ian turns 2

ian turned 2 on january 20th, and we celebrated by throwing a little party, or 2, or 3, or....  we had a small party at my mom & dad's house while we were visiting for christmas b\c it's a good chance for us to see our friends, and ian to see his friends.  we also had a party at our house the weekend after ian's birthday with family & a few friends.

i went with a yo gabba gabba themed party for celebrate birthday number 2.  gabba is the favorite show around here these days. he loves the characters, the songs, books, etc.  plus, they're so fun and colorful- and i wanted the colors to be my inspiration for the party.  both parties differed a little- the 1st party was a little more on the theme- with themed foods, etc.  the second party was a little more about the food.  yum.

the dj lance cake!!  i wanted a rainbow cake, but when i saw the dj lance cake- i wanted a rainbow dj lance cake!!  making  rainbow cake is easy- just use a white cake mix and mix according to package directions.  take 6 bowls and fill them with mix, gradually adding more mix to each bowl.  put red dye in the smallest and work your way up to violet in the largest mixing the color in to your preference (rinse the whisk between each mix).  with this cake, i did a 9x13, with the second cake i did 2- 9".  starting with the largest- pour into the middle (don't forget to split if you do a layer cake) and give the pan a spin.  then do blue, green, yellow, orange & red- spinning after each color addition.  tent the pan with foil to prevent browning and bake according to the package directions (although you may want to take off 5-10 min. and then go from there).  you can see what it looks like below.  after i let this cake cool completely, i used the dj lance template to cut the cake.  i iced the hat portion with vanilla frosting and i iced his face w\ milk chocolate. i dyed shredded coconut orange for the hat.  i used chocolate twizzlers (i couldn't find licorice) for the glasses and i dyed vanilla frosting red for the mouth since i accidentally bought rainbow fruit roll-ups. turned out pretty nice!

we had some themed snacks at this party "plex" mix, foofa's animal friends (annie's bunnies) & dazzle berry lemonade.  dave & i even painted a brobee game- help all the food to the party in brobee's tummy!  

i also made a muno shirt using nick jr's iron on transfers (wish i had put the name on the back), and muno pretzels (turned out much better at the second party).

 ian had tons of fun running around with his buddies and opening presents!  

 and cake of course (my parents have the brightest kitchen ever)

i can't leave out that ian had a mini-party the night before with his grammie, grampie & great-grammie (they were leaving for arizona in the morning).  ian got a really cool bike- so excited for him to be a rider too!

 

mmm pie, and a cool bike!

 opening presents with mommy and getting just a little bit comfy with uncle bear.

saturday we had our big party- and since it was mostly adults, i focused more on the food than the theme.  i got most of the ideas for our spread from pinterest- seriously, i love pinterest.  such good ideas!  

top (l-r):  the spread, zippy green chile dip, 7-layer greek dip, pizza bites, pimiento cheese sandwiches

bottom (l-r): feta dip, cilantro-lime chickpea salad, italian beef sandwiches, the much improved muno pretzels and baked potato dip. 

so. much. delicious. food.  we still have leftovers- it's been 2 weeks, and that's probably gross, but it's soooo good.  and seriously- look how much better my 2nd batch of muno pretzels turned out!

aren't they so cute.  i had seen the idea for the pretzels here and thought they'd be pretty easy to re-create.  the original recipe calls for candy melts- which is what i used the first time around, but i could never get it red enough, no matter how much i dyed it.  then, when i did the candy melts this time- it burned (maybe b\c of my gas stove?)...  so we scrapped that completely and went with white baker's chocolate.  not only was it yummier, but it colored better and coated better.  the candy eyes were in the baking aisle at the grocery store- dip and dry on wax paper.  so yummy!

the rainbow cake!!

 this cake was so yummy!  since ian has permission from his allergist to eat eggs in baked form- i decided not to do any substitutions in the cake.  i did cotton candy ice cream for extra color (my no-dairy boy got blood orange & pomegranate sorbet)!

that face?  i die.

happy birthday sweet pea!

dinner by pinterest v. 2

so, my first edition of dbp seemed to be a hit, so i thought i'd do it again.  i'm always cooking- so much that i have a huge problem where i rarely make the same thing twice- even if there's something i make that i really love.  i've gotten a little better about pulling out the repeats- in fact, i've already made one of these meals twice, and i'll definitely be making it again...  bon appetit! 

crock pot buffalo chicken

if you have ever read the haps, you've probably seen mandy's post about making crock pot buffalo chicken.  this recipe is EVERYTHING it's been advertised as.  ah-maz-ing.  we've already made it twice, and each time we've made it, it's made so much food that it lasts us nearly a week!!!  it's only 3 ingredients...  chicken, a bottle of frank's red hot buffalo wing sauce, and hidden valley ranch dip mix.  the recipe calls for butter as well, but we've skipped that step both times and i've been really happy with it.  pinned from here...

so easy... 1.  add chicken (thawed or frozen) to crock pot and top with the sauce and dip mix.  crock on low for about 5-6 hours.  2.  with 30 minutes to go, remove chicken and shred.  3.  add back to the crock and let it absorb all the yumminess...  enjoy!  we had our sandwiches on filone bread- and i topped mine w\ crumbled bleu cheese.  one sandwich is usually enough- and i usually serve chips or a veggie as the side.  when we're all out of bread, we use the leftover meat to make a quesadilla with mozz & bleu cheese (for me).  the meat is a little spicy, but even ian enjoyed little bites of the chicken from our sandwiches.  

crock pot hawaiian bbq chicken

yet again another delicious recipe that i saw on the haps.  and again, so simple.  chicken, bottle of bbq sauce (any will do), a can of pineapple chunks and minute rice.  i don't normally buy minute rice, and i didn't feel like making regular rice, so we made sandwiches out of ours.  again, it's so easy- 1.  add the chicken, top with bbq sauce and the drained pineapple and cook on low 5-6 hours.  2.  with 30 minutes to go, remove the chicken, shred and add back to the crock to  soak up the sauce.  since i was too lazy to make rice, we had ours on hawaiian rolls (they have the buns).  the sweetness of  the rolls was just too much yummy.  we made the sandwiches until we were out of bread and then went the quesadilla route again- mozz cheese, bbq sauce mixed w\ a little ranch and the chicken... nom nom.  pinned from here!

and apparently i didn't take a photo of the deliciousness that was this sandwich... although i swear i did...  you'll just have to follow the links to deliciousness....  so you'll just have to imagine!

dinner by pinterest

so everyone else here loves pinterest, right?  right.  now that we have that cleared up.  i love pinterest.  i'm not full-on obsessed... yet, but there's a lot of love going on there.  pinterest is good for people like me who just aren't creative, even in the slightest.  i told my husband this weekend that the least southern thing about me was the fact that i couldn't diy to save my life.  i see a craft, or some cute project that is touted as "super easy" and i'll find a way to eff it up.  however, i can cook, and that tends to be something that has a 99% success rate in the mchousehold, and since pinterest is obviously plotting to make me a contestant on a future season of the biggest loser, i might as well start sharing the calories goods with the rest of you!

avocado grilled cheese (and i don't like grilled cheese sandwiches)!  pinned from here.

these were so simple.  bread, avocado, mozzarella & pepperoni.  i added sun dried tomatoes for an extra kick.  so yummy.  can't wait to have these again!

mexican chicken lime soup.  remember my 99% success rate?  this soup is the 1%. . .  i single-handedly ruined this soup by making it so spicy that my husband could hardly eat it (so that means, i couldn't even come close).  i make a lot of rachael ray meals (i do basically own every cookbook she has) & she uses chipotles in adobo sauce a lot.  i got sick of buying cans, using 1-2 peppers & having to throw the rest out.  so i started spooning the leftovers into ice cube trays, freezing them & taking a cube out each time i needed one.  it turns out i managed to pack 6 chipotles into 2 cubes.  the recipe called for 2 peppers + sauce.  i carelessly used both cubes.  i am still burning.  i ended up having to scrap the broth & just eat the chicken, veggies, chips & avocado (which was yummy, btw).  hot hot hot.  this can be easily fixed for next time!  pinned from here.

have you made anything (food or otherwise) that you've seen on pinterest?