Girls trip!

 Road Trip!

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to join some girl friends from work for a beach trip. It was the best time of eating, laughing, sharing, and exploring!

We packed up and took off after work on Thursday. We all took Friday off so we could enjoy a long weekend. We drove, about 6 hours, and only stopped for the important sights on the way to Florida.

We had to stop at this gas station to see the wild alligators!

I only saw one, bummer.

We arrived late evening and were so excited to drop our bags and see the beautiful ocean from the deck.

Friday we slept in and drove to Rosemary to rent bikes. 

Now, let me tell you about riding bikes. It is not as easy as everyone says when you haven't been on one in 20 years!! I thought mine was messed up but Adriane eagerly hopped on to check it and did just fineeeeee. Long story short- I am no pro biker.

We rode a total of 16 miles on our adventure.

We rode 8 miles to Seaside to shop and eat!

We had lunch at the delicious Taco Bar.

Shopped!

We also explored the big wine festival.

Saturday we started our day off right.

This was a bowl of everything good; potatoes, onions, eggs, bacon, and cheese.

Blueberry pancakes!

We sat out on the beach for a good bit and read and chatted.

We made a pact that we wouldn't bring our bathing suits. Who wants to wear one in November??

Needless to say, that pact resulted in some odd tan lines for a few of us.

Our last night out we went to a lovely, fancy dinner.

This picture was for Sue. She is from South Africa so we were being "tribal" for her.

Georgia peaches!

Baked brie appetizer, definitely polished that off myself.

Me and Kelly

Adriane and Sue!

My odd but amazing meal. Parmesan risotto, green beans, and haystack potatoes.

We finished the night off right with some white chocolate creme brulee.

It was the perfect trip. I can't wait till next year!

(This is the trip that caused the two weeks of no white flour and no sugar)

Can you imagine why??

Happy late Halloween!

I know I am way off with this Halloween post. I left town the next day and am still trying to settle in and keep up with school!

For Halloween this year I wanted to make a special snack for my teacher friends. I usually go with the chocolate covered pretzels but wanted to mix it up this time.

I found a recipe for Halloween people puppy chow and went with it....

If you are reading "people puppy chow" and have no idea what I am talking about then you are seriously missing out. This stuff is so addicting and amazing.

I made a big batch! Half of the mix was melted peanut butter, butter, white chocolate, and vanilla and then you coat the chex in powdered sugar.

The other half was also melted peanut butter, butter, vanilla. You add milk chocolate to make the chex darker and then toss the chex in powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

I regret posting this today because I am on day #4 of no white flour and no sugar. I would pay a pretty penny for a bowl full of those goodies right now.

Once the chex has cooled you mix in some reese's pieces for Halloween fun!

How stinkin' cute are these bags?

I found them online months ago and ordered them right away!

 On Halloween we had a Fall party, wore wacky Wednesday clothes, and got messy with pumpkins!

We estimated the number of seeds inside various pumpkins.

They had to work as a group to remove all the seeds and count them.

(yes that is a Valentine plate in October)

She was a trooper getting her hands all messy!!

 In the afternoon some parents came in to throw the Fall party!

They had cute games, food, and a craft!

It was a CRAZY day in 2nd grade!

Jewels and Ghouls

The other weekend I hosted a Stella & Dot jewelry party.

It was right before Halloween so I had to work around my fully decorated Halloween house!

I decided to keep all the food, decorations, and jewelry in the kitchen.

It was SO much fun to play with all the jewelry!

I kept the food very simple because I wanted the jewelry to be the main focus.

Cinnamon toscano cheese

Baked brie with honey, rosemary, and almonds

Cherry and blue cheese crostini

Pumpkin cream cheese served with apple slices and gingersnaps

*I have no idea how I missed taking a picture of the cookies! They were my favorite part by far. I already have plans to make them again soon.

Food labels I made, so simple!

My MIL put together the flowers for me, huge help!

I wish my house was always full of sunflowers.

The party was around brunch time so I went with light snacks and mimosas!

I wanted the decorations and flowers to be bright and cheery like the pieces of jewelry.

I got the clear bottles from Ikea and filled them with four different juices; peach, cranberry, orange, and grapefruit.

Champagne!

Raspberries, pineapple, strawberries, and peaches to put in the mimosas.

The tricky part of hanging the banner was that I didn't use my mantle. I ended up using these two paper towel holders and had to put the flower arrangements over the taped down twine, it was interesting...

Labels for the fruit juices. 

We put together treat bags for the guests. They all had candy in them but two of them had a free piece of Stella & Dot jewelry inside!

Over the weekend I ordered my pieces and spent my hostess rewards, I cannot wait to get my goodies in the mail!!!