Spring Time

What's the best part of spring/summer...PRODUCE! I'm seriously craving massive amounts of fresh produce, especially strawberries. Aren't they beautiful? I bought them at Aldi's for $1.99, although last week I got them for $.99. Oh well, they're tasty and I didn't even need to sprinkle them with sugar.

I'm storing them in a mason jar (it's not mine, but a friend left 3 of them at my house for our Hillbilly cookout) mainly because I didn't have the perfect plastic storage container to fit them in, but this one works perfectly.

I just found out that there are some farms near by Fayetteville that you can go and pick your own strawberries. I see a date with a couple of my besties in the near future!

While picking up the strawberries, Emma and I bought a butt load of veggies to make vegetable soup.

Or Rainbow Soup if you're Emma. She wanted to help me, so we gave it a silly name because you throw in alot of different colors and I hoped it would help her to actually eat it...Yeah, she didn't fall for the cute name.

Can't blame me for trying!

Nathan's out in the field (STILL) so cooking up a huge batch of soup and freezing half and eating the other half means I DON'T HAVE TO COOK DINNER for the next few days!

Side Note: Yesterday, North Carolina was hit with massive storms and tornadoes. Please keep these people in your prayers. I was lucky and nothing happened to my family or our house but lots of people are still without power, damage to their homes, and now trying to pick up the pieces, so to speak.

Milk Planets

Emma and I recently picked up the book, "Super Science Lab" at the library this week. After looking over it a million times, we decided to make milk planets (mainly because I had everything already).

All you need are a few lids, milk, food coloring (use liquid, NOT GEL), cotton swabs, and dishwashing liquid. To make these, just pour enough milk into a lid to cover the bottom. Then, add a couple of drops of food coloring to the milk and take a Q-tip that's covered with the dishwashing liquid and touch the milk. It's a fun science lesson and you can talk about the planets.

Instead of dumping out our milk planets, we used it as paint and decorated a lovely coloring page.

And then the weather took a turn for the worse and our area was hit with strong storms, and tornado warnings/watches. Luckily, our power is still on and now we're cooking up vegetable soup (or Rainbow Soup to Emma...in hopes she'll actually eat it).

Kids and Body Image

Last Sunday I picked out a cute dress for Emma to wear to church. I helped her into it and after checking herself out in her mirror, she turns around and tells me she looks fat. WHAT?!? I asked her why she thought she was fat and she told me that her dress made her tummy look big. I tried reassuring her that she did NOT look fat and gave her a million compliments (so did daddy) but she was not having it. She pouted and looked miserable so I put her in a different outfit and she was happy.

When did my baby become self conscious?

Is this my fault (and Nathan's)?

How do I fix this?

Nathan and I do talk alot about us wanting to lose weight, or this dress or this shirt making us look fat, etc (doesnt everyone?)...I never thought Emma was paying attention. It wasn't like we were conversing with her about it. We do put a lot of emphasis on a healthy lifestyle (we don't follow it 24/7) with exercising, knowing the difference between junk food and healthy food, explaining that everything is okay in moderation. She understands all this.

If you've seen Emma you know how little she is. I don't know why she would think she's fat. It's heart breaking really. Nathan and I give her compliments all the time, we praise her and tell her how awesome she is and how beautiful and lucky we are to be her parents. We also call her out when she's "bad" or needs an attitude adjustment. I thought we were doing good as parents but obviously I need to keep my insecurities to myself.

My 5 year old can't be the only one to have a negative body image on occasion...Hello, has anyone seen Toddlers and Tiaras? If TLC isn't your thing have you seen the SNL skit about baby spanx? At the time, I thought it was hilarious...now it's kinda sad.

I've known that one day I would have to talk to Emma about body image. I didn't think it would be so soon though. Any advice on this topic would be appreciated so please comment!

Barney

A few weeks ago my best friend (I have lots of best friends) and I took our kids to go see Barney Live. The kids were super stoked and my friend and I were excited to be considered mom of the year (seriously, if you can manage sitting through Barney with lots of other kids and come out sane...you're gold)!

I knew before we went that they were going to sell overpriced Barney merchandise and that Emma was probably going to want me to spend a butt load on dumb things! So I got creative and told her I would make her a Barney outfit that she could wear to the show. That won her over!

Off to Hobby Lobby we went (I had a 40% off coupon) and I picked up an inexpensive lime green shirt, an iron-on transfer kit, some purple and green tulle, and some purple and green ribbon. The iron-on kit was $8 but it came with 3 sheets so I decided I would make Emma's friend a tshirt too.

Emma and I searched the internet for a cool Barney picture and found one she liked. We simply followed the instructions for the transfer sheets and in no time we had an awesome Barney pic on the front of her shirt. I went ahead and printed out her name and cut it out with some funny shaped scissors, that went on the back of her shirt. After shirts were made I started in on her tutu. It's all just a matter of knotting tulle around some elastic (or a headband). I planned on using the ribbon in her tutu but decided to make a bow the last minute. So that's it.

Her outfit beat the $20 lame tshirts at the show and Emma was given compliments on her outfit. I was happy that she didn't ask for a stuffed animal, cotton candy, or anything else...although my friend did make me feel guilty for not buying her a silly balloon, so I gave in and bought her one (it's still floating up in the ceiling and I don't plan on climbing our rafter to get it).

It was a good time (I'll admit I even sang some of the songs)! It was even better seeing the kid's reactions when Barney first came out on stage.

Once Upon A Child

Yesterday morning I tried to put a cute outfit on Emma that she wore last summer...umm she looked like a giant! Her shirt barely covered her belly and her shorts were so short you could of considered them hot pants. So I made her put another outfit on, this time a skirt. Basically same problem, except this time the waist band was tight around her little belly. Looks like she needs a new summer wardrobe.

Now I can't be the only one out there that hates to spend tons of money on clothes that will either be outgrown or stained. I also know I can't be the only one out there that loves name brand kid's clothes (can we say SUPER CUTE)! The solution to my problem, Once Upon A Child (http://www.onceuponachild.com/)

Emma and I stopped by yesterday afternoon (this was our second trip EVER to this store) and we found lots of super cute name brand clothes for her. 4 outfits to be exact (7 articles of clothing) and I spent under $30!

This store offers gently used (some brand new) newborn-big kid sizes clothing, maternity clothing, shoes, baby gear, toys, games, books, accessories (if I was rich I would buy all the adorable hairbows in there), some sport gear (cleats, dance wear) and tons of other things. It's defiantly worth a trip there!

Another cool option the store offers is that you can sell your kid's things that they've outgrown. It's a lot easier and faster than having a yard sale.

They also have a punch card you can get. For every $10 you get 1 punch on your card, after it's all full you get 10% off your next purchase. To save some more money, sign up to receive their emails so you'll be informed when their next big sale is.

I recommend this store if you have children (grandchildren, nieces, nephews, a best friend with kids, you get the point). If you're pregnant, go check out some of their baby gear like cribs, strollers, and high chairs. It'll only be saving you money!

Fake Out Banana Frozen Yogurt

I found a really weird but healthy recipe on exerciseTV last week and I finally tried it out last night. It looks like ice cream right?

You might be surprised it's only 2 frozen bananas that I thawed for 5 minutes and broke into chunks and thrown into my mixer for 3 minutes...It tastes like banana frozen yogurt and it's really good! I shared this bowl with Emma and of course she wanted some chocolate in it, so I started shaving 3 squares of a Hershey's bar (and then it started melting in my hand so I just threw them in there) to give it some chocolate flavor without eating a whole lot of chocolate calories.

This is perfect if you have bananas that are going to go bad (like I did). Just unpeel them and drop them into a freezer bag and store them in your freezer. It's also perfect when you're craving ice cream or any other high in calorie delicious frozen treat :) A couple of bananas beats a bowl full of ice cream any day.

Give this one a try...if you want to be adventurous you could add all kinds of crazy things to your bananas like:

• Peanut butter


• Fudge sauce


• Yogurt


• Chocolate


• Frozen berries

Hope you love it!

Frugal Party Ideas

Everyone should know by now that I'm pretty thrifty/frugal (not cheap). Well, my best friend was getting married at the beginning of this year and I took it upon myself to throw her a bachelorette party in January. Keep in mind that we live 5 states apart! I wanted this party to be awesome but I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money (and neither did any of the guests...we're all broke). I came up with some creative and inexpensive ideas to help give my BFF her last party as a single gal. First off, if you're planning a party for anyone for any occasion you need to talk to the guest of honor about what kind of party he/she wants or doesn't want. I came up with 3 different ideas and presented them to the bride-to-be. She chose going to St. Louis and partyin' it up...minus all the usual bachelorette antics (so a classy drunken brawl). The second on your list of things to do is send out the invites. After searching the internet, I decided they were all expensive, took too long to ship, and were pink and zebra (something she did NOT want)! So I decided to make my own.

Nothing fancy, I bought some cute paper at Staples with some matching envelopes. I put a cute bachelorette rhyme on them to get the girls excited about the party/lingerie shower and at the bottom I put the important details about the weekend (the girls all live in different towns). I even jazzed them up by gluing some sparkly rhinestones all over the invites. Invitations, envelopes, and postage cost less than $4!

What's a bachelorette party without some games?!? I bought an inexpensive game where you pin a kiss on a hot guy (under $4). We did shots before be blindfolded and spun around, but you can play the normal way. The winner got some beads. Another game was all about the bride. I asked the bride beforehand 20 questions about herself that any friend would be able to know (since some have known her all her life and others just a few years). She emailed me back and during the party I asked the questions and the guests wrote down their answers. The one with the most right answers won some beads. Something else that was fun we did was when she was opening her lingerie shower gifts. We came up with funny codenames for the presents and wrote them down so her husband could select a name and then she would have to either put it on or get a toy out without him knowing what it is.

Left over card stock, a key ring, and some markers around the house make this FREE!

I really wanted to give each guest a party favor and I thought this would be breaking the bank but it didn't! I came up with giving everyone a wine glass ($1 each) that I would hand paint with some paint markers (A funny slogan along with the name of her party with the date and some designs/colors to match the invites). I put some bead necklaces ($1 for 8) in the glasses topped with some sparkly gift basket filler ($1 per bag) and added a ring pop ($1 for 5) and I put a huge fake diamond ring around the wine glass stem ($1 for 4).

A friend made everyone a mixed CD with some awesome party tunes and another girl brought some penis shaped straws which I stuck in the wine glasses. I thought it was an awesome party favor, something reusable and reminded you of the party.

I had a lot of fun planning my BFF's bachelorette party and I hope that my games and party favors meant more than if I just went to the party store and bought a prepackaged bachlorette party box.

If you have any questions please leave a comment or email me!