Date Ideas - Next years list!

So you remember my last post about date night and how I'm putting together a date for each month next year? Well I started putting my list together...what do you think? (By the way we love that movie! If you haven't seen it...a great date night idea:) )

- Picnic in the park
- Shut off all electric devices (including lights). Candles only. Have fun.(excited for this...we're addicted
     to our electronics!)
- Boardgames & card games & video games--include cheap prizes (I love that prizes are included, I
     know what's on my husbands list there:) )
-Do a restaurant crawl. Have a drink at one restaurant, appetizers at another, main course somewhere
     else, and finish with dessert at the last place. Or do it in reverse!
- Go hiking
- Visit an arcade and challenge each other
- Go bowling
- the traditional movie and dinner!
- body shop date night - rollplay (a great clean explanation found here!)
- spa night
- Christmas in July (oh this is totally happening in July!)
- Cyber Date (love this seeing how we met on facebook:) )

Have anymore ideas?!? I found a lot of these great ideas and tons more to choose from here!

Birthday!

I'm pretty excited that tomorrow is my birthday!! I'm not doing anything to big, just hoping for a nice relaxing day! We are having family over for dessert! I'm making cookies for ice cream sandwhiches...yummy!!! Do you guys do anything fun for your birthday? I at least got a whole day to myself...to organize. I know weird but that's something I really enjoy doing:) I hope you guys all have a great Thanksgiving on Thursday (my daughters birthday, busy week for us!)!

101 Things to do with your toddler

So I've really felt lately that I've run out of ideas to keep my toddler entertained. So I went searching...and found this awesome list of great ideas! Some we already do but there are tons that I hadn't even thought of! Check it out! (bolded ones I wanted to try out first!)

1. Color
2. Blow Bubbles
3. Play Hide-and-Seek
4. Peek-a-Boo
5. Play Chase
6. Do Finger-plays
7. Sing a song
8. Collect rocks in a basket
9. Make an obstacle course out of cushions and/or furniture
10. Make a fort out of cushions and sheets
11. Go for a Walk
12. Make a Car out of a Box
13. Read a book
14. Go to the park
15. Finger-paint
16. Play with Play-Dough
17. Toss Bean bags into a Bucket
18. Play the shell and pea game
19. Dance to music
20. Download games for toddlers from the Internet
21. Practice putting things in and taking things out of boxes and bags
22. Make a temporary slide out of a table leaf and your couch
23. Roll a ball back and forth on the floor
24. Scoop dirt or sand into a child's bucket (or use a serving spoon and bowl)
25. Practice climbing by stacking boxes on top of each other (only with adult supervision)
26. Put on a puppet show
27. Go fishing with a yard stick and yarn
28. Make a Horseshoe game
29. Make a Shape Puzzle
30. Play paper basketball
31. Run through a Sprinkler
32. Play with a bucket of water and a sponge (PLEASE WATCH CHILD AT ALL TIMES!)
33. Make a Drum out of an oatmeal box
34. Play with a kazoo
35. Wash windows together
36. Bang on Pots and Pans with a spoon
37. Brush each other's teeth
38. Play dress-up with stuffed animals and your child's clothes
39. Stack canned or boxed food on top of each other
40. Let child stack mixing bowls inside each other
41. Make a playhouse out of a large box
42. Let child play with a sticker sheet (make sure your child doesn't eat them!)
43. Put stickers on fingers for finger puppets
44. Play a musical instrument together- i.e.recorder, piano, etc.
45. Go on a Smelling Hunt
46. Frost Cookies
47. Plant a flower or vegetable plant together
48. Roll a tennis ball into an empty trash can or bucket
49. Draw on a mirror with dry-erase markers
50. Play hide and seek together- trying to find a stuffed animal or other object
51. Have a splash party together in the bathtub
52. Put a leash on a stuffed animal and walk around the house
53. Record each other on a tape recorder (great for scrapbooks or journals!)
54. Make and try on paper hats
55. Give a piggy-back ride
56. Play "Horsey"
57. Talk into an electric fan (it distorts your voice)
58. Play tug-of-war with a blanket
59. Collect flowers (felt, artificial, real...)
60. Make a camera and go on a Safari
61. Play games with frozen juice lids
62. Disconnect your phone and pretend to make phone calls to relatives
63. Leave your phone connected and really make phone calls to relatives- let your child talk too
64. String large beads onto or along a shoelace
65. Squirt each other with squirt bottles
66. Glue shapes onto paper
67. Make sock puppets
68. Make paper puppets
69. Fill an old purse with toys
70. Use a paper towel tube as a megaphone
71. Make binoculars and go "Bird Watching" or "Stuffed Animal Watching"
72. Put snacks in different fun containers (paper sacks, empty canisters, etc.)
73. Act out a story from a book
74. Walk on a balance beam- use a 2x4 placed on the ground
75. Draw with chalk on the sidewalk
76. Sketch an outline of your child on the sidewalk or paper with chalk
77. Paint child's palms with tempura paint and blot on paper. Makes a great card for loved ones!
78. Put lipstick on child and kiss a mirror
79. Make a puddle on cement and splash barefoot in it
80. Let child decorate and eat an open peanut butter sandwich
81. Make a toilet paper barricade for child to go under, over, or through
82. Do the Hokey Pokey
83. Make a super-hero costume out of household items
84. Do Knee-Bouncing Rhymes
85. Play "Red Light, Green Light" saying "Go" and "Stop"
86. Make a shoe-box train for stuffed animals
87. Make a pillow pile to jump on (keep it clear from any hard surfaces, including walls!)
88. Make an easy puzzle with felt and Velcro
89. Make bracelets or collars for stuffed animals out of pipe cleaners and jingle bells
90. Learn numbers from a deck of cards
91. Play the matching game with a deck of cards
92. Make a domino chain
93. Have a picnic in the park, backyard, or living room!
94. Play dress up in Mommy or Daddy's clothes
95. Make a tin cup telephone and talk to each other in it
96. Make a nature collage
97. Mirror each other
98. Make a "Mummy Mommy" with toilet paper
99. Make a tape recording of short music selections and instructions to move in different ways
100. Make and walk along a toilet paper trail
101. TAKE A NAP!

I've also thought of a few more...

- Dress up in mommy's wedding dress and take pictures
- Love notes for daddy or other family members
- we have snow, so head out and make a snowman!
- decorate plates into different animal faces
- spray paint in the snow (can do with water and food coloring in spray bottle)
- Make a neckless out of fruit loops or other cereals
- Story time at the library

Hope you guys are having lots of fun with your kids...send your ideas over I'd love to add them to the list!

Happy Photo :)

This just made me happy when I saw it and wanted to share it with you! I'm totally going to be doing this!! Can't wait for the next snow storm!! (never thought I'd say that:) )

Favorite Freebie Sites

So I thought I'd put together a list of some of my favorite sites to check up on freebies and other great deals!

my number one for sure is freebies2deals.blogspot.com
There are tons of others that I love as well,
addictedtosaving.com
couponingtodisney.com
sweetfreestuff.com
allyou.com
savvysistershops.com
hip2save.com
pennypinchinmom.com

I know there are tons more but these are just my favorites! What's yours, I'd love to check out more!! Leave a comment and let me know!

Serving With Our Children

It's such an import thing for our children to know and what better way to teach then to do it! Service is such an incredible thing and we have been very fortunate to be on both ends. I can't even say how touched I was the night I opened our front door and found a letter with money inside, it had come during a time that our family was really struggling financially. Or even the goodies from the neighbor next door just letting us know they cared after we had just lost a grandparent. Now we don't always know when a family is struggling but why not take a moment and send a thank you to the people who help us each day. Like the mail man, fire fighters, even an assisted living center. I found this really cute blog full of service ideas to do with our kids. She had tons of ideas!

1. a box of cookies left in the mailbox for the mail man (or women like ours is!)
2. The fire station a plate of cookies or muffins
3. Assisted living facility home made cards
4. The Hospital - flowers
5. Leaving home made crayons and coloring books in a waiting room
6. Change left in the vending machines
7. Donating to a food pantry
8. Books for a family in need
9. Yummies for the Librarians
10. A park with toddlers - hand out presents
11. Hiding dollars in the kid's section at a local store
12. Treat grandma or grandpa to lunch
13. Leave a gift for the waiter at lunch
14. Mail treats to surprise friends and family (a little gift card)
15. Leave behind a few diapers and wipes on a changing table in a public bathroom
16. Run an errand for someone who is busy
17. A simple Smile! (can go a long ways)
18. And of coarse thanking the millions of men and women fighting for our country!

What have you done or had done for you? I'd love to hear more ideas. I just love service it brightens my day for sure! I hope you all enjoy this coming Thanksgiving!

Home Made Chicken Pot Pies - Easy Easy Easy

These are my chicken pot pies and they are so easy and yummy, my 2 year old (very picky) ate the whole thing!! We served them with mashed potatoes...

1/2 can cream of chicken (or mushroom but we don't like mushrooms)

1 cup frozen vegetables

1 cup shredded chicken

1 pkg of crescents rolls (we used pillsbury)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. And line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl mix together the chicken, veggies and soup.
3. Unroll the crescent rolls and separate into 4 rectangles. Press the seam together in the center of the rectangle.
4. Place 2 tbsp of filling on each rectangle, and fold the dough over covering the filling.
5. Seal each pocket with a fork pressing down to pinch the edges together.
6. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 or until golden brown

and you're done just like that! Enjoy!!

Christmas...

I can't believe that Christmas is right around the corner. I can just say I'm usually really really excited for it and love shopping and getting gifts for everyone but this year...it's just stress. I think it's cause every time I walk out to the mailbox, another medical bill. I swear they never stop coming. So it's time to get creative and I can't wait to show you some of the things I've come up with. Number one thing I'm excited for is a gift for my husband. We all know that each of us have a different "love language" and for my husband is the touch/time together. So with that in mind I'm putting together date night ideas. There will be 12 envelopes, each one will have a different idea for that month with everything we need for it inside. Then at the beginning of each month we'll open the envelope and decide what day will work best for us...a guaranteed date night at least once a month! So, when I'm all done I'll have 12 different date night ideas for each of you. I'd love to hear some of your ideas and what you guys love to do for date nights, ideas?!?

Online Deals

So we all know everything is online now a days and that doesn't exclude couponing. There are so many good deals you can get online. They are always offering free samples of things. One tip that will save you a lot of time and pain is setting up a different e-mail address then you're personal one, a junk e-mail. You don't even have to look at it (but I highly recommend checking it ever so often), but most online offers will ask for an e-mail address and you'll be getting a lot of e-mails. So go to hotmail, or yahoo and set one up for FREE! It cost you nothing, can't get better then that!

Sometimes they'll also ask you for a phone number, I have a hard time with this one cause they usually are looking for a cell and will start sending you text messages. I hated that before I got unlimited because they were wasting my text. So they have this web site that you can set up a fake phone number (can you say AWESOME!), and guess what...it's FREE! So just go here and set one up, they'll e-mail you when you have received a message and you can decide what to do from there. 

Free Money!!

I found this awesome deal, $30.00 in free product (to Paper Coterie)...just be sure you like her page and become a follower. She does some great things and I love watching what she comes up with next! Who can say no to free money though. This would be great for all the Christmas gifts you have to give. I'm using mine on a calendar for the grandparents (they ask every year if we're going to be doing our calendar...they love them!)

My Favorite Home Made Bread

I just have to share my favorite bread recipe that I'm so excited to make tomorrow! This time of year I just love to bake, I don't know what it is but I love the smells and the warmth that it brings to my home. This recipe comes from the food nanny and is very easy when it comes to home made bread so if you have never tried to make your own before this is a great recipe to try first. (Makes 3 loaves)

4 cups warm water (105-115degrees)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup honey or 2/3 cup sugar
10-12 cups all-purpose or bread flour

1. Pour the water into a very large mixing bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Add the yeast, salt, oil, honey, and 5 cups of the flour, and mix to combine. Gradually mix in an additional 5 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is smooth (Add still more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, if necessary.)

2. Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface, or with the dough hook on low for 12 minutes. Cover with a dish towel and let the dough rise until doubled in bulk 30 to 45 minutes. Generously grease three 9x5 inch loaf pans and set aside.

3. Punch down the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it briefly to remove the air bubbles. Divide the dough in thirds, knead each section a few times and shape into a loaf. Place the dough into the prepared pans. Cover with a dish towel and let rise 30-45 minutes. The dough is ready to bake when you press down slightly with your finger and the indentation remains.

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 30 minutes. Immediately remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack. To freeze loaves, place in resealable plastic freezer bags and store up to two months in the freezer.

GAK!

Every since I found this online I've been dying to try it, so I decided to whip it up this weekend! It turned out exactly how I remember it!!

Ingredients:

1 cup Elmer's glue

food coloring, your choice of color (optional: coloring can stain!)

1 cup liquid starch (found at walmart, or your mothers house - where I found it :) )

-Pour glue and coloring in plastic container.
-Stir until color is thoroughly mixed in.
-Add starch a little at a time (and they mean a little at a time, I just poured it in not thinking and it took forever to get it how it was suppose to be), stirring with a spoon or kneading with your fingers as mixture thickens.
-Keep stirring until mixture holds together like putty.
-Test with your fingers: if too sticky, add more starch in small amounts until mass is smooth and rubbery.

Halloween Chili

So do you have a family tradition for Halloween night dinner? I've heard of a few but we always had soup in bread bowls, yummy!! So I thought I'd share a chili recipe with you this time...

1 lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
2 15 oz. cans chili beans with sauce
1 15 oz. can red beans
1 15 oz. can pinto beans
2 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can water
1 7 oz. can green chilies, dices (leave out if you don't like really spicy, I leave them out)
1/2 cup salsa
2 bay leaves
garlic salt
katchup
salt and pepper to taste
chili powder

Fry hamburger, onions, and garlic salt in large pot. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Don't forget the corn bread! :)