Celebrate National Coffee Day with International Delight Iced Coffee

Today is National Coffee Day and in honor of this awesome day, we celebrated by throwing a party!

I invited some of my favorite ladies from my local playgroup over to enjoy a fun, relaxing morning of coffee, food, and chatter while our kids ran around us. It always seems easier to enjoy time with my friends when the kids are entertained by each other and contained in the house. The conversation flows more freely and we aren't up chasing them every few minutes.

I set out some glasses and International Delight's Iced Coffee next to my Tassimo so that my guests would have options of iced or hot coffee and the ladies loved it! Since it's in the mid-80s today many opted for iced over hot to cool down.

And no party is complete without some munchies! I set out some greek yogurt, pumpkin granola, and strawberries to munch on while my french toast casserole baked in the oven. Oh yes... I made it again!

The ladies had a little fun with the chalkboard signs I set out and played with what they wanted to say while enjoying their iced coffee. One of my good friends just had a little girl (you can see photos of her here) and we were pretty clever with her sign ;)

Once the french toast was ready I set it out with the cinnamon rolls one of the mamas brought over and we dug in. I added a few fresh strawberries on top of my serving of casserole and as always, enjoyed the deliciousness! Everyone went back for seconds (that's how good it is) and the dish was completely empty within the hour.

We got to chat a bit more as our kids enjoyed some food and I loved how easy the conversation flowed as we sipped our International Delight Iced Coffee. The Mocha flavor was delicious and many of my guests couldn't wait to go pick some up to take home. Since it's been pretty hot these past few weeks, iced coffee is the perfect way to cool down.

And with the cost of coffee house coffees rising, purchasing International Delight to use at home just makes sense. Plus, it isn't always easy to drive over to the coffee house with two kids so having the option of staying home is convenient.

I wasn't able to try out any of the delicious recipes from International Delight but passed out a few recipe cards to my guests to try for our next playdate. I was able to find quite a few recipes on the International Delight facebook app and cannot wait to try the milk chocolate muffins!

With the smell of coffee and cinnamon in the house, even our littlest guest couldn't resist opening her eyes and checkout out the party! We had an absolute blast enjoying our coffee-filled morning and definitely destressed while celebrating National Coffee Day.

For more information and recipes please visit the International Delight's Iced Coffee Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/UWMESu

What are you doing to celebrate National Coffee Day?

Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in an In Home Party campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of International Delight and received product samples to facilitate my party and review, and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Summer Party Playdate with @HonestTea

This past weekend was filled with fun and celebration as my playgroup got together for a Summer Party Playdate at my home. It was an event I had been looking forward to for a while.

For one, it's always a great day when my mommy friends get together, and second, when these ladies get together there's always bound to be great conversation, food, and entertainment.

This party was different from our normal playdates in one way... there were giveaways!

In an effort to stay cool and offer a refreshing drink, Honest Tea offered my guests a variety of Honest Tea, Honest Ade and Honest Kids juice drinks. These drinks were absolutely delicious! Each guest was able to choose what they wanted.

Everyone was able to easily read which options contained caffeine, which had antioxidants, and they were able to clearly see the calorie content in each bottle.

And everything was so pretty all lined up! While I enjoyed all of the varieties, I really loved the Pomegranate Blue Honest Ade. It wasn't too sweet and was absolutely delicious.

Along with the drinks I also made some egg cups and had some yummy snacks from Nabisco for my guests to munch on including Ritz crackers, Ritz bits cheese bites, and Chips Ahoy cookies. My awesome friends also brought over some delicious goodies to snack on as well including fruit, cheese, muffins, and more!

One of the best things about having the ladies over is that I can always count on them to save me if I forget anything. I made the mistake of enjoying the last of the creamer the day before without realizing that we didnt' have any more in the fridge. A quick text and it was there!

I also don't have to worry about asking others to bring food as well. Just about every get together we have is pot luck style and I love it that way. We are never going to get the exact same meal and the food is always over abundant.

As the party came to an end we decided to raffle off a few awesome prizes to the ladies in attendance. Being blessed enough to meet so many amazing companies and stores means that I have the opportunity to share what I learn and what products I use with my mom's group. So being able to let them try out a few of the items I've tried out is exciting!

Here are a few of the items I gave away:

• Joovy StepTool
• Perplexus Original
• Willow Store Dryer Balls
• Kiddie Antics personalized beach pails
• Boogie Wipes kit
• Method detergent
• Honest Tea Patagonia Bag & grocery bags

And a few other odds and ends that a few of the ladies showed interest in! Everyone who came was able to leave with something in hand to take home. I cannot wait to hear what they thought about the products they took home!

We're already planning our September My Favorite Things Party and the girls are excited to find a great item to share with us! We've decided to go with a Child's Favorite Thing where we introduce items that our kids love or that we love to use with our kids.

By changing the theme of the party every few months we're able to still enjoy the concept (and have an excuse to get together) while learning about new products and companies we might not have had any idea about beforehand!

So stay tuned for my next get together! I'm sure there will be a few awesome recipes, ideas, and products that I'll learn about from my mom friends.

Disclaimer: I received product for review purposes only. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Halloween Party!

I really wanted to motivate myself to decorate the house a little for Halloween this year since E is really starting to get that something's going on. So I decided to host a Halloween party for our playgroup this past week.

I made egg cups and a baked oatmeal, super simple. And than decorated with pumpkins, fall leaves, ghosts and other fun things. Nothing too extravagant. I find that less is more these days. Plus... we don't have that many Halloween decorations. I kinda wanted to add a little each year but didn't want to buy until after Halloween to get the sale/clearance prices :)

A few of the moms brought some goodies of their own. We had spider cupcakes, apple slices with caramel, fruit and a few other goodies for the kids to gobble up. Each kid went home with a mini plastic pumpkin w/ stickers inside and their (moms) choice of goldfish or mini oreos. E chose the oreos, of course. But then asked for fish a few minutes later.

Here are a few pictures of the kids and maybe one of me snuck in (check out the pictures of the month on the left sidebar):