I wore this outfit for a lunch date with a couple of friends the other day.  It was probably the quickest shoot known to mankind because it was all kinds of negative windchill that day.  Hence why I am wearing every accessory possible to cover up every inch of my body except my hands and part of my face.

Long cardigans are my new favorite thing, like this one from Swell.  They are great layered over short dresses, medium-length dresses, tees, tanks and can cover up any unflattering booty action if one had some going on.  Are you a long cardigan fan?

Thanks Erin for taking these pics!

P.S. Congrats to Sadie B. for winning the $50 Houlihan’s gift card GIVEAWAY!  Please email me at sandyalamode(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and I’ll get your gift card sent to ya!

Outfit Details-
Dress: Golden Tote
Cardigan c/o Swell
Boots: Joie
Necklace: J.Crew
Scarf: Gap
Hat: Forever 21
Bag: Prada

Last week, Austin’s favorite older cousin, Evan, came to visit us all the way for California! He stayed a week at our house with my parent’s in town watching both kids and they just had so much fun playing with each other. For dinner one evening, we decided to let the kids be the chefs and do all the cooking. I credit this ideally wholly to my husband who thought of this brilliant idea and bought all the necessary ingredients. We love involving the kids in daily things that we do to make them feel important and like they are an “adult”. Plus, they really enjoyed helping out! Here’s how it went down.

The first and most important thing to do is to prep all the ingredients out in bowls and prepare the pizza with olive oil on some cutting boards.  (You don’t want the kids to be sitting there watching you cut up veggies, open bags, their attention span is too short for that.)

Then start with the sauce and show them how to spread it around the pizza as the base.

Next comes toppings.  Feel free to let the kid’s be creative with this.  You can let them put on whatever toppings they want in any order they want.  They love it when they get a choice in the matter.

And then lastly the cheese!  (And don’t expect them to go the whole time without tasting some of the ingredients.  If you plan to have anything raw, like meats or anything, you need to watch out that they don’t try the taste test!)

Little hands perfecting the little pizzas.

We followed the directions on the pizza crust package which told us to bake each pizza for about 7 minutes at 350 degrees.  Once done baking, cut up the pizzas and let the kids enjoy them first!

And then tell secrets to each other.

And then after they are done, you can enjoy the leftovers! 

P.S. Winner of the $400 credit Wink & Winn Customizable Handbag Giveaway is Megan of magsp***@gmail.com.  Congrats girl!  Email me at sandyalamode(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll send you your code!

What are some of your favorite foods to make with kids?

One place that I’ve always wanted to visit is Australia (and New Zealand and Bora Bora) all in the same trip!  My parents just got back from a trip to Australia and I was so jealous.  I so want to go hold a baby koala and see the home of the Tim Tam Slam.  But, to make me feel like I was there, my mom did buy me these Ugg boots and crossbody bag from there!  I’ve had my fair share of Ugg boots in the past but I love these because they’ve got a hint of leopard – totally a pattern that I’ve fallen in love with in the past few years!  Not to mention, they are super comfy, warm and perfect for polar vortex weather.

Outfit Details:
Chambray: Madewell
Sweater: Target
Dress: Forever 21
Boots: Uggs
Handbag: Uggs
Necklace c/o Riffraff

These photos were taken in our last snowstorm (which I was hoping would be the last of the season), but lo and behold, the groundhog was right and we’re being hit with another snow storm this weekend, sigh.  Seriously, this has been one of the snowiest and coldest winters I’ve ever faced… ever. in. my. life.  I’m SO over it and I’m ready for Spring.  I feel like I talk about weather in every post now, sorry if you are sick of hearing about it!

I’m finally catching on to the bandwagon in my first wild orchid outfit of the year.  “Wild orchid” or just another way of saying a “vibrant purple” is this year Pantone’s color of the year which means we’ll all be seeing a lot of it.  This color reminds me of my college days, when 2 of my other girlfriends and I lived in what we called our “pink and purple palace”.  Our apartment was all decked out in well duh, pink and purple everything.  We had a purple couch, pink Christmas tree, purple lamps, pink blankets… it was a girly girl’s dream to live in.  Not to mention an alternative name for the place was “jello shot factory”, but we won’t get into that. 

P.S. Don’t forget to enter to win $400 credit giveaway towards designing your very own handbag on Wink & Winn AND the Houlihan’s $50 giveaway towards a delicious meal!

Outfit Details:
Shirt: Popbasic
Blazer: Target
Necklace c/o Crazy & Co.
Skirt: ASOS
Shoes: Seychelles
Bag: Chloe Marcie

Have you caught on to the wild orchid trend yet?

Compensation was provided by Houlihan’s via MomTrends.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Houlihan’s or Momtrends.

“Going out to eat” is my two year old son’s favorite phrase… ever.  If he had it his way, we’d be going out to eat every night and promptly be pretty broke as well.  But we do allow ourselves to go out to eat as a family every once in awhile.  And I also reserve a few lunches and dinners to go out with my girl friends as well.  Earlier this week, I decided to head to a local Houlihan’s restaurant (there’s quite a few in the KC area), to check out their low calorie menu options.  Everything on this menu is 590 calories or less and sounded delicious.  They have entree, dessert and cocktail options and I decided to try a few… along with some other staples that I normally get.

This was their Lemon and Herb Grilled Chicken at 550 calories.

Lettuce wraps is my go to.  I get it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I visit Houlihan’s.  YUM!

And I had to order one of each dessert, Key Lime and Chocolate Mousses, all coming in below 500 calories each!

Love the mood at Houlihan’s and those cool ball lights, I had the bar all to myself, HA!    Thanks to Erin at Pretty Polished Perfect for taking these pics and Meggy from Chasing Davies for the support!

{GIVEAWAY}

Have you been to Houlihan’s before?  Well if not, you are in luck, one lucky winner will win a $50 gift card to use there!  And if you have, I know you can’t wait to go back!

    Rules for the giveaway:

-Must be 18 years of age or older

-Must be a US Resident, ideally living near a Houlihan’s Restaurant

-Entries close on 3/6/2014 at 12:00AM

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