chocolate chip cheeseball

this one is definitely a crowd pleaser. i have had several people over the past few years ask me for the recipe for this and i thought it was time to share! i made this over the weekend for reed and our good friend john for a dessert. they approved!! :) ha!



ingredients:
-8 oz cream cheese (1 package softened)
-3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar 
-2 tablespoons of brown sugar
-1 teaspoon of vanilla
-1-2 cups of chocolate chips (mini chocolate chips are fine too)
-1 box of graham cracker sticks

*depending on how many people you are serving; for a larger crowd or party i have doubled this recipe above*

details:
-in a small bowl, mix your cream cheese and add the sugars and vanilla; beat until smooth (you can use a mixer or hand mixer)
-stir in chocolate chips and place on your dish
-i also sprinkle chocolate chips on the top as well (you can also use any type of nuts as well)
-serve with graham cracker sticks

enjoy! :)

girls night

this week i hosted a girl night of eating and shopping at my house. my friend elizabeth came from initials inc. which is a super fun line of personalization products. we all had such a great time and i appreciated the friends and family that attended. 

we had appetizers, drinks, and of course dessert. elizabeth brought a lot of fun product for us to look at and shop. go to her personal website and check out all of the fun product that she sells 

www.intials-inc.com/swimmom

for the party i decided to make two appetizers, and two desserts. 

appetizers:

-buffalo chicken dip served with tortilla chips and celery 

-bacon wrapped water chestnuts

dessert: 

-fruit salsa served with cinnamon chips

-strawberry cupcakes with funfetti icing 

drinks:

-vanilla lemonde

-sweet tea

-water

i will be posting some of these recipes from the party over the next couple of weeks if you have any specific one you would like to see, let me know!

i hope you enjoy! :)

my new lifeplanner

okay, i am so excited about this post; i don't even know where to start. first of all, if you haven't heard of erin condren just go to her website and see for yourself... wonderful. www.erincondren.com

i don't know if you are obsessed with paper and planning as much as i am but this planner and brand is simply awesome. my friend allie introduced me to the brand and i wish i would have had this through high school and college.

anyway, erin condren is a paper and planner extraordinaire. the brand is known for the "erin condren life planner." they also have teacher planners with lesson plans for all of those teachers out there that want to stay organized. they are adorable! my first life planner came a few weeks ago and it took about 2 weeks to ship with their high volume of orders but i didn't even care how long it took ha! (i have paper problems, i know). 

i mentioned to reed, that a blue box should be arriving soon and to look out for it. he said oh birch box! no reed, not birch box this is a new box haha! i thought it was so cute that he snapped a pic of the box when it arrived at the door, as you can see above with his work boots in the corner haha!

above, i have several pictures of my life planner and my crazy self taking a pic of each and every step of opening my planner (it was definitely like Christmas). i ordered a personalized water color dot planner with, elastic sleeve holders, a meal planner insert, and stickers. 

each planner comes with a ton of stickers they design for you and also a birthday pocket to keep track of your birthdays and major events. i love the birthday stickers that come in each planner and also the blank colored stickers that come as well. i used mine for several different occasions. 

you can definitely jazz up your planner with your own personal style to make it fun. i purchased a ton of washi tape and polka dot stickers from target of course to add to my dot obsession. 

i just wanted to share with you.i hope you enjoy this post and let me know if you have any questions about the planner :) it is wonderful and i recommend it to anyone who loves to plan!!

dinner details

reed and i hosted dinner with our friends jenny and pat this week and i wanted to share some details of our night.

for dinner we had lasagna (i didn't take a pic), bread, and wine. for dessert we had cinnamon bread pudding with ice cream.

paw helped as you can see.

it was so fun to have them over and invite them in to our home. i hope you enjoy and have a great weekend :) 

pineapple delight

i wanted something pineapple and something slushy so i came up with pineapple delight ha! which consists of:

ingredients:
-1/2 cup of cool whip (frozen)
-a handful of frozen pineapple
-1/3 cup of pineapple juice or you can also use milk (i tried both) the pineapple juice gives it more flavor, the milk makes the taste more like ice cream obviously

details:
-blend all of your ingredients together and you have the easiest pineapple dessert for a hot summer day 


it's almost a mix between pineapple ice cream and a pineapple slushy. very good and very easy!!

enjoy :)

gooey cake batter bars

these guys are awesome! very, very, gooey but good!

ingredients:

-1 box of yellow or white cake mix (i used yellow)

-1/4 cup of vegetable or canola oil

-1 large egg

-1/3 cup of milk

-1/2 cup of sprinkles

-1/2 cup of white chocolate chips

details:

-preheat your oven to 350

-spray your baking pan with nonstick spray

-combine your first four ingredients in a large bowl

-then add your milk slowly, you want the cake batter to be as thick and dense as possible

-mix in your sprinkles and white chocolate

-pour some extra sprinkles on top of the batter before it goes in the oven

-bake for 25-30 minutes or until your edges are golden brown

-allow to cool for at least 30 minutes after baking and before cutting

-you will notice the bars very gooey but make sure they are very cool before cutting 

(do not use black sprinkles, because it will turn your batter black and that just won't be cute :))

i hope you enjoy these!

xoxo