Birthdays & Boardgames

Last night my family came over for dinner & we celebrated my Gramma's 92nd birthday as well as my brother's 28th. He just flew in from Colorado yesterday and I'm pretty sure this week will be filled with a little more of this silliness:

Let's try that picture again without the knife mmmmkay?

After a delish meal, we started up the first of many coffee pots to go with the bday cake. I just love this picture of my brother & Gramma getting ready to maket their wishes. Although Gramma will never admit it...Shawn was always a little bit of a favourite of hers and to this day she will drop everything to make him her special scrambled eggs when he asks.

And then the board games broke out and well because that is just what we do around here.

My brother will be popping in for visits much of this week so I've been workin a little magic in my Veggie kitchen. Here's what we've been digging into this week:

M~ Rock n Roll Veggie Sushi & more gamenight

T~ Veggie Chili & Jalepeno Cornbread Muffins

W~ Black Bean Quinoa Burgs & Baked Potatoes

Th~ Coconut Chick'n, Fresh Beans w/almonds & Rice

F~ Pizza for the boys, monthly Gourmet Club with the ladies pour moi

S ~ Cashew Tofu Curry

Su~ Spinach Ricotta Stuffed Shells & Salad

Hope you're having a great weekend so far....please come by & visit me on my new blog Health & Swellbeing where I'll be regularly posting from as of next week!

Weekly Eats & Bday Planning

This week is gonna be a beauty but very busy! Along with Chloe's birthday party this weekend and all the planning that goes with that, I've got lots of items to ship out that I sold on Ebay & Kijiji, as well as some studying for my Personal Training exam.

I keep telling everyone that I really want to keep Chloe's birthday very simple this year - just with family & a few close friends. But in typical me fashion, I have been swept away to the land of "it's all about the details" land. How do I not know myself better by now? Here are the many projects I have decided to take on this week as we prep for our little girl's big day:

~Make Tissue Pom Poms

~Create HB Banner using Fabric scraps

~Make Chloe's Tutu

because this one doesn't fit anymore :)

use bedazzling skills to make #1 Tank like this:

Monthly Picture Cutouts:

As far as gifts go - we've gotten her a few musical toys because she's quite the little Beethoven. Something that's been on my list has been to canvas paint this quote to put in her room - because I just think it's so darn sweet:

And then of course there's the house sprucing and the meal planning but that will take care of itself sometime between midnight & 6am the night before.

In trying to keep everything else simple for this week - here's what on our menu with some links to the recipes if you're interested in trying them out.

M: Asian Tofu Lettuce Wraps

T: Black Bean & Corn Quesas

W: Bean & Quinoa Burgs w/ Parm Potato Fries

Th: Coconut-Curry Lentil Stew

F: Homemade Pizza Dough (DIY style)

And if you haven't already - please sign up to follow the new blog I have in the works: Health & Swell Being. For some instant gratification while it's still being built - check out this great article on how to incorporate more health into your day

Hope you all have a great week!

I like the sound of 3.0 better

"Thirty was so strange for me. I really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult" ~ C.S Lewis

Well here we are. The start of a new decade. I just put my baby girl down for her nap and now I sit to write a contemplative post about what this means to me. I'm totally good with it.

I have never actually been happier than I am right now. My twenties were lovely. I worked hard at my career and achieved great success in the land of coffee. I married my dream boy after he courted me for 7 years. And I brought life into this world. I could not ask for more in my life!

Mr Swell just walked in the door with coffee in hand. This day is already looking up! Here's what we've got planned for the rest of it:

-a workout sesh to get my sweat on before I indulge in this:

- Book browsing & picking up my free bday grande-2pump-soy-chai with cinnamon on top:

- Wear my new birthday wellies because the sunshine I requested hasn't made it's debut yet:

which look like this:

Prepare a yummy eggplant parmesan dinner in my new birthday pots & pans:

Then our lovely neighbour is coming over to babysit after I put Chloe down so that Mr Swell & I can do a little of this:

This weekend we're having all our lovelies over for a dinner party & game night so I'm pretty much doing the Jersey Shore fist pump right now!