Velata S'mores Dip

Lily loves making S'mores on the raclette, but when I saw a picture of S'mores dip on pinterest,  I knew it was perfect for the raclette! I must warn you, it's very addicting and horrible for your waistline!! #raclettewars

Rock Star Auntie!

I pride myself on being the favorite Auntie! I work hard to claim this title! So last week when I had my brother's four kids for the day, I knew I needed to make the day special.
The youngest kiddo of the day, Drew, is gluten free. Sometimes it's hard to find fun food that is gluten free. But this Auntie has some tricks up her sleeve.
First was a snack mix made of popcorn, rice Chex, m&m's and Velata chocolate. The hard part was waiting for the chocolate to harden (I ended up putting it in the fridge because the kids got impatient).
Then Drew said, "Auntie will you teach me to make play dough, so I can remember when I am grown up?". So we made a fresh batch of play dough in orange, Drew's color of choice.
And for dinner, we made chicken skewers on the Velata Raclette, along with applesauce with cinnamon and sugar in the trays. Super simple and very yummy (and of course gluten free!). They were a huge hit to all the kids who thought anything on a stick is fun.
I managed to score some Auntie points that day, and had a fun day myself!

Sand Castle Contest 2014

This is our 5th consecutive year of building a sand creation at Birch Bay Sand Castle Contest. We had a blast, but had to finish up our Jeep almost an hour early because the tide was coming in, and of course we had picked sand closest to the water! Thanks Marty for putting on a fun, FREE family event!

Lily and Emma won first place in Youth division. Judges loved how they worked without any help and had great use of beach materials! Way to go girls!

#Raclettewars

Dan and I have been having a blast using our new Raclette from Velata. We both like to cook, but with busy schedules and kids' activities in the evening, sometimes dinner is rushed. The Raclette makes dinner fast, fun and easy!!
Friends of our in Texas started posting pictures of what they were making on their Raclette, and Dan had to one up them and post our own pictures. This is what started #Raclettewars. Now it's a fun way to share what everyone is making on their Raclettes.
What is a Raclette you ask?? Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2s58QmZTs&feature=c4-overview&list=UU61Gw-WzjE5moYArjPeZ80A
Want one for yourself? Good news, they are 10% off until the end of February. Even better, you can get yours half price with a qualifying Velata party! https://hollysnow.velata.us/Velata/ Check out my website for more info and recipes!!
Here's just a few of the fun meals we have enjoyed!

Snow Day!

We were thrilled to wake up to Snow this morning! My Mom asked us to feed the cat while she is out of town, so the kids and I took a walk with Buddy. Note, Buddy knows the way to my Mom's because he likes to go play with her dog Charlie. So when we get close he gets excited and wants to run! Just so happened that Lily wanted to "walk" Buddy as we got closer. I am sooo mad I didn't get this on video.....we totally could have won on AFV!! Note, Lily did NOT think this was so funny and it took about 10 minutes for Nate and I to stop laughing, and her to stop crying. After I convinced her that it would have won money on AFV, she wanted to recreate it to be rich and famous!! For giggles, we may let her!

Watching Over You

There is a little tradition among my friends, when one goes on vacation, the others break into their house and prank it. We have had lots of fun over the years with tampons, aluminum foil, sticky notes....and more. A few years ago my wonderful sister in law took all the labels off the cans in my house (102 of them!) and then hid them....and the master list telling me what was in each can. Let's just say when you come home from vacation, tired and irritated....finding a master list is NOT fun. Anyways....while we were in Legoland they broke into my house again (someone remind me to change the garage door code!).
Here's what we found.....there were hundreds of them.....everywhere you looked.....and I'm still finding them!!

Legoland

My kids LOVE legos. Nate is a little obsessed. We finally had to move all his legos to his room, and they have taken over.....seriously!
For years we have been saving for a trip to Legoland in California. I printed out a map of Legoland and put it on a big jar, like 6 years ago. We saved up our coins in that jar with the dream of a family vacation. Lily had never been on an airplane, and Nate just as a baby, so he didn't remember. We saved coupons from their Brickmaster magazine and we waited for the perfect opportunity to finally get to the Holy Land, Legoland.
We finally made it last November. It was Veterans Day weekend, so the kids only missed a few days of school, and we stayed in Oceanside at our Worldmark condo.
We cashed in the jar of coins and got $202! The kids split that money and that was their spending money for the week. They were really good about not asking for extras because they had their own money, and when that was gone, they were done.
The whole trip was amazing. The weather was  a perfect 72 ever day and the park was beautiful. I loved how hands on everything was. There were legos to play with while you stood in line, and plenty of hands on entertainment throughout the whole park.
We were lucky enough to have family come visit while we were there and it made this Auntie's heart happy to spend time with the girls.
I am thankful we made it to Legoland before the kids got any older, because it would have lost some of the magic on older kids. Although.....Nate and Lily are trying to figure out how to go back as "helpers" with my sister and her kids!