Pirate Cake

No pirate party is complete without a pirate hat cake.  This cake was so simple and so fun.  It is a must for any pirate party!

Here’s how I did it:

1. Bake 2 round cakes
2. Let the cakes cool
3. Ice the top of one cake
4. Place the second cake on top of the first
5. Cut about 1/4 of the circle off
6. Cut the smaller piece in half
7. Place cake up vertically
8. Ice and decorate

Please visit family fun for more detailed directions to this cake.  This cake is sure to please.  Let me know how yours comes out!  To check out a tea pot cake for your little princess please click here.

Becca

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Valentine’s Day Bookmarks

A craft for kids:

This is a simple yet cute craft to enjoy this valentines.  It would be great for preschool, 4H groups, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts.  I think that it is better for children ages 3-6 but I know Abigail enjoyed making one.  As always let Alli and I know how it comes out.  We would love the feedback!

Difficulty Level: 1 Star

Supplies:

1. Popcycle sticks
2. Glue
3. Wooden conersational hearts
4. crayons, markers or paint

Step 1:

Have the children color or paint their popcycle stick.  They can decorate it in any way they want.  Younger children could just color the stick while older kids can get a little more creative adding designs, words and just about anything else they can think of.

Step 2:

Glue the conversational heart to the top of the popcycle stick.

Step 3:

Let it all dry and you have a new bookmark to keep as children begin to learn to read or they can pass it along to parents or grandparents as a great little gift.

We hope that you enjoy the valentines day bookmarks.  Our kids all had a blast making them.  We would love to hear and see how yours came out.  Please leave us a message in the comment box!

Becca and Alli

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52 Days Until Christmas

When is the right time to decorate?

Year after year people start decorating earlier and earlier. It is something that continues to anoy me. I think that it actually annoys me more then the thought of retailer trying to cram Christmas down our throats. This is because it is the proof I need to see that it is working.

At what point in history was it acceptable to decorate the outside of your home for Christmas November 1st? Hey, I am an understanding person. I know that it is cold in another month. I know that perhaps hanging the lights now while it is still in the 50 degree mark is nice then waiting a month. This does not, I repeat NOT give you the right to light those lights. I know that this is a free country and we can do what we want but get real. By lighting the lights now you are takking away the holiday cheer the rest of us feel after Thanksgiving.

In my mind you decorate outside the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The are has a certain holiday chill to it. It is crisp and cold. While I know that no one likes to be cold, EVERYONE likes to come in to some hot cocoa and snuggle down to their first Christmas movie together.

So please, this season, just wait. It is three more weeks. That is it. Yes it may be a little colder but the memories that you are making for your kids is worth it all. Not to mention that, as I drive around, I do not want to see your lights! I will be checking!

Becca

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56 Days Until Christmas

The Holiday Cleaning List

The holidays bring a chance to clean and get reorganized. While this is my intention before I start to pull out all of my decorations I am going to yet again need a plan. After spending the entire summer in a cast I feel like my house is a gross mess. I am slightly overwhelmed by it but I am determined to make it sparkle with the lights this Christmas.

What I need is a week by week list of things to accomplish. At this point there are a little more then 7 weeks until Christmas So I have 7 weeks to make it happen. Here is the plan…

1. WEEK 1: This week I would like to go though the girls toys, without them and make sure that I get rid of the ones that do not get played with, the ones that are broken, and the ones that I hate because they make far too much noise. This is a huge task and I hope that I can complete it in one week!
2. WEEK 2: Eliminate the clutter. I have a problem with keeping everything and my husband never puts things back where they belong. This means that the house right now looks beyond cluttered. I would like to spend wee 2 getting rid of anything that does not have a home and put things that do have a home away.
3. WEEK 3: This week I would like to finish switching out all of the summer and fall clothing for winter clothing. It is time and with 5 people to switch for it will certainly take a large hunk of time.
4. WEEK 4: This week I would like to take out all of the china and crystal and wash it all. It will be nice for it to sparkle this holiday season. This will also make it so that I can just grab any pieces that I want to use when I want to use them.
5. WEEK 5: It is wash the walls week. This week I would like to scrub the walls and wash anything that is on them. This will help brighten up the walls and elminate all of the dust in the air.
6. WEEK 6: Wash all of the curtains is what is on the list for this week. I think that perhaps I will even make some holiday curtains for the kitchen this year so I can wash the everyday ones and replace them with a holiday treat!
7. WEEK 7: This week we will just be streightning. I want everything to be nice for Santa

Although it does not sound like a lot to do it really will be time consuming. Just like everything else in this countdown it will be pread out enough so that we can still be enjoying Christmas and the entire holiday season!

Becca

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75 Days of Christmas

How to Get Through Christmas

Christmas Day is in 75 days…

I know that I sound like a huge retailer trying to make up for the missing back to school specials! If you are like I am you want the holidays to be PERFECT! So far it never has been and I am starting to think that it never will be. Last year we did not have the money to go out shopping until December 23rd and it made the entire season VERY stressful. So here we are with 75 days left to make it perfect. I know, I know, it will never be PERFECT but perhaps I can come a little closer if I start planning it all out now. There are so many things to think about. Forget about Halloween this year, forget about Thanksgiving! This year I am setting my sights on Christmas!

OK, so here I am sitting all motivated to do something to make the season better than ever. Where should we start though. I think that the most important thing to do this year is to establish an early budget. This will make the entire season more enjoyable. I think that in order to examine a budget I have to look at who I need to buy for and how much money I plan on spending. This will help me determine how much money I will need. So here it goes…

Nieces and Nephews: There are 6 of them now and I estimate that I will spend $15 each. I know that I sound cheap but I am a bargin shopper. I am going to round this up to an even $100. This way I can go over and under and stay within my budget. The truth is that kids do not know nor do they care how much you spend on them. All they care about is that you buy something fun!

Parents: I tend to spend about $40 for each of my parents and about $100 for Rob’s mother if not more. Any presents that she gets come from all of her kids so I think that it is important for her to have a Christmas that is magical too! I will round this up to $200 to be on the safe side. It never hurts to have extra money.

Siblings: This year Rob’s family has decided to do a grab bag. We need to pick two $20 gifts for the grab bag. I also have one brother who has no children. I try to get him something cool since he gets the girls things. I figure about $40 is what I will spend. Again I am going to round up to be on the safe side. This makes this section $100.

Our Girls: While Santa does do some of the work, Christmas is still an expencive venture. I figure that we will spend aboiut $300 on Abigail and Emma and about $150 on the baby. As kids get older they want things that cost more and more. By aiming high we will assure that we have enough money to make their dreams come true. This brings this section up to $750.

Pictures: It is important to me that we have pictures taken this year. The last few years we have not had the money so I plan on doing this early. Although there are deals, I figure we will spend about $100 on pictures this year.

Cookies: While baking cookies is a day or two of fun for the kids it can be quite expencive. This year I would like to put about $100 aside for baking. I figure this will cover any cakes, candy, and cookies.

Wrapping and shipping: Wrapping paper can add up. For family gifts this year I plan on making wrapping paper. This will help us to save money and it will be a great activity to do with the kids. We will have to buy and ship Christmas cards and a few gifts to family who lives far away. We will also need to donate some paper to Santa. This will all total about $80 this year.

New decorations: Well, last year our tree fell and about half of our tree ornaments broke. I was quite upset. I have had almost a year to recover though. Now I am excited about being able to get some new treasures and memories for out tree. I am putting about $50 aside for this.

Teachers, bus drivers, mail person and others: If you are not careful this can really add up. I think that it is ok if you do not have a lot of money to give these people cookies and treats that you are baking. Last year I gave the bus driver a Dunkin’ Donuts gift certificate for $10. This way he could stop and have some coffee. Classes in our school do teacher presents all together so this should only be abbout $10 this year. It will be cookies for the rest. This will add up to about $20 this year.

So all in all I think that I will need about $1400 for this Christmas. It sounds like so much for one day but I am determined to make it special. They key is to spend cash! With the economy in a state of “crisis” I would rather not have to rely on anything other then the money that I have.

I would like to do a lot of my shopping on Black Friday. I find great deals and love getting up early with my female in-laws and hitting the pavement. So I would like to have at least half of the money for Black Friday. Thanksgiving is about 6 weeks away. This means that I will have to put about $130 away a week to assure that I do not have to spend on credit on Black Friday. This is going to be a huge challenge. Things are tight right now to begin with, but I have a plan!

I think that we should all avoid spending money on our credit cards this year. Work out your personal budget and see what you have to save a week to reach your goal. I will post new posts everyday with craft ideas, fun activities, money making tips, and recipies to use for the next 75 days. It is going to be a great Christmas this year!

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