Five on Friday

Just a little over a month until it is officially summertime!  I cannot wait!  Here are Five things I am most excited for this summer…

1. Happy Feet:  Essie came out with their Summer 2014 collection and I want it – loving every color!  I cannot wait for painted toes and flip flops!

2. Fruity drinks:  Check out this health blog offering recipes for lots of mouthwatering drinks without all the calories.  Can’t wait to sit on the back patio and try a few!

3. Party: Rowen’s 2^nd Birthday is coming up in July and I am slowing starting to plan her party!  It won’t be anything big, but I can’t wait to celebrate with family and friends!  Here's a pic of her smash cake last year!

4. Farmers Market: The Des Moines’ Farmers Market is something I look forward to every summer!  There is nothing better than waking up early, grabbing a cup of coffee and strolling through the outdoor market.  Every year the event seems to grow with new vendors – I can’t wait to see what’s out there this year!

5. Pool: This weekend we plan to buy our pool pass!  The pool is about a mile from our house and I fully intend to take Rowen there at least once a week!  I’ve also signed her up for swimming lessons!

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Rowen's Springtime Favorites

1.  Little Tykes Endless Adventures Spiralin' Seas Waterpark:  Rowen has something very similar to this that she is obsessed with at daycare.  I think we are going to add it to the top of her list as a potential birthday gift.  It'll be perfect for the warm weather days ahead!

2.  Fubble Bubble Wand:  By far the best bubble wand we've found to date!  Some of the other bubbles we've tried are nothing but a sticky, slimy mess.  The Fubble brand however is not, and makes bubble play much more fun!

3.  Treehouse Organic Apple Juice:  We don't give Rowen a lot of juice, mainly just milk and water, but the other day I caved.  I thought they would be perfect for her to sip on during warm days playing outside! She's loving them!

4.  Cozy Coupe Car:  Rowen was gifted this car by my parents at Easter and it is by far her favorite outdoor toy!  She loves being able to drive it herself and even pretends to fill it up with gas - so cute!

5.  Kinetic Sand:  This stuff is AWESOME!  It's the the perfect activity for indoor play and doesn't make a mess!  It's even fun for the parent's to play with, too!

6.  Circo Jegging Short:  I am normally not a huge fan of the Circo brand at Target (it tends to shrink), but when I saw these shorts on sale I decided to go for it.  Then, when I realized how well they actaully fit Rowen I went back and bought two more pair!  The length is great (right above the knee) and the material is stretchy enough to allow for comfortable play - I definitely recommend them!

7. Cherokee Infant/Toddler Hair Clip:  Rowen FINALLY has enough hair that I can start pinning it back with little clips, and these work great, plus they're cute!

8. Keen:  If you're looking for a durable summer shoe that will allow your child's foot to breathe, yet at the same time keep their toes protected, then I highly recommend Keen sandals!  Rowen was given a hand-me-down pair from a friend, and so far we are loving them!  I anticipate buying her another pair before the summer is over!

May = Pork

For many people, the month of May means warm(ish) weather, budding flowers, Mother’s Day, and Memorial Day.  For the folks at the Iowa Food and Family Project, May means PORK!  The Iowa Food and Family Project is an initiative I learned about a couple of weeks ago when I was given the opportunity to chat with 12 other Iowa Bloggers at a local meet-up.  The Iowa Food and Family Project's main goal is to connect Iowa's families to the farm families who grow and produce the food put on their plates at meal time  - very cool!

Since the meet-up, I've been inspired to cook more.  I've mentioned in previous blog posts that cooking is definitely not one of my favorite pastimes, but since having Rowen, it’s become more apparent that if I want to feed her healthy, well balanced meals, cooking is something I am going to have to learn to do – and like!

So with that being said, this past Mother’s Day weekend, I set out (with Ryan’s help) for my first ever attempt at the grill!  Is it sad that I didn't even know how to turn the thing on?  True story.

Our normal "go-to" meal on the grill is usually chicken, but in honor of May being Pork month, we decided to switch it up! 

Check it out…

Hawaiian Fusion Chops

Ingredients:

(4) Boneless 6-8 oz. Iowa Pork Ribeye Chops

(1) Small can pineapple rings in juice (not syrup) – retain 1 tablespoon juice

2T Soy Sauce

2T Brown Sugar

1t Ground Ginger

1t Onion Powder

1t Garlic Powder

We started with the marinade:

Combine the soy sauce, pineapple juice, brown sugar, ginger, garlic powder and onion powder in a small bowl for the marinade.  Mix with a small whisk or fork to incorporate the brown sugar until there are no lumps.  Place the chops in a zip-lock bag (I find the freezer bags work best), and pour in the marinade.  Be sure to squeeze out as much of the air in the bag as possible before sealing it up!  The marinade will only need 20-30 minutes to soak in.

Then we fired up the grill: 

Grill the chops for 7-10 minutes per side depending on your grill.  Make sure to turn the chops only once to seal in as much juice as possible!  We also grilled the pineapple slices alongside to be placed on each chop.

Serve with your favorite fresh seasonal vegetables (we sautéed asparagus, red onion, and portabella mushrooms) and white or brown rice for a healthy, light tasting meal with a savory Hawaiian flavor.

There you have it!  A grill-easy meal for the month of May! 

In about 10 minutes, my plate went from this...

to this....

So delicious!

Anyone else have any pork recipes they'd like to share?  We'll definitely be grilling pork more often so I'd love to hear them!

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Life with the Crust Cut Off

Five Randoms on a Friday

1. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  I will be celebrating my second Mother's Day as a mom and am very excited to spend some quality time with my little booger this weekend!

2. Before Ryan and I became parents one of our favorite things to do together was watching movies.  Now though, I don't think I've seen a movie in MONTHS!  I hope to catch up on these soon! Anyone recommend one over the other?

3.  I am in the midst of organizing a play room for my daughter.  I thought it was finished until the other day when I stumbled upon this awesome fabric website.  I instantly thought of another small project for which I purchased these fun, fabric prints!  Blog post coming soon!

4. Guess who finally joined Twitter yesterday?  Yep!  I attended an Iowa Blogger Meet-up last week and all the other bloggers were talking about Twitter and how well it works with blogging. I realized I was missing out, so I decided to join the fun!  I currently have 5 followers (how sad)...so help me out, follow me @EDConfetti  :)

5.  So far May has been a very exciting month...why you ask?  Well, if you follow my blog you know that my husband and I are on the path to being debt free and we are SO close.  We just paid off our LAST EVER student loan (over a year and a half early)!  I could not be more excited!

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Operation: Organized Garage

Over the past few weekends, Ryan has slowly been chipping away at organizing the garage. We've accumulated so much {for lack of a better term} crap in our garage since the move, it’s almost overwhelming!

One of the must-have items on our house-hunting list last summer was a three-car garage.  We knew we’d be collecting quite a few bikes and toys as Rowen got older, and having adequate space to store them was a must!

From the outside, it doesn't look like we have much more than a two-car garage, but looks can be deceiving!   Our garage is what they call a two-car tandem, meaning it's extra deep (extends the depth of the house), giving us a little over 850 feet to work with!

Although our work in the garage is not yet done, I thought I would go ahead and show you a few organization ideas that seem to be working well for us so far!

As I said, it’s not finished yet, but it’s getting there...

I have a few trips to Goodwill and a garage sale planned in the near future!  I'll be sure to do another post when it's completely done!

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Meal Plan Monday

Happy Cinco De Mayo!  You'll notice there was no big Mexican feast lined up in today's meal.  No, we didn't forget, but after gorging ourselves with chips and salsa, fajitas and enchiladas Saturday night, we decided we'd opt for italian instead, ha!

Monday:  Oven Baked Meatball Subs

Tuesday:  Creamy Chicken with Noodles

Wednesday:  Loaded Baked Potato and Chicken Casserole

Thursday:  Bubble Up Pizza

Friday: Having a few friends over to grill


Have a good night!

Weekend Wrap Up

My weekend started Friday as I took some vacation time to attend my very first Iowa blogger meet-up. The event was sponsored by the Iowa Food and Family Project and was held at Reiman Gardens in Ames, Iowa.

The group spent the first part of the morning chatting and doing introductions.  It was awesome to hear everyone's stories about why they blog and put some faces with some of the blogs I read on a daily basis!

Later that morning we stepped outside into the garden area for a photography session from the talented Joe Murphy.  I have a long way to go on my photography, but I came away encouraged and excited to use some of the new skills I learned!

After the photography session we took a break for lunch and then hopped on a bus to visit a family farm of one of the girls in the group.  The adorable Julie from Farm Eats City Streets, and her husband, Mark were our tour guides.  So cool to see first hand everything she blogs about!

That's just a quick summary, but stay tuned, I hope to share more with you in upcoming posts!

***

Saturday I met up with a friend for a nine mile run (which just about killed me) and then proceeded to be a lazy bum the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday night, Ryan and I dropped Rowen off at my parent's house.  While she was enjoying a slumber party with grandma and grandpa, we were celebrating a friend's birthday!  We started the night with Mexican food and margaritas and then moved to a local bar to continue the celebration.  

Thanks to that nine mile run, this old lady barely made it past 10:30pm.

***

A majority of today (Sunday) was spent outside!  My mother-in-law, who happens to have a very green thumb, was nice enough to buy us an assortment of flowers/plants for Easter this year.  We bought a few flower pots and proceeded to spend the afternoon digging in the dirt!

While buying our flower pots we also purchased a set of chairs we found on sale for our front porch! 

Rowen approved...!

We then ended the night with dinner on the grill and a walk around the neighborhood! 

All in all it was a great weekend!  Hope you had a great weekend, too!