Pink & Green Swap SNEAK PEEK!

I'm still pretty new to Blog Swaps, this is my 3rd. I did an apron swap hosted by Sarah and Artsy Mama's Sweet & Sinister Swap. I was itching for a swap when I saw Sarah at Gypsy Mermaid Life posted about a swap, I knew I wanted to join in.

My lovely partner is Rebecca at Our Back Porch. She has been great to talk to and I also hope we stay in touch! Take a minute and check out her awesome blog. :) I thought I would share a couple sneak peeks of her package I am getting ready to send out.

I hope you like everything!

Sunday Savings

I stopped at CVS this morning, and look what I got for $4.52 out of pocket! My total savings were $80.38. And I earned $14 in Extra Care Bucks. This is how I did it:

2 Roc face washes @ 3.99 each

4 Roc face scrubs @ 5.99 each

2 All Small & Mighty 7.49 (B1G1 Free)

1 Softsoap dispenser @ 7.99

1 Softsoap refill @ 3.99

Used:

$5 off a $25 purchase CVS coupon

6 coupons for $3 off a Roc item

2 coupons for $2 off All Small & Mighty

2 CVS coupons for $2 off Softsoap

$17.89 in Extra Care Bucks.

I didnt earn MORE ECB's than I started with, but I still think I did pretty good!!

I won!

A couple weeks ago, I entered a blog giveaway at a blog called Holly's Street. And I won! How cute is this pillow?! And it's huge! 24x24. I was wanting to change out my couch pillows, this will give me a start.

And I also won these adorable little candles!

Thanks again!!

Luau Time!

Yesterday was Layla's Luau party. She was SO excited all morning and kept asking how much longer. Finally, it was time. :)

Daddy built a limbo, complete with bamboo that had been growing in our yard when we moved in.

Of course, we had to have leis...

The kitchen table:

Here is how I did the chocolate flowers I made:



And our Hula Girl cake! I think she turned out okay. I was a little lazy though, and borrowed a bikini top from Barbie & used Prima flowers (paper!) for those flowers around her waist! I just taped some flowers I found at the party store around my cake plate.


Nonnie made cupcakes & we added some paper umbrellas.

Check out this outfit!!

We dont have a pool and decided not to rent a bounce house, so I tried to come up with ideas from things we had. I found this sidewalk chalk paint recipe and figured they could use this giant easel she got last year.

Dirty boy...

Time for some limbo!

Which later turned into the boys raising the bar and trying to see who could jump over it. Blake thought it would be better just to plow through it, lol. No pictures though... I was recording it.

Time for cake!

Make a wish sweetie!

Got to have presents! (I scored that Didj for $9.97!)

And since Morgan didnt really have anything to tropical looking to wear for the occasion, I made her a little headband to wear. Sorry it's a little blurry!

Layla's actual birthday is today. It's to hard to believe it's been 5 years. Time sure does fly. I love you baby, I mean, BIG GIRL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Party Prep

Layla's party is in 2 days! I'm trying to get as much ready beforehand as I can. I'm getting the cake baked today and plan on spending tomorrow cleaning the house and decorating the cake. We're going to attempt a hula girl using one of those pans that come with the barbie-type doll. I am hoping it turns out okay! I took a couple classes, but am still an ameatur when it comes to cakes! You can see the one I did for Layla's Hannah Montana party here and Blake's Totally Gross Party here.

Since we're going with the Luau theme, I wanted to make some Hibiscus flower lollipops. I've never done the molded candies before, but they were pretty easy! I just used the Wilton Candy Melts.

Here they are packaged up for the goody buckets. I'm putting some in there, and some in a bucket on display.

I also made some little flip-flops to put in little bowls on the table.

Instead of goody bags, we're doing goody buckets.

And here are our soapsicles all packaged up!

My next post will be after the party, have a great weekend!

Easter Pics & a Tag

I apologize in advance for my not-so-great photos. I NEED A NEW CAMERA!

Anyway... on to the photos. Morgan's basket:

Blake's:

Layla's:


Layla was *SO* excited this year for Easter! I think more than she was for Christmas. I hard a hard time deciding what the bunny should bring this year, but I think he did okay.

On to the egg hunt! All I heard all morning was egg talk. They were both looking out the windows trying to decide whether or not the Easter bunny had hidden any eggs.

Morgan & her giant duck from Nonnie.

Going through the goods so far...

The only shot I got of the two of them together.

About this dress... instead of buying Morgan an Easter dress, we used one of Layla's. When she (Layla) was born, her grandparents bought two dresses when they picked out her coming home dress. She never wore this one, so we thought it would be cute for Morgan to wear it.

All that fun can be pretty tiring...

I've been tagged by Rebecca at Our Back Porch!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:

• Layla's Birthday Party this weekend
• Maybe going to the beach this summer
• Going back to Disney
• Seeing my babies grow up
• Getting a horse one day
• NEW CAMERA!!
• Going back to school (kind of)
• Going back to Virginia

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

• Went to the Dr
• Picked up Morgan's portraits at Sears
• Put together the goody buckets for the party
• Wrapped Layla's presents
• Vacuumed the house
• Went to Publix
• Read blogs
• Talked to a friend on the phone

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

• Win the lottery!
• Quit my job
• Be a SAHM
• Find more time for crafting
• Figure out how to keep the house clutter-free!
• Be less picky of an eater
• Go back in time and spend more time with my mom before she died
• Travel more

8 Things I Am Currently Watching:

• Deadliest Catch (new season starts tonight!)
• In the Motherhood
• Lost
• 30 Rock
• My Name is Earl
• The Office
• Axmen
• Gilmore Girls (Love this show!!)

I know not everyone likes to be tagged, so I wont pick names. I'll just tag everyone! If you want to participate, feel free!

Egg Time!

While I never bothered getting out any Easter decorations this year(I kept saying to myself that I needed to get them out, then it was a week to go and I figured, why bother?), there was no way we could go without coloring eggs. Thanks to our super producing flock of "vultures", we didnt need to buy eggs this year. It's kind of hard to tell in the photo, but there are white, blue & brown eggs in this pot.

They started out with these bright, colorful eggs. But it wasnt long before they started mixing colors, and we ended up with mostly green or orangish-colored eggs. They had fun though.

I usually just get the regular old Paas dye. I think it works the best and makes the prettiest colors. But this year, I figured they were old enough to really decorate the eggs, so I picked up a kit at Walmart that looked like gold-leafing. They really enjoyed this! They should have included more glue in the kit, and I can only imagine the drama that would insue had I let the kids apply the glue themselves (VERY sticky), but overall, I think it was good.

I hope you have a Happy Easter!!

I found stuff!

I needed to look for stuff for the Pink & Green swap, so I decided to stop at the thrift where I found the quilts. I guess they dont have the auctions anymore, but they had a ton of stuff, including two more quilts. I didnt get either, but one had large arrows on it, and the other was Sunbonnet Sue.

What I did get, was Jadeite! I almost jumped for joy! Lol. I have never seen this stuff anywhere locally, except for antique stores, and I am not paying those prices.

I also found an old glass insulator.

And this old Budweiser crate! Mike always says I never get him anything, so when I saw this I knew I wanted to get it. It's the first time I've found an alcohol crate. So far I have soda & fruit crates.

I was pretty sad when I looked at the back of it and saw this:

But I decided to get it anyway. For $2, why not? It will probably just be put on display anyway, and that's the back, the front looks fine.

Here's a shot of the shelf in my living room where I have the insulators.

Have you found anything good lately?

Randomness...

... from my world today. I dont have anyhting too exciting to share, but I'm blogging anyway, lol.

I hate to say it, but this tv has been sitting right there, in our kitchen since December. I am beyond ready for it to go, but Mike is afraid that once we get rid of it, one of the other tvs will die. While it irritates me, the two boy kitties (Possum & Hisser) really enjoy watching it. (check out the glowing eyes in the tv screen!)

I really have to get my butt in gear for Layla's party. I spent today & yesterday getting Easter & her gifts finished up. Now I've just got to finish getting things ready. I plan on making hibiscus flower lollipops & little flip flops out of these candy melts.

And I really need to finish the soapsicles.

I also need to finish these two projects I'm working on for the Pink & Green swap.

We are doing a garden again this year. We've planted green beans, onions, tomatoes,green peppers, basil, oregano, black-eyed peas, corn and strawberries, and we need to get the butternut squash in the ground. We just planted this past weekend, and the green beans and onions are already popping up.

Cute shot of Morgan with crusty milk mouth.

And a little something I whipped up for her. I had a pack of plain white onesies and decided to do something with them. I have a couple yards of this Alexander Henry fabric I have been wanting to do something with. Since I still havent messed with the sewing machine, so I thought I would go the no-sew route.

It kind of seems like it needs something. Maybe not? I thought about a blanket stitch around the fruit, but that would be tricky up there where the stems are. Any other ideas? Or should I just leave it alone?

End of Week Fun

So I didnt really follow through with the plan to do a different activity each day during sprink break. But I tried, that counts for something, right? lol. It was rainy and grey here yesterday for most of the day, so I didnt feel like running to the store, and we never got the Easter stuff out. The kids had asked to go see Monsters vs. Aliens, and we told them we would think about it. Mike came home early, so the kids & headed to the theatre.

Yea, it felt pretty odd carrying a camera to the movies, lol. But the kids really enjoyed the movie, it was cute! Layla killed almost half that bag by herself.

That was really all we did yesterday. But today, we headed over to a Hydroponic U-Pick strawberry farm that we saw advertised in the paper.

Lots & lots of berries!

A close up of the bushes.

Sorry, a little blurry.



Picking away... even though she wont even try them! She also got "lost" at one point, she's shorter than the bushes!









The haul. Might not look like much, but trust me, it's quite a bit. Four pounds of berries for $4. You can't beat that price! Now I just need to decide what to do with them all. I'm thinking about trying some jam. Not sure what else though. Anyone have any good strawberry recipes?

Have a good weekend!

One Month

We interrupt this regularly scheduled Spring Break posting... because HOLY CRAP, Morgan is a month old today. How is that possible?? One month ago, right now, I was sitting up in the hospital bed, waiting for Pitocin. I swear it flies by.

One month.

Of bottles. Of diapers. Of interrupted sleep. Of sweet snuggles. Of tiny laundry. Of total cuteness. Of watching a brother & sister create a bond with their new sister. Of wondering how she sleeps through her LOUD brother & sister. Of cries. Of washing bottles. Of seeing a tiny baby cuddle with her dad. Of dreading going back to work. Of sitting on the couch together. Of a messy house (well, not the whole month). Of a time I will never forget. Of time I will miss terribly.

One month.

Of getting to know Morgan.

It's pretty easy to see, we all love her dearly!

As for the Spring Break activities, I was lazy today. But it's Spring Break, that's allowed, right? I'm pretty tired today and didnt plan well. We never got around to getting the Easter decorations out yesterday, so I figured we would make cupcakes so I can try out a frosting recipe. Well, when I checked the pantry, the cake mix was expired, lol. So I guess today is just for relaxing. Have a good one!

Spring Break... Day 3

Just a cute picture of Morgan, cause I havent shared any in a few days. Happy April Fool's Day! I saw a cute idea in the new Family Fun that came, so I thought I would try it on the kids this morning. You put a couple drops of food coloring in the bottom of the cereal bowl. Add the dry cereal. And then when you pour the milk in infront of them, it changes color!

Unfortunatly, my daughter is TERRIBLY picky about her food, and this was her reaction:

It was later I realized she thought I had put STRAWBERRY milk in her cereal. Poor thing, lol. Blake didnt want cereal, so I guess the joke was on me.

So for today's activity, we made butter! The directions I found online seemed simple enough. And they were! Of course, the ones I found said to use cream without carrageenan or any other additives, but that's all I could find. It still worked.

Some of these are blurry, but you can still see the changes happening in the cream:

And we have seperation!

Squishing the butter together:

Butter!

And buttermilk!

Check out the eyes, lol...

Now it's time to wash the butter.

Layla seems to be miss happy homemaker. Blake didnt really seem to interested in today's fun.

Check out the end result!

That's it for today! Blake had an appointment at the dermatologist and I need to work in the garden some. Not sure what tomorrow holds yet... I'm thinking maybe fabric covered eggs? Have a good one!