{virtual} coffee

Good morning.  Welcome, come on in and we'll sit and chat.  I'm going to have a caramel late this morning, using my frother of course!  That thing is still in my top 5 kitchen toys I've ever bought, and it was less that $20!   Oh, and have a piece of birthday cake, we have plenty and this one is delicious, its a marble cake with raspberry filling.

Please settle in and stay for a while, I'd love to sit and talk. 

 As I told you last week, one of my BFFs is in Europe, and while she's coming home later this week, I still miss her terribly!  I do love getting her emails, but its just not the same.  

We're finally enjoying spring!  I took off my jacket this afternoon and I wasn't freezing.  They say that by Thursday, we will have nice, warm temps.  I laughed this morning when the guys on the radio were joking about not knowing what the sun was, only in California.  Two weeks without sun and we all freak out.

I had a birthday party on Sunday for my 7 year old (I can not believe that he's 7) yesterday.  I had 12 children between 4 and 7 in my house for 2 hours!  It was a Ninja Party.  Imagine this: 10 boys, all 6 and 7 and all been cooped up for almost 2 weeks due to rain, and having a Ninja party.  It was a little boy's dream!  All considered, it went very well.  The boys had a ton of fun, and enjoyed being outside for a while too.  My little man has a ton of new loot to play with!

Speaking of my little man, he has been so sweet lately.  He knew that I was missing his auntie Trina and struggling with some other things lately.  He came up to me last night and gave me a huge hug and asked me how he could help.  I melted!  A few times.  Even though he's a big boy, I can't resist his hugs, those big blue eyes, and his sweet words!  He has such a good heart, and I am so proud to be his mommy!

Now, I'll sit back and listen to what's going on in your neck of the woods.  Has spring gotten there yet?  What helps you pick yourself up when you're feeling down?  Thank you for visiting, will you please take so cake home with you?!

For another cup, head to Lucky13 or Grey Umbrella.  Have a great week, let's make a date for next week! 

Ninja Party!

Mark my words, in a month, there will be ninja birthday stuff EVERYWHERE!  Last year, we had a robot party, and in March, there was no robot theme stuff anywhere, but a month later, it was everywhere!  I felt the same way this year.

Today, we had my son's 7th birthday party.  The theme was Ninjas.  The weather wasn't quite sunny, but they were able to get outside and play a little.

I didn't make the cake this year, but we picked it up from here, which is where my husband and I got our wedding cake.  They do a beautiful job every time!

We broke "boards" (I bought styrofoam sheets that my husband cut into rectangles) and we played Sensei Says (instead of Simon Says).

I made this banner

And I put their goodies in red and yellow chinese take-out containers from the party store.

Here's the birthday boy with the ninja from his birthday cake!

I can't believe he's another year older and that we have another birthday behind us!

Menu Plan Monday

I had a great fundraiser with Pampered Chef and Creative Memories today.  I think I made about $250 for my Team In Training Fundraising!  I'm getting close to my goal.  Its going well :)

This weekend was busy.  I'm enjoying some down time right now, sitting and watching Fame from Pay Per View and planning my menu.  This week is going to be a little different than usual.  My birthday is on Wednesday, so we have lots of stuff going on.  Also, I am so excited that my younger brother is coming to town!  I haven't seen him since last March, before he left for Iraq.  They're coming over on Sunday.  I'm looking forward to seeing him and being able to cook for my sister in law and brother!

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday:  crock pot stroganoff

Tuesday: Pineapple chicken quesadillas

Wednesday: We are all taking the day off and heading to Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  Not sure what we'll do for dinner that night.  Its my birthday, so I'm not planning dinner!

Thursday: leftovers or sandwiches

Friday: homemade pizza

Last week, I made a couple new family favorites.  I will have to share the crockpot nacho recipe I came up with!

Birthday Lunch

One of his birthday presents was a new laptop lunchbox. I love the new ones because they have patterns. I got my son the alien one and I got myself the new flower one.

For his first lunch in his new and improved lunchbox, here's what I did...

I made a turkey and cheese sandwich on a bed of lettuce and some snap peas. He has carrot arms and legs.

There's also watermelon and some Persian cookies from the celebration of Persian New Year in my classroom last week.

He loved it and thought it was very cool!

Robot Birthday Party

My son turned 6 on Monday. Saturday was his birthday party. I used some great resources on the web and here's how the day ended up...
First, here's my little guy. I can't believe he's 6! He was so excited about his party.


This was the door sign as the kids came to the house



This is the birthday banner I made for him


When the kids came in, I had duplo legos set out for them to build robots and a bean bag toss (which they loved!)




Each child got to take home these for party favors. Inside was a wooden robot to color, a coloring sheet, some stickers and robot tattoos.


I had this sign posted at the snack table. I lined plastic containers with foil and put snacks in there. I had snap peas, Trader Joe's cheese snacks and some cork screw snacks I found there too.



And last but not least, cake pictures. The cake was a bit of a fiasco. I was working on it quite late on Friday night and when I started frosting it, The chocolate cake began to crumble. My wonderful husband said it looked like cookies and cream! I wasn't sure, but my son loved it and told me that he always wants me to make his cakes, never to buy them. I'm so glad he liked it.





I had so much fun putting together this party. When I was putting him to bed that night, I asked him if he could choose, would he pick a party at the jump house place or a mommy party. He said he liked going to his friends' parties there, but his parties are mommy parties and he likes them that way! That's the greatest compliment a mom could get.