Breakfast Fun and Thinking Spring - Cheerios Blogger Circle

As winter we hope is coming to an end soon, it's time to think Spring.  We had a day of 60 degrees in Colorado to tease us for a day last week.  For me this just reminds me of what may be around the corner and gives me some serious cabin fever.

Our Spring tradition is planting our flower garden. Although it may be small, we love it all the same.  I am going to add in a little something extra this year to our planting day.  This year the day will be all about colors and creativity.

To start the day off right we will add a little extra fun in the morning and start out breakfast with a project the kids at Katelynn's preschool taught us.  The kids will be in charge of their own breakfast while Dan and I enjoy a cup of coffee.

You will need the following Ingredients:

• Tortilla's 
• Cream Cheese, whipped (it's easier to spread)
• Cheerios - Any variety will work, the Fruity Cheerios will have all the colors, but mixing in some Yogurt and Chocolate is always fun for the kids too!
• Cookie Cutters (optional)

Start out with a butter knife and if your kiddo is old enough have them spread the cream cheese all over the tortilla.  If you choose to cut out shapes go ahead and cut them out now.  Next let the kids place the cheerios all over their tortilla shapes.  You can make it a great learning experience too and have them do different patterns of colors or kinds of cheerios on each different cookie cutter shape they cut out.  When they are finished roll them up and enjoy!   

 It was all about the letter "O" for our yummy treat day, so we cut out a circle and it made a letter "O" and look at all the little Cheerio's!

Next on our  list is to go through a few books and magazines at home and look at all the beautiful flowers that we could plant.  It's fun to ask the kids which ones they might like the best and which they think would look good together.
Next it's time to start turning over the dirt.  What kid doesn't like to get dirty?  Especially when Mom and Dad area saying it's okay!
Once we have picked a few interesting flowers and of course our usuals (that we know will survive in case our green thumb is not working) we head out to the store and buy seeds.  The great thing about seeds is you can start earlier if you wish and keep them indoors until the weather is nice enough to plant outside.
We also make an annual run to the Green House.  I think I could spend days walking around a green house full of beautiful, blooming flowers.  All the vibrant colors to look at and deciding on what you would like to have in your own back yard is stimulating to the brain!  Once we are home we place all the flowers still in their pots in different places in the flowerbed.  Katelynn and I have a great conversations around this and she acts so grown up helping me make the final decisions on where we will plant each one.  Once everything is planted then its relaxing to watch them grow all summer long.  A flower garden is a great way to unwind after a long day at work or on the weekends tending to it.  The kids love to help dig around the plants and pull weeds.  It's so rewarding.

I have a specific cut off date for the kids in September when they can start picking all the flowers.  If I didn't do this I think that as soon as a flower bloomed they would pick it.  It takes a lot of patience and resistance of the kids.  They love when the day finally comes after watching the flowers grow all spring and summer.  They take some of the rose petals and throw them all over the yard.  Katelynn sometimes pretends she is a flower girl in a wedding throwing petals down for the bride (or I am made the flower girl so she can be the bride).  It will be interesting each year to see as they get older how the playtime of that day will change.  Both kids pick some and make flower arrangements for the house as well. 

It's also a great time for Mom to get out the camera and have the kids start posing with the flowers they picked or getting great shots of them picking the flowers.  The pictures come out so beautiful with the flowers and colors in the backgrounds.  

If you would like some more great spring ideas check out what the other Cheerios Blogger Circle mom's are doing by visiting the Cheerios Facebook Page!

I am also interested in any ideas or traditions that you may have.  We are always up for something new to try.  Please feel free to leave a comment and share yours.

Girls Night Out

Every girl needs girlfriends and all girlfriends need a girls night out.  A night to get away from everything and have it just be about you and your friends.  After marriage and kids it also becomes a time when you get to be you and just you, the you that you remember.  Here is what I think that guys do not understand about girls night, other than being ourselves, it's about the entire time.  The drive, the chit chat, the girl talk, the relationship talk, the getting ready and listening to music (that does not include Old McDonald!).

A few weeks ago me and my best friend in Colorado decided it was time to get away for a night and be just us.  We decided we would head to Cheyenne and stay overnight.  They have a great a great country bar there and we went there about 4 years ago.  We got off work on Friday and grabbed a cooler of beer and off we went to Wyoming.  The number one reason that I love to go out with Brooke is that girls night is just that, girls night.  No matter if it's just us two or 10 girls there is one rule, there are no guys after the bar aloud.  After a night out it is back to the hotel for a last call and girl talk.  We checked into our hotel and unloaded our suitcases, silly for just one night, but so much fun to go through each other's things.  We had a few beers and took about 2 hours to get ready.  We grabbed a cab and off we went.  We stayed at the country bar for a few hours.  We had a few great country dancers swing us around the floor, which was so much fun.  At 12:30 we called a cab and grabbed some fast food and back to the hotel.  We stayed up for probably another hour and crashed.  What an awesome time.  We got up in the morning and went out for a nice breakfast and headed home to our families.  I love this time with friends and cherish every minute that I get it now because it's so important to never forget who you are!

Bedroom Decorating

 A simple project, or what I thought would be a simple, cheap, fun project, is still in the works.  Dan bought us a new bedroom set and bed and Katelynn inherited our queen bed.  How many 5 year old's do you know that have a Queen size bed?  Well, she is lucky and she isn't; the bed takes up a lot of play space in her room.    Her bunk beds and the dresser that went with the crib set all packed into his room.  I thought about painting the room, but that seemed like a lot of work and she didn't really express any interest in any color that she would want to change it too.  I believe it was around her birthday in September when we started on this project.  I just finally got Dan to hang the shelves up (because I only purchased them a few weeks ago).  It seems nothing is "cheap" to do anymore either.  The bedspread alone was $80.00 at Target.  Really, for a kids room, seemed a little on the expensive end to me when you can buy an entire bed in a bag at Bed, Bath and Beyond for that.  Anyway I will give anyone looking a good piece of advice; the wall stickers that state they do not stick on textured walls, don't stick to textured walls.  So take a  look at the headboard,  we actually bought at Lowe's which is an actual piece of fence.  The stickers are on a clear sheet and then that is stuck to the wall and we weren't able to save the sticker that had her name on it.  We are still working on the butterfly and dragonfly stickers on her wall.
Here are a few of pictures of the bed.

She does love the bed and likes that every once in
awhile mom or dad will sleep with her in it.

Junior had to have a picture too!

My New Discoveries

When I think of this post I keep wanting to sing "These are a few of my favorite things".  These are all the items in the last year and mostly the last few months that I am super excited about and want to share.  I do get excited over "stuff" and then I want to share with everyone!  Maybe you will find something of interest or something I may have already shared with you.  They may or may not be items you have heard, but are all new to me.

1.  Puffs Kleenex with Vick's.  I was at a girlfriends house having a play date and she shared these with me.  They are unbelievable.  I love them.  If you love Vick's you will love these Kleenexes.  They are really strong smelling and super soft.  I searched high and low for a box of these.  I couldn't find them at Target, Super Target or Safeway.  I got so frustrated.  I was looking everywhere for them when I was out shopping.  I finally was so determined to get my hands on them that I ordered an entire box of them from Amazon.com.  The same day my delivery came I happened to stop by King Soopers and found them there.  I have been sharing boxes with everyone.  This is my best, new discovery and people laugh at how exited I get when I tell them to try a Kleenex.  Try them!

2.  Pomegranate 7-Up.  I was at the grocery store with a list from www.thegrocerygame.com in hand and pop was on sale.  You can't beat a good deal on pop.  It seems that Safeway has pop on sale for a few months at really great prices and then it's a dry spell. So I always stock up during the sales even when I already have a good quantity at home.  I had a bunch of 7Up already at home and came across this new flavor - Pomegranate.  I have never really been a fan, but thought it wouldn't hurt to try it and someone at our house may like it.  Well, that someone is me.  I love it.  I don't know what it is about it, but it tastes good and fizzy.  The box states it's only available for a limited time.  I know I will be missing it if they don't continue it.

3.  Shellac Nail / Manicure.  The last time out when I had a little me time to get a manicure they asked if I wanted a Shellac Manicure. I had no idea what it was, but they said it would last up to 14 days and that is longer than a regular French manicure would last for me so I said yeah, what the heck.  It took a little longer, but the results were fabulous.  The best part was it lasted an entire month.  I was hooked.  If I could have nice manicured fingernails everyday and only have to up date them once a month!  I have real nails not fake.  My stance has always been that I shouldn't pay for fake one's when I can grow my own.  I went to another salon to get them redone and what a horrible job they did.  My polish underneath was smudged and it started peeling off a few days later - I was beyond mad.  I went into another place and had gel nails done, which is basically the same thing as a shellac manicure.  They put coats of special polish on your nails and you "cure" them in the light after each polish and it basically "sets" the polish.  I now have 2 places that I trust to go to because they also turned out fabulous.  My suggestion is to be aware of where you go.  I have no advice on how to choose though?  I went to two lower end places and they did a better job than the salon.  Try and figure that out.  I also think it depends on the person and if they are taking their time to make them nice and not get the gel/polish on your skin because it seems when that happens it peels off then.  So here I am going against what I once stood for and am paying probably what it costs others to have fake nails put on, but I am enjoying the heck out it!

4.  InStyler - http://www.getinstyler.com/. 

One Last Favorite for Today - 

Bare Escentuals Make-Up and Face products.  Even if you just need some lotion - there's is the best, it makes your face so soft.  Recently they had all their face wash and lotions on sale.

So just to be clear - no one gave me any of these products to review or asked me to review them.  These are items that I have purchased and fell in love with and wanted to share them with people because you may want to use them too!  Enjoy.

Fabulous Saturday

We had a ton of fun this past Saturday.  The morning started off with Dan getting up with Junior and Katelynn. I probably only got to sleep in about 20 minutes longer than everyone else, but hey I will take it.  The kids had a little breakfast and played around the house.  Dan had a funeral to attend and had to get ready to go.  I did some laundry, dishes and cleaned.  I even got a workout with my Wii Fit board in for 30 minutes while the kids played along side me.  Katelynn tried to keep up and run in place with me for awhile, but she thought it was getting boring and decided building blocks would be more fun.  With the house clean and the kids being patient  I decided it was time for them to enjoy some fun and I went on a hunt for the the bounce castle.  After doing some searching above the garage, in the mechanical room, and the locked gun room, I finally find it in the storage area.  The kids had no idea what I was doing.  They just kept asking and I kept telling them you will have to wait and see.  Katelynn new exactly what it was when I pulled it out, but Junior just kept asking what it was.  He figured it out pretty quickly!  It also gave me a great opportunity to attempt some action shots with the new camera.  I did a bunch of different types of camera configuring to see what the pics would turn out like.  Definitely discovered that I have a lot of learning and practice to do.  I had to delete the majority of them, but oh well, gotta start somewhere.

Here are a few pictures of our jumping fun.

While the kids were jumping I went and made us some lunch quick.  Dan came home shortly after lunch.  I let the kids do a little more jumping before it was time for a nap and time for Katelynn to have an hour of quiet time in her room.
Katelynn has filled her chart with Good Checks and had only a few number of bad checks so it was time for her to cash in on her reward.  I have tried the positive spin on everything and it just didn't seem to get through or sink in for Katelynn.  I decided one day that we needed to have something for her to measure.  We have a chart that has one side with Good marks (which are checked off with hearts) and a Bad marks side with a check mark.  Whenever she does nice things for others, stays in her bed after we say good night and when she makes good comments she gets good marks.  She really only has a few bad checks.  It is actually one of the more powerful tools in the house to get her to understand what she is doing is not enjoyable or wrong.  I wonder if it is because the check doesn't go away?  A time out doesn't really change her behavior for us, but one mention of the bad check and the lips get zipped or she screams Noooooooo and we then explain what she needs to do in order to keep from getting it.  Anyways - She filled the good side up and her reward was to get to go to her first movie at the movie theater.  We let her know before her quiet time that today was the day and she got to pick what movie.  I really thought she would pick Tangled, but because one of her friends recently went to see Yogi Bear that was the movie she wanted to see.  So Yogi Bear in 3D it was.  She had a tough time waiting to go.  She came down from quiet time and said that maybe, just maybe she was changing her mind about her movie pick.  She wanted to know if we went to Tangled if we would be leaving earlier.  I told her we would be leaving 30 minutes later if she wanted to see Tangled and that sealed the deal for her, Yogi Bear starts first then we're going to that one.  I wish that both Dan and I would have been able to take her for her first movie and Dan has never seen a movie in 3D, but someone had to watch Junior.  So the girls left for movie, pop and popcorn.  Katelynn was pretty excited, but acted like a little lady.  She waited patiently in line for the tickets and for the popcorn.  We got into the theater and she asked if the movie was on.  Nope honey it's just commercials and previews.  Then the real previews started and she asked if this was Yogi Bear and I said nope, these are previews, but it will be starting soon, I promise.  The movie started and we put on our 3D glasses, what a way to watch your first movie if you ask me.  About halfway through the movie she said that she didn't want to sit anymore, but I told her we still had some movie left and she would be okay. Her glasses came on and off a couple of times and she got a little restless, but she did a really good job.
Pictures from before the movie:

In the car before heading into the theater.

I've got my tickets!

This is the best!  A HUGE Popcorn and Sprite.

I was thinking of stopping at a few stores after the movie since we were at the mall anyway, but it was dark and I decided to stop at just one, Game Stop.  Katelynn has really been getting her sportsmanship figured out and some confidence while playing WiiKatelynn got to play their Kinnect, it was pretty cool.  We got an extra Wii remote and the Dance Moves game.  We came home and all played the Dance Moves.  It was so much fun, especially when made Dan play and had all 3 of us competing against each other and Junior watching us all and probably laughing to himself.  The kids stayed up a little later than usual and if they weren't tuckered out from all the jumping and dancing and playing on Saturday I don't know what wears them out then.  We had a great day!

Snow Time

Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the backyard.  They were so excited - Yeah!  Snow, finally.  Although for those that know me you know that  I do not play outside and avoid going outside unless I have to in the winter months.  I just don't care for the cold weather.  I like to look at the pretty snow glistening outside, but prefer to look through a window in a warm cozy house.  So every year it is up to Dan to get the kids out there and play and he does it well.  He pulls them around on the sled and had Katelynn making snow angels.  I did throw on my boots and jacket and took my camera out to snap a few pictures.  

Katelynn and Junior Pics

Here are a few pictures I have taken that I thought turned out really nice of the kids.  I am enjoying the experimenting with my new camera.  I have taken a bunch, deleted a bunch and don't know what to do with a bunch!