Guacamole

I’m not talking about the dip, although they have it there. I’m talking about the restaurant! It’s a new establishment in Portugal, thankfully not too far from where we live {and that means about an hour—Lisbon}. Look at this pico!

We’ve tried several Tex-Mex restaurants in Europe which have left us thankful for a decent meal, but wishing for what we’re used to in Texas! It’s really made me try to hone in on my salsa and Tex-Mex dish making skills.

But Guacamole is a welcome similarity to Chipotle—one of my favorites when we go home!

To top it off, the cook lived in America for many years, so she knows how to cook great Tex-Mex and give over-the-top service. Did you notice the big ice in the cup {for those of you living outside the U.S.}?

I think there’s a Guacamole restaurant in England too, so you guys get to share in the wealth. It’s worth the trip if you’re on this side of the ocean.

The Camping Party

Our oldest daughter wished for a “Playmobile camping” party for her 7 year old birthday. It was really just a camping themed party, no overnighting this time. Playmobile showed up just for the cake {and a few gifts}!

I looked at invitations on Etsy and Pinterest and decided to make my own with my Silhouette program—I didn’t have to use the cutting machine for this one.  The color on the invitation above is a bit off since I had to scan it {Silhouette doesn’t seem to want to share it with other programs}. I purchased the 2 graphics and pink wood grain background from their online store and found the log font for free. I was able to use these items to make some of the party décor.

Pinterest was a great place to find ideas for the party! I copied others’ ideas for food:

• Catch of the Day: Swedish Fish
• Snakes: gummy strings
• Twigs: Twix bars and pirouettes
• Ants on a log: celery with peanut butter and raisins
• Trail mix: nuts, raisins, and M&M’s
• Smores {of course!}: we don’t have graham crackers here in Portugal but a cookie that is similar

Portuguese often have pudding and mousse at parties, so I made a little for some kiddy looking camping coffee.

I decorated with some vintage camping thermoses I found, lanterns, some of the girls’ toy binoculars and compasses, a small evergreen tree, some stars I hung over our dining room table, and a pennant banner I made.

We didn’t know anyone with a tent to borrow, so we had a very makeshift one for the party {and who knew if the November rains would hold off that day!}.

My husband got his new outdoor fire pit made just in time for the party. The American children were more keen on making smores than our Portuguese friends, but everyone enjoyed the roasted hot dogs.

Another hit for all the kids was making laminated nametags—kind of like a luggage tag. We had camping stickers and markers, they decorated them, then I laminated them and added twine through a punched hole.

The kids then got to choose a “camping satchel” to put their nametag on. I had collected pockets from my husband’s worn out pants for years, and I finally had a chance to use them! I hope to write a post soon about how I made them {I would have like some instructions!}.

Here’s our birthday girl sporting her nametagged bag post party! I think she was pleased with how things went. Many thanks to the moms and dads who helped it be special!!!

Month of Meals

In an attempt to simplify life with my seeming “full time job” of homeschooling, I decided to give monthly meal planning a go. Years back I was amazed that my friend Joy could plan that much and repeat the same meals. I’ve resisted for quite some time! Now, I wanted to share that it’s not that difficult, you can take baby steps {like planning a week at a time first}, and you don’t have to stay in a rut if you don’t like it.

1. LIST THE MEALS YOU NORMALLY MAKE: I chose to make a chart a few years ago with all the meals I liked to make/my family would eat under different headings like beef,  ground meat, chicken, pork, breakfast for dinner, fast/premade, fish, soups, and so on. Add to it as you find new recipes that pass the family test.

2. PLUG IN MEALS: When it came time to make a monthly plan, I plugged in meals from my chart making sure to not repeat chicken too much in the same week, etc. and making decisions on what kind of meals I’d need to make on certain days of the week {ie: fast meals on nights we have the girls in sports}.

3. EVALUATE AND MAKE CHANGES: My first month felt like such a success knowing every week what I’d need to get at the store right away. In review the second month, I saw how often I didn’t get to follow my menu to a T, so I started noting what changed, pushing the rotation down to the next week if we hadn’t gotten to eat those meals, etc. All that to say is I’ve now got menus for 3 months that are a little different. Maybe next year when those months roll around I’ll be able to use those again? Who knows what I’ll feel like then, but I know I’m going to stick with this monthly planning thing for a while. I think it’s working!

I’ve seen so many helpful blog posts on meal planning, freezer meals for a month {YES, really—and not a bunch of casseroles}, and even weekly and  monthly menus! The issue {or mine at least} is doing it! If I can, you can—really!

Fourth of July Firsts

Yes, the holiday is past, but I wanted to share some fun things I tried this year. I’ll start with a top personal accomplishment, a paper wreath for my front door!

I was inspired by Corner House’s awesome paper wreath. It is beautiful—you have to go see it! She has great instructions too.

Anyway, I had a small wreath to spare that I thought would not take too many scalloped circle cones. Ha! This was a labor of love OR more like an opportunity to persevere! Don’t let me scare you on this—I think it is the perfect project to work on as you’re talking on the phone or watching a show. Just know it may not get done overnight! Having a large scalloped paper puncher is a huge help.

A quirky thing about this 4th of July wreath is that the book pages are from a vintage Portuguese book! You could say that’s not OK on a piece of Americana, but we’ll just settle that we are blending cultures here! {or using what I can get my hands on!}

Speaking of blending cultures, I decided to go a little more low-key on 4th décor this year since we were having Portuguese and British guests {ie: the other side of the placemats made by my mother-in-law are covered in US flags}. Of course we had a few laughs about how we’d been freed from them! But they were great sports, even wearing red, white and blue!

We are only able to get our hands on sparklers in Portugal, so pretty-ing them up made it feel a bit more special. The free printables are from Thig and Twistle.

My other big attempt for this holiday was homemade hamburger buns. Not to complain, but the options for good hamburger buns here are very slim, so much that I’d gotten to where I really didn’t want to make hamburgers! This was a last attempt to keep one of my husband’s favorite foods in our normal repertoire. I think they turned out well—a recipe request from a guest makes you think others like them too! Oh how necessity{?} breeds resourcefulness!

Sharing this at Turning the Table Thursday and

The Mint Bed

Last year, we buried two buckets full of dirt and mint in our garden, hoping to let the mint have more space and still be contained. It thrived for the most part, but later we discovered it had hopped out of it’s boundaries! Amazing how such a wonderful plant can take over!

We decided to try something different rather than the mint being bound to pots this year. They don’t seem to do as well for me there—probably my lack of watering! 

My husband dug a small pit under the ladder to the kids’ playhouse, next to our bunny cage.  He lined the pit with weed barrier, filled it back in with dirt, and started putting all our potted mint plants into this new bed. There were several different varieties of mint, but I didn’t mind them growing with one another.

Here is the mint bed about a month later. We collected bigger rocks from various beaches we’ve been to here to edge the bed. It is filling in nicely!

Now we’ve got to attend to the grass problem--the sprinkler hidden in the corner there is not reaching the grass. My husband is such a good sport to continually tackle keeping the yard watered!

Our bunny is not complaining about this new treat next to the cage. Thankfully she cannot reach all of it!

Hello Kitty Soccer Party

You may think that there is no such birthday party theme as Hello Kitty Soccer, but this did not stop my now 5 year old from deciding that is what she wanted for her birthday!

Thank goodness for the internet! We found Build-A-Bear outfits that fit our big Hello Kitty doll {Portugual-esque colors don’t you think!} and a soccer outfit for a new small Hello Kitty doll. Both made great gifts from the grandparents.

I found several images on Google to print out and use for decorations. Some weren’t even flat images: I used pictures of water bottles and t-shirts with Hello Kitty playing soccer and cropped out as much as I could.


I put my Silhouette to work on an image I imported from Google to hang over our table—another learning curve opportunity since I did not buy it from the Silhouette online store. The soccer balls are from their store, but I adjusted the color accordingly!

I enlarged the same soccer ball and cut out it separately with the Silhouette for a guide to decorating the cake. I need all the help I can get! Here I am just checking the fit before I ice the cake.

After icing it and filling in the holes with colored crystal sprinkles, I covered those sections with the other cut pieces to add chocolate sprinkles in the open spaces.

I ended up adding black licorice to delineate sections. I’m not crazy about the final outcome, but my daughter was happy to have a soccer cake, and that’s what was important!

We had more rain than we’d hoped for—the girls entertained themselves with dress up and painting for the most part. The sun did come out before everyone left, and we had some great soccer moments in the back yard.

My sweet 5 year old enjoyed herself!

That Time of Year

We are joining up with The Homeschool Village’s Garden Challenge this year—a great one for us, since we love to garden!

Here is a view of our garden space and my husband cutting back broccoli plants from last year that are mainly just flowering now.  Our compost bin is to the left, and the flowering tree is a plum tree. This photo was taken before we started a new flower bed in the back yard for our herbs since their increase in size left less room for vegetables—you can see their bushiness down the way.

Once the herbs were transplanted, we bought a few baby vegetable plants. My oldest planted the tomatoes. We bought 2 cherry tomato and 2 salad tomato plants (I’m not sure of the specific type due to language differences—I understood the cherry and tomato words though!).

Our youngest daughter planted the cucumbers (“Gurken” in German). The girls love them—a taste they acquired in German kindergarten! We are excited to have more space for these and the tomatoes since they all ran together last year. We also added more strawberry plants, more broccoli plants, and some new green and red leaf lettuce.

Honestly, the girls found other ways to have fun while we worked our old and new beds. Yet it was still a joy to be together outside as we got our garden back in business.

Sights, Sweets and Sidewalks of Nazare

Yesterday, we took a family trip to Nazare, about 45 minutes north of our home. We’d heard great things about it, but had not been in our near 2 years of living here!

We started at the top. There is a elevator car that takes you up and down the hill. You can see the track on the far left of the cat. 

My husband checked things out while the girls rummaged for good shells.

I caught some great wave action photos—a first for me!

Not only was the scenery spectacular, the people were quite unique. To see traditional garb being worn along side current day fashion was really surprising. We took a pic of the lady selling nuts and her 7 skirts {the story goes that they would take off one for every day their sailor was out to sea fishing that week}, but she may have just been dressed up for a sale I think.

When we kept seeing other ladies in a version of that traditional dress, we realized this was the norm! 

My husband had to keep me from trying to take pictures of each of these ladies we saw--just something I didn’t expect to be a reality in “our” country!

Seems like this type of dress might no longer be seen past this generation—unless you’re a vendor!

Also, I had to show you some Portuguese sweets and not so sweet.

BIG meringues!

Lots of shredded candied egg yolk {that is NOT cheese}, filled with egg yolk pudding, or iced with egg yolk pastries along with some chocolate and apple items. A recent guest commented that one of these reminded him of a Twinkie but better!

Drying fish on racks on the sidewalk.

An old timer convertible with Alaska plates on the sidewalk—what?!!!  NOT normal to see in Portugal!

And lastly, what we picked up on the sidewalk! {next to a dumpster} All the parts were there except the obvious missing spindle. We’re not sure if we like it or think it needs a happy color of paint to make it less oppressive. Thoughts? 

Thanks for sharing our journey with us!