Slow Cooker Chili

There is nothing like a good bowl of chili, am I right? I love to make chili in the fall, especially in the slow cooker, because I can put it together and forget about it until I'm ready to eat.

 

Chili

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 can rotel tomatoes with chiles

1 can kidney beans (or bean of choice), drained

1 small onion, diced

2 green peppers, diced

1/2 -1 lb ground beef

1 small chuck roast, diced

1 pkg Hot Chili seasoning

In a large skillet, saute onion and green peppers with ground beef, until onions are transparent and ground beef is no longer pink.  Drain any grease, then add to slow cooker.  While cooking the ground beef, in another skillet, sear diced roast, turning frequently to get all sides brown.  Transfer diced meat to slow cooker.

Combine all other ingredients in slow cooker.  Season with salt and pepper.  Set slow cooker to low, and let simmer 4 hours.                                

Top with Cheddar cheese, sour cream, avocado, Fritos...the possibilities are endless!

Lego Party: the Cake

Lego Party!

(part 3)

The cake:
No good party is complete with a fantastic cake.

My cake was actually 2- 13x9 chocolate chip cookies, with buttercream in between the layers and fondant on top.




Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Lego Party: Favor Bags

Lego Party!

(part 2)

Favor Bags:
Let's face it.  The party is good, but the take home loot is what the kids will remember, right?

 I took some regular gift bags and used a circle punch on one of them to get the same color of paper.  Then, I used some foam tape to attach the circles to the bags.  Voila!  Lego bags!

For these little note pads, I just put some circle stickers on each, in a corresponding color.  I paired these with little pens.

I used a minifig mold to make these crayons.  I paired the crayons with a homemade coloring book.  I got the template from another blogger, and it's very unfortunate that I can't remember who, or else I would definitely credit her and link to her page!

I included some mini bottles of bubbles.  I couldn't find any Lego ones, so I just got others and put my own stickers on them.

I used the same premise for the pencil sharpeners.  I couldn't find any with a Lego theme, so I used Lego stickers to make it theme appropriate.  I paired the sharpeners with a pencil in like colors.

I was contemplating getting some bottlecap necklaces that I see everywhere now, but decided to make my own.  They turned out more like dog tags, which was great since they were all boys.

I had some colored foam pages and cut out the blocks and little dots.  Then, I punched some grommets through the top of each block and ran the ball chain through.  The kids really enjoyed these!

I also included some Lego suckers that I made with a Lego candy mold, along with a fun straw, piece of gum, Lego brick eraser and a mini fig.  I think everyone went home happy!

Next Up:  the Cake!

It's a Lego Party!

It's a Lego Party!

For R's 7th Birthday, we decided to go with a Lego theme.  If you haven't seen the Lego Movie, I would highly recommend it!

I found tons of inspiration from pinterest for our party, so I was never short on ideas.  Here are some of the decorations that I made.

 Kleenex box "legos": 

I wrapped up empty tissue boxes, making sure the opening for the box was on the bottom.  Next, I glued on bottoms of plastic drinking cups that I had cut down to size.  I think they turned out great!!  For the large "legos", I used an empty box of copy paper from my office.

They added some great decorations for the party and were relatively inexpensive.  Some of the younger kiddos even tried stacking them like real Legos, so I'd say they were a hit!

Here, I covered the doors with a plastic tablecloth and used paper plates in the same color, as the dots down the center.  Short of hot gluing the plates, we had a tough time getting these babies to stay put!  I'd recommend sticking them on just before the party.

 I used a Lego font to make this banner, and the mini fig template, I got here. 

For the Lego heads, I spray painted some empty containers I had been storing small toys and Legos in.  Then, my niece hand drew on the faces, using a Sharpie.  I ended up with 8 Lego heads, and they look amazing!

I also decorated with some Lego Movie posters and this Pin-the-Smile on Emmett game.  It was great!

Next up:  Party Favor Bags!

Elf on the Shelf: Week Four! (whew!)

Day 22: Sneaking into the kiddo's stocking!

 

Day 23:  Juice Break!

Day 24:  Taking a Snooze

Another successful year of Jingle the Elf!  It was so fun to see how much R loved waking up to see what Jingle had been up to in the night.  I'll have to do some major pinning between now and next Elf season to come up with new ideas for next year.