Sunshine, Owies & Sweet Treats

Party day was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We couldn't have asked for a better day for the big celebration. All of our kids have really gotten into Mary Poppins the first part of this year. The movie is a common request for family movie night and the oldest's class sang "Let's Go Fly A Kite" in their spring program, so we heard that song chorused by all four through the house quite frequently. So, when I asked what they wanted their party theme to be, I wasn't overly surprised that they said Mary Poppins. Do you know how hard it is to find Mary Poppins themed party items?? Pinterest wasn't even a big help on this one. I got a couple ideas from there and just ran with it. Here's the final product, complete with the ever-loved bounce house (since I wasn't going to rent a carousel or dancing penguins).

 The main table

A Spoonful of Sugar

The scary looking penguin cupcakes. 

Kites as Thank You Gifts

And most of the kids even got a chance to break out the kites and send them off flying since the wind was perfect for it. That part we couldn't have even planned for!

At one point the oldest kidlet came out of the bounce house crying, saying that her sister kicked and sat on her finger (accidentally). This is my sensitive child. She is REALLY not good with pain, but she's been working on it. After some snuggles and ice, I finally taped her pinkie finger to her ring finger and sent her back out to play. She seemed absolutely fine and the fun continued. We even wrapped up the evening with a family jump with 6 of us in there before deflating it and sending each tired little munchkin off to bed. The next morning she told me it still hurt. I unwrapped the tape and found a swollen and bruised baby finger, so off to the walk-in clinic we went.

(Don't mind the half gone tattoo on the upper part of the pic)

Poor Bean broke her pinky! In fact, it's so close to the growth plate that she gets a ticket to visit the orthopedic department later this week. *sigh* I felt like a horrible mom! But she didn't complain the rest of the evening and it really didn't look bad at all. 

Needless to say, Sunday was a low key day in our house. Lots of new toys to play with, a little bit of tv time with some snuggles. It was a much needed quiet day. We wrapped up the weekend by making two different THM-friendly cookies, both are amazingly wonderful! Even the kids love them! And as the kids wound down for bed while watching a show on tv, the hubby and I enjoyed our dessert and our nightly game of cribbage (when he's not at the station anyway).

I have to share these two recipes quick and then I'll give you a recipe review and progress report. So, the first recipe is for the cookies in the picture above. Those are Cowboy Cookies and they are a perfect filler for those with a sweet tooth! They are also sugar free and low carb which makes them the perfect S snack or dessert! The other cookie we made was the Fudgy No-Bake Cookies that I've mentioned a few times on this blog so far. Last week I made them with just rolled oats, but this week I made them with 1/2 rolled oats & 1/2 shredded unsweetened coconut. I could take them either way! Another S snack or dessert that hits the spot. The only downfall that the hubby and I found is the craving for a big glass of milk! He settled for a small glass of almond milk, while I just had water. The only thing I'll need to watch with these is overindulging. I'll have to limit them to smaller portions if I'm going to have them for two snacks, or I think they could have the same negative effect that too many of goodie can on weight loss progress.

To wrap up, I have to say that the Cilantro Lime Turkey Tacos that I posted on Friday were scrumptious and will definitely go in our "KEEP" file as far as recipes go. They were incredibly flavorful and filling. And as for progress... Both the hubby and I stayed on track through the whole party and both were rewarded for a week of eating smart. I lost 5.4 pounds and he lost over 8!! Not a bad start at all. My measurements were all down from the start, but they were almost all down lower than my last measurements from my challenge. And that was the smallest I had gotten in that challenge, so I'll take that as a huge success! It was definitely enough to motivate us to keep going into week two, so here goes nothing!

By the way, tonight's recipe is a slightly altered Baked Mozzarella Chicken Roll recipe. Check back tomorrow for the recipe and a review!