Signs of Spring

Yesterday was so nice outside here.  Well, actually, it looked a lot warmer than it really was but we were still able to take a walk for about 45 minutes.  On our walk we visited the "farm" that is down the street.  The house is over 100 years old and has been in the same family the entire time.  Because of this, they are able to have animals that others are not.  They have chickens and my children love going to visit them.  They want to go see them every time we go for a walk.  On our walk, we also saw lots of bulb sprouts.  I pointed them out to my daughter and she asked "the flowers that you blow on, like the ones in our yard?" (referring to dandelions)  Ummmmm.....not quite.
Another sign:  Last spring I bought a calla lily at the Eastern Farmers market downtown.  After it flowered and died I just put it in my garage.  The other day I saw little sprouts.  I was so excited because I didn't think that it was going to re-sprout.

Hop on over to anikaburke.com today and check out the daily deal.  They are a cute little boutique that is selling a mystery grab bag of 12 accessories for $12 (plus $5 shipping).  I might have to pick up one for myself, their stuff is really cute!

Shopping and thrifting with my sister

Today I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with my sister.  This is a very rare occurrence because either I get to see her for a whole three minutes or there are babies trying to steal all the attention.  She goes to MSU so I don't get to see her very often in general.  Today I got to spend a whole FIVE hours with her!!!!  It was so good to catch up.  We were able to get in some shopping and went to Joanns, Target and Salvation Army.  Here are some of the FREE items that I was able to pick up at Target:

I love getting free items!  I actually found a coupon for the free Advil at the bottom of the shopping cart.  At first I thought it was on of those buy one get one free coupons but upon further examination, it was just free without a purchase.  Score!

I found these cute little teacups at the S.A.  This year I have decided to do a homemade Christmas.  Basically I am making my gifts.  I love trying new crafts so what better way to do it than make gifts for others.  I need to start thinking about it now because I am not sure how long some of these gifts might take (especially if it's knitted).  I am also not completely sure what to do with the teacups but I was thinking maybe make into candles??  I would love to hear your ideas.

friendly visits

Today we got to see my sister-in-law Kelly for lunch.  It was so nice to catch up with her because we never really see her even though she only lives an hour away.  We haven't seen her since Christmas Eve, which is kind of crazy.  Busy lives.  This past Tuesday we also met up with some friends, Heather and Erick, that were visiting from out of state.  They came with their new baby, Braden.  Here are some pictures from their visit:

 

Sometimes it's nice to see and catch up with friends/relatives, even if it is only for a few hours.

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring! I am really looking forward to some nice spring weather.  My daughter loves this Strawberry Shortcake movie and this song.

Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patrick's Day.  I found some interesting facts out about St. Patrick.
      -He was originally from Britain and when he was 16 captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland
      -March 17th is the date of St. Patrick's death.  He was in his 70's when he died.
      -He escaped slavery and went back to Britain to study.  During this church study peroid, he had a dream that he needed to go disciple to the people of Ireland
      -He used a three leaf clover to explain the Trinity
      -His name prior to sainthood was Patricus Magonus Sucatus

For dinner we had corned beef sandwiches.  The weather was so beautiful and we went out to play after dinner.  This was the first time we have been out this year and the kids loved it.  I am so looking forward to summer!

Happy Pi Day!

Today is Pi day! (3.14)  In celebration, I bought a blueberry pie and some whipped cream.  Can't have pie without whipped cream!  I was going to make a strawberry pie but didn't get to the store until the evening.  So I guess I will just have to make my strawberry pie later this week.  While at the store, I spent $62 and save $62.  I am definitely getting better at couponing thanks to Bargains to Bounty!  If you are into couponing and in the Detroit area, check them out.  They match up all the coupons with the major store deals that are going on. 

Today was kind of a lazy, crazy day.  The kids schedules are way off because of the time change.  Here are a few pictures of them acting goofy:



Playing in Alyssa's kitchen



Little Daddy!



Lent and a giveaway

Today is the first day of Lent.  That means that yesterday was Paczki day!  Happy belated Paczki day!  This is the history behind Paczki day (according to Wikipedia.com).

 "In Poland, pączki are eaten especially on Fat Thursday (the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday). Many Polish Americans celebrate Pączki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Traditionally, the reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because they were forbidden to be consumed due to Catholic fasting practices during Lent."

Since I am like 50% Polish, I definitely celebrate Paczki day!  Who doesn't love a good donut??  For Lent, I will pretty much be giving up sugar and fatty foods, except for the occasional treat.  I am also going to make a point to be more dedicated to my workout. 

On a side note, one of the bloggers that I follow, Suze, from Miss Vinyl Ahoy is having a giveaway!  Make sure to check it out here!

Weekend fun

So last night, I went to a bar for a fundraiser.  Yes, I don't usually go to bars.  I am just not into sitting around and paying lots of money for drinks while watching drunk people do stupid things (sorry to the people that actually go to bars for fun, but I am sure you know what I mean!).  But this was for a good cause, so why not?  The bar I went to was JD's Piano bar in Pontiac.  The funds being raised were for the three-day breast cancer walk.  I drove with my brother and his wife and we stayed about 3 hours.  Surprisingly, I actually had a good time.  For those of you that have never been to a piano bar, they basically have two pianos set up next to each other on a stage and and have the musicians play together.  I guess I expected more "dueling" but mostly the musicians were playing and singing together or one was playing while the other was prepping for the next song.  They were really good about getting the crowd involved, especially the people that hate going on stage.  I would definitely check it out again but I will not be becoming a regular anytime soon.

Today, we went to BD's.  Love that place.   I had a coupon for a free stir fry for my b-day.  Click here if you want a free stir fry for your b-day!  Since we were so full from lunch, we went to Coldstone and had ice cream for dinner.  Healthy, I know.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Babies, Walmart and a "date night"

So tonight, my cousin Stephanie took Alyssa on a girls night and "my man" and I were able to get a little one-on-one time.  It's nice to spend some time alone with him because usually Alyssa is fighting for all the attention.  Here is a few pics of him being cute at dinner. 

Today I also went to Walmart for the last time (at least for awhile!).  I am so sick of waiting in long lines (in the middle of the day!) and being treated horribly by the employees.  I had to wait 15 min. to check out and when I did check out, the only thing that the cashier said to me was the total amount.  Never have I had a cashier not at least ask how I was doing or see if I was able to find everything I was looking for.  To make matters worse, she was the customer service supervisor.  I used to really enjoy going to this Walmart but not anymore.  In the last few months, it's really gone down hill.  On the upside, I did score a few cute clothes for Alyssa for the summer for $1 a piece. 

This month our Netflix subscription also started again.  I forgot to change the reactivation date.  Opps!  No big deal because Leonard told me he was thinking about starting it again.  I watched one of the instant plays since the CW website wasn't working.  So sad I couldn't catch up on Vampire Diaries.  :-(   I watched the movie Babies.  I saw a review back like a year ago when it first came out.  The movie is a documentary and it follows 4 babies in different countries through the first year of life.  It shows the differences between children that are raised in Africa, Mongolia, US, and Japan.  I have only watched half of the movie but I have basically came to these conclusions:

     1.  All of the men are not significantly involved in the child rearing process
     2.  Women in the US and Mongolia tend to be a little older
     3.  All babies, no matter where they are from, are very curious
     4.  Sibling riveraly occurs everywhere

 I realize that all parents are slightly different in their parenting styles and that this is just a sample.  Though I thought they did a good job picking the US mother.  Her behavior was pretty typical and not too extreme.  I am guessing that is the same for the other mothers?  I was also suprised at how similar US and Japanese parenting styles seem to be.  If you have seen this movie, I would love to hear any comments! 

Birthday and a Baby Shower

This past weekend two pretty cool things happened on Sat.  The first one was that I turned 28.  I feel so old!  This is much closer to 30 than it is 20.  Where did the last 8 years go??  I still feel pretty young, that's a good thing right?!?!  For my birthday, I went out for dinner with my sis and daughter to Red Robin.  We had what Alyssa called "a girls night".  She was happy to be out with us and got a purple balloon.  I also let her share half of my sundae.  Earlier in the day, my husband took the kids to McDonald's to play and eat because I was planning/getting ready for the second cool thing of the day, my friend Kate's baby shower.   I was told this story when they got home.  Somehow it came up when Alyssa was in the play place that it was my birthday.  I guess it was another girl's birthday that was playing also.  She and Alyssa got into an arguement about who's birthday it really was.  Boo on arguing but Way to Go Alyssa for sticking up for me!

The shower went pretty well.  We had about 12 people show up and they got some pretty fun gifts!

Bath Salt favors that I made:

Top view

Side view

The saying on the card said "We shower the Baby with gifts, it's true! But this shower gift is just for you".  I personally thought it was really cute and fitting for the bath salts. 



More pictures from the party!

The Cake

Kate and the gifts

Party Time!

Sorry that the pics are kind of in a weird placement and that the pic of the cake is on its side.  I am still trying to figure out blogger and it wasn't doing what I wanted it to do tonight.  Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!