Young Women Faith Garden Dinner

I have the amazing privilege to be in the presence of over twenty amazing young women on a weekly basis. I get to be in their presence, plan activities for them, support them, and learn from them. 

Over a month ago while checking my Instagram feed (follow along with me @larissa_anotherday), I saw a magical image of an orchard dinner by the always inspiring Stephanie Nielson (Nie Nie Dialogues). Right away I knew I wanted to do something like that for my girls.

With the help of ALL the wonderful women I serve with, we pulled of a magical evening of Faith for our girls. 

Our evening was centered around the idea of having faith and not fear. We wanted to have an inspiring night that helped the girls prepare and plan for a new school year.

We had access to the perfect spot.

We set up three long banquet tables and covered them with white tablecloths. We had a varying collection of white plate, glasses, and silverware that all came from the adults. I loved how the mix-match dishes gave a vintage feel to the evening.

We also hung cafe lights over the table. We luckily had a canopy of trees to attach the lights to. The lights gave such a magical feeling to the night. They were also bright enough that when it got darker we could still see everything.

We used flowers and jars/glass vases as centerpieces. We used baby's breath, inexpensive daisies, and fresh cut hydrangeas from my front yard. We had a variety of mason jars and glass vases. Again with the idea of mix-matching. Then I just varied how I put the flowers in all the containers.

In Stephanie's original image on Instagram, the girls were wearing white shirts and they had on flower crowns. Wearing white shirts fit with our themed Faith Night and I just adored the idea of flower crowns. We told the girls ahead of time to wear white shirts. We made simple baby's breath flower crowns. Using baby's breath allowed it stayed affordable.

When the girls arrived, we gathered them away from the table and gave them an introduction to the evening. Then we led them to where the table was. The oohs and ahhs were so heart-warming. We gave them each a flower crown and had them sit down.

Don't they look so very beautiful??

We ate before the message.

The menu was so simple and easy. We had rolls and salad. Each adult there brought a different kind of salad. With such an easy meal set up, it was easier for us to focus on creating the environment and it allowed us to sit down with the girls and eat together.

We ate and talked.

It was simply magical. I have used that word a lot in this post, but there really is no other word to describe it.

After everyone was done eating, we had a special message about faith versus fear. We listened to a beautiful message about relying on Christ when we face all the decisions and experiences of life. I feel that we all came away with a little more resolve to have faith over feeling fear.

I am so grateful for all the women who helped create this special night. I am also very grateful for these beautiful pictures that were taken for us by my friend's SIL. She was able to capture the spirit and the beauty of this evening and allow us to forever keep this memory with us.

Vanilla Cake Apple Crisp

Before I introduce this very lovely Vanilla Cake Apple Crisp, let's just chat about Fall.

I love Fall. I love pretty much everything about it. Seriously. I am really trying to think about what I don't like about the Fall.  I am drawing a blank.

One of the activities I enjoy the most in the Fall is apple picking. When we lived in Ohio, every September we would drive out to our favorite fruit farm to pick our favorite apples. Which, of course, were Honeycrisp apples.

We went out with friends. We took pictures. We loaded up the trunk of our car. We blissfully ate apples while we picked. I miss our Ohio apple picking days. I find it funny that it was only after we left those glorious orchards that I found the delights of making applesauce.

We may not have our Ohio fruit farm, but we still have access to some yummy apples. Oh, and we are four years into our very own apple trees so there is that. We even had about 7 apples this year. One of them was ginormous.

I just can't wait for the next 5-10 years when we have ourselves our own little orchard. We even threw in a pear tree just for kicks and giggles. Until our orchard is all mature, we have been very lucky to have people offer to let us pick the apples from their trees.

We pick like maniacs. No on is exempt from tree climbing and picking.

Once we have canned all the applesauce I can handle, we always have some apples left over. Most the time we just eat them. Sometimes I just full on embrace Fall and bake something with them.

This year I made this little lovely. This Vanilla Apple Crisp was SO, SO very yummy.

There is an added little flavor bonus found in the crumb topping. P.S. Isn't the crumb topping just the very best. It is definitely my favorite. My secret yum factor weapon was a box of vanilla cake mix. The flavor it added was insane. It was the perfect compliment to the apple mixture. The most perfect apple crisp was born.

If you love Fall, then you should probably do yourself a favor and make this little bit of Fall in a bowl. AKA apple crisp.

Print Recipe HERE

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

Instagram        Facebook        Pinterest

General Conference Bucks and Worksheets

I am not going to lie. I am not sure I even know how to write a blog post anymore. It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't posted in over two months. I was under the delusional assumption that it had only been one month. Then I was reminded that there is actually a month between July and September. I was told it is called August.

I had to concede that it had been two months. I am not sure this post is the place to list all of my excuses for the absence. So instead of waxing poetic about the what and whys, let's commemorate this momentous posting occasion with a really fun post just in time for the LDS semi-annual General Conference.

Twice a year my family and I feel blessed to be spiritually fed from our church leaders. I love it. Who wouldn't want 8 hours of warm and fuzzy feelings?

Did you just read 8 hours? Yup. It really is actually great, but 8 hours of quiet time is hard for any kid. Since we like to watch General Conference as a family, we like to have activities and worksheets that will engage the kids and encourage them to pay attention.

This year Little requested a Conference Concession stand. He was a little concerned though that he would have to use his own money to buy things at the concession stand. To put his mind at ease I made General Conference Bucks.

Download HERE 

They will be able to earn General Conference Bucks during each session of General Conference and turn them in for various concession stand items.

I printed it on green paper, but they would be fun in any bright color.

All cut out, they make a cute little stack of paper bucks.

My boys are pretty excited to use them. They could be earned in any way, but I made a few worksheets that my boys can use to earn each buck. They get bucks for each thing they do. As they hear and find a word, they earn a buck. They write down a song, they earn a buck. You get the point.

Download HERE

I made two different sets of worksheets. One set for my older kids and one set for my younger kids.

I am really excited for my kids to enjoy these worksheets. I am excited to set up a concession table and to see how my kids save and spend their General Conference Bucks. However, I am most excited to spend the weekend snuggled up in our home with our little family listening to men of God teach and inspire us.

I hope you enjoy these downloads and your family can use them to make General Conference special.

Printable Lunch Bag Labels: Making School Lunch Fun

Back-to-School is right around the corner. A short corner for some of you. Thank heavens my corner is a little longer. Whatever the size of your corner, alas it is back to school time. Avert your kiddos eyes from this post if they are not ready to think about that yet.

I don't want a mob of school aged kids wielding torches and pitchforks on my front lawn.

Back to school means lots of things, but one of the things that always stresses me out a little bit is school lunches. I pack 90% of the lunches my kids will have during the school year. My kids just prefer home lunches. So home lunches they get.

I try to make lunches fun and to offer a bit of variety to what they might get. For this next school year, I am loving these individual milks from Shamrock Farms available at select Walmarts nationwide. The summer price on these milks is $1. A buck! That is great for lunch on the go now and it is a great price to add some variety to a school lunch with a fun a nutritious drink.

The fact that Shamrock Farms mmmmilk has 2%  strawberry, whole white, and 2% or whole chocolate milk just make the find even better. Shamrock Farms milks are pure, fresh, nutritious, and have no added hormones.

Plus how cute are these bottles?

I wanted to match how cute and fun these milks were by creating a fun lunch sack printable. I love printing on lunch sacks and, once you get the hang of it, it is really addicting. My kids won't have a lunch like this everyday, but on special occasions, like the first day of school, these lunch sacks are fun.

I created a few images and I am making them available for you to use.  I have given a tutorial on how to print on a lunch sack HERE. There is a little trial and error involved since every printer is different.

However, the basics are-

You need to save the images below to your computer as a JPEG.
Insert the image into a Word type document.
Adjust the size, and flip the image upside down.
Move the image on the page to where you want it.
Print on a paper lunch sack (every printer will allow this differently)

Once you figure out your printer, the possibilities are endless. Lunch can be fun forever more. Or at least on days you need to send a little extra love in their school lunch.

Like on the first day back to school. That first day can be rough sometimes. Nothing a cute lunch sack and some yummy milk can't fix.

We really love this milk. My boys just drink it right down with giant happy grins on their faces. Shamrock Farms milk is a great addition to our local Walmart. I totally think you will love it too. To celebrate the expanded distribution, Shamrock Farms is launching Roxie's Ultimate Back-To-School Sweepstakes. One lucky winner will receive nearly $5000 in gift cards to stock up on back-to-school supplies, groceries, and a new wardrobe. You can enter HERE.

They also have great collection of nutritious and protein-packed recipes that pair perfectly with these yummy milks. Some of Roxie's Midday Menu recipes are even perfect to go in a fun an healthy school lunch. Check out the Banana Rolls, the Fruit Kabobs, and the No Bake Energy Bites.
Tell me, "What do you like to pack in your child's lunchbox?”  Each comment will automatically be entered to win a $100 Walmart gift card.

Entry Instructions:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher.com email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 7/27/15 – 9/4/15.
Be sure to visit the Shamrock Farms brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Lunch Thank You Basket (with Printable)

When one goes out of town for a week and one foists ones children on her friend, a gift of gratitude is necessary. Especially if one has FOUR boys. That is a lot of foisting happening right there.

My gift was actually less of a gift for her and more of a gift of sanity. I decided to put a bunch of lunch fixing into a giant basket. I figured if she was willing to watch my boy I should probably provide lunch for all the children.

I grabbed a cute and inexpensive plastic beach tote and I loaded it up with lunch stuff. Stuff like bread, lunch meat, chips, apples, lemonade, and cookies.

Then I made a tag and attached it to my basket.

Right click on the tag above, save it to your computer and then print if off on card stock.

This is such a fun and easy way to thank a friend for watching your kids.