More Baby Shower Fun

If you want some great baby shower ideas, then you've come to the right place!


I recently shared about my sister-in-law's belated Baby Shower. But I also helped throw a baby shower for my friend Jessie last month. Such a great shower! Her mom, Kelly Steadman, owner of All Things Beautiful, was my fabulous wedding florist 5 years ago, and let me tell you, she knows how to throw a party! 


This was an owl-themed baby shower for baby Trevor. 


For food we did a slider bar as the main meal.

But we also had fruit kabobs, cups of pasta salad, veggies & dip.

But I just loved these mini twice-baked potatoes. So cute!

All the food was great, but dessert was even better! We had a dessert bar. We had owl cookies. Kelly made these delightful sugar cookies with blue fondant and chocolate icing. The noses are chocolate covered sesame seeds. The mouths are candy necklace pieces. 

There were chocolate cigars in honor of Baby Boy Smoker. 

The best part was the Make-Your-Own S'more Bar

Besides the traditional ingredients that you use to make a s'more, we also included Reese's Peanut Butter Cups & Peppermint Patties. So good! And everyone could make their own on the fire pit. 

And of course, no party would be complete without cake pops! We did owl cake pops as favors and baby boy cake pops that were ready to eat. Check out that sweet cake pop stand!

These two were a highlight for a lot of the guests at the shower!

HOW CUTE IS THIS!?!??!

Isn't it nice to have a florist in the family???

My very own mother helped out with this shower by making this poster using her cricut. We all signed a leaf with a word of encouragement for baby Trevor. Then the leaves will get attached to the branches and it will be hung for him in the nursery. So stinkin' cute!

This post is so long I will need to stop here. But another fantastic part of the day, besides the great weather, was the baby shower games. Instead of doing traditional games, my friend Ashley found lots of Minute-To-Win-It games with a baby-theme to them. They were a riot! Stay tuned for a later post on that. 

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Burrito Bar

I know that the super bowl was over a month ago, but we had a great night (my brother-in-law is a devoted Packers fan) and a delicious spread of food. My husband had the brilliant idea of doing a Qdoba-Style Burrito Bar (complete with queso sauce) for dinner. It makes life easier for me because I don't have to cook everything. Plus it keeps the cost down because everyone brings an ingredient that they would put in their burrito/taco and we share. Because there are so many options you can make your burrito as healthy or unhealthy as you want. The secret is to use tinfoil to wrap up your burrito and not make such a mess.


Here are some of the things we had:
chicken/steak/beef (cooked in taco seasoning)
grilled peppers
shredded lettuce
diced tomatoes
diced onions
green chiles
refried beans
black beans
pinto beans
rice
shredded cheese
guacamole
salsa
sour cream
queso sauce (!!!)


I have this awesome Football Taco Bowl that I used to use back in college and I was able to break it out after 7+ years of retirement (we had a lot of taco parties back in college) and my mother just bought me a triple chafing dish set that we used to keep the meat warm.

Be sure to bring plenty of dips & chips for side dishes. Don't forget the tortillas!

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Mashed Potato Bar (aka Mash-tini Bar!)

My mom sends me links and emails from time to time. If she comes across a recipe she thinks I'll like or if she just comes across something cute she wants me to check out she'll send me a quick note about. Last month she told me to "google" Mashed Potato Bar because she had just seen a segment about it on the Today Show. Apparently, it's the new thing that catering companies or weddings are doing now. It's pretty cool! A lot of you may have heard of a Baked Potato Bar, but the Mashed Potato Bar takes it to a whole 'nother level. I really wanted to give it a try but was waiting for the perfect occasion to use it. We helped host a Christmas Party this past weekend and tried it out. Total success! It worked out well because a lot of people brought desserts and hours de vours, so it was nice to have the mashed potato bar to compliment them all. 

In reality, it's a real simple idea. Sophisticated simplicity, if you will. Mashed Potatoes are pretty easy to make. (well if you use instant like I did) Then you just select a variety of ingredients that you think your guests will enjoy with their mashed potatoes. The best part is you can use an icecream scoop and
serve them in martini glasses! Hence the name, Mash-tini Bar!!! It makes mashed potatoes look a lot fancier then they are and everyone loves the variety. We ran out of martini glasses so I used a variety of wine glasses. Check out the pictures!



Here are some ingredients I included:
Green onions
Shredded cheese
Roasted red peppers
Beef gravy
Chicken gravy
Sour cream
Diced tomatoes
Corn
Marinated zucchini
Bacon pieces
Turkey Pepperoni pieces
Paprika
Garlic Salt

What are your thoughts? What would you add to your Mashed Potato Bar?
Chili!
Melted Cheese!
Bacos!


Need more ideas? Check these out: San Diego Cooks, Frugal Fairy, Project Wedding.

My next challenge? I think I'm going to take on cake pops! Has anyone tried making these before??? Let me know if you are up for the challenge!


I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Create-Your-Own-Pizza Bar

Every Sunday night we have our small group over for dinner before we meet. This fall we are starting Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace series. We're hoping it will help us all become better stewards of our wealth and learn how to save money. There is about 10 of us eating dinner and everyone helps by bringing something, but when I host I still try to make it as easy as possible. So this create-your-own-pizza worked amazingly. You can just use any leftover ingredients you have in your fridge. The basics are just tortillas, cheese, & tomato sauce (or just use fresh tomatoes sliced). I like to add sliced zucchini, grilled chicken strips, and sprouts. For this meal I had diced onions, carrots, and celery. Plus mexican cheese, mozzarella cheese, pecorina romano, and sliced fresh mozzarella. Then I make sure we have good spices; italian seasoning, garlic salt, fresh minced garlic, red pepper, paprika, & chili garlic sauce.

I use olive oil spray on a piece of tin foil place the pizza on top and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 425 degrees or until the cheese is fully melted.