chocolate Bread Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream. Everything was delicious and we left feeling more than full.

Saturday was another busy day, because I attended the Spokane Ad Awards with my new job! It was my first time attending the Addy's and they were a really good time. This year the theme was "Gold at the Grand" and was downtown at the new Davenport Grand. The food was delicious and it was fun to see the local ad community celebrate some of their finest.

Later that night after we were sleeping, our little dude decided to try out his acrobatics in the middle of the night. He woke up and tried crawling out of his crib, which  meant he ended up falling after swinging his legs up and over the ledge. We've lowered his crib to the lowest setting, but I'm still feeling nervous about it. Kevin and I made the executive decision to get our little guy a big boy bed right away. I ordered a full size bed so he can grow into it and a safety rail from Babies R' Us and we found a fairly inexpensive and decent mattress off Amazon. Finally, I picked out the bedding from Target's new Pillowfort collection (so great!) that fits in perfectly with his nautical decor in his room. I bought this duvet set (in navy) and these sheets .And for any of you looking for some new kids bedroom decor, the Pillowfort collection is currently 20% off online! I also found pillows on sale for super cheap too!

Sunday was all about errand running, laundry washing and prepping for the week! I always write up a meal plan every week so we can grocery shop and have a dinner plans all figured out all week. I think I'm going to start including them here in case people are looking for meal plan ideas. This week's meal plan looks like this:

Weekly Meal Plan 3/6-3/11

Sunday - One pot French Onion Pasta  

Monday - Chicken Tawook Quinoa 

Tuesday - Chicken Tortilla Soup  (Her recipe calls for turkey but I used a store-bough pre-cooked chicken).

Wednesday - Chicken Spinach Meatball Soup with Rice 

Thursday - Polish Sausages with Potato Salad

Friday - Leftovers or Breakfast for dinner (my favorite!)

Friday Faves

Friday faves are back! I skipped last week because I was flying down to Phoenix for the weekend, but I'm back and here is what I'm loving this week!

First up...my new look! Blog look that is. I posted about this yesterday so you can read all about it here. 

I'm also loving that it's March. March means the official start of Spring (even if it's still cold here in the Inland Northwest), St. Paddy's Day and  Easter (this year!). Two holidays in the same month means lots of festive fun for me and my loved ones! We'll be heading down to the St. Paddy's day parade, making leprechaun traps in the hopes of catching a leprechaun (or maybe just some of his gold!), decorating Easter cookies and dying Easter eggs and we're probably going to try and set up little Easter Egg Hunt for Lincoln in our backyard this year! I may try and re-create these Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes too because they are literally the best thing I've ever eaten in my life!

And since I talked about St. Paddy's Day, you also know I'm super excited for Easter! I may have sent the Easter bunny an idea or two for my Easter basket this year including this waffle maker (our old one broke!) and this waffle mix (it feels so festive for Easter!).

I'm sure most of you have seen this, but I'm loving this video from Jamie Oliver tearing Trump or Drumpf apart!

Blue Apron Meals! I've written about these in the past, but we had another Blue Apron delivery come this week so meal planning has been a breeze! If you haven't tried it, I definitely recommend it! And if you want to try it out for free, let me know! I have 4 free meals to give away!

Finally, I have some exciting news to share! Not only did this little ol' blog of mine get a new look, but I got a new job! I start mid-March and I'm pretty excited about this next move. It's a step up for me professionally, and it also means I no longer need to commute as far which means more time to spend with my little family!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

xoxo,

Meghan

A New Look!

Hello! Hello! Hope this Thursday is treating you well so far. It's almost the freaking weekend and I couldn't be happier about that. Guess what else I couldn't be happier about? My new look!

If you didn't notice, this little blog of mine got a little facelift the other day and I am loving the new, much cleaner look!

I purchased my blog template for the very inexpensive price of $15 from Designer Blogs. They have a variety of templates to choose from and the instructions were very easy to follow. Even for me, who happens to be a little tech "un" savvy if you know what I mean!

And, if you happen to want a custom design, they also do those! My blog is more of a hobby for me, so spending a bunch of money on a custom design didn't make sense, but so many people blog for a career (hello dream job!) that I know custom designs are in high demand!

This isn't a paid review, I was just really excited about the little face lift my little corner of the internet received this week so thought I'd share in case any of you are interested in doing the same thing!

Cheers to the (almost!) weekend!

Little Man's Easter Basket

Can you tell I'm a little excited for Easter this year? Any good excuse to celebrate a holiday and I'm in!

Last year Lincoln was way more interested in the Easter grass that came in his basket than the actual items. I filled his basket with a few plum organic food pouches, an easter themed book and he got a xylaphone. I purchased a personalized Easter basket from pottery barn kids that i fell in love with and we'll be re-using that this year (and hopefully for year's to come!).

This year we're still staying away from most of the Easter candy (with the exception of the necessary chocolate Easter bunny!) and filling his basket with the lots of other fun goodies.

1. Dragons Love Tacos - I still love the idea of getting books for each holiday. It's a simple way to build up his book collection. I loved reading as a little kid (still enjoy it when i get the chance!) and I hope Lincoln loves it too. I decided to veer off from an Easter themed book since he got one last year, and instead picked up this book. I've heard rave reviews from other mommy bloggers and i'm excited to read it to our little man.

2. Annie's Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks. - Lincoln still doesn't get a ton of sweets, and these fruit snacks are a special treat for him. While they're definitely not the healthiest option out there, the  bunnies are perfect for the Easter theme and still a sweet treat without actually giving the kiddo a bunch of candy!

3. Easter Egg Chalk - Lincoln was too little last year, but now that he's starting to color with crayons and finger paint, I think he'll be super excited to get outside and use this chalk on our sidewalk.

4. See's Chocolate Easter Bunny - The Easter bunny must have had a contract with See's while i was growing up because every year our Easter baskets were decked out in delicious See's candy! I want to continue that little tradition in the future, but for now just a single chocolate Easter bunny will have to do, because it's not a real Easter basket unless it has a chocolate bunny!

5. Navy Blue Saltwater Sandals - I have been in love with these Saltwater Sandals since I found out I was having a  little one. iIthink they are adorable on girls and boys alike and have been waiting till Lincoln could finally walk to purchase a pair for him for the summer. The Easter bunny will be bringing these bad boys this year!