Monday Manifest

What I Think The Old Venture at Deer Creek Should Be Turned Into

1. Ikea
2. Costco
3. Babies R Us
4. Roller Rink
5. Sky Zone
6. Indoor Waterpark

What is your dream for Deer Creek?

Rainbow Bath

On Sunday Sonya discovered my gift wrapping box full of ribbons, wrapping paper, tissue paper, glitter, name tags.  Needless to say my stash was destroyed.  I tried to salvage what I could, but she kept getting the box out.  Basically all that was left was the tissue paper, and by Tuesday it was strooned about the living room.  I happen to be babysitting for my friend Katy's little girl Claire.  Katy was just busy, giving BIRTH.  Claire was blessed with a beautiful baby sister Mary-Jane Grace Martin.  Ok, back to the tissue paper.  With two toddlers and one three and half year old the on my hands, the tissue paper became the best way to pass the time.  Sonya proceeded to create the game, Rainbow Bath.  Rainbow Bath was basically Claire and Teddy laying down in my gift wrapping box with Sonya throwing the rainbow colored tissue paper on top of them and jumping on them.  They were loosing their minds, and thought it was the best game ever.  

Here is the proof.

(Embrace the grain in these photos.  My house is really dark this time of day.)

    

Teddy kept stealing Claire's binky, too.  

He thought it was hilarious to put it in his mouth.

Claire didn't find it too funny.

The last photo is my favorite. 

 Maybe I will pull this out for their rehearsal dinner someday.  

HA!!  

Monday Manifest

What I Bought At Penzeys Last Week

1. Freeze Dried Shallots
2. Hot Chocolate Mix
3. Mexican Vanilla
4. Garlic Salt
5. Sunny Paris Seasoning
6. Shallot Salt
7. Northwoods Seasoning
8. Cinnamon Sugar
9. Cinnamon
10. Sweet Hungarian Paprika
11. Sesame Seeds
12. Adobo
13. Fajita Seasoning

Bits of Our Day

Today was one of those days I decided the kids and I needed to stay home. 

 I thought it would be a good idea to make these cookies.

It really wasn't.  
Teddy just screamed and pushed my legs away from the counter until I gave him a spoon to lick.
Sonya had very hard time listening while we were baking together.  I ended up yelling and freaking out about the measurements being wrong.  
Then she looked at me said, "Mama, I just want to bake wis you."  
Parenting fail.    
After the baking debacle, Sonya pulled out the $5.00 costumes from Old Navy I bought two weeks ago.  
The perfect remedy for a cranky morning.  

They were ridiculously cute.

First the giraffe

Now the monkey

I have talked about our backyard before, but I can't say enough about it.  We have a great deck and awesome play set that the kids love.  
I think my kids would love to be pushed on the swings for hours.  
I can only stand it for five minutes. 
Here is a look at their favorite activity.

 This is the new favorite activity Sonya and Teddy like to do together.

They love to swing and twirl on their bellies.  I love seeing them together like this.

When the costumes came off they spent some more time whining, and then we played peek a boo with my two colanders from the bakers rack.  They thought it was the greatest game ever. We had a little lunch leftover Imo's, grapes, cantaloupe, and bell peppers (sorry no photo).  After the our lunch, they drew on the chalkboard.

While they drew on the chalkboard, I noticed my kitchen floor.

These photos were taken at 12:30pm.  
When do you think I last washed my floor?

6:00pm the the night before!!!  
My floors could be the death of me.  I did mop, again, today.   
I am sure by tomorrow you would never know.  
Anywho, back to our day.  We made it to nap time, barely.  
Luckily Sonya C.  fell asleep in the chair, so I could catch up on my shows.  
Here she is.

I hope you enjoyed a look at random parts of our day.
I forgot to mention I wore my pajamas all day, and didn't brush my teeth until 6pm.
Don't be jealous of me.

I Heart Faces- Orange

This week on I Heart Faces the theme is orange.  The color orange holds a special place in my heart because my high school colors were orange and black.  There aren't too many schools around that support those colors, or have our mascot the Statesmen.  I love that we were so different than everyone else.  The Statesmen were my inspiration for this particular theme.  The football team is currently undefeated for the second year in a row and on the road to win the state championship again.  They had a playoff game this past week, so I headed over to our favorite babysitter, Gracie's house before the game because I knew she would be decked out in orange.

I think she looks stunning.

Check out all of the other great orange entries by clicking the button above.
Click here to the rest of the orange photos of Gracie.

More Orange

This week on I heart faces the the theme was orange, and I photographed our friend/babysitter Gracie before she headed off to the WGHS football game.  

I loved how they turned out.  

Since I could only submit one photo, I wanted to show the rest of my favorites from our little shoot.  

Here are the rest of the orange photos.

Smells So Good

Now that the weather has finally changed here in the Lou, and fall is here with winter quickly approaching, 

 I had to pick up a can of this,

  and a bottle of this.

This is one of my favorite ways to make my house smell delicious, without adding another five pounds to my backside.  

All you have to do is add four or five tablespoons of the mulling spice to a medium sized pot.

  Today I added the entire bottle of wine (hence the reason for the three buck chuck) because I knew I wanted to simmer the wine all day.  

It is so beautiful all mixed together.

  Then you bring the wine to a simmer, keep the heat really low, and give it a stir every once in a while.  

Basically, it is a homemade potpourri pot.  

This is one of those things I hope my kids remember about our house when they grow up, the smell of mulled red wine.  Scent is one of the greatest memory triggers for humans.  I better start doing some pretty awesome stuff, so that is what pops in their brains when they encounter this smell as adults.

Happy mulling.