Meeska Mouseka MINNIE Mouse!

It was Minnie Mania for my Daughter's 5th birthday this year. With a trip to Disney planned in the near future, I thought it was a perfect theme! I went with a red, black and white color scheme and our backyard was the location. The star of the show was the new swing set she got for her birthday so that was the main entertainment for the day.

We did manage to get in a game of "Pin the Bow on Minnie" and the kids loved it!

I simply took 2 appropriate sized bowls and traced 2 of one size for the ears and 1 of the larger bowl for the head out of black card stock. I glued them together and then cut a bow out of some red foam sheets I had and a small black circle for the center of the bow.

My sweet FIVE YEAR OLD in her outfit made by Lily Lane Kids! 

It was perfect for the birthday girl!

The food table

I found this amazing double barrel pitcher at Ross Dress For Less and put Hawaiian Punch in the top for the kiddos and Sweet Tea in the bottom for the adults. I labeled it "Pluto Punch". Then we had a platter of fruits and veggies with "Daisy Dip", Chocolate Dipped Oreos sprinkled with red sugar, red/pink/white M&M's,  "Minnie Marshmallows" (aka Chocolate Dipped and sprinkled Marshmallows) and Meeska Mouska Munch (Cheese Puffs, Chex Mix and chocolate Animal Crackers).

Daisy Dip:

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients. Mix well. Serve with fruit.

Easy as that and so delicious!

Minnie Marshmallows

Melt white chocolate in a microwavable bowl as directed. Dip sucker sticks (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby) in melted chocolate and then insert into marshmallow until right before it reaches the other end. Let set then dip marshmallow halfway and let excess drip off. Dip into colored sugar. Then place on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and let harden in the freezer.

Meeska Mouska Munch

Cheese Puffs, Chex Mix and Chocolate Animal Crackers

The Cupcake Tower

 I made the cupcakes with white cake mix as directed. I found these cute red polka dot cupcake wrappers at Michael's. And the icing is store bought too. I know, I know......I should have made it homemade something had to give! For the Mickey heads I just used regular Oreo cookie for the face and the mini version for the ears. Simple, easy and quick Mickey cupcakes!

 For decorating the patio I bought red/white and black/white polka dot balloons at Party City and strung them on fishing line. Then I bought red and black table clothes from the Dollar Tree and cut them in half long ways. I hung them from each corner into the center, but it was so windy they were blowing all over the place!

 The kid's tables I covered in red and white polka dot fabric that I knew I could use later to make skirts for my girls. You have to go green and reuse as much as you can, right? Again, it was so windy and they kept blowing off so we tied them down with thin black ribbon.

So after lots of planning, decorating and entertaining, I think we ended up with a great party for our friends and family and I know my big 5 year old was pleased!

Time for sprucing!

Spring has definitely sprung here in Texas so I've been in full force spring cleaning mode. We are having a neighborhood yard sale this weekend so it has encouraged me to go through our house and get rid of all of the "un-necessities." I am an OCD/Type A person and clutter and unorganization really get to me. So I always love cleaning out the house and passing on our once treasured items to others.

But not only have I decluttered, I've tried to spruce up the house a little with flowers in the yard, rearranging of furniture and decor and my new favorite thing.......our house number on our front door. It started out like this:

 Like my spring wreath? My sister-in-law used 2 of these last year on the doors to the church for her wedding and gave me one afterwards. I love it! It just screams SPRING to me!
Anyways, my front door now looks like this:

It just adds a little something and makes it personalized. And we all know I love to personalize EVERYTHING! The next thing you know my children will have their names vinyled on their foreheads.
If you're interested, I'm going to be selling these house numbers HERE on Facebook. You will get the numbers that you will be able to apply yourself. All for $8 with FREE SHIPPING!!! You can send me a message on Facebook or email me at kittykatehome@yahoo.com to order.

School's Out For SUMMER!!

School's Out For Summer!! Ok, well not quite yet but its time to start thinking about it and those tricky end of the year teacher's gifts. Its always so hard for me because I want to get them something thoughtful, useful and fun. Sooooo.........in comes my Personalized Tumblers!!

I've had several orders for these lately and I think everyone agrees that they fit the bill for those special people who shape our children's future. There are so many different fonts and many different colors to use, not to mention these adorable colored tumblers I scored. You can see some of the others I've made HERE as well as "Like" me on Facebook and place an order. Thanks for checking it out!

My Favorite Things Birthday Party!

We all know that the older we get the harder birthday's get. As I enjoy my last year in my 20's I thought this idea was great for making birthday's a little bit more "happier".

It's called a "My Favorite Things" Birthday Party

We all like getting presents right? And we all know about Oprah's "My Favorite Things" episodes where everyone goes wild at the reality that they are going home with a bunch of her favorite things. Well, a customer of mine is going to her friend's "My Favorite Things" birthday party next weekend. Instead of everyone bringing the birthday girl a gift, she has asked everyone to bring one of their favorite things for all 9 party guest. My customer chose my personalized wine glasses.

Each guest will go home with 9 "small"gifts like these.

I thought it was such a great idea I had to share it! Who wouldn't want to go to one of these parties?

(Each guest is also bringing their favorite food for everyone to share.)

Time to start thinking about a BIG girl room!

I can't believe it but its time for me to start thinking about a BIG GIRL ROOM! Ahhhhh! My youngest daughter is now 2 1/2 and I know she will soon need to be in a big girl bed but for some reason I've just been putting it off. Maybe its denial or maybe the frightening thought of my "free spirited" child having easy access to coming out of her room, but for some reason I've just been completely ignoring the fact that she is quickly outgrowing her crib.
I got an email the other day about a bedding sale and it caught my attention. So while I was browsing through the different bedding I stumbled upon this bedding from Pottery Barn Teen and thought it would be perfect bedding for my "big girl".

Its fun, colorful, not 100% pink (which with 2 girls tends to be a dominate color in our house), and could easily transition from age to age. And actually, little K's favorite color is blue. EVERYTHING has to be blue with her.........blue clothes, blue candy, blue popcycles, etc. If you have to ask her which color she wants, 99% of the time its going to be blue. No matter what it is.

I always knew I wanted to paint her bedroom blue and found this beautiful color from Sherwin Williams called Bathe Blue. Its so relaxing and well, not PINK! I think it also goes well with the color pallete in the bedding and while its not the dominiate color in it, there is a hint of this color in a few of the flowers. 



And because she is a girl afterall, I think a little pink is needed. But I think I want a softer pink like these from Pottery Barn Kids for the sheets.

So the overall color scheme is going to be blue, pink and maybe a little green thrown in there. I'm thinking pillows like these from The Land of Nod but maybe I could make them myself in that    lime-y green color in the bedding.

And for the bed I just want a simple white headboard. I might attempt to make one myself. I'm searching high and low on Pinterest for some ideas.

I try to be a frugal as possible and hate to pay full price for anything so I'm on the hunt for something similar to all of these ideas, but a little easier on my pocketbook or a great sale.

So that is the start to my ideas on the dreaded BIG GIRL ROOM!



Easter Dessert

Our dear friends (Our first friends we had when we moved here) invited us over for Easter Dinner today and I was in charge of dessert. I knew I had pinned some great looking desserts lately on Pinterest so I went back and looked at my Food Board. When I saw a Banana Pudding I knew it would be perfect for Easter. Light, springy and looked so yummy! It ended up being Paula Deen's "Not To' Mama's Banana Pudding" but the link took me here. It was a version she had tweaked and I thought the vanilla wafers sounded better (and cheaper) than chessman cookies. So my big helper (my 5 year old daughter) and I went to work last night putting it together. It looked delicious and I couldn't wait to try it today.

NOT YO’ MAMA’S BANANA PUDDING

4 bananas, sliced

3 cups milk

1 box vanilla wafers

2 small boxes instant FRENCH vanilla pudding

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 12 oz. container Cool Whip

We started out lining the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with vanilla wafers. (I sent my hubby out for the supplies and he ended up buying the bite size kind and I think they were perfect and well, bite size! But you could use the regular sized ones too)

 Then we used the sliced bananas and placed them on top of each vanilla wafer.
(I love that my little helper's pinkie is pointing up while she so perfectly places the bananas on top!)

 Combine the milk and pudding mix according to the package directions.

 This next step is my favorite (Cream Cheese and Sweetened Condensed Milk)!

 In a separate bowl combine cream cheese and the sweetened condensed milk. (Make sure your cream cheese is softened because mine wasn't and ended up kind of lumpy. I ended up using my hand mixer to get most of those lumps out). Gradually fold in whipped cream.

Combine the cream cheese mixture to the pudding and stir until its blended well. Pour over the bananas and vanilla wafers and smooth out until its even.

Top with vanilla wafers.

I think it was a hit at our Easter dinner. It turns out so rich and creamy and the bite sized wafers were perfect! I have to admit I had a little sampling from the beaters. It was my favorite part as a child and still remains that way! I think I've passed this on to my girls because they always look forward to licking the beaters when we're done. This time I gave them the pudding beaters and saved the ones with the cream cheese mixture for myself! I think I'm going to have to make this again real soon. I think it would be a perfect treat for a hot summer day and we all know we have lots of those here in Houston, TX!

Happy Easter! He's Alive!!

I love this song! And what a fitting song since tomorrow is Easter. The words are so true.

"For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His ONE AND ONLY SON that whoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have EVERLASTING life" John 3:16

Happy Easter! He's ALIVE!!!