Kids Halloween Party

This past Saturday I hosted a Halloween party for L and her friends. It was a lot of fun and I managed to pull it all together in a few days.

The party was from 1:30 - 4pm so I had some finger foods and cupcakes ready. I spent about an hour one afternoon printing out the food labels. I searched online for "old looking paper" and found a picture I liked. I copied it onto Word, sized it, copied it several times until I had about 6, and inserted text boxes to create the labels. I added a small picture with each one also. I printed these off and laminated them (so I can use them next year).

 

 

 

 

I used a cookie cutter to make the cheese ghosts.

 

 

 I used whole black olives and cheese cubes for the skewers. I meant to use mozzarella but only had cheddar on hand.

 

 

I used Rice Krispy treats cut into various shapes for the zombie brains.

 

 

I used a cookie cutter to makes ham/cheese and turkey/cheese sandwiches into coffins.

I had a Candy Guessing Game for the kids to do. I had three jars of candy and they had to write down their guess of how many were in there. This was a big hit! Next year I will have more jars.

 

 

The weather was perfect so we spent most of the time outside. The kids jumped on our trampoline, laid in the hammock and enjoyed a game of Mummy Wrap. Each time had to use 3 entire rolls of toilet paper to roll up their friend. The winning team won small prizes.

 

 

 

I had a craft table set up inside for Halloween necklace and bracelet making. Outside I had a pumpkin decorating station. On the table was glue, googly eyes, glitter and markers.

 

I am glad I did not have things planned back to back because the kids spent a lot of time just playing outside and having fun in each others company. It was a very simple party but it was a lot of fun!

Soup recipe.....Yum!

I am so ready for some cooler weather so I can start cooking hearty meals again. Found this one today and it looks really good!

Plain Ol' Food: Beef, Barley, and Vegetable Soup

Charlie, our Elf on the Shelf

Hands down, this is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I know not everyone loves the little face of the elf or the idea of creating places for him to hide but I thrive on this type of creativity. The look of joy and excitement on my daughters face is worth it every time!

Here is what Charlie did this year. He started out leaving poems with hints of where he can be found. After a couple of weeks, it was up to my daughter to search and find him without hints.

He announced his arrival by sitting on a wreath on my daughter's bedroom door.

He left a note for her. That is indeed a hair you see taped with the note. 

I have several more pictures but trying to get them upload is a big 'ole pain right now. I will update this post as soon as I can. I have way too much fun with this tradition!

I am running and not because I'm being chased

I am a runner.

I never, ever thought I would be able to say that. I have always hated running. I hated my heart pounding and gasping for air as I tried to make my legs go. I never flowed with me.

Flash back to April of this year. Stepping on the scale I saw a higher number from last summer. I guess I indulged a bit more this past winter. I wanted to lose those 10 lbs. Of course, I wanted to lost it all in one week. Ha! Don't we all? So I started counting calories and drinking lots and lots of water. I started seeing the scale go back a few lbs. but then it stopped. Ugh. Ok, just counting calories is not working.

Now during this time of calorie counting I was seeing a friend on facebook post updates from a running program she was participating in. It was called Couch-to-5K. I was intrigued seeing her progress and how many pounds she was losing. So this hater of running decided to give it a try.

I used the app Couch-to-5K (under RunDouble on my Android)  which was great! You put your earbuds in and it tells you when you walk and when to run. Awesome!

Each session took about 20 or 30 minutes, three times a week. You space out the days so you are not running back to back. So if you think you can't be a runner, I highly recommend you give it a try!

Weekend Trip + Transmission = A funny story to tell

I have a newly rebuilt transmission in my car. I don't know what it looks like (I am not mechanical in any way and would have no idea where it is located in my car) but I'm sure it's nice and shiny. So how did I come about getting this gem?

First of all, I love the mountains. The beauty you see and find is breathtaking. You cannot help but feel peaceful and I did.

Our journey to the mountains was a surprise trip for our daughter. She woke up Friday morning and was given a book that my husbands slaved over for many weekends. Inside she read that she was not going to school but going on a Mountain Weekend Adventure ( it was given the code acronym MAW when we discussed anything around L). We were going to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC and then heading to Gatlinburg, TN for a fun weekend. And off we went!

Our first stop was the Biltmore House. Such a stunning place with the most beautiful scenery. L loved seeing the big mansion and it was excited for us that she was being exposed to the history of the house.


My sweet family:




L taking in the view:



Part One of the trip is a success!

Now to part two....drive to Gatlinburg.

We noticed as we started our journey that the transmission was slipping getting into certain gears so David drove the car in manual. We babied that thing the entire drive. We made it to Gatlinburg! Sweet!

We spend the rest of that day walking up and down the main road taking in the sights, enjoying some food, went through the hall of mirrors, etc. Just a nice end to the day.

The next day we go to the Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, etc.. Just lots to do there. The grand finale was going to be the Dixie Stampede (a country fried version of Medieval Times). I was so excited and so was baby girl.

BUT.......

before we could even drive off the main strip, the car stops. AND WILL NOT GO. This street was bumper to bumper (A Santa parade had just ended. Seriously, who puts on a Santa parade in March?!) We were a bit panicked because we were right in the middle of this 4 lane road and we had no where to go. Luckily, a few locals saw us with our hazards on and helped push the car into a nearby parking lot.

Long story short, our car got a ride to Knoxville where it stayed a week and had it's transmission rebuilt.

And we missed the Dixie Stampede. *sigh*

Growing and building my coupon binder

Oh, the power of organization and couponing. With my new system I can already see the benefits and the savings. I love just writing the date, hole punching the coupon flyer and putting them into my binder. When I jump on CouponMom, I can put together a list of the items I want to buy and easily find the flyer by date and clip the coupons. So far this system is working for me.


Another great way to find coupons is online. I have found lots of great coupons that I can just print here at home. The problem was that they were all over the place and I needed to get them organized.

It is well known in the coupon world that baseball card holders are great for coupons. So I went to Walmart today to seek them out. I was pleasantly surprised to see this gem in the baseball card section.

How fab is that? Yes, there were plain baseball card holders I could have bought for a few bucks cheaper but this packet has FOUR different sizes for coupons. Not all coupons are created equal in size and this was perfect!

Let me show you:

Almost all the coupons I print online are long....

And look how neatly they go into the coupon holder.

Beautiful!

And then there is this size....

and this size....

There is another smaller size that holds coupons that are about baseball card size. I did not need to use that one yet.

So, see why I bought this packet instead?

I am putting these in the front of my binder so I can scan these first.

There are lots of couponers who cut out the coupons and organize them into categories using these inserts. The upside to that is that you do not need a huge binder and you can carry it with you to the store. This might be something I do in the future but the downside is that when I go to Couponmom and find all the deals with the corresponding coupon, they will not be organized by date and flyer. I would be flipping from category to category hunting down that particular coupon.

Each method has it's pros and cons.

The best pasta sauce!

I have discovered the best pasta sauce for lasagna, spaghetti, etc.! I came across it while searching for lasagna recipes and it is my magical sauce now. The best part is that I can make a big batch of it and freeze the serving sizes for future meals.

Ok, let's get down to the details on how to make this yummy recipe:

You will need -

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 to 1 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

~ In a dutch oven or whatever big pot you have, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned.

I used a big onion which probably ended up being a bit more than 1 cup. I kept the garlic at two cloves but since we love garlic, I think I will up that a bit next time.


We have cooked ground beef in our freeze and I forgot to let it sit out before I started cooking so , yes, that is a big hunk of ground beef you see in there.



It smells so good!

~ Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water.

I thought I had a big can of crushed tomatoes but I only had diced. Nothing the blender cannot solve.

 

You want to know what sucks? This can opener. It took some serious muscle to get these cans opened enough to pour out the contents. Look at how jacked up the lids are.


We bought a new one.

~Season with sugar, basil,  Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley.

~Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Your house is going to smell so good after this is done!

If I am going to freeze the batch, I let it cool completely then measure out the serving sizes into Ziplock Freezer bags.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!