Wordless Wednesday - Laundry Sniper!

My Ballerina loves tutus!!

So I got the best package ever in the mail today!! Little Yellow Sew Shop sent me my goodies that I won from Lee La La's recent giveaway.

The package is called Tiny to Toddler Perfect Purple Package. It includes a purple and teal tutu, cute argyle leg warmers, a purple flower headband, a 24 month T-shirt, and three adorable onesies!!

The good news is that all of the goodies are too cute for words. Seriously adorable.

The bad news is that my little Ballerina Hippo is too big to fit in any of the onesies.

She's only 7 months old and she can't even wear the 6-9 month one! LOL! So I had to put her in the 24 month T-shirt for the pics but she looks fabulous in all of it!

Thank you Lee La La and Little Yellow Sew Shop!!

First Day of School!!

Teacher Welcome Gift

Well my kids start school on Friday. It's a bittersweet moment but to be honest, I'm glad. This summer in Oklahoma has been a hot 110-115 degrees every day!! So I was pretty much stuck inside with the entire brood all summer! I'm pretty excited to have some quiet time during the day.

That being said, my kids always want to give their teacher's a welcome gift on the first day of school. Back to school shopping has gotten pretty expensive so I wanted their gifts to be cheap and easy. I headed to Goodwill and picked up a pair of cute coffee mugs for $1.49. Yay! In addition to the coffee mugs, I added some cute little things. For example, chocolates, Carefree gum, a gluestick, a crayon, ear plugs, and a band-aid.

I found the following little insert for the card explaining the gifts on another blog and for the life of me, I can't find it to link to. I'm a bad blogger! Anyways here's the little poem:

                Welcome Teacher! Here is a first day kit just for you!

Crayon: to ensure that your day bright & cheerful

Rubber Band: to remind you to be flexible

Gluestick: to hold it all together

Ear Plugs: when you just can't take the noise anymore

Carefree Gum: to help your class stick together and remind you to stay care free

Bandaid: to help fix any hurt feelings

Chocolate: to enjoy all the sweet moments

Coffee mug: to keep your liquid motivation flowing

Cute right?! I'm loving it!!

Look Who's A Giveaway Winner!!

So I completely hit the jackpot and won an awesome giveaway at

Lee la la!

This is the fantastic prize that I have the privilege of putting on my little Ballerina!

Oh my gosh!! I cannot put into words how excited I am about this!! Check out Lindsay's blog. She's fabulous and so is her blog!!

Italian Sausage and Peppers

I love cooking a quick meal for the family! I love not spending a huge amount of time on dinner and still have it turn out fabulous!! This recipe is one that fits the above description beautifully! Italian sausage with bell peppers!

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law who is married to an Italian man and has 4 hungry teenagers to feed. It is by far the simplest and yummiest meal!

Ingredients:

Bell Peppers (I used 1 red, 1 yellow, and 2 orange), 1 yellow onion (I only used half), 2 packages of spicy Italian sausage links, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, and a pinch of kosher salt.

Directions:

Slice sausage links into cylindrical coins, place in bowl with diced onion, and toss with the minced garlic. Set aside.

Remove seeds from peppers and slice into thin strips. Set to the side also.

In a large pan, cook the sausage/onion mixture over Med-High heat until the sausages are slightly browned and their juices have coated the bottom of the pan. Remove the sausage/onion mixture from pan and add the peppers. This cooks the peppers in the sausage sauce. This is usually where I add the kosher salt. Cook until peppers are slightly limp. Add the sausage/onion mixture and cover. Allow all of this to cook together, stirring occasionally for about 10-15 minutes depending on your stove top.

Finally remove from heat and drain. Place in serving bowl and enjoy! We usually add fresh grated Parmesan cheese before diving in but we're a cheese-loving family!

Today I added this recipe as our bread, Parmesan Knots from Chef in Training. They were a huge hit and if you haven't checked out her blog, you must. It's awesome!!

Back to School ideas

I found and listed some really cool "Back to School" ideas on my teacher blog,

Mrs. Morris' Classroom Chalk Talk.

Stop by and let me know if you've run across any great ideas!!

Our Anniversary!

Yesterday was our anniversary!! It was so awesome!! And my love gave me the greatest gift ever...an Edible Arrangements bouquet! It was super yummy and so beautiful!!

Pearl & Ribbon Necklace

Tomorrow is my anniversary! I'm excited and I bought the most adorable outfit to wear to dinner with my husband. I'll post it tomorrow! But anyways, I couldn't find the perfect necklace. I seriously have like 30 necklaces and none of them were right for the outfit so I decided to make one.

I used crochet twine, brown organza ribbon, and ivory pearls to make my necklace.

It was surprisingly easy to make, I just threaded the twine onto a needle and alternately threaded the pearls and the ribbon (folding the ribbon along the way).

I'm really excited about the way it turned out!

My New Teaching Blog!!

So starting next week, I begin my final year as a college student. I am graduating May of 2012 with a BS in Elementary Education!! I am so stinking excited that I can hardly handle it!! I've been going crazy researching classroom decor, ways to keep my future classroom clutter-free, bookmarking future lesson plans for ever grade possible, and basically driving my husband crazy!!

So with all of that in mind, I started a second blog, Mrs. Morris' Classroom Chalk Talk. I have zero followers but that doesn't matter. I'll be posting all the adorable and genius ideas that I run across in fellow educators blogs.

I do ask for a small favor, if you happen to know of any awesome teacher blogs, please point me in their direction.

Thanks a million!!

Back to School Cupcakes

"Back to School" Apple Cupcakes

I decided to make special "Back to School" cupcakes for my little loves. They turned out good. The Apple Cuppy-cakes!

I took my red silicone baking cups and baked some plain white cupcakes. After baking, I added some icing and a chocolate doughnut to the top then put them in the freezer for one hour.

While the cupcakes were chilling, I took tootsie rolls and cut them in half to be the apple stems. I also took green Jolly Rancher fruit chews, rolled them flat and cut them into leaf shapes.

I took one can of white frosting and added red food coloring until it got to the color that I liked. Then I microwaved the icing to make it smooth. This made icing the cupcakes much easier because all I needed to do is dip the cupcakes into the icing and spooning additional icing into the hard to reach places. Finally I added the stem and leaf to each cupcake.

It's A Blog Hop!!

Loving the idea of a Blog Hop!! It's so great to see everyone else's wonderful blogs!!

Marshmallow Pops

So last night was Arizona's final night here. I let her choose what was for dinner (she chose Beef Stroganoff) and dessert (Toasted Marshmallow Milkshakes!).

Well the boys vetoed the milkshakes. They simply refused to let me serve them one. So I improvised their dessert because let's face it, I am not a short order cook and will not make more than one dessert. So they ended up getting Marshmallow pops.

I simply put a marshmallow on a stick, melted a candy bar, dipped the marshmallow in the chocolate, then covered it in sprinkles.

Instant success!!

It's the Simple Things - No. 3

 Things that I appreciate this week...1. I appreciate that Bulldozer wants me to nap with him each day.

2. I appreciate that being a mommy has made me use unique words like "Crazyhead" and "Bongo" in place of choice, inappropriate words. :)3. I appreciate that Ballerina is leaves me cute pics of herself when she gets my phone!4. I appreciate when my husband makes me red beans and rice with hot links. It is soo good!5. I appreciate the fact that Peanut is the most loving little boy on the planet! 

6. I appreciate that I have Red Bulls in the fridge!

7. I appreciate that Sugar sits so patiently while I fix her hair.

8. I appreciate clean sheets. Seriously.

9. I appreciate that Arizona came to spend 3 weeks with us. She left this morning to fly back home and we all miss her like crazy!!

Expanding the Circus with Bloglovin' and Facebook!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've just discovered Bloglovin'! Woot!! I am needing followers so be sure to look me up so we can stay connected!!

Also, be sure to check out the Facebook page for The Jubilee Circus. Occasionally I post pics of crafts on there that I may have forgotten here.

Hummus and Pita Chips

I found a new favorite food for my kiddos. Hummus. I love that word. Hummus. I feel so silly saying it and it even makes me smile to type it. Hummus. :)

Anyways, I made homemade hummus for my kids' lunch yesterday and it was a huge hit. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of garbanzo beans, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. (Typically hummus calls for tahini as well but my kids aren't a fan of it and truthfully neither am I so I left it out.)

DIRECTIONS:

Drain garbanzo beans (save the juice) and combine all ingredients in a food processor. Add some of the bean juice for the desired consistency. It should look like this.

Yum! I cut up some bell peppers and cucumbers added some carrots for dipping. I added some homemade pita chips (just brush on melted butter and sprinkle some garlic powder on the pitas, cut up into triangle chips and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes) and some crackers.

Wordless Wednesday - Hide & Sleep

Had to have his lightsaber with him.

August Wreath

I finally made the time to change the wreath on my front door. I had been sporting the Patriotic wreath for two extra days because I've been a tad bit lazy. Oops! Anyways, I took my July wreath down and was pondering what to do with the August wreath. I seriously stared at my blank wreath for about fifteen minutes. J was starting to worry about me. Then, I got smart....I went on Pinterest!

Do you Pinterest? If not, you need to get on board. Seriously because it is a fantastic website. I am a little obsessed with it and I'm not embarrassed to admit it.

Anyways, I found a few inspiring wreaths but the one that I absolutely fell in love with was found at A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. It was awesome and I was excited to duplicate it. I changed the yarn to a pretty beige color and found felt flowers that were already made at JoAnn's. (Again, I've been lazy.)

Anyways, this is my wreath. What do you think?

I like it so much...it may be my August/September wreath!!

Pink Hippo Birthday - Help Needed

So I am in need of some serious help. This little beauty is going to be a 1-year old in about 5 months.

We call her our "Little Hippo" (I realize that it sounds a little rude to refer to my daughter's chubbiness but it's too cute!!) so with that little nickname in mind, we are throwing her a Pink Hippo birthday party.

This is where I need help. I have searched high and low for pink hippo ideas and have bookmarked a couple of pinky things but I'm actually stumped. Does anyone have any cool DIY ideas or links that they can help me with?! I would love and appreciate it!!

Stay Awesome!!