The Weekend of Good Food

Hey guys! I had such an awesome weekend that I can't wait to tell you about!

I was off school on Friday, so Thursday night I did a whole lot of relaxing. I actually fell asleep at 9 - ha! It felt SO good though :)

On Friday I went out to the mall with my mom. I'm pretty sure that every day I'm off school we somehow end up at the mall.

That night I went with my parents to babysit their friends little baby. She is so adorable! It was fun watching her.

On Saturday afternoon I went grocery shopping with my mom, and look what we picked up.

They were even playing Christmas music in the store - I'm so happy!

That night I headed home to get ready to go out with my friends! It was fun getting all dressed up because we were going to a fancy restaurant.

We went to Maggiano's. It was absolutely delicious! We did a family style meal where we got to order 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 2 desserts. The food was endless too - so we could ask for as much as we wanted. It was really neat - after every course they would bring out boxes for us to box the stuff up to take home. I had a lot of leftovers to bring home!

The pasta was delicious, but dessert was my favorite part! We got the chocolate cake.....

....and the cheesecake. The cheesecake was definitely my favorite!

After dinner, we took some pictures outside....

Then we headed back to my friend Katie's house for a sleepover! It was so fun because it was my "old" group of friends from grade school that all got together. We don't all go to the same high school or hang out with the same people, so it was fun to get together and catch up.

I've got a ton of random pictures......

The only bad part of the night was the fact that I woke up at 3 in the morning with an upset stomach, so I left early. That was a bummer, but I'm glad I did because I felt so much better once I got home, took some medicine, and had a good night's sleep.

I needed to be well rested because on Sunday night I went out with my mom, my aunt, and my cousins to dinner downtown. We went to Palomino's. I'd never been there before, but it was really neat because it overlooked Fountain Square. The restaurant itself was really cute too!

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Then we went to see Wicked! I'd seen the play before in Chicago, but it is such a good one that I wanted to see it again, and it was just as good, if not better, the second time around. I think Wicked is the best Broadway show I've ever seen - I absolutely love the music!

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This is my favorite scene/song. I had to fight the urge to sing along at the show!

I hope you all had a good weekend like I did. I feel like I did nothing except go to fancy restaurants and eat a lot of good food - ha!

Another Tragedy

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I told the tragic story of my hair straightener dying? Well, today I've got another tragic story to share, and I think this one is even worse.....

So, yesterday I was babysitting, which I do everyday after school. The little girl I babysit accidentally spilled some food coloring on the floor. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, except for the fact that it splashed onto my brand new Ugg boots!

I saved up for months to buy these boots, and I payed for them 100% with my own money. I haven't even had them for a full month!

Anyway, the stains weren't too bad. I mean, you could see them, but they weren't totally obvious and noticeable. In other words, the boots weren't ruined and I could still wear them fine.

I was still upset about them though, so my dad took them and told me that he would work on trying to get the stains out while I went to get my hair cut. I came back home, and they were still a little wet, but he told me that he had been able to get some of the stains out. Wahooo!

I went to bed last night, and they were still wet, but I figured they would be okay in the morning.

Hahahaha. No. I woke up and they were dry, but they were stained even worse! Apparently my dad had used soap on them, and clearly that was not a good idea. I mean, just look at these poor boots!

We took them to a dry cleaners today, and they told us there was nothing they could do because they were the gray ones. Apparently the gray coloring would just come off, but the coloring doesn't come off for any of the other colored boots. Figures!

The only good part of this whole thing?

My dad decided to buy me a new pair since he pretty much ruined those. Except this time I learned my lesson and got the brown ones!

So, the moral of the story is......

1. Don't let little kids use food coloring. Ever.

2. Don't use soap to try and clean Uggs.

3. Don't buy the gray Uggs because they can't be cleaned!

At least I now have a pair of Uggs that I can wear out in the snow that I don't care if they get messy!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Recipes

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that I love to bake! Most of the recipes I've tried out and loved recently have been from Pinterest, so I thought I would share the links to all of these delicious recipes all in one place. You seriously need to try these out - they are all awesome!

1. Buttercream Frosting

I made this frosting a little while ago, and it was delicious!

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2. Frosting Tutorial

This isn't actually a recipe, but I found this website extremely helpful! The site has a video tutorial on how to decorate cupcakes to look cute, like the ones below. I followed this (it's SO easy!), and the cupcakes I made turned out so cute!

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3. Reece's Cheesecake Brownies

If you love Reece cups, you will love these cheesecake brownies! These were so good, but super rich. If I made them again, I wouldn't add the melted chocolate it calls for at the end. The brownies would be plenty chocolaty without it!

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4. Burger Cupcake Brownies

Seriously, how cute are these cupcakes/brownies? I made them for a family party and they were a hit!

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5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Cake Batter

This just might be the best thing ever invented. This website has 3 recipes: one for chocolate chip cookie dough, one for cake batter, and one for sugar cookie dough. And the good thing is? They are all made without eggs, so they are perfectly safe to eat! I made the chocolate chip cookie dough and cake batter before, and it was amazing! I was surprised how it tasted just like cookie & cake dough. All of my friends were obsessed with this!

The chocolate chip cookie dough was my favorite!

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6. S'Mores Dip

This dip was good - when you dipped graham crackers in it, it really did taste like a s'more! Mine didn't look terribly appetizing, but it was yummy! It was so easy too - only 3 ingredients!

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7. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

I think I might have saved the best recipe for last! This recipe was incredible. The only thing I can say about it is: go make it. Now! :)

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I have so many more recipes that I want to try from Pinterest! If you have a Pinterest, follow me here! And make some of these recipes - they are delicious!

Busy

I feel like I'm a broken record - but I've just been too busy to blog, and it's a miracle that I even have time to write this post! I'm thinking of doing a post on everything that has been going on my life, but I haven't had the time..... But anyway, I didn't want to go without doing a little update on the weekend, so here it is!

On Friday I went out to eat with my friends. We went to Five Guys, which I am seriously obsessed with!

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Then we went to Orange Leaf, which I love so much too! My friends came back to my house afterwards and we watched A Walk to Remember :)

On Saturday, my family did a little mini photo shoot for our Christmas card! I'll have to show you the finished product later on, but here's one of the pictures we used.

Then my mom and I headed to Hobby Lobby to look around, and we ended up getting some cute Christmas gift wrap on sale. I love Hobby Lobby - I always want to buy so much stuff whenever I'm there.

That night I went to PF Chang's for dinner - definitely one of my favorite restaurants!

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I mean, seriously, do I even need to mention their chicken lettuce wraps? My mouth is watering just looking at this picture.....

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That night I went over my friend Abby's house for a bonfire. It was a really good night for a bonfire, even though I never did make a s'more......

Today was just a usual Sunday for me. I went to church this morning, brunch with my family, and then worked on homework this afternoon. I've got another busy week coming up (I feel like I say/think this every Sunday...). I can't wait for life to slow down a little, but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

I could seriously use a day where I didn't have to do anything. I always have somewhere to be or some homework to finish up. Crazy!

Hope you all have a great week!

Weddings: Part 2

I'm doing another wedding post today because I just really love writing these posts! I think it's so fun to look through wedding pictures and all that :)

This wedding video is the absolute cutest. You have to watch it!

Gene + Jill // Two Pease in a Pod from capture studios on Vimeo.

Really cute and creative idea:

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The lighting in this picture is gorgeous!

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I love the idea of stitching the date of your wedding into the dress.

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I read that for this picture, the bride wrote messages to her bridesmaids on the bottom of their shoes. I think that is so clever and neat!

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This cake would be perfect for a beach wedding!

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This bride is SO pretty - I especially love her eye makeup!

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I seriously have a wedding problem - ha! I hope you all have a great Friday. I'm glad this super stressful week is almost over!

Trick-or-Treating

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

We dressed Coco up for Halloween - she was a little pink butterfly :)

We went over my aunt's house to take my little cousins around trick-or-treating. Maddie was Jessie.

Sas loves Coco!

Maddie kept doing Jessie interpretations :)

Seriously, how creepy is this picture of my dog?

After they were done trick-or-treating, my mom and I headed back home to pass out candy with my dad. These were our 2 pumpkins:

After all the trick-or-treaters came through, I headed to bed to watch a movie. But not just any movie.....

......a Christmas movie!

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I'm in full on Christmas mode now :)