What I Ate Wednesday-Teenage Birthday Edition!!!!!

Monday was my kiddo's birthday...hard to believe she is 15 now!!! My word, no way I am that much older, much less her! haha

But, in the fashion of every birthday we are dealing with the teenage semi-midlife-crisis....any one else's kid go through a "funk" around birthdays?! Mine does...I remember for years having to buckle down and be really strict because she would go through what I guess now were growing pains but my word would the fits and tantrums be awful. They'd start right before her birthday and go until just after the first of the year. About 8 or 9 that stopped and now we go through they "why am I not cute anymore?!" bit...cracks me up. I guess at birthdays my baby just needs some extra lovin'.

So, that is what we did Monday and Tuesday.

Monday I forgot to take pictures of breakfast and lunch, but lunch was epic! We actually found chicken nuggets, in the *gourmet* section of our grocery store and they were shaped like Christmas Trees! They were so adorable and really good. Normally I wouldn't be so excited about this but chicken nuggets are seriously my daughter's favorite food and I have not found them here so this was a great present of sorts!

After that we built her cake...Nirvana themed...

I have some work to do on my fondant, but cute anyway!

Once her girlfriends got here we headed off to Hard Rock Cafe, Amsterdam. This place got a little face lift since they last time we got there. Very cute, but service wasn't as awesome this time as in the past. Hopefully that improves.

...why how very Dutch of you Hard Rock!

...apparently I lost the photo where they were being social and discussing the menu. Ha! They did have some great mocktails!

Oh yeah....burger and fries. This was so tasty and I enjoyed every last bite!

Of course we had to tell the waitress it was her birthday, but the waitress was no fun and gave her a "choice" to not get happy birthday sung to her so instead she just got a couple of sundae's....not too shabby. ;)

After the four of us hogging down on some sundae's we came home for some cake...

The cake was super yummy. After the first of the year I will do a step by step and post the recipe I used for the cake. Easy, yummy, and declared a hit by all!

Now I have to go in to Tuesday a bit because we had some amazing food. After going to a performance at the National Ballet and Opera that I will get into on Thursday we came home and made a most excellent lunch:

The fresh mint tea I made. This is a really popular here it seems and is so easy to make! Just put mint leaves in water just off the boil. Let steep for a few minutes and enjoy!

Lunch was spinach, gouda, onion, and tomato panini's with a mandarin orange....and cake of course ;)

What was your most memorable birthday?

P.S. Make sure you check out the rest of the party with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons!

What I Ate Wednesday Birthday Recap!!!!!

Some of you may or may not know, but Monday was my birthday! I was a little sad because 1) my hubby had to be gone on my birthday due to a business trip and 2) when we celebrated Sunday he was sick. Like seriously, so, so, so, so, so sick. He had no energy and with a business trip on the horizon I was not going to jeopardize his health so I ran to the store and got some premade goodies and cake. The teenager escorted me hehe See what we ate below.

Here's the recap:

Sunday Celebrations:

Birthday Appetizers:

Birthday Drinky:

My dinner:

My birthday dessert:

Monday Celebrations:
I wanted to start the day off on a good foot so had some coffee with my kiddo and banana pancakes.

Post workout was an apple and pb (unpictured lol)

Lunch was an egg sandwich:

Snack was a coffee and pb honey toast with a little sprinkles (I mean, come on, it is my birthday!) & I once again forgot a picture.

Dinner I wanted to do something super fun because 1) it was my birthday and 2) the hubby was out of town so...if you are a Gilmore Girls Fan, in season 5 I think it is Lorelai and Rory are ready to sit down and they have marshmallows, poptarts, donuts, and candy and are putting in the oven hashbrowns and talk about a pizza stack...well, my kiddo asked if we could do that sometime and I agreed...so, that is just what we did a Gilmore Girls style feast (the likes of which I am sure Lorelai would be proud) and watched Drop Dead Fred:

Who remembers this movie?! The best, right?! Ok, not really oscar material but hilarious for sure!

We started with donuts...

The Entree was a pizza stack and french fries

This was super easy, I just bought a four pack of mini pizzas, cooked them all up, added some extra cheese and stacked them! See below...

Didn't exactly stay stacked but we had fun picking them up and trying to eat the whole thing!

Finally we ended with hot chocolate, cake, and candy.

Needless to say we were tired after this, and slightly sick...we couldn't actually eat all of it...we mostly sampled everything....it was super fun though. The kiddo leaned over several times and said that this was a great idea. I love making memories like that! Also, Drop Dead Fred is one of my all time favorite movies...yeah...don't judge me. :P

Now, I did continue all my workouts this week.
Last Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: Cardio Recovery
Friday: Cardio Power and Resistance
Saturday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit and Cardio Abs
Sunday: rode my bike in the rain (not by choice, but I'm counting it lol), did 200 squats, 100 jumping jacks and ran in place off and on to stay warm at cheerleading haha
Monday: (my birthday workout) didn't happen...I have nothing but excuses so I won't list them, but it's on for Tuesday.
Tuesday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit, stretching
Today: Pure cardio, bike ride, cardio abs

What is the best way you've ever celebrated your birthday?

PS check out the rest of the party over at Peas and Crayons!

Birthday Cake Pancakes!!!!! (& a sleepover organization tip!)

This past weekend was my daughter's birthday. Normally we are huge, huge on birthdays. I mean the day of we celebrate the heck out of that person but this birthday was a crazy one and we celebrated her literally all weekend long!

It started with a big surprise party with 10 of her closest friends from school (how they all kept it secret I will never know, but boy was she surprised!). This was a total surprise to her. We had told her that due to our family Christmas gift we couldn't really afford the big party she originally wanted to she could invite a girlfriend or two to spend the night. Well, immediately after that I decided to coordinate the surprise party. I am so happy it worked out. The girls were so sweet and made it so special for her. I unfortunately didn't get the "surprise" on video, but here is on of them singing to her.

Then, on Saturday we let her have a sleep over since that was her "original" birthday party  with three of her girlfriends. I made homemade pizza, ribs, and peas (the mom in me can't go without a veggie on their plates; and contrary to what the USDA believes I don't count tomato sauce as a veggie). I don't buy paper plates or plastic cups so our cups were going to get used up very quickly with six of us in the house so I decided a bit of organization was in order. I thought at first about writing on the cups with dry erase marker, but was slightly worried that it would rub off and they'd still get them confused. So, I came up with this....

It was super easy. Just used a few post it notes, wrote their name on them and put the cups where they belonged! They could come out and grab a little water or soda, take a swig and either rinse it an put it down, or if it still had stuff in it just put it down over their name! They loved it and even thought it was a great idea!!

Now on to what you really came here for...

Birthday Cake Pancakes!!!

The original recipe that I used is here. I did mostly the same stuff. Here is what I did...

Ingredients

-Betty Crocker Party Rainbow Chip Cake Mix

-3 Eggs

-1 Cup of Water

-1/3 Cup of Melted Coconut Oil

First, I poured in the cake mix and took a wooden spoon to it to break up any lumps. Next, I added the eggs, water and oil and mixed it up, just until mixed. I also smoothed out any large lumps. I found since this is a cake mix it all mixed together pretty smoothly and I had no lumps.  

Once I got toward then end I poured them all willy nilly in the bottom just to get them made...after all I had four very hungry teenage girls! 

But, as you can see most of them I made quite nicely. See how beautifully they brown up? I pour a little maple syrup over top with some sprinkles. The original recipe shows using icing, but my kiddo isn't a huge fan so I avoided it. The other girls here didn't actually use anything at all to top their pancakes they were sweet enough without it.

All lit up!!!

The Birthday Girl blowing out her candles!

These made amazing pancakes. I couldn't even eat a whole one though, they are quite filling and a very special treat for a birthday boy or girl! I think these will definitely be a tradition in our house!

Does your family have any fun birthday traditions?