Small Journalings of our BLESSINGS

Man, I've Got Your Back

2012-02-10T21:47:00.000-05:00

February 1st was a day that rocked me. I had a call that my dad was being taken to the ER due to his right hand not "working". It was a day that could have been filled with fear, a feeling of loneliness, or distress. Instead, I was at peace. Before I stepped into the ER, I had already talked to a few friends as I was trying to get the afternoon for my kids situated. Those people stopped what they were doing and went to take care of things for my kids...providing them lunch, childcare and more. Those people started praying for me. I emailed a group of girlfriends and texted some others. Messages of prayer were pouring in. That night, Dad was put in ICU. Messages continued to pour in. People wanting to know if they could help with the kids, provide meals, grocery shop for me, go to the house so Lou could meet me at the hospital,...Offer after offer were pouring in. Everyday the support was amazing. People showing up to hug us in the hospital, bring us meals, take my kids. Generosity was pouring in.

At the one week mark, the messages hadn't stopped. The offers hadn't stopped. The generosity hadn't stopped. The prayers hadn't stopped.

We're on day 9 and to be truthful, I'm exhausted. The haul of the regular day plus spending large parts of the day in the hospital with Dad are starting to wear. But I still have text messages asking what I need. Encouraging emails popping up throughout the day, cards in the mail, baskets of food being delivered, offers for child care. It has been tremendous. Honestly, people may never know what an email that simply says, "Thinking of you" can do for a person's boost in the day.

Have you ever heard the saying, "Man, I've Got Your Back" or what about, "When times get rough, you'll know who your real friends are"???? Well, the last week had a huge blessing in the midst of this difficult trial. When I stand with the unknown in front of me and my focus has to be on my dad, I turned around and there was a wall, a wall of friends supporting me. A wall of friends standing shoulder to shoulder making sure everything was taken care of so that I could focus on my dad. Praise God that these people had my back. Praise God that these people didn't run when times got rough. Praise God (insert laugh) they still answer the phone when they see my number pop up because chances are, I'm not calling to talk about their day. I'm calling for a favor (mainly for my kids to be taken care of).

We have a long recovery ahead of us with Dad. But I know I don't have to go through it alone. I have an army of friends...real friends...standing shoulder to shoulder with me. Ready to help me take on this season of my life.

To those of you who have been there for me -- THANK YOU. Words will never seem like enough to tell you how much I appreciate all you've done for me and my family!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
9 Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up.

A New Year with the Gift of Time

2012-01-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A few years ago, Lou and I implemented a date night for the two of us. It has worked great and been something that we both look forward to. Some nights our dates are special things such as a concert or show but most of the time it is playing tennis or trying a new restaurant or shopping or seeing a movie. It really doesn't matter to us; we just like being together.

To kick off 2012, we gave dates to our kids. Each month the boys will get a date with either Mom or Dad. While Lou and I get plenty of time with the boys, this one-on-one time with the parent and child is important and something we don't get as much of. Our boys have already opened their January envelopes and are super excited about their "dates".

The dates/outings throughout the year will be: go to the movies, go to the park, bake something of your choice, go to Adventure Landing, go to the book store, go out to breakfast, etc... None of the activities "out of this world" but this time will be special for each of us.

Looking forward to having this one-on-one time with each of my kids this new year!

*This idea was not my own. I saw something similar and tweaked it. :)

Allowance -- oh, what to do, what to do...

2011-12-27T13:49:00.000-05:00

I've wondered about allowance for awhile. Brewer is 6-years-old. (Well, he'd correct you to say his is 6-1/2!!) He wants everything he sees. I want to instill the value of saving to him. I believe saving for kids has two meanings:

1. Saving where you SAVE UP for something. For example, you want a $50 Imaginext toy. You have $20 from your grandma. This means you need 30 MORE dollars before you can buy it. So you'll need to save your $20 plus start to save other money you receive until you reach the $50.

2. Saving where you are actually putting money into a bank account, and saving it there. This is not the type of situation where the boys would be allowed to go to the bank to withdrawal money. This would be a true savings. (No withdrawal system.)

So I started to research allowances about a year ago. I still haven't found the "perfect" system. Growing up, I didn't have an allowance. The jobs we did around the house were expected, because we were a member of the family. We were not compensated for these jobs. I understand this school of thought. And I've read plenty in my research of situations where others believe this as well. However, where does the money come from when teaching a child to save? In my research, I've seen all kinds of systems for allowance, dollar amounts, etc. While searching and searching, nothing was perfect to me. In the meantime, Brewer started asking for an allowance. The timing of allowance was beginning to align. I was researching; he was asking.

As we close this year and start 2012, it seems like a good time to start a new system in the house. I modified a couple of different allowance systems I liked and came up with our own. The majority of what we are doing is based on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior. You can find out more about it by clicking {here}. We have the full set from Dave Ramsey include the chore chart, the children's books, the three banks (giving, saving, spending), etc. We aren't using all the pieces, as we are using what works for us.

I ordered chore cards from an etsy seller. You can click {here} to see her listings. Of course, I had to make changes to this as well so that I could really make it work for our family. I requested she put magnets on both sides of the cards. I hung the chore cards on a magnetic board in our kitchen. When the chore is showing, this means the chore is available for Brewer to do. When he finishes the chore, he can ask me for "approval". Once I approve his work, he can flip the card to the star side to show he has earned the money. Each chore card has a money amount on it. He can decide how much money he wants to make in a day.

There are three cards at the top of the magnetic board that do not have a money value associated with them. These are jobs that Brewer is asked to do, because he is a part of our family. We all have to do our part to help our family. If he does not do these three each day, then at the end of the day he cannot get paid for the other jobs completed.

With the system set up right now, we'll have to pay Brewer at the end of every day. I don't think I want to do this. So I'm going to have to come up with some type of tally chart for us to tally his daily earnings; we can pay him on PAYDAY.

When Brewer does get paid, he'll have to take 10% of his total and put into the GIVE bank. Then he'll take the remaining money and divide it in half. Half will go into the SAVE bank and the other half will go into the SPEND bank. I don't like that it is called a SPEND bank...as I want Brewer to realize he is saving this money too but that he can eventually spend this money. Another part I still need to tweak to make work for us. There is a workbook that comes with Financial Peace Junior. So we worked on numbers today with it. (Brewer loves math so this helped make it fun.) In the workbook example, Dollar Bill (one of the characters in the book) earned $8. We figured out that 10% of $8 is $0.80 and that money went to the GIVE bank. This left Dollar Bill with $7.20. We figured out that half of $7.20 is $3.60. Therefore, $3.60 will go into the SAVE bank and the other $3.60 will go into the SPEND bank. When the GIVE bank is full, we'll let Brewer choose a charity or our church to give the money. When the SAVE bank is full, we'll take it to his savings account at Wells Fargo. He will be allowed to use the money in the SPEND bank, when Lou, Brewer, and I agree on something that he wants to buy.

This is newly implemented in our home. We'll see how it goes and make tweaks to it along the way. I'm also willing to match Brewer dollar for dollar in his SPEND bank if he is working hard for a big dollar item.

What do you do for an allowance? Any ideas to can pass along to help us in the process??

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:11:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to Jesus and merry Christmas from our family!

Advent - Day 28

2011-12-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today advent comes to a close...tomorrow is CHRISTMAS!! The boys are so exciting. Our home is buzzing. And I'm feeling a slight bit sad that it's coming to an end. I just love the entire Christmas season. I love, love, love it!!

Our advent activity today is as old as I am. I can't remember not doing this growing up, as a single adult, as a married adult and now as a mom. We will go to church, out to dinner, and then off to look at Christmas lights. As the evening ends, we will come home to prepare for Santa's arrival -- leaving out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. We will leave notes for Santa and go to bed with much anticipation. A great anticipation...similar to what I felt the night of June 22, 2005, and February 24, 2008, which were the nights I went to sleep knowing I would have a baby the next day. I think of the anticipation Mary felt on that night when she was about to deliver the Saviour. Oh, just to pause on this busy and exciting day and think about the whole picture of what Christmas did for me. What Christmas did for you. What Christmas has done for the world. Because of His coming, we are free.

May you and your family have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas! Blessings to you!

Advent - Day 27

2011-12-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

Today for our advent activity we talked about traveling by car v. traveling by donkey. What was it like? How would you like to go to school on a donkey? How did Mary feel pregnant on a donkey?

We are getting very excited about Christmas around here! Our elf had a snowball fight with Buzz Lightyear last night. What a fun thing to wake up to this morning!

Advent - Day 26

2011-12-22T20:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight our church did a Christmas Eve (eve, eve) service. This was our advent activity. The service was followed with a birthday cake for Jesus, bouncey houses, and a hayride. It was a lot of fun! I don't have any photos since I'm not an advocate of taking pictures in church (LOL!). It never occurred to me to pack my camera!

Advent - Day 25

2011-12-21T19:39:00.000-05:00

Today we did a tradition that my brother, David, & I did as kids -- decorated Christmas cookies. My mom likes to host this "event". So we all went over and decorated cookies at my parents' house.

Advent - Day 24

2011-12-20T16:48:00.001-05:00

Psalm 139:13-14 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

We are special for lots of reasons, but the main reason is because God made us. Our handprint is one of the special things about us. Today we made our handprint out of a handprint kit. This way we can remember the size of Brewer's hand at age 6 and Maddox's hand at age 3.

Now they have to dry overnight and then I can add the boys' names and make them into ornaments.

Advent - Day 23

2011-12-19T18:08:00.000-05:00

As Brewer says to me sometimes, "They can't all be gems." Well, this advent activity certainly didn't turn out to be a gem. Our activity today was to make baby Jesus out of Wikki Sticks. The idea came from an article in Family Fun. They made baby Jesus out of yarn. I thought we could modify it and make him out of Wikkis. Um...not so much.

Thanks for sharing in our laugh tonight!

The middle photo is the yarn idea from Family Fun.
The left photo is Maddox's baby Jesus. Yes, he decided Jesus should be wrapped in a hot pink blanket,
The right photo is Brewer's ~~alien, oops,~~ baby Jesus.

Advent - Day 22

2011-12-18T17:24:00.000-05:00

Anticipation for the 25th is building in our home. Is it in yours? Sometimes waiting for something can make you feel like you are going to explode. Today's advent activity helps to represent this explosion. We want our boys to know that it is good to share the joy of excitement of the coming of Christ to overflow in every part of their life. This was fun for the boys. Of course, they thought it was "AWESOME"!!

Take a 2-liter of soda, add 4 Mentos, and move away. You will see the drink explode and overflow.

Advent - Day 21

2011-12-17T10:07:00.001-05:00

Bethlehem is where Jesus was born. It was a small town and its name means "City of Bread." No one really knows why it is named that, but maybe at one time the town was famous for its bread. Over the years, people laughed a lot and did many fun things in Bethlehem. Think about David and his seven brothers, or Jesus and his siblings. I'm sure they laughed and had lots of fun in Bethlehem. Today our advent activity was something fun for our whole family -- making gingerbread houses! John 6:35 says, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thrist." Bread of Life is another name of God. The base of the house was made out of gingerbread to remind us of the City of Bread and the Bread of Life. The houses are soooo cute! This is one of my favorite things in advent to do with the boys.

The candies and goodies were ready to be added to the houses.

What a fun morning it has been!

Advent - Day 20

2011-12-16T19:36:00.008-05:00

A few posts ago, I told you how much I love children's Christmas books. Today in the boys advent bag, they had an ornament of Santa kneeling by the manger. They added this ornament to our tree. Along with the ornament was a note saying we were reading the book, Santa's Christmas Prayer. This story is about an unplanned Christmas Eve stop where Santa visits a country church, and he prays for the greatest gift of all. I love the illustrations in this book as well. They are bright and vivid. If you are looking to add to your children's Christmas book collection, this is one that I would recommend adding.

Advent - Day 19

2011-12-15T20:17:00.001-05:00

How can it be day NINETEEN in advent? This season is just flying, flying, flying by!! Tomorrow is the boys' last day of school until 2012. Unbelievable really!

Today for advent, we watched the movie, Why Do We Call It Christmas. It is made by the same guy who did Veggie Tales. It's an hour long, which I was concerned about for the boys. But it's cute and it held their attention (for the most part). It has lessons on the word Christmas, Jesus celebrating Hanukkah, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, why do we celebrate on Dec. 25th, what's the deal with the stockings, and more. Click {here} to find out how to order the video for yourself.

Advent - Day 18

2011-12-14T21:17:00.001-05:00

Today was a Christmas book day. I love Christmas books for kids! We read Christmas In the Manger. It is a board book that rhymes and is illustrated to share the Christmas story through the characters in the nativity -- animals, shepherds, wise men, Mary, and baby Jesus. Brewer liked reading the book to us. After we read the book, the kids made a nativity scene of their own with a felt set I purchased from Hobby Lobby. (Have I told you how much I love that store???) Here is a photo of the boys' art:

Brewer's is on the left; Maddox's art is on the right.

Advent - Day 17

2011-12-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

Brothers are a gift from God. They are very special and on Christmas our boys will give a gift to our brother. Tonight we went shopping so Maddox could pick out a Christmas gift for Brewer and Brewer could pick out a Christmas gift for Maddox. (Each child went shopping with an individual parent. Remember when we did this last year, and I lost Maddox. Kohl's had a complete lockdown for me. Yikes! You can read about the leash I acquired due to that lockdown {here}. I'm happy to report that I didn't lose Maddox this year. In fact, I decided we would shop together in the same store.) The boys had a good time looking at things their brother might like -- or things they would like to see be a part of their playroom...LOL!

Brewer is checking out this Batman/Penguin/Imaginext piece for his brother while Maddox is checking out this pink car for his brother. LOL!!!

Advent - Day 16 and Giveaway WINNER announced!

2011-12-12T17:17:00.000-05:00

Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The wise men brought Jesus three gifts (gold, frankincense, and myrrh). Santa brings our boys three gifts just like Jesus got three gifts. Today in the advent, the boys found three pieces of candy for each of them to remind them of the three gifts Jesus received.

Thanks to all of you who entered my first GIVEAWAY. The winner is:

Steph's comment #9. Here is her comment:

Way To Go! I have sent you an email so you can contact me about the $25 gift card to Amazon!! YEAH!!

Advent - Day 15

2011-12-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

God wants us to spend time together as a family. I'm under the belief that even if we're on electronics, as long as we are together & laughing together & encouraging one another, then we're good. Our advent activity today was playing games as a family. It's difficult to take photos when you're in the middle of playing. And in fact, I forgot to take any photos. But it was a fun day of board games, puzzles, & video games. So I put a few of our favorite games together for a photo here.

Today is the LAST DAY to be entered for the $25 Amazon gift card. Check out the details by clicking {here}. Share it on your FB page so others have the opportunity to win as well. The winner will be announced in tomorrow's post.

Homemade Oreo Recipe

2011-12-10T16:05:00.001-05:00

Here is the Homemade Oreo Recipe. This recipe came from Janet's blog at Simply So Good. You can link to her blog {here}.

Homemade Oreos
Ingredients:

2 packages Devils Food Cake Mix

4 eggs

2/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix until well blended. Roll cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. (I use the large scoop from Pampered Chef.) Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool 5 minutes on pan, then remove to cooling rack.

I store in an air-tight container and wait a day before adding the filling.

Filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

In medium mixing bowl blend cream cheese and butter. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread filling over the bottom side of a cooled cookies (I used a piping bag), then place another cookie over the filling, sandwiching the filling between the

the filling between the cookies.

I keep refrigerated since there is cream cheese and butter in the filling.

Advent - Day 14 - Kids' Christmas Party

2011-12-10T16:04:00.003-05:00

It's one of our favorite events of the holiday season. We invite our friends (8 years of age and under) and their parents to come celebrate Christmas with us! This year it was an art themed party.

We had three art projects for the kids to do with their parents. There was a wood ornament, a handprint potholder, and an accordion Santa.

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to have pictures with the kids and families. They also shared the book, God's Christmas Gift, with us. It reminded us of the real reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus.

We also had cookies & milk with Santa. Yes, I baked all of those cookies except the set of sugar cookies. I had lots of friends share great cookie recipes...and my Kitchenaide was put to the test over the past few weeks. I think it ended up being 400+ cookies. The cookie table doesn't make it look like it was this many...but it was a lot of cookies! I don't know if all the parents knew this, but on the party favor table I had recipe cards for all the cookies. They were there for anyone to take if they had a favorite or many favorite cookies.

At the milk bar, there were three type of milk and paper straws. Paper straws make everything a little more fun!

Cookies & Milk with Santa

Remember the art palette invitation? These cookies by Mary-Beth Smith are a replica of the invitation. So CUTE!

A lot of my ideas came from the Simply So Good blog. Her son had a milk and cookies wedding reception. How fun is that? Janet was so kind to give me pointers for this party. The Homemade Oreo recipe came from her. You can find the recipe on my blog {here}. They were the first cookie to go. People loved them!

I didn't realize the straws were covering the milks...but you can see the strawberry here. There was also plain and chocolate. They are in the containers behind the straws.

The party was a lot of fun. I changed the party from a set two hours to a drop-in style this year. It helped reduce the masses of people being there at the same time. (We usually have 80 to 100 people attend.)

Don't forget today and tomorrow are the last days you have to enter in the giveaway for $25 Amazon Card. What a great treat that will be for someone to win this holiday season! You can find all the details {here}.

Advent - Day 13

2011-12-09T17:38:00.001-05:00

My kids made Christmas cards for soldiers today. I don't know if the boys get it. I know that our freedom really isn't free...and I'm so appreciative for the sacrifices made. Maybe these cards will be a small bright spot for a soldier this holiday season.

Advent - Day 12

2011-12-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

Today we went to a local Publix with some of our friends and rang the bell for the Salvation Army. It was a great way to have fun, help others, and serve. This advent season has already blessed me tremendously.

GIVEAWAYS: There are couple giveaways that I don't want you to miss out on.
1. I'm doing at this blog for a $25 gift card to Amazon. Click {here} for all the details.
2. On December 1st, I posted about Stick Figuring Through the Bible. You can see the post by clicking {here}. Two blogs are offering a give away for a free Birth of Jesus study. Check them both out and enter. The details for 1+1+1=1's blog are {here}. And the details for Mama Jenn's blog are {here}.

And in case you don't win those give aways but you still want the study set, use the discount code Advent11 and you will receive 20% off on any item not already on sale from now until December 31 at GrapeVine Studies. Click {here} to go to their website.

Advent - Day 11

2011-12-07T22:28:00.002-05:00

Today the boys were given jingle bells. And our advent activity was listening to Christmas music. Nothing too exciting. Both boys said their favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bells." Then Brewer said, "And also any song that has Jesus in it." I'm sure that was for my benefit. He "gets" this year how much I want the focus of this season to be about the birth of Christ.

I warned you earlier in a previous post...I have a very busy week so these advent activities aren't anything major. But what I love about them is that they still get the message of Jesus across.

Advent - Day 10

2011-12-06T21:55:00.000-05:00

I love children's books. I actually have a problem with them...owning too many of them. My children don't go to the library with me. The idea of borrowing books, keeping up with them, taking care of them, etc...STRESSED.ME.OUT. Plus, I love them, so we take lots of trips to the book store and own bookcases of children's books.

Today for advent we read a book that isn't well known...but I like it a lot. The pictures are wonderful. It gets a point across without making it too long. I feel it is a perfect book for both a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. Check out (if you can brave the library...LOL!), Mortimer's Christmas Manger.

Advent - Day 9

2011-12-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

After all the kind comments we got yesterday regarding our RAK activity, today's advent activity seems so pitiful. LOL! We talked to the boys how life is like a puzzle. It is easiest to put the pieces together if God is guiding us. Then the boys each got a puzzle...a nativity and a Charlie Brown Christmas to work on. This is a busy week for us me, so I planned this week's activities to be a little more low key.

Advent - Day 8

2011-12-04T22:03:00.001-05:00

This morning we talked to the boys about how God believes all people are special. We asked them what are some things that make them feel special. We also talked about kindness and doing things for others that we would want to have done for us (spin on the "treating others..."). Then we told the boys that for today's advent activity, we were going to be doing Random Acts of Kindness "RAK" (we pronounce it "rack").

I used to do RAK with my youth group. We would go out in the church van, jump out when we saw a person in need, and help them. Not too much to it...easy way to help. Then I read a blog post someone had made about her 38 RAK to celebrate her 38th birthday. You can read more about her RAK {here}. Now our kids are 6-years-old and 3-years-old, so I was afraid about being completely random. I had a couple of things planned in case they needed some ideas. But they seemed to do fine on their own.

Lou and I had decided that we would do our normal things during the day and find RAK to do while we were out. After we told the boys what we were doing, Maddox decided to put two of his toys in the car to give to other children. So the car was ready, and the RAK just happened.

We went to church....
1. Boys saw some trash on the ground and picked it up to throw away.

We left church and went to Walmart...
2. Brewer gathered shopping carts from the parking lot and took them inside.

Brewer and Lou collecting carts to take into Walmart.

3. In Walmart, we taped quarters to a soda machine with a note that said, "Have a drink on us and be blessed." (I had planned this one and had quarters, a sign, and tape in my purse).

The sign didn't show up in the photo. It's an index card that says, "Have a drink on us and be blessed. " We put the quarters tucked in the tape.

We went to GameStop...
4. Brewer decided to hold to door open for a group of people leaving the store. While he was doing it, he looked at me and said, "Mommy, Random Act of Kindness." And then he gave me a thumbs up.

5. While in GameStop, I spotted Brewer finding things in the store that were misplaced and putting them back where they belonged. I knew immediately what he was doing.

Brewer didn't know I was taking this picture. I was capturing him putting things back in the store.

6. I heard a boy asking his mom for the Skylander PS3. The boy could only find it for the XBOX. Brewer helped him look through the boxes and they found the PS3 box.

We went to a toy donation (where they took used toys)...
7. Maddox unloaded his two toys and marched them in himself. Then he told the man in his very Maddox way, "You give my toys to a kid who doesn't have any." It is precious...my favorite moment of the day.

Look at him hauling this in!

I guess this will guarantee Santa is making him the new Batman cave

We were walking back to the car...
8. Maddox picked a flower, ran it up to me, and said, "This is a beautiful flower for you."

I was hoping we'd get to 13 RAK today. (I have no idea why I had the number 13 in my head.) But really...why does it have to stop today? I hope my kids look for and quickly recognize opportunities for RAK!!!

You may get treated to a special gift too, don't forget to enter the giveaway. The details are {here}.

Advent - Day 7

2011-12-03T20:16:00.000-05:00

My boys at the candy store

We have a local candy store here that is great, cool, neat-o!!! Its name is Sweet Pete's; they offer a candy cane pull. You actually get to make your own candy canes from start to finish. We went with 5 other families today for our advent activity of making candy canes. If you want to know more about Sweet Pete's, click {here}.

At the store, the shop worker read, The Legend of the Candy Cane.

It's a great read with Christian meaning for the candy cane (staff shape, "J" shape, red & white colors, meaning of stripes).

A great time was had by all...the pictures speak louder than words on this one.

Some of the kids in our group

Mr. Pete adding the corn syrup for the canes.

Mr. Pete after he had worked the candy. We picked grape flavored canes so he is adding the purple stripes to the canes.

And the first candy cane is made....WOW!

The kids hard at work in making their candy canes -- and they each made a lot!!

Brewer even shaped his canes to spell his name.

Advent - Day 6

2011-12-02T20:40:00.001-05:00

It's a family night! We all love Disney's Prep & Landing thanks to our friends, the Elmore's who told us about it a few years ago. God likes it when we focus on building up the relationships in our family. So tonight for advent we ordered pizza, popped popcorn, made a candy mix, and watched Prep & Landing. I hope you've seen it. If not, you should check it out. Disney has a sequel coming out this year called, Prep & Landing Naughty or Nice. I haven't seen it, so I can't give it a thumbs up (yet). But it's on our DVR list to record!

Do you do anything with your family for advent? If so, please share!

Don't forget about the $25 Amazon gift card giveaway being offered on this blog. Click {here} to get the full details.

Advent - Day 5

2011-12-01T17:04:00.001-05:00

December 1st --> this is the day most people start counting down to Christmas. It's easy...start on the 1st and count to the 25th. It's the day that most secular calendars start their advent countdown.

The countdown to Christmas is exciting. We are excited because we get a visit from Santa. We get gifts. Family comes over to visit. But what our main excitement should be about, the excitement I want our kids to have, is the birth of Christ. God loves us so much that He sent his only son to the world as a baby. Christmas is the celebration of this baby's birth.

Our kids were given Lego Advent Calendars today to help us countdown the days to Christmas. What an exciting thing for two boys to have!!!

Throughout the fall, I have been working with the boys on a program called Stick Figuring Through the Bible.

I've decided that it really is too much for our 3-year-old...but our 6-year-old understands it and enjoys it. Today, he and I started Stick Figuring Through the Birth of Jesus. Today the focus was on Mary. Here are a few of his stick figures from the lesson.

These are some of Brewer's drawings that went along with our study of Mary. She does not have blue hair; he said that was part of her "hood". :)

To learn more about this program, click {here}.

Advent - Day 4 - Names

2011-11-30T21:37:00.001-05:00

I realize some of you may follow this blog for the giveaway, that some of you may not be interested in any advent ideas, that some of you don't do religious things with your family, some of you follow because you want the ideas for your family, others read to keep up with our family, and I'm sure there are other reasons. Whatever the reason, I appreciate you taking the time to read a little glimpse into our life.

Today I am going to share a website with you that would be good for anyone to use if you want to represent a group of words/descriptions. It's called wordle.net. Click {here} to check it out. I think it is a fun site with lots of opportunity for neat ideas.

I used wordle.net to get ready for today's advent activity. I logged on and typed in all the words that describes each of my boys. Then I printed each description. The boys each got their own WORDLE print out full of words that Lou & I felt described them. We talked about different words that could be used to describe God. And how many of those words are actually names for God -- Names like: Jesus, Light of the World, Bread of Life, Immanuel, Saviour. We got out a wreath and added one star to it with the name "God" on it. Throughout advent, we will add more stars to the wreath. Each star will have a different name for God on it.

Here is an example of what Wordle.net looks like when you're done:

Changing the subject, I am just amazed at how far technology has come. I am typing this blog post connected to WiFi in my husband's car. Yes, his CAR has WiFi. How amazing is this technology? Blows me away!

Advent - Day 3 - Lights

2011-11-29T20:17:00.001-05:00

Originally, I had planned for us to go look at Christmas lights next week. Yet, our kids were begging and begging to go...so I switched up the advent activities; we went tonight. We saw this:

JUST KIDDING!!! Don't we wish we had?? Honestly, there weren't a lot of lights up. So if you are planning on doing this, then I encourage you to wait until next week.

We gave our kids light up reindeer noses to wear during our light looking with a reminder that Jesus is the real Light of the World.

Our reindeer... I don't know why Maddox felt the need to touch his light up nose for the pictures.

Lots of other wonderful things happened today. Jessica's little boy had surgery today! I've known Jessica and her family for years and years! They had a little over a week to raise $100,000 (yes, that's one hundred thousand dollars) for their son to have surgery...and they did it! Well, God did it. Amazing! You can follow their story by clicking {here}.

Friends of ours found out they are getting two children from the foster system. Another blessing.

Lots of wonderful things going on in our world. Lots of loving and caring people out there. Wish more of these things were advertised rather than the bad and sad things.

Another happy thing is the Amazon gift card giveaway. Learn more about it {here}.

Advent - Day 2

2011-11-28T19:08:00.002-05:00

Traditionally, an advent wreath would start on a Sunday. But who said we're traditional around here??? So today for advent activity, we got out a "wreath" the boys made last year. This wreath has its green from bell pepper painting which Brewer did; its red berries are Maddox's fingerprints. The outside of the wreath has four candles (battery powered, thank you very much, after all I do have a 3 and 6 year old). The center has the Christ candle. We will light one candle each week during advent and be reminded that Christ is the Light of the World.

Don't forget to leave a comment (NOT ON THIS POST...go to the GIVEAWAY POST!!) to be entered for the giveaway. You could win a $25 gift card to Amazon. Right now, only two entries have been made...so your chances are ~~good~~ great!! Click {here} for the giveaway information. Make sure you leave your comments to enter the giveaway on the GIVEAWAY POST -- not on this post. :)

Advent Starts Today - Day 1 (and a giveaway)

2011-11-27T20:13:00.004-05:00

Our front door is decorated with a great saying:

BELIEVE IN THE MAGIC OF THE SEASON

The secular calendar doesn't start advent until Dec. 1; yet, advent in the Christian calendar started today. And advent is my favorite season. What is better than preparing for the arrival of Christ? Preparing for this arrival brings a lot of magic to the season for me.

A few years ago, we started a Christmas (new) tradition where our family does something everyday of advent that focuses on Jesus. Today was day 1 with:
SHOPPING FOR OUR ANGEL TREE CHILD

Both of the boys adopted a child off the angel tree. Maddox picked a 3-year-old boy that wanted power tools.

Brewer picked a 6-year-old boy that wanted wrestling things.

In addition to the toys the boys picked for them, they picked out a complete outfit including Spiderman light up shoes. (I bet for a few seconds my kids were wishing they were these little boys. Oh, how they would love to have light up Spiderman tennis shoes.)

It was a blessing to me in watching my kids shop for these kids. AND THEY GOT IT! They did not ask for things for themselves while we were out. They understood we were shopping for others.

There really is a special magic to this season. If you want to do advent activities with your family but haven't prepared any ahead of time, here are a few good resources. Plus, you could always start on December 1st -- which gives you a few days to get it together. Throughout the season, I'll be posting our activities here too.

Advent Resources:
-- Advent ideas from Focus on the Family, click {here}.
-- Advent Forum full of ideas from past years, click {here}.

What are some things you do for advent?

And now onto the giveaway... I know some of you worked through reading this to find out about the giveaway. So click {here} for the giveaway information to win an Amazon gift card. Make sure you leave your comments to enter the giveaway on the GIVEAWAY POST -- not on this post. :)

My First Giveaway!!!

2011-11-27T17:22:00.004-05:00

I love free things; you might too! The winner of this give away will receive $25 gift card to Amazon!! All comments must be made by 11:59PM/EST on Dec. 11th. The winner will be announced December 12th.

There are 4 ways to enter...

1. Follow me.

2. Add a link to this blog from your blog.

3. Blog about my giveaway.

4. Post about the giveaway on Facebook (including a link to this blog).

Leave one comment for each thing you do and I will pick one lucky winner on Monday, December 12th. Please comment on this blog post ONLY for the give away opportunity to win!

MORE INFORMATION: You MUST post your comment here. I will use Random.org to select the winner. Here is how it works...

-Let's pretend there are 50 comments below on Dec. 12th.

-I will put in the random.org system the starting comment number (which would be comment 1) and then the last comment number (in this example, it would be 50).

-Random.org will produce a number. On this example, it was 11. So in this example, comment 11 would be the winner.

-If you select "follow" at the top left of the screen to follow the blog AND you post about this giveaway on your FB page (including a link to the blog), that would be two entries for the giveaway. You would need to post two comments (one entry for each). Here is an example of someone from another blog who entered twice by posting her two comments -- hence, her entries were #10 and #11 -- so she would have won the giveaway since the Random.org selected comment 11 in the above example.

If you have any questions, let me know. Good luck! I love shopping at Amazon!

Eleven things about ME

2011-11-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

Since 11-11-11 won't come around for 100 more years, a blog suggestion I read was to blog eleven things about yourself. Here goes...

1. When asked as a kid, "What do you want to be when you grow up..." I would respond with, "A stay-at-home mommy who goes to Bible study." Did I have an awesome role model or what?? (Thanks, Mom) And now I am living my dream (in every sense of the word). I'm in love with my life. These two rascals make it so enjoyable!

2. I taught school before I had kids. I enjoyed that very much. Yet, school makes me sad now. I really don't like it when my kids go away everyday. Plus, I don't think I could handle the challenges that teachers face in classrooms now. The education system (both public and private) make me sad.

3. College football is my favorite season. Go Tigers!

4. I believe flip flops should be worn year round.

5. I am a morning person, not a night owl. Ironically, I love to sleep. So maybe I'm really a sleep person.

6. I run, and I despise it. I keep waiting for that thing called THE RUNNER'S HIGH to happen to me. Nada... Nope this has NEVER happened to me:

7. Our house is often neglected, because I volunteer all the time. Lou thinks I'm one of the only people who love to work hard and not get paid. Seriously, I volunteer for things that should be paid positions. But I just can't help it.

8. I don't like my food to touch on my plate. And until recent, I only ate one item at a time off my plate. Oh, did I mention I have an A-Type personality to the n-th degree?? LOL!

9. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. Hawaii is my favorite place on Earth. Here is a photo of us in Hawaii. I still hope to make it to Australia before my time is up here on Earth.

10. My kids are 3 and 6-years-old and I haven't come close to finishing their baby books. I've made a few of my friends promise me that if I were to die early, they would finish the boys' books for me. They all chuckle when I say it...but I.AM.SERIOUS!

11. While coming up with this list, I realize I'm not very exciting. If I live to be 136, hopefully I can write a thrilling list of 12 things on 12-12-12 (year: 2112). I guess I need to 'up my game' on life's adventures!

Legoland Florida Review

2011-10-26T18:01:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything.

We took the boys to Legoland on Monday. Here is a full review...

We went to Legoland yesterday (Monday, October 24, 2011). It was a blast. By far one of the best parks we've been to!!

A few things to note about our trip:

-we stayed in Orlando the night before and drove over to Legoland for the day.

-it was a school holiday for the county that Legoland is in. So I am sure the crowds were more b/c of this (although as you'll read below, I did not find them to be bad).

-it was the first day that Legoland was offering their "free VIP" ticket. That line was insane. Hopefully, they've come up with a better system.

-the park opened at 10, so we got there at 9:45. I would recommend getting there at 9:30 if the park opens at 10. It takes a while to park, buy your tickets, etc.

The good:

-Almost everything! We had a great time!

-Many of the lines have Lego Centers on the middle where the kids are gated in and can play with Legos instead of waiting in line with mom and dad. SO SMART!

-It is built on a lake and the surroundings are just beautiful.

The bad:

-The park says it is for 2 to 12 year olds. However, almost all the rides have height and/or age restrictions. Maddox is 3 (soon to be 4); he couldn't do a lot of the things. I don't think you should take a child under 3-1/2 years of age. If we didn't have Brewer (who is 6), I think we would have missed out on a lot of things.

-The park is huge...so be ready for A LOT of walking. The park hours were 10 to 5. They stayed open for an extended hour until 6. We got there at 9:45 and left when the park closed at 6. We didn't get to do everything...it's just massive and a ton to do!! (Sounds like a reason to go back soon!!)

The rides:

-We waited in line for about 30 minutes for the Coastersarus. Poor Maddox...it was a roller coaster with two very big drops. He hated it. But it was the only coaster that had a minimum rider height of 36”. So I thought it would be appropriate. I was wrong. BTW, you couldn't see the coaster from the line...so I had no idea.

-We waited in line for 5 minutes or less at Lost Kingdom Adventure (a laser shooting type ride), Safari Trek, AquaZone (but then once up to the front, Brewer decided he didn't want to ride b/c you get wet), Kid Power Tower, & Boating School.

-We walked right on Beetle Bounce, Big Rig Rally, Granny's Jalopies, The Dragon, Royal Joust, Merlin's Challenge, Test Track, Technicycle (kind of lame for Maddox b/c even though he met the height requirements, he couldn't reach the pedals), Rescue Academy (I was a rock star on that ride), Ford Driving School (for Brewer), & Ford JR. Driving School (for Maddox).

-Junior Fire Academy ride was closed for the day.

-We didn't make it on Flying School or Island in the Sky. Again, just ran out of time.

Maddox at the Jr. Driving School

The playgrounds:

-The park has awesome playgrounds. My kids loved Pharaoh's Revenge where they could fire the soft foam balls at other guests.

-The Forestmen's Hideout is a great climbing playground. Another area where they played and played!

-DUPLO farm was for ages 2 to 5. And Brewer was okay with not going in this area.

The Imagination Zone:

-Hero Factory, Build & Test, and Lego Mindstorms were a good break in the day from rides to have the kids inside to just play and use their imaginations.

-Miniland is amazing. You could spend a ton of time looking at all the Lego cities. Very neat!

The shows:

-We saw Pirate's Cove Live Water Ski show. It was cute.

-The park has a lot of shows but we ran out of time and couldn't see them all. In fact, we only made it to this one.

Things the park doesn't tell you:

-There is a ticket called the HERO TICKET. This is sold at the gate and will take you to the front of every line. The lines weren't bad when we were there. So I do not have firsthand knowledge on whether or not this is worth it.

-The employees wear minifigurines on their name tags. Have your kids take 2 to 3 minifigurines to trade with the workers. Lots of fun.

The food:

-It is a Pepsi property. YUCK! I don't even like the Pepsi brand bottled water. I wish I had known. I would have packed some water bottles of my own.

-There are no full-service restaurants. I thought the food was blah.

Hope this review helps. Feel free to ask any questions. Lou and I were both impressed. It is a great park! Loved it! You should plan a trip sooner than later for your family.

New School Year - Teacher Gifts Ready

2011-08-23T19:50:00.004-04:00

I really, really wanted to do the 4-pack bottles for our teachers this year. If you don't know what I am talking about, click {here}. As August started, I went on a last minute trip to Tampa (completely worth it for priceless time with a friend) and then to the Bahamas...so when we got back school.was.starting! I had to get on it! Both of the boys' teachers are Christians (praise the Lord). So when I found these monogrammed tumblers at Lifeway on sale for $5.00, I knew they'd be fine to give even with the Bible verse printed on them.

We filled the tumblers with a gift card to Target for the teacher to buy things for the classroom. We also filled it with the single size serving packets of Crystal Light's pink lemonade.

Next we added some ribbon and a straw flag that reads, "We are tickled pink you are our teacher". (Get it...pink lemonade/tickled pink...)

It was easy and cute to put together!

Maddox on his first day of school with his cup for Mrs. Amy.

Back To School

2011-07-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

I've already shared about my obsession with Pinterest. I keep seeing great Back To School gift ideas for teachers. I thought I'd post this blog about the gift we made for Brewer and Maddox's teachers last year.

Brewer had 2 teachers so each of them got a 4-pack of glass bottles. On the back of each "container" is a pocket with a gift card to Walmart for supplies for the classroom. The bottles are each filled with things like M&Ms, colored goldfish, erasers, paper clips, pencils, colored rubber bands, etc.

They turned out super cute!

Most of the things I do are "spin offs" of other ideas. The original idea was for a Father's Day gift. You can find that information by clicking {here}. I remade the labels for each bottle and for the front of the container/holder...what's that cardboard thing called?? And ummm....I hope my organization was good...b/c I sure would like to use those labels again this year. Guess I need to start searching my computer for those.

Christmas in July

2011-07-14T14:36:00.001-04:00

Santa Hand Print Canvases with Brewer's Class

Do you ever have plans to blog about something and then other things in life take over? Well, I think that's what happened here, so let's call this post "Christmas in July".

Volunteering in my kids' classroom is one of my most favorite things to do. Honestly, I miss my kids when they are at school and being in their classroom helps cure this for me. Brewer's teachers this past year were great about letting me in the classroom. There was some discussion between the moms about the Christmas party craft. All of the ones picked were not keepsakes in my opinion. So I decided during my volunteer time we would make canvas Santa's out of the kids' hand prints...this would be a keepsake for sure.

I think they turned out so cute!

Now, I will admit that once I get my mind on something, I will make it happen...no matter how long it takes me. Sooooooo -- be warned ---- these take awhile. I purchased the canvases at Michael's and I pre-painted the background. Brewer only had 12 kids in his class this year, so it wasn't awful. BUT it did take time. You have to give the colors more than one coat and there is the drying time in between, etc. After they were done, I added the ribbon to the canvases. Basically, it took over our kitchen for an entire weekend. However, I think it was worth it (if I do say so myself)...I mean, LOOK AT THESE --> PRECIOUS!!

Working with the kids was a two step project. One of my volunteer days, I came in and did my "regular" volunteer time. I had pre-arranged with the teacher to stay after and call the kids out one at a time to have them place their painted hand print. She said this would work and so that was step one.

Step One with Kids

Step two with the kids was adding the felt hat. I had a pattern they traced and then cut out the hat, adding the pom poms, adding the eyes, the nose, etc.

I hope to do these again -- I love a hand print keepsake. Then again, I could use their foot and do a snowman. It will be a new class of kids and parents...Hmmmm.....

Step Two with Kids - Finished canvases

Tuesday Teacher Day

2011-07-12T21:15:00.002-04:00

Because I used to teach, I am going to dedicate some Tuesdays to blogging about things of the classroom.

And man, do I wish blogs were popular when I taught b/c there are so many adorable ideas for the classroom in blogland.

One of the many things that is new to me is Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). What a fun idea and website! A place teachers and go and sell and/or buy teaching materials. One of my mottos when in the classroom was, "Why re-create the wheel?"

When you're in the classroom with 22 8-year-olds, the tattle telling can be overwhelming. I used a system where the kids could write down their tattles and put them into our tattle jar. I would always read the tattles. First of all, I wanted their voice to be heard. But they were also very comical. Sometimes tattles do need to be dealt with, so I did need to read them. Check out this Tattle Turtle that you can buy for your classroom. Cute, cute, cute!

Sending kids home at the end of the day used to stress me out, especially at the beginning of the year. Now that I'm a mommy, it stresses me out from the parents' point of view also. I found a blog with adorable stickers to print for your students to wear. I am thinking of printing these for Brewer's teacher and including them in a little gift that we give her the first day of school. Click {here} to see them. How cute!

Generosity

2011-07-11T17:56:00.001-04:00

Generosity of people is amazing! I found this adorable blog (in fact, so adorable that I decided to copy her background pattern from CBOTB). In this blog, Ms. Male writes about her classroom and things related to teaching. She is a Mac user like me but knows ~~SOOOOOOOO~~ ~~MMMMUUUUUCCCCHHHHHH~~ ~~MMMMMMOOOOOOORRRRRRREEEEEE~~ SO MUCH MORE than me about the Mac!!! She has been helpful with downloading fun fonts for the Mac and then she taught us blog readers how to capture an image from the computer screen. Look at this --->

Came from Ms. Male's blog: http://brittmale.blogspot.com

This is a direct photo of her comments section on her blog. It worked!!! She taught me on the Mac if you want a screen shot, you 'command+shift+4'. AMAZING! EASY! LOVE! I told Ms. Male she should post a Mac tip of the day on her blog!!! I'm hooked! Thank you, Ms. Male, for your generosity! I can't wait to see what you teach us (well, me) next! If you want to check out her blog, click {here}.

How To Make Rainbow Jello

2011-07-11T13:56:00.002-04:00

1. Select as many colors as you want for your rainbow. I picked 4 colors. Purchase those colors of the boxed Jello.

2. Make the color that you want on the bottom of your layering. Put approximately 1/4 cup of that Jello in the bottom of each individual container and refrigerate for about 1 hour (make sure Jello is set before moving onto the next color).

3. In the photo shown above, you can see my first color was purple. Next, I made green Jello and added a 1/4 cup of green Jello to each of the individual containers. Refrigerate for about an hour or until the green Jello is set.

4. Make the next color of Jello. I made yellow. Put 1/4 cup of Jello in each container and refrigerate until set.

Look at how it is coming along!

5. Add your next color (mine was red) as in previous steps.

6. VIOLA! Once the last color has set...you have your rainbow Jello!!

7. Add whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles (as shown in first photo) before serving to finish off your rainbow treat!

Rainbow-themed Playgroup

2011-07-11T13:51:00.004-04:00

I love our Mondays in the summer. Many of them mean it is PLAYGROUP MONDAY. A group of my friends that I've known since before we had kids have gotten together in the summers for playgroups with our kids for years. Usually each family hosts one time in the summer...and today was our Monday.

We had a rainbow theme.

We read the Bible story of Noah and God's promise. God sent a rainbow as a reminder that He always keeps His promises. We had rainbow sheets. Some of the kids decided to color their rainbow and other kids decorated it with Fruit Loops.

The kids played with lots and lots of toys. After all, it is a playgroup. And the mommies got to talk and talk and talk!! (YEAH for playgroup Mondays!)

We had lunch with rainbow bread. You can order this from Publix. Isn't it neat??!! The kids seemed to think it was.

Once school starts, this will be a great thing to order for school lunches. Your kids will be the talk of the cafeteria!

We had a rainbow drink station with darling paper straws to help in our rainbow theme.

These came from HEY YO YO.

We had a rainbow fruit tray, rainbow goldfish, and rainbow Fruit By The Foot.

For dessert, we had rainbow Jello. If you want a tutorial on how to make rainbow Jello, click {here}.

It was a fun playgroup.

And yes, Brewer and Avery were here but didn't make it into any of the photos. They were quick with eating and getting back to playing!

2011-07-10T21:55:00.000-04:00

I'm addicted to Pinterest.com. I love the ideas...now just to find the time for the ideas.

If you'd like to follow me, click {here}. If you need help with the ins and outs of Pinterest go {here} for a tutorial.

Are you on Pinterest? I'd love to follow you! Let me know.

Birds

2011-06-29T12:05:00.001-04:00

This week and possibly into next week, the boys and I are doing things related to birds. Wild Birds Unlimited next to the Publix on SR13 has something my kids are enjoying.

The first day you go in and have your kids tell them they are interested in making a bird feeder. Wild Birds Unlimited will give them a coloring sheet. The kids go home and color it.

Another day you go back to the store with your completed coloring page. The store will give your kids 1 to 2 pounds of free bird seed along with a packet of information on birds, how to make bird feeders, etc.

Bag of free bird seed and packet

Inside the packet

It is pretty neat and FREE! Enjoy doing things in the summer that are free for sure as our daily activities can quickly add up.

The boys and I are also going to go to the library and get some books about birds. That's probably as far as we'll take it unless the boys are just loving this. There is a sheet in the packet from Wild Birds Unlimited where the kids are supposed to track all the birds they see in their backyard. I think they have to list 20 or 25 that they see. They can bring that paper back to the store and receive a free plastic bird feeder. I doubt we'll do this part...but it is an option. (My mom is the bird expert...maybe she'll do it with Brewer in her yard...hint, hint.)

I had no idea the store offered this. I love finding little "programs" like this for my kids. What other neat things have you found for your kids this summer?? Please share...

Snack idea

2011-06-26T20:27:00.001-04:00

SNACK BASKETS!!!!

Pinterest.com has brought me a lot of great ideas. One idea that I recently implemented is working great for the boys --> snack baskets!

There are two snack baskets in our house. We have one in the refrigerator and one in the pantry. When the boys ask for a snack, they are able to get pre-portioned snacks by themselves. The snacks in the pantry range from organic, healthy fruit to peanut butter to 100 calorie snack packs to cookies. The snacks in the fridge are all what I consider a "healthy" snack. There are times in the day that I want to control that the boys' snack is a "good" choice. So when I hear those words, "I WANT A SNACK". I simply reply, "You may have something out of the basket in the refrigerator."

Fridge snacks -- squeeze applesauce; Horizon yogurt; pre-portioned bags of carrots, apple slices, grapes, blueberries; cheese sticks

When I don't care what type of snack they have, I tell them they can go to either snack basket.

Pantry basket

Additionally, I am limiting the times of day that I am having to prepare the boys a drink. I have drinks already for them next to the snack basket that is in the fridge.

Snacks and drinks ready to go

This idea was simple to implement and has made my life a lot easier. When I get home from the grocery store, I take a few extra minutes to pre-portion the snacks. Then throughout the week, I am not spending as much time preparing snacks for the boys.

Summer Bingo

2011-06-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

I found an idea that I consider brilliant and was happy to borrow the idea --> SUMMER BINGO! Maddox isn't quite old enough for this (without me supervising...and I need nothing else to supervise), so only Brewer is doing summer bingo.

The sounds of "I'm bored" have started in our home now that school has been out for 3+ weeks. My kids are not used to having large blocks of time without something planned to do...probably a fault of mine. So when I heard of summer bingo, I thought it would be a great thing to implement in our home. I created Brewer's bingo cards as I wanted to incorporate friendship between he and Maddox, physical activity, household responsibility, educational activities, and fun things.

Each Sunday Brewer is given a new bingo card. Throughout the week, a sticker is placed on each square that has been completed. He has to let us know PRIOR to doing the activity. When he is finished, he places the sticker on the square. Once five stickers have made a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, Brewer receives a ticket. Tickets can be redeemed for "prizes". We have a few rules in place with the bingo game as well.

Our rules look something like this:
1. You must brush your teeth and eat breakfast before playing Bingo. (Note: Brewer is our child who won't eat breakfast. This has helped with the breakfast eating as well.)
2. You must tell Mom or Dad what Bingo square you are doing.
3. etc, etc, etc,

Rewards look something like this:
2 tickets = an extra book at bedtime
3 tickets = stay up late to watch an extra TV show
5 tickets = $5.00
etc, etc, etc

Here are two examples of Bingo cards:

Brewer has some direction on the days (or hours) when we are not attending a play date, summer camp, at the movies, at the pool, etc. -- I remind him of his Bingo game. Here's Brewer reading with his TAG books.

What do you do to keep your kids entertained at home in the summer??? I'd love to hear!

Mario Party Tablescape

2011-06-16T23:44:00.002-04:00

Brewer's 6^th birthday party was a blast. In the planning stages, he had a difficult time picking what he wanted to do. We went from taking friends to see Cars 2 to a jumpy place to a pool party to Ollie Koala's to the perfect choice for him –> a video game party. I found the Game Truck via a search engine. It is based in Orlando, but would travel to Jacksonville for an additional gas fee. Brewer was excited!

Our kids only get birthday parties every other year (on their even year birthday). As most of you know, I like to do parties up big. Plus, with only having a birthday party every other year, all the more reason to do it up big for each boy. I did ask Brewer to pick a video game to make the main theme, so I had something to work off of. This momma needs a theme for all parties! LOL! Brewer picked Mario. I hit the ground running once the theme was decided upon.

Fearful there wouldn't be a lot out there that would be “cute” for Mario, I hit blogs for ideas. I got a lot of my ideas from one of my favorite blogs (irony...she has everything on her blog...ha, ha!).

It was great fun working on the tablescape. Here is a breakdown of the table. The balloons were done by A Twist Of Fun. He is located here in Jacksonville and makes amazing balloon animals, characters, etc. I contacted him about making a balloon column. I told him that I wanted to take a standard vertical column and turn it to hang horizontally with no sagging.

The blue backdrop is a curtain panel that I found on Amazon.com. I made the birthday sign using the Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software. It is safety pinned on the curtain panel.

The tablecloth is 2-1/2 yards of red material. I glued on a grosgrain ribbon to finish the edges. Originally, I hadn't planned to put the lamps on the table. But the table needed more light. These are the lamps that are on the buffet table everyday in our home, so I knew the size would work great. The Mario mushroom napkins came from Birthday Express. The glass blocks and lights were purchased a Hobby Lobby. I cut a question mark out of vinyl from the Cricut. Then I spray painted the blocks. Once dried, I removed the vinyl question marks; viola, we had the yellow question mark blocks from Mario's Super Brothers game. The boxes on top of each of the glass blocks were paper mache boxes purchased from Hobby Lobby. I covered them in a blue and white striped wrapping paper that I found at PartyCity.

On the left side of the table, the blue and white striped box was filled with Mario mushrooms.

On the right side of the table, the blue and white striped box was filled with chocolate Mario mustaches.

Spray painting PVC pipes seemed like a great idea for the Mario warp pipes. These pipes were filled with 3” Whirly Pops with an added sticker that said, “Brewer 6” on each lollipop.

On the left side of the table were two candy bowls. One was filled with gold foiled wrapped chocolate coins. These are Mario's coins. The other was filled with red hot candies. These are to represent Mario's fire balls.

On the right side of the table was a plastic plate with Mario cookies. The original cookies that were ordered were stuck at a FedEx center the weekend of the party (boo-hiss). But when I went to pick up the cake at Cinotti's, I told them what happened to the cookies. Cinotti's was so great and decorated Mario cookies for me right there on the spot. We had red mushrooms, green mushrooms, and stars on the sugar cookies. In the center of the table was the Mario cake from Cinotti's. It was amazing both in appearance and in taste! The cake stand was a hat box made to look like a Mario mushroom. In front of the cake stand was a paper mache 6 from Hobby Lobby that was spray painted yellow.

It all came together great! The tablescape turned out just how I pictured it. It was loads of fun to do!

Piranha Plants

2011-06-05T21:45:00.000-04:00

Brewer's birthday party was today. He had a game truck come and a Mario theme. I saw these Piranha Plants from the classic Mario game on Cute As A Fox creations blog. I just had to borrow the idea. Red balls were very difficult to find (when I was looking...LOL!). Right now, red bouncy balls are everywhere in stores. But back when I was looking for them, so many of you were looking for me as well. Thank you for that! Here is what came out of that red ball search.

These plants were candy bowls at the party. Smarties and Double Bubble are two of Brewer's favorites, so they were perfect choices for the party.

This project took a lot of helping hands -- Ashley from Cute As A Fox sent me full directions, Allison and Heather ended up finding me the red balls, my dad helped me figure out the plastic bowl support as well as consulting me in the shopping of supplies and attaching the bowl to the stem, Kelly helped with the leaves -- such a group effort and they turned out so cute! Thanks to all those who helped get them together!

Free Things are Amazing Things

2011-06-05T21:27:00.000-04:00

The kindness that people show to me is overwhelming at times. Surprise kindness might be one of the best! My floral arranger surprised me and Brewer this week by delivering a special flower arrangement for his birthday party. Then an Internet friend, Heather Lea, surprised me with Mario circle punches to use at Brewer's video game birthday party. The two looked like the perfect combination, so I put the punches in the arrangement. Look at how perfect it turned out for the party! Every time I passed by the arrangement during the party, I smiled. It made me think of two friends who did something special for me. Thank you, Tracy and Heather! Here's to me paying that kindness forward!

Been on my TO DO list since the new year...

2011-06-01T22:05:00.000-04:00

I am finally doing something with my kids starting today (yes, June 1st) that has been on my TO DO LIST since JANUARY -- YIKES!!

I have wanted to memorize scripture with my kids. My mom found a site about a Scripture Memory System that she sent to me. When I first looked at the site, I must be honest. I just skimmed it and thought, "Too much work." So I began looking for other ways and 5 months in, I'd come up with nothing. So I decided to go back to this model and really take the time to read the page. And you know what...it's not that involved at all. :)

On Tuesday I went and bought our index cards, index card box, and dividers. Then I picked out five verses for us to start with. You know some of the obvious...the Golden Rule, John 3:16, etc. And we've started!

Music is another way that I think is a great way to memorize anything...so why not try it with scripture. I have the Seeds of Character CD coming in the mail. Once I listen to it with the kids, I'll let you know my thoughts. Each song is supposed to sing a Bible verse or verses. The verses on the CD are what I plan on using next for the verses in our box.

So check one off the TO DO LIST. Our box is ready and we've started!
Click here for the website with the Scripture Memory System.

Pillowcases on the Disney cruise

2011-05-19T20:07:00.001-04:00

If you are following the trip report, then you have seen how on the last night of our cruise the boys had signed pillowcases waiting for them. Well, here is what you do...

Take pillowcases with you on the cruise. I had these made for the boys by Sara Rowe of Peas & Karrots here in Jacksonville.

Put them in a large ziplock bag and label them with your stateroom number. Add some candy (as a thank you to those who sign) in the bag. Add some fabric markers. Add a note to the front of the bag asking for signatures. And pack in your carry on.

Then when you get on the boat (remember, we were the fourth family on so no line), go to the Guest Services desk when there is no waiting and leave the pillowcases with a Cast Member. Then the pillowcases will be signed and waiting for your kids on the last night of the cruise. And IT IS FREE! Well, you have to provide the pillowcases and markers (and I added some bonus candy)...but the ship does not charge you.

I've also heard of people leaving a white mat for an 5x7 or 8x10 frame and asking that the characters sign that. Then they have a matte to use in the frame when they get home to frame one of their cruise photos.

Disney cruise - Day 4

2011-05-19T19:57:00.001-04:00

We had to get off the boat this day. Whaaaa!!! You have to be off the boat by 9:30 AM. It was sad. I almost cried leaving. I LOVED the trip! Can't wait to go back...seriously, cannot.wait.to.go.again! I check weekly for specials...none listed. The trip is crazy, expensive. But it is worth it and I think you should save your pennies and budget for this amazing trip!

If you are following my cruise report, you can start out with day 1 and read from there. Ask questions on anything I didn't cover...it was simply AMAZING!

Disney cruise - Day 3

2011-05-14T15:09:00.002-04:00

If you are following the trip report, you can find
Day One HERE
Day Two HERE

Day three (Saturday) was one we had been looking forward to as we were going to Disney's private island, Castaway Cay (pronounced Castaway KEY). In our original plans, we had booked a cabana for the day on the island. The cabana is surprisingly expensive. But the reviews we heard were awesome and so we thought we'd try it. Well, as the planning continued, we weren't sure that a cabana with a three-year-old and five-year-old was the best thing. Would we ever get to enjoy the comfortable chairs in the cabana? HA! Our kids would probably have us on the go all the time. And since we live 20 minutes from the beach everyday, we decided that if we were sitting for more than 15 minutes on the island, then we weren't using the time on the island the best way we could. I think it was a good decision to cancel the cabana...you'll read why.

I got up around 6:30 AM while everyone was still sleeping and went to the gym. I ran a mile on the treadmill (if you know anything about me and my workout habits, I HATE the treadmill). As mile 2 was starting, I was wondering...why am I on a treadmill, I think there is a running deck on this boat?? So I went looking for the running track. It was down on deck 4. I ran another mile on that track. The boat was still cruising. I had forgotten how much I love running on a moving ship! 2.5 times around the track and you've run a mile. While running, I got to see the boat coming into port at Castaway Cay.

We had been told to get off the boat as soon as we could because the beach chairs would fill up fast. We were also told to get off at the second tram stop -- not the first. We got off the boat at 8:30 AM. We got on the tram and took it to the second stop. This was Pelican's Plunge. We got beach chairs in the first row, set out our sand toys, and were ready to go.

Lou and Brewer went over to do the slides out in the ocean. This was a 38" height requirement...so Maddox didn't get to go. There was basically no line for these slides. It was the perfect way to start the day. After a few times sliding, Brewer got a mouth full of saltwater and that ended sliding for awhile. While Brewer and Lou were sliding, Maddox and I went to the splash area on the island. This is a play area with fresh water. Maddox had decided he was hungry around 9:30. This became problematic as I went to three stores looking to buy him something -- a bag of chips, pretzels, candy -- and there was NOTHING! All the workers kept telling me there would be lunch from 11:30 to 2:30. Well, that is not helpful when your three-year-old is hungry at 9:30. I wasn't sure what I was going to do and almost considered going back to the boat. But at Cookies Two (one of the BBQ stations), I spotted some fruit that was supposed to be decoration. Well, the bananas on that decoration became a snack for Maddox. LOL! So note to self and all you future cruisers, if you get off the boat early like we did, pack a snack...even if you ate breakfast like we did...b/c there really is no food available until 11:30.

Once Maddox had his snack and Brewer and Lou were done sliding, we went on a walk to explore the island. While gone, we found a smoothie station. The boys thought they were "cool" because of the coconut cups you were given. We found Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto and took photos with all of them. (These photos are on our water camera...so I don't have them digitally ready to upload as I am blogging this.) We also checked out the kids' zone on the island. I must say that I was impressed with the kids' zone on the boat but not the kids' zone on the island. I was thankful that we had not planned to leave our kids so that we could go on an excursion...because I don't know that I would have liked leaving them there.

By the time we got back to our chairs, the beach was PACKED with people!!! It was 11:30 so lunch was starting to be served. We went to Cookies Two to get a BBQ lunch. It was probably the best meal I had on the cruise. And it was a hamburger...LOL!

After lunch, Brewer wanted to be a part of the hermit crab races. We were crab #6; Brewer named him "Hook, Hook" after Captain Hook. Well, it didn't matter how much we cheered for Hook, Hook...he slept during the first three heats of the racing. On the last heat, he did wake up and came in third place (which did nothing for us - wink). We still had a busy day of things we wanted to do, so we headed back to the ship. For our time spent on the island, we are thankful we didn't pay an additional $500 for a Disney cabana. When we were on the island, we were exploring. And we wanted to do things back on the boat...so we didn't stay on the island for the alotted time...which was until 5 PM.

Brewer ready for the races.

Cheering on Hook, Hook...

...noise must not bother him b/c we cheered loud but he is #6 and he wasn't moving.

We went back to the boat and headed straight to the pool. The pools weren't nearly as crowded as the day before and the line for the AquaDuck was about 10 to 15 minutes. There was virtually no line for the Mickey slide. We were happy campers.

After playing for awhile, we went back to the room to clean up. We still had a full day ahead. We went to the semi-private reception put on by the concierge team. Pluto was there with no waiting for us. It was super sunny and the boys could barely stand to look at the camera because of the brightness from the sun. (That was the only negative to this reception on the sundeck.) Next, we headed to Disney's show Believe. It was really cute (and a little pulling on the heartstrings).

The last night's dinner was at Royal Palace. It was elegant; yet, fun.

Next was one of the best things we did...Thanks to my friend, Cate', we put our bathing suits on right after dinner. Brewer got into pin trading during this cruise, so we quickly went to deck 3 where the cruise ship was having a "pin trading event".

And now the tip that Cate' gave us -- we headed to the Mickey pool and AquaDuck. There was no line for the AquaDuck slide. I think Lou and Brewer rode it six times in a row. And our family had the Mickey pool all to ourselves!! Something unheard of after it being so packed during the days.

The Mickey pool to ourselves!

Things on the pool deck were closing around 8:30. We headed to our room to pack. All of our luggage had to be in the hallway by 10:30 that night.

When we got back to our room, look what was waiting for the boys on their beds -- pillowcases signed by a lot of the characters. Read about the pillowcases by clicking HERE. This was another surprise I had read about on the DISforums to do the boys. They were super excited! We all fell into bed between 9:30 to 10 -- exhausted! But in a good way. It had been an unbelievable trip. It went by WAYYYYY TOOOOOO FASSSSTTTT!

Disney cruise - Day 2

2011-05-13T19:57:00.000-04:00

If you are following my trip report, you can read about DAY ONE BY CLICKING HERE.

Day two (Friday) - we woke up and the boat was getting ready to dock in Nassau. We aren't fans of Nassau unless you go over to Atlantis on Paradise Island...and we are going there for a week in August...so we opted to stay on the boat. I woke up early and went to the gym to run 2 miles on the treadmill. The gym is small; yet, nice. The equipment is new and they have a pretty good selection for a cruise ship. The gym was surprisingly crowded for 6:30 AM on vacation.

After my workout, I explored the spa a bit -- the same location as the gym. I had heard of families sending their dads to the gym to shower. This was because guests of the ship can use the spa locker rooms for no fee and their cabin was somewhat tight...so sending a person out of the room to get ready was helpful. I agree the showers in the locker room were nice. However, we were in a one-bedroom stateroom (#11020) and we didn't feel crammed. Therefore, I never sent Lou to the spa for a shower...LOL!

I grabbed breakfast for the kids from the concierge lounge and headed back to the stateroom. Lou went to the gym to workout, I showered for the day, and the kids watched one of the many Disney movies available on the TV.

Brewer had checked out the daily navigator (the "schedule" for the cruise). He had seen some activities in the child zone that he was interested in. So at 9 AM, Lou took both boys and checked them into the child zone. From 9 to 11 AM, Lou and I laid out on the adult pool deck. Being concierge guests, we received 100 minutes of free Internet. S-L-O-W INTERNET. I think Lou read a magazine and then used our iPad to try to read about world news on the net during this time. I read a magazine and then decided to get a poolside massage.

Around 11 AM, we went to check on the kids. Brewer said he was ready to go, because he wanted to go to the pool. Who could blame him??? After all, we were on a cruise. So we headed to grab some lunch and then played at the pool until about 2. The line for the AquaDuck at this time was anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes so we did not wait. There was a smaller slide that Brewer referred to as the "Mickey slide". He spent a large part of the afternoon sliding on this. The height restriction for the "Mickey slide" was 38" and Maddox is 37" -- so no riding for him. There was a dance party on the pool deck that the kids participated in.

Brewer at this pool deck dance party

Maddox at the dance party -- what is this move???

We went back to the stateroom and took naps. They were needed. We had been up until almost 10 the night before, gotten up early, and had been playing since we got on the ship.

We got up and got ready for dinner. I told you the stateroom was huge. Here is a photo of the boys in the tub! This is unheard of on a ship!

Our dinner this night was in the Enchanted Garden. Probably our least favorite of the restaurants in term of themes...and the food was still average (we never found outstanding food on the ship).

After dinner, we went to the kids' zone and stayed with the kids while they played. One of the activities going on was a parachute play time.

Then we went to the pirate show that was done out on the pool deck. It was GREAT! The boys enjoyed it.

After the pirate show, the boys went to the Arrrr-cade (pirate themed) and I went to do a little shopping on the boat. I wanted to pick up a few things for the boys and an exclusive scrapbooking kit -- all from Mickey's Mainsail.

We went back to the room this night to Mickey ice cream bars, a cheese plate, a pizza, and carrot cake awaiting us. It was another great and long day...we were all falling asleep around 9:30. Oh, and you can't forget about the towel animals that the stateroom host makes. Of course, we thought the kids would love these. Brewer did, but Maddox wanted them taken apart IMMEDIATELY! :)

FE on the Dream

2011-05-11T14:35:00.000-04:00

FE = Fish Exchange. This is something that a guest on the Disney cruise line started through a DISforum board. She thought it would be a neat idea to get fellow passengers from her cruise to "sign up" and do a SECRET SANTA of sorts. It got the name Fish Exchange b/c on her cruise there were metal fish outside all the cabin doors and people hung pockets over these metal fish. These pockets were where their "secret Santa" gifts were placed when delivered. Well, her idea took off and now on the DISforums, you can find an FE for almost any cruise.

Our cruise was the May 5, 2011 cruise, so I searched the DISforum and found the place people were discussing the FE. People seemed interested in doing it, but no one seemed to want to organize it. WAIT! Something needs to be organized??? Oh, I think I am hearing heavenly music. Yes, I'll do it...please, let me! LOL! So our group now how an organizer (ME) and we were off! We set a few deadline dates and ground rules. Nothing major...but a baseline we could all follow.

Only twelve cabins participated in our FE...but it was really the perfect number. You could get a nicer gift (something a step up from a bag of candy) and not break the bank. I have heard of FEs having 50 to 100 cabins participating...that's wild to me -- and not in a good way!!

Our family gave personalized notepads. I had them made at MinuteMan Printing on Sunbeam Road. They worked out to about $3.50 per pad. They have 50 sheets per pad and each sheet is personalized with the family name along with Mickey heads. The pads are bound at the top and have a cardboard backing. Next, I made a version of a matchbook cover. I had seen these covers for PostIt Note pads, so I modified the size and made the cover for our notepads. It gave it a little bit more of a "cruise touch".

Everyone participating had a master list of the family names and cabin numbers. Then each family hung pockets (similar to the one shown in the photo) outside their cabin door. (Note: I ordered mine on eBay.) Throughout the cruise, families would deliver their goodies to the participating cabins on the ship. So the neat part was when you came back to your cabin, almost always an FE gift was waiting for you. Of course, my kids thought this was the greatest!

I didn't tell Lou or the kids we were doing this until they were on the ship. They thought it was fun. And we had a good time on the first night as a family exploring the ship (another great way to see it) while delivering our gifts to the other 11 cabins.

Yet, another simple thing we did that was a surprise to the kids (and Lou) that made our trip a little more magical!

(NOTE: I have blogged about these before. If you want a little more information, CLICK HERE.)

Disney cruise - day 1

2011-05-10T14:16:00.003-04:00

We've only been back from our Disney cruise for less than 48 hours and yet so many people have asked for a trip report. I don't even know where to begin for this. The trip was amazing and we can't wait to go again! That's what I'm telling everyone. Yet, I realize people are looking for specifics on the cruise. Therefore, I think I will make several different posts about the cruise.

Here is the day 1 report/information.

Before leaving, we dressed in our bathing suits; we wanted to waste no time once on the ship. We left Jacksonville on Thursday morning at 8:30 AM and got to the port at 10:30 AM. We drove right in and dropped our bags -- no waiting. Then we went together as a family and parked the car in the parking garage at the port ($15/per day). We walked to the port and through security. We had booked a concierge room and so we went straight to the concierge desk -- no lines, no waiting -- and checked in for the cruise, got our room keys (called Keys To The World), and registered our kids in for the kid zone. They were given an arm band to wear throughout the cruise. We then were directed into a concierge lounge where we waited until 11:45. We boarded the ship around 11:45 and were the 4th family on the ship.

Once on the boat, we were escorted to the concierge lounge where there were snacks and drinks. A concierge host was to personally go over our cruise schedule with us. However, there were lots of families filing in and our kids wanted to hit the pool IMMEDIATELY! So we told the concierge we'd come back later. And to the Mickey pool we went!

We spent some time swimming and exploring Deck 11. Then we headed to Cabanas for some lunch. After playing a bit and lunch, we decided to check our stateroom out. (This became available to us at 1:30.) It was huge (especially for a cruise ship). Lou instantly zoned in on the TV that was built into the master bathroom mirror. How he spots technology like this so quickly is beyond me. We went back to the concierge lounge where a hostess went over our schedule for the cruise. She also gave the boys Disney puzzles. But the best thing she gave the boys were Detective Agency Cards. This is an interactive game for the kids. They solve a mystery with talking paintings. You receive a map of the ship and there are different paintings on every level of the ship. This is an AWESOME way to explore the ship and keep your kids interested. Brewer wanted to start solving the mystery right away.

While exploring the ship, we checked out the kids' play zone -- with Andy's room (from Toy Story), a laugh floor (from Monsters Inc.), a dress up area (from Tinkerbell's Pixie Hallow), plus lots of other areas, games, toys, etc. This area is HUGE! Loads to do!!

Also, while exploring the ship, Brewer spotted Donald Duck out on the deck with NO ONE else around. Donald spent about 10 minutes with just our kids. This is almost unheard of. It was neat-o and one of our highlights of the trip. Donald was great! He even went and helped the boys with part of the Detective Agency game.

We headed back to our cabin around 3:30. By now, Maddox really could have used a nap but it was almost time for the dreaded part of every cruise...the muster station drill. So at 4:00 we headed out to our station (station G). It was on deck 4 and on the outside running track. You don't have to wear a life jacket to these drills any longer so that was a nice surprise.

When we got back to our stateroom, our luggage was there. We bathed the boys, took showers, and got ready for dinner.

On our way to dinner we saw the Captain himself --> MICKEY!

Disney has a rotating dining schedule. Our first restaurant was Animator's Palate. A favorite of the kids and a perfect one for the first night. It held Maddox's attention the entire time. The walls are video screens so it looks like you can see out into the ocean. All sort of characters from Finding Nemo come up on the screens throughout the meal. The turtle (Crush) comes and even talks to different tables...so that part is interactive.

We thought the food was average on the entire boat. The kids loved the Mickey ice cream bars that were available on the ship.

After dinner, we delivered our FE gifts (more to come on that later). Then, we went to see the show Golden Mickeys. It was very well done -- not your usual "cheesy" cruise ship show. It was almost an hour long but held both the boys' attention. Then it was back to our stateroom where cookies and milk awaited us for a bedtime snack.

THE AQUADUCK:

Lou and Brewer riding the AquaDuck. How could I forget to write about this? It is a huge water slide that actually goes over the ocean. Brewer was quick to ride this once we got to the pool. The waiting time was about 10 minutes when he rode it. More about this ride later...

Extreme Couponing

2011-04-29T20:41:00.000-04:00

I will admit I like the "thrill" of using a coupon to save some money. At times, I wonder if I could be an extreme coupon-er. I don't know if you are watching the new show out called Extreme Couponing. I have been. I am amazed by the amounts of food and other products these people store/hide/save. And I can't help but ask myself if their couponing isn't causing them health issues. The majority of these couponers on this show are obese. Now, I'm not the slimmest of people, but I do know that eating 48 Butterfingers is not good for my health. Yet, many of these couponers appear to be eating all 48 of the Butterfingers they "saved on". Not to mention all the noodle packages, frozen pizzas, cookies, etc. Will these people get a bite for reality shows and next I'll see them on the Biggest Loser? So it makes me question, does couponing (I'm talking extreme type couponing) have a correlation to obesity? Certainly, it is a rarity to find a coupon for fresh produce...and if these extreme couponers are only purchasing items they have coupons for...then how often are they buying foods that their bodies NEED?

Easter rolls

2011-04-21T17:09:00.000-04:00

Today the kids and I made Easter rolls (also known as Resurrection Rolls). They are a simple way of explaining that Jesus has risen and the tomb is empty.

You need jumbo sized marshmallows and refrigerated rolls. We opened each roll and put one marshmallow inside.

I told the boys that the rolls were like the tomb and the marshmallow was like Jesus being put inside the tomb. We talked about how Jesus died on a cross and was put into a tomb. I explained three days later Jesus rose from the dead and the tomb was empty. Brewer immediately said, "The marshmallow is going to disappear and the roll will be empty like the cave." You got it buddy; the cave (i.e. the tomb) was empty for our Savior lives!

The boys pinched the edges of the rolls and closed the marshmallow inside.

Then we baked the rolls on 350 degrees for 18 minutes.

When the biscuits come out, rub a little butter on the tops and sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar. (This make them look even more a little "tomb" like.)

If you break them open, you'll see a "hole" in the biscuit.

But the biggest impression your kids will have is when they eat them and see the hole in the middle of the biscuit.

THE TOMB IS EMPTY! Mark 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him."

Our Savior lives!! Happy Easter!

Easy Pea-sy Easter Gift

2011-04-19T15:28:00.000-04:00

These are super easy. All you need ... sandwich size Ziplock baggies, cardstock, Easter stickers or die cuts, stapler, and some candy.

First fill the bags about halfway with candy and zip the bag shut. I would have LOVED to do chocolate candy, but the kids are going to be outside for 3 hours tomorrow...so I had to go with this chewy kind.

Then take some cardstock and cut it in a 5.5"x6.5" rectangle. Using the 6.5" part as your length, fold the 5.5" part in half...making it 2.75" on each side. Decorate one side of this fold how you would like. On these there is an Easter bunny attached with pop dots and the words "Happy Easter". We've also added the classmate's name and Maddox's name.

Once decorated, staple the cardstock to the baggie. Make sure the baggie is in between the cardstock. VIOLA! SO EASY!!

Now I must confess and tell you that I was planning on making these and using my Cricut to create the cardstock piece. But I found these cardstock pieces pre-made in a pack of 20 at Hobby Lobby on sale for $2.25...so I really couldn't go wrong. I cheated and used the pre-made ones...but you could make them easily!

Happy Easter!

Secret Santa - Disney style

2011-04-09T22:49:00.001-04:00

We are going on our first Disney cruise in May. We are super excited. Well, Maddox and I are showing our excitement as we discuss it EVERYDAY. Lou and Brewer are excited but have a better way of controlling their excitement (LOL!). I have read hours upon hours on the DISforum (i.e. Disney forum) about the cruise, hints, tips, reviews, etc. I feel like a pro even though I've not sailed yet. (Fingers crossed that I am prepared.)

One thing that some of the people on the forum do is called a Fish Extender. It gets its name because you hang a pocket over a metal fish outside your room. But the pocket is the least exciting part of it. The gifts that are placed inside the pocket are the exciting part!! It works like Secret Santa. Families exchange cabin information and then make or buy gifts to leave in the person's Fish Extender sometime during the cruise.

I finished our gift but still need to assemble it into baggies with labels. Here is what we are giving --
PERSONALIZED NOTE PADS. I'm not "friends" with any of the families in our Fish Extender, so it's okay for me to post as it isn't spoiling a surprise. We have 12 cabins in our exchange. Some cruises have over 100 cabins participate. I'm thankful we didn't have that many...then we could focus on making our gifts awesome without having to produce a ton of them.

Drum Roll Please --

I had the notepads printed and bound at our MinuteMan Printing here in Jacksonville. It was inexpensive. On a side note, I'm glad I know about these notepads, because I think they would make great gifts for other things too. Then I created (with the help of my Cricut) a cover for each pad.

Cover of the notepad -- Mickey's head and anchor to sail away!

When the cover is opened, they will see the inside flap "Cruising with Mickey"

The notepad itself as the family name printed in Walt font between two Mickey heads

Pretty easy -- yet, it did take more time than I care to tell you to cut all the pieces, glue, and wrap all 12 notepads. But isn't that how it is with most crafts -- they take way longer than you'd think??? Can't wait to see what goodies we get in our pocket. Oh, and I haven't told my kids about this...so it will be a complete surprise when they find gifts outside our cabin door!

Had to pull a Dr. Wharton

2011-03-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

In a recent parenting conversation with Dr. Paul Wharton, he shared of a time his family was driving to Disney for a pre-paid vacation. During the drive, his children had several warnings about their behavior. Despite the warnings, the inappropriate behavior didn't stop. Dr. Wharton made the statement to his children that if the behavior continued, they wouldn't be going to Disney. Sadly, it continued. He got off at an exit and turned the car north to head back to Jacksonville. His kids couldn't believe it. Was their dad really going to not take them to Disney? Was he going to walk away and lose the money from his pre-paid vacation? Could they earn the trip back? They pleaded with their father to let them earn the trip back. If he would just head back to Disney, then their behavior would be superb. But it was too late. He had given them his word -- they would not be going to Disney if the behavior in the car continued, and he was sticking to his word. So no Disney trip for the Wharton family that weekend. (He said his wife was in as much shock as his kids. I'd imagine so. LOL!)

Parenting is tough. I believe, there is no job out there that will work you harder and pay you (monetarily) less, than parenting...but the rewards are so wonderful. As a mom, if I sit back and think about my responsibility, I may completely have a panic attack. It is my prayer that Lou and I are able to raise two Godly, responsible men.

Punishments are difficult. Today one of my children (who will go unnamed) had a punishment that resulted in losing a privilege of going to the movies. Both of my children adore going to the movies, so this was a big deal. But without punishments, where will they learn about consequences and responsibility?

On Friday night, our children were told that if a certain behavior happened, they would not be going to see the movie, Rango on Saturday. Well, one of our children, displayed that forbidden behavior and was not able to go to the movies. Could he have earned it back this morning? Yes... But if we always let our children earn back a privilege and not really make them have the consequence, will they grow up to be the responsible men that we are praying they will become? I felt he should "do the time" (so to speak) of his consequence. Therefore, one of our children went to the movie and the other one didn't. We hope the lesson was learned. Only time will tell.

It is difficult to punish your child when you see the disappointment in their face on losing the movie. (The saying, "This hurts me more than it hurts you" began to resonate in my head.) It was a trying day; so I was relieved when I got a text from a friend. She knew nothing of my day but her text said, "Had to pull a Dr. Wharton". Of course, we talked immediately and went over both of our parenting dilemmas of the day. At least, I know I'm not in this disciplining thing alone. While I hated it for her child and for mine, it was comforting to know that many of us are trying to do the right thing.

Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Maddox turns 3!

2011-02-26T17:50:00.000-05:00

On Friday we celebrated as Maddox turned 3. We only give our kids birthday parties on the years they turn even ages (2, 4, 6, etc). Since Maddox was turning an odd numbered age (3), we just celebrated at home as a family.

Maddox picked out popcorn chicken from Publix for his meal and a Nemo birthday cake. MeMaw, PawPaw, and Uncle DayDay came for dinner to celebrate.

We played outside for awhile. It was a beautiful evening.

We ate dinner and then Maddox opened his presents.

Next we enjoyed cake and ice cream.

Maddox had a great day. There were lots of special things for him -- a celebration at his school with cookies, our family dinner, gifts from friends that came throughout the day, and special spending money from Grammy and Auntie Phyl.

I feel so blessed to have Maddox. He is an adventure for sure...keeps you on your toes. Yet, he is tender, smart, silly, has an amazing sense of humor, and is a dear friend even at the age of 3. What a blessing!

Valentine's AGAIN -- You were warned...

2011-02-05T21:42:00.007-05:00

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I love Valentine's Day. So you can't say you haven't been warned that I like to craft the holiday to death. Here is a little something so the teacher's don't go forgotten. While I am certain it would be fine to give our teacher a shovel with candy and/or a gumball machine, I thought we'd do something different than what the students are receiving.

Check out these water bottles.

I took the idea from Tatertots and Jello blog's; however, I made my own changes. First of all, I could not find the Hawaiian punch anywhere in red. (And I thought the idea of the water turning red was a perfect thing for February 14th.) So I had to go with the KoolAid brand. A few things about this...make sure you buy the sugar free kind; otherwise, the packets will be too big for the label. (Yes, I learned this lesson the hard way.)

Another thing is that the packet on the KoolAid says to mix half the packet with 16.9 ounces of water. HOWEVER, I had already printed the labels based on Tatertots' site. In hindsight, I should have the label read "Mix 1/2 of contents with bottle of water". (BTW, Tatertots' has printables on her blog that you could use to create these.) I'm not changing the labels I've already printed, so I guess our recipients will be enjoying an extra flavorful drink. LOL! While we're discussing the labels, I also changed the name from "Love Juice" to "'Will You Be Mine?' Potion". Brewer would be very upset if anything he had to give to someone said the word "L-O-V-E" -- oh, to be a 5-year-old boy (wink).

To: Mrs. Yvette, From: Brewer

I enjoy using the Cricut. Instead of using the heart labels seen on the other blog, I cut three layers of hearts for the "TO: FROM:" label.

Lastly, I could not find those precious red and white straws that Tatertots has on her blog. Well, I found them on-line but not locally...so I used a different straw. The straws I am using for the teachers were in a pack of pink, orange, yellow, and green that I picked up at Walmart.

Look at all these unwrapped straws
being exposed in the outside air.

But the big question here is: Does it bother anyone besides me that these straws are not individually wrapped??

It REALLY bothers me...and I was obsessed with washing my hands while making these. But still -- if anyone knows of a place I could get a great straw for this -- a straw that is WRAPPED -- let me know. :)

I did find these swirly, heart straws in the two dollar bins at Walmart. But the kicker is that the straw is no where near long enough to fit in the water bottle. So I am using the regular straws on the teacher bottles. I thought I might make a few drink bottles for some of our friends. I know kids love and APPRECIATE a good swirly straw. So here is what we are going to do for the water bottles we make for "kid" friends.

And here you go!!! A fun drink for teachers to enjoy on Valentine's Day! I'd love for you to leave a comment her on the blog. At least then I know that I'm not writing to myself. (wink)

"Will You Be Mine" Potion for Valentine's Day 2011

SURPRISE to Disney

2011-02-03T17:07:00.001-05:00

A few hours have past since my last post. I hope no one thinks I was too miserable. I wasn't...but I needed to have my little party for myself.

This post should be a lot more cheerful.

Last week I called my mom and told her I wanted to surprise the boys with a trip to Disney -- just a day away. We could go and have a fun day. The Magic Kingdom is always magical. Yet, in the middle of the week in February, it's even better.

So on Tuesday we whisked the boys off to the Magic Kingdom for the day. We had a great time. Maddox was big enough (finally) to ride the race cars. He thought this was awesome!

This 2-year-old thought he was "big stuff" driving his race car. :)

Brewer tried out Thunder Mountain for the first time. He can be timid about new things; yet, he was a trooper about this!

Waiting in line to ride Thunder Mountain -- less than a 10 minute wait. Gotta love Disney in February!

I believe he liked the ride but didn't "love" it as he didn't ask to go a second time. He was brave and tried this new ride with no complaining!

Both of our kids enjoy the parade that comes up and down Main Street.

Having MeMaw with us was a great addition. There is no way I could do the Magic Kingdom by myself with two children. I was very thankful she came with us.

I love this photo of my mom with the kids. But why does Brewer look so upset, and Maddox is looking like he is trying to escape? LOL!

Why do adults feel the need to "squat" when taking a photo with a character that is short? Mom and I need to learn to not do this. We look a little 'hunched over' with Donald.

It was a perfect day! And a very special surprise for the boys.

Today

2011-02-03T14:14:00.001-05:00

Today I found out that I've fractured my right foot. In many ways I'm thankful that it was discovered b/c I've been in pain for 12 days now. But in many ways, I am feeling disappointed. I have to wear a boot for 6 weeks, stop any activity that hurts my foot, and try to take it easy. The last part of "try to take it easy" is the part that I find most humorous. I'm a stay-at-home mom and can't recall a day where I got to take it easy all day long. Even if I decide to have a pajama day with my kids, they have needs -- help with the potty, they'd like to eat a meal or two (not to mention snacks galore), they like to be entertained and played with. Plus, I think they need to go to school which means they have to be driven to school -- which also requires use of the right foot, blah, blah, blah...many of you are moms, you know the drill. I told the doctor he might has well admit me to the hospital if he really wanted me to take it easy. So in the midst of my pity party (that I'm throwing for myself...and no one else is invited), I decided to make myself some spaghetti squash for an afternoon snack. It's my newest food favorite. So here's a photo of a bowl of it...and yes, I might eat the whole bowl by myself. I bet at this point, many of you are thankful you weren't invited to this pity party, huh??

Well, enough about my pity party. In fact, my mom taught me that when you are sad, you should do something nice for someone else; this will make you feel better. So I've decided that when you're in the midst of a pity party, that you should think of five things you are thankful and/or happy about. So here goes...my list of the good things this week:
1. I was able to go to Disney World with my mom and my two kids on Tuesday. My foot pain was minimal this day. We had a great time.
2. Maddox is potty trained. :)
3. Brewer no longer has two ear infections.
4. I love crafting and have been given a great craft room/work area in this house. This will be a good place for me to be to "rest" my foot this weekend.
5. It was 70 and 80 degrees here for 5 days in a row. The groundhog didn't see his shadow. And spring should be here sooner than later.

Ah, and at last, who knows who I am writing to...could be just myself. That's the funny thing about blogs, you really don't know -- unless someone leaves a comment. So if you want to let me know you've read, feel free to leave me a comment. It will give me something to read later today when I'm "resting" my foot. (ha, ha!)

Now to Him who is the ULTIMATE Physician. I'm placing my trust that He will heal my foot in a proper and timely manner. Praise be to Him.

Awww - and you'll be glad to know that I've finished my squash and my party...I'm already feeling better. :)

Blessings,
Jennifer

Brewer's Valentine's - I'm STUCK on you

2011-01-29T14:59:00.002-05:00

The label is covered by the ribbon but reads.."I'm STUCK on you!"

After my post about Maddox's Valentine's, some of you said to me that you wanted to see Brewer's -- well, here they are! GUMBALL machines!!! Both of my children are crazy over gumball machines.

Here is what I did -- I bought these gumball machines in the V'Day section at CVS. They are $0.99/each. Last week, CVS had a special where if you bought $25 in product, you got $10 in CVS bucks. I needed the paper towels and toilet paper that you had to buy (the $25 amount); I got $10 in CVS bucks. Brewer has 12 kids in his kindergarten class. So these only cost me $2. CVS does specials like this often -- keep your eye out! The machines already came with the red ribbon (as shown) along with a heart shaped tag. HOWEVER, I didn't want to use it like that...ha, ha! I always have to do something different. So I cut off the ribbon and tag.

I used my Cricut and cut out each child's first name initial on white vinyl using the 1-1/2" setting. I was planning on doing capital letters.

However, once I cut it, the capital letter was really too chunky for the curve on the face of the machine. So I decided to use lower case letters.

I placed the vinyl on the face of the gumball machine. In this photo, you can see that I centered the letter over the middle of the machine. You can also see where I've cut the ribbon that was pre-tied onto the machine.

I used a 2" circle punch to punch out these tags that came from Pink Elephants and Blue Rhinos. Heather is so talented and can design you just about anything!

Using my Cricut, I cut out 12 red scalloped circles (at 2-1/4") using the Lacy Labels cartridge. Then I used a glue pen (as shown) to attach the tags to the scalloped circle.

Here is what the final tag looks like. I added a hole punch to the tag for the ribbon to feed through.

Brewer's teacher sent a note home saying the kids were to address their own Valentine's. This was to work on name recognition and fine motor skills. So I had Brewer "address" the Valentine by writing each child's name on the back of a tag.

Next, I added a sheer polka ribbon and the tag to each of the machines.

And VIOLA -- Brewer's Valentine "cards" are ready (sorry for this blurry photo). All 12 complete and ready for Brewer to hand out on February 14th. Feel free to borrow the idea...as long as you don't have a child in Brewer's class... (wink!)

Maddox's Valentines - I "dig" you

2011-01-24T21:24:00.006-05:00

I love Valentine's day. And what's ironic is that Lou doesn't celebrate. He says it is a made up holiday from the card and flower industry. In the 13 (this year 14) Valentine's I had with Lou, he has not celebrated once. Yet, I always do. It doesn't really bother me that he doesn't celebrate because he spoils me all year...which makes it a little more special that he isn't doing anything out of the obligation on the date, February 14th.

Anyway, I mentioned I love V'Day, and I do! Tonight I made Maddox's Valentine "cards" he is going to give to his class. It is a sand shovel that says "I DIG YOU" with a bag of candy attached to it.

Here are the directions...
First, gather the supplies:

1. plastic shovels -- I used variety of colors (red, white, and pink) - Click here to see the ebay seller I used.
2. assortment of candy
3. small plastic bags for the candy & twist ties to close the bag. In my baggies, I fit a candy bracelet, jumbo Tootsie Rolls, an AirHead, and 3 Hershey kisses
4. Paint pens
5. Cute tag
6. Cricut and scrapbook paper for cutting the backing of the tag
7. Hole puncher
8. Ribbon
9. Adhesive
10. 2" circle punch
11. scissors
*I'm not promising this is a completed list as I worked on these in my craft room and something obvious could have been out that I used.

Next, cut the tags out using a 2" circle punch.

Aren't these tags adorable? I had them designed at Pink Elephants and Blue Rhinos. You can click their name here in the blog and be taken to their Facebook page. (Tell Heather I sent you; she's a friend of mine.) I punched the tags out. I wanted to back the tags (which Pink Elephants can do for you if you'd like). So I got out my Cricut and used the Lacy Labels cartridge. I selected the "Miss You Scallop Circle" and set it for 2-1/4".

Once the scalloped circles were done cutting, I adhered the circle tag on top of the scalloped circle and punched a hole in the side for the ribbon.

I took my paint pens (I had white, red, and pink) and added "I DIG YOU" or "I DIG U!" to the bottom of all the shovels.

Not only was the twist tie used to close the candy baggie, I used part of the twist tie to attach the candy to the shovel. The twist ties were long and worked great for this.

I added ribbon and threaded the label through and VIOLA! Our Valentine "cards" are finished for the Valentine exchange in Maddox's class.

Feel free to borrow the idea...as long as you don't have a child in Maddox's class...LOL!

Finished and ready to hand out to the class on February 14th

Oh, and Brewer's Valentine's are in the works...I still have a few details to hash out. But I'll post when we figure it all out!

"Cry-Cut"

2011-01-17T14:01:00.001-05:00

So I used to want a "Cry-Cut". Then I found out it is pronounced "Cricket". No matter how you pronounce it, what I wanted was a Cricut.

I got one back in 2010 on a whim one day while shopping in Wal-mart. Probably not my best purchasing moment seeing that I didn't price shop, I just purchased. I got the Cricut Expression which is capable of cutting paper up to 12" x 24". I thought it would help me with my scrapbooking...and it has! But it has also been great for school projects, crafts, and more.

Here are some ketchup bottles that I cut with the Cricut.

I used these on a scrapbook page about dinner at Whispering Canyon...which you should try if you are at Disney. And you must order something that needs ketchup to see what happens.

Happy Place

2011-01-16T21:50:00.001-05:00

I love Maddox's room. It's a happy place to be. He likes to be there too -- which is the real blessing.

Dr. Seuss room

This bedskirt was custom made. I think it helps "make" the room.

These hanging lamp shades are perfect in this room!

A very talented person hand painted this Cat in the Hat art piece for above Maddox's bed.

Maddox's dresser

Maddox's bookcase which his PawPaw (my dad) made for him.

This art is paper piecing that Brewer made. I had it framed for Maddox's room.

One Fish, Two Fish bathroom

More of the bathroom. I'm usually not a fan of Pottery Barn Kids but this rug and shower curtain worked great in here!

Friends

2011-01-05T16:59:00.006-05:00

We have a blessed life; there was plenty of good news in 2010. But we did receive bad news as well. As I reflect on 2010, the top 3 on the "bad news list" were news of both my parents' health and our friends (who live 4 houses down from us) moving to Tampa. My kids enjoy their kids (what a blessing), and the mom and I are dear friends. Many people who see us together believe we are sisters. (In fact, a few weeks ago, several people thought Ellis, their younger daughter, was mine.) We have similar values, same taste in kids' clothing and adult clothing, both of us are educators; the list goes on. They are great neighbors with one major fault -- they cheer for the Carolina Gamecocks.

Today Maddox wanted to call his friend to come over and play. And he did! He actually called on the phone and asked if Ellis could come and play. This was the first "independent" play date phone call for Maddox.

These two are a hoot together...and so sweet. Here is a photo of Maddox showing Ellis how to work the iPad.

These two kids are 2 and 4 going on 12 and 14.

When our friends move away, there will be a void in our life. We are still praying something changes, and they are able to stay in Jacksonville. Yet, for now, we will enjoy them as much as we can! We adore that our dear friends are also our neighbors -- how convenient!

On a side note, it is amazing that we have so many wonderful neighbors that have turned into our friends.

Healthy Snack

2011-01-04T14:34:00.002-05:00

I love it when I can find a snack that my kids and I can both agree on. For a few years, I've been buying dried fruit for my kids. It is by Brothers-All-Natural and is peanut/tree nut free, gluten free, soy free, diary free, non GMO, vegan, kosher, and 100% fruit with NOTHING else added. I have been purchasing them at Costco. I get 20 bags for $13.39 plus 7% sales tax. It makes each bag $1.40. The box I buy includes strawberry/banana mix, fugi apple, and asian pear. The problem has become that my kids only like the strawberry/banana these days...so the apple and pear bags begin to not get eaten.

Well, I've found the solution!

At Brothers-All-Natural's website, you can order boxes of all one flavor, make your own variety, etc. The boxes are $21.99 for 24 bags. There is FREE shipping and no sales tax, so it makes each bag $1.09. Not only am I saving a little money, I also have the fruit my kids want.

Oh, and by the way, they will send you an email every other week with a coupon code for an additional savings and you CAN combined it with free shipping.

So visit their website, http://www.brothersallnatural.com/ and don't forget to sign up for the email promotion they offer.

PS - It doesn't hurt that BuzzLightyear and Woody from Toy Story are on our bags. You can get plain bags or Cars or Princesses....

Splash

2011-01-03T14:53:00.002-05:00

We love the Town Center here in Jacksonville. We eat there often and my kids adore both the train table at Barnes & Noble as well as the duck pond in front of Magganio's.

Well, it happened...every parent's fear while visiting the duck pond...our kid fell in. It was 57 degrees outside – which is very brisk for a Florida day. The water was extremely chilly. Maddox was leaning over to feed bread to the fish when he tumbled into the water. He submerged face down in the pond. Praise the Lord we had invested time and money into ISR classes (see www.infantswim.com for more information). Keep in mind he was fully clothed in winter clothes along with socks and tennis shoes. He was face down in the water about 3 seconds when he rolled himself onto his back to float, breath, cry, and find the side to pull himself out. I did have to assist him in getting out, because he could have never reached the top of the "dock" around the pond. I bet he was only in the water for 30 seconds, but I kept thinking, “This is okay. He knows how to swim.” Thank you, ISR!

Once we got him out, we stripped him out of his wet clothes and began to dry him off with anything we could find in our diaper bag. A dear stranger, who was there feeding her baby, offered us a blanket she had to help dry him off. We put a dry pull up on him, I wrapped him in my jacket, and we headed to the closest clothing store which was the Gap. We warmed him up quickly with new clothes. Here he is with his wet hair and new clothing. He does have a cut on his hand (I'm assuming from the rocks in the pond). In this photo, he is working on opening a BandAid to put on his cut.

We brought him home and bathed him. I found algae in his ear...ugh! He seems to be fine but I am praying for no bacteria side effects from the fall. I think next time we will stick with the train table at Barnes & Noble.

Family Day - "Noon" Year's Party

2011-01-01T08:11:00.001-05:00

Boys with the Zoo Lion

We dedicated December 31, 2010 to a family day. The day started at the Jacksonville Zoo for a Noon Year's Party. It was a great idea but so, so, so, so crowded. The activities the zoo provided were great. In fact, here is Brewer with the "Mad Scientist".

Yet, if you tell people in Jacksonville that FREE goodie bags are going to be given out to the first 500 people...then the mobs come out. LOL! But we were able to celebrate the new year at noon.

After the zoo, the boys wanted to stop at Bruster's for ice cream. And you didn't hear any complaints from their parents about this. :)

I'm not sure why the boys look angry in this photo...LOL! They were very happy to be having ice cream.

We all went home and napped -- everyone agreed on this. My kids are usually great about nap time.

Next, it was a new year's eve dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. Then home to play a few games before time for bed.

It was a great day! Lou and I can't make it to midnight these days either. Glad we celebrated at noon!

Where's my 2-year-old?

2010-12-26T15:04:00.002-05:00

I now own a leash.

If you judge me, I will come after you. :)

Maddox and I locked down Kohl's department store for 6 minutes, because I lost him.

Maybe harness is a better word than leash.

So → I now own a harness.

You'll only ever fully understand if Maddox is your own. He is a blessing but so, so busy. When you shop, be thankful he doesn't have to go with you. But we wouldn't trade him, he's our keeper!

Joyful Kids' Party

2010-12-12T12:56:00.048-05:00

We love throwing a party for our friends. This entry was submitted to Hostess with the Mostest. Here is the entry...

The party was a kids' Christmas party for children newborn to age 8. It is an annual event that started merely so I didn't have to take my first born to the mall to see Santa. It has turned into a great event...this year with the numbers reaching almost to 100 guests.

On the invitation, parents are requested to stay at the party with their children. There is just too much going on not to have parents accompanying their child(ren).

This was our sixth party; every year I try to create something new. This year it was a candy cart.

The centerpiece (Santa's hat, boots, beard) for the cart was a plastic ice bucket filled with green, red, and clear stones. Then paper pieces cut with the Cricut Expression using the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge.

For the items on the cart, I want to stick with somewhat of an old-fashioned candy store. A lot of the candies were served in glass jars or penny containers (old-fashioned candy jars with metal lids) or acrylic containers. There were Snowman chocolates by Lindts. On the bottom shelf, there was movie style kettle corn, a bucket of ornaments (for decoration), and a box wrapped like a gift full of brown bags for the kids to fill. All of this reminds me of what it might be like to walk into a candy store; yet, the kids had free reign! No budgets to have to meet...they could have as much candy as they desired.

We also offered three crafts for the kids to do. There was a Santa Piecing Craft that was found at Hobby Lobby.

We also did a candy candy ornament found at hostessblog.com. And a snow globe craft found at Parents.com.

For the Merry Christmas banner, I made it using the Cricut Expression and the Mini Monograms cartridge.

With a morning party for this many people in ages ranging birth to grandparents, I've found food platters are the way to go. Our Christmas celebration wouldn't be complete without a birthday cake for Jesus (I can't find my photo at the moment). I had Publix make a simple sheet cake. Then I added the Little People figurines to create the nativity.

We have toys galore out of the kids and special guests. This year we had Sparky the ballon man from 3-RingCircus.com do balloon art for the kids.

We also have a special couple fly in from the North Pole. Yes, you guessed it – Mr. & Mrs. Claus.

A special treat for the kids is the snow dig. We fill 35 gallon containers with packing popcorn pieces; this acts as our snow. Then we hide prizes in the “snow”. The kids dig in the snow to find prizes. The prizes come from Oriental Trading. They enjoy this so much!

Every child receives a party favor as they leave the party. This year the favors were different depending on the child's age. Children kindergarten and younger received a personalized water bottle along with a water bottle holder by Stephen Joseph. Children first grade and up received a gumball machine that was personalized with their first initial using an apple green vinyl.

The party is always a lot of fun; we love hosting it! Until next year...

Here's an idea

2009-04-08T14:38:00.000-04:00

I just read this idea...so I am not taking credit...but I LOVE IT! When you buy a new pair of shoes, keep the box! Take a photo of the shoes and glue/tape it to the outside of the box. Then when your shoes are stored in your closet, you know what pair is in what box!

In the past, I have always thrown away the box because I couldn't see what was inside it. Yet, I really need the box for many of my shoes that I rarely wear...the dust builds up on them otherwise.

Isn't this idea simple and cheap! I think I will start it in my own closet!

Bahamas

2009-04-01T21:44:00.003-04:00

We just returned from our first family vacation since Maddox was born. It was great fun! We went to the Bahamas! We stayed at the Reef on the Atlantis property. It was wonderful for families. We had a great time. The flights there and coming back on Bahamas Air were horrible. We plan to never fly with them again. But the Bahamas part of the vacation was relaxing! We were also blessed to be able to take our babysitter with us so that Lou and I could have time in the evenings to go to dinner together. I think it felt like the fastest vacation we've ever had...probably because time flies when you're having fun!

Some favorite parts of the trip:
-at the airport in Orlando, we walked into a Chili's Too to have lunch. Brewer stepped in and said, "Chili's? Here?" He couldn't get over the fact there was a Chili's IN the airport. It was priceless!
-on the plane ride to the Bahamas, we told Brewer to chew gum to help his ears pop. He quickly put his fingers over his ears and said, "will they pop off?"
-Brewer slept on an air mattress next to our bed. One morning he crawled in bed with us. Lou dozed off and started to snore. Brewer said, "What is that?" I replied, "Daddy's snoring." And Brewer proceeded to snore himself. I might have laughed for 10 solid minutes after this!
-I loved coming in one afternoon to the room & seeing Brewer and Lou napping together in a king size bed full of pillows.
-I went to the pool one afternoon with Maddox. He chased (or I should say crawled...since he doesn't yet walk) after birds for over 20 minutes. He would get close to one and then it would fly away, then he would cry as if it had broken his heart. Another bird would fly by and the chase was on once again. It was precious.
-Brewer and Maddox loved THE DIG. One of Atlantis' many aquariums. Maddox was trying to break the glass to swim with those fish. Brewer saw an enormous sting ray and said, "Holy Cow" because the size was so surprising to him.
-Maddox loved splashing in the pool and we did this with him a lot.
-I think my very favorite part was watching Brewer want to be with his dad every moment of the trip. And his daddy wanting the same thing. There is NO DOUBT these two are the best of friends!

Maddox on his first plane ride:

Jenniferology

2009-03-24T19:56:00.001-04:00

This is a series of questions that I answered for Facebook and thought I'd post here on the blog as well.

1) What is your salad dressing of choice?Ken's Light Ranch
2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?I've got so many -- we eat out all the time
3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?Apple Bunt (it's a breakfast food)
4) What are your pizza toppings of choice?cheese and bell pepper
5) What do you like to put on your toast?no toast here
6) How many televisions are in your house?Three
7) What color cell phone do you have?black iPhone (the ONLY cell of choice IMO)
8) Are you right-handed or left-handed?Right
9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body?Yes
10) What is the last heavy item you lifted?do my kids count?
11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious?No
12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Sometimes
13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to?Something not commom...Jennifer was way to popular in the 70s
14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?NO! Not worth it
15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own?I call all slide-ons flip flops...so I am trying to think which ones aren't
16) What's your goal for the year?not raising my voice with the boys
17) Last person you talked to?Brewer
18) Last person you hugged?Maddox - my son
19) Favorite Season?anything not cold...so even winter here in FL if it is not a cold day
20) Favorite Holiday?Christmas
21) Favorite day of the week?Saturday - FAMILY TIME!
22) Favorite Month?July
23) First place you went this morning?the shower
24) What's the last movie you saw in theater?Slumdog
25) Do you smile often?Yes
26) Do you always answer your phone?NO -- SURPRISINGLY I HATE the phone
27) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?my brother but it's never happened
28) If you could change your eye color what would it be?IMO my eyes are fine
29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic?Diet Coke at any place!! LOL!
30) Have you ever had a pet fish?Growing up my family had fish...we have two fish now but they are NOT MINE...why will no one believe this?
31) Favorite Christmas song?Joy to the World
32) What's on your wish list for your birthday?haven't thought about it
33) Can you do push ups?Yes - lots!
34) Can you do a chin up?maybe 1 - haven't tried
35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited?I trust God for the future but when I see the President talking about the US, I get very nervous. I disagree with so many things he says
36) Do you have any saved texts?yes
37) Ever been in a car wreck?Yes
38) Do you have an accent?NO
39) What is the last song to make you cry?Some song on the Catch and Release movie...I have to learn the name...just heard it
40) Plans tonight?eating a dinner from my crock pot and packing for the Bahamas
41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?No - praise the Lord
42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday.A DS game for Brewer, a pizza, a diet Coke
43) Have you ever been given roses?Yes
44) Current hate right now?somedays a lot of things, other days nothing...I am wishy-washy these days!
45) Met someone who changed your life?Yes - lots of people have influenced to shape who I am
46) How did you bring in the New Year?Spent time with Kids and friends- rang in the new year at 6:00 pm
47) What song represents you?I'm not a music lover so I have never given thought to this... I prefer a quite room
48) Name three people who might complete this? Don't know
49) What were you doing 12 AM last night?sleeping
50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?If I am going to call the doctor about Maddox's legs

Maddox's First Haircut

2009-03-02T21:39:00.003-05:00

BEFORE:AFTER:
Maddox had his first haircut today. He doesn't have a lot of hair. Yet, the hair he does have was starting to look like a mullet. We got it cleaned up. For a child who is never still, he was absolutely perfect! Then again, check out what they gave him to keep him entertained! LOL!

A LOLLIPOP!!!

25 Random Things About Me

2009-03-01T21:19:00.000-05:00

These 25 random things were part of a list I was asked to make on Facebook. I thought I'd post it here as well.

1. I pulled a fire alarm in a church building one time b/c I thought it was a light switch. The fire department came and everything... oops!
2. I love my iPhone and don't think I could live without it.
3. I dislike Starbucks and totally don't get its "rage".
4. There are days I feel like I live in an all-inclusive resort & at the very least an all-inclusive life -- but don't tell Lou I feel like that. :)
5. Growing up, I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mommy who went to Bible studies (b/c that's what I saw my mom doing), now I'm living my dream.
6. It is no secret that I wish Maddox would sleep through the night.
7. When my brother starts having kids, I want him to have a girl so I can put bows in her hair, buy her bishops, and take her shopping. Secretly, I am afraid I will be jealous of him if he does have a girl.
8. I never pictured my life with two boys but man is it awesome. Nothing like being mommy to a boy!
9. Every guy I've ever dated ended up in the ministry, except Lou...he ended up my husband!
10. My entire life I've felt like I've only had a few friends but those friends were close and strong...the older I get, I am allowing myself to have more and more friendships.
11. I used to be extremely judgemental. I've worked on it for years...think I've come a long way in being better about this. (Probably still have a long way to go.)
12. I regret not going to a SEC school/university.
13. Despite #12, I LOVE Clemson University. A little piece of heaven on Earth in my humble opinion.
14. I dress my boys alike everyday. If you see them not matching, then either their dad dressed them or one of them had an accident earlier in the day and had to change clothes. I am not that crazed that I would change them both!
15. I love Jesus and hope you already know that from the way I live my life. I fear you may not as I am imperfect.
16. My brother is one of the most precious people in my life. I miss him so...PLEASE move back soon.
17. I've seen both my children fall from chairs...both times were horrible for me. Brewer broke his collar bone as a result of his fall -- and it was kind of my fault. YIKES!
18. I love the Gator football team!
19. We have sugar ants in our house...they make me wild...I have the bug guy's personal cell number memorized!
20. I iron clothes everyday.
21. I am NOT a 'get on the floor and play with your kid' kind of mom...which is shocking to me b/c I always thought I would be.
22. I am madly in love with my husband. Yes, we still hold hands while driving in the car together.
23. College football is a passion of mine. It might be the only sport I like.
24. I could live in a bathing suit by the pool in 80 degree weather. When I was in college and people would see photos of me from high school, they thought I had an African American sister. NO KIDDING! But it was me in the photos! I miss the days of that kind of tan.
25. I am legally blind. Praise God for contacts!

Maddox's First Birthday Party

2009-02-08T21:29:00.000-05:00

When our kids were born, we decided to do the party "hoop-la" every other year. We decided on even ages...so when they turn 2, 4, 6, etc we will have a party for them where they can invite friends, have activities, etc. Therefore, when Maddox turned one this year, we had just a family get together. We celebrated early -- on Feb. 7th -- because Uncle Day-Day was in town. Feb. 7th happens to be Maddox's Paw-Paw's birthday (my dad) as well. So we had two celebrations this day!

Busted

2009-01-05T21:18:00.001-05:00

Maddox has been getting around for months now. In fact, he started crawling sometime in the 7th month and was cruising everywhere by the 8th month. We had to act quickly and baby-proof our home. We thought all was good. Until tonight when Maddox was very quiet and I found him in the pantry. BUSTED! He had pulled out his own snack (Gerber Puffs), opened the lid, poured himself some (onto the floor) and was enjoying. What a stinker this kid is!

And I promise we do feed him. When I found him, I was laughing and thinking, "Poor baby, I would have given you a snack if I had known you were hungry!"

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

We rang in the new year with a whole bunch of great friends and kids at 6 PM -- new year kids' style! There was a bounce house. We grilled out hamburgers & hot dogs and had a new years celebration cake/cupcakes. Before 6 PM, we all went to the front and the kids had on party hats, were given noise makers and horns, there were confetti poppers, and bubble wrap! The bubble wrap was for our bubble wrap stomp; we counted down (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, Happy New Year) and then all the kids made noise and stomped all over the bubble wrap. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start the new year.

We hope you and your family have a super 2009 filled with lots of blessings!

Happy Birthday Jesus! Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

2008-12-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas day and hope you and your family did as well!