Smiles And Smooches

Last Minute Princess Party

2010-01-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

Well, we cancelled our birthday snow trip for my daughter due to a bad storm. Plan B was to have a last minute birthday party. My daughter loves tea parties and she has a couple Princess tea sets. So there we have it - A Royal Tea Party.

DECORATIONS: Luckily her birthday comes around the time of Valentine's Day. There are plenty of pink candies and hearts perfect for the theme. Instead of having tea, I figured I could use the teacups to serve ice cream. I had a plastic lace runner from our wedding that we never used. I cut a long piece of it to use as a tablecloth. I had some tulle leftover from my daughter's baby shower that I tied behind the chairs. I then tied a ribbon around a few tootsie pops and used them as wands. I placed a few with the tulle on the chairs also. When I was at Michael's I found some plastic horse and carriage decorations that were on clearance. I added some mini plastic flowers to them and placed them around the table. The kids and I gathered a few of my daughters dress up items. Such as pearl bracelets, wands, feathered boa, and costumes. As well as her princess crayons, toys, and paper dolls.

CUPCAKES: The kids like making cupcakes so I also bought a couple boxes of cupcake mix. After baking the cupcakes we decorated it with pink frosting and Princess sprinkles. I had a couple different sizes of paper doilies, one of them with an 8-inch diameter. I folded it in half and cut it down the middle. I cut the center part of it off to where I had only the design part of the doily. I then wrapped it around a cupcake and cut off the excess. I taped it on the inside and had a beautiful cupcake wrapper.

COOKIES: The kids asked if we could make cookies also. So I did the quick and easy way and bought a package of sugar cookie mix and cookie icing. Then I started to think, wouldn't it be easy if I can place some food coloring on a rubber stamp and stamp the image of a princess on the cookie. I thought it was a brilliant idea! The kids would be able to help. I stopped at Michael's to buy some stamps and gel food coloring. I figured if it doesn't work I would still be able to use the stamps for other decorations. As soon as I returned home I looked on the internet to see if it has been done before and if I can get some simple instructions. Wouldn't you know it, I found instructions on Martha Stewart's site - http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/conversation-heart-cookies. Martha, you are the greatest! I baked and decorated the cookies with the icing. I was a little sad with the way they came out, but we still had to stamp them. My kids (and I) were impatient to let them dry. At the end of the night, when they seemed dry enough, I wet a folded piece of paper towel. I placed some fuschia food coloring along the top. I folded the paper towel to mix the food coloring and spread it out a bit. Unfolded it and tried one of the stamps to a paper plate (another use of the stamp). Then I tried a cookie. Not bad. Since the icing wasn't completely dry it left an indentation of the stamp as well. I can't say all of the cookies came out perfectly but my kids had so much fun making them.

THE PROBLEMS: We have a large family. I know most of them would be able to come to a last minute party. Problem was that it was raining all day and all night. The ground was wet so we couldn't have a party outside and there's not much room to have a large amount of people inside. Then came the questions and the concerns. "How many people should we invite?" "Who should we invite?" "Will somebody get hurt if they found out they were not invited?" "What time do we have the party?" So I took a few pictures of our unfinished table, our cookies, and our cupcakes. I placed the cookies and cupcakes on a tray. I grabbed some candy to throw in a bag and off we went to my visit my husband’s cousin and her family. We ordered some pizzas and had a great time. My daughter had a great birthday. No worries, the decorations didn’t come to waste. My parents came over the next morning and we had a Princess themed breakfast.

2010-01-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

I had to put the blog aside for awhile on the count of how busy it has been, but I'm back. I figured this would be a good time to return. We will be celebrating my baby girl's fourth birthday!! Could she really be 4?! I can't believe it. We had originally planned a snow trip for her birthday. Unfortunately, we have to cancel due to bad weather and possible road closures. Now for PLAN B...hmmm. What is PLAN B???

FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER PART II - DINING & SHOPPING

2009-10-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

PREPARATION OF THE FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER

PART II

It has only been a few days and I already changed the category from Saving & Shopping to Dining & Shopping. I have added more to this folder. I realize now that this may end up becoming another binder. Anyway, here is what I have done and added.

I’m a little bit of a coupon newbie. The first thing I wanted to do was try to understand coupons to get the most out of them.

This site really helped - http://www.couponing101.com/getting-started.

SOURCES FOR COUPONS:
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Manufacturer Websites
• Coupons.com
• Smartsource
• Redplum
• CoolSavings
• Box Tops 4 Education
• eBay
• Craigslist

E-COUPONS: (Can be added to your shopper cards)
• Shortcuts
• P&G eSaver
• Cellfire
• Upromise (I love this website! Save funds for college with purchases. How awesome is that!)

I have printed a list of the e-coupons added and placed them in clear sheets. You should also read the following sites regarding paper coupons and e-coupons:
http://www.southernsavers.com/2009/01/using-e-coupons-paper-coupons/
http://www.dealseekingmom.com/using-ecoupons-versus-paper-coupons/
http://mommysnacks.blogspot.com/2009/01/e-coupons-change-in-redemption-policy.html

FOR COUPON TIPS:
• http://www.mygrocerydeals.com/
• http://www.couponmom.com/
• http://www.becentsable.net/
• http://www.savings.com/blog/post/30-Deal-Hunters-to-FOllow-on-Twitter.html

Here is what I did to set up the binder. I loved the pocket portfolios because they had pockets to hold coupon books, weekly ads, etc. I used clear plastic baseball card holders to sort the coupons. As shown above. We already had them in my son’s collection. Since some stores will accept the store coupons with the manufacturer coupons for a product, I did not separate them. I didn’t want to flip back and forth between the coupons. I’m going to want to see them together. Plus, it adds to the wow factor when you see them next to each other during a good sale! To save room I did stack similar coupons in one pocket with the newest towards the back. I also used front and back to display the coupons. Different sized pocket sheets can be used to hold larger coupons. I also like the business card holder sheets to hold the shopper and gift cards.

I keep moving/adding and tossing coupons. I find that at times I may have only one page of coupons for one category. I don’t have a large collection of coupons yet, so I didn’t want pages of tabbed dividers to deal with. I decided to use a blank label with a piece of scotch tape over it. This way I can use the dry erase marker to write the new category for the sheet. I just have to be careful when I turn the pages to not rub the marker off. This works for me. I know there are other labels out there that will do this now, but I am trying to save the money.

CATEGORIES:

• Baby/Kids

• Bakery/Produce

• Baking

• Beverages

• Canned Goods

• Cereal/Breakfast

• Cleaning/Household

• Condiments/Spices

• Dairy

• Deli/Meat

• Dental Hygiene

• Diet/Nutrition

• Entrees

• Feminine Care

• Frozen

• Hair Care

• Health/First Aid

• Make-Up

• Miscellaneous

• Paper/Plastic

• Personal Care

• Pet Care

• Razors/Shaving Creams

• Restaurants

• Snacks

• Sweets

OTHER ITEMS:

• Personal Info Sheet (With clothing sizes, gift ideas, etc.)

• Wish/Gift List Sheet (Wish Lists, Maintenance projects, Birthdays, etc.)

• Product Price Sheet (For all of our most bought items)

• Recipe Cards (So I have our favorite recipes or recipes for the week)
(All 4 sheets can be downloaded here-http://www.scribd.com/doc/20465191/Family-Binder-SHOPPING-Forms)

• The Ultimatest Grocery list – found at http://www.grocerylists.org/

• Dining Etiquette Guide - http://whatscookingamerica.net/Menu/DiningEtiquetteGuide.htm

• Etiquette Guide for kids - http://www.emilypost.com/emilyseveryday/kids/tip_cards.htm

• Tipping Guide - http://www.emilypost.com/everyday/tips_on_tipping.htm

• Menus from various restaurants

• Restaurant.com Gift Certificates

That’s it for now. Feel free to share your ideas. Please do. I would love to know what others have done. Especially for a coupon binder. Which this is turning out to be.

Next: FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER PART III - EMERGENCY & SITTER INFO.

FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER PART I - THE BINDER

2009-09-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

PREPARATION OF THE FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER

PART I

It has been very busy the past month. There’s so much going on. We have sporting events, school functions, work trips, and other little things. In fact, this past year has really been busy and stressful. My husband broke his leg (his tibia bone) playing soccer a few months ago. He’s still going to physical therapy for it. My grandmother died a couple months after that. We discovered a piece of our ancestry that was never told to us. There was the house burglary that we had around the same time. I recently had car problems. We took it into the repair shop at the dealership. The estimated price plus what we have already put into it was too much. We decided to get another car. We once again have two car payments. We just weren’t prepared for any of this.

With everything that has happened this past year; we have decided to get better organized. This means coupons, calendars, budgets, policies, inventories, family trees, and the list goes on. The past few weeks, when I have time, I have been putting together a family binder to manage our life better. Everything is in one place. No more tearing the house apart looking for insurance policies and receipts. If anything happens (knock on wood), the family knows where to look.

The first thing was to research. I found many great ideas and sites to help. I am still putting everything together. I will let you know what I have done and the resources used. This is my first attempt at creating a family binder. It is not going to be perfect and I know I will make some changes. Still, I’m hoping this will be helpful for others that would like to put one together as well.

Here are some great sites that I have found:

What I used:

~ Large Binder
~ Binder Inserts (some optional)
      · Pocket Folders/Portfolios
       · Sheet Protectors
       · Business Card Pages
       · Baseball Card Protectors
       · Zipper Binder Pockets
       · Photo Pages
       · Media Storage Protectors
       · Dividers
       · Plastic Magazine Holders
~ Ribbon
~ Scissors
~ Labels (I used Avery 5163 and 5267)
~ Scotch Tape
~ Dry Erase Marker

I had a little trouble finding categories that work for us. The categories were created after I made a list of what I wanted to add to the binder. I will explain each one in different blogs and why I paired some things with others. I decided to separate each category using pocket portfolios instead of separating them with dividers. This is so they can be easily removed. I could pull the shopping portfolio when I’m going to the grocery store and have it with me. I also wouldn’t want to leave any personal information with a babysitter, but I would want them to have coupons for pizza and emergency information. I can remove the portfolios I don’t want them to see and keep the others in the binder. To keep any of the sheets from falling out of the portfolios, I have used ribbon to bind them together. Ribbon was easily accessible, but I’m sure other items can be used.

Family Binder Categories:

~ Saving & Shopping
~ Emergency & Sitter Info.
~ Leisure & Activities
~ Ancestry & Contacts
~ Personal & Healthcare
~ Household & Financial

Next: FAMILY MANAGEMENT BINDER PART II - SAVING & SHOPPING

Dora Candy Land Birthday Party

2009-09-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is from my Daughter's 3rd Birthday party. I wanted to throw her a Candy Land birthday party. She was excited about it - until she saw a Dora the Explorer pinata. She begged to have a Dora party instead. Luckily, I was able to make us both happy. Hasbro has a Dora Candy Land edition board game.

Hooray! We had our theme!

Here are some great sites for ideas and inspiration:

- http://www.hasbro.com/candyland/en_US/

- http://www.hostesswiththemostess.com/themes/birthday/candyland_birthday_party

- http://amyatlas.com/index.php/main/portfolio/

- http://katherinemariephotography.com/blog/archives/tag/candyland-party

- http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/party_doraexplorer.htm

- http://www.nickjr.com/party/dora-the-explorer/index.jhtml

P.S. Don't forget the ice cream for make your own Sundaes. :)

Vote For My Friends - UVideo Scholarship Challenge

2009-09-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

My friends have entered a contest to win a $1000 scholarship by making a video about technology and everyday life. Please forward to your friends and ask them to vote for video #2 Me N Techonology AND/OR video #4 Technology is Great.

Feel free to post the link on your networking site and ask your friends to vote.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

http://www.connectedwest.org/uvideo/

Take a picture of me, Mama...

2009-09-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Funny Ha Ha

2009-08-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

This one is dedicated to my husband...

- because he thinks he's funny.
Ha Ha. A cupcake on the elliptical while I work out. Funny.

- and because sometimes he is hilarious.
Hee Hee. getting stuck in the tree after using his new saw.

"Don't worry Daddy. It will be okay."

Smiles & Smooches. We love you!

Back to School Cupcakes

2009-08-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to make the graduation cupcakes when my son graduated from kindergarten. I didn't get a chance to. (That was the week our house was burglarized). I had seen the idea on several websites. Such as FamilyFun and Bakerella. I thought I would try it with cupcakes. Since I didn't get to do it then, I decided to do them for back to school. I found the chalkboard cupcake idea on several Flickr pictures. I don't know who to give credit to. I love the idea. The kids loved the cupcakes and they were easy enough for them to help make. Of course, every time I turned around there would be a cupcake missing. Very sneaky!

Movie Night Theme

2009-08-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

Tub of Popcorn Cake - Womansday.com

Posted using ShareThis

This is such a great idea!! I would love to make this cake for one of our next movie nights or Oscar parties. I would probably use red licorice ropes for the vertical stripes instead. I'm not great with frosting.

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Movie Night by Smiles.Smooches on Polyvore.com

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Back to School Cleaning Labels

2009-08-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's Back to School Time!! Hooray!! This means it is time to put away the coloring books and comic books to make way for homework. I spent the weekend cleaning the kids room. My three year old daughter even gave me a pat on the back and said "good job mom". I would have asked for their help, but this needed more attention than hiding toys under the bed. I created some colorful labels to start with. Feel free to download. Laminate, cut, and write on labels with dry erase markers to use over and over again.

http://www.scribd.com/full/18417782?access_key=key-dh183n6owzm0getifqa

When Poop Happens...

2009-08-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

Ever since my daughter has been potty trained I have tried to teach her the difference between tinkle (or pee pee) and poop (or poo poo). We must have confused her at some point. When she says she needs to go poop it means she needs to tinkle. This is what she has decided to call it and now I am unable to correct her.

It has really brought some memorable moments. Like the time we were in a crowded restaurant and she yelled out that she had to go poop. We sure had laughs that day.

I will never forget the day we were in the bookstore and everything was quiet. I told the kids that it was time to go. I needed to go to the restroom. My son ran off to get one more book and my daughter yelled out “Brother! We are leaving! Mama has to go poop!” That was pretty memorable also.

She needed to go to the restroom after a nap when we were camping. She had just got up and REALLY had to go. We ran down the path to the restrooms. There was only one restroom for girls and it was occupied. My daughter was doing her little pee pee dance waiting for her turn to go. When the young girl stepped out, my daughter said, “I hate that girl! Mama, did she go poop?!” My son would have been shocked to hear his sister say the bad “H” word. HATE. I can’t tell you how many times he has come up to me and sadly whispered that his little sister said, “the H word”. He doesn’t get it from me. I will be the first to say I HATE long lines and hot weather. I can’t wait to hear what he says when he finds out that they call this week’s football practice “He11 Week”. That will be another story.

Camping Photos

2009-08-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Camping List :)

2009-08-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

We went camping last weekend to get out of the hot Phoenix weather. We had a blast. I will post some pictures shortly. We usually go with family or friends that are somewhat expert campers and usually have everything needed for camping. This time it was just us. I did my research and composed a list of ideas needed for camping. Crossed half of it off that I felt was not needed. It was a three night weekend for four people after all. We did wish we had a hammock though. I updated my list when we returned and wanted to share the information I gathered and my ideas. I have also added a short song list (not camp songs) but rather a camping related playlist to set the mood and a small movie suggestion list. There's also emergency contact cards, ideas for s'mores and banana boats, a blank shopping list, plus links that will be helpful. I hope you enjoy! Smiles and Smooches.

http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/14159156/174kfr9p0mpmy9x3zuul

Mommies have homework too...

2009-07-18T07:38:00.001-07:00

My kids are big fans of National Geographic or Animal Planet shows. They are curious about everything. Which means questions. "Mom, how many animals can live in the ocean AND on land?" "What's more dangerous? A sea urchin or a sea cucumber?" "Are clown fish the only fish that can live in an anemone?" They look at me with their cute little questionable eyes, because mommies know everything. Ha! Time to do some homework.

The question of the day: HOW MANY TUBIE FEET DOES A STARFISH HAVE? Five. Right? WRONG! What I counted were the tapering arms. Actually, starfish can have more than five arms. Some can have up to 40. Silly Mama. A starfish can have hundreds of feet. When you flip a starfish over you see lines of grooves going down the arms. The tube feet are between the grooves. The tube feet are used to walk (slowly), climb, and grab food. I know the next question will be "What do starfish eat?". Many sea stars eat meat. Some eat oysters and clams. Others eat sea anemones and sponges. Some eat other starfish. I see this as my chance to break from the question and give them tummy tickles and zerberts. I just hope I don't get the question, "where do baby starfish come from?". Where other babies come from. Their mommies and daddies go to the baby hospital where the sea stork drops them off. Let's hope the stork doesn't eat the baby starfish. Again, my cue for tummy tickles and zerberts. OR I can take the easy way out and say "go ask Daddy".

My Source: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/starfish-info.htm/printable

Cutie Patootie Booties

2009-07-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

Recipe (Makes about 6-10 Booties):

1 lb powdered sugar
1 tbs meringue powder
3 1/2 oz water
1 tsp cream of tartar
Marshmallows (Two per Baby Bootie)
Small cups (One per Baby Bootie)
Icing colors of your choice
Pastry bags (At least one for every color)
Star cake tip #27
Small candies or nuts
Possibly a strong hand and good friends to help

Directions

ICING: Mix first four ingredients for the icing in mixing bowl until icing thickens (about 10 minutes. (Or use your own stiff icing recipe.) Divide icing into bowls. This depends on colors used. You will need more icing for the base of the bootie and less icing for the ribbon and top of booties. Fill pastry bags with icing using a #27 cake tip.

BASE OF THE BOOTIE: Place a dot of icing on the rounded side of one of the marshmallows. This will act as the "glue". Connect another marshmallow to the area with the icing. As shown below. Place a dot of icing on the top flat surface of one of the marshmallows. Place a small cup on top of the marshmallow that holds the icing. You now have a base for the bootie. place dots of icing on the bottom of the marshmallows and stick them to an index card (optional). This will keep the bootie from sliding around or falling over when decorating.

DESIGN AROUND BOOTIE: Starting at bottom of marshmallow base use an up down motion going all the way around the marshmallows. This should be done with two rows on the marshmallows and two rows around the cup. On the top of the marshmallow that does not hold the cup make a flower design. Like a daisy. Sorry I don't have a sample illustration of this. This is where the bow will go.

RIBBON AND LOOPS: Make the ribbon using a color of your choice. Squeeze a line of icing starting from the front and going around where the marshmallow and cup connect. Ending back to the front of the bootie. Drag the icing from the top of the ribbon going down to the bottom of the ribbon to make the loops.

THE BOW: Make two bow loops starting from the center near the cup. It will look like a figure 8. Make two laces going down from the center of the bow so that it slighly goes over the toes of the bootie. One going from center right. The other going from center left. Make a dot of icing where the laces start to create the "knot".

TOP OF BOOTIE: Make star tips on top of the bootie starting from the cup and pulling up slightly. Do this all the way around the cup.

Let the booties dry completely before handling. You can than pull the index card from the bottom. Fill the cups with your choice of goodies. Decorate with your choice of wrapping and ribbon or leave as is.

Like I said. I was demoted from actually making the booties. If you have any questions on my instructions, please let me know. I can ask the experts. I did get their permission to post the recipe by the way. :)

P.S. I apologize if the pictures come out bad. My house was burglarized and my cameras were stolen. The pictures are from a new camcorder that I haven't quite figured out completely.

Love Keeps Growing Baby Shower

2009-07-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

I found pictures of a baby shower I hosted when I was going through old albums. The shower was for good friends of ours. They had a little girl already and were expecting a baby boy. The theme came when I found an invitation with a little girl pulling her baby brother in a wagon. The invite had butterflies and frogs. Sorry I wish I could remember who made it. I will post the link if I can find it. They had lots of great invitations. See below for other items in the picture. This was from March 2005.

Crib Bumper Pad: Patterned with ducks, frogs, and insects. I found it at Marshalls for $5.00.
Veggie Bouquet and Basket: The basket was from Trader Joe's. It also was around $5.00. I love that place! I will post the recipe for the veggie bouquet, but I have seen more advanced bouquets since.
Red Wagon/Napkins: I bought some miniature red wagons for decorations. I folded square white napkins to look like diapers and placed them in the larger of the wagons.
Cake: I love baking but am horrible when it comes to frosting. I used fondant to make the cake decorations. I figured I played with playdough, how hard can it be. Right? Ha!
Booties: Like I said, HORRIBLE when it comes to frosting. My mom and sister made the booties. I tried a couple and was demoted to making the base of the booties. (I will post the recipe and instructions.)
Baby Food Jars w/ Flowers: My little boy was a toddler at the time. We had a ton of baby food jars. I cleaned them up, filled them with water, and added flowers for decorations. It was simple, yet elegant.
Rubber Duckies (Frogs and insects not shown): I found some rubber duckies and placed them around the food and gift tables. As well as frogs and insects. I also had blue punch in a bowl and placed a couple rubber ducks floating on top. New and sterilized of course. The recipe was similar to the following - http://family.go.com/food/recipe-ar-16408-baby-blue-punch-t/

Take a picture of us Mama...

2009-07-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

Every little penny counts...

2009-07-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

OUR TOP TEN DISNEYLAND SAVINGS TIPS

1. MONEY JAR: First things first, gathering all of the loose change. We go through purses, wallets, pockets and couches gathering what we can find. We usually fill up 1/4 of the jar just doing this. At the end of each day we will throw any change and/or dollar bills we have accumulated.

2. SAVINGS ACCOUNT: We set up a savings account just for the trip. When the jar gets a good sum of money or is full, we roll up the coins and deposit them into the account. We also deposit a small amount of money from every paycheck.

3. EATING OUT: The best diet I have been on is the budget diet! I have lost the most weight during this time. There's very little going out to eat. We have brought our lunch, snacks, and drinks to work. There's no trips to the vending machines and bye bye greasy french fries. Most of our meals will be good ol' home cooking.

4. MOVIE THEATRES: Movie theatres are so expensive. They are fun though. Did you know during the summer, some theatres will play (older) movies for $1? It certainly is something to check out. It is also a good time to use the gift cards that we receive during the holidays and birthdays.

5. MOVIE RENTALS: We save much more renting movies than going to the theaters. Better yet, checking them out from the local library. The libraries usually have a good selection of movies. There's probably a movie we haven't seen in awhile or one we have wanted to see. We can save the little extra money by canceling our video rental membership. The money we usually spend each month will now go into our vacation savings.

6. PUBLIC LIBRARY: Speaking of public libraries, they sometimes have events or reading programs. I live in the Phoenix area. Right now our public library has a "Read Your Way to The Ballpark" program. Have fun reading while winning prizes - like ballpark tickets. The online site has an area for downloadable music and books. It has become one of my favorite sites. The kids like the kids section where they can read e-books (Tumble Books) and play games. It saves lots of time from going out. It saves time and the money on gas.

7. FREE EVENTS: I hear people say there's nothing going on. I usually find a ton of free events looking online. We have done movies and concerts in the park. Some of the museums will occasionally have discounted (sometimes free) entrance or events on certain days. The Phoenix Public Library also has the Culture Pass where we can "check out" museum or zoo entrance tickets.

8. KIDS: As I said in a previous blog, give the kids money for chores. Make it fun for them. I will sometimes give them 5 cents for every toy they pick up during commercial breaks or a song. It also helps to keep my daughter from saying "I'm too tired” or “Tomorrow". We teach the kids about money and the value of a dollar. Keeping their interest about wanting to save money usually works. We try to keep with the theme. We play Disney games and read Disney related books. I make them Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast and give them Donald Duck juice.

9. GROCERIES/ESSENTIALS: Time to clip those coupons. We look for coupons and bargain shop. We do price comparisons and do our research. When we do our grocery shopping, we may add our total amount saved into the jar as well. Along with any change that we receive back.

10. E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sometimes our favorite places and product companies will send discounts and sale notifications through e-mail. I usually subscribe to different places located here but also those around our vacation destination. For example restaurants, grocery stores, department stores, and products we use. Since we are going to Disneyland, the Disney Store is a must to subscribe to. A sale for a $5.00 tee beats the price for buying one there. They also sell some of the Disneyland products like Mickey ear hats.

I tried to keep it short. This is just a start. More to come later. ˚O˚

Dinosaur Dreams and Popcorn Wishes...

2009-07-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Both of my kids LOVE dinosaurs. Especially my little girl.

[As soon as we would get home after a long day of work]

My Little Princes: "Mom can I watch Jurassic Park"?
Me: "not right now Princess, we have to clean your room.
Princess: "Mama, can I watch Jurassic Park."
Me: Not right now. We have to feed the pets.
Princess: "Mom, can I watch Jurassic Park"
Me: Not right now. We have to wash the dishes.
"Mother, can I watch Jurassic Park."
Me: Not right now. We have to water the plants.
"PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE??"

Of course, I gave in.

This went on for two months. Until they saw the commercial for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

This time it was both kids: "Mom [or Dad], can we watch ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS?" (They always said the full name too.)

So we bargained with them: "If you clean your room, we will go see ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS."

They cleaned their room. Played again. Pulled out their toys. Cleaned the room again. Asked to go see ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS again. Played clubhouse with blankets. Cleaned the room again. Until finally it was time to go see ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS.

They were so excited. They talked about dinosaurs. Ate popcorn. Laughed. Slept. Yep, half way through the movie they fell asleep. We were able to wake my son - a little. However, my daughter dreamt about dinosaurs while we watched ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS.

Michael Jackson Memorial Themed Food

2009-07-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am saddened with the death of Michael Jackson. He will be missed and will never be forgotten. He has been an idol for so many. I remember the first time I played one of my mom's Jackson 5 records. I could not believe that someone so young could have such an incredible voice. I listened to the memorial while working. I struggled not to cry. We had a memorial tribute day at work last week. Several people brought in themed snacks. Here are some of the items that were brought in.

King of Pop - Haribo Happy Cola
Black or White - Oreo Cookies and Fudgsicle Bars
Pepsi Soda
The Wiz - Cheez Whiz
MJ and ET - Reese's Pieces

Daily Fork has 10 menu ideas for an MJ Memorial. Click below to view.
http://www.dailyfork.com/2009/06/10_menu_suggestions_for_a_mich.php

We love you Michael!!!

We're Going To Disneyland...Maybe

2009-07-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

The kids have been begging to go to Disneyland. My three year old princess would sneak into our bed at night...almost every night. We finally told her that if she slept in her bed for a whole night and every night, MAYBE we will plan a trip to Disneyland. She has been sleeping in her bed almost every night since. Okay, so MAYBE we take them to Disneyland, but MAYBE they have to buy their own admission ticket. My six year old son grabbed his piggy bank. Started counting the money. Turns out they already have $60. They have to earn the extra money by doing chores. The idea: They will get ten cents for every chore and five cents for every toy they pick up before bedtime. When they ask for a candy at the store, they will have a choice of the candy OR the money for the Disneyland savings. I'm crossing my fingers they choose the money.

To Be continued...

My First Blog

2009-07-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m not really a funny kind of person, but my kids are HILARIOUS! I have so many stories. I have been told MANY times to write everything down so I never forget. I forget. The phrase “the kids did something cute today…but I can’t remember what it was" is common for me. So this is for family, friends, and memories. I also come across cute ideas and crafts that I think others would enjoy. Some things are worth sharing. Some things are worth …