St Patrick's Day 2019

Is it still considered fashionably late to post about St. Patrick's Day the week before Easter? Or is just straight up late? Ha!

Regardless, I had to make sure to post a few photos from our fun at the St. Patrick's Day parade this year. We went last year and Finn was just 16 days old so this year he actually got to partake in the fun! We ran into a few friends who were also down there so spent some time catching up with them while the kiddos ran after the candy being thrown into the crowd.

Afterwards we headed home for our traditional Corn Beef and Cabbage dinner with the grandparents. I'm so glad my parents live so close so my kids can experience all holidays, big and small with nana and papa.

A few photos from our day at the parade!

St Paddy's Day Weekend Recap 2018

This past weekend we celebrated St. Paddy's Day the best way we know how! With leprechaun's, parades, corn beef and beer!

Our Saturday started out like most Saturday's with a trip to gymnastics. It was pajama day so Lincoln had fun playing and jumping in the comfort of his pajamas and this mama was grateful for not having to get him dressed (ha!). After gymnastics we made the trek downtown for the parade.

Spokane is a fairly small city with not a ton of traffic, but I swear it took us 45 minutes to go 3 blocks on Saturday. Apparently everyone had the same idea of parking in the mall garage for the parade because from the time we got off the freeway to the time we got downtown took FOREVER. We made it though, and after grabbing a quick bite to eat at the mall food court, headed out to watch the parade.

The parade did not disappoint and Lincoln got his fair share of candy along with an eyeful of trucks, leprechauns and various other parade peeps!

That evening we headed back home for Corn Beef and Shepard's Pie with my parents. Lincoln and I also whipped up some green inspired dessert and made Mint Chocolate M&M Cookies with Mint Ice Cream. After too much food and beer, we all headed off to bed.

Sunday was a pretty laid back day, but we had a TON of leftover corn beef so my parents came back over and we made Corn Beef and Irish Cheddar sliders to have to round out the weekend.

Through it all, our newest little side kick was a trooper and tagged along (and slept) through most of the fun!

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!

Little Man Style: Easter Edition

I mentioned on Friday, that Lent started this past week, so you know I'm already thinking about Easter! But, before we get to Easter we have another fun holiday in the mix...St. Paddy's Day! I will most definitely be feeding my child green pancakes for breakfast and corn beef and cabbage for dinner and hopefully we'll make it to the St. Paddy's Day parade in our town, so as we prepare for both St. Paddy's Day and Easter...here's a little style guide for the littlest man in my life.

See below for this month's little man style: Easter (and St. Paddy's) edition!

1. Pink Oxford Shirt - Old Navy actually had the most adorable mint green Oxford with a Paisley bow tie so I ended up skipping the pink and going with that one. I couldn't find the same one online, but this one is similar. I cannot wait to see my little guy all dressed up on Easter Sunday!

2. Navy Twill Pants -  We have these navy pants and they will be the pants of choice for his Easter Sunday outfit!

3. Boat Shoes - I am in love with these boat shoes! I've mentioned before that shoes are not necessarily something Lincoln currently needs, but I might try and sneak this pair into his collection because they will be perfect for his Easter Sunday outfit!

4. Chambray Bow Tie - We have the most adorable navy and green anchor bow tie for Lincoln that he wore for Easter last year. It still fits him so we'll most likely use that again this year, but i'm in love with this chambray bow tie too.

5. Chick's Dig Me Graphic T - We're planning on hitting up my high school's alumni Easter egg hunt with Lincoln this year. They put out plastic eggs all over the football field and all the little kids collect Easter eggs the Saturday before Easter. Little man NEEDS this shirt for that hunt.

6. Striped Rugby Shirt - I mentioned i'd be including a few "st. paddy's day" items on this post and I'm loving this green striped rugby shirt. little man needs to sport this on St. Paddy's day so he doesn't get pinched!

7. Spring Bunny PJs - Easter jammies! I am all about the festive jammies for any holiday, so i'm hoping to snag these jammies for little man.

8. "Born Lucky" PJs - Bunnies + motor cycles + 4 leaf clovers....i'm in love! These festive St. Paddy's day jammies are so cute and they'd work for easter too! I scooped these up from the Gap at the same time I purchased the adorable robot heart PJ set for Valentine's day last month!

Check out past "little man style" posts here and here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Paddy's Day! I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating and ate and drank all the green things ;0) Check out my cute little Irishman ;0) He might not look it but this kid is a quarter Irish and today he celebrated 100% on his first St. Paddy's Day!

I incorporated all the green things into my morning breakfast this morning, by starting the day off with my Mango Banana Green Smoothie! It's also my last official day of work and when I dropped the little man off at the grandparent's house this morning, my dad was kind enough to bring me a triple tall nonfat latte to jumpstart my day as well.

My mid-morning snack was another tasty slice of the banana bread I made last week. So good.

At lunch I continued the green theme and put peas in my side salad concoction of black beans, corn and peas, which I served alongside another tasty grilled ham and cheese sandwich on top of my 100 calorie english muffin.

My afternoon snack was some more boom chicka pop white cheddar popcorn (love this stuff!).

And for dinner, MORE GREEN!! Hey it is St. Paddy's day after all, so I thought it fitting ;0p

I had 4 slices (only 3 are pictured below) of Bon Appetit's Frozen Thin Crust Spinaci Pizza topped with mozzarella, asiago, garlic and lots and lots of spinach. This was seriously one of the BEST frozen pizzas I've ever had in my entire life and I'm super excited for leftovers for lunch tomorrow ;0)

All in all it was a pretty green day ;0) and my final calories came in at 1,654.

I'm off to watch The Voice before heading to bed (I lead a super exciting life with a little one ;0))

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

TGIF!!!! i don't know why it's been taking me so long to get around to posting lately, but it seems that everything i do these days, is slower.

i made these donuts for husband and i for breakfast probably two weeks ago now...before i decided to give up sugar for lent (what the heck was i thinking?!?!). it was my first attempt at making homemade donuts that was brought on by a recent purchase of a donut pan at sur la table. there were awesome! cakey, chewy, delicious and dare i say, better for you than a regular donut (you know, because they're baked, not fried ;0p).

the batter comes together quickly and they only take about 8 minutes in the oven so you can have breakfast on the table in less than 30 minutes. sweetness.

there's a certain green holiday coming up next week, so i think it would be even more fun, to dress these bad boys up with some green colored frosting or maybe st. paddy's day inspired sprinkles.

whatever you do, make these soon. they're delicious!

Bakes Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
Makes about 12 donuts

2 c cake flour
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 c buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted

preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray the donut ban with nonstick spray.

in a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. add buttermilk, eggs and melted butter and mix well.

fill the donut pan till about 2/3 of the way full. bake 7-9 minutes. donuts will look light golden on top. don't overcook or you'll end up with darker bottoms.

let cool and then top with cinnamon sugar mixture. 

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 c butter, melted.

combine cinnamon and sugar and mix well. dip donuts in butter and then immediately dip into cinnamon sugar mixture.

enjoy!