And the Winner is....

Shelly, from Shelly's Bookshelf!

You've won yourself some chocolate!

Thank you to everyone who entered & stopped by - what a great party!

PARTY'S OVER!

MommyFest is now over. I will be drawing a winner for the Chocolate Bliss Gift Pack later today, using a random number generator. Check back this evening to see who won (and to see who you might want to bum some chocolate off of).

Thanks for stopping by, everyone!

Costume Party!

Today, Abby's class had a "Pirates & Princesses Day". They were allowed to dress up as either a pirate or a princess. Guess which one Abby chose? Princess, of course. Guess which princess costume she chose to wear?







Yup. She's a vampire princess.












Perfect for a Christian preschool, right?

Thank Goodness for Storm Doors

A bird just flew into my open storm door. What am I thinking? Poor birdy? No... I'm thinking about what I would have done if that door had not been there and the stupid bird flew into my house! Thank goodness I keep the door *ahem* a little dirty so this won't happen all the time. This bird was maybe just a bit slower than the typical bird...

Day-Late Monday Meet & Greet

I'm participating in The Natural Mommy's Tuesday-as-Monday Meet & Greet! Meet my kids:














This is actually the best picture I've ever gotten of the 3 of them together. Family photos usually look something like this:
















Give or take a butt or two.

A Tiring Day

Today I went with Abby on her second ever field trip to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. We saw turtles and snakes, did science experiments, played grocery store, touched real starfish, and looked at some decapitated birds. It was fun, but now I'm exhausted.

I picked Avery & Ethan up from Grandma's house afterwards, and Avery said "Let's go to the zoo, and then to the museum!" Can sleeping mothers accompany their children to the zoo and the museum? What about passed-out-from-exhaustion mothers?

Giveaway!

Here it is - a picture of what, exactly, I'm giving away. Remember, post every day of the Mommyfest and get an entry each day. Link me from your blog & get three additional entries.

A Gift To You!

Since we're right in the middle of MommyFest, I thought I'd offer everyone reading this a gift! The gift is actually a tip - but it's a good one! It's how to save a bundle on diapers or Pullups this week, if you have a Kroger nearby.

Huggies diapers are on sale at Kroger this week (through May 18) for $9.49 for a jumbo pack, plus you get another $4 off for every $20 in Huggies you buy. You can do this deal 2 times each visit, so here's my scenario for the best deal I've found:

1. Go to Shortcuts and sign up for coupons. They place these coupons right on your Kroger Plus Card. Go to the baby coupon section and add the $2 off Pullups coupon, the $1 off Huggies Supreme, and the $1 off Huggies to your card.

2. Go to Pullups.com and print out the $2 off Pullups coupon. After it prints, press the "backspace" key on your keyboard and print it again. Repeat until it says you've printed the maximum amount of coupons (or up to 4). If you have Pullups coupons already, you can skip this step. Pullups coupons can be used on any Huggies diapers.

3. Go to Huggies.com and print out the rebate form to get $5 back when you buy 3 packs at a time.

4. Go to Kroger and buy 3 jumbo packs of Huggies for $9.49 each. Buy one mega pack for $14.99. Total for 4 packs = $43.46.

5. Checkout. Use the coupons you printed/ already had.

6. Look at your receipt. You should have saved $20 total! That's $8 in paper coupons, $4 in Shortcuts coupons, and $8 from the Kroger Huggies sale.

7. Go home & fill out that rebate form. You'll get another $5 back in a few weeks!

8. Repeat as many times as you'd like, or until you run out of coupons. The Huggies rebate doesn't specify one per household or any other limit on the paper copy I picked up at Kroger.

Total savings = $25. You'll spend $18.46 for about 182 diapers! Is anyone else as excited about this as I am??

Lucky Me! I've Got Two Men...

One to cook, and one to wash the dishes.

Brownie Pudding Cake

This is probably my all-time favorite cake recipe, courtesy of The Pampered Chef.

Brownie Pudding Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add milk, melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla; stir until smooth. Stir in chocolate morsels. Spread evenly in 9x12 pan.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa; gradually stir in boiling water and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla. Carefully pour mixture evenly over batter in pan.

3. Bake 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Spoon into dessert dishes and serve with ice cream.

MommyFest Blog Party!

The MommyFest Blog Party officially starts today! I'll be posting something special for each day of the event (May 12-16), so keep checking back. You'll find recipes, games, funny things, special links, and a giveaway. Click on the link above to visit other mommy blogs that are participating.

As promised, I'm also giving away a Hershey's Bliss Chocolate Gift Pack! The gift pack includes 2 full-sized bags of Hershey's Bliss chocolate (1 light & 1 dark chocolate), plus extra chocolate goodies! Each person who leaves a comment here gets an entry in the drawing.

Want more chances to win the gift pack? Leave a comment on my blog each day of the MommyFest, and get one entry for each day. Have your own blog? If you post about my giveaway on your blog, and include a link back to my blog, you'll get 3 more entries!! Just e-mail me & let me know you linked back to me - don't forget to include your blog address.

Now, let's have some cake!!

Crazy Drivers

Road Rage

Overly Happy Drivers

Sleepy Drivers

Backseat Drivers

What Doesn't Work for Me Wednesday - Homeschooling

Rocks in My Dryer has a good themed "What Works for Me Wednesday" today - What Doesn't Work for Me. So, here's my contribution:

********************************************************

Some people have to homeschool their children. I have to not homeschool my children.

Don't get me wrong - homeschooling is a great thing to do. I was homeschooled myself for 8 years, and I am very smart. :o) But it's not the only option, and it doesn't make people bad parents if they send their kids to school.

The reasons we don't homeschool are many, so here are a few of them:

1. Daniel doesn't want to. He is not the type that is disciplined enough to learn on his own, so he assumes that no one else is, either.

2. I'm still in college and very near graduating. When would I teach my kids - in between class periods?

3. I feel called to a ministry or counseling career. If God gave me this desire, I feel that He wants me to pursue it. Homeschooling my kids would definitely limit the time I could devote to ministry. In fact, sending my kids to school frees up a few hours for me to work on this. I'm not the type that concentrates well with lots of people around me - probably because I was hometaught...

4. I have 3 kids and I feel that homeschooling them would not be fair. I think homeschooling is very, very hard, and nearly impossible if you have more than two kids. I as one person just cannot devote enough time to each kid, that I would feel I am sufficiently teaching all 3. Of course, I believe that there are lots of parents that can do this, no problem. You all have my respect.

5. We live in the best school district in our town. Not that this makes the school district good or anything...

6. Private school is always an option, so I won't have to worry as much about what my kids are learning at their school.

7. Our kids absolutely love going to school (regular or Sunday School). I couldn't take that from them.

8. Homeschool is not a word, according to spellcheck. Hmm... neither is spellcheck. :o)

So, even though lots of people are supposed to homeschool, I fell that we are not. At least not right now. I'm glad some parents do homeschool, and I'm glad that we have the option. But for now, I'll send Abby off to school with tears in my eyes as I think about how big she is.


**Feel free to agree or disagree with me in the comments section. I love to know what you think as you read my blog.

And the Hairs Had to Come Off!

Ethan needed a haircut. I couldn't stand the idea of my baby losing all his baby hair, so I cut it myself. We took Avery to Cookie Cutters Salon for his first haircut, asked for them to keep his hair long and bowl-ish, and they chopped it all off. It grew back, of course, but it was no longer baby hair after that - it was coarser and thicker. So with Ethan, I couldn't take that risk.






Man I cut it short, didn't I?? *wink wink*



Yup. Still looks like a baby. Mission Accomplished!

The Battle of Everyday

Everyday - everyday - I have to participate in a battle. I fight with Abby about her cleaning her own room. I send her in there to simply make her bed and pick up the Polly Pockets. 20 minutes later, I go to check on her progress, and see baby dolls and dress-up clothes all over the room. I get angry at her, tell her to clean the mess right now, and suggest she doesn't get out any more toys until she's cleaned up what she's done playing with. 20 more minutes pass, and I check on her once again. This time there are little bits of paper all over the room, and water drops everywhere. The bed is not made, the Pollys are still out, the dolls are out, the clothes are out. What else can I do but enter into yet another war with Abby, during which I vow to throw away all her toys, sent Abby to a farm for messy kids, and leave her home for the day while the boys and I have tons of fun without her.

The thing is, I can't do any of those things. There is no farm for messy kids. I can't leave my 4 year old home alone all day (nor would I). And I also can't throw away all her toys. I'm too frugal. I couldn't just throw them away and simultaneously throw away all the money we spent on them. It would take too long for me to get rid of them, because I would have to list them all on Ebay. So, what threats can I really make that I'll follow through on?

So, right now she's being "punished" and she's supposed to be in her room cleaning. The problem is, she's actually in the living room playing trucks with Avery and fighting over a coloring book. I guess she's lost interest in all her own toys now that they're all out and in the middle of her floor.

We literally spend the entire morning fighting this battle, everyday. Why can't I just fight an easy (or easier) battle like The Battle of Gettysburg? At least that one eventually ended.

Scary Things to Do to Your Kids

Scary thing #1:

Let them play on train tracks.

I've always been afraid of trains, but I don't know why. I used to shudder every time I would drive under a train track overpass, and when I heard the whistle of a train. I got over the whistle thing once my mom moved near a train track and I heard it all the time. Maybe it's because my mom's best childhood friend's sister got ran over and killed by a train.

Well, tonight as I was driving to get my kids a pie baby, I saw 3 kids playing on a train track. This is a well-used track, and the kids looked like they were maybe 3, 6, and 8. I didn't think much of it as I passed by on the way to get that pie baby, but when they were still there on the way back I got a little worried. There is a small church right on the tracks, and in the parking lot I saw a jeep with one door wide open. There were no people in the parking lot. The boys looked like they were dressed for church.

What would you have done in this situation? I mean, what's appropriate? Do you go home & call the police? Do you jump out of your car right there & pull the kids off the tracks? What if your own kids are in the car with you?

I ended up calling the police when I got home, but I was watching and listening for a train the entire time, worried to death for those kids. At the end of the conversation with the dispatcher I was asked a weird question - "are they all white kids?" But that's a whole 'nother blog post altogether...

Pie Babies

I found out tonight that a Strawberry Pie Baby from Big Boy will feed Abby, Avery, and Ethan, with a piece left over for Daniel (although he says he doesn't like pie babies). On the other hand, a Hot Fudge Cake feeds just me. They are the same size, in case anyone was wondering...

Now how can you not want to eat something called a "pie baby"??? It's too cute not to eat. It's like when I say to Ethan, "you're such a cutie pie, I just want to eat you up!" Strawberry Pie Babies = Eating a cute child. It just makes sense.

Sorry

Sorry I haven't said much lately. I'm right in the middle of the last week of school and finals week, which means no spare time right now. Of course, it doesn't help that my Microsoft Word trial ran out after I wrote 9 pages of a final paper and I couldn't edit it....

So, maybe I'll blog a little more once I finally graduate. Or maybe after finals - we'll see.

Party!

Okay, spread the word - I'm actually doing a giveaway. Come back May 12 - 16 & sign up during the "Mommy Fest".

Hint: The giveaway involves chocolate.

A PG-13 Rated Post

This post is about weiners and butts - be warned. For those of you without sons, you might not understand.

In our house we have a cute phrase for the ends of loaves of bread - "bread butts". I know, it's a little improper. Well, the other night I made a loaf of bread (homemade, yes!) and Abby requested the "butt". Avery replied, "I want the weiner!"

Apparently, he's trying to make up for the woman episode.