Zuppa Toscana Recipe

My hubby loves this soup from Olive Garden & every time we go he raves over it, I keep thinking I need to find that recipe!  Well, thank you Pinterest!  Danny was pleasantly surprised by this copy cat & said it tasted even better since I made it just for him...thanks babe!  Click here for this week's featured recipe:

Zuppa Toscana Recipe

Absolute Best Brownies Recipe

 I found this recipe one Sunday when the kiddos wanted brownies but we didn't have a boxed brownie mix.  I got on Pinterest & this is what I found.  It is so good & so easy that I don't think I will go back to the box mix!  Click here to enjoy this week's featured recipe:

Absolute Best Brownies Recipe

The Birthday Girl

Can't believe Averee is 9!  Holy cow-where does the time go?  Well, in our family the kids get a friend birthday party on the even years and a family party on the odd years.  Since it is an odd year for Averee she decided she wanted us to go to Laser Mania then Menchies for her birthday.  YUM!

Adee and Reese enjoying some yummy Menchies

Me & my sweet boy Owen

Then we had all the family over for dinner & cake on Sunday.  Here is Averee with her Animal Cookie Cake.  The kids and Danny made a delish cake! Of course everyone loved the Animal Cookies the best :)

Here is Grandpa & Grandma Jones, Averee, Reese, Cam & Adee

Here is Averee, Reese, Cam, Owen, Adee & Aunt Michelle

The Big Kids: Cole (poor kid broke his leg 2 weeks ago), Savanna & Megan

This is Seth, Stockton, Ian, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Jason & Grandma Verlene

Aunt Michelle, Uncle Todd & Aunt Shannon enjoying some cake & ice cream

Averee was so excited to open her present this morning-and I was too!  I have had it for awhile & couldn't wait for her to open it.

She got an iPod...she has wanted one for so long & couldn't believe she FINALLY got one :)  She is such a good girl & we are so lucky to have her in our family.  She is a wonderful big sister & such a big help to me.  She is so tenderhearted and sweet.  We love you birthday girl!!

Here is the cute birthday shelf I am doing for everyone's birthday.  I made the balloon wreath with some friends, then I made a bunting banner to match ( I laminated it so hopefully it will last all year-I love my laminator!).  I also got a cute idea from Pinterest-it is subway art with all the stats from their birthday.  I made one for each kid & they turned out so cute!

This is Averee's birthday subway art- so fun!

Lucky Bingo FHE

Don't you just love holidays..especially with kids!  They make everything more fun :)  With each passing year we get more & more into celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  It's just such a fun holiday!


One of our family goals for the year is to learn more about other countries.  So, for the FHE lesson tonite we learned all about Ireland.  How fitting with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner!  The kids were most surprised to learn that they speak English in Ireland :)  They were glad it was closer to us on the globe than China.  We learned about China in January & the kiddos thought it was sad that China was so far away that we could probably never visit. :)  So, I guess they expect to go to Ireland now?  Anyway, after the lesson we played our annual game of Lucky Bingo.  I already had a St. Patrick's Day Bingo set but found an even cuter one on Pinterest:

 
Click here to download it for yourself:
 Lucky Bingo

After the game we had this cute little treat that I also found on Pinterest:




I just put ours in plastic cups...but they turned out so cute & the kids loved it!  They had their own little pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  What a fun FHE.  Gotta love Pinterest!