Mid-Week Happies

1) I won a pair of Scarlettos! They did a giveaway on Instagram and have more planned for the future. I picked a new pattern that isn't listed yet - but I'm so excited to have another pair of shoes for Ellie's toes! And, speaking of toes, she found hers today at the park...

2) UPPAbaby has, yet again, proved to be worthy of every dime we spent on the stroller. Our front brakes have been acting funny and not locking most of the time. I emailed the company, they called me directly and shipped replacement parts that same day at no charge. That, my friends, is customer service at it's finest.

3) Tonight is my first night out sans husband and kiddos! I'm meeting a girlfriend for pizza and wine and I cannot wait. While I'm pretty easy going in my day-to-day parenting, I have the hardest time letting go and being away from the kids for anything more than an hour or two of errands. The funny part is that it's not that I fear leaving my kids alone with someone else, but that I just feel guilty to have anyone else watching them. Even my own husband to a certain extent! I guess these are issues that I'm just going to have to let go of - hopefully tonight will help with that.

Mama's Mexican Salsas

And by mama, I'm talking about my MIL. When the U and I got married there was only one request he had: learn to make his mom's rice. I, more or less, have that recipe down (at least enough to satisfy the U), but a couple of months ago I had an itch to learn to make her awesome Mexican salsas.

She started me off with an easy green sauce, then came over and taught me a delish red salsa as well. After posting pics on Instagram I received a ton of comments for the recipes, so here you go!

RED SALSA

Ingredients

10 Tomatillos

3 Dried Pasilla Peppers (California Peppers will work as well)

5 Dried Chiles de Arbol

7 Dried Piquin Peppers (she adds these for extra spice and gets them from Mexico, you can easily leave them out)

1 Clove Garlic

1/3 Bunch of Cilantro

Salt

Directions

Boil Tomatillos in Water for about 10-12 minutes.

Remove seeds from Pasilla Peppers and place in a separate pot to boil with Adobo Chiles (if making both green and red sauces, you can place the habaneros in this pot to boil as well) for 12-15 minutes.

Once the tomatillos have boiled, cut out the core of the tomatillos and place the rest into your blender.

Cut off the tops of the adobo chiles and place in blender with pasilla peppers.

Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until everything has thoroughly mixed.

GREEN SALSA

Ingredients

10 Tomatillos

3-5 Habanero Peppers

1 Clove Garlic

1/3 Bunch Cilantro

Salt

Directions

Boil Tomatillos in Water for about 10-12 minutes.
Boil habaneros in a separate pot for 12-15 minutes (if making the red salsa at the same time, just boil with the pasillas and adobos).
Once the tomatillos have boiled, cut out the core of the tomatillos and place the rest into your blender.
Cut off the tops of the habaneros and place in blender.
Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until everything has thoroughly mixed.

Your best bet is to visit a Hispanic store for the ingredients. Prices are cheaper and they will definitely have everything you need on hand. If you don't have one near, the Hispanic aisle at your local store should usually have these ingredients on hand as well. I also found this great site online that shows you what the peppers look like dried!

I seriously make these about once a week and we put them on just about every meal. They are delicious with chips, on top of meat, in your rice - basically on everything!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I appreciate HUT's teachers more than they probably know. However, whoever decided to make teacher appreciation week only a few weeks before the end of the school year?

Not your brightest idea.

How about spreading out the wealth during the year sometime? (Although so far we've gifted HUT's teachers on every holiday as well. Is this the norm?) I want to show my appreciation for the teachers, but I also want to send them off with a nice farewell. My wallet would prefer these be more than three weeks apart. Just sayin'.

I forgot to take a final picture of their teacher appreciation gifts, but here's what I gave them:

Since HUT is a T/Th student, on Tuesday I sent a thank you card designed by yours truly with a heartfelt letter written as a family to show our appreciation.

On Thursday, I gifted his teachers each a Godiva chocolate bar and 10 thank you cards. Five of the cards were teacher-like in nature. The other five were more personal so they could use them at anytime for anything they might like. I also gave stationery only to one of the front office staff and HUT's music teacher.

{ All stationery designed by me*!}

Since I'm a member of the Advisory Board at HUT's school, I helped design all of the paper goods that went into creating this awesome luncheon to show our appreciation for the entire staff at his school:

 { The design is mine*, but the poem was provided by a parent.}

To save myself from the end of the year rush, I decided to take care of their end of year gifts already. I wanted to do a summer theme so this is what I came up with:

Inside each drink dispenser is a towel, sunscreen, aloe vera and a $20 gift card to Target. Because, well, who doesn't love Target?

I've yet to design their cards to say goodbye, but I fully intend to do so, and add a cute tulle bow to the top of each decanter.

What are some of your favorite teacher gifts?

* I'm happy to design any and all of these as a custom listing in my shop as well. Shameless plug, but just wanted to throw it out there! Just leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

Perez Photography #BeatsforBeckham Family Photo Shoot

Well. Hello there.

I've been noticeably absent and, well, that's just life. Crazy, busy life.

But a couple of weekends ago we were fortunate to meet up with our favorite wedding photographers, Perez Photography, and have a little mini session benefitting Beats for Beckham. Beckham was born with HLHS and is currently at Children's Medical Center in Dallas (a hospital that holds a very special place in my own heart). I have been following Beckham's story for quite a while now, thanks to links that I've seen on Facebook from several people, including HUT's newborn photographer, Magaly at The Modern Image.

Maybe it's because Beckham is close to Ellie's age; maybe it's because he's part Hispanic like my own kids, I'm not sure, but this family has captured a special place in my heart. When Cesar + Tanya posted that they would be doing mini sessions to benefit the family, I jumped at the chance (and used Mother's Day as my excuse for the expense).

I'm so, so happy with my Mother's Day gift. And, as part of hers, we asked my mom to come along and get in some of the pictures.

Sponsored Post - Graco FastAction™ Fold Jogger Click Connect™ D/FW Event!

On Wednesday, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Graco FastAction™ Fold Jogger Click Connect™event here in Dallas. As part of the event, I received both the new stroller and a carseat in return for a blog post and attendance at the event. Of course, being the child/baby gear fanatic that I am, I immediately jumped on board to test out their newest product.

The event took place at Trinity Park in Fort Worth - quite a trek for this family, since we live over an hour away. Although the weather was a bit cold and windy, I loaded up the kids and set off on my first major adventure alone with them far away from home.

Brittany, from Naturally Estes, hosted the event and did a great job at coordinating everything. She had decor, delicious food from one of my favorite lunch spots, Zoes Kitchen, chalk for the kiddos to play with - and it was nice for me to get out and chat with other moms. Of course, we looked like quite the spectacle with our brigade of Graco strollers (all of the images in this post are thanks to Julie Harding Photography - I'm happy she was there as I have yet to master taking any photos with two kids in tow).

{ of course the only candid shot of us is one where I'm eating }

I will admit that, when I first put together the stroller, I was a bit skeptical because it seemed extremely tall for my height (just check out the above pic - I'm clearly the shortest of the bunch and it shows when next to the stroller). However, once we got everything loaded in, I realized it wasn't that big of a deal. The stroller comes with a ton of storage space (a place for your drinks and phone, as well as a snack tray/drink holder for your child). The storage compartment below the stroller is pretty large and has easy access - one of the main selling points in a stroller for me.

Although we were given a carseat, I didn't use mine. Since we already have a Snugride 35 (it was HUT's and now Ellie uses it as well), when we arrived I just connected my current Graco carseat into the stroller. That's the beauty of their click connect system. I knew that HUT would want to run around, so it made the most sense to use the stroller for Ellie while we were testing things out.


The stroller also had a one handed folding feature that, in theory, is a great idea. However, both times that I attempted to use it, I needed to push with my other hand to actually get it to lock. I don't think that I was using enough force to close it with one hand, but it was still a bit difficult.

{ Here is Brittany demonstrating the fold }

The stroller rides smoothly and would be great for exercise and visits on rougher terrain. It also turns easily, which is a big selling factor for me. The size is pretty large - it took up the majority of the back of my car, so it's definitely not a compact stroller.


Ultimately, it's not a bad jogging stroller at all for the price point. And, if you plan to get a Graco carseat, this would be pretty handy to have as well. Since we all know that I have way too many strollers to begin with, the fruits of my labor are going to go a good home. One of my good college friends is expecting her first baby and, since she registered for the Graco Snugride 35 carseat, I offered her the stroller, which she happily accepted. She is going to get plenty of use out of this thing - I'm sure of that! I'm saving the carseat that I was given for the future... should a third baby ever happen. :)

Now for the official stuff...

Graco’s NEW jogger is the ultimate crossover stroller, combining all the comfort and convenience features of a traditional stroller (FastAction Fold and Click Connect Technology) with performance and maneuverability of an all-terrain jogger.

As an added bonus, Graco’s innovative one-second, one-hand FastAction™ fold automatically locks & is self-standing.

This post is sponsored by Graco.