Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Hello. Many of you know that yesterday was MoMo's 5th birthday. I can hardly believe she's 5 already! So, to celebrate we went to Chuck E Cheese last weekend. Had pizza and played games. Since I had signed up for the Chuck E Cheese email list, we got coupons and MoMo got a coupon for 20 free tokens for her birthday. If you plan on going to CEC then it's worth it to sign up for their email. I have a few pictures from CEC to share.
That last one is outside with the inflatable wand she picked out with the tickets she won.
Then yesterday was the day we did cake and presents. She got to take cupcakes to share with her class at school. After school, she wanted to decorate her cake herself so she spread the frosting and added some of her Littlest Pet Shop toys to decorate. She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop theme fr her birthday but unfortunately the party store didn't carry it. Instead we picked out an array of purple and pink supplies, which are her favorite colors. And she decorated the cake with LPS.






After the spaghetti she chose for her birthday dinner we had cake and ice cream (both vanilla flavor).
Here are some pics of her opening presents. This year she wanted Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pocket things and that's mostly what she got! Lots of teeny, tiny pieces.
So, that pretty much covers it. Oh, except that Mom made MoMo her annual birthday dress. I don't have a photo yet so I'll post it later. Ok, then, guess I better go. Bye!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

Hi all! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We made another trip to pan camp and pan for gold. Left Saturday morning and got back yesterday evening. We couldn't leave until Saturday morning since Hubby has been working nights the last week. And that was nearly a problem since the campsites are offered on a first-come-first-served basis. We arrived and all the campsites were full! Apparently the Gold Prospector's Association of America was having one of their outings there. But luckily there was a group of people there who were leaving so we were able to snag that spot. And we had a productive time! This time instead of fishing out every small bit of gold from each panful, we'd pan it down to the black sand and gold then dump all of that into a bucket to bring home. Now we can just work the concentrates in that bucket and take our time to get the gold out. That way we we could process more material while we were there and just bring home the good stuff instead of lugging home a heavy bucket of dirt. It worked out well. I think we more than doubled our stash of gold. But I don't know for sure as we still have to process the concentrate we brought home. We bought a few more gold pans so we all had one. Both of the kids do a really good job panning on their own. Born miners! LOL And now I know why the old prospectors were all haggard and hunch-backed. All that bending over to pan sure isn't easy on the back. But we had a lot of fun and found some treasure!
On another note, I just wanted to share with you this picture. All of this cost just $6! Woo hoo! That is one box of Capri Sun, 4 boxes fruit snacks and 4 bags of granola clusters. I love a great deal! Well, camping always generates a ton of laundry so I've got to go get that all done. So until next time...

Friday, September 18, 2009

Hello everyone! I just got back from a grocery shopping trip. I'm pretty excited about the super deals I got at Safeway and I wanted to share. I found out about the Nature Valley Granola Clusters deal here. I ended up having at least 8 $1.00 off coupons after printing plus another that I received with a free sample I got at Target. AND I signed up for Cellfire and AOL Shortcuts and got more coupons added to my Safeway Club Card. If you don't know about Cellfire or Shortcuts, they are digital coupons that you can add to your club cards and when you check out and use your club card the coupon is automatically applied to your purchase. No cutting out necessary! Pretty cool. And you can't forget to take your coupons with you to the store! (I do that all the time) Anyhow, apparently some people have had problems with their Safeway accepting the coupons but I got 4 bags of the granola clusters AND once I was there, next to the granola they had fruit snacks with a similar deal. Buy 4 and get them at $1.50 each. I decided to get those as well, even though I knew I had coupons (at home) for them. Well, when I checked out, I had forgotten that I had also gotten coupons for those at Cellfire or Shortcuts (can't remember which right now) which were on my Club Card! Yay! Sooooo...I got the 4 bags of granola clusters and 4 boxes of fruit snacks for just $5.70!!! AND a Catalina coupon printed for a free box of Capri Sun!!!!!!!!!! That's what I call a deal. I wasn't sure after reading that some people weren't able to use their coupons if I would get mine so I just started with 4 granola clusters. But I'm totally going back to use the rest of my coupons now. And hopefully remember my fruit snack ones as well so I can get more of those, too. If you haven't had the granola clusters yet, I can for sure recommend the honey roasted peanut variety. Super yummy! So, there you go. Get some super yummy, super cheap granola clusters! And fruit snacks, if you like.
On another note, I wanted to show you a really cool thing I got at Walgreens. I had to take MoMo to the doctor as I was concerned she may have a UTI. The dip test came back negative but that's not the most accurate test in the world and they were going to do a culture as well to be thorough. But until the results came back they went ahead and put her on antibiotics to be safe. Of course, they LOST the sample and/or results but that's another story. Anyway, I went to Walgreens to get the prescription and it is a liquid. Normally we get a syringe to measure it out but you have to stick it in the bottle and when the level gets down some it's near impossible to reach the liquid with the syringe and it's a hassle. But the pharmacist at Walgreens gave me a system that uses a syringe plus a special cap to put on the bottle which makes it so much easier to dispense the medicine! Pics...and I apologize for their quality but you should get the idea.
I just thought that I'd pass this along in case any of you need to administer medicine to your little ones. Hopefully you won't, but just in case you might want to check out Walgreens and pick up one of their nifty medicine dispensers.
Well, that's all I've got. Talk atcha later!

Monday, September 14, 2009



Some more layouts. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the Disneyland one, though. Maybe it will grow on me...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Saturday, September 12, 2009





Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hello everyone. Did you know that September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month? Today I would like to tell you about a campaign to help raise support for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. It is a "Text-a-Thon for a cause" promoted by Kelly Ripa and Electrolux. Here is a video featuring Kelly Ripa explaining all about this cause.

Electrolux and Kelly Ripa remain committed to raising money and awareness to support this worthy cause. Together, they are launching another exciting campaign that utilizes a form of communication that many of us use every day - texting! During September, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Electrolux and Kelly are holding a "Text-a-Thon for a Cause" to help raise support for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund whose mission is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for ovarian cancer.

Kelly

Throughout September, you can donate $5 to the cause by texting "KELLY" to 85944 from your mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) - or logging on to
www.kelly-confidential.com. Also, every time you log on to the Web site, you'll be entered for a chance to win an amazing contribution to your home - a luxury front load washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.


Also during September, visitors to Kelly Confidential can help spread awareness for this important cause by sending a virtual T-shirt to a friend. For every virtual t-shirt sent, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF. Fashion-forward Moms can also purchase a limited edition T-shirt designed by Ripa; 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts will go to OCRF.

Please visit
www.kelly-confidential.com find out more or to make a donation to this worthy cause. You can even win a Electrolux washer and dryer! (I LOVE the color!) Thanks for reading!


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Hello! I hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend! Yesterday we decided to check out the Cantaloupe Festival. This was our first time and I have to say it was much smaller than I thought it would be. There were a few booths set up selling crafts or whatever and some food booths, mostly BBQ as there was a BBQ contest going on. A small carnival with maybe 7 different rides and a rodeo. Of course, the kids wanted to go on the rides. And I was shocked that each ticket cost $1 and each ride was 3 or 4 tickets! Pretty steep for the haggard looking carnival setup, if you ask me. Well, I told the kids they could choose 1 ride each. Big R wanted to go on the big swing one and naturally MoMo wanted to go on the ferris wheel instead. Big R did go on the swing and I walked with MoMo over to the ferris wheel. The problem with that was that MoMo is too small to go on the ferris wheel by herself and I didn't want to have to buy more tickets for me to go on it with her. I really didn't want to go on any rides at all. So, I was standing there explaining to her that I didn't want to go buy more tickets when the guy running the ferris wheel called us over and said we could go ahead and ride for free. Ok, so we get on and it starts up and we go up, up, up. MoMo is smiling and laughing and having the greatest time. Normally rides don't bother me. Heck, we went to Disneyland and I went on the Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. Usually I like roller coasters and such. I was ok until we started the descent and that's when it got jerky and I started thinking about how rickety it all looked and that some strange smelly guy was operating the ride. I wanted OFF! But I stuck it out for MoMo since she was enjoying it so much. By the time I got off, though, I thought I was literally going to be sick. Ugh. I don't think I will ever do that again.

Here are a couple of videos. One of Big R on the swing ride and another of the Greased Pig Catchin' contest. You catch it, you keep it. The pig. Seriously.
Me and MoMo watching the goat roping. Here is the seating for the shows. Yup, hay bales! We saw the beginning of the hypnotist's show aand the kids had some lemonade. We also watched some of the rodeo events going on. Here's Hubby and Big R hamming it up for the camera. We watched some goat roping and barrel racing. Big R and hubby especially liked the goat roping. They liked the sounds the goats made. I was feeling kind of sorry for the poor goats. Here's a video of one girl roping a goat.


And, of course, since it was the Cantaloupe Festival we had to get some of the cantaloupe ice cream!

So, that's the Cantaloupe Festival. Pretty exciting, isn't it? Well, I guess I better get off the computer and get to the housework. Bye!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Thursday, September 3, 2009


I have a photo of the gold we found! Don't be too jealous...LOL

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Hello all. Just a quick post here. I have been trying to get back into my scrapping. It's been a long time with everything going on this summer. So, I sat down to start scrapping some of my many pictures of all the fun we've been having and (gasp!) I realized that I was so rusty! So many things that were second nature to me when scrapping, I had forgotten! Ack! So, I had to spend some time reacquainting myself with how to maneuver through PSE and trying to remember all the little tricks I used to know. Luckily, it gradually came back to me but it took me quite awhile to get 2 new layouts done. Whew! But I'm so excited to be scrapping again that I couldn't wait to share my new layouts with you! Here they are:
Stay tuned for (hopefully) some more in the next few days and weeks. Gotta make up for lost time, you know! LOL