DIY recipe edition: Lemon Blueberry pancakes

I love short work weeks. If only the long weekends would last longer :-).

I often purchase our staple fruits during grocery shopping. J likes bananas so we get those, I like oranges or green apples or pears and I get those. JOE used to LOVE grapes but she is going through her phase. So we decided to let her try different fruits. I purchased a box blueberries for her thinking "she has to love them since they are small, and burst with yummy goodness in your mouth"! Well, not so fast, she HATED them.

So, what to do? I already had my fruits for the week and honestly, I prefer blueberries baked into something. Blueberry pie? YES PLEASE!!! Fresh blueberries? No, thank you!
But I don't like food going bad and hate waste so I decided to make pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. A deviation from our Saturday morning Nutella banana crepes.  People often say variety is the spice of life right? :-D.

I went to my trusted site (Pinterest) and found this recipe. I love when I have all the necessary ingredients at home so I don't have to go out to get something.
Note: I used lemon juice from a bottle instead of the freshly squeezed one and skipped  the lemon zest. Just not a fan of it.

Topped with reduced sugar maple syrup. YUM!!!

I would love to say JOE hungrily ate every single bite. But that would be a lie. She took a bit of it with blueberries and out it came. 

So I proceeded to give her the parts that didn't have blueberries and she loved it!

JOE enjoyed her milk after a few bites of the non-blueberry filled areas of the pancakes.

What better way to relax than with the iPAD and Doc McStuffins?

Later that evening...my loves together cheesing it up for the camera :-).

This was definitely an easy recipe to follow and I would recommend it to anyone looking for creative ways to add fruits to your breakfast menu. I plan on eventually trying it with strawberries to see if that'll appeal more to JOE. 

Have an awesome week!

Giveaway: Where in the world are the 3-Jay? The reveal....

So, we are finally back from vacation. We had a nice time away. JOE was in rare form but such is the life of a soon to be 2-year old. We still had an awesome time as a family nonetheless.

We got to do a lot of swimming (2-hours in the pool each day) and with me going natural with my hair, I wasn't afraid to get my hair wet cause I could wash it everyday :-).

BUT, I am sure you don't really care much about all those details right now so I'll get to the reason you clicked on this post and will blog about our trip next week...hopefully...

JOE, J and I went to Cancun, Mexico! I am not entirely a "beach person" because I don't get the lounging out in the sun and walking on sand (I know I have issues!). However, this vacation location was chosen by J and I was very pleasantly surprised. So much so that we have decided to try to go somewhere with a beach every other year for our family vacation.

Anyways, without further ado, CONGRATULATIONS to the following winners. You guessed right!

First Prize Winner ($20 Starbucks gift card) - The Mrs./The Mom
Second Prize Winner ($15 Starbucks gift card) - Annalene*
Third Prize Winner ($10 Starbucks gift card) - Hatroops
* - Pegster was actually the second to guess right but I know her in real life and consider her a friend :-). Sorry Peg. I still think you're awesome!

Please claim your prize by sending me an email (wheatney28@gmail.com) no later than 7/27/2014 with your address so I can send you your gift card. 

A teaser from our trip. More to come later.

Thank you all for participating! I'll likely do another giveaway in the Fall. Hope you're having an awesome summer so far!

Giveaway: Where in the world are the 3-Jay? - Week 3 of 3

LAST DAY TO GUESS!!!

This is my first giveaway so bare with me. I figured this'll be a fun thing to do. So here are the rules to win.

Rules:
1. I will only be posting one picture each week.
2. I must not know you IRL (in real life)...family/friends, take note :-)!
3. You can only make one guess (via the comment section) per week. NOTE: I'll need to be able to reach you so make sure your blog name is tied to an email address or web page. :-).
4. You must guess both the city AND country. HINT: It is outside the US.
5. You must be 18 or older to enter.
6. You must live in one of the 50-United States.
7. Only one prize per winner.
8. Winner must claim prize (respond to my email) within 10-days of selection or forgo their winning.
9. Selection will be made via email. See #3 above. I'll need your mailing address to send the gift card. No pay pal transfers please :-).
10. By entering, you are forgoing any rights to sue me. Yes, I have to have this disclaimer. :-)
11. Disclaimer (just for fun). You know how companies always have tiny "small" prints? Well, here's mine. I am in no way affiliated with Starbucks or any of its companies.

Prizes:

•  The first person to guess the location will receive a $20 Starbucks gift card. NOTE: This will be determined in the order of comments received. I will judge based on the date stamp of your commented post.
• The second person to guess the location will receive a $15 Starbucks gift card. NOTE: This will be determined in the order of comments received. I will judge based on the date stamp of your commented post.
• The third person will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card. NOTE: This will be determined in the order of comments received. I will judge based on the date stamp of your commented post.

Good-luck!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Hair Update Edition...My mini-chop at 34 weeks post

Things had been going so well with my hair journey. I don't like spending a lot of time doing my hair so it feels like going natural has actually been a true blessing because I don't have to do a lot with my hair. Which is not to say I did much with it prior. Its just that I do A LOT less now :-).

Then fast forward to last week, I  saw this video and thought I could be brave and do the same.
Incase you can't view the link or YouTube video, it is essentially a lady who went on Dr. Oz and had made the decision to go natural. They cut her hair on live TV.

Style Your Natural Hair, Pt 1 - The Dr Oz Show -…: 

For some reason known only to God, I got home that evening (I saw the video on the train on my way home from work), and decided that I would do something similar!
Thankfully, I chickened out a bit before doing too much damage! It ended up being a mini-chop. 

Not all the hair I cut...most of it was on the ground.

The results of watching a YouTube video. SMH!

The back is completely natural. I got scissor-happy a few months ago. Needless to say, that part never fits into a bun so I am forced to use gel. Clearly, I didn't think that one through.

Washed my hair on Saturday and this was the result of shrinkage. I did'n't mind too much cause I wore it as a "fro-hawk". A new term I learnt on Instagram!

Natural hair length check. I have about 4-inches all around.

Hair when conditioned and stretched.

I guess in hind sight, I should have thought this through. However, at this point, I figured I am fully committed to this journey. I still don't know if I am loving it BUT J appears to really like it so I'll stick with it.

Since my sister is getting married in August, I won't be getting scissor happy again until October. That way, I'll be able to do more styles with my hair AND October marks my 1-year anniversary so I'll be doing another mini-chop then. 

I still plan on waiting until next February at 17-months post to do my final chop which will likely be another mini-chop. I don't think I'll have a lot left at that point. 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

He said...

Yesterday, I was featured on an awesome relationship website. Today, J is featured. Here's John's version of our story. By the way, I STRONGLY believe points should be awarded for being in the general vicinity of the correct answer! Go read the feature to know what I'm talking about :-).

Oh and here are a couple of pictures of J & JOE from last weekend :-).

Enjoy!

All smiles after a satisfactory bottle of almond milk. Yum!

And now, spending time with "dada"