Quick and Easy Halloween Wreath

Have seen a bunch of cute halloween wreaths in the blogosphere and decided to try a quick one myself. Picked this up for about $6. I had the wreath form. Bought the ribbon, skulls, orange stuff (bath scrubbers) and used the netting from the bag of small skulls. Took about 10 minutes.

Lots more halloween coming up!

Its a Pirate Party

Big Man decided he wanted to wait a few weeks and have his 4th bday party when we were at the beach with our friends. This was fantastic news to me, as it would be so much easier to plan. And, even better - there were exactly 12 children. Can you say Oriental Trading?

The kids each got an eye patch, a sword, and a telescope. Then we sent them on a scavenger hunt (in 3 teams) around the house. There were 5 clues in all. The first had them jumping to the bottom of the pool (cannonballs are a favorite of pirates) to retrieve pieces of eight; then spying a jolly roger hidden across the street on a neighboring property; eating pirate booty (popcorn) to find a clue; searching the galley for treasure (under a dining chair); and lastly reporting to Pirate Bluebeard (daddy) to collect 15 doubloons (Big Man still says "balloons) to receive the treasure (pinata). The clues were all written in pirate speak and they had fun tracking down everything.

Then we did the pinata, which was a big hit, and filled with nearly everything pirate Oriental Trading sells. The cake (which mom tried to make from scratch, but ended up crafting from store-bought pound cake) was a big hit! Lastly, they made their own oceans-in-a-bottle.

All in all a very fun party, and pretty easy to do!

BANANGRAMS

If you like word games (think Scrabble or Boggle) you will LOVE this game. It is easy to play (even the kids played it at the beach) and VERY ADDICTIVE. I even have the App for my ITouch now. It is called Bananagrams, and it is soo much fun!

I think it is better than Scrabble, because I am easily intimidated by Scrabble. With Bananagrams - you can make all 3-letter words with no penalty. Basically you get a bunch of tiles and create your own scrabble-type board in front of you. When you use all your tiles you say "peel" and grab another tile. The other players must also take another tile. It continues until all the tiles are gone - the first to use theirs wins. Easy peasy. As I said, even the kids play it. I now own 2 sets - one for home and one for the RV. I highly recommend it for some simple fun!

I have not been compensated or in any way provided any benefit for this review, but if Bananagrams wants to contact me, I love their game!

So many vacations

We took several fantastic vacations this summer. I already blogged about our trial RV trip back in July. In August we did our annual beach trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We shared a fantastic house with our friends and their kids (23 in all!) and had a BLAST.The kids (ranging in age from 9-1, with most around 6) are getting to an age where they preferred playing with each other to playing with us - HURRAY!! We had lots of time for adult talk and play! Had great food (and drinks) and just had a wonderful, relaxing week.

Then we came home for 48 hours and headed out for the first vacation in our very own RV! We went to Dutch Wonderland (LOVE it!). Nana was the star - getting them to reopen the Slushy Shack so we could get our refills (that we were told would be open!). We all had so much fun on all the rides, and the campground was GORGEOUS. It backed up onto an Amish Farm - complete with cows and horses. So pretty.
Then, despite Hurricane Earl, we headed for Rehoboth Beach. Had a great few days frolicking in the sand, riding at Funland and playing in the pool with friends we joined there. The campground was a glorified parking lot, but in a good location and perfectly serviceable. WE had our first RV Party with our friends, as we made hamburgers and hotdogs - and of course, SMORES!

It was an amazing summer, and we are sorry to see it go. But we have another RV trip in the works for this fall, so hopefully our fun continues!

Overwhelmed??!!

I have been feeling very overwhelmed recently. And I can't quite figure it out because life is actually a little less crazy right now. The kids are back in school (cutting down on the crazy - which camp are they in this week of summer), they haven't started any extra-curriculars yet - although they do next week; so really - what is so overwhelming?

I think part of it is my to do list, which is always huge but is big enough to go into categories these days! Stuff with the house is crazy - get vents checked/redone; deal with lawn/jungle; declutter, declutter, declutter; organize closets; get cool weather clothes out; get porch painted; interior painted; etc. The list keeps growing. Then there is my constant fitness/weight loss battle. I was doing sooo well June and July then just fell apart in August/Sept. Trying desperately to get back on track. Thing I want to do - get piano lessons for the girls, possibly private swimming for Big Man. Work on reading with the girls (beyond nighttime reading), and letters/numbers with Big Man. And on top of it, I am tired. I went to bed last night at 9:30 and still struggled up at 6:30. Arghh.

I think I just haven't gotten into my fall groove yet. Kids have only been back at school 2 weeks. Hopefully I will get it back soon!

Oh Yeah, I have a Blog

I am sorry I haven't done a darn thing here on a regular basis in months...many many months.

Working on a bunch of posts now so that hopefully I will be regularly posting again - goal is 3x/week.

Thanks if you have hung in there. Will be back shortly.