Mother's Day Giveaway! Personalized Platter!

In honor of Mother's Day I am going to do the giveaway this week. I have been painting personalized ceramic platters and plates for many years now. I started because I saw one in a store that I couldn't afford! I thought to myself "I can do that", and thats how it started! 

So for a Mother's Day gift for you, I will paint a completely personalized platter or plate of your family to display where ever you want it! Check out my very small blog for ceramics here  or go to my jewelry blog and check that out. Pick your favorite thing and let me know what it is! For a second entry follow my blog and i'll throw you in twice!

I am going to do this giveaway for 2 weeks this time. You won't get the item by Mother's Day but you will know if you have won!

An Astrolicious birthday surprise!

We go to a number of Astro's games during the season, but this one was particularly fun. It was Emma's and Owen DuBois' birthday. So Suzanne set up a fun night for the kids.

We got there early for batting practice, and the kids took their places along the foul line in hopes of catching some foul balls. Owen caught a beautiful one right smack in his glove, later that night one of the ushers recognized him as the kid that caught the ball, it was that good of a catch!

Paul played baseball and football in high school with one of the Brewers players, so we said "hi"  to him and he threw us some more balls. No one left empty handed!

But the big surprise was after the 6th inning when they displayed this message across the jumbo screen!
This was Emma and Owen's reaction!! They thought it was pretty cool!
Have you ever wondered what pure JOY and HAPPINESS looks like?

This is a picture of it.
Early Saturday morning we ran by a garage sale where they had a Astro's foam finger for $1. I said "No way" and walked on. Storie talked about it all day. When we got to the game that night and Storie saw all the "finger foams" she completely lost it. Storie cried through 7 innings about how she needed a "finger foam". She gave us many convincing arguments in between bursts of crying why her very happiness hinged on having a "finger foam". Finally, Paul couldn't take it anymore and went to find out how much they were.... $9!!! Are you kidding me, and I could have had one for $1 earlier in the day! I said "no way" again. 

By this time the people around us were taking up a collection themselves to buy her one so they could enjoy the last few minutes of the game without her crying.

Paul finally caved into her cuteness and bought the darn "finger foam". I have to tell you, the pure happiness and joy that child felt almost made it worth it, but now I have visions of a little red sports car in our driveway for her 16th birthday...
She did sleep with it that night and still hasn't put it down.

All in all a really fun night! Thanks to the DuBois' for a fun birthday and great night!

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Name Bubbles

Apparently I did not get the memo that I needed to build an ARK this weekend, it has not stopped raining for days... and heavy at that. Check the news, Houston is under water! 

Soooo, due to the weather and the annoying TAKs tests this week for the kids, I did not have a chance to film them drawing a name as they ran for cover to the car this morning. But soaking wet and almost unreadable they drew:

Becky and Joe! 

(I will email you and let you know you have won, congats!! If I can't in touch with Becky and Joe we will draw another name in a few days.)

Stay tuned! I have a really cool giveaway for Mother's Day week!

~Everyone is south Texas, be careful and stay dry!

How to make an Ice Cream Cake, kinda...

My Children love ice cream cakes. I do to because they are very convenient at birthday parties, no scooping the ice cream and using two different utensils. They are also soooo dang expensive! So I thought I would share with you my award winning directions on how to make a fabulous ice cream cake.

First, bake two cakes. I use only Hershey's chocolate cake, you can find the recipe on the back of the baking chocolate box. 

Second, frost the top of the bottom half of the cake. Again, using Hershey's Chocolate frosting (the best) again, recipe on the box of powdered chocolate. 

 Opps, actually I do this the night before. Line your cake pan with saran wrap. Take your ice cream, we use only Blue Bell, we are snobs I know! Thaw it a little and press it into the same cake pans that you will be baking the cake rounds in. Freeze overnight.

Un-mold ice cream and place on top of cake. Top with last cake round. 

Next, quickly ice the sides of the cake as best you can. This will not be real easy but you just need to get it covered a bit. Put the cake back in the freezer for an hour or so, you will be taking it out to finish icing when it has had time to freeze again.

Now the most important part...

MAKE SURE WHEN YOU CLOSE THE FREEZER, 

~YOU KNOW THE ONE IN YOUR GARAGE WHERE IS IT 100 DEGREES, 

YOU DON'T SLAM THE DOOR SO HARD IT BOUNCES BACK OPEN. 

BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT YOUR CAKE WILL LOOK LIKE 1 HOUR BEFORE YOUR CHILDS BIRTHDAY PARTY...

Seriously? Am I the only one these kind of things happen to?? What would you do now?

My Children are Good Citizens.

Just a quick shout out about how fantastic my kids are...

Our elementrary school focuses on 6 pillars in a program called Character Counts. The teachers choose one child from each grade level that they feel exemplify one of these qualities. They have an award ceremony for each pillar every month or so. 

My three children at that school were all chosen at different times for one of the grade level awards! Aren't they awesome?!

Emma was chosen for Citizenship.

Paige was chosen for Respect.

Avery was chosen for Fairness.

They ROCK!

Emma also came in 8th place in the cross country 1 mile fun run for all the 3rd grade girls in a 4 school race! Way to go Emma! I think there were 60 girls competing. 

~ Shout out your kids achievements for this week!

~ Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway, it ends Sunday night.

I am easily amused.

Trying to come up with a quality about yourself that you like is very difficult. But I think I have found one about me that I might brag about... 

I am very easily amused. 

It doesn't take much to make my day. Case in point, I went to make something today and dumped out the butter to find that some fun person at Land O Lakes has shrunk my sticks of butter! Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen?? I couldn't stand to open them, I wanted to leave them on the counter and show the kids when they got home from school. Ignore the batman band aide, it was all we had and I about cut my finger off last night. Don't eat the salad, you might get more than you bargained for...

Now, two hours later, I am still smiling about my midget sticks of butter. But I am starting to wonder, are they really that cute or is my life really that boring?

Wednesday Giveaway!! Name Bubbles Camp Labels!!

Michelle at Name Bubbles has generously offered ANOTHER giveaway!! 

I think Name Bubbles are the coolest things since sliced bread! Read about my experiences "testing" their product HERE. 

Like I shared before,  Name Bubbles have rescued us from loosing a pair of Crocs which saved me $30! I am really excited about the new Camp Labels,  there are 124 labels in a pack and include all the cool ones, like the dishwasher safe and washing machine safe.

*Beats getting high off the smell of a sharpie!

So you know the drill! Visit Name Bubbles tell me which label pack you like and the colors, leave you email addy and name. For two shots at winning follow my blog!

Want to Start CVSing? Start with this.

Do you want to start to get good deals at CVS? Start with this easy one.

Buy 3 Tresemme Products (on sale 3 for $10), 
Use 3 of these coupons. $1 off 1 product  printable coupons.

If you do not have a CVS card. Get one NOW and use it when you make ANY purchase.

Your total will be $10.00 + tax - $3.00 in coupons so around $7.50. Now at the bottom of your receipt you will have a $5.00 ECB (Extra Care Buck) this is like cash, do not loose it! You can turn around now and purchase something else and pay for it with the ECB. Make sure you spend over $5.00 as you will not get any change back. 

If you do it this way it makes your Tresemme products about $0.67 each after coupons and ECBs.

Now this is where I can usually score some free things. I will take that $5.00 ECB and go back and buy the milk on sale this week for $2.79 and some of the toothpaste for $2.99. I will use a coupon on the toothpaste for .75 cents off. My total will be $5.04 I will use my $5.00 ECB and pay only tax for the milk and toothpaste. Now the best part, I am going to get 2 more ECB's at the bottom of my receipt for the milk ($2.00) and the toothpaste ($2.00) Now I have $4 in ECB's to but something else. Which since you can do the Tresemme deal twice I will probably do this again but instead of $7.50 out of my pocket to begin with I will hand them the $4 in ECB's I have and the rest in cash to pay for it along with my coupons, but then I get back another $5.00 in ECB's, which I will save for next week.

I hope this makes some sense. If not email me and I can help!

More Earth day FREE stuff!

If you haven't done so already, be sure to go here and print your rebate for Reynold's Wrap Foil made from 100% Recycled Aluminum. This rebate is only available today and only available while supplies last. Your purchase of this foil must be made by May 4, 2009 in order to receive the rebate.

::H-E-B stores are giving away 300,000 free reusable tote bags to anyone who brings in five plastic shopping bags from 3 P.M. until 7 P.M. today. More details here. 

Free tote bag at Walgreens

Tomorrow (April 22, 2009) you can get a free tote bag with any purchase at Walgreens. Print your coupon here. In addition, this coupon says it is good for 10-15% discount on select items--including Walgreens brand items. I'm not sure what all those included items will be, but it's worth checking into, especially if it's something already on a great sale. 

My Mom Logic

Mom Logic, What is that? It is no surprise that there is nothing logical about being a Mom. Everything related to motherhood is illogical. Logic means that there is some reason or sound judgement behind an action. Thus, telling me Motherhood is completely Illogical. 

I am actually thinking that motherhood might just be a disease, a highly contagious one at that. I’m going to call it illogical Mom Logic Syndrome or IMLS for short. It can affect any Women in love with a child, whether a biological or adoptive Mom, a favorite Aunt or even a new Grandmother. Symptoms usually include enlarged thighs and rear ends, drooping breasts, bags under the eyes. It has been known to cause completely irrational outbursts of emotion, such as crying during Kodak commercials. Or even forcing your children to watch Susan Boyle sing “I dreamed a dream” on youtube, bawling uncontrollably through each viewing.

Why do Mothers afflicted with IMLS cry? Because we have the ability to take a message out of the most illogical thing and apply it to us. This disease has taken over our ability to separate the non-Ivanovsky children things of this world, and the things that I can turn around and make be about the Ivanovsky children. For example, your little brother’s friends, uncle's neighbor, had a leopard gecko that had a red scab that turned out to be reptile fungal disease. The rolodex of stored child ailments my kids have had is spinning in my brain. In my head I am thinking, “My Emma had a scab like that three years ago, it is gone now but maybe it could have been....”

We can’t think about things normally anymore once afflicted with IMLS syndrome. We are worried about lice, ring worm, ticks and other appropriate dinner time topics. Did the children get enough to eat for breakfast and how many bowel movements have they had this week? 

Along with IMLS syndrome Mothers are usually afflicted with some type of delusional self - image hallucinations. No matter how “hot” our spouse declares us, we torture ourselves with tankini’s and ill fitting capris. We go to tanning salons to try and camouflage the cottage cheese on our thighs by melting it off or confusing being tan with being skinny. 

But the most crippling part of IMLS is the inability to accept and realize that the antidote for this disease is with us all the time, usually wiping their little noses on our shoulder. It is our children in everything wonderful that they do all day that rescues us from everything ill-logical in this world and saves us when we have no hope left. 

That is my Mom Logic.

NOTE: This is my post for the Mom Logic Mother of All Bloggers Contest. Thank you for the nominations! If I am chosen in the top ten I will be back asking for your votes to win.  There are some fabulous Mom bloggers out there and the competition is fierce, the winner receives a new lap top and a lead article on Mother's Day.

And the PB2 Winner is...

And the winner of the PB2 peanut butter is....

Hip 2 Homeschool otherwise known as Heather!

(I will email you can get your snail mail addy and get it in the mail tomorrow!)

Don't worry if you didn't win this time, in a few weeks I will do another PB2 giveaway! Check Back...

This weeks giveaway is a cool pack of Camp Labels from Name Bubbles! Come back and enter on Wednesday night. These are good for everything, not just for camp! 

The saga continues...

Now that the garden is in we turned our attention to the front yard. We lost two large trees during hurricane IKE and the remnants of the stump grinding has been littering the yard since October. So we decided to see if we could handle a smaller trailer job and pick up 1 yard of top soil to fill in where we were laying new sod.

Sounds like a no-brainer.

Umm, if your name is Paul this is a much harder job than it needs to be. 

The truck and trailer were ONLY stuck for 2 hours this time. The most embarrassing part? The guy who pulled us out the first time had to come back and pull us out a second time after Paul pulled back in the ditch to try and get the trailer out.
Lessons learned: 

SUV without 4X4 is useless.

Do not pull a heavy trailer into a wet ditch.

Paul may not operate heavy machinery under any circumstance...

My yard however, looks FANTASTIC! Yea for new sod!

CVS Trippin' It's been a while old friend!

Wow, I freaked a bit when I realized I was getting a little low on my stockpile of stuff! So I made sure I ran into CVS tonight to score a few deals before the new week started. I got...

3 Pantene Shampoos

3 Pantene Conditioners

3 Pantene styling products

4 Rimmel sexy curves mascara's

3 Colgate 360 toothbrushes

3 Venus spa breeze women's razors

3 Mens Quatro razors

3 Soft Soap body scrubs

All for $9.78 cash out of my pocket, which is basically the price of ONE of the razors. This is after coupons and extra bucks, but the best part is that I walked out of there with $36 in Extra Bucks (basically a gift card at CVS) for next time. So I MADE money on this trip! I love CVS, how they stay in business I will never know!

Don't worry if you missed last week's deals, this week looks a little promising. If you need Aveeno products this is your week. Also, the crest toothpaste and Bayer aspirin should be free with coupons.

The saga of the garden...

We have lived in our house for over 10 years and every year I announce that I want a garden. Then I don't do anything about it and no one does it for me, so I have never had one. This is year is different. I made the announcement and got a slight reaction from my husband, I took the little eye blink as a definite, "Honey, I would love to help you put in a garden!"

~This is a picture of my husband tilling the spot for my garden at 10:20pm.

~This is after I had already cut the buried cable line, about 15 min. earlier. Who knew it was there?

~This is only 6 hours before we have to be at the mushroom farm to pick up REALLY cheap compost. They open at 4am and you have to be there at 4:30am to get any, 95 miles from our house...

Now, the pictures that are missing are the ones you really want to see. But unlike me I DIDN"T BRING MY CAMERA, I am still kicking myself!

My sweet husband calls me at 7:30am on his way back from the mushroom farm. "Honey, I think the trailer is way to heavy, I told them only 2 yards and they dumped the entire bucket full (5yards) into the trailer. It's not my fault he didn't speak english." 

"OH, MY GOSH, I'll have to call you back I just blew a tire!"

The next 9 hours went something like this... call and borrow another trailer and industrial jack, drive up to find husband on the side of highway 70 miles north of here, spend 7 hours on a SUNDAY trying to find a new wheel for a 68 chevy, and laughing until our sides hurt at the stupidity of it all. 

Thankfully we were accompanied by our good friends the DuBois' who pawned their kids off and joined us on this adventure. 

We had to transfer half the compost, which I forgot to mention smells worse than manure, to the other trailer and we dumped about 2 yards on the side of the highway to lighten it. All of this on the side of a MAJOR highway. So if you are interested in some compost, north of Huntsville, TX on the side of the road there is about 2 yards of good mushroom compost for the taking. But I will warn you, it is HEAVY.

~This is us at 6:30pm that night finally getting home. This is Shawn D. riding the trailer into the backyard!
~This is our slave labor unloading one of the trailers. They enjoyed the smell as much as we did!
~ This is right after the DuBois' Grandma drove off our driveway and into the ditch in front of our house. That was another little 45min. adventure trying to get the car out... It was quite the day.
~ This is the picture I am going to put on craigslist advertising my brother in laws babysitting service...

So the garden is coming along. I will post a picture of the completed space another day, it is raining today, so you can see how beautiful it turned out! Thanks to all the family and friends who helped us, I would have left Paul in the middle of nowhere smelling like rotting mushrooms on a Sunday...

Giveaway Wednesday!! PB2 Peanut Butter!

I admit I have a serious peanut butter addiction, but it's so dang high in fat that I have been trying to cut it out.

On an email list I am on they have been talking about this product called PB2. It is powdered peanut butter. Don't ask me how they do it-I don't know! So I bought some and LOVE it. It is very low in fat, 1.5 grams in 2T compared to 7-8 grams of fat in 2T in regular peanut butter.

I put it in my smoothies in the morning with a banana, protein powder and soy milk. The best part is that it also comes in CHOCOLATE!

I have no affiliation with the company and they definitely didn't send me any to give away! But I did buy a bunch for me and for my food storage so I thought I could give either a regular or a chocolate to one lucky winner. Picked (of course) by my beautiful, smart children on Monday!

So you know the ropes... comment and leave your name and email, and for an additional entry follow my blog and I'll put you in twice!

Do stuffed animals stink up the bathroom?

Storie calls me into the bathroom yesterday morning.

"What's that smell?" she asks. 

"Um, I don't know?" Not wanting to call attention to the project she is working on. 

"It's dog poop." Storie says, clearly irritated I couldn't figure that out for myself. 

"Max is making this place smell really bad, go put him in the playroom." She demands.

"Honey, I am not sure it is Max, how do you know?"

"Every time I bring him in the bathroom he smells like stunk, take him out!!

So I did and it didn't seem to help the smell situation!

And the winner is.... Name Bubbles!

I apologize if my Children are a little incoherent, it was early and they were making their best effort to get ready for school!

And the lucky winner of the pack of Name Bubbles is.....

 Heather B.!!

(Heather, I don't have anyway to contact you! Please email me so I can get you your labels! Guys if your blogs are private please make sure you leave an email address. If I can't get in touch with Heater in a few days we will draw another name.)

Don't fret if you didn't win, Michelle at Name Bubbles offered to do ANOTHER giveaway so check back next week!! 

P.S. We left our shoes at the playground on Saturday during a softball game, a woman came walking through all the bleachers asking for "the ivanovsky girls" she had found my daughter's crocs and figured she might have a chance at finding us! Thanks Michelle, you just saved me $30!!!!

Easter Photo Essay!

Ah, the dyeing of the Easter eggs and the smell of vinegar...

I can't believe we dyed 50 eggs and they are all gone between the deviled eggs for dinner and the egg salad for lunch. 

Someone remind me that I can make egg salad anytime of the year, for some reason I forget about it for 11 mo. of the year, and it is really good. The homemade kind that is! Not the kind you find in a pre made sandwich in a vending machine! Eeewwww!

 Happy with what she got in her basket. (nice look Emma!)
Not happy with what he got!

I wish I had a video of the dramatic throwing himself on the ground and the kicking of the legs. 
I thought this was funny with Shadow checking out the big bumble bee. 
He might think he is too cool for Easter egg hunts but the sponge bob pants tells me he is not...
Easter Dinner.

This is the kids table at dinner. We had 13 children and got 12 of them at this table.  The adults were in the living room at two more tables. I need a bigger house! 

Suzanne saved the day, again, and let us borrow tables and chairs. 

I might post the recipes for what we had for dinner because I was pretty happy with the way it all turned out and was able to make most of it ahead of time. I hate cooking all day and like to do as much the day before as I can.
"Um, did she get something better than me?"
I have the greatest Sister in law on the planet, in fact I usually forget that we are actually related and think of her just as a best friend.  Then someone reminds me that my Brother is somehow involved in the whole thing! 

She organized an Easter egg hunt for the throngs of children that were at our house and tied in the Easter story with it, by mixing in the clues in the eggs. It turned out soooo nice! Below are the kids looking for their eggs with the clues. When Tonia got to the story the kids were so quiet and sat and listened to the other kids read out loud and talk about what they found in the eggs.
Foreshadowing?? I hope not!
What a great weekend we had and what a blessing that we were able to share it with our Family and really good friends. I want to thank everyone for being so patient with all the kids and the really full house. No one complained about anything all weekend and it was really nice. There is something special about this time of year, the weather is beautiful and everything is growing. 

I love that we live in this wonderful country where we can choose to worship as we please and that we have the opportunity to celebrate the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ without persecution. May we not take this freedom for granted and may we keep this spirit with us all through out the year. Happy Easter!

Easy Easter Craft-Bunny

I can't remember where I first saw these but it was years ago. At least 15 because I have been making them that long. I love them because they are cheap and the kids can make them. You non-crafty types (me included) YOU can make these in under 23 seconds, thats the record!

Take a cheap hand towel, I like white. The cheaper and thinner the better. They have them in packs at Wal-Mart for like 10 for $6
Fold one corner up like you are making a bandana.
Keep folding...
When it is all rolled up, fold it in half.
Next, now this is the hardest part, take the open ends (the ears) and fold it back almost half way. This is making the bunny face and ears. 
Take a rubber band and secure the little face of the bunny. I had to use a hair tie because I used a heavier wash cloth, the thinner clothes can be done with a rubber band. Twist it around a few times so it is tight. Now pull the ears up a bit, and your done!
Tie a ribbon around the rubber band so you can't see it.
If I had all the supplies I usually give him some googly eyes, a little pompom nose and a little pompom tail. But I didn't want to pull out the glue gun. I think he is cute as it!

I stick a plastic egg in the little hole behind his ears, it is a perfect spot to hold something. I am using these as name sign for Easter dinner. I am putting everyones names on the eggs and putting a bunny by every plate. 
They are cute and less than $1 each to make. Can you beat the 23 second record?? 

What traditions do you have for Easter?

Giveaway Wednesday!! Name Bubbles!

A few weeks ago Michelle from Name Bubbles contacted me about a giveaway. How cool is that??!! They generously sent me some of their products to test out. Name Bubbles is the leader in name labels, school uniform labels and waterproof labels. They will be giving a lucky reader a PACK of lables!
They sent me two different packs, I did some for the girls and some for the boys. At first I was not sure if I would use many of them as my kids aren't in day care or pre-school. Was I wrong! These things are quality labels, not the rip-apart kind you have seen other places. The above label I put on Storie's shirt and washed it in every load I did this week (the shirt is still stained by the way). The label stuck perfectly and still looks new. I stuck the larger labels on the kids toys that we take to baseball/softball games. We manage to loose something every time we go and with a last name like ours if it has a name on it we are likely to get it back!
I labeled all our books that we take to church and lose there, and all my books that I loan out to friends.
The best labels they have in my opinion are the "Bubble Toes" these are darling little feet that stick in the kids shoes. I can't tell you how many pairs of Crocs we have lost at swim meets. These are water proof, and the best part, it has helped my little one know which foot goes in which shoe!!! She just looks at the sticker and matches her foot with it! She has worn these all week all day and the label looks perfect still.
I labeled all Rush's sippy cup's and everything he and the girls take to the YMCA when Paul and I go. The ladies at the YMCA were very impressed mostly that Rush's zip lock that I usually throw all his stuff in I replaced with a lunch bag and that his name was actually on everything... thanks to Name Bubbles. This label is dishwasher safe and believe me I have been testing it! The sippy cup and the storage containers below I washed probably 8 times on hot and the labels haven't budged.
Anyway, I am a huge fan now and am going to change my standard baby shower gifts to these! Name Bubbles has packs for camp, sports, birthday, school, daycare, nursing home and college. They come in tons of different colors and patterns, go check out her site and tell me which set you like the best. Name Bubbles will be giving one reader an ENTIRE set!!! The kids will pick a winner on Monday! For a second entry, link my giveaway to your site or follow my blog!