Marshmallow En Garde

Here is one of our favorite family activities. The girls love to roast mini marshmallows over a candle. Okay, "roasting" marshmallows is the wrong term. Really they hold them over the candle for 2 seconds. Maybe 4 if they are feeling adventurous. Hilarious. The marshmallows are still cold when they enter the girls mouths. After a few minutes of "roasting" we begin the battles. The object of the game is to hit off your opponents marshmallow. Good times.

Messy. . .but Worth it!!

I love chocolate. Apparently so do my daughters. mmmmmmmm.

Coupon Crazy

On the 22, our ward had a lunch activity with a short coupon presentation/discussion at the end. They asked me to share my mad skills. lol. j/k. They aren't really mad skills. . . but thanks to some fellow couponing friends in B'ham, I've had a little practice. It was fun to put together a short presentation and share a few things that I've learned about coupon clipping and cost cutting. To make things fun we played a little "The Price is Right" Game. I guess if I peaked an interest in anyone at all, then it was a successful presentation. Either way, the lunch was good and the company was better. :)



Total Retail $65
Total OOP $6

A Rainy Day

It makes perfect sense to water the grass when its raining. Good thinking girls!! Way to help out! :)

Summer 2010 Highlights

I realize that I have not been the greatest blogger the past little while. Considering my recent baby coupled with the move to Texas, I am giving myself a pass. However, we did have a fun summer with a few things worth mentioning. So here is a quick recap of some of our summer highlights here in the Metroplex which have not yet been blogged about.

-Random street carnival. It seems as though there is always some sort of carnival or festival going on around here. This one happened in May. The girls loved winning blowup hammers which they used to bonk each other for the rest of the evening. FUN. They also enjoyed all the little rides that we did. What can I say, so did I. I'm a sucker for a good carnival.







-Chick-fil-a. We've spent many great evenings this summer at Chick-fil-a. They've been having Tuesday night = Family fun night where you get a free kids meal for each adult combo purchased. Plus there is usually some other sort of activity going on. A few that we've participated in have been cookie and cupcake decorating, a balloon artist and a bounce house. After the girls finish eating they go play while Brett and I enjoy lesiurely chatting for awhile. Plus, the workers come around and ask if we want refills on our drinks. And to make things even better. . they serve diet dr. pepper. Yeah, its just an all around great place!!


-Free crafts and projects at Michaels, Lowes and other places. We LOVE all the free crafting projects available. We've taken advantage of several throughout the summer. And will continue to throughout the year. :)




-Library summer reading programs. We enjoyed attending and participating in several different library summer fun programs. We live pretty close to several libraries so there were always a lot of things going on. A couple of our favorites were a dance dance party and a clownin around show.





-Bass Pro Shop. Who knew that a hunting sports store could be so fun. Turns out that the Bass Pro Shop is. They host several family friendly events throughout the year and we went to their "family summer camp". The girls got to make leather key chains and we enjoyed shooting rifles and arrows.




-Nash Farm. We headed out to a historic farm a couple of times this summer. The farm is a cute little place which hosts different theme days throughout the summer. We went a couple of times but our favorite was on "Milk" day. They had a bunch of dairy cows there with their young calves. As one point we even watched the young calf go to nurse. She hit up against her Mama a couple of times and then grabbed the udder and started nursing, slurping loudly. This reminded me of my little Maddie. The whole process seemed oddly familiar. . . . Anyway, they also had goats for the children to milk. Emmeline got a kick squirting milk out but Mabes decided she wasnt quite daring enough to give it a try. Maybe next year. The girls also enjoyed looking through the garden and playing amid the corn. Good times at the farm.







When we weren't out and about exploring, we were swimming. We spent a lot of time swimming at the pool in our apartment complex and also the girls continued with their swimming lessons at the YMCA. Mabel and I did a "mommy and me" class. At first I wasnt thrilled because Mabel had taken lessons by herself in Birmingham and I didn't think she needed to have me with her in the pool. And really she didn't. But it was fun to swim with her anyway. It was really fun to have some time just with Mabel and to sing the little water songs and play the little water games. I was really happy for the swim lessons because when we did go swimming all together, I could hold Madelyn without having to worry about Emmeline or Mabel, who are both happy to swim out on their own.

We had a really busy, fun and adventure filled summer. And now on to my favorite season. . . .the Fall!!!

Happy Birthday Mabel

Well, my sweet little Mabel turned 3 on September 6, 2010. I cant believe how big she is getting.

I spent the night before her birthday blowing up balloons. A long time ago I read an idea in a magazine about blowing up a bunch of balloons and putting them in the birthday child's bedroom while they are sleeping. I've been hanging onto this idea ever since and decided this was a good time to try it out. Brett and I filled up a ton of balloons, enough to cover the girls entire room. And just as I anticipated, we were awoken the next morning by squeals of delight from Mabel and Emmeline both. They were in balloon heaven.

Earlier in the week, when I asked Mabel what she wanted to do to celebrate her birthday this year, she had a difficult time deciding between going to a movie or to a water park. But on the actually day of her birthday, it was sunny and bright and made the decision fairly simple.



Off we went to a small water park in the area. We got Chick-fil-a (Mabels favorite) for lunch and ate it there at the park. After we finished eating the girls splashed around in the water. Mabel loved going around the lazy river and we did that several times.



After a fun couple hours of swimming, we went home and settled Mabel and Madelyn into their afternoon naps. While they were sleeping, Brett and Emmeline hung pink streamers and other birthday decorations. The only thing my girls love more then their actual birthday is decorating for someone else's birthday. . .so Emmeline was thrilled.





While they decorated the room, I decorated the cake. It was a pink castle cake. It was not nearly as fancy or intricate as Emmeline's castle cake on her 3rd birthday, but I was going for flavor. I made a "from scratch" strawberry icing to coat the cake with. Although it wasn't as smooth and clean looking as a buttercream frosting. . .man oh man was it delicious!! After naps, the girls played with balloons and Mabel opened her birthday presents.



She got a couple of little things this time around like a miniture teaset, a blue dragon stuffed animal, a book, a Strawberry Shortcake dvd and other various nick nacks. (Her favorite present actually came a few days later when we took her to the store and let her choose out a new nightgown. I'm sure you can guess more or less what her nightgown looks like. It is very pink and has princesses on it :) ).



After the presents and some playing we had Mabels favorite dinner. . .shepherds pie with cheetos and an assortment of berries. Then we devoured the cake.

At one point in the evening her Nursery leaders dropped by and gave her an ice cream clown and a cute little necklace with her name on it. They also sang happy birthday. That was really special for Mabel. She enjoyed the calls from Nana and Grandma. I think that overall, Mabel had a special day.



I love my little Mabers so much!!