Haddy Booday tuh yooooo!

Yesterday was my 27th birthday, and it was the best ever!

Hubby flew in one of my dearest friends, Natali and her son for the weekend as my birthday gift. I picked her up from the airport and then we headed to the hockey rink for a youth game. Afterwards, we all went to our friends house (parents of one of the goalies) and they had a surprise party for me there!

Hubby also got me this purse (well, a knock-off but it looks exactly the same!!) and this hockey jersey from the 2009 Winter Classic (for those who aren't hockey buffs like us, the Winter Classic is the annual outdoor hockey game in the NHL. My team-the Redwings-played in it this year and hubs got me the Datsyuk #13 jersey ).

I got lots of birthday wishes on Facebook, and my family called me as well. All in all, it was a great day!

Frugal How-To: Autograph Books

We went to Disney over the weekend and part of the Disney experience is meeting the characters and getting their autographs. You can buy all sorts of autograph books inside the park for about $15 a pop, but when you multiply that by three kids, it gets pricey. So, to save some money (which of course we later spent on a bunch of other souveniers for the monkeys), I decided to make them for the kids and add a little personal touch to them.

I used these chipboard books from YMBD and let the boys each pick out some Mickey Mouse stickers to decorate the covers with. I bought some coordinating scrapbook paper and stickers and decopaged everything to the front. I cut printer paper into pieces the size of the covers and punched holes in them, then used the rings to hold it all together. I added some ribbon cuts from my craft stash and tied them to the rings to finish it off. All in all, it cost me about $20 start to finish (including buying pens for each of them) for all three books. And the best part is that the kids loved them!

Noah is really into the Pirates of the Carribean and these stickers were perfect for him! Yes, I know, the play on words is a bit cheesy, but that's what happens when you've got Dutch dry humor running through your veins. And hey- my 7 year old loved it!

Jonah thought these stickers of Goofy & Mickey were really cool!

Sophia LOVES Minnie Mouse and I thought that fun red rhinestones and black & white dots was just right!

Shamu & the Mouse

Here's a huge overload of some of my favorite pictures from our trip!!

Family Trip!

Well, I had a post all thought out in my head and it was going to be another Frugal How-To, but the hubby decided that when he got home from work yesterday afternoon, that we'd just leave for Florida then, instead of today like we were supposed to, so that he could go golfin. So I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything done that I needed to, with about 18 hours less time to do it in. I had to finish Noah's autograph book for Disney (the topic of the originally intended post...you'll just have to wait till we get back), clean the house, pack clothes for 5 people for an extra day, get snacks together for the 5 hour drive, and oh yeah...make a birthday gift last minute becuase Hubby agreed to stop at a friend's house on the way back home on Sunday for their son's birthday party. Well, the shirt never got finished, so I brought it along to work on today, while Hubby and his dad hit the links.

Anyway, we are in Florida and have a very busy weekend ahead of us. We are going to Sea World tomorrow, and Disney World on Saturday. I'm about as excited for Disney as a fat kid is for cake! I made some cute shirts for my monkeys to wear so be expecting posts next week with lots of pictures! And of course my belated Frugal How-To: DIY Autograph books!

The Great Hairbow Scandal of 2009

As some of you know, I make hairbows for my little monkey, and also sell them in my Etsy shop. On top of that, I make a bunch of sets that I send down to my mom & sisters in Florida, who in turn take them into the daycare center where they work, and sell them for me. When I was talking to my mom and one of my sisters on the phone this morning, they informed me of an instance recently that involved a set of white hairbows. It was just too good not to share.

A few weeks ago the center had picture day, and lots of little girls showed up to school wearing my various clips and bows. My mom had forgotten to bring the bag of unsold hair accessories home with her the night before, but didn't think anything of it. When my mom and sister got to work that morning, three of the other employees came up to them and said "so-and-so (who just so happens to be yet another employee) took one of the white bows and put it in her daughter's hair for the pictures. She doesn't plan on paying for them because she thinks that $7 for a set of bows is ridiculous. So she told her daughter that she was going to borrow it for her picture and then she was going to put it back and act like nothing happened." Mom and sister were not happy.

Mom acts like nothing's happend, but my sis, on the other hand, was livid. She walks into the classroom she teaches and lo and behold there's the little girl wearing the bow. Sis walks up to her, gently takes the bow out of the girl's hair (BEFORE the pictures even happened, haha!) and replaces it back onto the card with its mate. Then Sis proceeds to walk into the said employee's classroom, places the card with the bows down on the table, says "You owe me $7" and walks out.

So scandalous!!

* Said employee did pay up, and even apologized, but not before getting a big lecture on ethics from my sis.*

Alphabet Soup

This is what you get when your 20 month old gets ahold of your scrapbooking "teekers".

Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Momma's Meatloaf

This is a Pampered Chef recipe (Garden-Style Meat Loaf) and I make it quite a bit around here. It's a family favorite, even for my 7 year old who hates everything hamburger related. It recommends you use the Pampered Chef Stoneware Loaf Pan, but any loaf pan will work.
Enjoy!

Momma's Meatloaf

1 small onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 large carrot, shredded
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 eggs
3/4 cup chili sauce, divided
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Preaheat oven to 375*
Press garlic into large bowl. Add onion, celery, carrod, ground beef, oats, eggs, 1/4 cup of chili sauce, thyme, salt & pepper; mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape meat into loaf pan.
Bake 1 hour.
Spoon remaining 1/2 cup of chili sauce over meatloaf. Bake an additional 10 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink in center of loaf, and internal temperature is 160*.
Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Slacker

I have been a bad blogger. A week of no posting is not cool, I get that. But I do have some very valid excuses, so hear me out!

Not only did I have my normal babysitting gig for an almost 2 year old, I also had another little munchkin in my house last week. A 2 month old who's momma was TDY here. Add in my 3 crazy kids and you get the idea.

And then there was the fact that I was reading some books that you may have heard of before.

That's right. I got sucked in. And I couldn't put them down. I read all 4 of them in less than 2 weeks. I would've had all 4 finished in 4 days but I had to wait on the library to get them in. Yes, I know that they're juvenile fiction, but they're so well written that it was hard to remember that tiny little fact. Seriously...I loved these books!

Then over the weekend we had to go to Raleigh for hockey. It was a long week, so please try to cut me some slack, kay?

Five Years

My little man is 5 today. Last night as we were watching the Super Bowl, I kept thinking that five years ago I was doing the exact same thing (only a heck of alot later at night, because we were stationed in England then) only having contractions off and on during the game.

We had Jonah's party on Saturday at the bowling alley. He had a blast!

And I have to toot my own horn here, but I made Jo's cake and am so proud of how it turned out, that I just had to show it off!