Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: holiday fun (Page 2 of 4)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2012 / / 2 Comments

It’s the day of pink hearts and frosted cookies!

To get ready for valentine’s day, we made some boxes, we decorated, we made cookies!

(This is Jenna’s owl box. I didn’t get a picture of it all finished, but it has cute wings now.)

(This is John’s cow that he painted, but then was sad when his teacher said they didn’t have to make valentine boxes, so he didn’t even get to take it to school.)

(This is how my kitchen table looks when the kids work on projects like this.)


For some of the teachers and friends, we made these love potions. Can you tell what the drink is?

I then made some that were caffeine free.

I even decided to decorate a little bit for the day of hearts.

I loved when I saw ornaments hanging from a chandelier for Christmas, so I thought, why not do that for another holiday? It looks better then it shows in the picture.

I put a little heart garland on the banister.
And put a few heart and love things on the table in the hall.

That is also where I decided to hang the painting that my sister did for me. I don’t love the framing job (since I kind of did it with stuff that was around the house), but I hope I can do a better job with it soon. I still love the painting, though, even if I’m not thrilled with how I framed it.

For the school party, I plan on playing Valentine Bingo, and Heart Lava. I’ll have to post pictures later.


Oh, and how about this sweet valentine card for my honey?

And tonight–Lady Antebellum Concert! Oh, yeah!

I hope you have a fun holiday with YOUR loved ones!

Happy Birthday, Jenna!

January 30, 2012 / / 4 Comments

Big party here over the weekend. It’s not every day your little girl turns 11, after all. She wanted a “late night” movie party, so we decided to go with a pajamas and popcorn themed party.

Aren’t those cupcakes SO cute? Love them.

All of her friends came in their pajamas (well, I guess only 10 of them came), and they played a game while I got dinner ready. I had suggested that we have pancakes instead of the traditional pizza, and I think it was a big hit (and cheap, by the way).

I just put out a bunch of toppings, syrups, whipped cream, and fruit, and then kept the pancakes coming. Man, can those girls eat. I couldn’t believe how many pancakes they were putting down. And loud! You get a bunch of normally mild mannered, sweet girls together in a room, and they are transformed into a gaggle of giggling girls.

When they were sufficiently stuffed and the table was similarly syrupy, they adjourned to the family room to pick a movie while Megan and I cleaned up.

We had to pop the popcorn, but didn’t want to be all loud with the air popper, so I just brought out a few microwave popcorn bags.

I kid you not, as soon as those girls smelled popcorn, they wanted some. Seriously? How can you even think about eating another morsel? Oh well, there’s always room for popcorn. They were eating it as fast as we got it popped, and we went through quite a bit of popcorn. Of course, a lot of it ended up on the floor, I’m sure.

They had decided to watch Soul Surfer, and after the girl lost her arm to the shark, all of the girls were going around with only one arm. I looked at them and thought, now that’s weird, why would she have her arm in her sleeve? And she’s doing it too.
Even John was one armed!

Jenna even opened her presents with one arm! They were taking this one armed thing pretty far!

What a hoot!

Thankfully, their arms did grow back for the eating of the cupcakes.

I had actually planned on ice cream with the cupcakes, but by then I couldn’t believe they were still eating anything at all, and the dishwasher was already full and I didn’t want to dirty more dishes (lame Mom excuse, I know, but it’s the truth). I don’t think anyone noticed the lack of ice cream.

Then they went back to watching their movie, and then playing with the new presents and anything else that looked like fun.

At about 9:30, I thought, Why, oh WHY did I let her put 6:00-10:00 on the invitations? But the time passed pretty quickly, and soon I was saying goodbye to girls and sweeping up popcorn and marshmallows and telling my kids to go to bed.

Not the most elaborate or fancy party, but quite a FUN party for one sweet little girl.
Happy Birthday, Jenna! I hope every birthday is as much fun as this one was, and I hope you always have this many fun friends.

New Year’s Eve

January 1, 2012 / / 6 Comments

I’m sitting here waiting for midnight so all the people that are here for our New Year’s Eve party will go home.
Aren’t I a great hostess?

At the last minute I told the kids they could invite some friends over, and I invited a couple of families that I thought would be fun. We cleaned up the basement and cleaned and vacuumed and brought out some food. Although I just realized that the veggie tray and the hummus I bought from Costco today are STILL in the fridge. Oh, well.
John’s small fry friends came at 8:00. Just two of them. They left at 10, since they are only 8 and not up to staying up all that late.

Jenna’s two besties also came.
Natalie had one friend come.
Megan has two friends over.
When the parents dropped kids off, they asked how late they could stay. We told them we’d kick everyone out at exactly 12:01, and not a minute later.

Cole had two friends come, and it looks like one of them just left to go home.
And two of my friends came over, too.
Ryan, my friend Lisa, and Natalie and I played Settlers of Catan.
The kids played Curses, Jump and Bump, Rock Band, Kinnect, and some other games, I’m sure.
They ate pizza, donuts, chips and dips, chocolate, M&M’s, soda, and whatever else we put out.

It’s 11:30.

Currently four of the girls are watching Psych.
Jenna and her two friends were telling scary stories. Now they are playing Curses.

I suggested to John that he get into his pajamas, but he didn’t like that suggestion.

At about 10:30 I slunk upstairs and watched some Saturday Night Live. But then I came back downstairs at 11:00 when Ryan came upstairs so that there was an adult presence among the partiers.

I’m too old for staying up till midnight just because it’s New Year’s Eve.

Ryan’s sister Julene invited us to the Chilean association party, where the dinner starts about ten, and the dancing goes from 10-2. I don’t think I’m up to that kind of partying. Especially not when we have 9 am church.

I hope that you all had a fun New Year’s Eve.
I hope that you’ve had a nice day surrounded by your family and friends.
I hope you were safe as you drove home.
I hope that you have a wonderful start to your New Year, and that 2012 will be a happy and prosperous year for you.

The spirit of giving

December 21, 2011 / / 4 Comments

At this wonderful Christmas season, a lot of people are looking for ways to help others. Have you heard about the new “lay-away” pay it forward wonderful people who are going into stores like K-Mart and paying for random people’s lay-away purchases? That is SO wonderful and selfless! I wish I had thought of doing that!

We usually try to do some anonymous giving and help as many people as we can. We had a great experience with our sub-for-Santa families last year , but weren’t doing that as an extended family this year. Instead we took a name off of an ‘angel tree’ that Ryan’s company was sponsoring at work and bought fun presents for a little girl. But I still wished I could do more.

I decided to nominate a couple of families for the B-98.7 Christmas wish

To tell you the truth, I have written to them for about the past three years hoping to get some help for certain families I know, but nothing has come of it. I don’t know if my letters weren’t compelling enough, if the stories weren’t sad enough, or if there were just SO many people submitting stories that there was no way they could help all of them.

So mid week last week, amid all the chaos of concert week, I got a phone call from someone from Toyota Bountiful telling me that they would like to answer not one, but TWO of my letters. But they would like some information. Hmm, I had about an hour before I had to leave for the conference center, but I would do my darndest to find out the kids’ names, ages and sizes, and if they needed coats and/or shoes.

One family has so many ongoing medical bills, there just doesn’t seem to be any left over for fun things like Christmas presents or special Christmas meals. I knew that they wouldn’t be able to help with the real problem–the medical bills–but if they could help with things like groceries and a few gifts for the kids, that would go a long way to saving Christmas for this family.

The other family hasn’t had any huge medical tragedy or horrible event, they just haven’t had enough work to keep up with the bills and they were going through their savings trying to pay for regular things.

My hope was that both families (as well as so many other families I could think of. I could probably write 10 such letters and nominate equally deserving families) would appreciate the surprise and not be embarrassed or ashamed to have some help. So, I set about finding out shoe sizes, clothing sizes, if their kids needed coats or not, and what the kids might be interested in for presents. I enlisted a couple of people to help me without giving anything away.

I got another call the next day from one of the ladies in charge and she said they were going to deliver to family A on Friday, and that Of course she wanted me to be there when they delivered the goodies. I was a little bit worried about this because I seriously don’t know the family very well. I know the dad, but I’ve only met Mom maybe once in person. I called another friend who knew of their situation and who knew them about as well as I do, and asked if she would be willing to get up early on Friday morning and go with me. Bless her heart, she worked it out so she could go.

So Friday morning at 6:20-ish, after quite a late night on Thursday night (both of us were at the conference center for the Tab Choir concert that night, by the way), the two of us met with Shawn Stevens from B98.7, Santa, Mrs. Clause, and a bunch of elves from Toyota Bountiful in the parking lot of the grocery store to pow wow. Then we all drove over to the house. We parked a few houses away, and waited while Erin called the house. We hit a slight snafu when they didn’t answer the phone. I know that not everyone answers their phone before 7 am, so we had to do what we could do make sure they answered. I had my friend Brittany call from her phone. It went straight to voice mail. Darn. She called right back and Mom did answer. “Someone is trying to get a hold of you. We need you to answer your phone.” Not terribly subtle, I know, but you do what you have to do. So, Erin called back and talked to Mom on air about the difficulties of having so many medical bills. You can actually listen to that conversation here, if you want.

As they were talking, Dad walked out the front door to start up his car, and the whole bunch of us were gathered outside the door.
“Whoa!” he said in surprise, “I was just going to go start my car.
Shawn was cool as a cucumber and said, “You’re going to want to go back inside for a few minutes.” And he did.
Soon they got to the part where Erin says, “I think there’s someone at the door,” and there we were at the door, knocking. Teen daughter let us in, and Mom was reluctant to come out of her bedroom because she was in her pajamas (as MOST of us are at this time of morning). But she was assured that this was radio, and no one would see her. It was touching to see Santa and Mrs. Clause give them the presents. I don’t know what was in the bags, but they brought three bags full of groceries and a gift certificate for a free turkey, as well as three large garbage bags full of presents for the kids. They were very surprised and appreciative.

I didn’t take any pictures, but I REALLY wish I had gotten at least a picture of me with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

I got a message from Mom later that day telling me how appreciate she was and how excited her kids were (and how even the teens were kind of mad at her that she didn’t wake them all up to see the guests).

Family B didn’t receive their gifts on the air, but someone came by and delivered groceries, gift cards and presents for the kids and even cozy blankets for Mom and Dad. Mom was SO thrilled. She somehow knew it was me that nominated them, and called me later to thank me for helping them. I told her that honestly, I hadn’t done anything but write a letter,and I am so thankful and thrilled that there were wonderful and generous people who would help them.

I honestly feel so privileged and grateful to have been a part of bringing Christmas to these two families. I wish I could have done more. So much more. But I am thankful and honored that these two families were chosen and that generosity abounds at this Christmas season.

Fabulous Friday Frivolities

October 28, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I have a few random thoughts to share with you today. Not enough for their own posts, so I’ll just combine them in a random fashion.

—We’ll start with the chickens. The new chickens seem fine in our backyard. I can’t really tell if they are happy with their new arrangement or not, but I’ll assume they are. But they are so much LOUDER than our last group. The first day we got them, I kept thinking something was wrong or that the nasty dogs had wandered in and were terrorizing them. I would run to the back door to check on them, or go out and see. Their previous owner had said that they were very proud when they laid an egg and that they got pretty loud in sharing with the world about their accomplishments. So, I would hear them cackling and think there must be an egg waiting. Nope. They are just loud. I looked them up online and think that they are New Hamshire Reds

In the description it says they are “Friendly,Easily handled,Bears confinement well, Noisy, Docile” Loud. Great. Thankfully our neighbor’s houses aren’t right next to ours, and there’s only one neighbor that I’m worried about hearing them, but now it’s getting cold so our windows will be closed. Won’t have to deal with the loudness till spring. Hopefully. And hopefully I won’t worry about them constantly. And about dogs.

I am a little concerned about keeping them warm enough. We’ve got to get their windows covered with plexiglass or plastic (or make them some cute shutters or curtains…wouldn’t that be cute?) and I’m going to look for a heated water dish and maybe hook up a light in there to keep them a little warmer. The forums are split on heating their coops, though. Some say they need to get used to the cold, others mention that they can get frostbite, so… But we definitely can’t have them out there with open windows.

—Our Japanese exchange student experience is going well. Except that all the fun things I have planned have not worked out. Thanks, FAMILY. “I have volleyball”, “Basketball starts tonight”, “Don’t forget about pack meeting,” “I have to work late to take a conference call”, “My friend is having a party, can I go?” Even my plan for Saturday’s outing isn’t going to work unless we flake on two volleyball games and a basketball game. Ugh. But we have managed to take him to the Dinosaur museum, to OraNGE lEaf for some yummy frozen yogurt, and to Wendy’s for fast food.
We’ve taken him to basketball and played Wii. Tonight is our ward party, and we’ve told him we are all dressing up in Halloween costumes. I think he’s excited about it (or maybe nervous, now that I think about it) because this morning he asked, “Is today Halloween?” and I told him that yes, it was the Halloween party. Let’s hope we don’t scar him too badly.

–I’ve entered a contest (of course I have) and would appreciate your votes. I could possibly win an I-pad. Wouldn’t THAT be cool?! You don’t have to register or anything, just go to this website HERE and vote for my picture

There’s only 15 pictures entered, but I think you can only vote once per computer, because I keep voting, and my status isn’t changing. Maybe I need to go to the Library and vote from there. Or YOU could vote, right? Thanks!

–Halloween decor. Megan and Ryan (mostly Megan) made these cool window monsters that look really cool at night.

If you were to come trick-or-treating at our house, you would see them in their full glory. Fun! And free!

I’m trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween. My parents came over and took some costumes for their party. I was surprised that they chose a devil and Nemo costumes. Don’t I have fun parents?

What are YOU going to be for Halloween?

4th of July Weekend

July 8, 2011 / / 1 Comment

It’s really summer here! With rehearsals in full swing for Cinderella (opening night is TOMORROW!), the holiday kind of snuck up on us. A few days before, I realized we didn’t have any plans. NO plans for the holiday weekend. So, I started looking around at what was going on and made some plans. On Saturday, we took the family to Provo for the Colonial Days going on at the Crandall Printing Museum.

We love this event and try to go every year.

Here we are with Ben Franklin after seeing an actual copy of the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a fun event where we actually learn something about those early American colonists and what life was like for them.

And of course we are big fans of the whole printing press, and never tire of learning about it.

Our favorite is obviously the Linotype.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Los Hermanos. Yeah, we’re chips and salsa junkies for sure.
Then we went to Spanish Fork and picked up a car. Yes, a car. Ryan’s parents have decided they don’t need two Camrys anymore, and have given us the 1989 version. We brought it home and let the kids commence cleaning it out.

Ryan and I escaped that night for a little “date”. Ha! Not really a date, as we had to shop. Shop for a new mattress. Our 10 year old mattress had gotten saggy and I was waking up with an aching back every day. I’m WAY to young to be waking up with an aching back, so we’ll try a firmer mattress. We picked out an average mattress–nothing fancy or too expensive in California King. When it was delivered on Wednesday, however, it didn’t fit the frame like the last one had. Why would this mattress be narrower? After looking up sizes on Kings vs California Kings, we learned that we had bought a California King, but we had been sleeping on a King all these years. We were both SURE we had bought a CALIFORNIA KING way back when. Doh. Mattress experts we are NOT.

On the 4th, we went to a breakfast and flag raising at Julene and Italo’s.

It was a great way to start the day, and we had some citizenship questions along with our breakfast.

That night we went over to my friend Michelle’s house for a fireworks party/barbecue. It was great to be able to join in on their party! We ate, then made our way over to Sugarhouse park to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. And the fireworks! Oh, there were fireworks.

It was a fun holiday weekend!

Mother’s day

May 9, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Let’s face it, some Mother’s Days just aren’t that great. It’s not always the Hallmark picture of flowers and puppies.

Well, maybe not ALL Hallmark ads are great.

And husbands, as much as we love them, have to be trained. Once, when I commented about the lovely flowers my dad had given my mom, she said, “Do you think he ever gave me flowers when you kids were younger? It’s taken YEARS to train him.” And I understand. I’ve been married now for almost 19 years, and we’ve had some less than stellar mother’s days (sorry, honey. You may want to stop reading now). I remember when my first child was little and it was one of my first mother’s days as a mother. And I kept waiting for my husband to do something GREAT for me. I had bought presents for my mother AND for his mother, but hadn’t bought anything for myself, not had I really hinted about anything I would have liked as a mother’s day gift. I went to church and there were the customary sappy talks designed to make moms cry or feel guilty for yelling at their kids, and flowers for the moms. I remember looking out the window at the cemetary and seeing people decorating a grave, and I started to cry. My sweet husband asked me what was wrong. I broke down and blubbered about how he hadn’t done one thing for me for mother’s day. I tried to be nice and say that it’s ok, I didn’t really need a mother’s day present, but I couldn’t. Mother’s day was supposed to be special, wasn’t it. I’ll never forget what he said (and I’ll never let HIM forget it, either), and I’m sure a lot of new husbands have said the same thing. “You’re not my mother.” Oh, the stab.

Husbands–No, your wife is not your mother, but she is your WIFE and the Mother of your children, and as such, should be treated special on Mother’s day. She gets you a gift for Father’s Day, doesn’t she?

Thankfully we have progressed from that stage, and hubby usually remembers that it is Mother’s day. Usually. There have been a couple Mother’s days when he was out of town, and that was pretty much miserable.

But this year, I put in a big time hint. As in, I took him the ad, and said, “This is what I want for Mother’s Day.” Simple, right? Necessary.

In the morning, he and the kids made a lovely brunch. It’s better than breakfast in bed because then we all get to eat together. He even took John outside and they cut some tulips for the table. It was nice.
And the best part? There was a PRESENT. A WRAPPED present. On the table. Hooray! They didn’t all forget! Someone actually shopped! And it was the present I had asked for! Even better!

And let me tell you, I’m excited to read some books on it! So are the kids, and we later had some arguing in the car over who was going to use it, but it’s all good.

As I was helping the girls bake a cake for later, Ryan helped John write a talk for primary. A mother’s day talk. I have heretofore been the designated talk writer, so I was HAPPY to turn this one over. Both Ryan and John did a very nice on the talk, by the way.

At church, there were the customary talks on Mother’s, but none brought on the guilt. Our ward has the graduating seniors all talk on Mother’s day, and I think it’s a grand idea. Well, I do until next year, when I’ll have a senior, who will be forced to talk about Mothers. Then I don’t think I’ll like it. And fudge. Our ward gives out fudge. Yum.

Primary was the usual hectic mess, but once that was done, we had time to frost a cake and jump in the car to go to my parents’ house for dinner. Chicken enchiladas! We all ate WAY too much, and enjoyed our visit.

We hurried home to the see the finale of the Amazing Race (yes, we have priorities, people). I am Surprised by how it ended, but not disappointed.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. My hubby, in fact, summed it up nicely when he said, “Mother’s day is like opposite day. Everything we would normally do, just do the opposite, and that should cover it.”

Thanks, sweetie, for the fabulous mother’s day. Hopefully we can make your Father’s Day just as nice.

Happy Birthdays

April 7, 2011 / / 1 Comment

It’s spring birthday time around here. Cole and Megan have birthdays 9 days apart.

When they were little we used to sometimes combine the celebration, but now they don’t want anything like that.

Cole
Cole is now 17. SEVENTEEN! How can he possibly be that old? Or more importantly how can I be that old? Ahem. Moving on.

Cole had the misfortune of having his birthday the day after Ryan and I got home from our New York Trip. Or, if you want to get technical about it, it was the day we got home, since we came home VERY late the night before. He also decided to go and take a practice AP test in the morning. So, by the time he was done with that, we were all up and functioning, but we had no big party plans. Natalie volunteered to make a cake, but sadly, that cake wouldn’t come out of the pans, so it became a trifle. And not a very pretty one at that. He called from the test and asked if he could invite a few friends over and have a movie and game day party. Fine. So, that was his party. He and five or so friends watched Lord of the Rings 2 and 3, then played some games. I did my hostess duties and served food and stayed out of their way.

Megan

Megan turned 15 on Monday. FIFTEEN! Now we’re going to have to go through the whole learning to drive thing AGAIN, and I can’t believe my baby girl is that old! Ack! Where has the time gone? For her birthday, I wanted to try to make it a special day, even though we weren’t having a big party, and it was a Monday. So I sent out a plea to my friends to all send her birthday texts throughout the day. Because she HATES to draw attention to herself or even let people know that it’s her birthday. Whose child is she, anyway? Well, I can’t let her birthday just pass without her friends knowing about it, so I thought the text thing was fun. I also made little muffins and took them to my neighbor who was driving morning carpool and asked her to give them to the kids and tell them it was Megan’s birthday. Needless to say, she thought that was totally dumb. And I got a text from her specifying the fact that she didn’t need or want special treatment on her birthday. Ha! And then she got TONS of text messages from people she knew and didn’t know, wishing her a happy birthday. My old friend Ken Clayton, who now lives in Singapore, sent her a text wishing her a happy Birthday all the way from Singapore. Even though at first she told me she thought that was weird, hopefully she secretly thought it was cool, and it will make for a memorable birthday.

Then we all went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. She’s also having a little informal friend party on Friday, where her pals come over and watch movies and play games. I’m not planning anything, and I’ll just break out some snacks and maybe a pizza. Easy birthdays!

I hope they enjoyed their birthdays! These kids are really the greatest, and I love them both, even though they insist on growing older.

Now I have to wait 364 days until my birthday

December 30, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Birthdays are Great. Really! Even if you have a often forgotten right after Christmas birthday, it’s still a wonderful “make you feel special” day.

Ryan showed me this comic a few days before my birthday, and I had to laugh because it’s so true.

So often the birthday just gets forgotten in the Christmas hype, or people give one present that is for both Christmas and Birthday.

So I’ve learned to lower my expectations. I threw myself a big bash for my 40th birthday, and now that we’ve done that, I’m ok if I don’t have parties. But I woke to breakfast made by the family! Even Ryan, who hates waking up early, set an alarm and got up at the crack of 7:30 to make me breakfast. He even bought bacon and pancake mix the night before, so that we would have some! That’s going above and beyond the call of duty, if you ask me. Megan made me an omelet, and it was a beautiful breakfast!

The kids painted or made presents or coupons for me, which is cute. I love coupons, really. Megan brought me a handful of candy and a coupon for a free smoothie that her friend had given her for Christmas. Blatant regifting? Really? Fine. At least she thought enough to share stuff that she knew she was probably not going to use.

Then I got on the computer to find over 40 emails of birthday greetings! Say what you want about the evils of Facebook, but there’s nothing better for birthday reminders! It meant so much that so many people would take even a small minute to write a birthday greeting on my wall. And it really isn’t hard or doesn’t take much time at all, but it was wonderful. All throughout the day, there were more and more greetings. I felt VERY much loved!

Even though it was snowy and yucky weather, I took the kids out to lunch at Iceberg. We used gift cards they had gotten for Christmas and I got a free shake for my birthday! Woot! We also stopped and picked up two movies from Redbox using my codes I got when Groupon was doing a three movies for $1 deal. Score! So, after our lunch, we came home and watched the Sorcerers Apprentice. The kids were a little ticked that we had to keep stopping it so mom could answer the phone for her birthday greetings, but since it was my birthday, they couldn’t complain.

The best surprise was the package that came to the door. The box was from Hollywood Mega Store, addressed to me. Inside was a note that said “Happy Birthday Paige”, and there was sucha fun surprise!

megaphone clapboard

My own “director” megaphone and clapboard! Such a great thing, since I’m now knee deep in Road Show preparations (I’ll tell you all about that in a future post). Who could have sent this, I wondered? I called Ryan, but he claimed to know nothing about it. Who else would be so thoughtful and cute? There on the box, it was addressed to Paige Erickson and Scott Coleman right under it. My brother? My brother isn’t cute and original like that (no offense, Scott), is he? When I emailed to ask him if that was really from him, he said, “Yep that was from us. I had a flash of creativity.” Well, I’m impressed!

And I LOVE it!! I’m going to take that to rehearsals and yell at the kids! So Excited!

When Ryan came home from work, he was bearing gifts. An Ice Cream cake from ColdStone Creamery, for one. Yummers! He was also a little put out because he went all the way to a certain store only to find out they were closed until Jan 3. Sorry about that, dear. But there were presents, and not just the ladle I bought for myself the day before from Ikea. New breadpans, a cooking thermometer even (I have been wanting one of those!) And he planned to take me out to dinner, since it was my birthday. I made Ramen noodles for the kids, and even though I said I was fine to stay home (HUGE BLIZZARD going on!), he insisted, so we drove the one mile to Blue Lemon for dinner. I had a coupon, too, so that was even better. And Hooray for Blue Lemon. They took my buy one get one free coupon, so my dinner was free, AND, when I asked what they would do for birthdays, he said I could pick any treat from the counter. I chose the carrot cake! Most places would let you chose to use either the coupon or get the free birthday dessert, but they let me do both!! Hooray! Because even if it’s my birthday, I’m still cheap, you know.

When we came home, we were too full to even eat the special cake he brought home, so we’ll save it for later. The kids were all watching Lord of the Rings, but I slipped upstairs with my other free redbox movie and watched Eat, Pray Love in my room, in my bed.

So, it was a great birthday! People remembered me, I got cards from a friend and my mom (thanks, Mom! Mom always remembers, even before there was facebook to remind her), and I got many, many birthday greetings. I felt loved and special on my special day! And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Today I ordered a couple cute things from Coldwater Creek. Right now everything on their entire site is 50% off, even clearance. So, I picked out some things from the clearance, then it’s half off of that, and I used my groupon deal from a few weeks back where I paid $25 for a $50 gift certificate, and, since I have a Coldwater creek Visa, they always send me a $15 gift card for my birthday. So, after using all those, I ended up paying $14 (plus the $25 for the groupon deal) for a skirt, a jacket, a dress and a scarf. Not bad for $39 out of pocket, I would say. So that will just extend the presents into the dreary January!

Yes, there was too much snow, and there’s STILL too much snow, but we’ll try to make the best of it. And bundle up ’cause it’s COLD out there.

Now, if we could just get out of our neighborhood, one of our children REALLY wants to go ice skating.

Grateful

November 25, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and those who you love! I can’t even list all that I am grateful for, but I’d like to start with my wonderful husband, my fabulous and talented children, my awesome parents and my brother and sisters, as well as the incredible family that I married into. I love them like my own family. I’ve been blessed way more than I deserve, and I am so thankful for all those who have sacrificed so that I can have the life I do. I have a warm place to live, food enough to feed my family and share with others, and the freedom to practice the religion I believe in. Truly blessed and truly grateful.

I’d like to share one of my favorite songs on gratitude.

I have a wonderful family, and I loved spending time with them today. Thanksgiving was truly a party, with volleyball and basketball before and after the big meal. The food was plentiful and delicious, and we all had a fabulous time.

We even made these turkeys yesterday.

They took forever, and I should have used my own frosting instead of frosting from a can. Now I know! But it was a fun project to do with my kids.

I also made mountains of mashed potatoes, a huge jello salad, and this easy pumpkin crumble. I didn’t cook a turkey, but I do have one in the freezer that I’ll have to cook up in the next month or so, just so we can have leftovers.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday!

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