Category: Holidays

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Halloween Candy Buy Back

Are you worried about your kids eating too much Halloween Candy in the upcoming weeks?  Well, Operation Gratitude has an amazing program where you can bring your Halloween candy to registered dentists offices and they will buy it back from you for $1 a pound.  They then send all of the candy to our military troops in holiday care packages. This year they are working towards sending 60,000 care packages and they literally need tons of candy to fill all of the packages.

This would be an amazing opportunity for you and your children to support our troops, and prevent them from getting crazy sugar highs and or lots of cavities.  They’ll even get a few bucks in the process and can maybe use that money to purchase something that will last instead of the consumable candy that will most likely be gone in a few days.

**DENTISTS CAN SEND ALL CANDY TO:

OPERATION GRATITUDE/ CA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD 
17330 VICTORY BLVD.
VAN NUYS, CA 91406
ATTN: RICH HERNANDEZ / 262-674-7281
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Halloween Decor Inside and Out

Halloween is almost here.  I’m soo excited to see all of the kids this year in their costumes.  I’ve been stocking up on extra candy to hand out.  Every sale I’ve noticed I’ve bought at least 3 big bags of the good candy.  I don’t ever want to be known as the house with the crappy candy.  For almost the past month I’ve been diligently adding to the decor both inside and out of our home.

We have twinkling orange and white lights on the patio.  I have cute little bats with smiling faces hung up along he rails of the porch.  They are covered in pretty black and purple sparkle glitter.  There are friendly giant spiders sitting in plastic spider webs.  I can’t stand the kind that look too real and get in your face and hair.  It always creeps me out and makes me think I’ve actually walked into a real spider web.  We also have bales of hay set out with friendly scarecrows welcoming visitors.

Inside we have fall colored flowers set on our table surrounded by a wreath of sticks and twine.  I got a bunch of decorations on sale last year after the holiday marked down by at least 75%.  The picture frames are one of my favorite finds.  I found two black picture frames with, “BOO!” in a fun font on them.  I’ve placed pictures of the kids in their costumes from the past years in them.  They look absolutely adorable.  I thought it was a great way to reflect on the years past.

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Over the Top Kid Birthday Parties

I went to a birthday party this past weekend that just seemed a bit over the top for a  5 year old.  It reminded me of the sweet sixteen birthday parties of celebrities that spend thousands of dollars for one day.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time at the party, but I don’t want my children to come to expect parties like this and think it is the norm.

I think it’s perfectly fine for a child to have a bounce house, or a clown, or a pony, or an entertainer, at his or her party, but when all of the above are present I think that’s completely overboard.  It’s a good idea to have some restraint when it comes to planning a party for a little kid.  I’m sure the child’s mom just wanted to shower her with anything and everything possible.

It just seems crazy to me and somewhat wasteful when the money that was used for all of the entertainment could have been put to soo much good to benefit other children.  I would rather instill in my child the values of hard work because I don’t want them to take what they do have for granted.

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Best Way To Spend a Long Weekend

With Memorial Day coming up we have a long weekend ahead of us. On long weekends I like to relax with family and friends. We usually have a crock pot breakfast on Saturday morning and then just pass the day with family time. We like to play board and card games. If the weather is nice we’ll go to the park for a picnic or take everyone down to the pool for a nice refreshing swim.

This year we are going to go to the movies on Sunday and then to a barbeque on Monday. It’s a great way to catch up with friends. The barbeque is potluck style. We’re bringing my famous potato salad. The secret is to have one whole hard boiled egg for every potato you use. I never liked potato salad growing up until I had this recipe. Now I bring the potato salad to most every potluck we go to in the summer.

What do you like to do for long weekends? Do you go somewhere to get away from everything? Or, do you like to take it easy and everything at a slow and leisurely pace around home?

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Easter Bunnies in the Garden

With Easter just around the corner I’ve pulled out the cute little wooden bunnies that I got at the discount store a few weeks ago.  They look great nestled among the flowers our garden.  I also added some giant sized carrots and baby chicks.  It always brings a smile to my face when I decorate for the holidays.

The little Easter Bunnies I found are a soft pink with a bright pink nose. They have pale blue eyes and a cute pink ribbon tied in a  bow around their necks. In each hand is an Easter basket filled with grass and eggs decorated in many colors. They really look fabulous in the garden.  I wish I would have gotten a few more to place in the front yard as well.  Who knows, maybe I’ll snag a few for the front yard too.

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A Day Filled with Hearts

Because Valentine’s Day falls on a Thursday this year, my husband and I decided that we would celebrate it together this weekend. Tonight we will have fun and do something special with the kids.

I decided to a bit overboard and decorated the entire house last night before I went to bed. When the girls got up this morning they were surprised by all if the heart balloons in the living room and play room. I also scattered hearts in a variety of sizes throughout the rest of the house. There were window clings on the bathroom mirrors and the sliding glass door that leads to the back yard.  I had laid out a few heart shaped pages for the girls to paint later in the playroom too.

To make the day even more memorable for the girls, I made them heart shaped pancakes with little heart shaped banana slices. I used a teeny tiny cookie cutter I got from the craft store to cut out the bananas. And even though it’s not really healthy I sprinkled a few heart sprinkles on top of their pancakes to make them extra special. We enjoyed watching the girls light up this morning. I can’t wait to see their faces when they see what we have planned for them tonight.

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Clearance on Snowflake Chocolate

Hello, my name is Suzi, and I’m a chocoholic!  Chocolate is one of my weaknesses.   I can’t help myself when I see chocolate, I just have to have it.

I was walking through the aisles of my grocery store and came to the clearance section.  On the table was a huge stack of dark chocolate morsels in the shape of snowflakes.  They were marked down more than 50% just because they were deemed “holiday.”  I have no problem buying and eating chocolate in any shape, as long as it tastes good.

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Extra Five Pounds

Between my injured leg and all of the  holiday goodies I had over the past two months I’ve put on a good five extra pounds.   I usually exercise more self control with all of the goodies.  This year I just couldn’t help myself.  I baked ten different types of cookies myself.  This doesn’t even include the twenty five different types of cookies we had present at our new annual cookie exchange.

I know tons  of people put on extra weight during this time of year.  Most of them make a new years resolution to lose weight.   I will of course loose the weight but I’m thinking maybe next year I’ll see if I can drop a few extra pounds before Halloween. That way Once the holidays are over with I’ll be right back where I started. Haha!  I know it’s probably not the best way to look at it but it’s still a bit funny to think about.

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Big Family Gathering for Christmas

We had a terrific Christmas this year!  My mother in law came to visit and we had about 15 other people come over for Christmas dinner too!  I served a traditional turkey meal with all of the fixings.  One of the guests even brought a tofurkey because their family is vegetarian.  I tried it and it surprisingly wasn’t that bad at all.

Most of the day the kids were in the back yard.  Santa brought them a giant trampoline.  It was great to see their faces as they bounced up and down trying to get higher and higher each time.  My husband and I even tried it out with them.  We jumped pretty high.  I was afraid I might fall off myself.  I know I really shouldn’t have gotten on it with my leg but I did anyway.  I’m glad the kids got something that will keep them physically active.  I know a lot of kids got electronics and will end up sitting on the couch for the next month or so.  I really want top make sure the kids get enough activity so we convinced Santa to get them the trampoline.

 

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Major House Cleaning

One thing that always ends up being one of the last things to get done is the major cleaning before the holiday guests arrive.  My mother in law is coming to stay with us for the holiday weekend and I want to make sure the house is nice and clean.  I would hate to have someone come over to my house and not have it be clean.  I need to straighten out the guest room and add more towels to the bathroom.  I like to leave out a few different lotions and soaps for people to choose from when they come over.

I don’t want my mother in law to take a shower in a dirty shower so I really need to scrub it out.  I wish those automatic shower cleaners worked really well.  If they did I would have one in all of the bathrooms we have.  Once I’m finished with the shower I need to scrub the toilets and mop all of the floors.  Dusting is another thing that really needs to be done but doesn’t get done often enough.

There is nothing like a host guest coming to get you to clean your house.  My house isn’t dirty I just like it to sparkle when we have company.