How to have princess tea (strawberry watermelon slush recipe)

Ok so I suppose if I run a blog called Princess Pieces one might think or expect stuff on living a girly life, ie. being a princess.

Running a household with a bunch of lil royalties I have had my fair share of princess parties, and and I'm not talking about a Cinderella birthday party. Really truth be told, I enjoy it, sometimes more than the kids I think. Preparing a royal feast for them I get all the OHHs and AHHHs that one would expect to get from the culinary experts critiquing the finest cuisine.

The happy lil faces say it all.

So with out further adieu;

How to serve a royal tea party.

A little neighbor girl was leaving, moving far away. Alia and Lissy Cakes decided that they wanted to throw her a tea party to remember on the day of her excursion. So we went forward with it and did it in style.

To have a royal party you must have:

Slushy (recipe below) with umbrellas, (awe come on, they are just plain fun...) fruit of your choosing, animal cookies, iced of course, "tea" aka lemonade, and of course no party would be complete with out a decorate your own cupcake bar!




To achieve the china look, your new best friend is rummage sales and DI (or for my WI friends Goodwill).

Look for "tiny" glasses and plates is easier than you might think:

Know all that homeless dishware you see? These can consist of saucers that don't have a mate, fancy shot glasses, and little decorative glasses and votives that seem like they have no purpose in life. Their purpose was just waiting for you to purchase them to complete a royal tea set. A good storage is an old camera bag or purse, and wrapped in your hubbys old t-shirt that you have been waiting to get rid of!

Oh sorry honey, i misplaced it, don't worry I know it's here somewhere...

If you have been successful you will walk away with a huge mess to clean, but a smile in your heart and on your little girls face! (and a whole lotta empty dishes!)



So go ahead, have yourself and your lil princess a tea party! Make sure if you do, to share with me (in comments) what you did for your royal subject and how it turned out!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watermelon Strawberry Slushy

1C chopped watermelon
1c strawberries
2 tbsp sugar (or substitute)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 c ice chunks

Blend all together in your blender and ta-da you now have a beautiful yummy watermelon slush!

Pipsqueak

No I am not talking about my youngest daughter, though she can be one at times, instead I am talking about my current review.


I told you a while back, didn't I, that I was going to start doing reviews? Well if I didn't, I am telling you now. :) I am a firm believer by the way, that "mom brain" exists the number of years you have children, after your youngest. So I have three daughters, so I am allowed "mom brain" till the K-bean is 3!!

Anywho back on track....I feel reviews are an important part of motherhood, a way for all of us to stick together, save each other money and share tips. So please if this is helpful, or you have something you want to know about that I, or someone reading, may have or have tried, leave a comment and ask away.

Today I wanted to tell you about the almighty colored pencil.

Bet you thought all colored pencils are created equal. Well I have recently figured out they are not. With three picture drawing, note writing, coloring lil princesses, we have tested every coloring mechanism on the market!
,
The newest try is Crayolas Pipsqueak colored pencils. They say "little pencil BIG color" and it is SOOOO true! Oh my goodness ladies, this is amazing. They color as bright as a crayon and they are sturdy and hold up to just about any type of coloring. (ie, the little chubby hand wrapped around it and pressing down so hard that no crayon tip could withstand the pressure)

They make beautiful pictures, the tips last, the color is vivid, and, get this, the best part is that they come with their own sharpener that is so easy to use, even a 4 year old can do it themselves! I have proof! :)

So go ahead, this is a purchase WORTH paying for!

3 girls + quiet = trouble, trouble = mess, and mess = happy girls!

A full day indeed. But I guess that means for you a two or three part post :) so you have a better chance of finding something interesting or worth reading right?

So the marathon started off early in the morning. That is when they are supposed to start right?

I did the dishes, wiped down the counters, swept the floor, cleaned the freezer and started prepping for the dinner I was to cook tonight. All in the meanwhile the little princesses are making their rounds messing the baby's room, un-stocking their room, putting blankets in the living room and their final destination, my room. (side note, last night I lifted my pillow up to move it to lay to sleep and i found about 6 random plastic dogs and zhu zhu pets under it)


After a well balance lunch, no really, it was pretty good this time, and books found one princess went off to dreamy land while the other two immersed themselves in the fictional world of several, and when I say several I mean like a million, books.

After a much needed quiet time, ok yeah you got me, I was the one who MUCH needed it, nevertheless, after this time we moved to the outside. Played for a bit and then the creation began.

I made my, try to find something better, ribs (recipe here)

And we did some "homework" work book pages (they are smart lil buggers, have I mentioned that before?) Then it was craft time.

This part you may want to try, it has turned out really super fun and cute.

Stained glass, I guess you could call it that.

Have the lil ones go find a few flowers, the flatter the better tho.
Bring em in and place em on wax paper
Then have them go on a hunt through your house for all the broken crayons. You know you have em, maybe check the couch, floor vents, random boxes and bags of your child's??
Take a cheese grater and let them pick which colors they want and grate the crayon (a knife will work in a pinch) onto the wax paper next to and around their flower (or leaves or whatever you choose, or nothing will make it pretty too)
When all set, place another piece of wax over that one and iron (LOW setting please!) it. Make sure the kiddos are watching this part as it is magical to little eyes!

Next let dry for about 2 minutes, and while that is doing its thing, cut 4 strips of construction paper and glue onto the wax paper in a frame. Now your peanuts masterpiece is ready to hang on the window to let the sunlight show through.

Stand back and watch their pride :)

The last part of the day, I got to enjoy my first salon session. I bet you are envoious of my stylists?? Call ahead, they are booking months in advance!


Now it is 9, hey its summer, i know your kids weren't in bed much earlier were they? Anyhow it is quiet and the three princesses are resting up for another day of creating their kingdom, and I my friends am going to go enjoy a movie with king.

Day complete. :)

The night dreams are made of....

I bet after reading this you will be envious!

So hubby and I thought it was quite amusing that we were going to bed while it was still pure daylight! Yep it was the longest day of the year, 16.5 hours of bright sun, and we were heading to bed. That right there should clue you in to our state of mind these days.

Little did we know what the night had in store for us!

We were greeted before we even fell asleep with an almost sleep walking Alyssa, three times. She kept waking and wanting to come in our bed, and we kept putting her back down. Finally it was time to fall asleep, shortly after she appeared again, and we gave in and let her sleep between us. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

I guess you would say that she was a wee bit overtired when an hour later I heard her kinda whimper in her sleep only to discover she never woke to the fact that she had peed all over. Our bed. Yep, she never does this. For years it hasn't been a problem. But for some reason last night we just seemed to win the lottery over and over.

So hubby took her in her room, cleaned her up and she was basically asleep the whole time. I made the bed and cleaned up and we were about to go back to sleep when he realized he was in pain that he couldn't bare.

He headed to instant care, which of course wasn't open, and ended up in the ER until 4 in the morning! Get this, he has divers ear. Don't ask me how that happened, I mean we moved to the desert mountains, so how one gets divers ear here....only he could accomplish that one!

Anyhow on with the night. The K-bean has this amazing ability to know when her daddy has left this house! She loves her daddy, I just never realized it went as far as slumberland! She woke about 10 minutes after he left and seemed either just a plain pain in the butt, my guess, or has another ear infection. Either way she was up until he got home at 4, went down for about 10 minutes and was back up. Then I asked him at 5 to take her, he got her down for a half hour and we are up for the day....

Soooooo, maybe you'll get another post outa me yet today, it should be an interesting day!


The happy princess herself!

Now...I never said that the dream wasn't a nightmare did I?!

Healthy? Did we all just eat healthy?!

Ok so for most of you this is no big deal. Like Sara, my friend, she cooks some stuff I have never even heard of! And her children eat it, they don't only eat it they love it! So, how do you get there, when you are here!?

I really don't have that particular answer for you, however, I DID manage to find something new and healthy for us to eat. I mean me to eat! My hubby eats most anything, the kids try more than I am willing to try, and then there is me, corn and green beans. That is IT. Yep that's great right?!

So we are in need for a change because I am on this kick to feed my family healthy and give them all healthy tummies for the future. And that starts in great part with the way you eat. So here goes to trying!

I made yellow squash tonight. And guess what? It was good! Ok not great, I did still have to force it down, but that was because I am weird and not really because of the flavor! I just look at something new and think YUCK and can't seem to erase that.

So here is what I did, and even the kids liked it! Ate it all!

One yellow (summer) squash
1/8 tbsp minced onions
1/4 tsp minced garlic
dash parsley
dash marjoram
1/8 c milk
can of chix broth
garlic salt

cut the squash into circles, pretty thin and boil in the chicken broth till tender (5-10 minutes)

drain the broth off, put butter in pan and add squash back in. Pour milk over that and mix, top with rest of seasonings. simmer med-low for 15-20 min. stir once in a while.

that's it. YUM! They were so good! And Yes I came up with this recipe all on my own! Look at me go!

WOW! And a few other things....do you read this?

Ahhhh I'm back...

My computer was hit with one of those darn Trojan viruses and i fell for it! You would think I would have figured it out, but man those guys are tricky! It looks just like a windows vista update so I said sure run. Good thing I had all my stuff backed up (actually just on) an external hard drive. I HIGHLY recommend one if you have not put your important documents and pictures on one.

So this weekend was fabulous. My brother arrived on Thursday and his wife on Friday. The girls LOVE having them here so it was a blast to see how happy they were. We had a wonderful time too. Last night we ended up going to a nice bar just to have a drink and visit for a few hours. Too bad that just as we arrived I decided it would be a good idea to fall HALF way down the stairs. I had to look like such a fool to everyone, and really I have some pretty nice bruises. At least this time I won't wonder where they came from!!

Then there were the soccer games today, which it was beautiful for! However Lissy's game was cut short because of one AMAZING jerk of a dad! Now I don't throw that title around lightly. I am not one to pass flowers, but this guy deserves it!!

All these cute little FOUR year olds are playing soccer, and this one little girl from the other team had a third offense of pushing our girls, hard. So our coach instructed her (VERY gentle, he couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to) that pushing is against the rules.

Said dad came rushing, no bruising, onto the field yelling obscenities at our coach, about to go in for a punch. Joe, our coach, looked a bit baffled, he totally didn't see it coming....none of us did...well he immediately called GAME and went to tell the heads of the league.

What was so sad though is in this time this guy did NOT stop! He made Alyssa cry and a lot of the other little girls scared! Moms had to rush onto the field to get their kids off so they wouldn't be near him to see or hear it. He yelled at one of our pregnant moms who said thanks for ruining it for the kids, that where are all our husbands, he will kick each and every one of their butts, but not using such kind words.

My concern wasn't really for us, as it was his daughter. If he throws this much stink over nothing at a baby's game, then what does he do to his family, his daughter at home??

It is all over and done with now. But WOW is really all I am left thinking.

The rest of the day is finishing fine. Though Lissy just came out to tell me she needs "three blows in this Kleenex, three blows in this Kleenex, and three in this last one". This child cracks me up at times!!

Question for you. Though who knows if anyone reads this...what do you want to hear me write about?? I would really like to get this going and have it interesting for you to read. I want to become a blogger that people follow, sooooooooo what would get you reading??? HU???

I am also thinking of adding a different blog link to this one with my couping information...what do you think??

The Key to my sanity.....

There they are...they look so nice don't they?

Have you ever lost your mind, er, uh, i mean your keys?

Well I am betting I can make you feel better about any loss you may have incurred.....no? Let me try....

So a few days ago hubby and I noticed that the keys were missing. I knew he had used them and it wasn't I who lost them. But then his protest that he used the spare key and I must have mis-placed, or "Colleen lost" (as he calls it) them made me think twice, maybe it was me.

That is, until today. I was loading the van with two Tv's that we no longer want to use and are taking to the local DI. But I noticed that strangely, the car was locked, and I never lock it so it couldn't have been me.

Then even stranger as I was putting one of the tv's into the car it beeped at me, you know like it does when you are remote locking it.

I stand up, look around cautiously. Hmmm, ok so now I am wondering if my sweet, but very un-disciplined neighbor kids had taken, ok, I didn't use that word, I said stolen, my keys. I mean it had to be it. I was 99% sure! Sooooooo sure that I went over to my wonderful elderly neighbor to tell him to be on the look out for my car and house because this had happened and it made me very nervous. I mean now I knew they couldn't just be lost because the baby was playing in a pile of dirt, *sigh yes*, and Alyssa was riding her trike. So it had to be the hooligan neighbors!

He assured me he would watch.

So I go into the house with the girls, still cautiously looking around, and make their lunch. I was a bit nervous, I mean someone had my house keys on there too!

Then as I was preparing food, I decided to reach in my pocket, and there it was, deep down....the spare key I had used this morning. Ok, starting to retreat a little, so maybe the kids didn't take the keys after all. I decided to go on a witch hunt for those darn things. Looked everywhere I could think of, until I revisited the prospect that dear hubby might have had them last. Lets see, what was he wearing to church. Jeans, checked, nada, wait............sport coat, and there, nestled down in his front sport coat pocket, were none other than MY keys!

So, now I felt oh so foolish, when I had to tell my neighbor that no, it wasn't the kids who stole the lost keys, it was me who lost my mind!!

There. Don't you feel better!?