My neighborhood has a block party every year. I've mentioned it in my sponge ball fight post and my giant slip and slide post. Every year after the party is over, we spend time cleaning up all the water bottles and plastic cups left sitting on the street and in people's yards. Last year we decided to try something that would help with our clean-up and lessen the amount of water bottles we use. One of my neighbor's had seen a large cup holder somewhere and asked my husband to build one for the block party. This is how she described what she had seen... She described something simple with two posts and twine in between. Well, hubby decided he would go all out and build something much better! It took him about 4 hours to do because he made it perfectly square, rounded all the edges, and sanded the whole thing to a smooth finish. We was going to stain it but didn't have time. I told him that was perfectly fine! While hubby was building the frame, he had the girls … [Read more...]
Summer Typing Skills
If you are like me you wonder how to develop your kids typing skills. I know, I'm weird but these are a list of amazing sites to help your school age kid (and even some for you) hone in on those skills and shock their teachers with their skills come September! http://typingadventure.com Here you will attempt to save your scuba diver from shark infested waters. Type the words that appear on the sharks bodies before they reach the diver and you will advance to the next round. You have four levels to choose from, this makes it fun even for adults. http://www.nitrotype.com This site is great because you can challenge your kid by creating competitions with people all over the world! You get to race other "drivers" to the finish line by typing a sentence. This is fun because it creates a little added pressure because you're watching your car race across the screen as others are doing the same thing. http://www.tvokids.com/games What is fantastic about this site is that it is geared … [Read more...]
What I DON’T Like About My GE® Dishwasher #spon
So far you've been hearing all the good things I like about my fabulous new GE® Hybrid Stainless Steel Dishwasher. You've heard how much better it is than my old dishwasher, how quiet it is, how well it cleans, and all about the ins and outs of it. Well, today I'm going to tell you what I DON'T like about it. After all, what's a fair review if you don't point out some negatives? #1--My biggest compliant--it's large. Not large as in actual size, but large in the fact that it holds a lot of dishes, 12 full place settings to be exact. Why am I complaining about that? Because now I actually have to sit and listen to military/war stories instead of washing dishes during family gatherings. #2--It's got the "clean" light indicator. Now I can't play dumb and say to hubby that I thought the dishes were still dirty and that's why I didn't put them away. #3--It's quite. I know I said in a previous post that I liked how quiet it is. That was before I got stuck actually … [Read more...]
Easy DIY Giant Slip and Slide
My neighborhood has a block party every summer (more to come on that later). Last summer we decided to save a little money and do something other than a dunk tank for water fun. My neighbor has a nice sized hill in their back yard so we decided to do a giant slip and slide! Let me tell you, the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids did!! To make your own giant slip and slide you'll need: A roll of heavy duty plastic such as plastic sheeting Some type of steaks such as tent stakes or garden steaks A sprinkler A decent sized hill Simply steak down the plastic, set up the sprinkler so that the water lands on the plastic, wait for it to get wet, then slide down! If you want it to be slightly more slippery, you can add some Dawn dish soap along the plastic. In all fairness, I do have to give some warnings about this giant slip and slide... Once the slip and slide has been used a couple of hundred of times and the ground is patted down, it gets SUPER slippery! … [Read more...]
We KNOW you’ll love Despicable Me 2!
We interrupt our normal posting schedule to bring you news about Despicable Me 2! Did your family love the original Despicable Me? Then we guarantee you'll love the second as well! More Minions and just as much humor as the first is less than 48 hours from hitting theaters! A few days ago my family was given the chance to see an advanced screening of Despicable Me 2. I'm not sure who was more thrilled, Hubby, the kids, or me. We all loved Despicable Me (the first one) because the minions were cute and the humor was great, but not crass or overly adult-ish. We had high hopes for Despicable Me 2 and we were not disappointed! Minions, definitely more Minions! And, let me tell you, yellow is not the only color they are in this movie! That's all I'm going to say about that. The plot? Predictable, but who cares? We didn't want to see it for the mystery. We wanted the humor and cuteness. Be prepared to bust a gut at the beginning and the end of the movie. It's going to … [Read more...]
Knits for Dolls book review #spon
Do you like to knit? Does your daughter have dolls? Both of these questions can be answered with a big fat YES for me! We were contacted by the publicist for the author of a fantastic new book for knitting. The book Knits for Dolls- 25 Fun, Fabulous Outfits for 18-Inch Dolls by Nicky Epstein is a colorful and adorable book filled with some of the best knitting projects I have personally seen. The photos in the book are bright, cheery, and colorful. The directions for the projects are easy to follow, easy to complete, and provide you with a great deal of information. As soon as I received this book in the mail I ran off to the local craft supply store and purchased some yarn to get going. I honestly, couldn't wait to fire up the ol' knitting needles! One thing I adored about this book was that they shared the exact brand and color of each yarn that they used to complete the project. So many times I adore the color of a project I find in a book and don't know exactly what they used. … [Read more...]
