Christmas Fun.......

What a busy, fun, happy weekend!!

After lots of Christmas Eve baking and dinner made by hubby, we had a special Christmas Eve snack....yummy vanilla ice cream with pieces of peppermint candy we crushed ourselves....a wonderful idea from Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings!

We put out our cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and reindeer food for the reindeer and soon, all the children were nestled all snug in their beds and fast asleep-except the baby, who didn't feel too well on Christmas, he had a tough Christmas Eve night.

(yes, I know the reindeer food is in the house, my husband and I obviously didn't think that one through when we did it the first time with my oldest and then couldn't change it the following year, newbie mistake)

Since then, it's been lots of opening, eating, visiting, eating, playing, eating........the kids are having a ball and I'm in chocolate heaven!

Rocking out with the Barbie guitar my two youngest girls got from their cousins.

Love these paper dolls-I ordered them for my mom to give to my 6 year old-great present!

My 12 year old's favorite gift-this was a tough one for us but she loves it and while I'm in chocolate heaven, she's in texting heaven!

Trucks-need I say more.......

Not a present but she loved the wrapping paper-she was easy to shop for!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Merry Christmas....

Merry Christmas!

Many wishes for a peaceful Merry Christmas!

Enjoy!

Teachers' Gifts...check, check, check, check, check

2 days until Christmas!!!

(as my girls keep reminding me and reminding me and reminding me.......)

I've been checking my list and checking it twice.......

and last night I finished the girls' teachers' gifts-

and then packed up my sewing machine for a few days because unfortunately the dining room is for dining and we need to eat on Christmas Day!

I made each of the girls' teachers a fabric notebook cover from Skip To My Lou.

I had the fabric on hand and they were quick and easy to put together.

I'm going to make them some chocolate/peanut candy to go with each one and for the aides and send them to school tomorrow. My girls have to go to school all day tomorrow which they think is horrible!

(I, on the other hand, think of it as a blessing and my last 2 free hours to get some stuff done before Christmas!)

Off to cross some more things off my mega huge list of things to do-my week's been a bit crazy with an unplanned trip to the doctor yesterday-all my kids have colds and my 6 year old started complaining Saturday night of an ear ache....first ear infection of the winter. My 4 year old told me the other night her sniff was blocked up and then proceeded to demonstrate for me a few hundred times.

Have a great day!!

Hat Day

It's crunch time.....and I'm not talking Nestle Crunch!!

Just like all of you..... there's lots to do and there never seems to be enough time in the day.

Our school PTO is sponsoring a performance for the kids today-a wonderful singer who is great with the kids and brings tons of hats-he changes hats all the way through his performance. In honor of him, today was hat day at school.

I thought I had the girls convinced to wear Santa hats for the season.....but that would have been too easy. My 9 year old wanted to make a hat and as soon as my 6 year old saw her..........Santa hats weren't going to work.

My 9 year old started off with a black fleece hat. I suggested sewing small ornaments to it and then remembered we had a green hat. I sewed and she made a paper star to go on top. Very cute!!

Check-One happy child!

I then remembered seeing a cute tutorial for Easy Fairy Crowns over at 4 Crazy Kings this week and quickly suggested it to my 4 and 6 year olds. They loved the idea and we got started. I didn't have any headbands so I used some thin, pretty flexible wire my husband had in the cellar. I wrapped it around each child's head to measure and then looped it around 3-4 times. I cut and then taped the ends. I followed the rest of the tutorial and let the girls pick out the colors and ribbons they wanted. I sewed through the tulle and ribbon when I was done to make sure it wouldn't pull out-I forgot to tie a knot with the ribbon when I was done wrapping and just finished wrapping, put the tulle and ribbon in and then tied the knot. Note to self.....tie the knot next time! Very cute!

Check-Two Very Happy Twirly Children!

Quick, Easy, Yummy Baking......

or, at my house yesterday, Plan Number 3 due to lack of ingredients!

Due to a couple of recent Bake Sales, the tree lighting and my oldest daughter's huge paper mache project........

I was out of flour!!!!

The girls and I went to make snickerdoodles for another bake sale during the snow storm yesterday and I realized I had no flour. I usually don't go through a bag quite so fast and usually have another bag in the closet, but not yesterday.

I quickly moved on to Plan Number 2 and decided to make cupcakes. Can you believe-I had no cake mixes either!!! All I had were brownie mixes but I didn't want to make just plain brownies. I knew you could make cookies using cake mixes so I searched for cookies made out of brownie mix.

BINGO!

I found this recipe for Brownie Chip Cookies
All you need is 1/3 cup of oil, chocolate chips and 2 eggs-sigh....I had all the ingredients!

Quick, easy to mix up, yummy! My 4 year and I made another batch today because the girls loved them and only got 1 each yesterday.

So, if you're running short on flour or time, this is a great recipe. I think it also would be yummy with some m & m's thrown in..........

Now I just have to make sure I keep eggs in the house-I always seem to run out of those too!!

Merry Christmas.....

Merry Sitsmas!

From my home to yours........

My blog to yours........

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2010!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Winner, Winner......

We have a winner!!

I'm a little late on announcing the winner of my 100th post giveaway-it was a crazy weekend. I had our school PTO Santa Breakfast on Saturday-our scrambled egg production was a little slow because we were down a electric frypan but no major problems. On Sunday, I had our town tree lighting that I organized for my 9 yr old's Girl Scout Junior Troop. That was a bit stressful-I found out Saturday afternoon that there was no electricity outside-NO ELECTRICITY! -and they weren't sure where the problem was. But, after calming down and a couple of phone calls......with a few extension cords, we were able to light one tree and all went well!!

With all my modern technology (my coffee can and slips of papers with numbers on them), I am happy to announce the winner is number

which is Debbie who chose the Pizza Party Play Set.

Thank you to all who entered and thanks for all the good wishes you left me on my 100th post.

It's going to be hard........

being the brother of four older sisters!

Personal Advent Calendars.......

BRILLIANT!

Cute, easy, quick.....all my favorite words!

(well, chocolate isn't included and you know that's my favorite, but I had a brand new bag of peanut m & m's so all was well in my world!)

We have an advent calandar that my sister's mother-in-law made for me......years ago when we only had one child. The girls are pretty good at taking turns, but there are days when, let's see.......how can I put this nicely.......... they have trouble remembering whose turn it is and the Christmas Spirit ceases to exist. Yesterday, I saw the cutest idea to end the squabbles over whose turn it is.........

Personal Advent Calendars over at Make and Takes.

Once again, I say BRILLIANT and why didn't I think of it sooner!!

What sealed the deal was I already had the same package of stickers that were used-I picked them up last year, after Christmas, at the Dollar Store. Little did I know, I'd be ahead of the game. I didn't have the doilies and we don't have a Dollar Store nearby, so I cut Christmas trees out of construction paper.

The girls quickly got to work gluing their trees on and then decorating the backgrounds. They loved the idea of having their own calendar as much as I did.

The baby didn't make a calendar but he got right into the action coloring along-on paper for once, lately it's been my walls that are exhibiting his masterpieces.

After the girls decorated, my older ones decided to put the numbers 1-25 on their trees. This morning they covered the number 1 with their first sticker.

(please ignore all that laundry piled up on the couch-I have a huge mountain to fold-it feels like it's getting bigger instead of smaller!)

Here's all our personal calendars on our fridge-the girls are very excited!!

As I was taking this picture, I noticed the pink Build a Bear poodle also hanging there-why? I'm not sure, my girls think there should be something pink and fancy in every room plus they love to decorate the fridge! It kind of looks like one of those Halloween witches people hang on their house so it looks like the witch crashed into the wall.

Don't forget about my giveaway-it ends on Wednesday!!
Check it out and have a great day!

Looking for some gift ideas.......

check out the You Can Make This Blog

YCMT is starting a new series of quick and easy gift ideas like this cute idea using a whisk and Hershey Kisses.....

ok, you know, they had me at the Hershey Kisses!!

YCMT is also offering free printable gift tags to go along with their ideas-so cute!!

quick, easy, free, chocolate......

some of my favorite words!

YCMT is also running DIY Deals this weekend.......

check it out!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and good luck with your shopping if you ventured out. I only ran to JoAnn's for some needed supplies and it wasn't too bad. I didn't want to go anywhere the mall!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a Melissa and Doug playset!!

Cue the confetti, streamers, balloons and giveaway!!

We're having a party......

Wow!! Today is my 100th post! As if that's not enough, I just realized I started my blog one year ago yesterday and last week I hit 50 followers. Waahoo-blow your party horn!!

I can't believe that a little over a year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was and now I've discovered so many wonderful ones.

I've said this before but it's worth repeating-it amazes me how you all share advice, recipes, tutorials and so much more.........you all give of yourself to help out others and I know you've made my world a better place. Thanks for the tutorials, the helpful hints, the laughs, the ideas that make me think, the creative thoughts, the list goes on.

My hope is that in this last year, in my 100 posts, that I've helped someone out a little too.

Now, on to the party....

to celebrate my 100th post, I'm having my very first giveaway!

For this giveaway, you have your choice of two cute play sets-chose the one you'd like to win-for your family or for a gift!

The first is the Abby and Emma Magnetic Dress Up Set by Melissa and Doug-my girls love these dolls and I love that the clothes stay on with magnets and you don't have to worry about them falling off! The pieces are big enough for my 4 year old to handle herself but still great for my 6 and 9 year old to play with.

The second is the Pizza Party Play Set by Melissa and Doug. I love all the toppings you can add and that it has its own wooden box, like the dolls, for storage when you're done playing.

I would like to thank CSN Stores for graciously donating the prize of choice for my giveaway. CSN Stores has lots of great options for your holiday shopping from toys to baby needs such as crib bedding to items for the chef on your list

If you would like to enter this giveaway, please leave a comment below with the gift you'd like to win. I know everyone is going to be busy this weekend so this giveaway will go until next Wednesday night, December 2nd when I will draw the lucky winner!

Good Luck and Thanks!

Monthly Craft Challenge

I also added this to Get Your Craft on Tuesday over at Today's Creative Blog.

This month the craft challenge over at Heidi's Blue Eyed Blessings is photo projects-can't wait to get some ideas for Christmas gifts!

I haven't started any of my gifts yet (tsk, tsk) so I'm sharing something I made last year for my mom. My oldest daughter and I traced her hand and then cut two out of felt. I made a hole for her photo in one, glued them together with the photo in between and then put some ribbon on it. We made one for all my kids and my sister's two kids.

A handprint and photo all in one!!

Head on over to Blue Eyed Blessing to check out some great photo ideas and to Today's Creative Blog for some other great ideas!!

I've been very lucky lately.......

Yesterday I found this yumminess in my mailbox!

You know they had me at the Hershey kisses!!

I won a giveaway for a purse set from brown paper packages last week-oh yeah!

brown paper packages -a blog written by two college best friends who don't live close to each other nowadays-has lots of great ideas and tutorials. Two that are on my to do list are this new one for decorative clothespins and this one for art clip boards-I want to make one of these for each of the kids for our playroom.

This brag book is the cutest little book for pictures-I can't wait to add the new school pictures we'll be getting soon.

There's also a two year calendar and a notebook-both with my initials. So pretty!

I think these purse sets would make great Christmas gifts for friends and the girls' teachers. I can't wait to start using mine. Check out how to make them here.

Thank you to Angela and Sweetpea for the great giveaway, great tutorials and a great idea for some Christmas gifts.

12 days of Junkie

and this doesn't mean tomorrow will be 12 days of me eating my kids Halloween candy!!

no.....we won't be talking about my snacking.........it's much better than that!

Laurie at Tip Junkie is having 12 Days of Giveaways!!

2 Giveaways each day!!

Each giveaway lasts for 24 hours so head on over and check it out!!

Good Luck!

Trick or Treating According to an 18 Month Old......

get carried to the first house because you have no clue what is going on, quickly realize what is going on and what a good thing it is, walk to the next house on your own, get a candy, open that candy, eat that candy while skipping a few houses, finish candy, go to next house you come to, repeat from walk to the next house on your own....... and don't forget, when not actually eating a candy, hold a wrapped candy in your mouth to keep it safe.

No, he didn't just see a ghost, he just realized he couldn't get out the door for more trick or treating!!

We had a fun time trick or treating ...no tricks here, just lots of treats! We had beautiful weather-a bit windy, but it only added to the Halloween fun.

Tired, tired trick or treaters....... very quiet ride home........

only one didn't fall asleep on the way home-that's her hand up in the right hand corner of the picture letting us know she's still awake!

Easy Peasy Skirt and Halloween Treat

I finished my daughter's new skirt last weekend - it's the lazy days skirt from oliver + s ...... don't you just love the name! Easy peasy, so cute and the pattern is free-oh yeah, doesn't get much better than that!!

I've seen this pattern before-and I think it's in my favorites-but Melissa at One Crafty Momma re-introduced me to it.....many thanks! She had a sew along that I joined but am very late for. To my credit-I did finish the skirt last weekend, just forgot to take pictures of my daughter wearing it....... but that still makes me late and makes me sound like one of my girls making excuses for something they didn't do :)

I'll definitely be making more of these for the girls.

Happy Almost Halloween! Our costumes are ready to go and we have our first Halloween party tonight. No big Mommy made costumes this year-feeling a little bit of the guilts-aaahhh the Mommy guilts....now that's scary!

We're making yummy treats for our neighbors-chocolate covered spider legs.......don't you just want to dig right in???? It's really chocolate and pretzels and another easy peasy recipe I found on Cheat Day Cafe. Gotta love easy peasy

Have a great Halloween and weekend and don't eat too much of your kids' candy................peanut M &M's here I come!!

Edited to add-I'm linking up to Today's Creative Blog-Get Your Craft on Tuesday

What a guy!!

My husband is so good!! He just took all 5 kids out for breakfast.........aaaahhh, what a guy!! I'm sitting here enjoying my bagel and coffee, catching up on some blogs and the newspaper and enjoying a bit of silence. What a nice way to start the day!

We woke to a rainy morning and it's suppose to continue all day so we're laying low today. We only have one socccer game this afternoon and we're hoping it's not cancelled. If it is, we may do a little shoe shopping for the girls-time to think about winter shoes and boots!

I'm almost finished with a skirt for my 4 year old so I'll be sharing soon. Have a wonderful day!!

P.S. I just realized, I'm almost up to 100 posts-wow!!!

Would you believe......

we woke to more of this on Sunday!

My 12 year old took this picture through our back window so that's not one, big, huge, glowing snowflake in the middle of the picture......we just had lots of fluffy ones.

Who would have ever thought we be scrapping off our cars in October!

Since it was a very wet snow, we spent the day inside with a nice fire and an even nicer apple pie we baked in the afternoon.

I tried a new recipe for chicken tonight that got a thumbs up from everybody-well, I'm imagining the baby gave us a thumbs up, he ate it all. There's only a few dishes that all the kids love so I'm so happy to add another one to the list. Now, I'm pretty sure I saw this on someone's blog or website- because I remember thinking "I have all those ingredients"- but for the life of me, I can't remember or find where. I'm sorry I can't give credit where credit's due. I did a search today to try to find the recipe and found this recipe for parmesan chicken. I'm pretty sure it's very close. I only used about a cup of Ritz crackers, not quite a whole sleeve. I also didn't have parsley so I put in some Italian seasoning. Other than that, I followed the recipe and it was delicious and very easy-a perfect combination!!

I don't try new recipes often so it was great that the girls loved it. As soon as they saw it was new, they were sure they would not like it. It was a good lesson in trying things out before you judge-a good, yummy lesson.

Yes, Your eyes are not deceiving you!!

You are looking at snow!! In October!!

This is the earliest I can remember having snow-what a neat surprise!!

My girls are skipping right over Halloween though and already making Christmas plans!

Yeah!! The Monthly Craft Challenge is Back!!

Each month, Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings has a craft challenge and it's back!! She took the summer off, but she's back with this month's theme -Halloween or Fall. Great for me because I don't have many Halloween decorations-or Fall for that matter-a perfect opp0rtunity to get my house ready for my 5 little goblins and the spookiness coming at the end of the month.

I saw the cutest idea over at Not So Idle Hands and I started saving my glass jars right away. I knew the girls would love it and they did!! They had fun making them and you would have thought I gave them the world when we put the lights in.

Aren't they adorable??? They're right on the corner of my mantle.

Emily at Not So Idle Hands gives great directions for making these-she has lots of great Halloween ideas! She used orange tissue paper but the day I stopped at Target they had none .......course I didn't go crazy looking with the 5 kids and hubby who kept saying "why do you need orange tissue paper?"........ this after constantly asking me if I still wanted all those glass jars! I spotted a package of orange napkins and grabbed them -perfect and easy. The girls loved using the Mod Podge to put the napkins on. We used black construction paper to make the faces (next time I'd use black tissue paper, I think the construction paper was kind of heavy). I used ribbon for the top of the pumpkins-thought it would kind of look like leaves. Still not sure of the ribbon-they kind of look like little pumpkin ninjas :)

We love the new additions to 7 All Together!

Head on over to Blue Eyed Blessings to check out some other great Halloween and Fall projects.

Makes Me Smile Monday

Having fun in the leaves on a beautiful day!!