Friday's Freewrite

Sara of Ordinary and Awesome does a "Friday Freewrite" and I thought I'd join her this week...I mean, she's like one of the only people who ever gives me a blog award.

Speaking of awards....here's another one she gave me...


Meaning...The Gold Blog Award...which is of course CORRECT :)

I'm supposed to pass it on to eight bloggers, so let's see, 1. my sister, 2. Lexi, 3. Anna, 4. Megan, 5. Maren, 6. Cathi, 7. Kasey, 8. Lori

Back to Friday's Freewrite

* Today we ran around all morning collecting Brennan and Jackson's prizes for doing summer reading programs...I mean, if you are already reading, you might as well rack up.

We did the public library, which was the best...we know have TWO free passes to Coco Keys (waterpark) and when the passes go back on super sale on that site I haunt, I will get two more and our family can all play hookie one day when school starts and go. They also gave the boys 2 passes each to the Omaha Royals game on August 8. We will be out of town, so if somebody wants 4 passes, email me. Finally, they got a free book each! Jack picked a 3rd grade level Scooby Doo (cause it's the Doo man!) and Brennan picked a Robots book by Dav Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants (which made its way into our home and hearts numerous times this summer.)

We did Borders, which was the worse...their book selection (which, by the way, their program only gives you 1/2 price on one selected book) STANK so I convinced Brennan to leave the "Learn to Draw Spongebob" book for $10 and get 2 books at our next stop...which was...

Half Price Books, my second favorite summer program. I have a soft spot in my heart for HPB b/c my college roommate, Crystal, works for them and so every time I go there/drive by, I think of her and our fun semester. Anyways, they give you a $3 gift card, which can be a lot at HPB. Brennan wound up with 3 books and Jackson with 2...they have great sales!

We ended our summer reading collection at Barnes-n-Noble...Brennan was the only one who could participate (had to be school aged) and he picked a pretty cool book about the moon.

I'd say for the price of gas (which is only $2.21 right now) we did pretty good, coming home with 8 books for nothing!

*After summer reading collection, we ran to Jackson's appliance shop and picked up our oven element...I am tired of not being able to use it when we want so tonight Bart and I will take the five minutes and replace it. The internet says (and we all know the internet never lies) it is super easy to do. It sure was super easy to burn out!

*Brennan leaves tomorrow and I am so glad. He wakes up early and that makes Jackson wake up early...it will be nice to sleep in! (Hopefully)

*While typing this, I smell a rotten banana, but I don't think we have any so this is puzzling me.

*I have not gone grocery shopping (except to pick up a few items here or there) since before June 19! Crazy, right? It's getting to where I NEED to go, but I am holding out until Monday. Yep. We can do it, though we are now out of macaroni and cheese, something I thought not humanly possible.

*Why can my house never stay clean? It's like a battle I just CANNOT WIN. Oh, well.

*And finally, I think it is time to take a nap. All that book running made me tired.

So easy, even a preschooler can do it!

Have you guys heard of the new Purex 3-in-1 sheets?
They are fantastic. Seriously.
All you do is throw a small sheet into the wash with your dirty clothes and start your washing machine. The laundry soap is released in the wash...no need to pour or measure or anything!
When the wash is done, it makes the trip to the dryer with your clothes where the heat activates the fabric softener and anti static strip.
As soon as I got it, I fell in love. I actually had the boys do it...I believe in teaching them about how to do household chores, and helping with laundry is one of them. It was super easy...as easy as it was for them to throw their dirty drawers in.
I just saw you can go to their site to get a coupon for $1 off your purchase of them. I will have to sign up so I can save money the next time I buy some!

Ethan wants to be a Gro Baby

I have caught a bug. The cloth diapering bug.

You see...it's contagious. I caught the bug from Megan. Now, I am worried I will spread the bug.
That's okay, though...it's not like this bug is bad for you!

One cloth diaper I'd really like to try (b/c Megan likes hers!) is the Gro Baby diaper. The Gro Baby diaper seems like a great started diaper, because one shell can be used multiple times by simply snapping in a new liner.

You can also use the diaper for multiple sizes, from birth on up, which is good...I mean, if you are making the cloth diaper investment, you probably want to get your money's worth out of them.
I hope I get to try a Gro Baby diaper...I mean, who wouldn't want a way to save money in these "tough economic times"???

There's four cute colors to choose from, too, so go ahead...take a peek. I bet you if you catch the bug, you won't want to stop with just one diaper...

Creative Memories Online Only Party!

My friend Nicole is now selling Creative Memories and I am hosting an online only party!
Simply go to this site, look around, and shop away.
Enter Jessica Remington as your hostess so I get the hostess rewards!

Shop now through July 21st.

The Countdown Begin!

One of these two kids is going to Kansas City on Saturday.
The Kansas City Airport.
Where he will then be escorted through security by his very brave mother and handed over to a lovely flight attendant for Southwest.
This lovely flight attendant (AKA: The Stylist if you ask Bren) will then seat him on the plane where he will then talk some poor, unsuspecting stranger's ear off for the three hour flight to New Orleans.
At the New Orleans Airport, his Papa Jeff and Grandma Cupcake will be waiting for him with open arms for a week of fun (with no Mommy, Jackson, Daddy, or Ethan!) before his family joins him.
I can't wait!

(Is it wrong that I am counting down the days to only being in charge of two kids for a few days?)

First Popsicle (and free kids c.d. download)

One HAPPY baby boy!

Yes, I know I have been fussing at Bart about feeding Ethan banana pudding (even if it was hilarious to watch Ethan get furious when Bart slowed down the shoveling of banana-y goodness into Ethan's mouth to take a bite himself), but Sunday I gave Ethan a Popsicle. (BTW, Bart fed Ethan banana pudding THREE times in two days...you should see the aftermath...g.r.o.s.s!)

I was so glad to see the sun shining after having an overcast Fourth that I thought it was a good way to celebrate.

He really liked it, esp. the wooden stick part. Silly boy...no matter how many times I turned that darn popsicle around, he just flipped it around again and started chewing on the stick!

Jackson was not quite so excited for Ethan's treat...Jack wanted one...bad...but did not earn one because he did not eat his baked beans and that was the deal.
Well, Ethan didn't have to eat baked beans (but he did eat his dinner first) but you know what I mean.

Doesn't he just look SO SAD?

Before you go feeling all sad and sorry for the boy...let me just tell you, he ate a few pieces of parade candy right before dinner so it's not like he had NO sweets, just no popsicles. (Not that the parade candy was great, but I am pretty sure he ate at least 2 different dum-dums)

Finding Joy in Popsicles...check

Finding Joy in Jon&Kate Plus 8's obsession with bibs on toddlers...check.

UPDATED: I just got an email from Charity from the JamBand and her c.d. Rock Your Socks Off (it was a giveaway in May) is FREE right now...all you do is enter SiSiJAMS at check-out. I just downloaded it. After you "buy" it, you get an email sending you the link to download the music. We ♥ Charity and the JamBand so this is great!

Hurry, the giveaway ends @ 10 p.m. PST 7/7!

Thanks America

Thanks to all the men, women, and children who sacrifice every day so our country can be free. Yes, even children sacrifice. My father was in Korea for one year while my mother was home with four small children, all under age eight.
Thanks to the founding fathers who had the foresight to see there was more to life then a king or queen ruling over us. And thanks to those who fought to earn it.
Thanks to my family for all you do to bless my life, even if we are far apart (or right next to me in bed)
Thanks to Kim Dusek, who took these fun pictures in the park yesterday...I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my freedom then the depressing of a camera shutter a zillion times! :)
Thanks to my mom who bought Jackson's shirt last year on sale and inspired me to want 4th of July pictures...and then there is Babies-R-Us who had Ethan's outfit on sale last fall and I just had to have it for him for the same reason!
And thanks to Bart, who stayed up all night last night smoking a brisket, so we'd have a yummy one for our 2nd annual 4th of July BBQ, complete with a parade and fireworks!

Here's wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July! Thanks for reading!

Chicken Enchiladas with Cottage Cheese by Roberts Dairy

I got the chance to "review" a local dairy's products. When we moved from Louisiana, I was really missing Klienpeter, but discovered a brand called, "Roberts" a local dairy that only uses milk from dairy farmers who have pledged to not treat their cows with artificial growth hormones. I usually just buy generic, but when Roberts price is close to WM brand, Roberts finds its way to my house.

I got coupons for sour cream, cottage cheese, and milk. I was unsure what I would do with the cottage cheese, since I don't eat plain cottage cheese. Some recipes came with the coupons and I decided to give it a try.
Here is the recipe. It was very easy to prepare, esp. since I already had shredded chicken in the freezer and shredded cheese.
Bart ate two helpings, I ate 1 1/2 and Jackson cleaned his plate with very little encouragement. Brennan even ate every bite...once I threatened to send him to bed instead of letting him watch "Wipeout". Bart took some to work for lunch and if I had been home, I would have eaten it as well.
So, I really liked the Roberts products we tried...the boys especially loved the thick, rich chocolate milk. I know there is more sugar if you buy it prepackaged, but there is something extra delicious about that first drink of chocolate milk out of the jug...Hershey syrup just doesn't do the same thing!
If you are in the Omaha area, or any other place that has a Robert's dairy, be sure you check it out, too...you won't be disappointed!

Wii All Celebrate Brennan's Birthday

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Brennan's sixth birthday party was a HUGE success. The idea started out as a bowling party, then a Wii bowling party, then it evolved into a Wii sports birthday party with pizza and cupcakes. (Buy less pizza then you think you need. 6 year olds don't eat a lot of pizza, and we are STILL eating it!)

Because we only have one t.v big enough to play on, Brennan was limited in how many guests he could invite. In the end, he invited 8 friends and 7 showed up. Having 8 (well, sometimes 9, when Jack played) kids was a good number because it made for 2 teams of 4.

To keep the kids from getting confused as to who was playing when, I used a dry erase board to divide into two teams and keep score...well, I kept score until one girl rocked at bowling and made all the boys jealous.

Ethan was our official score keeper, too.

To get a picture of all the kids together, I gathered them on the couch before we ate cake and chocolate ice cream...they were more willing because they wanted those cupcakes (though I had to snap fast for the same reason) and they were not covered in chocolate, as they were after their treats were eaten!
Here are the invitations. I made them with simple scrapbooking supplies and permanent markers. They were very easy to put together.

There is a font out there that is a "Wii" font, that I really wanted to use on the invites, but I could not figure out how to install it properly. If you are interested, just google, "Wii font" and you will find it.
The wording for his invite came from this post.

I made the cake out of a 9x 13 cake that I cut and shaped. If I were to do this again, I'd try using a bread pan as that is about the same shape as what I wound up with. Or, I would cut it long ways because the cake was a bit squatty, not really long and lean like a Wii mote. The kids did not mind at all, though.

To form, I cut the cake 2 inches from the edge, then 4 inches from that cut, then 4 inches from that cut, giving myself two pieces that were 2 inches wide, and 2 pieces that were 4 inches wide. (If that does not make sense, email me and I will explain it to you)

I stacked the 2 4 inch pieces first, generously frosting between the layers, then I stacked the 2 edges that were 2 inches each on top (more frosting of course!) I did this so that my edges were slightly curved, like a Wiimote.

I then chilled the cake and covered it in fondant. If you are interested in learning about how to use fondant, check my mom's site in a bit because she is going to be putting out a basic cake decorating DVD in the future.

I made the buttons using gumpaste (I use CK Products brand, but you can also easily make it yourself using this tutorial by my mom). I rolled it out pretty thick because I used sharpies to make the marks and I wanted a LOT of space between the cake and the markers.

I should have made the cord out of gumpaste, but I did a fondant/gumpaste mix and it broke when I moved it. :(

I also did cupcakes because Brennan really loves cupcakes. (I used one cake mix for the cake, which was thin, but since I stacked it that was okay, and the cupcakes) I used the Mii's I created as toppers and stuck them in Wilton cupcake holders that look like feet. I wanted my Mii's to be oval, like this blog has, but I forgot to space them enough on the page before I went to the UPS store to print them and I did not want to waste what I'd paid for, so I just had rectangles instead.

Let me tell you, the kids LOVED the personalization that was at this party. There were personalized straws (and guess what...no kid lost his cup!

They all used only one each!), decorations, and Miis everywhere.

Other then playing the Wii (only 4 at a time where playing, remember?), the kids played Legos or created a Mii of themselves at the "Make Mii" station. I simply traced a Mii face shaped oval onto cardstock and had a table with colors, markers, etc. and let the kids go to town. To encourage the children to particapate, the winner won $1. It's crazy the things a kid will do well for a single dollar bill.

I was also able to do something at this party that I have never done in the past, though I have wanted to for a long time. I saw a picture in a scrapbook magazine YEARS ago where all the children gathered behind the birthday child during the Happy Birthday song. I have always wanted to do this, but felt I could not really boss the children around since their mothers were there. This was a drop off party, so I could boss the kids however I wanted :) and I got my shots. I love them, too!

Also, notice behind the kids? Instead of making a birthday banner, I used my cricut to cut out letters to spell "Happii Birthday" and then used painters tape to adhere them, and each kid's Mii, to the wall. On the back of the Mii's was a thank you note all ready to go after the party!

I had a lot of fun researching and planning this party, and I hope Brennan had a lot of fun being the birthday boy. I did not do a treat bag because the tee shirts were the "goodie". I like that the kids have something they can use again and not just some junky trinkets that will break in a day or two.

I used this and this and this and this as inspiration for Brennan's party. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

Making a Mii and the tee shirt tutorial here.

Tutorial: How to make a Mii, put it on a tee shirt, and paint on the back of the tee shirt...all in one!

Brennan's sixth birthday party was this past Friday and it was a Wii Sports themed party. Because the Wii has Mii's, I created a Mii for each child at this site. I then used the Mii's to make tee shirts, personalize the envelopes for the invites and drinking straws, create a "Happii Birthday" bulletin board (I used painters tape and taped everything on my dining room wall instead of making a birthday banner), a chandelier decoration, decorate the front door and personalize cupcakes.

Here is a tutorial on how to make a Mii tee shirt. The first part is how to make a Mii online and then turn it into what you see in my picture of Jackson. (He picked the yellow sunglasses)How to create a Mii from an online source and get it onto your computer so you can use it.

1. Go to makewee.com and create your Mii. Pick shirt color, face shape, hair color and style, eye shape, etc.
2. When your Mii is how you like it, move your mouse away from the Mii, so it will not be in the picture in the next step (I did not do this and had to redo one of them).
3. Hit "Print Screen" on your keyboard (to do this on my computer, I had to hold down a button that says, "fn" and is in a box on the bottom left side AND hold down "prt sc" which is in a box under the home button on the top right corner)
4. Open PAINT
   
5. Click on "Edit" and then click "paste". The entire screen from the Mii creater should be up in PAINT now.
6. Click on the square with the dotted lines in the shape of a square. Then, use this feature to "cut out" your Mii. Your Mii should be inside the box.
7. With your arrow (you know, from the mouse?) inside the Mii box, click on "Copy"
8. Go up to "File", click "New" and don't save the old.
9. Right click your mouse, "Paste" and your Mii should pop up!
10. Click on the paint bucket and the white paint and fill in the blue around your Mii.
11. Once your Mii is colored how you want it, click on "File" and "Save". Save it as a JPEG and you will be able to access it as a picture. I did this.
12. From there you can resize it however you want. I copied my pictures into a word document so I could size them and have multiple pictures on one page. I then used these images (which I got printed at the UPS store for 0.30 cents a page) for all the things listed above.

How to make a Mii Tee Shirt:

1. I bought the teeshirts at Michaels when they had them on sale 2/$5. I was not spending a lot of money on this so this was perfect.
2. Create your Mii and then size it to 5x7 in your picture program.
3. Click print and select 2 5x7's. Make sure to see if your program offers an "iron on transfer" mode.
   (A quick note...if you have writing you want to use in the iron on transfer, MAKE SURE TO REVERSE THE IMAGE! I forgot to do that for Baby Ethan's Mini Mii teeshirt :( )
   
4. I printed out two Mii's per iron on transfer sheet (I used the Wilton brand from Michaels, normally $10, I had a 50% off coupon so I got 10 sheets for $5...just google "Michaels coupons" and I am sure you can find one, too). To print, follow directions that come with your transfers.
5. Iron on following directions.
   

Easy, right?

I decided to paint "Team Mii" or "Team Wii" on the backs of the shirts so here is how I did that.

1. Cut out your word on a cricut using contact paper. I used Base Camp and cut the letters 2 1/2 inches for the best fit for the kids shirts.
2. Put shirt on a big board (I used the top of a plastic storage bin. It was the perfect size and gave me a nice flat surface)
3. Put some newspaper or something under the shirt so the paint doesn't get all over your lid.
4. Place the stencil on the shirt, making sure to add the middle parts if you have to (like in my "a" and "e")
5. Press firmly to make sure the stencil is totally pressed down and paint will only go where it is supposed to.
6. Using a paint brush or sponge (I used a cotton ball b/c I did not want to have to wash a paint brush between shirts) dab paint (fabric paint is best) onto the stencil letters. Make sure you completely fill in the area and be careful not to get outside the stencil.
7. I then let the paint set about 1/2 an hour, removed the tee-shirt, laid it out for the day and repeated the process...TEN TIMES!

See how cute they are from behind?


Ethan in his Mini Mii shirt...see that black box? Yep, I forgot to reverse the image, so the shirt said "iiM iniM" and I had to figure out how to fix it without making a new tee shirt (since I did not have any more)...a black box printed onto transfer paper and then puffy fabric paint was my solution!
Other posts about the Wii Party are here and here.