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Party with Robert Downey Jr

You KNOW I cannot resist a good cause! This just came through my email and I had to share it with you!

Right now, if you donate just $10 to Julia’s House, you could win a trip for you and a friend to Hollywood to have the experience of a lifetime with Robert Downey Jr. You must donate at this site here, to be entered.

Julia’s House

Julia’s House is a children’s hospice charity dedicated to helping life-limited children and their families. The nurses and caregivers at Julia’s house provide life-changing support for parents and their children both in the hospice and in their own homes. The majority of those children are unlikely to live beyond the age of 18, but thankfully Julia’s House is there for them year-round, offering emergency respite and overnight care during treatment and offering emotional and practical support at the end of a child’s life.

The Experience

You and a friend will be joining Robert Downey Jr. for the best day of your lives at the premiere of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. You will experience indoor skydiving, a helicopter ride over the Hollywood sign, a custom tux/gown fitting, a pit stop at Randy’s Donuts and caviar tasting with RDJ before riding in his private motorcade to the premiere. Flights, 4-star hotel, and transportation are all included. Best of all, every entry benefits Julia’s House.

Looking at the donation site, there are also many other goodies to receive, just by increasing your donation amount.

ENTER HERE

Avengers: Age of Ultron in theaters everywhere May 1

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March 4, 2015
Throw a Fancy Dinner Party

I received product for review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Last weekend the older girls were invited to a Stay Late, or Late Over – whatever you call it when you don’t allow sleep overs. Princess R was just so sad that she did not get to go, and even more sad when I informed her that her little friend was not coming to our house for a stay late either. Instead I promised she could help me throw a fancy dinner party for Dad and little Prince.

She and I had so much fun putting this together. Her favorite color is blue, so the turquoise table runner and turquoise beaded charger plates from Smarty Had a Party just lit up her day. At 4 years old, now is a great time to be teaching her how to properly set a table.

Thanks to Smarty Had a Party, our table was set up quickly and beautifully. All we had to add was our menu and a little cute centerpiece with these LOVE blocks.

The menu was easy peasy. We started with a Strawberry Salad – aka Fresh Strawberries because it just doesn’t get any better than that! Then enjoyed some Zucchini Crust pizza (real life here, we had take out pizza on standby, and it was much appreciated). For a beverage we made some Brazilian Mango Lemonade.

We had such a fun night the 4 of us. Once dinner was over, we all cleaned up together, then put on a movie. The clean up was simple, just like the decor, because just about everything was disposable. Those utensils? Plastic! Stemware? Plastic! Truly the perfect product to have a dinner party with the littles.

Looking for more Party Ideas?

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February 24, 2015
Weekend Bites #15 Goodbye

Welcome back to Weekend Bites in a New Year!

I know you may have seen over at Diane’s that we were closing Weekend Bites down, but after some discussion with a friend, I’ve decided to keep it going. I am so very grateful to Diane for her partnership these last few years and all she did to make Weekend Bites grow. Many of you came to our little party because of her hard work in browsing your sites and inviting you to join us. This year she has decided to take the time to write a cookbook, which I think we’ll all be very excited to purchase and add to our collections.

Next week I’ll introduce you to the new cohost (Debi from Practical Parenting), but today I’d like to share some of my favorite recipes from Diane.

Puffed Pastry Chocolate Flowers

Bacon Stuffed Clams

Surf n Turf Pasta

Asparagus Soup

Diane, Thank you for growing this party with me! I reached out to you not even knowing you with this little idea I had. We started small, but we’ve grown pretty large. So large it’s hard to keep up with sometimes. I wish you much luck and success in 2015 and with your cookbook. Keep in touch!

If you’re new to Weekend Bites, here’s the run down

1. Link up your any food related post below

2. Browse the linky, visit some new blogs, and share if you feel so inclined.

3. Please only link up 3 posts. This lets us visit as many of you as possible.
4. By linking up you give me permission to feature your photos on Home Maid Simple (always linking back to you of course!)

5. Each month I send out a newsletter with the most popular links from that month – you may be featured!! This is a once a month newsletter, every first Friday of the month, no spamming involved. Sign up over there ——>(the Foodie Friday one)

An InLinkz Link-up

January 2, 2015
Fiesta to Feed Families and Twitter Party #Fiesta4Kids

*This post is sponsored by Champions for Kids and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own*

Giving back to our community is something I am extremely passionate about. So when The Motherhood reached out and asked if I could help spread the word on Simple service to help kids get the nutrition they need, I had to jump on board.

See, over the years we’ve periodically had to rely on the help of others to put food on our table. It’s frustrating, full of tears, and extremely humbling. It is also a wonderful experience to allow others to have the opportunity to serve. You see service does not just benefit those being served; it serves the givers as well.

Even when you don’t have a lot, it doesn’t take much to give back to others. Which is the message we’re sharing today. It’s SIMPLE! Want to know just how simple? Let me tell you about our Taco Party.

I used Facebook to let all my friends know we were having a Taco Party. Usually people will ask if they can contribute anything to the meal, so this time, instead of asking our guests to contribute to our meal, I requested they bring some non-perishable items to be donated to our local food bank.

So simple, plus for many this was even cheaper than contributing to our meal. Our friends, even though I know many of them are on limited incomes as well, simply went through their cupboards and brought cans and boxes of food they most likely would not be eating. You know we all have some of those. Some families brought a small bag of goods, others brought multiple bags full. It was truly a wonderful thing to see.

Thanks to Jennie-O we had a delicious Taco Bar set up so through out the party everyone could get fill their plates as needed. Truly the night could not have been more simple to throw together. We did it open house style, since our apt is fairly small and we were planning on around 50 people – both adults and kids.

Friday morning, the kids and I headed out to the Provo Food Bank – find your local food bank – to drop off the many bags our friends and family willingly shared with us. We had about 6 grocery bags full of canned vegetables, soups, tuna, pastas, meal kits, and peanut butter.

I wasn’t entirely sure who to talk to when we arrived, since the inside was just like a large warehouse. But we found a bell to ring, and someone came out and helped us get the food inside to the correct bin. Before he left though, I asked if he would take a moment and tell the kids what exactly they do with all the food that is donated, and how it helps.

Bless her little heart, while the worker was talking, Princess V pulled out her wallet and donated some coins. When it comes to giving to others in true need, this girl is always forefront in helping out. He then let the girls all grab a small box of food and try out the night time drop off chute. They thought that was a ton of food seeing the food drop into the bin after dropping it through the chute.

What kind of Simple Service will you do?

Join us for ideas and kid friendly recipes at a TWITTER PARTY

When: Tuesday, June 24th at 1pm ET

Hashtag: #Fiesta4Kids

Sponsor: @Champions4Kids

Hosts: @theMotherhood, @theMotherhood25, @CooperMunroe, @EmilyMcKhann

Prizes: 5 $25 Walmart Gift cards and coupons for Jennie-O products

So what are you waiting for?! RSVP to the party

June 21, 2014
Foodie Friday Featuring Erica’s Recipes

I would love it if you took a moment to visit my co-host Diane at Simple Living and Eating.

If you’re new to Foodie Friday, here’s the run down

1. Link up your recipe or any food related post below

2. Browse the linky, visit some new blogs, and share if you feel so inclined.

3. Please only link up 3 posts. This lets us visit as many of you as possible.
4. By linking up you give me permission to feature your photos on Home Maid Simple (always linking back to you of course!)

5. Each month I send out a newsletter with the most popular links from that month – you may be featured!! This is a once a month newsletter, no spamming involved. Sign up over there ——>

I’m so excited today! I got a package from my dear mother in law, who is currently living in Japan. I got an email one day asking if there was anything we’d like, along with some pictures of some purses she had found and wanted to know if I would like one. So I responded telling her I’d love anything to enhance my food photography. Thinking she might send me a cute little plate or bowl. I was NOT expecting the large package that arrived on my doorstep today – Check out the dishes on Instagram. My current first world problem is I have nowhere to place all these lovely dishes. I think a china cabinet is now needed.

This weeks Feature is:

I haven’t spend a whole lot of time on Erica’s blog before, but last week she shared a Zucchini, Black Bean and Corn Taco’s recipe that caught my eye. I happened to have a fresh zucchini on hand, and everything else is a staple in this house, except the Feta cheese. Wow, just wow! Please check it out and give it a go. My kids cleaned their plates with minimal complaints, and some even had 2nd and 3rds!!

So now I’m a total follower of Erica, and I need more of her healthy meals that my kids are going to eat up. I did some browsing and found these – enjoy!

Random Veggie Pizza

Salmon, Cucumber and Greek Yogurt Salad

Connect with Erica

Facebook * Pinterest * Google Plus

An InLinkz Link-up

May 16, 2014
Hello Kitty Birthday Party

*I received party supplies from Birthday in a Box for my honest review. All thoughts and photos are my own*

I am still having a hard time believing Princess C is 6 years old! When I started thinking about throwing her a party, I immediate thought of Hello Kitty. We had found a Hello Kitty backpack at a yard sale last fall and she just had to have it. Grandma has sent us numerous Hello Kitty items from Japan as well, so it’s a well known character in our home.

I was thrilled to see that Birthday in a Box carried Hello Kitty’s sweet, little kitten line of products.That made my planning so much easier! Especially since I was throwing a Jungle Book party the day before her party, I really needed it to be easy to put together.

I got the tablecloth from Hobby Lobby and then scattered the table decorations around, leaving room for the awesome cake! Mark’s cousin’s wife made this beautiful creation for us, and we couldn’t have been more pleased. It was a sponge type cake with strawberry filling that was divine and a delicious frosting.

Once I had all the decorations up I quickly put together the treat bags for her friends. I found these cute takeout boxes from Walmart. Hello Kitty seems to be very popular in some Asian countries so these just reminded me of that. While at Walmart I also saw the cookie cutter for the cookies, the glasses and the rings. It just came together nicely.

FYI, have you ever noticed just how much Hello Kitty products are in Walmart? There seemed to be something branded with the cute kitten in just about every aisle.

Birthday in a Box also has some fun treat bags that I’m sure your guests would love!

Hanging the Birthday Banner was a bit difficult by myself because it is HUGE, but it really made a great background for the party. I loved that we got to customize it with the right number for her birthday, and we can change it up if we ever decide to do Hello Kitty again.

I don’t like to plan too many specific activities for the kids, I think they usually have more fun when they can just use their imagination. I did however grab a large coloring book and pulled the pictures out to hang on the wall. The kids loved being able to sit by the wall and color different Hello Kitty pictures.

Later I took Princess C out for a little photo shoot. Something I like to do for each of the kids on their birthday. This one just kills me. She’s such a fun loving girl!

February 19, 2014
The Bare Necessities of Life and King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothie #JungleFresh
I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser.

I love when Disney releases their old classics from the vault! The Jungle Book was released February 11th on Bluray/Combo pack Diamond Edition. I have to admit, we were so excited, that when we showed up at Walmart to purchase it they were just finishing putting the display out. We were not going to miss the limited supply of Jungle Book Lunchboxes that you can get exclusively at Walmart!

I have a 7 year old daughter who for some reason has loved The Jungle Book ever since we found an old copy of the large Disney Book at a library sale a year or so ago. She has laid claim to it, and considered it her favorite – even wanting to do her science project on jungle animals. We don’t own a VCR anymore, and my parents only have the VHS version, so she has never seen the movie.

Friday nights are our movie nights, and we’ve been meaning to invite my niece and nephews over for a long time. What better way to introduce them all to The Jungle Book movie than a party with cousins? Perfect! I really wanted to make this a night to remember for everyone, so we grabbed some #JungleFresh fruit while we were at Walmart grabbing the movie.

Oh so many ideas! We decided to party like Baloo and enjoy the Bare Necessities of Life – Food, family and shelter.

Food

Of course we had to have Baloo’s Claw Kabob. Though no prickly pears available, we did find plenty of other fresh fruit, including some special Asian Pears. Also on our menu were Kaa’s Hypnotic cupcakes, Fancy Ants (raisins on celery), Scaredy Cat Chili, and King Louie’s Coconut Banana smoothie

We made Kaa’s hypnotic cupcakes using Duff Goldman’s Zebra cake mix and some swirled chocolate and vanilla frosting on top.
The real treat came in the form of King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothies. Yum yum yum!! I’ll be honest though, these were a little tricky to make, but so worth the mess. Check out my awesome husband cutting open our coconuts.
Yes that is a coconut on a miter saw. Since we were going to be putting our smoothie inside the coconut shell, we wanted some pretty flat bottoms, and smooth edges. To be honest I’m sure there is an easier way (like the ways suggested on wikihow), but I let my husband have his fun. Plus we got some awesome coconuts out of it.

Coconut Banana Smoothie Recipe at the bottom of the post!!

Family
We were ready to party with all that food, but we still need some family. I was telling my friend about the party, and she jumped on our bandwagon and had her husband blow us up some balloon animals. Definitely a highlight for any party with kids are the balloons. Just check out the birds, snakes, monkeys, elephants and of course, Baloo!

During the movie some kids were pretty entranced with their coconut smoothie while watching, and others had fun making paper plate masks. We were going for jungle animals, but I’m sure you know what happens when you give kids markers and paper plates – they take their own liberties.

After the movie was over we had some extra wiggles we needed to get out before sending everyone home, so we reenacted Shanti as she tried to carry the water from the river where Mowgli first meets her. The kids wanted me to put water inside the bowl…but not in my house kids! Maybe another day during the summer when we’re outside.

I’m not sure if it helped get the wiggles out, or just riled them up some more, but they did love it immensely. Even Uncle M joined in with some bowl balancing and hip waving.

Shelter
We added some Jungle flair to our party by hanging dark green crepe paper around the television. It really gave the feeling of watching it in the Jungle!

If you ever find yourself lost in the jungle, you could almost completely recreate this smoothie. It will probably be a bit chunkier since you’ll use a rock to mash up all the fruit, and your coconuts may not sit on a flat surface, but you’ll still enjoy this treat.

Coconut Banana Smoothie in Coconut Shells

2016-04-16 05:40:31

Yields 4

Celebrate the Jungle Book with King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothie

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Ingredients

4 whole coconuts

3 frozen bananas

8 oz pineapple (or 1 cup)

2 15oz can papaya chunks (if you can find fresh, even better!)

1/2 cup Honeydew Melon chunks

2 cup coconut milk

2 cup apple juice

Instructions

Drill 3 holes in your coconuts and drain out the milk. You can save this to use in your smoothie – we used a can of coconut milk.

Use your preferred method to open your coconut. We used a miter saw to smooth out the bottoms so they wouldn’t roll around, and then sliced 1/2 inch off the tops. Rinse well.

Take your remaining ingredients and toss in your blender.

Blend until smooth. You may need to do this step in 2 batches to fit in your blender.

Pour smoothie into the coconut shells.

Add a straw and enjoy.

By Home Maid Simple

Home Maid Simple https://www.homemaidsimple.com/

Are you ready to party Baloo Style with The Jungle Book?

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February 17, 2014
Mario Birthday for a Girl

This past weekend we celebrated Princess V’s 7th birthday. Themes for the day had constantly been changing throughout the past month, so when I realized we were in the week of her party, I needed to get a set theme. I wasn’t too surprised when she asked for a Mario Party. We recently bought Mario Party 9 for the Wii, and it’s all I can do to keep them off it during the week.

A fun little story, when I took Princess V to pick out her very first lunchbox she was met with a hard decision. Did she pick the Disney Princess lunchbox, or the Mario lunchbox. Eventually she chose Disney Princess, but pretends that Princess Peach is just hanging out inside the castle on the background.

Since I like to throw parties last minute and on a tight budget, these were her decorations. Mark has made it a point to collect the Mario dolls, when we first found Princess Peach in an airport in Japan. We’ve just slowly added to the collection.

The balloons were so simple. I used red balloons for the Piranha flowers. A large V cut out from white paper, and given teeth, then some circles to surround them. Took all of 5 minutes. If you’re really feeling ambitious, you could add some white clouds to the blue balloons. I actually tried painting some on, but it didn’t work out too well.

Later these balloons can be used for a party game. Each child pretends to be a character, while one child (or a parent) is the flower. You want to avoid being hit by the “Piranha”. Lots of fun!

Mark headed to partyland during lunch one day to pick up some more themed supplies – Mario Plates, napkins, and a pink tablecloth. He also picked up some white gloves to send home with all the little girls, so they can dress up like Princess Peach.

Lastly we come to my absolute favorite part – the cupcakes!

For the cupcakes, we went simple, yet tasty. We used Pillsbury Strawberry cake mix for the batter. I swirled Pillsbury Pink Vanilla Funfetti frosting across most of the top, and then edged it with Pillsbury’s Hot Pink Vanilla Funfetti. This gave them the look of Princess Peach’s dress. Now you may be thinking the crown is made from fondant, but you know what? Fondant really isn’t all that delicious, and I hate making stuff only to toss it out later.
So what did I do? I made them out of something much more tasty – Tootsie Fruit Rolls. I mean really, they taste better, hold up just like fondant, and have a myriad of colors and flavors to choose from. I used the Lemon flavor for these. Each roll is cut into 4 slices. Using a knife slightly indent the center and then use your fingers to shape the points on the crown.

Happy Birthday Princess V

September 24, 2013
Kid Friendly BBQ with Velveeta Shells and Cheese #CheesyShells

It’s official! We are moving. We don’t know where to yet, but we’ve signed a contract with another family to rent our house. They want to be in August 1st, which is giving us very little time to find a place and pack and move all our stuff. Things are just crazy here!! We had been trying to plan a BBQ with friend this summer, but it kept getting put off. With the impending move, I knew I had to squeeze it in somewhere, so I just did it! I called everyone on a Saturday, and we set it up for the following Tuesday. It didn’t give me a whole lot of time to get everything ready the way I would have liked, but I decided good food and good company would be the most important parts of the evening. We sure had both thanks to velveeta shells versatility.

Now personally I love pork and beans at a BBQ, but they tend to be thrown out by all the kids and probably some of the adults. Not so with Velveeta Shells and Cheese on the side. Normally I serve them as a lunch meal, but they turned out to be the perfect side at our going away BBQ! Remember, I didn’t have a ton of time to put this together (heck I went shopping just hours before everyone showed up – see my whole shopping trip on G+).

Just 10 minutes before friends were showing up, I started boiling a pot of water, and had the shells and cheese cooked just as the part was getting started! I was so worried they would get cold before we started eating if I did it any sooner. Unlike other brands, I didn’t need to add any milk or butter – just cook the shells and mix in the velveeta cheese.

It was a good thing I picked up the family sized box because they were gone fast! Everyone was pretty content though. After we ate the girls went outside to learn cartwheels from my friends oldest child. They all had so much fun doing that. It turns out most of my friends also have a lot of girls, so Mark headed to his corner with the ipad for a little relaxation, while the women chatted it up in front of our swamp cooler (can someone please turn the sun down, it’s too hot!).

I’m sure going to miss these gals when we move. We all have different background, but we get along splendidly offering different perspectives to our friendship. Despite my social media prowess, technology is still a thing that goes over my head a lot of the time. I don’t have a fancy smart phone like my friend Z does, and my friend C won’t even create a facebook account! We were both excited that Z had her phone with her though, as we went on a “let’s make an awesome treat for the kids” pinterest search.

See I was planning on using our awesome backyard fireplace to make smore’s , but I hadn’t had time to clean it up. Z had seen a recipe for oven smore’s, so of course we had to check it out! They turned out so amazingly good….us women had 2, while only allowing the kids each 1. Hey, there was only so much chocolate to go around! Z’s kids had never had smore’s before, and I think they liked them. I’ll have to send them a little smore’s package as a “thanks for being our friends!” gift.

These truly were so easy, but I still almost messed them up. Add marshmallows to the graham crackers, and broil – watching closely – until the marshmallows get a nice golden brown. Remove from the oven, and add your chocolate. If you want you can top with another graham cracker, but I enjoyed it without a top.
While they were in the oven, Princess R of course needed to go potty. So glad our friends were there and took over watching the oven for me, or we would have been eating blackened smore’s.

July 15, 2013
Jake and the Neverland Pirate’s Birthday Party

Last Saturday Princess C turned 5 years old. I don’t know where the time went with her. I sometimes look at her, and feel that I’ve lost a lot of time already. I still feel like she should be 2 even though we have 2 kids younger than her. I just can’t believe she’s 5!!!

In keeping to tradition with my family, we all woke up before the birthday girl to make her a special request breakfast (Chocolate cereal and a smoothie). We then carried it down to her room where we woke her up with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

This is actually the first birthday in our little family that we’ve done the breakfast in bed thing. It was definitely a hit, and will be continued! While she ate I pulled out her new birthday outfit Mark bought her, and got ready for a special photo shoot in our backyard.

I’m working on my photography skills, but having a sunny day sure helped! This is one that just shines with Princess C’s personality.

Finally she had to wait for her little friends to come over. While she waited…

and waited…

I finished up her birthday cake.

I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used a box mix for the cake (chocolate of course). Between layers, I put some cream cheese frosting and a bit of my freezer Strawberry jam. I then mixed some red food coloring into the rest of the cream cheese frosting to get the pink, and outlined and filled her bandanna.

For her skin, I used this Chocolate Buttercream recipe from Savory Sweet Life. Once I had her skin on, I went in for the details. These are always what get me. If I had planned ahead, I probably would have made the pigtails from some rice krispy treats, but I didn’t. So I used my tubes of decorating icing and piped on the hair strands in black, and the whites of the eyes. I used more of the buttercream for her irises, and then black gel for the pupils, nose and mouth.

Take note here – don’t draw the mouth on while looking at the cake sideways – it will not be where you intended it.

While I finished off the cake, Mark put together a treasure hunt – burned map included.

Unfortunately we overbooked ourselves for the day, so Mark had to help remove a tub, and I forgot the camera while on our treasure hunt. What did they find though? Little gold bags full of pixie dust of course.

That sneaky Hook always trying to make off with the pixie dust.

The bags were very easy to make. I used some gold fabric my sister in law had given me, and cut it into rectangles. Then I folded them in half and sewed up the sides, turned down the top and sewed it with a ribbon inside. The tricky part is making sure you don’t snag the ribbon or they won’t close. Add some silver and white glitter for the pixie dust. The kids had so much fun pinching a little dust out and throwing it over themselves and each other. It’s a wonder our house didn’t float away in it.

Of course we finally had cake and ice cream, and then the real treasure of presents.

February 20, 2013