Tips for the Zoo

My Kids are the perfect age for a trip to the Zoo. It's fun for them, educational, and they get to burn off some energy walking and playing. We had a really good trip to the Milwaukee Country Zoo with some cousins over the weekend. Here is a few tips to make your Trip easier.

1. Try to avoid the crowds: If you can go during the week do it. If you can avoid Holidays that's great too.

2. Save on Parking: Carpool or park on the street and walk.

3. Bring Snacks and Beverages:You will need water or something to drink for sure...bring it with you. Also Snacks are a great way to keep little ones in the stroller

4.Start a Souvenir Collection: My Son loves to buy EVERYTHING so we decided that we would buy a penny for a penny collection to put in a book that he has, This way he gets something and has a really cool souvenir


5. Stroller Sunscreen: Nuff Said.....you got little ones lather it on, try to keep the little one contained

 Cool Zoo Pics!

Day Out with Toe-Mas

 When Owen was really little he loved Thomas the Train. It was funny because my aunt had a foreign exchange student from Brazil named Thomaz. Anyways at my youngest brother’s graduation party Thomaz showed up and little Owen was just learning to talk and could say his name brilliantly. Boy was Thomaz impressed. Too bad he could only say Thomas so well because he was obsessed with the train TV show.

My Friend Crystal’s son is a year younger than Owen and still in the Thomas the Train Stage. So we passed down the trains and track and all that fun stuff to him. We joined them at a Day out with Thomas event in Green Bay.  What a fun Day for everybody! 

We got Tickets!

Crafty Kids!

Bye Sir Topham Hat!

It's a Strawberry and Rubarb Type of Day

It finally stopped raining here. So, I took the kiddos on a little drive through the country. The plan was stop at strawberry farm we had gone to last year that we had excellent luck with. The berries were big juicy and Delicious and I picked pounds of berries. It was super family friendly too. The kiddos got ride in a wagon behind a tractor and they got a kick of it. We headed out there and I didn't see the signs pointing to the farm, not a good sign. We get there and they aren't open until tomorrow (stawberries are late this year). The kiddos really wanted to get berries!

We headed out down another to road to another farm I had seen when I was driving by. Totally different place but is was good. The old farmer reminded me a little of my grandpa. I asked him if we could pick some berries, he had to think about for awhile even though the signs said "you pick" Then he pointed us over to a little patch and told the kids they could eat what ever they wanted and fill up their little pint baskets. They were kinda dirty and really seedy...nothing a little washing can't fix. Reminds of the way the berries were when I picked em out the garden as a kid. He just charged us a buck and they kids had a good time. Plus I found some Rubarb at a little roadside stand. I love rubarb...but have never cooked it. It was easy and I even froze some for later.

Rubarb Bars

And Since I am into cooking once cleaning once I was also buzy in the kitchen making fruit salad out of the berries, banana bread for all my quests coming this weekend and some cheese dip to go with tacos tonight.

Cheese dip is super easy and really good! Velveeta cubed with Rotel tomatoes with chiles. Crock Pot on low for a few hours.....yummy cheesy goodness

While I was out my car magically veered to a garage sale and a tent sale at gold n country gifts. I got all these super cute vintage Barbie and Skipper Patterns for a quarter! Not sure if I have the skills to make any of them.....but I couldn't resist. I also got a bag full of vintage bias tape and zig zag that I want to use for pillowcase dresses.

The kids are napping....better get my mess of kitchen cleaned up before they wake up!

Lessons from a five year old

5 years ago today I stood up go get some ice cream with my husband and Mother in Law and my water broke. I was so excited....this was it!  I was finally going to meet the little guy that was living inside me for the past nine months. I went into motherhood pretty naive....none of my friends had babies, in fact I had no idea what I was in for. What an adventure it was.....when I look back I am pretty sure I am glad nobody filled me in on what childbirth was really going to be like otherwise I don't think I could have done it! As the sun came up after the longest day of the year (it really was the longest day of the year, it was the summer solstice) Owen entered the world. He has been teaching me lessons ever since.

1. Patience
I thought I was a patient person before he was born. He has been testing me ever since.

2. Relationships are what matters.
Owen is always looking for a new friend everywhere he goes. No matter how mad he gets at me or anyone he is too young to hold a grudge. He loves ya no matter what.

3. Have confidence and Trust that everything is going to be all right.
Owen dives into everything head first with enthusiasm. Well almost everything, he does have a stubborn streak and needs some prodding now and then.

Owen's Self Portrait

Love Ya Son.....Happy 5th Birthday!!

Easy Peasy Name Shirts

Blah another rainy day.....wishing for some nice hot sunny summer weather here. I had the kiddos help me make some shirts today with their names on them. Name recogontion is really important for kiddos. This project helps them display it with pride.Perhaps I will add an iron on transfer to the bottom later to jazz it up. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. It's a really great magazine full of ideas for projects for the kiddos.



First, I cut out their names with my cricut on contact paper. Apply the "stickers" to your shirt of choice

Next I got out the spray fabric paint

Tulip Fabric Spray Paint

Have kiddos spray paint away!

Let dry, Enjoy!

Linking up:


http://momsbyheart.net/momspiration-monday-free-printables     and

and

Adventures in Potty Training

I don't believe these things work. They are just diapers that they can pull off!

Audrey is going to be Three in close to three months. You know what that means?....She really needs to get back on the potty training wagon. I admit I have been a slacker and let get away with wearing diapers simply because I don't want to clean up the accidents. I mean it felt like I just got done training her big brother. Can't a woman take a break? I was super pumped when she started to go on the potty when her brother went when she was only 18 months......so I thought this was going to be a breeze. Maybe she would just train herself? You know how people say when they are that are young it's just the parents that are trained. Right, that's what I told myself anyway and now I have a little girl who is going to be even harder to train because she has developed an attitude.

So, here is what the potty training experts out there have said
1. Let them run around buck naked and wet themselves.
        Been there, she doesn't care much. Just gets changed and does it again while Mama has another rug to clean and a load of laudry to do. (again the lazy part ) Oh yeah and they suggest to do this outside in the summer. I am sorry I am not going to have a bare naked kid runnig around my yard. No matter how cute her little butt is :)

2. Bribe them with M and M's, skittles, stickers or whatnot.
     She likes the reward don't get me wrong. But then again maybe it's just me being lazy and not being consistant. Currently we are trying a big bribe. She gets rid of diapers we get a kitty. Oh boy what I am getting myself into here.

3. Special Big Girl Panties
   She loves her princess and dora panties but that doesn't stop her from doing her business in them. Have you ever cleaned out underware after a number 2?......gross


I just have to say it's really hard to be a working Mom trying to get your kids potty trained. They need to consistently go on the potty to learn I think but on the other hand I don't think it's really the babysitters job to potty train either.

I guess I just have to have faith that I have done it once and I can do it again.  Wish me luck!

The Fun is in the Find....What will you find?

So, this morning I left he kids with a sitter and went on a little road trip. I found the greatest store ever! I am in love!!! They specialize in shabby chic treasures and they do tons of upcycling of antique items. They have a beautiful outdoor area and a bunch of used furniture, estate finds and gift items inside. The part that I am most in love with though is the prices! If you are ever in Northeastern Wisconsin it's definitely worth the drive down the long country roads :) http://www.goldncountrygifts.com/

Beautiful old trunk I found for $16.50 The tree decoration is a garage sale find for $1

Old luggage tag

New for me picture $4.50

Had to add my garage sale find.....tent city $2

Garage Sale find for little friend that is coming to visit soon....$2

Old folding chair Free...not sure what I am going to do with but it has lots of character and it was FREE

Linking up to Frugal Fridays at the Shabby Nest
http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2011/06/frugal-friday_16.html

Thankful Thursday

In honor of Father's Day, my Dad is what I am thankful for this week. Thanks for being such a big supporter of me!

Garage Sale Love

A nearby community is having community garage sales tomorrow and I am excited to get my hands on some bargains aka treasures. As in "one man's junk is a another man's treasure". Here are some past treasures I have found.

Super cute dress for 2 dollars!

I have also held a few garage sales myself. Here are some tips for a successful garage sale.

1. Hold your sale during a community or nieghborhood sale. You will get tons more foot traffic=more sales. If you are going to put forth the effort of setting up a sale you want to sell as much as possible and this is the easiest way
2. Use a Dot system to label items. When I had my sale I had tons of baby/kids clothes. People like to have the prices on items so to save time I used a system of colored dots. Yellow=25 cents, Pink=50 cents, Orange=1 dollar. Then you just put up some signs to explain the colors. Or, if you are really code with making labels off your computer you just make a bunch of labels. If you do this you can also add initials. Which is great if you are having a multi-family sale
3. Advertise- Craigslist, Newspaper, etc
4. Signage- Make sure there are good signs pointing people to your sale
5. Put some bigger items outside....this attracts the drive by garage salers to come in.
6. Have food/drinks. I haven't tried this but I have read/heard of other people having success with it. Get the kiddos involved, have sell lemonade and cookies. Who can resist that :)

Batch Cooking

So...I love summer! We are super buzy this summer with swim lessons, soccer, volleyball, and just plain being outside enjoying the long days. The last thing I wanna do is come home from work and be in the kitchen. So, to speed up the time in the kitchen I am trying a concept I found on another blog called Batch Cooking. Basically I just cook a whole bunch of stuff at one time and freeze the rest. This hopefully will clear up some cooking/clean up time for fun time during the week. It's also a good way to be frugal, I bought a 5.5 lb package of ground beef for around 10 bucks and I stay away from take out or eating out.

This Week I Made:

A loaf of French Toast: It freezes really well and I love me some Brinner.....breakfast for dinner :)
Bacon
Hulled two pints of Strawberries
Taco Meat
Spaghetti Sauce
Lasagna
An Overnight Blueberry French Toast bake recipe that I wanted to try. (yes I really like french toast)
I was going to make Banana Bread but I didn't get to it....I was too tired

My little Helper Chef Audrey

I am a runner

Audrey and I ran the Bellin 10K race in Green Bay yesterday. Wow it has huge! And when I say huge I mean I started the race when the winners finished.....it took 20 minutes to get to the start. There was around 18,000 runners/walkers. I wish I would have remembered my camera. I was in a rush to get to the registration tent after trying to find a place to park.

Here is a picture in the car after the race

Audrey got a cool shirt too!

I decided to make a little medal display for my running medals. Displaying the hardware baby. I broke out my cricut and cut some vinyl letters and used command hooks that I found on clearance at my favorite store here in town.....Walgreens. 

 

Then I decided to organize my race bibs by laminating them and making a little book. I love my laminator. I got off of amazon when they had a deal and it was super cheap. Like the  laminating sheets are more expensive than the machine

Running helps me stay in shape and keep my sanity....even though some people think I am crazy to run long distances. But, I do half marathons so I am only half crazy! haha 

Thankful Thursday

So, I am kinda of a Oprah fan. Not really a fanatic just an occasional viewer and fan of her magazine. She is big on gratitude and so is the writer over at another blog I like to read the http://www.happiness-project.com/

Here is my Thankful Proclamation for the www

I am Thankful for my weekly Volleyball games at the Log Cabin. Good Times with friends....and if we win we get a six pack of beer a piece! Yes, I am from Wisconsin and I love beer especially on a hot day. We haven't been winning but I still have been having fun. Last night was kinda of a family affair. My kids plus some other players kiddos were there and grandparents and friends....all too watch a bunch of old people try not to get hurt and get the ball over the net.

Which brings to my family.... I am so thankful to be the Mom to my little ones. They are both high energy but also tons of fun! I love there budding sense of humor and the bond they have with each other....even if they are fighting about every 15 minutes. I also am thankful to be married to the most loyal supportive man around....I couldn't do it without him. He is always there to give me a hand when I am about to lose it! Love you Guys!

Look What I made!

Since Audrey is a destined to be a princess or diva.... I think she is the most girly girl around. I am dusting up my sewing skills from my 4-H days. I really like pillowcase dresses and found one made out of fat quarters here Fat Quarter Pillow Case Dress

I had found some really cute fat quarters that I picked up from JoAnn Fabrics. They came in a bundle or coordinating colors and think they are perfect for summer. So here is the finished product.

 Not the best picture, sorry. Having fun is the Sand at Marley's restaurant in the Dells. More about that later

I kinda messed up the armholes and the seams weren't perfectly matched up.... probably would have gotten a pink ribbon at the fair. It's hard to sew without your Mom there to help.

I love the colors, she loves it and it will keep her cool on these hot days we are having!

Our New Ride.....Fuel Economy for a Family

I got a new car! My old car was a Buick Rendezvous and I loved it. It was the perfect size for us and got decent MPG. However, it was getting up there in the miles and needed a few repairs.....mirror, shocks, etc.

I also am not a mini van Mom....they are nice for larger families but we are not ready to go there yet. Two is about all I can handle. Rule #1: No Mini Van

Being environmentally consious....more like trying to be economical these days with 4 dollar gas...my husband and I wanted something with really good MPG. I also didn't want to spend over 20,000 on a car. We though about the hybrids. But, since they are all high priced and according the some article my husband read they don't perform as well fuel effeciant wise in the winter. Not good for us since winter lasts at least 5 months a year here in Northern Wisconsin.

So, with a little research we found the Toyota Corolla and took it for a test drive with the kids along. Good tactic for getting in and out of the dealership :) I also suggest it to make sure their is room for the car seats. The corolla was a great roomy ride. Very quiet and smooth over the giant potholes that are also common place in Wisconsin. Good resale value nice car overall.
Next, we decided to drive the  Hyudai Sonata. I was wowed, it looked really cool on the inside compared to the plain Jane Corolla interior. Also I am really impressed with the engine performance. It does not drive like a four cylinder at all! Watch out for this Mama! The one we found is indigo blue....really dark blue almost purple. I love the color and so does princess Audi. I am a little worried about the roominess but am willing to sacrifice that for the money savings we will get from the fuel economy and the bigger SUV types are out of the price range right now.

Owen's last day of 4-K . Fell asleep at 6:45 hasn't moved yet. We can't believe how much he has grown in the past year! We love the 4 K program!