Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Looks like I’m not the only one to rock the pony tail during these hot summer days!  Since there were only a few comments I’ve decided to send all you ladies some of these fun hair ties.  So ‘MB Issac’ please send your address to me at wlambert at gmail.com. I have addresses for everyone else so be checking your mailbox for happy mail!  I still have TONS of work to do in my craft room so check back for future giveaways as I find new homes for stuff from my overstocked craft room.

Friday Fun Giveaway!

So I am still working on my resolutions for this year and one of them includes cleaning out my craft room. Boy has it gotten crazy in there! I usually have to move a few stacks of something to see my sewing machine and we won't even talk about the floor. Luckily my cleaning this week leads to something fun for you. I took advantage of the Pick Your Plum mystery boxes a couple times and love opening it up to find all kinds of surprises. One surprises was cute elastic. I never knew exactly what to do with it until I received a cute elastic pony tail holder in my Birch Box one month. Preschool is out for the girls and summertime around here means lots of days of ponytails for me to try and beat the heat.

There are way too many for me to keep so I want to share the fun with you. All you need to do is tell me your favorite quick hair style for the summer by Monday, June 3rd. I will randomly pick two names and let you know on Tuesday who our winner is.  I can't wait to hear your ideas!

Friday Favorites

I've found a few things lately that make my life easier, were great finds, or things that I almost couldn't live without right now and thought I would share them. I have found some of my greats from others and hopefully you will find my list helpful too.

1. Chris introduced me to the Contigo stainless steel mugs about 9 months ago and they are great for my coffee. Does anyone else have a problem with brewing a cup of coffee but then it is luke warm or even cold by the time you get a sip? If you do, then you are problem the mom of little ones too. I love them because they do the best job at keeping your drinks hot or cold and don't sweat or leak. Believe me when I say they don't leak, because time and again I throw it in my purse as I'm running out the door. No free hands when you are trying to chase down a very busy toddler from running in the street. I'm a bit OCD, so Chris and I each have our own for coffee and then I have two for water. You can find then at Target for around $20, but even better is that Costco has a two pack for $15.99 right now. Trust me when I say you won't regret this purchase. Being able to enjoy hot coffee 2 hours after you brew it will be worth every penny.

2. I am a great lover of Amazon and being able to have everything from diapers to books to laundry detergent arriving on my doorstep in two days and not dragging two kids out to the store. So when they send me various emails about new books I usually glance over them, delete, and then move on with the craziness of our house. A few weeks ago, a list of great Halloween books caught my eye and I started shopping. Room on the Broom is the cutest book for kids and does a great job about reinforcing manners(aka please and thank you) without being obnoxious. Yes we have that Polite Princess book that wholly consists of reminding kids of polite manners and it is not this at all. Room on the Broom is a cute story and both my girls ask for it all the time now.  I was in Target yesterday and they also carry this book.

3. With two kids, going out to eat is not an great experience so I try to cook more. I've even started planning out dinners a month at a time and find it saves lots of stress and helps plan grocery shopping. I wish I was better at taking cute pictures and showing you great recipes from my kitchen, but most of the time I have Lizzie screaming at my feet while I'm trying to keep her from reaching in the oven and no one wants to see those pictures. Instead, I'm going to direct you to the best soup recipe that Annalee did a great job of taking pictures of. Chris has become a bit skeptical of my pinterest recipes since we've had a few flops but he is open to anything I say is from Annalee. He is constantly tells all his friends about meat cupcakes and how they are one of his favorite dinners. I get some weird questions from other wives wanting to know what "meat cupcakes" are and why their husbands are bugging them to get the recipe. If you haven't made them, do it. And then plan to make her potato soup too. Both easy dinners that now have a place in our dinner rotation. And no, our kids don't eat the dinners either, but that just means there is plenty of leftovers for us.

4. Scarves are one of my new favorite accessories. They are so great for Texas weather that can be cold in the morning and scorching hot in the afternoon. An easy way to pull together jeans and a simple t-shirt to make everyone think you put lots of thought into your outfit. Plus when was the last time you had to worry about a scarf not fitting(like your jeans from last fall that you swore fit when you put them away in the spring)??? My personal favorite style right now is the infinity scarf. It's the loop one that looks like a giant circle. Just loop it around your neck twice and pull the layers a bit to adjust to your liking, fluff and your done. It really is that simple. I have a turquoise one that I got at Sam Moon for less than $10. I am tempted to go back and get a few more colors. I am really into the look of navy and lime green right now, so I think I need a lime green one to go with some of my navy cardigans.

 

5. I had to bring snack for Taylor’s soccer game this week.  It is still weird to me that I truly am a soccer Mom(minus the minivan).  It was an evening game so I was trying to think of something that wouldn’t be too sugary since most kids wouldn’t eat dinner until after the game.  I ended up making Applesauce Raisin cookies(stay tuned for the recipe bc I actually took a few photos for you).  The problem was that the dough is crazy sticky and the idea of scooping the dough seemed like a big mess until I remembered my Mom giving me this great scoop for Christmas.  It was awesome and made for the perfect cookie size without ending up with dough all over my hands.  Lots of stores sell similar items, so you don’t necessarily need to buy Pampered Chef, but I promise this will be my new favorite kitchen tool with all the cookie baking coming up with the holidays. 

What are your favorite items or things that have made your life easier right now?

Kids Books

I am a sucker for books, especially for my girls.  I spend forever looking through the Scholastic flyer that comes home with Taylor each month and end up ordering way more than I should each time.  Is there a possibility of too many book?  I keep a small stockpile of books in my closet so that every so often we can surprise the girls with a new book at bedtime.  I love to see the excitement on their face when they realize there is a new adventure to follow that night.  With a group of friends that includes so many teachers, I have discovered many awesome books from their recommendations but recently realized we had a few hidden gems in our library that they weren’t aware of.  Here are a few of our favorite stories and authors:

Little Blue Truck rocks and so does the follow up Little Blue Truck Leads the Way.  The second one is Lizzie’s favorite and we read it every night.  Both books have a great lesson and lots of opportunities for fun sounds.

 

Karen Katz does a great job with children’s book.  My girls both love Counting Kisses and it was an easy way to teach body parts.

This simple little board book is a favorite of Lizzie’s.  I love the classic Pooh characters shown in the pictures and the reminder of a honey loving bear from my own childhood.

A friend recommended this book a while back on her blog and it became an instant hit at our house.  It is the perfect bedtime story when it’s been a rough day for our preschooler.  I love the lesson and cute pictures.

These dinosaur books make me laugh so hard.  I love the concept of huge dinosaurs throwing a fit or not listening.  There are other books about going to bed, learning colors, and being sick.  We love the pictures in the front and back of dinosaurs doing sweet things for each other. 

Not sure how I found this book but it makes Taylor and I giggle so hard when we imitate the old man shaking his arm at the squirrels.  You are sure giggle at this book a bit too.

It took me half of Taylor’s first year of preschool to understand why she would exclaim “Momma you came back!” each time I picked her up.  The little llama is sad because he has to start school and misses his Momma.  At the end of the day she comes back and he exclaims the same thing.  Guess I should pay more attention to the books I read Taylor.  We have several other of the books like this and they all have cute rhymes and good lessons for kids. 

Oh how I love Splat and his crazy tail!  Plus his little mouse buddy is cute.  This one is great for the first day of school and there are other that go along great with several holiday.

I hope these might give you some great ideas for books for your house.  What are your favorite books? 

Doll Shoes

For the first 10-12 years of my life I loved them and then started to love them again once Taylor reminded me of how fun they are.  Barbie shoes.  They complete an outfit, are the perfect accessory, something you can’t have too much of, and come in every color.  I never had a problem with them until I started to think of Elizabeth crawling soon and then I panicked.  Plus, Taylor is not old enough to really keep up with them very well.  After losing Barbie’s shoe during a recent road trip almost sent Taylor into a tantrum, I came up with a solution.  Why not glue the shoes onto the dolls?  Taylor has no desire to take the shoes on and off right now.  In the meantime, I have solved the issue of little sister eating shoes and avoided meltdowns over missing shoes.  So this morning my craft room looked a bit like this as I tested the strength of Gorilla Glue on doll shoes.

Taylor got a set of ALL the fairies(and yes we have two Tinkers) for Christmas and I had managed to get her to keep the clear rubber bands on the shoes.  This worked well to hold the shoes in place while they dried.  They look just like the rubber bands I use in Taylor’s hair, so you could use that too.  I did this in the morning and by bedtime they were dry.  On a couple of the dolls, the glue had seeped out, but it was easy to scrap that off. 

Now we don’t have to worry about lost shoes for dolls, except for Cinderella.  She has been missing one slipper since we got her but I figured it seems appropriate.  Anyone want to come play dolls?