Ain’t No Party Like a LEGO Party

July 7th, 2008

What a busy holiday weekend this was for us! We celebrated Ethan’s sixth birthday with his dream party- a LEGO birthday party. I must say that I tried to put a lot of effort into this one and he was the happiest little boy I had ever seen!

What’s a LEGO party without a LEGO cake though? I had bookmarked a recipe in my notebook entry for a LEGO cake, but we were entertaining a lot of people and the cake would not cover the amount of people that I needed it to. I also did not want to try and cut and make shapes out of a sheet cake. I opted to prepare two cake mixes in loaf pans to create this cake. One cake mix per loaf pan, cooked as directed, but cooked for at least an hour (mine took approximately one hour and ten minutes to cook these cakes at the same time). I then froze the cake overnight which helped keep the crumbs at bay and made it easier to decorate. I did use the marshmallows, but opted for blue and yellow for colors. This cake was extremely difficult to frost around and on top of the marshmallows, but I think the results turned out great, even though it was not as smooth as I had aimed for. The cost to make these two cakes was $5.50.

We had the party outside so I kept the decorating simple. I made pinwheels out of my scrapbook paper. To make these, just fold your paper accordion-style. Then fold your accordion in half and fan these out. You can then staple these to one another (along the back side) to make your pinwheel. Each of these pinwheels had three pieces of paper on them each. You just want to make sure that the paper is very sturdy so it will hold the shape. I gave them a hole with a hole punch and then tied them on the underside of the umbrella with green raffia. They looked really lovely under the patio umbrella.

For the indoor food table, I did a big basket of LEGOS and I framed a letter that I wrote to Ethan about how special he was to us. This is the first year I have done this, and we read this to him as a bedtime story before bed the night before. He loved hearing about how much we loved him and how proud we were of him. The grandparents loved reading it too and seeing what cool things happened this year. Total spent on decorations and party supplies- $0

I did serve food at the party and opted for some take-and-bake pizzas to help save me some time. Our Papa Murphy’s is just down the road and I signed up for their e-club so that I could get a new batch of coupons. We printed these out and used these on four family size pizzas. Total cost for pizza for twenty $34 (with plenty of leftovers). We also served some fresh melon, spinach dip with carrot sticks, & tortilla chips with salsa, and soda. Overall, I spent about $50 on food (which includes the cost of the cake), but we also have a couple of dinners and plenty of snacks leftover to eat!

Entertainment consisted of dragging out every outdoor game and toy we could imagine to keep the kiddos busy. The kids also spent lots of time coloring on free LEGO coloring pages that I printed up from the LEGO website. They could take these pages home with them to color too so that filled in for those goody bags. Total cost spent on entertainment and goody bags- $0


All of that effort for this perfect moment right here. Ethan wished for a hundred kisses from his mom & dad. I think we can do that! How I wish he was always this innocent and that I could freeze this perfect moment forever. Perfect moment…oh, you know it… PRICELESS!

Total Amount Spent on LEGO Party for Twenty: $50

Freebie Friday: July 4, 2008

July 4th, 2008

Happy Fourth of July to each of you! Please don’t forget to swing by and visit Heather, over at Freebies 4 Mom, who helps make our Freebie Friday so much better. Don’t forget to visit her coupons section before you do your shopping this week. Heather also has an inspirational comment from a reader who is saving so much money by visiting her site. Awesome job, Heather!

Health & Beauty
Huggies Diaper & Wipes (Walmart sample)
Old Spice Body Wash (Walmart sample)

Food

Entertainment

Pull-Ups Potty Training DVD (Kroger sample)
Totlol (online videos for kids)
Cosmopolitan magazine (free 4 issue subscription at StartSampling)
American Baby Magazine
More (celebrating women 40+) magazine (free 10 issue subscription at StartSampling)
Latina or Bassmaster magazines (free subscriptions at lowpricesubs)
10 Things You Should Know About God & Life Book
John Mellencamp 2 Free Downloads (
Enter code LDLF6 and you can download two free singles, “My Sweet Love” and “Longest Days”, from John Mellencamp’s upcoming release, Life, Death, Love and Freedom)
Vanessa Hudgens Bonus Download (Enter code IDENTIFIED)

Home & Garden

Clean Home Journal Summer Gift Pack (Ziploc bags and coupons)

Mark Your Calendars
July 5 – The Home Depot Kids Workshop: Make a bird home 9
am to noon
July 7 – Zaxby’s Free Nibbler Sandwich 2:30 to 4:30 pm
July 11 – Free Slurpee at 7-Eleven
July 12 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic: Make a dune buggy 10 to 11 am
July 26 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic: Make a tabletop tetherball 10 to 11 am
August 2 – The Home Depot Kids Workshop: Make a flag holder 9 am to noon
Summer – SunnyD Road Trip is stopping at Walmart stores this summer

Notebook Experiments: Can I Knit a Birthday Gift?

July 3rd, 2008

Experiment: Can I knit my mom a nice birthday gift?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 06.19.08

Materials Needed: Please see Homespun Living for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. I followed the pattern and used Sugar ‘N Cream cotton yarn to complete the project.

Results: I really wanted to try this pattern because these washcloths looked so pretty. The pattern was very easy to remember so that I could pick this up and take it with me places to complete it. These took me an evening to complete, but I am beginner at knitting so I am sure others could whip these up a lot faster.

This was also the first time I attempted switching colors, which seemed very easy, but actually was a little difficult with weaving in the new color and staying on track with my pattern. I did my best though and ended up only having one “oops” washcloth for myself.


Since I can actually follow a pattern now, I also made one of these coffee cup patterns too. You know, just to see if I could do it. Do you think it looks like a coffee cup? I hope so!

Conclusion: I plan to make this pattern for other gifts now that I see how well it turned out. I paired these with some White Tea Method Hand Soaps that I picked up at Target for $3.99. Overall, I think my mom is really going to be pleased with her gift and I am proud that I could actually pull this off! I hope she will find the gift thoughtful and will be impressed with her new set of washcloths. Thank you again to Homespun Living for generously sharing her pattern!

Amy’s Notebook 07.03.08

July 3rd, 2008

I love this idea for keeping pests away in the garden without using harmful pesticides (@ Small Notebook)

These knitted tulip socks are so cute (@ The Purl Bee)

I didn’t know about Sam’s Club recycling your old electronic equipment– now I know what to do with our old stuff (@ Working Moms Against Guilt)

I love this idea for making your own liquid soap (@ CasaSugar)

I want to try making some bruschetta on the grill (@ Polliwog’s Cakewalk)

This crocheted apple cozy is so cute (@ Sunnyside Ellen)

These mini chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting look divine (@ Baking Bites)

I have never heard of using a salad spinner to make children’s art (@ Brassy Apple)

This sewing machine cover tutorial is great (@ Not Nigella)

I want to make these Rice Krispies Cookies (@ plum pudding)

These terrariums are beautiful (@ sew nancy)

I like this idea for decoupaging a journal (@ Grace Violet)

I will have to remember these tips for flying with toddlers (@ PsychMamma)

This banana chocolate chip ice cream sounds delicious (@ An Accident of Hope)

I want to try this recipe for making glue (@ DIY Maven)

I love these little job jars (@ Make & Takes)

*************************************
A few new reviews, a new entry, and another article have been posted:

Gimos Kidswear
XFLOWSION Exercise DVD
RuMe Reusable Bags
Surviving the Grocery Hike
Word Games Rule

Happiness Is… An Outdoor Shower

July 2nd, 2008


The Summertime List & Summertime Games

July 2nd, 2008

We are enjoying a summer full of fun activities, thanks to our summertime list!

Here is what we have accomplished so far:

Made homemade slushies
Ran through the sprinklers
Went to the zoo (Ft Wayne and/or Potowatomi Zoo)
Went to playgroup(s)
Went to VBS
Made homemade play dough
Made Magic Milkshakes
Went to Grandma’s house to play
Watched the Car’s movie and ate Jimmy John’s
Went to Krispy Kreme and watched them make donuts
Had a picnic in the backyard

We still have some more things to do, but we have really been enjoying checking things off of our list. It has been a real family event with everyone pitching in to make sure that we do all of these special things.

With the completion of our patio, we have been enjoying lots of time in our own backyard. I did make a little investment in some family games for us to play outside.

We bought this Franklin 5 Game Set at Target for $14.99, which was about the price you would pay for a nice new board game. This set came in a carrying case and it has a net that you can put up and play games like badminton (our favorite), volleyball, frisbee, horseshoes, and lawn tennis (plastic rackets with a foamy ball to bounce over the net).

This has been such a fun investment because my husband and I can play this on our own or we can toss the Frisbee with the kids. The net is height adjustable and so you can lower it for the wee people in the family. We have also included the kids in the games by parking little lawn chairs for them and making them the judges (which they LOVE).

It isn’t the best quality set I have owned, but I am sure we can get $14.99 of games out of it. It has been a great way to spend our evenings and it keeps us active this summer.

The other game we bought was the Eddie Bauer Bean Bag Toss set, available at Target for $49.99 (it is on sale this week, but not available on their website). Yes, this was A LOT to pay for a game, but it is just beautiful and we plan to use it for many years. We both couldn’t believe how well it was made and it comes with a case so you can take it with you places. We plan to take this to the grandparent’s houses (that don’t have a lot of kid toys) or for get togethers with friends who don’t have children yet. The kids love playing with it and dropping the bean bags into the nets. We can get pretty competitive with it, but it is a complete blast and will be fun to get out when we are entertaining in the summer.

If you wanted to be more thrifty with a bean bag toss, you could make your own too. Polliwog’s Cakewalk has a wonderful tutorial for making some monster bean bags that you could craft up with the kids. I think these would be fun to do with the pails in a row (a la Bozo the Clown Show for my friends who grew up on that kind of entertainment) and do a bean bag toss with them like that too!

Do you have any games that you play with your family in the warmer weather? How do you keep the kids entertained?

Follow-Up on Self-Care Discussion

July 1st, 2008

Our discussion on self-care was prompted by a lack of care for myself that I needed to admit to and work on. We had such a great discussion and I heard from a lot of you (through email and through your comments) that you were making it a priority to care for yourselves. For those of you that missed our discussion, I encourage you to read our entire discussion and to start taking some steps towards caring for yourself.

I wanted to share with you the improvements that I have made towards these goals:

1. I am managing my time much better. Now that Blogger has finally added the feature where you can publish into the future (doesn’t that sound cool the way I worded that?), I am actually able to do the majority of my work on the weekend and I just schedule my entries to publish during the week. I have started devoting my time on Sunday afternoon towards getting my posts ready to go from Monday through Thursday so I can concentrate on family time throughout my week. The computer is ruling my life a lot less and I have less on my shoulders in the mornings to worry about.

2. I am working out regularly. I almost hate to admit it, for fear that I will get off track, but my working out is going really well. I am still going to the gym and am indulging in that in the evenings on occasion, instead of my trips to Goodwill. I am also running in my neighborhood (to help save on gas) and we are planning to invest in a treadmill so that my husband, who is a runner, can also enjoy working out in the winter and training for his runs in the spring & summer. Whether I will continue at the gym, I am unsure, especially if we invest in a treadmill for our home.

I never thought I would be the type of person that would work out regularly, but I really am proud that I am. Some of the positive side effects that happened because I am exercising regularly are that I have more energy during the day, my mood is much better after I have had those nice endorphins releasing into my system, and my troubles with insomnia are almost gone. I am sleeping so hard that we now have a new problem on occasion…snoring! In all seriousness though, I am feeling so much better about myself for adding this to my life.

3. I am making time for hobbies now. My new knitting hobby has been the best form of self-care yet because it has calmed me down a lot in the evening hours. I have found that I am more creative than I give myself credit for and I am trying to focus this creativity into benefiting my children too. We are spending more time crafting and enjoying time together now that I don’t feel so busy all of the time. Our evenings are spent in our backyard indulging in conversation and fun summertime activities.

4. I am also continuing to reduce the clutter in our house and am trying to be more purposeful about the things we bring into our lives. One commitment that I made to myself (which has been extremely hard) is to not go to garage sales this summer. I know, HARD! I haven’t brought as much in and I am finding that I can be more inventive with what we already own. Best of all, I have a little less to clean and a little more room to entertain in. When things come in, things go out- sounds simple enough, but I am still learning.

5. I am trying to do more for others by donating my time and talents to some great causes. The more that I am doing for others, the more I feel better about myself. It isn’t anything extravagant that I am doing, but they are little things that have made me feel better about how I can help other people. I am still working on this so I am looking for opportunities to give back to others in our community.

Basically, I am feeling a lot more balanced than I was before. I am trying to talk less about how busy I am and more about how fulfilled I feel from the great things I have added to my life. I am saying no to more and missing out on some things, but I am concentrating on building our family unit up and strengthening the important ties that need strengthening.

How is your self-care going? What are you doing lately that you feel really proud of?

On the Knitting Needles: Prayer Shawl

July 1st, 2008

I have started working on my first prayer shawl, now that I am starting to get the hang of this knitting thing. My mother-in-law had a beautiful pattern that she was working on so I thought I would attempt that. Unfortunately, six tries left me feeling less prayerful and more frustrated because the pattern was a bit too complex for my novice knitting self. The pattern is really lovely, but was all yarn overs, knit two togethers, and purling. No regular old knitting at all! I am hoping that I can do this in the future, but I needed to find something a little easier for my first shawl.

My mother-in-law brought over some patterns for me to try and I went on some websites and read through some comment threads on prayer shawls. One comment suggested a very easy and pretty prayer shawl that would come together well for a first time knitter.

You can use any size of large circular needles with this pattern and the bigger the needles, the more lacy the look. I am knitting with size eleven circular needles.

Here is the pattern:

Knit 4 stitches
Next Row: Knit 2 stitches, yarn over, knit two stitches
Repeat knitting 2 stitches, yarn over, and then knitting
Repeat this pattern until your shawl measures 60-70″

This is perfect because it wasn’t a large amount of casting on and you work from the tip of the shawl and build up with each yarn over. The only thing I have to remember is to yarn over after the first two stitches and then I just knit the rest.

This frees my mind to concentrate on the task at hand, which is to pray for someone who needs prayer. I am praying for a woman who is struggling to get pregnant and has not been able to. She has gone through a lot and I am hoping that this shawl will bring her some comfort. I actually have never met her, but she is a friend of our family and I know that it will mean a lot to her to know that someone is thinking of her.

Here are a few free patterns for prayer shawls that I have found:

Prayer Shawl With Garter Stitch Stripes

Prayer Shawl/Healing Shawl

Alix’s Lace Prayer Shawl

Homespun Knit Prayer Shawl

Prayer Shawl Crochet Pattern

Triangular Prayer Shawl

Prayers (can attach and say these prayers)

I am looking forward to making more of these and venturing into more complicated patterns in the future!

Redbox Code 06.30.08

June 30th, 2008

Today’s free code for a Redbox movie is W1H6J4. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!

I also used the code SUMMER for a movie this weekend. I had to try four or five different codes before I hit the bingo on that one, but it might be worth a try for another movie! Enjoy!

Side Notes:

– If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.

– When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, “Rent with Promo.” Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.

A Struggle to Be Faithful

June 30th, 2008

I adore my Emily. She is her very own little person with her own sweet little personality. I prayed very hard that we would someday have a little girl of our very own and here she is in all of her glory. She is the sweetest little girl with the best personality and she makes me laugh with her sweet quirkiness.

Emily has also challenged me in ways that I never dreamed as a parent. While Ethan slept through the night at three months, my Emily still cries for me at night (she is two and a half). Since she has been born, I have had rarely a full night of sleep. I can’t figure out why this is because we have done everything for her exactly the same as Ethan, but Emily doesn’t seem to really need sleep.

Ethan was (and still is) an extremely outgoing child. I could leave him anywhere and he would have a zillion best friends by the time I got back. I remember that my feelings were a little hurt the first day I dropped him off for school and he barely acknowledged my departure. He was just that kind of kid.

Emily is not that kind of kid. She is very shy and takes time to warm up to anyone. She really hates to be left anywhere and clings to my leg if she thinks I will leave her. She wails uncontrollably if she thinks we will leave her. It has been extremely hard.

Working out is difficult because I can hear her crying when I leave her in the babysitting area for my workout. I am constantly listening and my stomach feels like a little tight ball because I am on edge if she is making it difficult for the babysitter in charge. I feel selfish when I leave her there. Working out is optional and I feel like I am inflicting trauma on my child for no reason.

Worshiping is difficult because the children go to Sunday school while we attend the service and she really hates going. When we walk into church, she starts crying and when we leave her she is uncontrollable and inconsolable. This Sunday she screamed the entire time we were in service, and her screaming was worse if anyone looked or talked to her. When we got done with worship and the tears were rolling down her face, I felt like the worst parent in the world.

I honestly don’t know what to do. She doesn’t like to be alone at night, she wants me to be by her side all day, and I feel very badly for the people who are caring for her in my absence. At the same time, I know that there are times where we need that separation so that I can be a better mom to her. Things like working out and going to worship are important to me, but I feel very badly doing these things when I know how hard it is for the people who care for her.

It is bad enough that I don’t know if my husband and I should go to worship together. Maybe we should alternate services so Emily doesn’t have to go to Sunday School? Maybe I should quit the gym in favor of working out at home? I really am struggling with what is the best way to handle this. Do I keep doing this in hopes that she will figure out that we will always come back to her or do I wait until she outgrows it on her own?

I would love to hear from parents who are dealing with this or have watched their children outgrow it! Any help would be greatly appreciated!