No tricks. Just treats!

Rice Krispie treats at that! They have to be the easiest treat ever to make and with just a bit of food coloring you can make them festive. Being that today is Halloween we went for the candy corn variety. In case you are wanting to copy my brilliant idea (that I stole from the Everyday Food magazine) here is how it goes:

Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a sauce pan. Add 4 cups of mini marshmallows. Stirs in 3 cups of Rice Krispie cereal and press into a 5x9 loaf pan. Repeat this process, but add orange food coloring to the melted marshmallows. Then repeat a third time with yellow. Let cool for a couple hours before removing from the loaf pan and slicing and shaping. After that the trick (pun intended) is to try and stop eating them!

Pleasantly Surprised

When it comes to department store shopping there is usually only one place I will go - Belk. One could argue that I am biased because I worked for Belk for 5 years, but the truth is I have been shopping there since I was very little with my mom. However, today I am not writing about Belk. Today I am actually writing about my experience I had in JCPenney.

Most of you probably remember the commercial last winter of the women screaming over sale signs and expiration dates. If you didn't turn off your TV then you eventually learned that JCPenney was the one behind the screaming at that they were doing a big overhaul on the way they were operating their stores. The gist of it is that they were no longer going to have "sales." All the merchandise was going to marked to an everyday low value price. I, myself, am driven by sales and coupons and only go to stores based on that, so when I first heard this I thought to myself "boy are they doomed for failure!" Well earlier this month the CEO sent out coupons to all their email subscribers for $10 off a $10 purchase. This happens to be my favorite kind of coupon cause it means free stuff! So the boys and I ventured to a mall with a JCPenny this morning. The first thing I noticed was how clean and neat the store looked. Everything was in it's place. Everything was organized and east to find. And there was not a sale sign in site. I actually didn't know what to do with myself. I started glancing at the price tags and was pleasantly surprised by the prices I saw. Even further, despite the fact that the store was fairly quiet, there were quite a few sales people working and they were so genuinely friendly and constantly making sure we were finding everything we needed while shopping. In the end we managed to walk out of there with 2 pairs of winter pjs for Greyson and only spent $4. That's the kind of deal I like. Oh, and if that wasn't good enough, as we were checking out the cashier asked me if I wanted to round up my total to the nearest whole dollar. The change goes straight to a charity. This month was the Breast Cancer Foundation of course, but they feature a new charity every month. I think that is pretty awesome if you ask me.

Now I can't speak for how they are doing as a company since I have no idea what their sales have been since the change, but I can say that from a consumer stand point I was highly impressed in the changes I saw. They won't dethrone Belk as my number store I don't think, but after today I will definitely be considering them more often when I go shopping.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Actually I might even pay a little more if someone had a solution to my problem. It is now October. We are two months out from Rylan's birthday and I have no clue what theme I am going to do for his party. Some of you might be rolling your eyes thinking 2 months is plenty of time, but when you are making Halloween costumes, buying Christmas presents, and still finishing a kitchen remodel then 2 months is not nearly the time I need to plan his party.

Greyson's 2nd birthday was a piece of cake (pun intended). He love Sesame Street so that is what I did. Rylan on the other hand doesn't have one thing that he is crazy about like that so I am at a total loss at to what I should do. Therefore I am employing those of you who read my blog to help me. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? It can be something you have already done or just something you have read about. Just as long as it is something easy to pull of with a lot of homemade decorations (aka costs very little to put together). Thanks in advance :-)

The bat mobile!

Buh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh, Batman! Okay so that's not the bat mobile I am referring to, but it's such a catchy tune. The bat mobile I am talking about is the one that Greyson and I made today as our first official Halloween craft.

Better Homes and Gardens had the coolest article in their October issue. It showed a porch on a house similar to ours decorated completely out of homemade decorations. I was slightly intrigued to say the least, and also humored cause I had just seen similar versions of several of the items for sale in the Pottery Barn catalog. So today we went to Walmart with a long list of supplies and our fingers crossed that they would have what we needed. We managed to find all but a couple items, so with the track record that Walmart has I considered that a success. The bats just happened to be the project we chose to try first. While it was a tad more difficult than the article lets on, I was pretty pleased with the result. Our super spooky porch is well on its way. If you are curious how to make one for yourself, you can go to the Better Homes and Gardens website and check it out.

Backseat driver!

We all give our spouses and parents a hard time about being a critic while you are driving, but I have got one better. A three year old! Yup Greyson has become the world's worst backseat driver. He is not old enough to be criticizing how I am driving, but he definitely has comments on what I should or shouldn't be doing. Some of my favorites are "mommy, catch up to that truck so we can win the race!" - "Woah mommy you are going really fast like Queen!" - "mommy, red light!" - and my personal favorite "mommy, there's a Po Po." While it never hurts to have an extra set of eyes on the road, it is a tad distracting to have someone yelling RED LIGHT from the backseat. I am sure even the most confident drivers would have to double check themselves when anyone barks such a command. At least thats what I tell myself...

Let the costumes begin!

When I was asking for costume suggestions on Facebook a couple months ago, people were responding with "why are you thinking about Halloween in July?" Well because I am not your typical mom. First off, I put a lot of thought into what my boys are going to dress up as. Second, I don't just walk into a store and buy a costume. They are either way over priced and/or made very cheaply. I prefer to put it together myself   (hence beginning my research in the summer months).

Some of you might remember last year's costume extravaganza that involved me making a Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater costumes out of cardboard boxes. Very time consuming, but I think I spent a whopping $5 on both costumes. Luckily I don't think this year's costumes will be quite as time consuming. In fact I already have a pretty good head start on Greyson's. After much consideration I decided a pirate is what he shall be. And after about 5 minutes on Google I realized there are a million and one ways to dress like a pirate. Since I am designing for a 3 year I figured simple was the best route to go. So this morning we went up the road to Goodwill to see what treasures we could find and boy did I luck out on the first try! I found a pair of black pants, a white dress shirt and a red scarf that cost me a whopping $7! I will have to make a few snips here or there to make them more "piratey," but I am definitely pleased with my findings. The hardest decision really has been trying to figure out what to put on his feet. For some reason all the pirate costumes online have the kid modeling barefoot. Cute as it may look it's obviously not realistic. Now you can spend a small fortune on child size pirate boots, but being the mom I am that just wasn't going to cut it. Lucky for me I came across pirate rain boots. They are decorated to look like a pirate boot, but being that they are rain boots that means Greyson will get to wear them for more than just Halloween. Mission accomplished.

Now since Greyson is a pirate of course that means Rylan has to be something that coordinates. At first I really couldn't decide. A parrot seemed like the obvious choice although I had no creative ideas on how to pull it off. Then I fell upon this site. One look and it was decided - Rylan will be Peter Pan! Now I could imagine my husband's reaction when sharing my idea, but we are not talking about green tights here. Actually instead of making the pants like suggested, I purchased a pair of green leggings a few sizes to big. Now I just need to arrange a solo trip to the fabric store and I will be on my way. Again the shoes are a little bit of a dilemma. I am thinking of trying to find a brown boot that he could wear this winter, but that might change once I get working on the rest of the costume.

So for those of you that were questioning me before, I think you see why this is such a lengthy process. And all that was just the prepping and planning!

The age of questions...

...is apparently 3! Greyson has always been a talkative child, but since his 3rd birthday more and more of his ramblings have turned into the form of a question. It truly dawned on me a couple weeks ago when we loaded in the car to head to Mimi's house. We had just merged onto the highway to begin our 3 hour drive when out of the backseat I hear "mommy, are we there yet!?" One half of me wanted to laugh and the other half wanted to cry. Luckily the laughing side won over. The good news is he is only 3, so his questions aren't very complex. The bad news is he is 3, so he asks the same questions over and over and over and over....well you get the point. For those of you already wondering, no he has not asked the most dreaded question known to parent-kind. However, I am already prepared for when that day comes. I devised a plan of attack a long time, so I already know exactly what I will say when I am faced with those 5 little words - where do babies come from?

Blast from the Past

Everyone has things that they hold onto even if they aren't sure why. I am definitely guilty of this on many accounts. The other day I was reacquainted with one of those items. If you are over the age of 25 then you have probably heard of a little thing called the Topsy Tail. It was a simple little device that merely helped you flip your pony tail into a fancy knot. I couldn't tell you exactly how old thing is, but when I was in elementary and middle school it was all the rage. So you can imagine my surprise when I was flipping through a magazine one day and I came across an article that was teaching you how to do this. I have to admit that I was a little giddy knowing that upstairs under my bathroom cabinet I had a much simpler solution than their step-by-step instructions. I immediately had to bust it out and see if my hair was long enough and luckily it was! The only bummer was that the girl in the magazine was doing it with and fish tail braid (looked super cute) and mine is only long enough to do just the plain pony tail. Still it was nice for something different. A mom needs all the easy hair ideas she can get!

Christmas in July

Yesterday the boys and I were privileged enough to catch a glimpse of the Hallmark Ornament premiere while we were making our rounds at the mall. The older I get the more obsessed I have become with collecting ornaments each year. The fact that I have a slightly addictive personality doesn't help (hence the 2 bins full of beanie babies in our shed). I have quickly learned that the business of collecting Hallmark ornaments can be a tricky one. Last year I was lucky enough to snag the Partridge in a Pear Tree which is the 1st in the series for the 12 Days of Christmas. Apparently a 1st in series is a big deal and sell out quickly which I almost learned the hard way. So this year as soon as I had a copy of the infamous Dream Book I was circling and planning which ones I wanted this year.

At the top of my list is of course the Two Turtle Doves (2nd in the series). Others that caught my eye were the Snowflake Fairy and Guardian Angel (neither are part of a series). Of course, without fail, every year Hallmark also has way too many Barbie ornaments that I drool over, but never buy. This year is no different. I have never bought any of the Barbie ornaments because as an adult I tend to buy more stuff for my boys and boys just don't like Barbie. However, the girly girl in me really wants to try and start collecting them. I have this vision in my head of one day having a tree filled with nothing but Barbie ornaments. Not the main Christmas tree in my living room, but my own special tree in my bedroom or something. And then of course if I ever have a little girl one day then I will have a head start on a collection for her. Haha! I did notice a couple of them this year say "final in series," so I am hoping that means next year they will start a new series that I can get hooked on cause after about 2 minutes of googling I have learned that if you don't start collecting at the beginning of the series then you'd better hope you win the lottery cause past year ornaments are pretty pricey to purchase.

Anyways, of course there are several I have already picked out for the boys as well. They include a mixture of Mater, Mickey Mouse and Chuggington. Between all the grandparents and myself I usually have to have several picked out for them, so that everyone can buy them something special. Needless to say when they are older they will have to have quite a few Christmas trees in their houses too if they want to display all their ornaments!

Oh say can you see...

...how excited my bunch is to have their picture take? Ha!

Every holiday I have to snap some pictures (whether they like it or not) and about 4 o'clock yesterday I heard a rumble of thunder, so I rushed everyone outside to get some just in case our 4th of July plans got rained out. Luckily/unfortunately (not sure which of those I should use there) it didn't rain and we were able to go see fireworks as planned later that night. I must say though - I love it staying daylight so late in the summer, but it would be nice if the 4th of July was an exception. When you have 2 little ones who normally go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, keeping them up till after 9:30 to see fireworks is torture for everyone involved!