Thankfulness Tree

Traditionally in the month of November we share things that we are thankful for, so this year I wanted to get Everett involved. My friend Tiphany and I were discussing this and she was sharing with me some ideas that she had and some she found on Pinterest. Everett and I had just finished a painting of a fall tree and I thought it would be great to use cut out tracings of his hand prints as leaves that he could write some things he is thankful for on.   

He has been enjoying sticking up his leaves and I am loving the different things that he is coming up with! Here are a few that he's said so far: bread and the food we eat; trees, they grow in the ground; my friends at AWANA; candy from trick or treating; and my personal favorite, Marines for protecting me! 

What are y'all doing to celebrate this November? I am already planning how we can incorporate this same idea into an advent Christmas tree! Stay tuned! 

Pinterest Recipe... Caprese Dip Fail!

While perusing around Pinterest the other day I saw (what I thought was) the coolest idea for a caprese dip.  Basically, you take all the ingredients for caprese salad, chop them up, put them in an oven safe dish, and heat them in the oven until the cheese melts. Sounds easy and delish right?

So here is what the concoction looked liked prior to putting it in the oven... I was really excited about this! I put it in a 350 degree oven and checked on it and stirred it every five to seven minutes.  The one thing that I was really surprised about was all of the extra liquid that appeared as it was cooking.  I had to drain it two or more times as the liquid wouldn't stir in. Weird. 

Here's what it looked like after it was all melted and combined.  Now this wouldn't be a complete fail if you were able to consume all of the dip in about two minutes.. otherwise it gets HARD.  Like, I could have sliced it and put it on the bread slices. Grrrr so frustrating.  It still tasted delicious however I really was hoping for that nice ooey gooey dip that I was promised! :)  

I have been brainstorming about this and I think that the only way to keep that consistency would be to keep it continually heated, maybe in a crock pot or on the stove top on low- then you run into the possibility of the cheese burning.  Have any of you tried this? 

Pinterest Anyone?

Who has jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon?  I love it and get so many cute ideas there! If you're on Pinterest make sure to follow me http://pinterest.com/NotSoAvrgMomma/

If you don't know what Pinterest is, head over to this post on one of my favorite blogs, Little Pink Monster- she's got the run-down.  She also has a cool thing that she does called "Pinbusters," kinda like Mythbusters where she attempts different Pins to see if they really work.  Pretty cool stuff.  Check it out!

Here's a snapshot of my Pinterest