FUN Thanksgiving snack for the kids!

Here is a super fun and easy dessert for the kids this Thanksgiving!! My friend posted a picture of some that her kids made on facebook and they were so fun we had to try it out!!!

Yesterday afternoon my girls made some after school and it was super easy! :) All you need is OREO cookies, whoppers, candy corn & a little tube of icing (we used white for the eyes and pink for the waddle since that's what I had on hand)

Take 2 OREO cookies per turkey, separate 1 and use the side with cream for the base of the turkey, take the other OREO and prop it up near the back of the base OREO. Stick the candy corn in the middle for feathers and use the whopper as the head, dot on eyes & waddle with the icing and you are done!

Teacher gift ~ Thanksgiving Thank You!

Teachers...they play a HUGE part in our kids daily life and while we should thank them daily I am sure we don't! This time of year, Thanksgiving, is a time for showing our gratitude and realizing just how much we have to be thankful for! I wanted to put together a little thank you gift for Savannah's 1st grade teacher and her bus driver (they have an incredibly important job of delivering our kids to school and back home safely everyday!!) and Emerson's 2 preschool teachers. As always, little $$ to spend so cheap yet thoughtful was my goal!

I have TONS of these vintage canning jars in the attic (sshhh..don't tell Dave because I don't think he knows exactly how many are hiding up there!) I grabbed 4 and cleaned them up with some multi-surface windex & scrubbed the metal part with some steel wool. I found a fabric quarter @ Walmart over the weekend ($1) and a roll of thick jute type ribbon ($1.97)...combine that with 3 bags of candy (on SALE & with coupons of course!)

Candy into the jars, cute fabric on top under the glass lid, clamp them down and tie a piece of the thick jute ribbon around the neck of the jar, then I used a leaf template I have for scrapbooking and cut out 3 colorful leaves to write our thank you notes on and attached those using leftover garden twine!

I put together 4 nice gifts for under $10 TOTAL!!!

Declaration!

Ok....so if I put it in writing for whomever reads this blog to see then I feel more accountable and will hold myself to it right?!?!?!

WHAT you are asking is this life changing declaration??? Simply 3 words....LET IT GO.......

I find myself feeling overwhelmed 98% of the time and I cannot live up to the expectations I set for myself. I guess it comes from being a stay at home mom...I do daycare part time to bring in extra $$ and my share of the bacon if you will but I just put this enormous amount of pressure on myself to have to earn my keep! Perfection?!?! What a joke!!!

My house does not need to be perfectly clean, sometimes dinner is not going to be this amazing meal that arrives on time, my kids can watch more TV than "the man" says they should, enjoy my girls - they are 2 & 6 already and they will be 16 & 20 before I know it! Embrace the craziness and chaos instead of fighting it, help out friends but don't be ashamed to receive help either! These are just a few of my new rules. I have made a promise to myself & my family for a weekly family game night...a monthly date night with the hubs (even if after paying the sitter all we can afford to do is sit at the lake and look out at the water).....spending less time working on the never ending to do list and more time savoring everyday moments.....taking time for myself to not be a mom or wife but just a woman with thoughts and ideas and hobbies and friends all of my own.......all of this is easier said than done for me...especially the last one........BUT I will not have a crappy marriage and I will not make my kids look back and wish things had gone differently and have to make this change in their adult life because I didn't make it in mine, I will be that example for them of how to live a full and happy life....so I will make this change and hope to see everyone benefit from it!

The saying - A happy wife makes a happy life - SO true...as women we wear many hats and expect so much from ourselves but just as I heard from a speaker at MOPS this morning who was talking about stress with the holiday season....she said - simplify.....a frazzled mom is no fun!!!

So there.......now its out there for the whole world to see....or at least the handful of people that read this blog ;) Hold me to it friends!!!!!

COMPOST!!!

So, those of you that know me, know that I am cheap and save money wherever I can! We separate our cardboard & recyclable items so we only have 1 can of garbage a week to take to the dump! I have looked into compost bins for awhile know but they are pricey! We have always had a vegetable garden and this summer took the time to fence it in (you can see that here) and make it a really nice area! So, aside from saving $$ on garbage every week the compost thing would work great to make our garden soil even better for next year!

Not to mention for all you tree huggers out there, "hooray, go green be kind to your planet yadda...yadda..yadda" Not that I am not a fan of being good to our earth and doing my part, I just don't go all crazy over it...but with this project we get benefits on all points!

Today was the day! I looked online to find basic plans for a DIY composter, grabbed an extra storage tote I had in the attic and ran outside! With a drill we made several holes in the lid and sides of the tote and a few on the bottom for drainage. We got super fancy and even spelled out "Compost" on the side of the bin! Dave even jumped in & helped, as much as he makes fun of my "blogland" he likes to make the picture roll occasionally ;)

We then put some leaves and dirt in the bottom of it and now have our very own compost bin! So now we just take our food scraps out and toss them in the bin, give a stir occasionally and Voila, so easy...took literally 5 minutes to do and the rewards will be fantastic!

$0 project, gotta love that!!

Before & After

So.......I have this lucky corner, where I find lots of "treasures"...Dave tries to avoid that corner whenever he is driving but against his better judgement a few weeks ago there we were.....travelling THE ROAD he is driving and I'm sitting there with my fingers crossed that it would be a lucky day, & that I will convince him to pull over so I can safely check out whatever is there rather than jumping from the car and risking injury ;) hoping for a day that these people whomever they are put out something they see as junk that I see as junk with amazing potential ;)

BEFORE: just out of the car @ it's new home!

It was in rough shape, lots of paint layers...the rolltop part would barely move. Dave helped me(by helped I mean he did that whole part on his own!) take it all apart and he firmed up the chair & desk, I sanded and sanded and sanded and then sanded some more.....

I think I read too many blogs because I used to never notice stuff laying beside the road...now I search for it, drive different routes home than the way I went...just on the off chance I will SCORE!!! :)

PREPPED & ready for painting!!!

This is the second piece of curbside castoffs in Emerson's room (here is the first) & she was so excited about it...even in its original dirty rickety (is that even a word?!?) state she was thrilled with her desk and so was Savannah since she would get hers back!

My paint, "Ballet Slipper" & "Ivory" I heart Krylon spray paint!!

AFTER: a super cute little vintage desk for a super cute little gal!

We still need to shop for some cute little accessories but I wanted to snap some pictures because even as I am typing this I can hear 2 little girls in that room squealing and coloring and I am sure the desktop is already marked up, just minutes after I placed it in her bedroom!!

Happy Halloween! {a little late!!}

We spent Halloween in Arizona this year so I am behind on posting for the holiday! It was a whirlwind trip but so much fun!!! I got to visit with my mom, sisters, grandma, brother in laws, sister in laws & all my WONDERFUL nieces and nephews.....they are the very best thing of visiting AZ and the hardest thing to be so far away from! Jasmine, Alyssa, Makayla, Madison, Kaeden, Kellen, Brock, Angelina, & Brody!

I got the chance to go and visit with my grandma, my dad's mom who I recently got back in touch with a few years ago and have repaired the relationship with and am so thankful that my girls get to know my dad's mom, their great grandma! She is my real connection with my dad since he passed away and I am thankful to get a chance to show her his grandkids and have pictures to treasure. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and her camera was not working so I only grabbed this cell phone photo but its better than nothing!

I got to meet my newest nephew Brody and he is so precious!!! Brock is an amazing big brother, Dave's brother & his wife have a beautiful family! My sweet niece Angelina came to see Auntie Icecream with Dave's sister Willow and her husband! That little girl is a pistol and cracks me up, I love it because she is so much like her mom & it drives her mom crazy which I am sure my mother in law loves!!!! Don't moms always say they hope you have a kid just like yourself so we can know what they went through!?! Jeremy's son Kaeden was at his moms and couldn't make it & we were bummed to miss him!

Got a pic with Grammy and almost all her grandkids, Jasmine was working & couldn't make it to dinner before Trick or Treating.

Amazing weather for trick or treating, a little too hot for us but when we heard it was snowing back here in NY we were thrilled to be out in shorts & t-shirts!

Savannah was Batarina and Emerson was a Candy Corn Fairy! Much less material than they usually have to wear for Halloween...next year we will be back to the 1 piece hooded fuzzy warm costumes!! We did the Trunk or Treat at my sister's Paula's church on Saturday night then Trick or treating with all the cousins on my side at my sister Michele's house Sunday night.

This last picture we like to call AZ Aftermath...the girls were BEAT from just a quick cross country trip but hey we got them to sit still for a picture finally!!