How To: Cube a Watermelon

Do you know how to cube a watermelon? I learned how to last year and it is so simple. I tried to find the blog I learned from, but everywhere I look they cut the rind off the watermelon which is not what I do!

So here it is, cubing watermelon. Gosh, this blog is so thrilling.

Go buy a watermelon. Try to get it on sale because that's cool. Then wash it. These things grow in the dirt. Place on your cutting board and get a sharp knife. I love sharp knives while cooking/prepping. It makes the world of difference!

Cut the melon in half

These are watermelon halves...

Cut one of the halves into quarters. These are watermelon quarters...

Make vertical slices along the melon, but don't go through the rind. You might also want to run the knife along the U-shape of the melon in between the fruit and rind if you're wanting to get ALL of the fruit out. Just make sure you keep the fruit inside of the rind and in place, otherwise you're screwed

Now make vertical cuts across the fruit

Place over your bowl and the fruit will come out in cubes. You can use your thumb as a coaxer.

I hope this makes sense. It really is the easiest way I've found to cut these suckers up. I absolutely love watermelon and now I'm not afraid to cut it!

Oreo Cookie Truffles

As I mentioned in my Bunco post, I made some delicious and EASY Oreo Cookie Truffles for dessert. It's so easy that I managed to break my food processor in the process. Which reminds me, I really need to have Chris take a look at it.

In all honesty, this recipe is foolproof. I followed this recipe but had to do two half batches since I have a mouse of a food processor. I broke the food processor on the second batch and had to resort to doing it in the blender instead. I figured trying to remove the blade from the processor with cookie dough and wet fingers was just asking for trouble given my recent track record. I'm trying to prove I can be a resonsible adult here, so I took the high road. But I did slice my finger tonight at Darin's. Her knives are sharp, in case you were wondering. But that's a different story...and you don't need to tell my husband that. Good thing he doesn't read this!

Anyway, back to the fattening food! Since I bought the fat-kid pack of Oreos, which is the Family Size, at the Food Ghetto (aka Winco), I had use my food scale to weigh out the 8.3 ounces of Oreos (remember I cut the recipe in half), but if you buy the regular-kid Oreos from the grocery store, just use half the package. If you use the obese-kid pack of Oreos from Costco, you will need the food scale as well. At least I only had the fat-kid pack!  And how ironic is it that I am weighing Oreos on a WW food scale? Don't think that's what it was intended for!

When I first made these, I crushed up the Oreos as I put them in the bowl. This time I didn't, and it made no difference.

Pulse them until they are fine crumbs

Add half a block of CC for a halved recipe. Notice this is the blender. This is the second batch since I forgot to picture this step on the first batch. But don't do this step if you don't have a processor, just mix the crumbs and CC by hand

The dough will form a ball when it's done

Mmm, soil. At this point, Chris told me I'd have to make the Dirt and Worm Cups for our kids. Memories!

Get a cookie scoop if you don't have one!

Put the balls (hehe) on the sheet

Oh look! It's an obese-kid bag of chocolate chips from Costco! I had run out of the fat-kid size from Target. Anyway, melt some of this with a couple of tablespoons of Crisco. Believe me, it makes the chocolate coating so much simpler

Well this picture sucks. Use two forks to coat your balls. Ha, I said it again!

I put the sheet in the fridge to cool, then transfered them to tupperware containers and stored them in the freezer. I like them nice and cold!

Hosting Bunco!

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of hosting 11 lovely ladies for Bunco. I volunteered to host Bunco in September because I wanted to make sure I could utilize the deck space. Little did I know it would be 100 degrees that week. Whew!

I started setting up and prepping on Monday. It happened to be Labor Day, so the fact that I had the day off work really helped out! Anyway, here are some pictures of the evening. It turned out surprisingly well. I really do enjoy hosting parties!

Table One. Check out those sexy chairs I borrowed from my parents!

Table Two complete with M&Ms and the fuzzy traveler dice! The red bucket didn't stay there

And Table three with Skittles since it was a little warmer out there

We had two drinks: Skip and Go Nakeds and Pomegranate Margaritas!

The Food!

I had to move the coffee table to the entryway which worked out great because everyone put their purses there!

Here is the traveler prize that Chris and my Grandpa made. Our family friend Cammie won it!

On the menu for the night we had Sesame Chicken Salads (I kept the chicken in a separate bowl for any vegetarians and added crunchy noodles), cubed Watermelon, Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and Oreo Truffles. We also had the drinks mentioned above, sodas, and waters. Yummy!

I'm so thankful for the plates in the picture above (on the left side) that Sue got us because they work out perfectly for these events. It also keeps me from having to use disposable items which is just an unneeded expense. We also got to use the utensils and caddies Chris and I got from Marshall's or Ross or something awhile back. Everything went in the dishwasher at the end of the night, and Cindy helped me clean up since we were done so early! Thanks, Cindy!

Well this post was pretty darn boring. Sorry about that!

Almost a Car...

We almost bought a car today. But we bought a bedskirt instead. Oddly enough, we were definitely happy with the way the night turned out!

Let's back up. Chris has a feeling that one of our THREE vehicles is going to pull a MJ and drop dead. He has been wanting a new car for a little while, so tonight we headed down to the dealership and looked around a bit. In the end, it didn't work out, but Chris feels really good about walking away from the not-so-much-of-a-deal. We are keeping our eyes peeled, and it's nice to have no pressure to get this task accomplished.

So we headed to REI. Want to know the reason? It's really silly. When we were looking at the car we wanted, we noticed the smaller size of the hatch/trunk. Chris asked if a stroller would fit in the back. Hmm, probably not. We want a BOB stroller, and we knew for a fact that our sisters' double-wides would have no chance fitting in that trunk. Kind of like how I have no chance of fitting into any of my wardrobe from last year.

What does a single BOB look like when it's collapsed, though? We had no clue so we went to check it out. Now we have an idea. And FYI, they're 15% off at REI right now! But no, we didn't purchase one. We decided to not make a large purchase like that until "the seed has been planted."

After REI we headed to BBB since we had enough time. We had some store credit and a gift card, so we just started browsing around. Of course, I still had that bedskirt on my mind and we picked one out -- the cheapest we could find that wasn't hideous -- and it was $55! Yikes. Nevertheless, we decided to purchase it and continued browsing.
Enter the clearance section at the front of the store.

WOW that's a great price!

For those of you that resort to your cell phone for difficult math problems like the one above (don't tell me I'm alone in this), let me help you out. We got that bedskirt for $12.50! We promplty returned the $55 skirt to the wrong location (next to the steam mops) which I feel guilty about. And I'm not even Catholic!

So we were in the steam mop aisle because we got this too

We were in the market for a steam mop so that we don't have harsh chemicals on our floors for Ari and any future crawling humans. We love that it has a vacuum too, and the fact that we got it for 20% off.

So we went out to buy a car but ended up with a bedskirt and a steam mop vacuum. And a Snickers Peanut Butter candy bar that Chris almost stole. Now we are watching Entourage and hitting the hay early. We have a big day tomorrow!

September Goals

It's time to revisit the goals we set back at the beginning of the month. I'm actually kind of curious to see how bad we failed!!

Make applique shirts/onesies for the partay - DONE!

Create the treasure maps for the partay - DONE!

Make oreo cookie truffles - DONE! Shoot, we ate them all before I snapped a picture. I will make more soon!

Come up with a game plan for the deck gate - FAILED!

Re-wire the light in the garage (Dad?) - FAILED!

Run the water line to the fridge (Dad?) - FAILED!

Create a crawl space in the attice (Dad, are you still reading this) - Major FAIL. I didn't even remember this was on here

Honestly, I think there was one more thing that included you, Dad! I will ask Chris... - This was shaving the doors, obviously another FAIL

Start on the new shrubs in the front - DONE!

Decide to either make a bedskirt or purchase one for the guestroom - Kind of done. I decided we aren't purchasing one due to the length of the drop, it isn't a common size at all. I will either make one or scrap the idea totally, since Chris wants a bunk bed in that room anyway

Do my weights workout at least four times a week - Major FAIL!

So there you have it, folks! We did pretty darn bad, didn't we? Let's see what we can do in September!

• Run the water line in the fridge
• Shave the doors
• Rewire the light in the garage
• Start the deck gate project
• Make something that includes chalkboard paint
• Lose 5 pounds
• Try not to fall the entire month of September
• Go to bodypump at least once a week
• Get Jason and Amanda's wedding gift
• Do something noteworthy enough to put on our Christmas card (more on that later)
• Book our camping trip with Darin and Mike
• Go to Ikea
• Go to the Goodwill Outlet

I will add to this if we remember anything else we wanted to try and get done this month. Here is to better luck in September!

The Pirate Party

This post is going to be mostly pictures. And they were almost all taken by my dad. I was very busy that day decorating and hosting with Darin, and my Aunt stole my camera, so I'm glad someone got some pics! ;)

We went up the day before to fill up the water slide and fill the treasure chests, and I'm really glad we did. The water slide was much more difficult than we thought it would be!

We filled the chests with their treasure

Seriously, how gorgeous are these? I have some talented relatives!

We hung all of the clues

And here are the photos from the party! Obviously, they're mostly of the kiddos. Next time I will try to remember to grab photos of the decorations and the food table and stuff like that, because it was all so fun!

Chiara and Eleni. One of my favorite pictures of the day!

Chiara with her map

PJR and Eleni with their keys around their necks and their maps

Finding the first clue!

Me helping Chiara

Eleni getting a clue!

PJR opening his treasure chest!

Pretty sure she can't get any cuter

Wait, looks like she can!

Eleni with her treasure

All of the chests were burried in Treasure Island

These boats (and the frog slap bracelet!) were in the chests. They were really fun!

She melts our hearts. I'm in love with this picture

So that's it. Like I said, there was more going on that didn't get photographed, but I'm sure you can use your imagination! Thank you to everyone who helped out and made it such a good time!

Game Night and Meeting Jonas

On one Friday night this month we hosted a game night with a few of our friends. I wish I could say that the girls dominated, but we ended up in a tie. We played Catch Phrase, which the guys won, and Battle of the Sexes, which the girls won. I didn't take any pictures of us in action, but I got some pictures of the grub!

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese, Almonds and Pecans

Peanut Butter Cookies, Peanut MMS, Chips and Buffalo Chicken Dip, Cornbread for the Chili. Oh, and there was some Bloomin' Bread in the oven

So anyway, game night was really fun and we are hoping to host it again sometime soon! We are told we should get "You don't know Jack" for the Wii. Anyone played it?

The morning after Game Night, we had my family over to meet Jonas for the first time. It was really, really good to see them after such a long time and to finally meet Jonas after seven months! I served skillet potatoes, bacon, scrambled eggs (Chris made them and they were amazing), cinnamon roll french toast and homemade blueberry muffins. My sister brought fruit and my mom brought coffee and OJ. Definitely had plenty of food!!

Here are some pictures of the little man. When I realized he was actually enjoying my paparazzi tendencies, I ran and got my dad's camera instead of my little crappy one. Hope you enjoy him as much as we did :)

He loved being in the backyard on the grass

Dustin got this book for the kiddos awhile ago. It is in French, so they always say they want Uncle Dustin to read it to them.

So ya, he's pretty freaking cute and we sure like him a lot! Can't wait to see them again at Christmas!