Healthy Snack

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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: