How to Throw a Dinosaur Party

Did you know that there are no dinosaur decorations at the store? This was another homemade/dollar store party! I am not gonna lie, we have a lot going on right now and this was not my best effort! If I was a better mom, I would have gotten on Amazon or Etsy and found/made better stuff, but I am pretty sure the kiddos had fun!

The banner is straight up dolla tree and some letters from ellison press at school.

The leaves--we spent a nice night on Thursday cutting out of construction paper. I am not gonna lie, my Mister did most of the cutting. He's not just handy, he's crafty too, score! Here's the tutorial...

We had random dinos from the dollar store spread out all over the house! I had some leaves from the Easter box in the basement that worked well for some greenery. We had pretzels, Bugles and Doritos as dino bones, claws and spikes... Labels we printed off from here... 

Some sweet treats were M&M's and doughnut holes, you know... Dino eggs

The cupcakes were just from the store and we stuck some baby dinosaurs in the middle, done!

We found a palm tree cutout for the wall... I mean, I don't really know if that's dinosaur-y and I totally thought it was one that sat in the table, but once I got it out of the package, it was for the wall, so Callie hung it up anyways!

These hats were a huge hit! Thanks Dollar Tree!

I have said it before and I will say it again! We have the best most amazing tribe of family and friends to love on our kiddos and I am so thankful that they make time to come our silly little parties!

We had a blast celebrating this sweet boy on a chilly fall day! I was a titch worried, because usually it is hotter than the blazes on Kellen's birthday, so they kids just entertain themselves outside and come in sporadically when they need a snack, but there was only a small window for playing before the rained rolled in, but they were pretty flexible and made their own fun in the house. There was some cute games, like pin the horn on the Triceratops

 (Thanks Callie!) and we had some buckets full of rice and those sweet tart Halloween skeleton bones, that the kids dug through being "Archaeologists", but I didn't get pictures of them, bummer!

If you are planning you own dinosaur party, good luck, plan early and hit up your old stand by's: the Dollar Store and Pinterest!

Kellen is 4!

Hurray for 4 year olds! This cutie guy turned 4 on Saturday and we had a pretty awesome time! Minus some melt downs at bed time about giving up his paci, he was a champ!

Kellen you are the funniest little thing I ever did know! Where to start...

You are my sweet guy! I love hearing all about how I am a "Flat Liner" and every day you ask me how my day at school was (What 4 year old does that?!?) I can't get enough of you asking for hugs and kisses at bed time, even though I am pretty sure you are just stalling! I am just going to soak up this time because I know that some day I will not be your number one girl, so for now, bring on all the hugs and kisses and snuggles any time of day!

You are fascinated with all of the unknown things, that normal kids just believe. God, Santa, the Easter bunny, Heaven, cavities etc. Sometimes your curiosity and questioning nature can be a pain, but I kind of secretly love that you don't just believe things blindly!

You are obsessed with guns and hunting. I can't wait until you are big enough to go with daddy and see what all the hype is about!

You are so super cool, with your awesome fashion sense and sunglasses. Most days you are content to just throw on what ever clothes I laid out the night before, but sometimes you have a rebellious streak and if the pants aren't cozy enough or your shirt doesn't have something cool on it, there is a wardrobe battle, especially at bed time! (again with the stalling, I am pretty sure)

You are SO silly! The things that you say and want to do crack me up! Like this picture, you said, "Mom, I am going to put my shirt like this, like I am reaching up to the clouds and then I want to run around and you take pictures." Huh?! And like right now, you are up in your room, with every animal and dinosaur you own dumped out on the floor and you are singing some song you made up and having an imaginary argument with goodness knows who!

You love SO hard! Especially your girl baby! You love your cousins, all of them, fiercely, and even though you two get into it sometimes, I think you love that sister of yours best of all!

You are SO adventurous! Anything that is covered in water or dirt or looks dangerous you are immediately interested! Especially swimming and water. You haaavvvee to  take a bath every single night come hell or high water. I think it's mostly to play with your toys and see what floats and probably more stalling, but you love water just like your big sis! 

You are all boy! Sometimes the things you openly and willingly admit baffle and disgust me. Like right after this picture you told me all about the sand in your butt crack. A few minutes ago, I had to go upstairs and look at your poop because it was so gross. At least once a day, I get have the honor of answering the beckon of, "Mom come get this booger off my finger." Bleccchh! Boys, right?

You love the outdoors and hiking and adventures. You were sure born into the right family! I have to drag you inside each day or night it is warm enough to be outside! You love nature and birds and plants and all that jazz and I love that you love it!

You LOVE dinosaurs with a passion that I never known. Seriously, you know all their names, what they eat, what eats them. I can't wait until you are big enough to go the Jurassic Park thing at Universal. I think you might just die! You also love animals. All kinds really. You have every animal known to man kind upstairs in a box in your room and you are obsessed. That is all.

You get yourself into sticky situations, like the night you got a stamp as a party favor and you had some time in the dark by yourself in the back seat. Yup, these bad boys lasted like 2 weeks.

Kellen, I am so glad you are ours and I can't even imagine our family without you. I can't wait to see what year four holds for you and us! I love you bug!

Peach Upside Down Cake

Hi there. It's me,, still using up all the peaches! If you, like, the Wood's/Wathen's, enjoy peaches or have an overabundance to use up... I have good news for you! Well not news, a recipe!

It was pretty simple and made for a simple and light dessert for Sunday dinner fun! 

Here is the recipe...

We already had most of the ingredients and the only think I did differently was use a 9x13 cake pan (cause I don't have a spring form pan dish thingy???) and I used white cake mix instead of yellow.

All you do is whip up the cake mix according to the directions. Set that aside and make the glaze for the top (butter and brown sugar is always a winner!) Pour the glaze in the greased cake pan, lay the peach slices on top of the glaze and then top with the cake mix. Pop that in the oven and then relax while it cooks!

When it comes out, let it cool for a titch and then turn it over on a cookie sheet. It was deliciouso. My only fix to this would be to add more peaches to the cake mix and not let it cook so long, it was a teensy bit dry, but no one seemed to notice or care. I feel like should be served with ice cream or something to make it more sweet! 

You know you want a piece! Peach lovers unite!

Friday Favorites

Whew, Y'all we made it! Finally Friday, it has been a weird week, sick baby sitters, sick teammates, my students were acting all weird and crazy. I am a little bit glad we are done with this one!

So onto some favorite things!

Mary Kay Charcoal Mask!

My sister in law gave this to me as a birthday gift and it is so super fun! Callie and I all about smearing goo all up on our faces and this stuff was great! We have had big plans to make our own with charcoal tablets that I bought, but after hearing some pretty terrifying things about mixing it with glue and slapping it on your face, I decided against it. This was a much better option!

It dries pretty quick and feels all tight and you can't move your face (I love that feeling! I am a total weirdo) I think the tighter it is the more it is tightening up my aging face! It washes off smooth and your face feels pretty delightful! In fact we are doing another round tonight!

Healthy Sexy Leave in Conditioner:

Best stuff ever! Seriously, we have tried every de-tangler in the world, cheap, expensive, store bought and homemade. This miracle concoction is amazing! Callie was in tears every morning and every night as we raked through her long luscious hair, but we haven't had a tear since the beginning of August with this stuff!

Easy and Effective  Workout:

I have been following the same workout routine ALL summer and now that are back to school I just cannot squeeze in a 45 minute beach body video everyday and P.S I was getting super bored with it too! I tried a few new ones that we get free on xfinity, but they were not amazing either. So I scoured my work out board on Pinterest and found this little gem and thought, "What the heck? Let's try it!" Oy Vay! This kicked my butt! You wouldn't think a few little exercises would be that challenging, but by the third round in the circuit I was dying (okay, let's be real, I barely made it through the second round) and it can take as long or short as you want it to!

Peep Toe Boots:

I have been looking for some cute black boots with a peep toe for a while now and I found them at Old Navy the week before school started. They are super comfy and they fit the bill in those weird months when it's not quite time for real boots but not really sandal season any more!

Camo Pants:

Another treasure from Old Navy! And another item I can check off of my list! They are the perfect length to roll up in the summer and stuff into boots in the winter and they are super stretchy and a little bit higher waisted, so they fit pretty great too!!

That's all this week! Cheers for Friday and Cheers for fun new things!

Peaches for Days!

A few weekends ago we had the most fun at my in-laws house! We had grand plans to can peaches. I have never attempted this feat, but I have always wanted to try it! I would have made a great pioneer lady...

SO. Many. Peaches.

Kellen was all about eating, not so much helping...

I am not going to lie, it is a process! I don't know where we got our recipe, but it was intensive, especially with how many peaches there were! I am sure I am forgetting a few steps, but it went something like this...

Score the peaches, boil the peaches for about 1 minute. Peel the peaches, Slice the peaches.

Then while all the peeling and slicing is happening, you make the syrup, equal parts sugar and water, while that is simmering, you boil the sliced peaches for a few more minutes. Then put them into cans, top with syrup and little bit of brandy.

Next, seal the cans and put the whole jar back into a pot of boiling water, just enough to cover the jar by a few inches to seal them shut. Whew!

It was a ton of work, but such fun with these lovely ladies and now we have peaches for days! 

Last week, when I was sick, I actually poured like half a jar over a bowl of ice cream and it was amazing! I also have been making peach smoothies and peach cobbler, all kinds of fun things.

My husband was making fun of me, because the whole purpose of canning is so that you have a stock pile for the winter or something like that. 

We are down to 2 jars, eat em, if you got em!

Callie's Sugar Scrub

Callie wanted to guest post and tell all about my birthday sugar scrub that she made me!

I will hand it over to her...

Hi!

 So, I made my mom some sugar scrub for her birthday, because last year my aunt got me this book of cool crafty stuff, and I happened to have a sugar scrub recipe

 The ingredients are any oil, the recipe asked for grapeseed oil, but I don't know anyone who has grapeseed oil lying around their house, so I just used vegetable oil.

 The amount of sugar relates to the amount of oil, so you don't need to worry about needing to change the amount because of how much you need.

You use 2 cups of sugar, and 1 cup of oil. For every cup of oil, you need 2 cups of sugar.

Mix your sugar/oil mixture until it looks like grainy slop.When you're done, divide it into 2 bowls.

 Now, dye one half of the sugar scrub one color with food coloring. Do the same to the other half. Use 2 drops of food coloring for each one. Then stir well until there is an even color throughout the sugar scrub.

Now, is when your mason jar comes in. Layer each color in the jar, alternating colors. You may need to shake the jar to get even layers. Try not to mix it, unless you want just one color. Put the lid on tight. 

You can use the sugar scrub to scrub on  your feet, face and body. Make sure to rinse with warm water after you are done scrubbing. The grainy sugar feels good on your skin and the oil makes your skin feel silky smooth. You can store it in the fridge for up to a year. 

Enjoy your sugar scrub!

Thanks, Callie love, for posting!