Cheesy Saucy Veggie Stacks

I made Cheesy Saucy Veggie Stacks the other night and they were so yummy. A little tedious, because you have to saute all the veggies first and then pat them dry and then put it together and then bake it. It was totally worth it though. They were big servings and less than 200 calories a serving. Not only tasty, but good for you too!

I did learn two lessons while making these. Follow directions regarding which direction you cut things. The eggplant is used as the base and you should have six circles of eggplant. I cut mine wrong and had very thick half circles instead. You need a wider base so the stacks don't topple like mine did. The second lesson is to consider using toothpicks to hold the stacks upright. Maybe if you cut the eggplant correctly you won't need to do this. I guess I will find out the next time I make it.

Here is a picture of them right after I got them assembled. Not to bad considering I did it wrong.

Here is what they looked like when I pulled it out of the oven.

The presentation was not so great, but they were really good. I will definitely be making these again, hopefully correctly the next time!

Ethan's Birthday! Continued

Ethan spent his 2nd birthday party surrounded by friends and family. He is a well loved little boy!

Chillin' with his Grandpa's

Loving the cheetohs

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle all by himself! (Daddy had been practicing with him)

Red frosting...always a good idea

Opening presents

Playing with cousin Mason on the family train set

Charles and I had a great time helping and playing at Ethan's birthday party. I can't believe he is already 2! 

Ethan's Birthday!

Today, my darling adorable fabulous and fun nephew Ethan turned 2! Happy Birthday Ethan! Uncle Charles and Aunt Leslie love you!

Isn't he adorable!

My sister Sara, Ethan's super cool mom, threw him a pirate themed birthday party yesterday. Sara is crazy busy. She teaches junior high math and science and she is working on her master's degree. With all of this, she still decided to go the DIY route for many things for his party. The pictures below are the details of the party. I'll post people pictures another day.

Pirate ship with plank

Pirate ship with door

A friend from high school posted these pirate ships on facebook. She had a pirate themed party for her son and she wanted to get rid of these, but didn't want to throw them away because she worked so hard on them. My sister happily took them off her hands.  She placed one in the front yard and the other in the back by the entrance to the pool. Ethan loved climbing around in them!

Treasure Chest

We made this from cardboard boxes, black duct tape, jewels, and a hot glue gun. It was surprisingly easy.

She made this sign to keep people from coming through the house. It sent them around back to the pool.

Gift bags for the kiddos.

She bought black gift bags and used a foam stamp and white ink to get the bags in theme. They had eye patches, pirate hats, pirate rubber ducks and all kinds of other fun stuff in them. 

Crocodile clothespins

Sara painted clothespins green and the inside white. She then cut out cardstock in the shape of the ridge on the crocodile's back and painted that green too. She hot glued that to the top of the clothespins and then hot glued the googley eyes on. They turned out really cute.

Home made mini cupcakes and pirate cookies from Paul's Bakery

Cake, from Confectionately Yours

Sara put a lot of effort into Ethan's party. I know all of the grown up guests appreciated it!

PVR - Part 3

Our final day in Mexico we woke up very early (we being me, Nicholete, and Vandy..Kelli passed on our adventure). When I say early, I mean the sun wasn't even up yet and we were the first ones at breakfast. We then hopped in a cab and took a twenty minute ride down to the marina where Puerta Vallarta Adventures was located. We checked in, signed a waver saying it was okay if they killed us, and then waited for the bus. Here we are patiently waiting.

We then loaded onto a truck that was open air (we realized post adventure that this was probably a good thing). There were 13 of us total plus we picked up a few guides on the way. It took about an hour to get up into the jungle. We did have a little mishap where our truck broke down and they had to bring us a new one, but it didn't take long at all. Once we got up to the site, we promptly put on our gear. It was slightly invasive but the tour guides were very nice and very complimentary (working hard for their tips I'm sure). Here we are all decked out in our very sassy gear.

In case you haven't figured it out, we did a zip line course through the jungle. It was really fun and a lot more work than I think any of us anticipated. Needless to say, the next day we were all very sore. Definitely a good workout. You aren't allowed to take your camera up which makes sense to me because I am quite positive I would have dropped mine. They do send someone with you to take the pictures. I didn't buy any because I am cheap and I never like pictures of my self. My beautiful friend Nicholete did though, so here she is free repelling.

I know it looks like she is posing, but all of her pictures looked like that. She is just a natural =)

After that we all loaded our sweaty selves back on the open air bus (this is why it was a good idea) and headed back into town. The three of us then got a taxi back to the resort and promptly fell asleep trusting that our taxi driver would actually take us back to the resort and not kidnap us. Obviously he was deserving of our trust. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping on the beach.

Unfortunately I started running a fever and did not feel so great, so our last evening in PVR was spent with room service and a movie. Luckily, it chose that night to have a torrential down pour, so I think I picked a good night to get sick.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I am already looking forward to my next one!

PVR - Part 2

Friday and Saturday were spent doing a lot of this

view from the adults only pool

A little bit of this

ready for my couples facial with Vandy

Eating a lot of this

guacamole every day....yum!

Drinking a few of these

Mango margaritas at the the fiesta

And overall just relaxing and enjoying some quality time with my friends. 

Our last and final day we decided to be a little more adventurous....stay tuned to see us in our very attractive gear we wore to fly through the trees.

PVR - Part 1

Time to finally post about the birthday weekend getaway to Puerto Vallarta. Charles very sweetly drove me to the airport bright and early (it wasn't really so bright since it was 5 am) on Thursday August 5th. I headed out of OKC and landed in DFW where I met up with the girls. Vandy flew in from Orlando, Kelli flew in from New York, and Nicholete just met us there since she lives in Dallas. We boarded the plan to head to Mexico and decided to start the trip off right.

After a short flight we landed at PVR. We picked up our bags and headed straight through the airport to catch our ride. Everything you hear about the time share people in the PVR airport is true! They really want to stop you and talk to you. We made no eye contact and kept a quick pace and we got through it pretty easily. We hopped in the van and took a 20 minute ride to our resort. We stayed at the Dreams Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa.

We were greeted with a cool towel and a glass of champagne. This was very nice, however the check in process was not. It took at least thirty minutes, maybe longer. There was only one person working the front desk at prime check in time. After this, we were starving so we headed to our rooms, changed into our swimsuits and went straight to the buffet. There was a good variety on the buffet and it was fresh. After a good lunch, we went and lounged on the beach under the thatched umbrellas. The thatched umbrellas came in really handy since it rained every day for about an hour at around 4:30. 

After a relaxing afternoon, we headed to Il Portofino, the Mediterranean restaurant for dinner. This is the only adults only restaurant at the resort. The food, service and wine were all fabulous. We had a great day and we were looking forward to our first full day on the resort.

Blah

Since I have been back from Mexico, I have not been feeling so great. Some kind of stomach bug. I think it is working its course, I just wish it would hurry the hell up. Anyway, my sweet husband has been feeling sorry for me, so he went and bought me cup cakes from a new place in Edmond. It is called Cupcakes To Go Go. All of their cupcakes have a travel themed name. He bought me Route 66 Red Velvet, Cookies and Cream Capped Mountains, and Leaning Tower of Peanut Butter. I think the cookies and cream one was my favorite, which is a bit of a surprise, since I love chocolate and peanut butter. Overall, they were good cupcakes. I thought the cake part was a little dry, but the frosting was pretty good. Presentations is definitely good. Take a look:

I love the fact that they have a drive thru, and I definitely want to try the Emerald Isle cupcake (mint chocolate), so I know we will try it again.