Bittersweet upcoming week

Man...what a tiring week!

Monday - weights and zumba
Tuesday - zumba
Wednesday - zumba
Thursday - run and pilates
Friday - zumba that kicked my butt, good zumba!
Saturday - worked on the house (renovations)

Of course w/in the week there was laundry, cleaning and such...not to mention moving a couple of bookshelves to the new house.

I'm just thinking of how fast this last week at our rental is going to fly by. And the new house isn't even really ready yet to be a little bit liveable. It's gonna just have to be. Ke Cira, Cira! LOL

I'm going to milk every moment I have in this rental when it comes to...

* loading the dishwasher b/c the new home doesn't have one
* having an oven/stove b/c the new home doesn't have one (we removed it b/c we are going to eventually redo the kitchen but move it at the same time).

I will miss those 3 things.

I'm going to miss the luxury of walking the dog out to the front lawn so she can do her business b/c at the new house there is NO grass (previous owners put pebbles on the entire property...YUCK!).

I'm going to miss not having 2 bathrooms in the house (b/c the new home only has 1 working bathroom and the 2nd one is being renovated).

WHY?!! LOL...gotta think of the big picture though...it's gonna look really nice and it'll be ours! AND...it's on the water!

Just gonna take some time, peace and elbow grease! ;)

Sweetfield's Farm

This weekend I had the opportunity to take the kiddos to a corn maze and farm. It wasn't too-too far to get there. The kids didn't know what to expect. I couldn't wait to see all the sunflowers and corn and to see what this farm did with it's maze this year.

Sweetfields Farm is where we went to in a little town called Masarkytown.

When we arrived we could see all the sunflowers from the parking area. I had to get a picture of them before they got overheated and sad that they had to leave. As Colton got out of the car of course, he was a little wet in the hind end! UGH! And the only thing I had in the diaper bag was some striped shorts. LOVELY! See the shirt he's wearing...the stripes on the shorts went the other way and they were thinner stripes! But at least the colors of the shorts were still white with brown and red stripes. Haha {gotta make sure that the extra clothes I bring have the WHOLE set or at least matching bottoms!}

I love Colton's smirk!! LOL

Here is my Morgan. I actually like this shot that I took {patting self on back}.

And this is the beginning of the maze. This year they made a cow out of the corn/sunflower field. You get a sheet with 6 multiple choice questions and you have to find station #1 first, answer the question and your answer will either tell you to go 'left, straight, or right' as to where to go in the maze. You can get lost but can easily find your way back out.

There were so many great opportunities while in the maze to get photo ops. I had to stop at this one location because there weren't any other groups in front or behind us. We ended up breezing by them as we answered the stations. Colton didn't want to take a picture though :(

When we were done with the maze there was a mini maze for the kids out of hay stacks. They had fun running around in this one.

Or course there were pumpkins! It was near a fun little tree house for the kiddos to play in. I had to get them on this hay stack w/ pumpkins around but they really didn't want to sit for ANOTHER photo with mom...they wanted to run and play like all the other kids running! As you can see...Colt was sad that he had to sit still! {see those awful shorts...I swear I didn't dress him out of the house in this outfit! LOL}

Before they went to the tree house they had to find the perfect pumpkin (Sydney's idea). She found this one.

And Colt had to out do her (nooo...no competition in this family!)

And then off they went running to the tree house. They bypassed the cute piggies that were squealing under the tree house. So I took the photo so they could see what they missed! Aren't they cute?!

The tree house was awesome though...every kids dream! The perfect board swing on one side of it too! So 'Little House on the Prairie'!

There were some other fun things for the kids to do too...hayride, decorated hay stacks, a water thing-a-ma-jig! LOL The kids got to pump water onto a half-pipe that had some rubber duckies on them and they had to race them to the other side. They loved just playing in the water!

Colt is here trying to concentrate!

Caught Morgan looking!

See...they had some ropes all over the place and the kids just made their own game out of it! LOL

Hey, whatever makes them busy and happy!

Then it was time to leave. At the entrance there was this big haystack made into a spider. Really cool!

Can't wait to go again next year. I wonder what the field will be made into? I know that Neal will be with us next year. This year he was stuck working on our house. We will have to make sure to go earlier in the day and to also stop at a farm about a block away so the kids can see what farm life is really like. Maybe get an egg or two and feel a cow's tongue!

I love the fall!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Wow, it's almost time to move!

2. One word for today's weather.... beautiful.

3. My favorite way to start a day is to sleep in till 730am!

4. Finally home and he walked in the door holding a pumpkin.

5. I look out my window and see the beautiful weather, the water and then our lovely neighbor with junk in his backyard!

6. How are we getting the house done in time is what I've been thinking about lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Furry Vengence with the kids, tomorrow my plans include cleaning, cooking and taking kids to a corn maze and Sunday, I want to start packing!

18 more days!

Yes...18 more days till...

*Halloween
*Moving Day...ugh!

I can't get myself motivated to start packing and I know it's gotta be done. GOOD GRIEF...again! One reason why I haven't is because the new home is just around the corner...maybe a mile away (sounds silly doesn't it) and it's not move-in ready YET! Only 2 full weekends left to get some things done before the final weekend of October (which is devoted to just moving). I keep telling myself it'll be fine and it'll get done. IT BETTER!

And then there is Halloween. The girls haven't figured out what they want to be for Halloween. Going to take them to get their costumes on Friday (that's what it's going to say in the advent calendar). Colton has his costume already...he's gonna be a knight. I saw his outfit at the Dollar Store. Can you believe that? I saw that they had a bunch of themed hats and whatnots there and started to load the cart up thinking it would be great to put these in his 'box' that I want to get him for Christmas (no more playing dress up in his sister's dresses LOL). Then he spoted the knight outfit and wanted it. I then asked if he wanted to be a knight and he said yes. So...we'll see if he actually wears a costume or not on the big night.

The advent calendar has been going very well. The kids have been excited each day to see what they are in for. So far some of the things that we/they have done are:

• make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
• Halloween pencils
• Grow their own Halloween toy (a small gel character sitting in water and watch it grow w/in 3 days)
• Halloween socks
• Halloween shirt
• Pop Rocks in pumpkin orange
• Make a Halloween necklace
• make chocolate covered peanut butter cookies w/ Halloween sprinkles
• Halloween pacifier (candy ring)
• put spider silhouettes up in foyer
• Halloween hair ties (of course Colton skipped this one)
• Halloween candy necklace
• Watch a Halloween movie

There are more to come and there may be some tweeking due to the weekends spent fixing the house. Can't wait to do some crafts with the girls next week. Towards the end of the month I have left room to just give candy because it'll make it easy for me because of the move. SIGH

Menu Plan Monday's

What's for dinner this week?

Monday: Sloppy Joes
Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Casserole
Wednesday: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup w/ Grilled Cheese
Thursday: Black beans & rice with kielbasa, salad
Friday: Chicken Nachoes for adults (late dinner) and Chicken quesadillas for the kiddos
Saturday and Sunday are up in the are due to the home renovations...I'm thinking something easy and quick!

Halloween wreath

What is this?

Oh...it's the little Halloween wreath I made for our front door using up some old Halloween papers, chipboard, glitter, staples, a styrofoam circle and spiders. If you want the directions, you have to go on over to THE MOSY SCRAPPER! :)

Here is a close-up of the wreath.

And here is our door.

Happy Halloween!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. My favorite month is October because the weather changes a little and it's the beginning of the big rush of holidays.

2. I LOVE a fresh breeze.

3. I love to sniff my fall scented candles.

4. Pancakes with blueberry syrup, bacon and scrambled eggs is what I like to have as a treat for breakfast.

5. The hobby I enjoy most is EEK...I don't have just one!

6. 78 days till Christmas, oh my!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching a movie with the kiddos, tomorrow my plans include hearing about what is to be done to the new house this weekend and Sunday, I want to be productive in packing!

Menu Plan Monday's

It's Monday...it's that time again!


What is on the menu for the week?

Monday: Soft Tacos
Tuesday: Crispy Ranch Chicken Bites, Au Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans
Wednesday: Pork Chops w/ stuffing and cinnamon apple bake, steamed broccoli, rolls
Thursday: Cheesy Taco Bake (I'm in a Mexican mood this week)
Friday: Manwich!, tater tots, sliced pickles and carrots w/ Ranch dip

What's on your menu this week?

Advent Day 1...creepy crawlies

This week I've been working on Halloween things and there was one find that I scored on. Meet Mr. Skullhead!

Colton actually found it at Michael's. And the best part...it was 40% OFF! I had to put it in the little niche in the wall of our foyer. Just love the silver spider on his hat! I also made a framed art piece using some old scrapbook papers and an owl punch. Then I went to a Halloween store and got a black rat (my mom would LOVE that...NOT) and a goblin which I put eye balls in! Bwhahahaha

But since today is the first day of October, the kids had to find out what they were to find in the 1st pocket of the advent calendar.

Can you guess what it was?

It was to put up some silhouette spiders (thank you Martha Stewart)! Love these guys...thank goodness they aren't real! Here is a picture of our entryway:

And of course the kids had some fun with the spiders. LOL

What will tomorrow's pocket say?

30 Days till Halloween!!!

It's that time of year again!! I LOVE Halloween. And my girls know what it means to for it be October 1st.

Time to get the Advent Calendar out! Well, last year I had a different one and I had to throw it away because it was falling apart. It was a small bale of hay and it was all decorated, but it got messy during the move. So...I found this calendar online that inspired me. She had a brilliant idea and I had to make one just like it. Little did I know that the stickers that I bought from Michael's looked a little like some of the one's she used. OOPS! heehee

Luckily I had some felt laying around in my scrap closet and all I needed was a big piece of fleece fabric and those stickers. VIOLA! After 3 days of making this during Colton's naptime I got it all done. And the pockets are even stuffed with fun Halloween ideas!

Here is a close up of the calendar. You can see some of the goodies in the pockets!
This Franken-girl is my fave sticker. It's from K & Co.

What I did was number a few of the pockets. If you look back at the first picture you will see only 4 numbers on the entire calendar. The 31st (for Halloween), 4th, 14th, and 23rd. The 3 other dates are the days of my kids birthdays (not in October though). Morgan figured that one out without me saying anything. LOL

There are more pockets than there are days, by one, but it would have looked off if I left off one of the pockets. Plus it gave me a good excuse to decorate with the cute stickers I found by Martha Stewart and K&Co.

I would love to see your advent calendar if you do one for Halloween. We love to do this for October AND December. Gets the kids all excited for the holidays. And THEY ARE approaching soooo fast!

BECOMing our home

Now that we have closed on our house and demolition will soon take place once permitting goes thru with our contractor, I've started thinking of how things are going to look in my head once it is all done. Of course there probably will be some differences of what it'll REALLY look like versus the visions in my head.

I've started looking thru magazines and searching the internet for decor ideas. I have boxes of our decor from our last home all piled in the garage now, but don't think that I'll be able to use all of them. ONE, because I won't have plant shelves in this house and TWO, not sure if the style of decor I had will match the style of this home. I will have to wait and see. But for now, I can still do some research!

I stumbled upon this site called BECOME. It has all the same categories any store chain has (like Walmart or Target) but better! All you have to do is type in what you are looking for (or click on the categories) and you are given numerous selections of what you are searching for...and you can comparison shop the name brand retailers! I love bargains! It beats cutting coupons LOL.

One thing that I would love to eventually get for the new home is a nicer dining table and chairs. Especially since the 'now' sunroom is going to be the 'new' dining room. I also would love to get a nice cushioned piece of furniture to sit on to put my shoes on in our new closet. We plan to make the 'now' two bedrooms the master suite area and make the 2nd room our walk-in closet! WOW! I can just see it now...organized shelving with a cute round coffee table I actually found on this site. Yes, I said coffee table. It's actually made of leather and serves as an ottoman.

The kids rooms will be on the other side of the house, which we will have to map out, frame and then drywall. That's going to be a BIG tasks. The rooms will be a pretty good size (especially Colton's since he won't have to share like his sisters do). I would love to have some sort of sleeper chair in both their rooms for them to be able to read or do homework on. A nice place for them to retreat to.

We need a small area for a desk out in their hallway. It's not a small hallway nor a big one. There is a perfect spot for tall bookshelves and a small desk for them to do their homework on or whatever they can think of. The kids will eventually get a computer. Just need better chair leg caps on the computer chair we already have since Neal and I use our laptops on the couch. heehee Then they will be set!

But all this dreaming is just a dream right now. I wish I could blink and the renovation/construction and move would have already taken place. So all I can do is wait and look up items and add it to my wish list! Who knows...I may find something I WASN'T looking for! ;)

Menu Plan Monday's

It's Monday...what's on the menu?

MONDAY: Ground pork w/ Zuccini and tomato sauce over brown rice

TUESDAY: Philly Steak and Cheese Sandwiches w/ sauteed mushrooms, green peppers and onions

WEDNESDAY: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup, pickles

THURSDAY: Leftovers (pulled pork or beef enchiladas and yellow rice from the weekend)

FRIDAY: Pork Chops in cream of mushroom gravy, rice and corn

SATURDAY: Hot Dogs, homemade potato chips, baked beans

SUNDAY: BBQ and Medium chicken wings, cole slaw, celery and carrots...it's football Sunday! Hopefully we will see some action on the tv as well as working on the house!

Demo in our near future

It's been 18 days since my last post...SHAME ON ME!

I let life get in the way! LOL

Well, we finally have closed on the house we're looking forward to demolishing and remodeling! Friday (yesterday) was the day. Now it's time to put our hard hats on (and thinking caps) and get crackin'!

Today we went out looking at cabinetry and flooring. Getting prices and finding out what we (hubby and I) agree on and finding out our styles. Long day today, and the kids were with us...they did very good considering all this is just so boring to an 8, 6 and 2.5 year old. We then went to the home because Colton found out how to say 'new home' today and he wouldn't stop! It was cute, but after a while in the car with him saying it over, and over, and over again it was like....STOP! ALRIGHT ALREADY!

We went to the new home and tried to map out what we were going to tackle first and how we were going to rearrange things in the home. We've been mapping it out now for 3 months. Just now it seems different. Do we live in it while the addition gets put on or do we stay at the rental till it's done? Choices, choices, choices. It will all work out in the end.

Afterwards we came home and got ready for the girls Zumbatomic Demo. My Zumba instructor needed some kid volunteers to help her do a demo of her new class she's going to be teaching. The demo took place at a Martial Arts grand opening and they did awesome. They were all decked out in their zumba colors (BRIGHT) and had a blast. Here are some pix:





One thing that I've learned from Zumba is...ditch the workout, join the party! And if you haven't tried it yet...you should!

Menu Monday's

It's that time again...time to make a menu plan for the week. It's definately a good week...one to look forward too b/c the weekend (a 3 day one) is near!!!

Here is the menu for this week:

Monday:
Breakfast - cereal
Kids lunches - PB & J, pretzels, applesauce/mandarin oranges, Cakesters (I caved), drink
Dinner - Chicken and sun-dried tomato bow tie pasta, garlic bread, salad

Tuesday:
Breakfast - blueberry muffins
Kids lunches - salami/ham sandwiches, cucumer/green bell peppers/carrots and ranch, chips, drink, Hershey Kiss
Dinner - Grilled hot dogs, saurkraut, baked beans, fries

Wednesday:
Breakfast - waffles and fruit cup
Lunch - sliced cheese, crackers, deviled eggs, fruit, drink
Dinner - chili and cornbread

Thursday:
Breakfast - oatmeal
Lunch - turkey sandwiches, cheese balls, drink, cookies, fruit
Dinner - beef stroganoff, green beans

Friday:
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - PB & J, string cheese, drink, fruit, pretzels, Hershey Kiss
Dinner - sloppy joes, chips, pickles

Saturday, Sunday - parents are coming but I think one of the days we are having some Filipino egg rolls (lumpia) and fried rice. It's Labor Day weekend so we'll have to see what goes on. I'm ready...are you?