Toys R Us birthday club

Have you registered your child for the Toys R Us birthday club yet? Their coupons have improved this year, so you might want to register them!

Here’s what is being reported to be included in some mailings:

• $3 off a $3 purchase (came in a Birthday Card-I got this one!)
  
• $5/$25 purchase
• Birthday planner

It seems to be random on what coupons you get but give it a shot. If you stop by Toys R Us on their birthday and they get a birthday crown and a Happy Birthday balloon!

(Thanks Printable Deals!)

30 sucks gift!

In honor of my 30 (and holding) birthday this week here's a darling adult birthday gift idea called.....30 SUCKS! Happy birthday to me!

Go here for the detailed information from the sisters stuff blog.

Heartland Paper baby shower paper booties filled with candy!

These would be inexpensive but impressive as a baby shower party favor. Another idea would be make a pair for a new mommy in your Bible class, a topper for a diaper cake, neighbor had a baby, pregnant friend, teacher, or for a girly party favor.

Aren't they just precious?

"Ca-ute!"

Go HERE for the details and a few more paper crafts.

Go here for the easy printable template

Dinosaur 5 year old birthday party!

My daughter and I attended this Dinosaur Party. It was pretty cool!The basement decorated in streamers. They had dinosaur sounds playing which created a great ambiance.

Here we are looking down to the streamer volcano that covered up their TV unit.

It's a dark photo but you get the idea of the erupting volcano!Check out the neat dinosaur and erupting volcano cake. The 5 candles are on the table below.

The dinosaur cake plates, mask, and safari hats. Each child had their picture taken with a dinosaur too.

A great tip-Write the party guests names on their cups to prevent germ spreading and wasting cups!

An Erupting Volcano Activity

Every child gets a cup on a plate with sand surrounding it (each child did that part out of the sand box). A parent pours baking soda into the cup. Then another adult pours white vinegar colored with red food coloring and the "volcano" erupts. You can do it over and over again. Fun!

Our Preschool graduation simple dinner and decos-It's the thought that counts!

Here's how I made my daughter's preschool graduation dinner special. I went to my party box and used some garage sale graduation items I bought and had on hand. I used confetti, two banners, and a congrats grad center piece. We also used the You are special today plate. I served her favorite meal. It's the thought that counts, in my opinion! Yes, the tablecloth was wrinkly but my cute daughter made me smile when she told me I was the best Mommy ever to throw her a graduation party (it was just us having dinner before the 6:30 program). I love this age and how they are genuinely happy with anything you do to make them special. Let's all remember that it's the thought that counts when it comes to kids. Go for it make your child's day extra special even if you tired and worn out. They won't forget it for awhile.

My congrats grad banner on our entertainment center.Here's the words on the You are special today plate. Sorry it's blurry.

Cinco de mayo meal-Or a summer family dinner meal

My cinco de mayo meal 2009 (I am not able to make a meal this year I am at a funeral for my dear Grandma)

found on http://www.allrecipes.com/

Orange Cilantro Rice recipe found HERE
Quoted from the site: "Bright flavors melt to produce a one-of-a-kind rice dish. To really bring out the orange flavor, try using juice with lots of pulp."

Chicken Enchiladas II recipe found here-Chicken-Enchiladas-II
This is a tasty way to use up cooked chicken and my kids gobbled it up! It's ready in 45 minutes start to finish (if you have the cooked chicken already)! I have a few oven chicken enchiladas recipes but I like this one the best.

The Mango Salsa.

Quoted from the site: "This salsa is very simple, with few ingredients, but has so much flavor! Sweet but spicy, it goes well with chicken, pork or just corn chips. It has a lot of color and looks great with a mix of red, yellow, and blue tortilla chips."

Tropical Mango and Pineapple Paradise Salsa
SUBMITTED BY: BRITTANYDEAR

PREP TIME 25 Min
READY IN 25 Min

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1/2 fresh pineapple - peeled, cored, and chopped (I used canned)
1 mango, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/3 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup key lime juice (I used lime juice)
1 small red onion, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS
Place the pineapple, mango, cilantro, lime juice, and red onion in a food processor. Pulse until ingredients are combined and chopped to desired texture, about 4 or 5 times.

Hope you try these recipes sometime-Ole!

Our St. Patrick's Day fun 2010

,pWe finally made the St. Patrick's Day crafts I posted about

HERE

Then Lenny the Leprechaun brought gold candies on the 18th. Yes, a day late but oh well. I also didn't make it to the store for gold coins so I just used some of my candy stash from the basement-A.K.A my after the holiday (Valentine's Day) gold wrapped Reeses Peanut butter cups. I always buy candy on clearance for the next holiday. We had fun using what we had on hand to create these 100% free fun St. Patty's day crafts!

Then I decorated the table for our corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potato meal from

HERE

I had all of the utensils (.25 from a super bowl clearance cart at the grocery store), confetti (from ?), and napkins (from after Christmas sales) in my St. Patrick's Day box in the basement. I used green construction paper for the place mat. I also used my clearance Valentine's Day green with envy peanut M & M's for a fun green treat next to the plates.Here's the M & M's I bought at Target on Feb. 15th for St. Patty's Day!

Our Valentine family date--Filling our kids love tanks!

Have you read the book The five Love languages by Dr. Gary Chapman? It's a must read for any marriage or engaged couple. I find it helpful when raising children too...what's their love language(s)? I think most kids just want their parents attention. The book talks about children love languages at the end. You can take the quiz right now and see what your language is. I am Quality time and my husband is acts of service (that's why I cook and try to clean a lot for him). I was raised with parents who worked hard to create family memories on a frugal budget. It is possible to not spend a fortune and have a blast with a big family. I am following my parent's lead and on the look out for free and/or frugal outings for our family of 5 going on 6.

So, for this Valentine's day we spend some quality FREE family time together and made lasting memories. Here's what we did and it was a blast.

A local city in Utah was hosting a Winterfest and offered lots of free stuff to do (I found out about it from our newspaper)....but we didn't attend any events until Saturday night. We had some house cleaning and priming the basement walls to finish up. We told the girls we were working like Cinderella and then we would go to the fancy "ball" that evening. I was going to be the fairy godmother and make them beautiful. I put sponge rollers in their hair the night before, let them choose their dresses, and they wore sticky earrings and lipstick to the "ball". They are at the right ages to get excited about something like this!The concert music was a Beatles tribute band named Imagine. They were great and a lot of fun to watch. We had a blast!
We danced and sang a long through the familiar Beatles songs. We sat on the floor and had great seats. After all my extended families motto is, "Spread out and get what you can." We are true "go getters"! My girls felt like true princesses and had the time of their life. I would encourage you to go above and beyond and fill your kids love tanks soon. It was really fun for us as parents too. Parenting is so much fun with many highs and lows but I love the highs don't you?!

A doll cake made with love by Mom (Staci)!

I made this Barbie doll cake for my daughter's 7 th birthday. Harmon's grocery store in Utah wanted $20 to make the cake and I had to provide the doll. Nah, I'll attempt it at home. Check out my other homemade cakes made with love HERE

First, make a box cake according to directions (I followed the high altitude directions for my area in Utah). Fill a Pryex bowl 3/4 the way full (you won't use the full amount but save it). I put a cookie sheet in the oven just in case it spilled over but it didn't-thank goodness.

Then, occupy the kiddos with a bowl of flour and a spoon. She actually wasn't that messy. Check out that poked out belly in the leotard....Cute.

Let the bowl cake cool completely before removing from the bowl. I then made another cake mix and the used the remainder from the bowl cake to make an 8" and a 9" round cakes. Cool and assemble like this.

I did this the day before and froze the cakes overnight. I like to freeze my cakes because it locks in the MOISTURE and they are easier to FROST. You need the extra height with the 8" and 9" cakes for the doll dress height. NOTE: You could freeze each cake individually and frost in between each layer but I didn't this time.

Next, make the frosting while the cakes are still in the freezer. I made my butter cream frosting and tinted it in two shades of pink---Light pink for the dress and dark pink for the bodice and number 7.

Pull the cakes out of the freezer and put on a tin foil linked pizza pan. I put wax paper around the cake bottom in case I got messy with the frosting and clean up was faster. Then I cut out a hole for the doll body in the frozen cakes. I decided it was easier to remove her legs and put her torso in the cake. I used a plastic sandwich baggie to cover her torso. My daughter wanted so bad to help me with the dress decorating so I got these heart shaped cookies and she stuck them on. My plan changed when she wanted to help but oh well it's mommy/daughter togetherness that matters. "Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."-- Charles R. Swindolle

The annual block party!

My husband and I started the annual tradition of having a block party to get to know our neighbors after we first moved in the neighborhood five years ago. This year we weren't in charge but look what our creative neighbor came up with this year.

The invitation-Front
(the green tape had everyone's last name and house number on the signs)
Invitation back
The driveway decorations

I think September nights are perfect for a block party.....until it rains! Everyone is back from summer vacations and school has been in session for a while. It was nice weather all week then it rained and rained. Oh well the party carried on and some neighbors chickened out but we had fun.


It was a BYOM- Bring your own meat (and a side dish). We even threw on some corn and zucchini from our garden. Yum!

We did a game. Jump rope! We practiced at the beginning since most of us were rusty from the 5th grade. When we got the hang of it the adults kicked the kids out and practiced and did 35 jumps with out a mistake. Now we are talking about challenging the next street over to a competition. I love it when adults let their hair down and have fun. Fun isn't just for the kids!
Be inspired start a block party in your area.

An beautiful food basket

What a great idea for a food table! Veggies arranged in a basket. The purple cabbage was the dip holder.

This would be great for many occasions: A baby shower, bridal shower, neighborhood block party, high school grad party, an outdoor 80's music shin-dig, Twilight girly gathering, Harry Potter party, or a jewelery party, and/or a wedding.

Be inspired use up your veggies (store bought or from your garden). I love veggies.

Wedding table decorations-For any occasion-including ME!

I have said this before, I love weddings. They are an expression of bride's (or mother's) creativity. I like the simplicity of the rectangle flower vase on a square mirror. It's a classic look for that you can use for many occasions in years to come. This is a versatile arrangement that can be used for a baby shower center piece, a new mother bouquet, or for Mother's day. Oh wait I am going to make one similar for myself this weekend. I am not going to wait for my hubby to bring me flowers...I'll cut my own. I deserve it I am a hard working mom. Follow my lead-Do something for yourself blog pals!

Break out of the norm & invite the neighbors over for dessert.

We are lucky to have some neat neighbors. As you know now, I love to entertain and have fun. I am always looking for a way to get out of chores too (I hope my hubby doesn't read that one). So, we invited our favorite neighbors over on the 4th of July for desserts, a backyard fire to roast marshmallows, and to watch fireworks from our driveway (my two yr. old was sleeping inside). It gave me an excuse to attempt my first sweet fresh cherry cobbler. YUM!

The recipe was courtesy of Emeril Lagasse found Here!

Here's our informal backyard set up with the fire bowl. (look off to the right). We roasted marshmallows and little smokies on the fire. I would encourage you this summer to break out of your comfort zone and invite a neighbor or friend over for dessert and chatting. The kids ran around, jumped on the trampoline, and played on the swing set while the adults visited. Here's my shout out to Laura-thanks for coming over!

I don't want summer to end.

A Luau wedding rehearsal dinner for the bridal party

I hosted this Hawaiian luau for my sister in law and now brother in law. The bridal party and their families were invited to celebrate the night before they were married.

For decorations: I used simple Hawaiian print tablecloths, tiki torches, some of my indoor plants, large and small sea shells, Hawaiian lays, star fish, fresh pineapples, and of course photos of the bride and groom for table decorations.

We served Hawaiian Haystacks. They are not a traditional Hawaiian food. I believe someone in Utah made them up. My out of state friends have never heard of Hawaiian Haystacks. They are yummy, easy, and a crowd pleaser! I used a lot of fresh vegetables from my garden for the toppings too.

You can get the recipe & see a photo of a finished haystack HERE on Real Mom's Kitchen blog. She has a great blog by they way.

My toppings at my luau included: Olives, coconut, shredded cheddar cheese, fresh pineapple tidbits, sliced olives, diced green onion,chopped celery, shredded coconut, Chow mien noodles, diced tomatoes, peas, mandarin oranges, mangos, raisins, and diced green pepper.

This table had extra foods: Bananas, limes, lemons, rolls, peaches, mangos, etc. The fresh pineapple was also used as a serving dish for fruit. YUM!

We had sweet and sour meatballs too.

The drink & extra table area- I made a simple homemade Hawaiian punch (in my punch bowl) and a coolers of various beverages. Most of the tables were off to the left in the shade (not pictured). The tables had Hawaiian lays and sea shell necklaces for decorations. All the guests wore Hawaiian print clothes too. It was fun.

Aloha!

Have you hosted a luau recently? Have pictures? Share your party or ideas with me for my next luau? Share!! Share!!