Family Visit!

Slacker!

It is not ok.  Just because my grandparents are visiting does not excuse me from blogging.  For goodness gracious I don't even have any children or a job yet!  :)

We have been having a great time together!  They arrived almost 2 weeks ago and we are loving every second with them.  We are heading to Italy on Saturday for 9 days and I'm thrilled to share such a beautiful country with such dear people.  

Here are a few pictures of their visit so far.  I have probably 1000 pictures I've taken already and need to do some serious deleting.  But for now, here are a random few...

This is our favorite sushi restaurant Hugos.  Best salmon sashimi I've ever had!!

Marsaxlokk... the fishing village and market. 

Inside the craft village they do glass blowing.  I think I could watch it for hours.  It's AMAZING how they do it!

Grandma and I with Mdina in the background.  Its the oldest city in Malta and is known as the silent city since its all walled in.  Its beautiful inside!

Some good looking guy and myself at the Dingli Cliffs.  We packed a picnic and spent the day there!

This one is my favorite and one I want to frame I think.

I thought this turned out sweet.  I love how our chins kinda make a heart :)  I'm such a sucker for stuff like that!

St. Julian's at night.  We had a few drinks in our favorite Irish Pub...Dubliners and I took this picture as we were walking to our car!  So beautiful!

More to come soon!! XOXO

TGIF Randoms

TGIF...My weekly randoms!

I'm so disappointed that I have not blogged in like a week!!!  I've been so busy getting ready for my grandparents visit... which I cannot express how stinkin happy I am that they are finally here!!!

I made a little Malta cookie basket for their arrival!

Grandma and I at the point with Valletta in the background... Beautiful weather!

I made some cookies for our friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party.  She is a princess girl and loves pinks and purples so I tried to come up with some fun cookies for her party!  

Our friends threw us a really fun going away party and I was out until 4:30 in the morning!  That is an accomplishment for me!  We had a ton of fun and are so grateful for all our friends in Malta.  We are really really going to miss everyone!!

I have the best sister in the world.  For my birthday, she signed my nieces up for a class to make me these plates.  It was one of my favorite things I did when I was little (I have a plate I made too) and so I was SO surprised when these came in the mail.  They are sitting on my table and reminding me everyday just how precious of a family I have!!!

 I received an order the other day to make 36 cupcakes and cookies for a 50th birthday party.  The guy is a huge 49'ers fan, so I decided to make football cookies.  

Half the cupcakes were butter pecan with carmel vanilla frosting and a toasted pecan on top.

The other half were german chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting and a piece of hazelnut chocolate on top.

And then I finally finished after like 9 hours of baking, frosting, mixing, cleaning....everything.  Cupcakes were in boxes.  Cookies on top.  And I stacked them on some crates in our pantry.  15 minutes later I heard this loud crash.  It was midnight and they needed delivered the next morning.  This is what I found. :(  I was DEVASTATED!!!  

We have a really fun weekend planned so I'll post pictures from our boating trip on Sunday!!  Happy weekend everyone!!!  XOXO

Weekend Fun!

Weekend Fun!!

Marshall and I had a great weekend!  It kind of started on Thursday night when we went out to my favorite beach to watch the sunset and have a bonfire.  Wood is really hard to get in Malta so we had to buy two of the firestart logs and use though.  :(  They worked well, you just can't cook anything on them.  So no s'mores this time around!  The view and the company was just perfect, so I was a happy girl!

Our sweet friends at the embassy had a going away party for us on Saturday.  We were blown away with all the thoughtful gifts, kind words, and friends surrounding us...wishing us well.  It's always a bittersweet feeling, leaving behind what you have come to know and love, and the excitement and curiosity of what's to come.

They wouldn't let me bring anything to the party but brownies.  So I remembered this delicious recipe I made before for cupcake peanut butter brownies.  Let me tell you, if you are a reese fan... you need to make these. 

Super Easy.  Freaking Delicious.

This is all you do.  Make any brownie mix.  Stir in like 1/2 cup or so of peanut butter chips.  (Could leave out if you do not have them.)

Pour the brownie mix into a muffin tin 3/4 full.  Bake.  Try and take them out of the oven before they are completely done.  If you stick a toothpick in it and it comes out a little wet, thats perfect.  

Once you take them out of the oven, you are going to melt like a cup or so of peanut butter in the microwave for 45 seconds.  Stir it well.  

Then you are going to want to like punch down the center of the brownies.  I use a tablespoon and just rotate it around and press down a little.  Since they are warm they will go right down.  Then you scoop a full spoonful of the peanut butter into your little pocket.  I like topping with mini m&m's for color, but you can use peanut butter and chocolate chips, or just one or the other... or really whatever you have on hand!  Let the peanut butter set up a little so it isn't liquidy and you are finished!  Incredibly easy and seriously amazing!

Here are all of our cupcakes!!  The funny looking ones are a result of my lack of creativity.  I was trying to make different designs but they definitely did not come out like what I pictured in my head.  Regardless, it was fun to play around!

Hope you all had a great weekend!!  I have a bunch of new cupcakes and cookies I have to make this week so check back later to see how they turn out!!  XOXO