Menu Monday and Chocolate!!

This past week I cooked mainly repeat meals, meaning nothing new or spectacular. I can't remember if I have posted these particular recipes on the blog before, and I don't want to go back through my archives (see also: lazy) so I'm only posting one recipe that I know for sure I haven't posted. 

Someone in my comments a couple of weeks ago suggested I look at Our Best Bites for recipes. I immediately saw this recipe and knew I wanted to try it: French Dip Sandwiches and boy howdy am I glad I tried them. They were soooooo good! 

I let the beef roast cook in the crock pot all day long which made it nice and tender. Perfect for Baby Eli. 

My sandwich with the "french dip". I put mozzarella cheese on the roast and Luke put swiss. Both equally delicious.

Yum! That picture makes me want to make this again soon!!

Almost every night after dinner Luke and I want to eat something sweet. We probably need to get out of this habit because it will catch up with us, but we always need a little ice cream or cookies or chocolate of some sort.

And now we have the perfect solution......

Meet Velata: a new brand of fondue warmers from the Scentsy Family.

I've been anticipating the arrival of my fondue warmer for awhile now and may have jumped up and down when I saw the UPS man pull up to our house today. What can I say? Homegirl has a sweet tooth.

After we finished our dinner I spent several minutes picking out what kind of chocolate I wanted. I take my chocolate seriously and need to spend time weighing the pros and cons of each flavor. I could only think of pros for all so it made it more difficult.

I finally decided to go with milk chocolate, and it did not disappoint.

I dipped apples, strawberries, marshmallows (we still have a million leftover from Eli's bday party) and graham bunnies in the belgium chocolate mixture. My sweet tooth was satisfied.

This fondue warmer will be perfect for nights when we have friends over and I don't want to bake a big fancy dessert, just plug this in, pour the chocolate in, get together some dippers and its a fun, easy, entertaining dessert!

I really am so excited about all the possibilities Velata offers!

Velata is something that you can buy and enjoy, host a party and earn free product, or even join my team and make some extra cash! Basically you can't fail! Let me know if you are interested in any of those options!

Check out my website HERE!

Now please excuse me while I find something to dip in chocolate...I'm thinking potato chips?

Random Weekend

 Friday morning Eli and I hit the road to head to my hometown because I had a couple of Scentsy parties to "work". I love Scentsy parties. They are always filled with fun people and I usually make new friends in the process. Its a great "job". 

Anyways before we headed out I decided to attempt to wear a pair of capri pants that I had intended on taking back. I'm not big into capris because I think they make me look short and squatty and make my hips look big, which in the past was untrue but now that I have BIRTHED A BABY my hips are big, so I just need to get over it.

Af first  I was thinking they were a no but after I asked Twitter and then unrolled the capris they were a bit longer than they originally were in the store so I decided to keep them.

                                                              

I'm trying to not invest too much money into colored jeans because I know it is a fad that will likely pass quickly, but I haven't bought colored capris yet, only jeans. So this seemed necessary for summer. Luke disagreed on the necessary part.

Now that I've talked a ridiculously long amount about a pair of CAPRIS that nobody even cares about let's move on.....

We first went to visit my mom at school where Eli got his quarterly immune system update. The kids loved Eli. We took a picture with them but I don't feel comfortable posting a picture of random kids on the ole blog, it's kind of creepy to me, but I did want to show me and Eli because I think we look so alike in this picture.

People tell me all the time that they think Eli looks just like me, and I've never really seen it, but I definitely see it in this picture.

Later that night I had a Scentsy party. It's always interesting to see what scents people love and hate. 

The next day we ate with my family and then just hung out. 

Eli and his cousin, despite how the picture looks they are not the same size, though Eli is quickly catching up:

                                            

 Eli cracking jokes:

Later on Saturday we headed home. Luke was glad we were home!

We couldn't decide what to have for dinner and I decided I wanted to eat peppers and ranch dip. So we went to Target where I got mini peppers and ranch dip. I sat on the couch and ate them. And ate them. And ate them. I thought it was ok because they were peppers and those are healthy (right?) but I soon got so sick. I had eaten one (twenty) too many peppers and I wanted to cry. It was awful. I can never look at a mini pepper again. 

                                                 
It seemed like such a good idea at the time!

Sunday was a pretty average day and thank the Lord we didn't have any snakes roaming our household.

After church Luke fed Eli his lunch, I was in the bedroom and Luke called my name, so I went to the kitchen where I found this:

Eli had food all over him and Luke didn't know what to do with him, so this seemed like the likely spot to put him. Eli was loving standing in the sink.

That was our fun and busy weekend! Time to start all over tomorrow!

First Trip to the Zoo!

Last weekend our friends Will and Shannon came to visit us. They arrived Friday afternoon and we had pizza waiting on their arrival! After we ate I was able to introduce them to Toddlers and Tiaras. I was so honored to bring this gem to their life. In case you didn't know Toddlers and Tiaras is on Netflix. You're welcome. 

They had never seen it and were entertained, horrified, and shocked just as any regular person is while watching the beauty that is T&T. 

The next morning we woke up, went to breakfast where Eli entertained the masses by screaming, laughing and clapping and then we headed to the zoo.

Apparently the rest of our giant town had the same idea to go to the zoo that Saturday. It was crazy crowded, but still fun. 

I've mentioned before that Eli is scared of animals, so I was hoping by going to the zoo he would develop a deeper sense of peace in his heart for God's creatures. This was also before the snake was in our house and I probably scared him out of loving any animal ever. 

He slept for about an hour and a half of our zoo time and then spent the rest of the time trying to crawl out of his stroller. 

Here he is looking like such a big boy. His hair looks weird because I covered his head with sunscreen. I really shouldn't have prayed all his hair away when he was in the womb. We are thinking he may never grow hair. 

Me and the boys. I'm so mad I have my sunglasses on in this picture, otherwise it would have been a really cute picture!

Eli looking for the gorillas, or just banging on the glass that 2 million other kids had already touched:

With Will and Shannon:

Now that Eli can walk he never wants to be held, I'm all about him walking, but obviously he can't walk very fast so most of the time it's easier to just carry him. But I use the word "easier" very loosely because the majority of the time I'm holding him he is nose-diving to get on the ground. Luke caught an action shot

I didn't want to discourage him from walking so I helped him walk up the ramp to the elephants. It took us a looong time to climb that ramp. I also needed pain medication for my back after that. 

It was such a fun day and I'm anxious to go back to the zoo soon!

The Snake

Yesterday started out just like any normal Sunday.

Luke got up and left for band practice at church and Eli and I woke up and got our morning started.

Breakfast, a bit of playing, shower and getting dressed. Normal.

We managed to do all of this successfully and we were headed out the door right on schedule.

And then the whole morning took a drastic turn.

I rounded the corner of our bedroom holding Eli, on our way to the garage when I was stopped dead in my tracks.

There, before me, was my worst fear in all of its slithery, hissing, no legged fashion.

A snake.

I have always claimed that if I ever saw a snake in my house I would fall down and die right there. This was before I had a child to care for, laying down and dying was no longer an option.

As I stood there frozen, staring at the snake I started shaking. Not a small tremble through my body but a full on, convulsing in a self inflicted I HATE SNAKES sort of shaking,  wondering WHY this was happening to me.

I'm a good person!! I mean I gave up aspartame for goodness sake, how much more of a good person can I become?!?!

As I stood there shaking and staring at the snake while holding a laughing baby who thought my shaking was all in fun I did what came naturally. I called Luke. I knew there was nothing he could do but I wanted him to know that he left his wife and child at home ALONE WITH A SNAKE.

He didn't answer. I called two more times and no answer. It's a good thing the snake wasn't attacking us and holding us hostage in our bedroom.

I was still standing in front of the snake watching it to make sure it didn't move while wrestling with Eli who wanted down on the ground BY THE SNAKE.

I then called my dad, again, not sure what he could have done but it felt right at the time. He wasn't available but my mom who I spoke to told me to just "pray for strength".

Now, we know I'm all about prayer, and I love the Lord, however, praying for strength in this particular moment was NOT GOING TO MAKE THE SNAKE DISAPPEAR.

Worst advice ever.

As I was contemplating taking out a screen and escaping through a  window I looked over and noticed a plastic tub in our bedroom. PERFECT. I would put the tub on the snake, trapping it and escape the house unharmed with my child on my hip. Brilliant.

I put my baby down who immediately went lunging FOR THE SNAKE, so I had to lock him in his room. I then got the tub and stood as far away from the snake as I could while still being able to place the tub over Alfred (I named him that). I watched for a bit. He seemed confused as to why he was trapped and didn't look like he was going to escape.

I congratulated myself on my genius thought of putting the tub over the snake and for staying brave when all I really wanted to do was scream and cry. A baby changes everything. I'm convinced before Eli I would have crawled on top of a counter and not moved until Luke got home.

I grabbed Eli, hopped in the car and shivered the entire way to church with thoughts of snakes crawilng on my body.

When we got to church I made sure everyone within shouting range knew that I had wrested with a snake that morning. Several people asked if I had put something heavy on top of the tub so the snake couldn't slither out.

I'm sorry, as weird as it may seem I am not skilled in SNAKE TRAPPING. I never thought to put something heavy on the tub I just wanted out of the house.

When we got home Luke and I tiptoed into the house and much to our horror discovered my awesome snake trap did not hold up. We stared at the empty tub both realizing at the same time that there was a snake loose in our home.

Empty snake trap

And then I died.

At least I thought I was going to. It was traumatic.

I started feeding Eli his lunch and left Luke to hunt out the snake.

It was at this point and moment in my life that I realized that my big, strong, handsome husband was indeed scared of snakes.

That would have been nice to know before I said YES when he got down on one knee.

I watched him prance around the living room similar to a little girl playing hopscotch while looking for the snake, all while holding a shovel. It was not his most attractive moment.

We finally located Alfred behind the couch and thus the snake chase began. Luke brought in several boxes, shovels, and brooms in his attempt to do something. I'm still not sure what he was trying to do. I know the ultimate goal was to get the snake out of our house but his means of going about this seemed a little strange to me.

Eli and I watching Luke try and "wrangle" the tiny snake. 

Yesterday I learned not to doubt your husband and his snake trapping abilities. Apparently it affect his manhood or something like that.  Also, do not try and film his snake trapping abilities, he does not like it.

I have five different videos attempting to film Luke and Alfred. All met with a "TURN THE CAMERA OFF" So rude.

In what may be known as the longest, most drawn-out snake capturing story ever, Luke managed to catch the snake using a cardboard box and shovel.

It was a few hours after the snake left our house that I realized I was suffering from SPTSD; Snake Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Every corner I turned, every cord I saw, every shadow on the ground I thought was a snake ready to jump out at me.

I still see snakes out of the corner of my eyes, and don't even get me started about the blanket that grazed my shoulder tonight when I sat on the couch. I screamed so loud. It was terrifying. I'm still recovering.

For the record the snake was a "rat bull" snake and is not poisonous, nor was he very big. HOWEVER when it comes to a snake in my house I don't care what size it is or if it is poisonous or not, I WANT IT OUT.

We have been 24 hours snake free and I'm praying (literally) that it stays that way. I really don't want to have to move.

Menu Monday

I don't have many meals from this week, nor do I have any really impressive meals - not that I usually have impressive meals but these were all just easy, quick meals. Nothing special

Monday I made Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti. Such an easy, quick, delicious meal. I actually made it Sunday night and then cooked it Monday. It is perfect for that.

(picture from pioneer woman.com)

Tuesday I wanted a meal that would be easy and quick to make after work. I made the bubble up enchiladas that I've seen floating around Pinterest. This was definitely one of those quick, easy, throw together not amazing meals. But it filled us up that night and that's all that matters on a busy weeknight!

Wednesday our bible study started up which means Wednesday nights just got crazy. I made this easy pasta salad earlier that day so we ate this when we got home from church.

Basically I just mixed together some of my favorite things: Pasta, cheese, pepperoni and green peppers, but really you can do anything with this. I've seen SO many varieties of pasta salad throughout the internets.

Thursday we had Chicken Tamale Casserole, because what good is a week if there is no mexican food? This was another good, easy, meal. I've made several versions of "chicken tamale casseroles" and this was definitely one of our favs.

Be sure and check out the other recipes on Rachel's blog!

P.S. I think I set the record for using "easy" and "quick" the most times EVER in a blog post.

Weathered Ways Giveaway

I'm really excited about this giveaway!

For Christmas some of our close friends gifted us with this great wooden sign with our last name on it.

I instantly fell in love and hung it in our living room. Every visitor that has come to our house since we hung it has commented on how pretty it is and asked where we got it.

After receiving our sign I went to the Weathered Ways Etsy site to see what all they offered. I was immediately drawn to this "Laundry" sign and I'm excited to give it away to one of you today!

This sign is so pretty and would be perfect in any laundry room. I've been working on "sprucing up" my laundry room for awhile (thanks a lot pinterest) and this would be the perfect addition.

To be entered in the giveaway all you have to do is visit the Weathered Ways Etsy shop and tell me what fabulous sign you like the most! It's that easy!

For a second entry "Like" their page on Facebook. (if you do this please leave a second comment).

Good luck!

Randomocities

1. I have been craving blueberry muffins something awful. Like I need some NOW.

2. Yesterday my biggest decision was whether to get Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs or Starburst jelly beans at Target, both were 50% off but I'm trying to get better about spending unnecessary money so I couldn't justify both. I went with the Reeses Eggs.

3. I started following this "Titanic in real time" twitter account where they tweet details of the Titanic voyage as if it was happening RIGHT NOW. Yes I am a nerd. Yes I love it.

4. My Scentsy paycheck has been so important to our family lately. If you are looking for a way to earn extra money ask me about my Scentsy experience. It might just be the thing for you!!

5. For the first time in several months I craved Diet Coke this week. I was at work and there they were sitting so pretty in the fridge. I entertained the thought of grabbing one and guzzling down it's sweetness but decided it wasn't worth it. Consider it a moment of weakness.

6. Eli finally started walking in front of me and Luke yesterday. It's so funny to see him walking, and honestly makes me sad (I'm one of those moms) I want him to crawl a bit longer.

7. My 10 year reunion is coming up and I had a nightmare about it last night. I really don't want to go. What is the point in reunions anyways? I already have "reunions" with the people I want to see, plus now with Facebook they seem a bit outdated.

8. I organized my Scentsy closet this week. I LOVE getting something organized, once I get it organized I just keep going back to look at it and admire it in all of it's organization glory. This is one of my most favorite organization projects (even further proof I'm a nerd).

9. Eli has fallen in love with his little lovey bear and takes him everywhere. He calls him bubba and needs him by his side at all times, including while eating. And he randomly gives him kisses all the time. I can't get Eli to give me a kiss to save my life! My mom told me I need to go buy a backup "bubba" in case anything ever happens to Bubba #1.

10. I still want a blueberry muffin.

Eli's Video Debut

Back in February I wrote a post about how I was a potential stage mom in the making.

It is safe to say I escaped the spotlight and decided a life of rich and fame just wasn't for us.

But before I leave that old life completely behind I want to share Eli's video debut.

I think he looks so cute in the video and I love that we have this!

Enjoy:

Eli's Birthday Details - Part 2

Because so many people have been emailing me with questions about Eli's birthday I figured I better update you soon.

Really only one person asked this time, but isn't that what us bloggers say to make us feel important?

MY FANS ARE KNOCKING DOWN MY DOOR YA HEAR?!?!

Just kidding.

Anyways, when I finally decided to do the birthday party, I knew I wanted to go with the rockstar theme and I knew I wanted our invitation to say "Our Little Rockstar is One!"

I sought out my friend Kelsey to help me with all things print because she's pretty much a graphic genius when it comes to these things.

And she didn't even ask me to say that.

I simply told her what phrase I wanted it on it, what colors and that I wanted some sort of "guitar" and she went from there.

OH and I also wanted a picture of my precious baby on there.

This is what she came up with, I loved it from first sight.

She also had the brilliant idea to make the back of the invitation look like a concert ticket. So cool!

My absolute FAVORITE detail from the party were the monthly pics.

Kelsey and I can't remember whose initial idea it was, but one of us has the great idea to make Eli's monthly pics into magazine covers similar to Rolling Stone Magazine (with less sex and drugs).

I DO remember that it was Kelsey's idea to put Eli's weight and some monthly highlights on the picture. I remember this because at first I thought it was a weird idea, but knowing that I'm a visual person she made a mock up of what it would look like and I fell in love!

I had never seen anything like it before and it quickly became my favorite piece of the party.

I hung these up in the living room with tiny clothes pins.

She also did all the food, favor labels, and cupcake toppers:

And the table signs:

And the door sign:

She was basically a life-saver when it came to party planning!

Thank you Kelsey for all you did and for being so talented.

I now have a new rule, if you want to be friends with me you have to be insanely talented. It's only fair. It helps to even out my lack of talent.

Easter 2012

We had a wonderful Easter this year, just the three of us.

The week leading up to Easter is always crazy for Luke because he has lots of things to get ready for our big Easter service. This was his first year balancing both working full time as a teacher and working part time as the worship pastor at our church, and although Eil and I didn't get to see him a lot during the week he did a beautiful job of balancing both jobs this past week.

If you would have asked me a couple of months ago if Luke, Eli and I were going to wear coordinating outfits I would have said 'well duh" but as Easter approached at an insanely fast pace I never got around to getting us coordinating outfits. Plus there is the whole factor of spending money on outfits for just one day that in the past seemed like a give-in but this year didn't seem as important.

Not to mention the fact that I was working in the kids classroom that day, so I didn't want to look cute for just kids. Priorities people. And can I just get a "PRAISE JESUS" that I was recently moved to the big kids classroom. For the past year I've been in the toddler room and with the exception of my darling Eli I am NOT a toddler fan. Give me the big kids any day, keep me away from those toddlers that require way too many tissues and diapers that I just don't care to deal with.

Luke said our Easter service went wonderfully and we had a great turnout, which I'm sure is true because our kids classroom was packed full of kids. Some quiet, some loud and some mischievous. It was the perfect Easter Sunday.

We of course went through the Easter story with our main points being: 1. Jesus Died 2. Jesus was buried. 3. Jesus ROSE

And you hope and pray that somewhere between the "shhh listen", "please keep your chair on the floor", "do we talk that way" and "are you listening???" that something they heard sunk in.

Although at times it seems like a lost cause working with kids who are rebellious it is still an amazing feeling to know you are sharing something with them that probably nobody else in their life would share with them - because they do not know it themselves.

After church there was an egg hunt, but since Eli refuses to walk for me and I didn't even have an Easter basket for him we just watched. Next year will be our year.

It was also around the time that Eli started melting down. Sundays are ALWAYS hard because he misses his morning nap and by the time we get home its about an hour after he normally eats, plus when he sees Luke he only wants his DADADA (I'm seriously chopped liver) and obviously Luke can't hold him, so Eli FAREAKS out.

It's our Sunday ritual.

After church we went home, Luke gave Eli a bath while I cleaned up around the house, then Eli ate his lunch, took a nap (not so wilingly) and then Luke and I enjoyed our Easter lunch.

Later we gave Eli an Easter present which was a stuffed dog. Have I mentioned Eli is scared of dogs? Like deathly afraid. I had no idea his fear transferred into stuffed dogs also. He screamed and threw it down.

We're working on love of animals and proper reaction towards gifts.

All in all it was a wonderful day. Easter was a little bit more "real" this year as I thought about how Jesus died for not only my sins, but also my baby boy's sins. What an unexplainable gift.

My favorite part of the day was when I overheard Luke telling Eli the story of Easter it was such a sweet moment that came to a screeching halt when I overheard Luke say "And some people doubt that Jesus really did rise from the grave, just like people doubted that the Giants could make it to the Super Bowl, but it's true".

How's that for an Easter story?

Happy Easter 2012 from The Trees!

Menu Monday

Last week's Tree Menu was sooo good. I got all of our recipes from Picky Palate. I recently discovered this food blog and love it and the author so much. I enjoy cooking a good meal but I could NEVER come up with my own recipes. I'm so envious of those who can. So I like to read her blog and pretend that maybe one day I will create my own recipes....probably not.

Our menu this past week:

Monday: Crockpot Ribs

You know I'm a fan of crockpot meals on Monday and Tuesday when I work all day. BUT I'm getting so sick of chicken, chicken, chicken. I needed something different and this meal hit the spot.

I paired it with Macaroni and Cheese (of course), corn and baked beans. It was delicious and we didn't have any leftovers (we are big eaters).

Tuesday: Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni

I didn't have rigatoni and when grocery shopping I always try and use whats in my pantry before buying something else so I just used the elbow noodles we had. They worked just as fine and this was a great meal. It was a tiny bit spicy which doesn't bother me a bit but if you have someone who can't handle spicy stuff this may not be the best meal for them. I tried to give Eli a tiny bite and he ate it but wouldn't eat the next bite, so probably not a good meal for kiddos his age.

Wednesday: Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada Bake

Eli loooooves black beans and seems to really like mexican type dishes, so I knew I wanted to try this meal as soon as I saw it. He loved it! It was delicious and definitely one I will add to our rotation. This would even make a good meal to take to a new mom.

Thursday: Creamy Crock Pot Spaghetti

Ok I still stand behind the fact that I pink puffy heart love Picky Palate, but this particular recipe wasn't my favorite. The noodles were a tiny bit mushy and I think I would rather just make spaghetti the old fashioned way, but I still wouldn't advise against trying it. Especially if you need a four hour crockpot meal. And Luke didn't think the noodles were mushy but I love my noodles al dente.

Sunday: Pulled Pork, Biscuits and Coleslaw

Yum Yum Yum. I knew I wanted to make something special for Easter Sunday, so when I came across this meal I knew it would be perfect. We didn't eat ours as sandwiches like the post, but I did make the coleslaw she linked, and the entire meal was just delicious. I can't wait to have it for leftovers on Monday!

If you want to share your meals don't forget to link up on Rachel's Blog!

And please forgive my horrible food picture. If I'm going to do a consistent Menu Monday I need to learn how to work my camera so I'm not so embraced of my pictures!

Secret Walker

For a couple of months now people have been asking me if Eli is walking yet. It seems like a normal thing that people start asking around nine or ten months.

And everytime somebody asks me I tell them the same thing, nope, he has no interest in walking, he doesn't even act like he's about to start walking.

The question doesn't bother me at all, I haven't been in a rush for him to start walking, I know it will happen eventually... so why rush it?

He does cruise around furniture in the house, and likes to walk with us holding his hands above his head, but if we let go he falls instantly, or if we try and get him to stand on his own or take steps he acts like he has no idea how to do it on his own and just wants us to pick him up.

So imagine my surprise when the babysitter sent me a video at work the other day of Eli taking steps.

WHAT?!?! I thought he wasn't even close.

She then sent me another one of him taking more steps. I was in shock.

The first video she sent me was actually his very first steps. She could tell he was getting ready to take a step so she started her video. I've had some people ask me if it makes me sad that I wasn't there to see it but it honestly doesn't.

Obviously there are going to be things I miss being away from Eli for 20 hours a week. I can either dwell on it and sulk that I miss things or just be ok and be thankful that we found such a good babysitter that takes the time to document his life for us.

ANYWAYS.....that was several days ago, and oddly enough he has been walking more and more at the babysitter's house.

And guess what? He still hasn't taken one step at home. Luke and I try and get him take steps and he acts like he doesn't even know what walking means.

Master Manipulator at age 1.

I've tried to explain to him that we are in on his little secret and know that he can walk. But actually I'm ok with him not walking. Now that I know he can do it, I'm just going to go along with his shenanigans and pretend like I don't know.

Here is the video of him taking his very first steps. I love how proud he looks!

I can't wait for him to take his "very first steps" for me and Luke!

Eli's Birthday Details - Part 1

I've had a couple of questions about Eli's birthday party and I realized I never went into detail about aspects of his party. I just showed about a million pictures but didn't describe anything.

Not that I think anything deserves a lot of explaining, but I did want to answer some of the questions.

I was going to use this post to explain details of some things from his party, but after I described ONE thing (below) I decided I'm the most wordy person ever and I need a muzzle.

So this is Part 1 of details from Eli's birthday party. Don't get too excited, I imagine there will only be 2 parts.

I got the idea for Eli's birthday party sometime last year when I was nursing him. So he was like 2 days old. The theme came to me one day but then throughout the rest of the year I debated whether to even have the party to not.

Eventually I decided to do it and even though I had been building ideas in my head all year long I started really planning and setting ideas to stone.

I'm an insane document builder when it comes to events so first I sat down and built a timeline leading up to the event, created a budget, and made a list of everything I would need, whether it was things to buy, borrow, or steal I wrote it down.

After I started getting details set I began to worry about what I would use for a table backdrop. I am by NO means a creative, crafty or artsy person. It's really sad. I would give my left pinky toe to be creative but I'm just not.

With the party being held in our home, I knew I couldn't transform our whole home to make it looks like a rockstar's party but I wanted to try and add as many touches throughout the house as I could.

My friend Ashley had created a backdrop of streamers at a baby shower she did so after asking her 8 million questions through texting (sorry about that Ashley!) I decided I could handle a backdrop of streamers.

First I measured the wall I was going to put the food table on. Both up and down and across (I'm sure there are fancy terms but I like these better).

Then being the OCD person that I am I got out a tape measure and measured each streamer to exactly seven inches. This was the most painful part of the whole process as I had to go back and forth on my knees a million times but I played T-ball in 3rd grade so I'm used to pain.

After all my streamers were cut I got a strand of Christmas lights from our attic, plugged it in and then measured exactly where my streamers would start and end. Then I took the light out at that exact point so I would remember.

Then for countless nights while Luke and I watched TV I would sit on the floor and tie streamers to the lights.

You could also just tape them over but I felt like this added a step (tearing the tape) that just isn't necessary, plus I like the way the streamers look at the top when they've been tied.

After several nights of tying streamers my backdrop was almost complete! I was happy cause I was so sick of lugging all those streamers around. I felt like it was my wedding dress every time I carried it from room to room. Not sure why, I think because of the "swhishy" noise it made when I moved it.

Luke and I hung 3m hooks on the wall and I'm proud to say we only got in one fight while hanging them.

Then we hung the ginormous string of streamers in our dining room.

And I stood back and admired my work. And said it was good.

I was so afraid after all that cutting and tying I was going to hang it up and hate it, which was very well possible but I didn't it was the perfect backdrop that I wanted.

It was a perfect, easy and cheap backdrop.