I’m kind of a food snob

A fantastic Dad

Just found this in Jac’s lunchbox…

Happiness is…

Tangled Party!

Charis turns 5 on Monday and to celebrate she asked for a Tangled party.

We had a few of her close girlfriends over this morning for all sorts of Tangled fun. To decorate I made a couple of pennant banners and used lanterns like the movie.  There is a template for the pennants on this blog.

 

I also used yellow yarn to make Rapunzel’s hair – there’s a braid coming from the chandelier and lots of hair over the entryway into the dining room.

Her cake….Rapunzel’s tower.

Cute snack idea off of the same blog linked before…little boats with canoes (when they were watching the lanterns released).

We had Tangled coloring sheets out on the table for the first activity while they ate snacks…

Then, we did these super cute Pascal (the chameleon) party blowers.

I had some face paints and thought maybe Kate could paint the girls’ faces with the sun off of the pennant – I had NO idea she was a professional face painter.

Check out the bengal…

Then we had Charis open presents – she got some cute Tangled toys and then opened up a bike helmet.  We just told her that was to ride Abigail’s bike.  She’s too sweet to complain, but she wasn’t thrilled…

 

Then we had John knock on the hallway door – she went to open it and saw her new Barbie bike!

Thank you Gram!!!  She loves it – and so does Jones.  hahaha

Her party favor bags had these cute paints (Rapunzel paints in the movie since she’s home alone all day) that ALSO have a template off of the aforementioned blog.

Then, for our finale, instead of releasing lit lanterns (for some reason that just didn’t sound like a good idea) – we all said something we loved about Charis and released balloons.

It was such a fun party – she’s a sweet, sweet girl and I loved helping her have a special day!

I love a good book and a I love a good party – so a party about a book is my FAVORITE.

I invited a bunch of friends who had read The Help and were excited to see the movie over for a Southern meal and Southern conversation. (minus the gossip)

My menu:

• Mint juleps - These were slightly disappointing.  VERY sweet and sort of a mojito tease.  But they were very popular in the south in the 60′s.
• Deviled eggs – I love deviled eggs, but this was my first time making them myself…and man are they a pain!  Very tedious, but still yummy.

• Fried Chicken – I’ve never fried chicken myself, but I’ve watched my mom do it and know better than to give it a college try on a night like last night – SO, Church’s it was.
• Bourbon sweet potatoes – THESE WERE AMAZING.

• Corn bread – So I asked my friend Carrie to make the cornbread for the night.  She said she’d never made it before to which I replied, “I mean, Jiffy is totally fine.”  Well, Carrie made the mistake of telling her mother that she was going to make jiffy for the dinner – her mother’s response – “Oh no you are NOT!  I can’t believe you’ve never made cornbread before, I have failed you as a mother.  I’ll be there tomorrow to teach you.”  SCORE for us because not only did she help Carrie make cornbread, she also made us black eyed peas and an incredible squash casserole.  Thanks Carrie’s mom.
• Caramel Cake – Minny is famous for these cakes in the book so I thought we needed to include it in the supper.  Turns out, caramel cakes are a HUGE undertaking, so I made these “cupcake” versions.  They turned out super cute, but VERY sweet.  VERY.

• Minny’s chocolate pie – fun fact – one of the bakers for the movie made 53 different chocolate pie recipes to find the perfect one for the film – this recipe is the one she landed on.  And it’s GOOD.

So after dinner I broke out the trivia for the book/movie.  I started by having everyone identify which characters each actress was portraying using these…

After we knew who each actress was, we used these in a modge podge game of “who said this”/spoons (where everyone grabs a spoon, but one person is left without one).  I basically just had a list of quotes and as I read them, the ladies grabbed a picture of the character who said it.  Very fun.  I also did just some classic trivia questions from the book.  We had all read the book over a year ago, so it was good to brush up before heading over to the movie!

The party favors were CD samplers of some of the music from the movie (Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, etc.)…

Such a fantastic group of women and an incredibly great night.

Check out the trailer and GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

The Science of Happiness

I stumbled upon a little gold mine this week.  (It was actually a clip from a TED conference, but that clip has since been taken down.)

Shawn Achor is a Harvard graduate who has been studying and teaching positive psychology for several years.  His research has shown some pretty interesting and applicable truths about what it is that makes us happy and what happens when we are happy.

Check out this little clip:

He has written a book called “The Happiness Advantage” which is now on my list of books to read.  Here are a few of the principles he talks about in the book…

• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
• The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
• Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network

Here is a full 30 minute lecture he give on some of these ideas:

(not that I expect you to watch them…only if you wanted to see more)

He’s got some great stuff here – stuff that makes a lot of sense.

For me, his research is sufficient even if it only contributed to more happiness in my life, but the research also shows that happiness actually increases productivity and success:

• Doctors put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis show almost three times more intelligence and creativity than doctors in a neutral state, and they make accurate diagnoses 19% faster (Estrada, Isen & Young, 1997).
• Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56% (Seligman, 1991).
• Happy workers have higher levels of productivity, produce higher sales, perform better in leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay. They also enjoy more job security and are less likely to take sick days, to quit, or to become burned out (Lyubomirsky, et al., 2005).
• Happy, engaged workers have been shown receive up to 25% higher job performance ratings than their unhappy colleagues, which translates into a better bottom line.  (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203142512.htm)
• For every 100 happy managers, the average company could save nearly $400,000 each year.  (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203142512.htm)
• “On average, business units in the top quartile on the employee engagement produced 1 to 4 percentage points higher profitability. For many organizations in a highly competitive market, 1 to 4 points per business unit is quite substantial and can represent the difference between success and failure (Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002).”  (http://media.gallup.com/DOCUMENTS/whitePaper–Well-BeingInTheWorkplace.pdf)

In the clip that has since been removed, he gives some very applicable ways to actually retrain your brain for positivity.  Some of those examples were as simple as gratitude journaling and exercising.  Gratitude journaling trains your brain to look for the positive in life and exercise actually teaches your brain that our behaviors matter.  Pretty interesting stuff – definitely going to read the book.  Who doesn’t need a little more happy in their life?

God Grew Tired of Us

Last weekend I watched two incredible documentaries, one of them I featured last week: Beyond Belief.  It was a very moving story and definitely taught me a lot about the plight of widows both here and abroad.  But the second documentary almost left me speechless – it’s called “God Grew Tired of Us”.  (available on streaming Netflix)

It’s the story of 4 of the thousands of lost boys of Sudan.  In 1987, Sudan’s Muslim government pronounced death to all males in the Christian south: 27,000 boys fled to Ethiopia on foot. In 1991, they were forced to flee to Kenya; 12,000 survived to live in a U.N. camp in Kakuma.  The images from this journey are haunting.  Young boys going without food and water for days and weeks and months.  Walking seemingly nowhere together.  Carrying emaciated infants on their backs.  Unfathomable.

But the story focuses on 4 of these boys…now men, that are selected to relocate in the United States.  Watching them learn a new world with all of it’s innovation and convenience was hysterical.  Listening to them as they talk about their sadness and longing for their families still in Africa was heart breaking.  And hearing their perspective on our isolated lives was eye opening.

Here’s the trailer…

Let me know what you think.  I think you’ll find it worth your time.

Beyond Belief

Over the weekend I watched two incredible documentaries on Netflix – both streaming. (Which, by the way, if you don’t have Netflix you should jump on board now while it’s still $8…I suspect this will go up.)

I digress.

I wanted to do a quick spotlight on these documentaries – I really think film is one of the best ways we can try to begin to understand about cultures, lives, experiences and beliefs that are different from our own.

Beyond Belief is the story of two women who were widowed by 9/11. They found each other after their husbands were killed and quickly forged a strong friendship. But instead of allowing their grief to dominate their life, they decided to turn their tragedy into something that would help other widows…in Afghanistan.

Here is the trailer…

The documentary is powerful and reminded me that people still live daily with the tragedy of September 11th. But it also taught me more about the plight of women in countries like Afghanistan. These women are faced with realities that I will never experience simply because I live in the United States. It’s incredible to get to hear from these widows (both the American and the Afghan women) and watch as women overcome incredible loss and grief. Their courage and perseverance is almost beyond belief.

Highly recommend this film – here is the Netflix link.

And here is where you can learn more about their organization, Beyond the 11th.

S’more Pops

So the other night I had this crazy dream where I was a contestant on a Food Network show.  I was given all of the ingredients to make a s’more and told to make a truffle of some sort.  After two botched attempts, I came up with something brilliant and won the show.  Great way to be productive in my sleep, eh?

My idea?  S’more pops.  When I explained them to Charis she insisted that we make them as soon as possible.

All you need?

Graham crackers, large marshmallows, a bag of chocolate chips melted in the microwave and lollipop sticks.

Step one…

Stick a marshmallow on a lollipop stick.

Step two…

Dip the marshmallow in the melted chocolate.

Step three…

Roll in graham cracker crumbs.

It’s SUPER tasty and the kids had fun making them.

Well, Jones had MORE fun eating them.

A fun way to eat a s’more without having to build a fire or set up a tent.

800 Snowden Circle

We have been growing out of this house steadily since we moved in with just one little baby boy in October of 2005.  This house has been perfect for us up until now- but a family of 6 is just a little cramped at this point.

John and I started looking for houses last fall and found a gem in midtown – specifically the Annesdale Snowden neighborhood.

It was built in 1925 as a duplex – top and bottom.  There have been a few renovations over the years including running central heat and air and converting it back into a single family dwelling.  It has seven bedrooms, TONS of living space and lots and lots of yard.  And, to top it all off, it was a foreclosure, which means we got it for a steal.  We basically were able to use the rest of our budget for a new home to do our own renovations.

Our new next door neighbor is our general contractor and we’ve had TONS of help from our friend Brooke who has a fantastic eye for design.

Here was the kitchen last month…

And here it is now…

Still need appliances and the floor redone, but it looks so much better already.

Since it was a duplex, there was another kitchen upstairs.  The previous owners didn’t use it as a kitchen, but kept the cabinets and sink standing.  I can’t seem to find a pic with all of the original cabinets, but here is one from a month or two ago…

And here it is now…taken from a different angle…

Needless to say, we’ve come a long way!  John and a couple of guys are painting a bunch of the rooms, today – I’ll get before and after pics up of those rooms soon!

I’ll leave you with my favorite part of the whole house – the main stairwell.

It’s so exciting to think that this could be the house we’ve always talked about – one where people could live with us, family could stay when they’re in town, and a great hub for our kids and their friends.  It will definitely be a project for a long, long time, but it’s worth it and I’m thankful!