Get organized for summer with a Thirty-One Giveaway!

As a busy mom of four little guys always on the go, I am always looking for ways to keep their stuff organized when we're out and about.  So when Christin Norris, an Independent Consultant for Thirty One, contacted me about reviewing a Thirty One bag and hosting a giveaway, I happily jumped at the opportunity!  Why?  Because Thirty One bags are not only adorable and come in so many different fabrics to choose from, but they are also durable and a fabulous way to organize all of my stuff and all of the stuff I need for our boys when we're on the go.

I just got my new Inside Out Bag this week and I LOVE it.  I chose the Party Punch and Turquoise Cross Pop pattern and I love the fun, summery colors on the chevron side.  And, it's an "Inside Out" bag so it's reversible {like getting two bags for the price of one!} and the other side is an adorable patterned turquoise, one of my favorite colors.  

I love the deep storage compartment that held all of the books, diapers, wipes, snacks, change of clothes for a potty-training boy and more, and the long single strap that hooks onto my stroller hooks great and also stays on my shoulder well {Have I told you about the time I had a two strap bag and as I was walking out of a busy downtown Starbucks one of the handles slid off of my shoulder and got caught on the door handle without me noticing?  I kept walking and ended up practically hanging from the door handle in a skirt and heels while my hot coffee went flying out onto the sidewalk full of business people!  So yeah, I have a thing for single strap bags now!}

But my favorite part about this bag is all of the little pockets.  There are two pockets on the outside, which work great for my little guys' drinks {plus this is the ONLY bag I've found that actually fits my favorite Mason jar water cup}.  

There are also two pockets on the inside- perfect for my phone and keys.  There was no digging around for anything.  Everything was in it's place, just like I like it :)

I packed up my new Inside Out bag at 8 am the other day- went to school to drop off my big boys and help for a bit, then to the doctor's office for our baby's one year old checkout, then to the grocery store, then to school pick up, then straight to Sea World for the afternoon, returning home at 6 pm.  Everything I needed for all of the busyness of the day fit perfectly inside my new Thirty One bag!

And thanks to Christin, you now can have the chance to win a Thirty One bag of your own!  Enter via Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.  The giveaway is open for one week, so get your entries in and tell you friends to enter too.  Thank you so much for entering, and a big thank you to Christin Norris, Independent Thirty One Consultant!

Do you love Thirty One so much that you're ready to buy now?

 Click here to place an online order!
 Thermal bags are 50% off when you spend $31! 
 (Orders must be placed by 8 PM pacific time on 5/31/13 to receive this discount).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

Looking for your chocolate fix?  Look no further!  These Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch bars will for sure satisfy your sweet tooth!

Brownie base recipe {great brownies on their own} 

from howsweeteats.com

2-3 squares baking chocolate {I used 3 squares unsweetened Baker's chocolate}

1/2 lb butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter and baking squares in a microwave safe bowl {or on the stove top}. In the mixing bowl {or pour it into your Kitchen Aid}, cream melted butter and chocolate mixture. Add in sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, beating one at a time. Add flour and stir just until combined.

Pour into greased 9 x 13 baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

While baking, start working on the middle layer:

1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts

1 cup chopped Reese's peanut butter cups

Pull your brownies out after 20ish minutes of baking, sprinkle chopped nuts and chopped PB cups evenly on top and bake for another 5 minutes.

While your middle layer is baking, work on the top layer {did I mention these are kind of time-consuming?!  But totally worth it}  In a medium saucepan, melt together:

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon butter

Once melted, add 1 1/2 cup Rice Krispies and stir to combine.  Take your brownies out of the oven and evenly spread your crunchy top layer on them.  Refrigerate for 2 hours, until firm.  Slice with a plastic knife... they are great chilled or room temperature.  Enjoy! 

I'm participating in GET YOUR CHEF ON hosted by Four Marrs & One Venus, and White Lights on Wednesday.  Hop over to see all of the amazing chocolate creations!

1st Birthday Bee-Day Brunch!

Our youngest son, Bryce, turned ONE this week!  We've been celebrating him for weeks already, starting with his Smash Cake Party.

And recently we celebrated with a 1st Birthday Bee-Day Brunch with family and close friends.

I have always wanted to have a bee theme party, but with 4 boys it was nearly impossible to find any bee party decor that was "boy enough" while still being cute.  I've seen a few good black and yellow bee parties for boys, but I really wanted to step out and incorporate some aqua and gray.  I couldn't find any printables that matched what I had in mind, so I made them all myself using my Silhouette.

I love mixing modern and vintage together, so this distressed honeycomb background had me all sorts of excited.  Anyone else get really excited about paper?!

For decorations, I didn't spend much because I have a lot of yellow and aqua things around our house already because they're my two favorite colors.  

I bought just one yard of this aqua/white chevron fabric that I used to make a wreath for the front door {that I can't believe I didn't get a picture of} and I just laid the extra fabric out on this tall chest as part of the decorations. 

I loved using my chalkboard from stitched. for a photo display, just like I did for our son Jake's dinosaur party last year.

And I really fell in love with this old chicken wire frame, also from stitched.  When I won a gift certificate from them recently in celebration of them reaching 500 Facebook fans, I was so excited to pick this up!

It worked great for a little photo display with a washi tape/twine banner and little beehive labels for the pictures.

I found almost everything else I wanted at my local Party City.  Did you know that they have all kinds of fun paper honeycomb decorations?  And they are really inexpensive too.

They also sell these cute polka dot balloons that Bryce couldn't keep his eyes off of.

And let's talk about that highchair!!

I've been on the look-out for a vintage wooden highchair like this one for YEARS... literally since our 1st baby turned one, and he's going to be 9 this year!  Every one I found was SO expensive, or just not quite what I was looking for.  Recently on our way to a birthday party we drove by a thrift store with this one sitting out front.  I told my husband that if it was still there on the way back, it was meant to be.  And sure enough it was, and it was a total bargain.  I LOVE it!  I painted it a soft yellow.

Inspired by the always adorable Love The Day, I made these beehive cutouts glued onto long wooden dowels and tied with tons of coordinating ribbon.  These were in the flower bed along the walkway to our porch.

I also made a no-sew burlap flag with a stenciled bee and ribbon.  I loved it so much that it's now our front yard Spring/Summer flag.

On the porch was a vintage window painted the same yellow as the highchair and decorated with a banner made from coffee filters, ribbon, and papers designed on my Silhouette.

And for activities I knew that the kids usually have the most fun just playing together and not having Mom boss them around to do a bunch of stuff :) so I just set out a basket of bubbles on the porch table, along with an art table with white card stock, markers, crayons, and foam stickers.  We also had sidewalk chalk for the driveway.

We had a delicious brunch...

 

that included home-baked muffins, yogurt & berry parfaits, veggies, honey ham, Trader Joe's Spinach Ravioli {yum}, honey pretzels, and more.

For dessert, you've got to have that 1st Birthday Smash Cake, right?  Luckily because of this 1st Birthday Smash Cake blog post, I have SO many amazing, adorable pictures of Bryce really getting into his 1st cake, like this one...

  

So on his party day, the cake part was very simple.

He just ate a little bit of cake and wanted to share, which made me even more glad that I had done a Smash Cake Party just with our little family ahead of time. 

We also had a dessert display set up on my craft hutch.

There were lemon, vanilla, and chocolate cupcakes, Oreo truffles, Spring Oreos {because they have yellow frosting and little bees on them} and my favorite lemon bites from Costco.  Have you had them?  Ohhhh, they are the best!

For party favors, I decided to go simple and skip the sugar or a bunch of stuff that would end up getting thrown away.

So we just had one small favor for each kid- a little bee craft for the bigger kids and yellow sidewalk chalk in a bee holder for the little ones.  I loved these little paper kraft bags that I found at Paper Source recently.  I've had that bee stamp for years and wanted to use it for this party, so I skipped typing out tags for the favor bags like I normally do and stamped this simple tag instead. 

Our sweet boy Jake also had a birthday coming up soon, so he had a special cake and we sang Happy Birthday to him too.  He was thrilled {a blog post about his super fun non-party birthday is coming soon!}

And our oldest son always likes to help decorate for any party we host.  I love this picture he drew for Bryce's party.

I'm going to frame it and hang it in Bryce's room for him.

What a fun, exciting, and QUICK year it has been!  

Photo credit: Autumn Bradshaw Photography

It was such a nice day celebrating our sweet Bryce.  He is the perfect addition to round out and complete our family of wild, fun, silly, crazy, messy, adorable, beautiful, cuddly, precious BOYS!  We are so very grateful to have our sweet Bryce in our family.  

Thank you for visiting Gallamore West!  

I'll be sharing this 1st Bee-Day Brunch at some of my favorite places.  And I'd love to have you follow Gallamore West on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter! xoxo

Mother's Day Brunch Coffee Cake Recipe

Do you have special plans for Mother's Day?  I know I'll be gathered around the dining room table with my family, and I hope that you'll feel extra treasured this Sunday too! 

 

Here's a perfect Coffee Cake recipe to make the Mom in your life feel extra special this Mother's Day.

I love this Coffee Cake because it's easy to put together and it tastes amazing, but it looks like it took forever.  Also, I'm always running around like a chicken with my head cut off with these four little boys we have, so this is a great make-ahead-the-night-before-and-still-tastes-amazing-in-the-morning recipe :)  I make it for birthdays, Christmas morning, and other special occasions.

But Moms, hand this recipe to your husband and/or kids and let them do the baking for you this time!

Mother's Day Brunch Coffee Cake

Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 large eggs, room temp 

1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups vanilla yogurt

2 1/4 cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Crumble Topping

1/4 cup flour

4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  I like to bake it in a bundt pan.  Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.  Add in eggs one at a time until well blended.  Mix in yogurt & vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients- sifted flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt.  Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until well combined.  Sprinkle half of the crumble in the BOTTOM of prepared pan.  Gently pour half of the batter on top of crumble layer.  Sprinkle the other half of the crumble topping on top of batter, then gently pour in the remaining batter.  Bake for 50 minutes or until lightly brown and a toothpick comes out almost clean (a little batter on it is good in my opinion, so it won't be dry).  Cool completely on cooling rack.  Gently run a knife around the edges, then carefully invert onto a cake stand or pretty plate.  Enjoy!!

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope all of you Moms have a wonderful day treasuring those that you hold close to your heart.  Sometimes life gets crazy, busy, and stressed and in those moments it's hard for me to remember how blessed I truly am.  But I am so, so grateful that I have the pleasure of being called Mom/Mommy/Mama by four precious little boys who light up my world every single day.  Every Mother's Day my heart aches for friends who are hurting on this day- friends who have tried so hard to have babies, friends who have babies in heaven, and friends whose babies are sick.  I'll be saying a special prayer for those friends on Mother's Day. xoxo

I'll be sharing my Mother's Day Brunch Coffee Cake at Tatertots & Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party!

1st Birthday Smash Cake with $5 Birthday Bundle!

Once upon a time, I imagined that when I had kids all of their birthdays would be perfectly spaced out so that I could plan individual, amazing parties for each of them every year.  Then reality happened and guess what?!  

May is party month here for sure, with THREE of these cuties 

celebrating birthdays in our family of six within two weeks in May!  

 

So it's perfect timing that Safeway, Vons, and Pavilions is having an amazing Birthday Bundle deal right now until May 21st.  The Birthday Bundle includes 2 two-liter 7UP brand sodas, one box of Betty Crocker cake mix, one tub of Betty Crocker frosting and a box of Rainbow Striped Betty Crocker candles...  all of this for just $5!  This Birthday Bundle is available at ALL SAFEWAY, VONS, or PAVILIONS stores from April 24, 2014 until May 21, 2013.

We used our Birthday Bundle to celebrate our sweet baby Bryce's 1st birthday a little early.  Why?  Because big birthday parties are fun, but sometimes I end up running around so much during our birthday parties that once it's over I feel like I miss those adorable moments, like when a baby has their first taste of sugar. 

 

 I love the sweet innocence of that single candle on a cake, don't you? 

 How did he just know to reach for that cute candle and lick the frosting off of it?

He loved his first taste of cake...

and before we knew it, he was diving head first into his birthday cake...

and enjoying every single second of it!

We had an absolute blast watching Bryce dig into his 1st birthday cake!  And not to leave out his big brothers, I also baked up a batch of cupcakes {all with the one box of Betty Crocker cake mix that I bought as part of the Birthday Bundle} for them to enjoy while watching their baby brother dive into his own cake.  And for a super special treat, the boys even got to the enjoy soda that also came with the Birthday Bundle!  

We loved being able to really take our time and enjoy watching Bryce eat his first birthday cake.  He even wanted to share some with Daddy!

The more he got into his cake, the more I kept snapping pictures. 

I will treasure these memories and these precious pictures forever!  With Safeway, Vons, and Pavilion's $5 Birthday Bundle, you can definitely have an amazing celebration without breaking the bank!  

What will you celebrate?

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and SAFEWAY  but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #BirthdayBundle  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.