Funny Friday: Eat at Your Own Risk

Image from candyboots.com- be afraid, be very afraid!

I found this delightful site on Mormon Mommy Wars, another favorite blog of mine. This person managed to unearth a slew of Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974. They are hilarious, and they are disturbing. If you get nauseous easily, I may recommend skipping this one. Included in this smorgasboard of wonder is "Fluffy Mackerel Pudding" and "Jellied Tomato Refresher." I kid you not. One more warning- the author's commentary contains some profanity. But honestly, I think some of it is justified. You just have to see these recipes. Disturbing. Really. Candyboots.com

Eat That Frog, Baby!

I just popped over to Money Saving Mom's other blog, Biblical Womanhood, and read a post that has inspired me to get my toosh in gear (translation- do something I've been meaning to do).  I am going to join her "Getting Back on Track Challenge" and start by setting a goal right now to get back into my morning routine. When I don't get my day started off on the right foot, nothing else seems to go quite right. Here goes:

1. Get up, dressed to the shoes, hair and makeup done. (30 min)

2. Read scriptures and pray. (15 minutes)

3. Check e-mails and other computer "stuff". (15 min)

4. Start a load of laundry (5 min)

4. Get breakfast for me and the kids, pack Monkey's lunch (15 min)

5. Clean up from breakfast (10 min)

6. Have morning devotional with the kids (10 min)

7. Round up socks, shoes, and anything else we need for the day; do a general house pick-up (20 min)

8. GO!

So that will be the first two hours of my day. I will begin tomorrow. I will rock. I will be awesome. I will keep it up, and I will be accountable- one week from today I will post how I'm doing so I can stay on track. I can do this!! You can too!!!

Do you have a morning routine that gets you off on the right foot? How good are you about sticking to it? Leave a comment and share!

Rockin' Kids' Parties Part II: Decorations!

The Dora cake from Starlet's party last year. I think this year's cake will look similar. I'm getting hungry just looking at it...mmm...cake...

My ideas for thrifty decorations kind of came in my head in bullet form, so I'll just list 'em for ya!

- If you're doing a character-based party (like Dora, Thomas, Elmo, etc.) choose a few key "character pieces" like a centerpiece (or even just the cake!), pinata, or plates & cups, then use generic decorations with similar colors for the rest. For example, for Monkey's Thomas party last year, I used a Thomas centerpiece, banner, and napkins, then I used a solid blue tablecloth and red and blue plates, cups, and cutlery. 

- Colored balloons and crepe paper streamers can go a long way. (Think long streamer curtains in doorways, balloons everywhere!) Bonus: the balloons double as a fun activity.

- Print off images from character websites and have your children color them before the party. Then combine them with the letters to spell "Happy Birthday" and attach them all to a ribbon for a festive birthday banner.

- Use your child's own toys as part of the decorations. For my son's tools party I borrowed his wooden toolbox to use as a holder for napkins and cutlery, and for my daughter's Dora party I am planning on using her big Dora doll as a centerpiece (she's going to need some hairstying first, though!)

- iTunes has all the theme songs from movies and kids' tv shows for $0.99 apiece- download some music to add some fun atmosphere to the party- you never know, you might inspire a dance party...

- Have a permanent marker available (up high away from little fingers) so you can label guests' plates and cups with their names. We want to share good times, not germs!

- For my parties, I usually remove all the chairs from around the kitchen table and place them around the kitchen and the living room. Then I push the table against one wall and I use that as the main focalpoint for all the food and decorations.

These are the ideas that can pretty much apply to any child's birthday party. I also wanted to share some things I've done specifically for my kids' parties.

For my son's tools party, I couldn't find a cake that I liked, so I ordered cupckakes with yellow and orange frosting (we LOVE Wal-Mart's cupcakes with whipped icing, so we always get the kids' cakes from there) and I went to a baker's specialty store and picked up some really cute "cupcake picks" in the shapes of little tools, then I stuck them into the cupcakes. Also for that party, I found a 4-pack of miniature orange road cones and I put them on the table (covered in a plain yellow tablecloth) and strung caution tape between them which I had purchased from Birthday in a Box that said "CAUTION: PARTY ZONE!" It turned out really cute.

I highly recommend the cupcake cakes from Wal-Mart. We discovered them when planning Monkey's second birthday and we have used them ever since. They can decorate them just as cute as a regular cake, the whipped frosting is DELICIOUS (seriously, hubby and I fight over who gets the leftovers) and using cupcakes is much easier- no cutting required!

As I said, for Starlet's Dora party I will use her Dora doll for a centerpiece, and I may pick up a few more Dora-themed things from the party store. But most of my decorations will be random yellow, pink, green, and purple items from the Dollar Store. I am also planning on bringing in the kids' picnic table from outside and even using the umbrella that goes with it- I thought it would be a fun (and contained!) place for the kids to eat in the kitchen. Another idea is to set up a picnic blanket on the floor for the kids to eat on. Everybody loves a picnic!

Hope these ideas inspire some thrifty decorative creativity in you! Check back later for some fun birthday party activities!

Do you have any thrifty decorative party ideas to share? Leave a comment!

Rockin' Kids' Parties Part I: Invitations!

My little Starlet on her second birthday last year

Note: From now on, my little girl will be referred to as "Starlet" and my son will be "Monkey". I've seen moms give kids code names on their blogs, and I'm getting tired avoiding their real names, so I thought nicknames would help. :-)

I've been hard at work this week planning Starlet's party (well okay, I haven't actually started yet) and I wanted to share a few of my past invitation ideas for you. Since her party is going to be fairly small (only 3 families invited) I decided to keep it simple and just make phone calls this year rather than sending out formal invitations. 

I think that the most important factor in planning an awesome kids' party is to have a theme. That way, you have a jumping-off point for the invitations, decorations, party favors, games, and cake. The invitation becomes very important to your theme because it gives your guests an idea of what to expect when they arrive. Hastily scribbled invite= thrown-together party. Fun and unique invite= fun and exciting party! Here's an invitation I made for Monkey's tools-themed party 2 years ago:

The text reads, "We're building a party to celebrate Monkey's 3rd birthday! We've hammered out the details and nailed down a date....We sure 'wood' like 'tool' see you there!"

Cheesy? Yes. But fun? Absolutely! To make this invitation, all I used was some cardstock- black, white, and orangey-yellow, some tool stickers from the craft store, a sheet of faux wood grain paper from the craft store that I cut into "boards", and some metal brads. I used my computer to print up the lettering and the "CAUTION: PARTY ZONE!" tape onto the cardstock, and I used a silver paint marker to add "nails" to the boards.

I got a lot of really nice compliments about the invitations, and the little boys who attended were really excited. A few even showed up in their own construction gear!

I got another fun idea for a construction-themed party invitation from a friend of mine- she cut actual pieces of lumber into short lengths and then wrote the invitation on them with a black Sharpie marker- unexpected, and hard to misplace!

As I said before, Starlet's party this year is fairly small, which is the norm for her because her birthday is in the winter, so we have to keep everyone inside and our house just doesn't have the room for a lot of people! When she turned one, however, I did send out a First Birthday announcement:

The text reads, "Pretty little princess, sweet, silly, and fun, Miss Starlet Star is turning one!"

This announcement was easy- I just made up a poem, which many people think is so hard, but really it is so simple- and printed it onto paper which I mounted on a square of cardstock, then mounted that onto a piece of patterned paper which I backed with more cardstock. I used photo corners for her photo so that the photo could be attached without adhesive and therefore easily removed from the card by the recipient. Then I just added some brads and ribbon for embellishment, and voila! Cuteness.

To write your own poem, the easiest method I've found is to come up with a first line, then go from there. "Roses are red" is a good pattern to follow- for example: Poems are easy, Poems are fun. One little rhyme and now I am done! With some practice, anyone can do it. ;-) For my son's second birthday, he had an Elmo theme, so I had the poem, "Elmo is red, Grover is blue. Let's have a party, 'cause Monkey's turning two!"

The last invite I'll show you is from Monkey's birthday party last year- he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine party (he ADORES Thomas) so I designed a train ticket invitation after an image of a real train ticket I found online (just did a Google image search for "train ticket):

Ticket includes Class (Monkey's Party), Departure Time (1200), Adult (1-2), Child (1-3), Date, Number (00000004), Departing From (Tross House Station), Arrival At (FUN!)

This invite took a little bit of time on the computer adding the Thomas watermark image in the background and getting the fonts and spacing the way I wanted it, but once I got them printed off onto white cardstock, all I had to do was cut and staple the "ticket" to a piece of "Thomas blue" cardstock with rounded edges. For an added touch, I punched a "T" with a small hole punch. 

The most important thing to remember with your invitations is to think outside the box, so that your little guests will see the invitation not just as something to hand over to Mom and Dad, but as a ticket to a fantastical adventure that will get their little imaginations going! I think that the best inspiration is to search online- just Google the kind of party you're doing and see what kinds of invitations are out there, then make your own!

This is what I'm talking about this Tuesday! How about you? Check out the Lazy Organizer's Talk About Tuesday to see what others are talking about today! 

Do you have any fun birthday invitation ideas? Leave a comment and share!

Makeover Monday: Photography 101

One of my goals for my blog is to improve my photographs. Sometimes, like with my Spiritual Sundays post yesterday, that means borrowing from other sites. However, I enjoy photography and I would love to be able to take my own photos that are visually pleasing as well. So over the weekend I spent some time playing with my digital camera, which is a Canon PowerShot. I also read up on aperture and shutter speed, and while I still have a lot of experimenting to do, I think I'm getting better. I used my dog Buck as a subject, mostly because he actually stays put (unlike my children!), not to mention he's kind of cute when he sleeps. :-)

This is a photo of Buck using the Auto setting on my camera (the camera sets the focus, flash, etc.):

And this is a photo of Buck using the manual settings on the camera:

My main goal is to achieve the look where my subject is in focus and my background is blurred. I haven't quite gotten the level of "blurriness" (is that a word?) that I want, but I'm getting closer. I also discovered that another way to achieve that effect is by using the Portrait setting on the camera. 

Here is another close-up shot of my CTR (Choose The Right) ring that I did for practice:

Like I said, still a long way to go, but hopefully over time I will get more adept with my camera and be able to take more beautiful shots. 

How are you with your photography? Have any pointers for me? Leave a comment! I need all the help I can get!

Spiritual Sundays: Faith is Letting Go

Photo from The Satir Institute

I was at a home decorating store last week, and I was in the section that had all the signs with different sayings and quotations on them. One in particular stood out to me; it said, "Faith is not believing that God can, it's believing that God will." I paused for a moment to consider that and I realized that I didn't agree with that statement at all. I don't believe that "faith is believing that God will." Who are we to tell God what He should do? Rather, I think that "believing that God can" is the only faith you really need.

So many times in life, especially when we are faced with circumstances and situations that are difficult and frightening, we are told to have faith. Faith that we'll be okay, that everything will work out, that justice will be done, that the sick will be healed, and that the sun will come out again. Unfortunately, faith in these things is little more than wishful thinking. True, God loves us, but just because we pray for something and have faith in it doesn't mean He'll give it to us. We might not be okay, everything might not work out, justice might not be done, and the sick may not be healed. Does that mean our faith is in vain? No, it just means our faith is misplaced. We are choosing to have faith that our will be done, rather than God's will be done.

Imagine that you want to become a great singer. You hire a vocal coach to help you to achieve your goal, and you have faith in her that someday she will bring out the great vocalist in you. Does that mean that you have faith in her that she will rehearse your favorite song over and over with you each session? Do you lose your faith in your teacher when she makes you practice scales instead? The whole point of having faith in your teacher is knowing that she knows the best way to turn you into a great singer, and leaving it up to her, despite your own wishes and desires, because she is the expert. You might think that practicing your favorite song repeatedly will make you a great singer, but she knows better, and will take the course of training with you that she feels will best prepare to become what you dream of becoming.

The same is true with our Father in Heaven- there are many times in our lives when we have to face some tough stuff. When we have faith during those times, our faith is needs to be not that the tough stuff will go away, but faith that the tough stuff is there for a reason. It's faith that Heavenly Father has a divine plan for each of us, and it is only by trusting in Him that we can become more like Him. If your friend is in the hospital, of course you can pray for them, and of course you can ask your Heavenly Father to heal them. But we don't know God's will, and so truly the most powerful prayer we can ever offer is, "Lord, Thy Will be done." And maybe even, "Lord, please help me to accept Your Will, and to learn what it is that Thou would have me learn." Faith is simply letting go and letting God.

I will never forget an experience I had when my son was about 9 months old. I had severe stomach pains and I went to the emergency room, only to discover that I needed an appendectomy. It was in the month of December, so I had about a million things to do, including heading up a huge dinner/Christmas party for my church. I underwent the surgery, and because my husband had to work and my son was still so little, I spent the next week with him recovering at my mom's house about an hour away from my home. During that time, I felt really frustrated. I hated having other people wait on me hand and foot, and I hated not being able to care for and play with my son in the way I was used to. I felt like I was abandoning my responsibilities to my church, and I felt like a burden to my family. All in all, I was feeling really low. But at some point during that week, I had an epiphany. This happened for a reason. Maybe if you stop trying to figure out how to fix it and instead try to understand why, you might have some peace about it all. 

That's when I quit whining and I simply began to ask God for help to accept His will, and to help me to learn what He wanted me to learn from it, so I could recognize it as a positive learning experience, rather than a trial. As I began to reflect on the things that were happening to me, I realized that my focus had been skewed. I had been putting so much time and effort into things outside my family, and I always felt I had to be the one in control. God was forcing me to give up that control, to show me that the world still goes on even when I'm not making it spin. He was also showing me how much my family loved me, and that even if I can't even dress myself, they still love me no matter what. I didn't always have to be the strong responsible one. I could basically just be a lump, and I was still valued and loved. The Lord also helped me to recognize that this situation wasn't just a learning experience for me, it was for my family, and for the committee members who had been helping to plan the party. They needed to learn lessons of their own as well, and putting me flat on my back was the best way for God to teach those lessons. Even in my trials, I was being an instrument in His hands.

Once these things became clear to me, I could smile again and be grateful for my situation. I began to appreciate and accept my family, rather than resist their help. I began to be grateful for my life and for the people in it who could pick up the slack when I wasn't able to, and especially grateful for the knowledge that they would pick up the slack when I wasn't able to, and do it cheerfully and lovingly. Most importantly, I learned that my Father in Heaven has a plan for me, and that if I can accept His will for me, then I can grow and learn in ways I could never imagine- ways that would never be possible without the learning experiences He gives us in the form of trials and difficult times.

So really, my faith in God is believing that He can- if He wants to. It's believing that He knows what's best for me, and when I let go and let God, He will make more of me than I could ever make of myself using my own limited knowledge. When I put my trust in Him, my faith is made perfect. With each new lesson, I am becoming more like Him, and for that I am grateful. May we each turn our lives over to God, and accept His will, difficult and painful though it may be at times, that we may someday return to live with Him again, having completed the life He has given us with faith and fortitude, receiving eternal joy beyond measure that He has promised us if we remain faithful.

To learn more about what I believe as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please visit www.mormon.org. 

Fun and Frugal Birthday Celebrations

What $9 can buy for a 3-year-old princess from the dollar store

As I posted before, yesterday was my little girl's 3rd birthday, and we had such a fun time celebrating with her. As I was thinking over our activities, I realized that while we seemed to have a fun-filled day, we didn't have to spend much money. Here are a few frugal things we did to celebrate.

The night before her birthday, I went out to the Dollar Store and did some shopping. We had already bought a couple "big" gifts for her, but we wanted to save at least one of them for her party which we'll have later this month. I decided to pick up some fun and useful things that she could have the joy of opening on her big day. I got:

- a fleece hat

- a matching fleece scarf

- a foam Dora the Explorer puzzle

- a kitten figurine (she LOVES cats and I knew that having a "statue" in her room would make her feel so grown-up)

- a purse

- a spiral-bound notebook for drawing/coloring (one of her favorite activities)

- a sticker book (stickers are another favorite activity)

- animal hologram stickers

- a magic wand bubble pen with a stamp at the top

These gifts aren't exactly sophisticated, but she's 3, so to her they are treasures. I wrapped each one individually so she could enjoy the fun of opening them, and to a 3-year-old, it's the little things that count.

I also bought 2 foil helium balloons, and when I got home from my shopping, I snuck into her room while she was sleeping and tied them to her art easel. Little ones sometimes forget that it's their birthday, so I love to give them a reminder of their special day that they can see first thing in the morning when they wake up. It's a great surprise!

After the excitement over the balloons, I made my daughter her favorite breakfast- pancakes. Then we pretty much went about our usual activities for the day, but she got the VIP Birthday Girl treatment- first choice of book during story time, dessert after lunch, and she got to pick the song we sang during morning devotional and before bed.

When Daddy got home we took the kids out for another special birthday treat- Chuck E. Cheese! To save a little money, I used 2 coupons- one I got in my e-mail for my little girl's birthday that gave her 20 free tokens, and another one from the Chuck E. Cheese website that gave us a large pizza, 4 drinks, and 25 tokens for $18.99. We went, we played, we had a blast. The kids absolutely loved it, especially getting to spend the time together with Mommy and Daddy. And honestly, Chad and I loved it too! It was well worth the money.

After Chuck E. Cheese we came home and did cake and presents. She loved all the gifts, and was making us laugh by saying in a wondrous tone, "Oh my GOSH!" as she opened each present. All in all, it was a great day.

As I mentioned before, we'll be having a "friends party" for her later this month. Next week I'll post some of my favorite frugal ideas for kids' birthday parties as I plan my daughter's. I am always a little shocked by the extravaganzas I attend that masquerade as children's birthday parties these days, yet I want my kids to still have a birthday they will never forget. I'll cover everything from invitations to decorations and activities, and share how I've been able to give my kids some fantastic birthday blasts on very little money!

Do you have any fun and frugal birthday traditions in your family? Leave a comment and share!