High Five for Friday #42 | These are exciting times!

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 23, 2015 // 23 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, Della, and Caitlin! If you want to know more, read about it here!

FYI Our next H54F LIVE Hangout has been postponed until this Sunday! It’s all my fault, but thankfully Caitlin, Tif and Della were sweet and flexible. And I hope you will be too!! This one will be all about Fall. Grab a hot drink and join us at 9:30PM EST on Sunday! You can learn more here!

Our featured blogger this week is Lindsay from Pursuit of Pink! She’s been a regular H54F link upper around here, and it’s great to get to feature her! What I love about lifestyle blogging (hey! hey!) is the fun variety of posts, and Lindsay is no exception!! Even though I don’t decorate for Halloween, I may have to steal some of Lindsay’s awesome ideas to incorporate a little into our house! And her blog post all about exercising while a toddler runs around (been there, done that!) was a cute post, and a good motivator. Swing over and say hello!

Alrighty – it’s H54F time!

1. Friends – it’s here. I’ve talked about it for weeks, but it’s here. 60 volunteers are here in Chapel Hill, NC, to help us build a church. In 2 weeks, we’ll have a church. This is wild! And really exciting! I’ve mentally switched from stressed to really really jazzed! We’ve been getting some press and it’s just so fun to see how the local community is reacting to this. But this will be go go go for two weeks!

2. Even though it’s been quiet over here, Vlogtober has been going strong! Whitney at Come Home for Comfort set up a fun vlogging challenge for the whole month of October with fun prompts. My fav from this past week was the “What’s for Dinner” prompt. Not because it was a great dinner (hardly), but because Elizabeth jumped in at the end, and it was hilarious!

2. It’s been quite on the blog (understandably so) but I managed to get out a recap of Elizabeth’s birthday party! Go check it out!

3. One of my favorite Vlogtobers to film was this week’s Currently Reading! I normally am not reading 4 books at a time, but these are winners! I’m so behind on uploading Vlogtober. I’ve recorded! I just need to upload. #vloggerfail

4. My husband was out of town this week, and boy, did I miss him!! He gets back home tonight, and I can’t wait to see him!!

5. This weekend will be CRAZY! We’re dividing and conquering. Blake is taking Elizabeth to a birthday party while I head to church to greet our volunteers, welcome them and help out at a potluck. Then we meet up with some friends for a chili cookoff! Then Sunday I’ll probably spend the whole day at the site, lending a hand. Mercy! But I tell you what – I don’t want to miss this church going up! I’ll try to snap some pictures too!

So that’s it! Basically all of the same thing this week 🙂 But looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday night for the hangout! Come back here for links to view!!

So what were you up to this week? Let me know! Or better yet, link up!

Fellow bloggers – ready to join in the link up? Just write a blog post about 5 things that made this week awesome! Add your link to your blog post down below (make sure it’s your blog post, not your blog home page!). And then grab the H54F button to add to your post! And go visit at least 3 fellow link uppers AND this week’s featured blogger! It’s just the nice thing to do.

And be sure to tag your posts/pics on social media with #H54F! We really do try to make the rounds and like, comment, retweet, etc! It’s so much fun to support one another, isn’t it?

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

A Daniel Tiger Birthday Brunch

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 21, 2015 // 27 Comments

Elizabeth’s second birthday was an absolute blast! She adores Daniel Tiger, and it seemed like a no-brainer to have her birthday be a Daniel Tiger birthday!

I’m not the best party planner, but if I have a theme, I can go to town!! This party wasn’t very expensive or hard to put together, which is great for me. I’m not particularly crafty or DIYish, but it all came together well!

Let me take you on a tour of the birthday party, pre-guests arriving. Special thanks to my husband, who I sent around taking pictures. He’s the Official Blog Photographer 🙂

I’ll have links to all the sources, recipes and tutorials at the bottom!

The front door wreath was just a simple grape vine wreath, and I hot glued on a Daniel Tiger printable, some streamers, and some leftover trolley cars. Then I just grabbed a Target Dollar Spot chalkboard sign to let everyone know they can just come on in.

The goodie bags – I didn’t stick to the theme. Instead I just did things I knew Elizabeth would get a kick out of. So I found some pumpkin straws in the Dollar Spot, small containers of play dough, and little kazoos. Then Elizabeth decorated the outsides with stickers. I didn’t want to put too much time or money in it because 1) little toddlers just love small, simple things, and 2) the odds that everyone grabs one before they leave is low.

The playroom was going to be hopping during the party! So I first cleared out any toys that may cause issues or took up too much floor space. Then I grabbed our kid craft tables, and did a few Daniel Tiger printable coloring pages for the kiddos. Too bad Elizabeth found them about 15 minutes BEFORE the party started and did her single swipe of color across most of them. HA! I also stuck some leftover character printables on the doors.

Next up – the Dining Room! This room required a lot of attention! I knew we’d have all the kids sit in there to eat (easier to have toddlers eating at a table) so the decorations had to be over the top!

I went to town with a circle paper punch and made pretty lace edged paper circles using red and orange cardstock. I stuck the Daniel Tiger character printables on top and hung them from the chandelier.

The table turned out great! A simple red plastic table cloth, and then some DT toys. I borrowed the toys from a friend, and it was the perfect centerpiece! My mother-in-law had the genius idea of putting Daniel Tiger’s house on a bed of brown sugar to look like sand (since he lives at the beach). I also had some leftover small circle punches and used that as confetti. Throw in a few balloons and it was pretty darn cute in there!

The cake was SO SIMPLE! I saw a pic on Pinterest of a cute cake idea, and just replicated it. I went to my local grocery store bakery and asked them to make a 2-tiered cake. It was vanilla with strawberry filling (Daniel Tiger’s favorite cake), and then I had them just do a white buttercream frosting. I make the little bunting and topped it with some Daniel Tiger figurines that I already had. Simple!

I wanted to keep the food table decorations simple and up high, since I needed all the space for food I could get. I made the tissue paper garland. And then a sweet friend of mine (and her husband!) designed and created that trolley banner for me!! Adorable, right? It’s so cute! Definitely saved that!

The table itself was mostly food, except for one centerpiece (Costco!). I stuck in a few more character printables, too.

Such a simple, do-it-the-night-before menu! Links to recipes are down below, but the menu was so yummy, and I barely did much prep work. Everything was done/prepped ahead of time, so the morning of, I just popped the casseroles in the oven. That was it!

I just kept cold drinks simple – water and then a special brunch punch. That punch was so delicious! Definitely pin that one for your next gettogether.

Can’t come to my house without snagging a hot drink! I didn’t do anything special, other than make sure there were to-go cups with lids for the hot drinks. Easier to chase kids around when your hot drink has a lid!

As for Elizabeth, she was SO EXCITED to have her friends and family at her “birfday paaarty”. Once the party was over, we opened presents with family. And then it was nap time! That’s the beauty of a toddler birthday brunch! Oh, and isn’t that Daniel Tiger hair bow so cute? One of my little splurges for the sake of the party.

Elizabeth just enjoyed herself royally. And I was a pretty grateful mom at the end of the day. It was one of the easiest parties, birthday or just random gettogether, that we’ve every thrown! Other than baking muffins on Friday night, and then some casserole assembly and hanging decorations (which took us about an hour) on Saturday night, it was a pretty simple birthday.

Smart idea wins? Ordering a cake and balloons from my local grocery store bakery ($30 total! Totally worth it!), utilizing free printables online, keeping food simple, and DIY decorations all helped keep the stress levels low and costs down. My biggest wins were definitely the cake and choosing to do a muffin mix instead of muffins from scratch. So fast and easy! And they all still tasted yummy.

Here are links to all the recipes, DIY tutorials and printables I used!

Menu
Hashbrown Casserole (made 2 pans)
Baked Oatmeal (doubled recipe)
Strawberry “Pancake” muffins (easy storebought mix!)
Banana Muffins (easy storebought mix!)
Assorted fruit
Whipped Strawberry Butter for muffins
Honey Cream Cheese Spread for muffins
Orange Lemon Cranberry Punch
Water & Assorted Hot Drinks
Store bought cake, but inspired by bunting and this picture found on Pinterest

Decorations
Tissue Paper Garland tutorial
Daniel Tiger Circle Printables
Daniel Tiger Coloring Pages
Round scalloped paper punch
Trolley Garland (made by a friend!) but you can see on Etsy something similar
Daniel Tiger Invitations
Daniel Tiger hair bows
Daniel Tiger stick characters
Flowers – centerpiece and arrangements (from Costco!)
Daniel Tiger toys – all already on hand or borrowed from friends

So, bottom line is – it may seem like a lot for a toddler party, BUT it truly wasn’t! Know your limitations, do DIY where comfortable, and remember – it’s just a kids’ party!

Menu Monday #58 | Comfort Foods

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 19, 2015 // 10 Comments

Happy Monday! How was your weekend?? We had one of those weekends in spurts – really busy, and then nothing going on.

This week is a REALLY busy week. There are about 60 volunteers descending on our town to help build our new church, and my job is getting them all settled. So I decided this week’s menu needs to be all about comfort foods.

Word.

This whole thing is going to be so exciting! Truly, these volunteers start building on Sunday, and by the end of the day on Monday, there will be walls up and roof on. It’s like a good ol’ fashioned Amish barn raising! (Which, if you’ve lived in the Midwest, you know all about) I’ll be posting pics on Fridays of updates. It will be amazing! And the fact that 60 people are volunteering their time just to help us… miracles.

What are some of your go-to comfort foods? Anything you absolutely have to have?

As always, for more information on how I menu plan, look at this.

Monday:
Avocado Black Bean Enchiladas

Tuesday:
Stovetop Mac & Cheese

Wednesday:
Vegetarian Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Veggies (I guess)

Thursday:
Veggie Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Friday:
Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Saturday:
Church Potluck

Sunday:
Burgers and Fries
(by this point, I may be only eating fries due to stress!)

Need more ideas for dinner?
Follow my Pinterest board – it’s where I save all of my dinner ideas!

Follow Katie | Cup of Tea Blog's board Good Eats | Dinner on Pinterest.

Linking up at Menu Monday with Org Junkie

High Five for Friday #41 | Coming Back from the Dead

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 16, 2015 // 21 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, Della, and Caitlin! If you want to know more, read about it here!

I can’t believe it’s here already, but next Thursday is our next H54F LIVE Hangout! Can you believe it? This one will be all about Fall. So basically, amazing. 🙂 So join us at 9:30PM EST on Thursday!

Our featured blogger this week is Stasia from Our Life on a Budget! She’s a wife, a mom to two little ones, and shares her family’s fun journey. I was really inspired by her prayer wall! It’s just so neat, and a great way to keep praying for people top of mind all day. Be sure to swing over and say hi!

Alrighty – it’s H54F time! Let’s celebrate the weekend!

1. It was super quiet over here on the blog. So sorry about that! (Sort of the story of my life right now…) But it was a super busy week with Elizabeth’s birthday last weekend, and then moving on to full on church project planning mode. The busy month is almost over, right? But this weekend I’ll be catching up on visiting you all, leaving comments and saying hi!

3. So speaking of Elizabeth, she turned two this past Sunday! It was such a great party (recap coming). And she was just over the moon that there was a birthday party. She’s such a hoot!

4. And… speaking of Elizabeth (haha!) she had a big change this week too. She isn’t climbing out of her crib yet (thank goodness!) so I’m not ready to put her in a big girl bed quite yet. But I decided it was time for some big girl bed linens. So I grabbed this toddler bed-in-a-bag from Aden + Anais, which is amazing! It’s a small toddler pillow and pillow case, a fitted sheet and top sheet sewn at the foot so it doesn’t get bunchy (genius!) and a large quilt. So soft and cute! And she’s tickled pink with it!!!

5. I have one week left until 60 volunteers descend into our area to help build our new church home. It’s top of mind, and I’m getting really excited!! But I’m anxious for it to be done. HA! If you want to read more, check out our church’s facebook page! But in the first 2 days we’ll have the structure up and roof on. It will be nuts!

So what were you up to this week? Let me know! Or better yet, link up!

And be sure to tag your posts/pics on social media with #H54F! We really do try to make the rounds and like, comment, retweet, etc! It’s so much fun to support one another, isn’t it?

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

High Five for Friday #40 | Squeaky Boots

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 9, 2015 // 16 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, Della, and Caitlin! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week’s featured blogger is Elizabeth from Chasin’ Mason! Elizabeth lives in SoCal, is a wife, and mom to her adorable boy Mason. She loves to blog about family life and all the joys that come with it! Hi Elizabeth! Be sure to swing over and say hi too 🙂

Alrighty – it’s H54F time! Let’s celebrate the weekend!

1. The rain is over, friends! We were oh so close to building an ark. And Mother Nature has been making it up to us by having beautiful sunny, blue skies and warmish weather. Glory glory!

2. It has been a CRAZY week this week between getting ready for Elizabeth’s birthday on Sunday and this church project. I’ll spare you the details, but basically I’m ready for a vacation. HA! Be on the lookout for a birthday recap next week!

3. Despite it being a busy week, I managed to keep up with blogging AND vlogging! This week I shared what the Birthday Brunch menu would be, gave you a tour of my fall decorations, and a look at what I’ve been obsessing over lately.

4. Speaking of obsessing, I mentioned in Wednesday’s post that I bought these amazing booties that I was so excited to break in once the rain disappeared. I’d worn them a little around the house, but nothing major. Well yesterday, I grabbed them and threw them on! Elizabeth even pointed and said “ooo new shoes!”. I felt major. As I headed down the steps to leave the house, I heard a funny squeak. Elizabeth has been known to make noises like that, but it wasn’t her. It was my new shoes! Maybe it’s because they’re new… but they are squeaky! HAHA! Totally reminded me of that Seinfeld episode where George spends a ton of money on a new, fancy suit.

5. And even though the need for flannel is low here in NC… I couldn’t resist an Old Navy plaid flannel popover shirt this week. Popover + Plaid = My Fall Perfection.

So what were you up to this week? Let me know! Or better yet, link up!

And be sure to tag your posts/pics on social media with #H54F! We really do try to make the rounds and like, comment, retweet, etc! It’s so much fun to support one another, isn’t it?

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

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