7.09.2011

july happenings

We are still swimming all the time - even the dog is hot enough to get in on the action nowadays...we are all so ready to not sweat the instant we walk out our door! I love that I got a pic of Roxy drying off on the towel after she got out of the pool. She's a crazy dog, but she is pretty smart.
We are still rocking the Rock the Rock songs at our house and in the car...I think I love them as much as the kids ;-) We enjoyed the 4th with some of our neighbors and we captured all the kids doing their RtR moves - love it!
Since we're enjoying the indoors more often to hide from the 100+ degree heat, we've been playing more games and putting puzzles together. Thanks, Cunningham family, for the Chutes and Ladders game for Bryn's birthday - it made for a great family night!

I am starting to get on the "eat local foods as much as possible" kick. We have two farmers' markets within 10 minutes of our home that visit weekly, so it's really just a matter of re-prioritizing our budget to reflect more money for food and less for stuff that will just end up breaking soon and/or our eating out money. This past week, I bought 4 dozen eggs (which, I learned can sit out on your counter top for up to 4 weeks because they don't wash them before bringing them to the market - wild!) and 2 lbs of grass-fed beef + some veggies and random Indian food that I love. I took Kale and Brynlee and they seemed to enjoy the fact that everything they were seeing had come straight from the farm to the market.
All in all, it's been a great start to July. The only downer was Brynlee being sick last week. Her ENT scheduled to have her 2nd set of tubes put in on the 22nd along with removing her adenoids. As you mamas know, it's no fun thinking of your kids having to have any kind of surgery, even when it's minor. But, I'm happy for her that she won't have to endure more double ear infections like she had last week. We would covet your prayers for the surgery to go off without a hitch and that she'll be ear infection-free from here on out!

7.01.2011

bryn's sweet shoppe party

I can't even count the times we've found Brynlee trying to sneak candy. This addiction has been evident from a very young age. So, I thought I would feed her addiction problem by throwing her a sweet shoppe party yesterday. It is so easy to prepare for because you just have to have lots of sugar available :-) Here's some of what was available during the party and for the candy buckets they got to fill up to take home....
CAKE POPS

GOLDEN BUTTER CUPCAKES WITH HOMEMADE ICING (AND A GUMDROP)

SOUR WORMS, AIR HEADS AND LOTS OF STARBURST

GIANT PIXIE STICKS, BLOW POPS, RING POPS, LEMON HEADS, AND BAZOOKA GUM

SKITTLES, GUM BALLS, LIFE SAVERS AND FRUIT SNACKS

BRYNLEE'S CANDYLAND BIRTHDAY CAKE
The best part was throwing the party at Chuck E Cheese. My friend, Laura, sent me a great tip that helped keep the cost really affordable. I did a party thru them, but only for 4 (the minimum). Then, I used all my free tokens coupons and a couple of other coupons to gather lots of tokens and a couple of pizzas to have for guests. Since I paid for the 4 person party, Bryn got to have Chuck E. sing to her and got the token crown and big balloon - just like if we had paid for the 20+ kids that were at the party. Even our hostess was saying how smart that was because usually, for the $11.99 price per kid, they only provide 20 tokens per child. She said that runs out so fast and then they don't know what to do for the rest of the 2 hours. Our way, we had tokens to hand out the whole time and still came home with probably 50 tokens that didn't get used. I'm thinking we need to do every party at Chuck E Cheese because it felt too good to leave the crumbs and the dirty plates there and come home to a clean home!!
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