Bowling

This past Saturday we decided to take the girls bowling for the first time.  It was actually Brad's idea.  He wasn't on call so he wanted to do something fun with them.  So off we went Saturday morning to the bowling alley.

When we got there is was packed!  I called before to reserve a lane but she said it's first come first serve and they only had open bowling till 1:00.  Well she forgot to mention that they have kids leagues Saturday mornings so there were little kids running around everywhere. They only had "open bowling" on 8 lanes, 5 of which were reserved for a birthday party...that leaves us 3 "open bowling" lanes, all of which were being used.  Of course we had to wait because the  kids were soooo excited, so we went to play some arcade games.

That led to us spending $12.50 on the stupid claw games until Brad could win each of them a prize.  Olivia won a ball and Isabelle a Hippo.

Finally after about a half hour, we were ready to bowl...bumper bowl of course!  The kids had a great time and really loved it. They gave us a ramp for the kids to use so they wouldn't throw the ball down the lane, hahaha!

They actually did a really good job!  They took turns and even shared turns.  They kept jumping up and down and hugging each other after! Isabelle got a strike on her first try and came in second place!  Brad, of course, came in first, Olivia third and me last...I let the kids take a lot of my turns OK?

Anyways we had a great time and I really recommend taking your toddlers bowling!  Plus because we had to wait so long the woman didn't make us pay for our shoes and it was a cheap day!  Can't beat cheap fun!!!

The girls cheering on their Daddy!

My kitchen wall

This is a picture of my kitchen wall:

Ever since Olivia started Pre-K this year she comes home with oodles and oodles of artwork.  I mean sometimes she comes home with 4 or 5 huge paintings in one day!  What the heck am I supposed to do with all of it?  I already have a file in my filing cabinet of special projects or our favorite ones and then I try to hang the rest up but as you can see I am quickly running out of space.  Not to mention this is not the prettiest wall you have ever seen I am sure!

So here is my question to all of my Mommy friends?  Is it ok to throw some things out?  I know some people (like my mother-in-law) just read that and gasped.  (Love you "Mommy in love!")  But seriously what am I to do with all of it...and don't forget I will have another little artist who will be coming home with just as much art work in a couple years.  Anyone who knows me well knows I hate clutter and I pretty much throw everything out.  If I can't find something Brad always jokes and says well you probably threw it out.  I'm not going to lie, you may have been able to see me searching through our dumpster looking for that $10 off $25 Fashion Bug coupon or my address list because I accidentally threw it out.  Anyways, this is the one thing I feel guilty about throwing out.

So what should I do?  What do you do with everything?  Give me some ideas people!  By the way this is what I am hoping my wall will look like one day :

via Pinterest (of course!)

Pinterest Fail

So I am planning Isabelle's third Birthday little family party...we are having a tea party!  Anyways I saw this awesome recipe on Pinterest (obviously)  and thought it would be a good snack for the party. So I grated 2 blocks of cheese and ran into a problem...I don't have a food processor.  Ughhh.  So I used a fork, hand mixer, and finally my hands until I thought it was mixed enough.  Then I left it in the fridge overnight because I never have enough time to finish a whole task!  Today I get the dough out and get to work cutting out tiny little flower cheese crackers...it took FOREVER...and I only did half of the dough so far.

Then I put it in the over for 15 min, and this is what I got:

WAIT...what happened to the hundreds of cute little flowers I took such a long time cutting out?????  They are now little cheese balls with no particular shape.  I was so mad I wasted my time with that stupid cookie cutter.  Ok well maybe they will taste so good that no one will care they are eating ugly little cheese balls. 

I popped one in my mouth....hmmmm not so much...they are not gross, they are not delicious...they are just ok.  Great now I have hundreds of ok tasting ugly little cheese balls...I can't believe I just wasted my afternoon on this!  Then I thought maybe the kids will LOVE them and devour them all up...

And here is Olivia with her bowl...she ate like 3 and then left the bowl and ran back in the living room...Oh well I guess.

We have just decided to post pone Isabelle's little family party for another week until she and everyone else is feeling better. That means I have time to try another cute little snack recipe...or I have plenty of time to run to Wegmans and get some goldfish!  

I am Back...for now anyways

Hi...it's me.  I haven't blogged in over a year, but here I am again.  I would love to say that I will never stop again and have a bunch of consistent readers/followers and be the most popular Mommy Blog in. the. world...but I am pretty sure that is not going to happen.  Anyways, I am going to give it another shot.  Who doesn't want to read and see about my awesome mommy creativity  ideas that I stole from other awesome Moms on Pinterest (which I am TOTALLY obsessed with)?  I know you all missed me terribly and are crying joyful tears as you are reading this but don't get too excited...who knows how long it will last!

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast came out of the vault last week so I made sure to run out and buy it for the girls.  I knew Olivia liked it because we had borrowed a copy of someone else's before.  This is one of my favorite Disney movies, along with The Little Mermaid and The Lion King. 

I remember going to see the Beauty and the Beast with my Grandma "Mimi" when I was a little girl.  We went and saw the movie, then went to the fabric store to buy fabric to make clothes for my barbies, and I spent the night!  It is one of my favorite memories with my Mimi. 

Olivia loves this movie so much that she has started acting it out just like "Beauty" as she is watching it.  She has to have one of her dress up dresses on every time she watches it so she can "be beautiful like Beauty."  Then she repeats everything word and action of "Beauty!" It is very cute and I love watching it with them on the cold rainy days! 

Fall Festivals

Sunday the girls and I went to Charlotte Beach where they had a Fall Festival going on with Bampga (Grandpa).  The girls got to put faces on pumpkins (they were free pumpkins too!) get their hands painted, get balloons from clowns, take free rides on the carousel and run around all afternoon!  We finished off the afternoon with Abbotts ice cream and Olivia ate an entire chocolate ice cream cone by herself.  I can't get the girl to eat lunch but she will sure eat her ice cream!  They had a great time and were exhausted by 4:00. 

Isabelle dancing to the band!

Olivia with her Bampga

Sisters<3

Bellie getting tired!

On Monday Brad and I took the girls and Maggie (Grammy) to Stokoe Farms.  I'm not sure I have ever been there and boy was I surprised!  They had soooo much stuff to do!  First we checked out the big hay climbing structure, but the girls were not really into that.  Then we made our way to see all of the animals.  This was my favorite part, of course!  They had baby piggies!!!! Oh, they were so cute.  And there was this one black and white rabbit that I just loved and really wanted but Brad said NO!  Imagine that, lol!  The girls loved feeding the goats and sheep.  We also saw baby chicks and bunnies!  After that we went over and played in the gravel box and on the bikes and cars.  Then we had a snack and went to pick out our pumpkins!  By that time we were ready to go home even though there was so much more that we didn't get a chance to do. 

Olivia pouting because she didn't want to take a picture.

Baby chicks!

My favorite bunny!

Baby piggies!

I love this picture!

Next weekend we are going to the Zoo BOO!  The girls will get to dress up in one of their costumes and trick or treat at the Zoo with their friends! 

Halloween cookies and crafts!

 On Monday we made cut-out Halloween cookies!  Oh boy was that a little crazy!  Fun, but crazy.  We made the dough together first in the kitchen, adding the ingredients, one by one, and taking turns stirring.  Then we set up in the dining room with our cookie cutters, dough and rolling pin.  Olivia loves using the cookie cutters, and was really good at it.  Isabelle was more interesting in eating the cookie dough (a girl after my own heart!).  As you can see we made quite a mess!  They both got restless before all of the dough was gone (I made a double batch) so I had to finish by myself.  I also decorated them by myself while they were napping because I really didn't feel like making and cleaning up another huge mess!  The cookies turned out great and the girls eat them right up and can't wait to show everyone what they made! 

Olivia had to make star cookies even though they weren't part of our Halloween theme. 

Today we had our BFF's Shannon and Angelina come over to do some Halloween crafts and have a spooky lunch!  I got these wooden picture holders from A.C. Moore for $1 each so the kids can put their favorite Halloween picture in them.  They had fun painting them, even though Miss Isabelle painted more of the table then her bat!

I can't wait till next week when we get our pumpkins for Pumpkin Carving and painting!!!!  I love this time of year so much, and I love that my girls are at the age where were can do fun crafts and activities!!!!

FUN FUN FUN

Yesterday we went to the Doctors for Olivia's 3 year check up.  She was a little scared of everything, so thankfully I brought her own Doctor kit and then she did everything to Mommy that the Doctor was doing to her.  It worked FANTASTIC.  She was great, and had a lot of fun too!  She weighs in at about 30lbs...Isabelle is like a close 28lbs, lol!  She is still in about the 25th percentile like she has always been.  She also passed her eye and ear test with flying colors of course.  The Doctor and nurses were very impressed with her vocabulary as well...I think I mentioned before she is 3 going on 16 right??? 

Anyways, afterwards we went to Sawyer Park for a picnic and some playground fun.  We brough bologna sandwiches shaped like pumpkins, pears, and cheddar popcorn (all of their favs!).  Then they ran off to the playground saying Bye Bye to me...like I am going to let them go play by themselves, lol!  We all had a great time and I got some great pictures even though they are from my camera phone.  I am going to miss these days when it is Winter!!!!! 

Big Girl Bellie!

Olivia can climb the ladder all by herself!

Peek-a-boo!

Sweet Sisters <3

LOVE this face!

Dancing in the Kitchen

This was what was happening in the kitchen last night as I was making dinner. My "3" kids were rocking out to Miley Cyrus's Party In the USA...still Olivia's favorite jam. The girls had a blast and were laughing, jumping, and dancing with their Daddy. I loved just sitting back and watching this moment. I am so grateful that my my wonderful husband is also such an awesome "hands on" Dad!

Hot Pink Cookies

Olivia asked me this morning if we could make something. I asked her what she wanted to make and she said green pancakes. Hmmm....well it was 11:00, almost lunch time so I said sure we can make green pancakes and eggs for lunch today. "Nooooo I don't want to eat them, I want to make them!" I said, Well we can't make them if we aren't going to eat them! Then they will go to waste, how about we make something else? "Ok Mama, what should we make?" I suggested cookies and of course she was all for that!

Let me just start by telling you that I am not a good baker, nor do I enjoy baking, especially cookies, because you have to stand around the kitchen all morning and put them in and out of the oven. I like baking like bread or cake...just one round in the oven! Anyways, Olivia and Bellie took turns putting in the different ingredients and stiring the bowl. They were actually quite good at it, and didn't even fight about who's turn it was! When we were almost done mixing, I got out the food coloring and let Olivia choose what color she wanted our cookies to be. She of course chose PINK! And let me tell you they came out a hot pink!

After I put them in the oven I turned on the light so they could watch them bake. After like 30 seconds Olivia says, "Ok Mom they are done!" I told her that they weren't done yet, they will take about 10 minutes and she has to be patient. She then says, " No, I don't want to be patient, ugggghhhh, nevermind then, and walked out of the kitchen to her play room. It seems someone else doesn't like waiting for cookies to bake either!!!!!!


These were the second batch that came out not burnt! Below is a picture of the first batch that were all burnt on the bottom...I think my oven was too hot, so I turned it down. I threw these out because they were nasty!!!!!!

Now Olivia keeps asking me for a cookie every 5 minutes instead of every 15 minutes like normal, hahaha! She sure does love her cookies!