Winding Down (The end of Spring Break)

Well we have come to this-Friday and the end of fun as we know it ;) For a little while anyways. This past week has been soooo relaxing and nice. The weather was beautiful. Don't you just love it when the kids are out of school?-no backpacks to check, no notebooks to sign-Sigh. It must all come to an end. Let me recap our week. Last Saturday we decided to take our kids to Six Flags. Thank goodness we went that day instead of Monday-when we had it planned in the first place! The news reported that the backlog of traffic went all the way out to the freeway :-O So we get there and we go in to take our pictures for the season passes we bought and the line is up the wazoo! I hate waiting in line. I said "You've got to be kidding me!". I thought we were in a recession?! Why is it packed?! Anyway, luck o'the Irish , as soon as I muttered those words, they opened up another lane for print n' pay only! That was us!!! YAY! So off we went to ride our rides. The li...

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Let there be light {Teen Boy's Room part 2}

I've gotten a little side tracked- it being Spring Break and all- and I haven't been paying much attention to the boy's room. But I had a couple of projects in the works so I decided to wrap those up this past weekend. First I needed to get a snazzy lamp for my boy. I needed a pop of color in this black and grey room (he picked them-- Oy!) So we headed down to Hobby Lobby and we bought a yard of fabric. I wanted something bright and happy like him :) We picked this out:                I love the subtle variations of color. If this is your first time covering                a shade, I suggest you start off with a non-patterned fabric. Then I went to Home Goods store where they have the coolest selection of lamps I've ever seen (and they're cheap too). We picked a really cool lamp with a stainless steel look stand {of which I forgot to take ...

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Let's have a Giveaway! Tupperware Shape O Toy

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED** It's been a while so what the hey! One lucky reader will be receiving this UBER cool toy from Tupperware. It is brand new out of the package. I have this toy from my Tupperware days and let me tell you it's a great toy for your little one. From the Tupperware site: Here's a toy that grows with a child, from infants to pre-schoolers. As a rolling rattle, it has lots of open spaces for infants to grab. Toddlers can use the 10 pieces to match the shapes on the toy, allowing them to identify shapes and develop coordination and dexterity. Each piece also has a number on one side with the corresponding number of dots on the other to teach preschoolers number recognition and counting. •6½" Dia. (16.5 cm) •Two handles are easy to grip and pull apart •Shapes are sized for child safety •Shaped pieces store inside the ball to keep them from getting lost •Red and Blue ball with 10 Yellow shapes •Ages 6 months and up. Item ...

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One Teen Boy's Room {Part 1}

At the beginning of the year I posted about several rooms in my house that SEVERELY need some help. One of those rooms is my Big Guy's room. He is 13 and has been ready to have his own space for quite some time now. Up until a month ago, he was rooming with the little guy-who is 8. Yeah. I know. Time to cut the cord, little one. The little guy has NOT been thrilled that big brother will be having his own room. He loves his big brother so much (it's actually very sweet) that he wants to be around him ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME! The feeling is not always mutual though, so the big guy was ANXIOUS to move out. First I needed to find some paint for his room. When we first moved into this house this room had clouds on the ceiling and a picket fence wallpaper around the room. Yeah, GROSS. So after we removed the hideous wallpaper and blue sky, we painted it a nice neutral beige because this used to be my mom's room. BUTTTTT now my task is to transform this into the ULTIMATE T...

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Weekend Wrap Up

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity. From the usual and hated laundry, cleaning the house and running errands, to the being thrust into organizing the disaster area that is my little guy's room- Saturday was an exhausting day . We had the missionaries over for dinner Saturday night and since we had had a usually hectic day, I thought we should just pick up some pizzas from our new favorite pizza joint- Durkin's. About an hour before dinner, the missionaries called and asked for a ride to our house. What? I thought, can't you ride your bikes? Nevermind, I told them SUUUUREEE my hubby can pick them up. At that time the hubster announced that he needed to shower. So I told him you better hurry up because that hour is gonna be up like this {snap}. I called in the pizza order and decided to go pick it up about 30 mins. before dinner time. Pleeennnntttyyy of time I thought. I had actually gone earlier and picked up some bagged salad, french bread and orange sherbe...

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Easy Gift Wrapping Station

I have always wanted to have a gift wrapping station. So much so, that I once bought one of those cheap plastic hanging thingies with the dividers for wrapping paper rolls, etc. But you know they still look kinda messy and after a while it ripped apart. So I searched and searched until I found this: Pantry Door Rack And a light bulb went off! I could turn this into a gift wrapping station! It's versatile, inexpensive and can hang on any door :) I ordered it immediately. It was simple to put together and I like that you can put the baskets where you want. Now the trick to having a good wrapping station is to get some good quality wrapping paper in some simple generic colors. Colors you can use over and over for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, etc. Add some pretty ribbons, gift tags and you're set. Here are some pics of my gift wrapping station:   Since I do most of my crafting in this room I decided to hang the wrapping station on this closet door. No mor...

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2 Bites of Awesomeness! {Cake Pops}

Who likes to eat cake? (raises hand s ) Who likes to eat cake with built in frosting AND covered in chocolatey goodness? How about with a sprinklin' of candies and chocolates? Sound good? Well here's a recipe you're going to be making over and over. Yeah, they're THAT good. Cake pops are very simple to make. Here's what you'll need: 1 box of your favorite cake mix (mine is Duncan Hines Golden Butter) 1 can of your favorite frosting Parchment paper Candies for coating lollipop sticks (found at craft stores) sprinkles, chocolate bits Saucepan Heat proof bowl Cookie Sheet Styrofoam blocks You are going to prepare you cake as usual. Bake it and let it cool. Take it and crumble it into a large bowl. You will then take 3/4 of the can of frosting and mash it all together with your hands. I find that I rinse my hands off a few times to take the sticky-ness off them. Take some of the cake/frosting mixture and form into balls about 1 inch. Put them on ...

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