Lego Party!

After months of telling Shelby I would have a party at our house with his friends, I finally broke down & had it yesterday. Four other boys came over & it was like having a herd of elephants running in & out! But they seemed to have fun & that was worth it! I planned a few games like pin the dot on the lego, Lego car races, a Lego tower contest & a Lego chopsticks game. I also had a small treasure hunt around the house & they got pieces of Legos then had to race to put together a penguin.

After they made their own pizzas they played outside in the snow until I made them come in. Then they watched movies until who knows when. This morning was just Legos & more snowball fights until parents came! My floors took a beating but I held out mopping until there was just one left, but it was hard!

Let It Snow!!!!

Well, we've had a very interesting weekend! We were supposed to go to DC & then Northern VA to visit family. But a snow storm came through & now we're snowed in. We have an average of 15" here at the house. Here's a few pics of the kids!

A friend of ours gave Alyson her daughter's old Easy Bake Oven & here is Alyson's first masterpiece!

Cards & more cards!

I finally got to make cards! I was sooo excited! A SU demonstrator here has a great setup in her home where we can sit down & be creative! We bought Simply Scrappin' kits & made cards! I didn't realize the kit was for a baby scrapbook but at least I have stuff to make for a couple of preggos I know!

Also, I'm planning a party for Shelby in a few weeks and the theme is Legos! So he helped me make these invitations! They are so cute!

Garlicky Shrimp Tacos

I am not a good cook. I cannot whip up something by looking in the fridge or cupboard. It just isn't going to happen. So I have to rely on recipes. My husband LOVES mexican food so I found this great recipe for Garlicky Shrimp Tacos on myrecipes.com. I used Denver's hot banana peppers out of the garden instead of serrano but he loved it!!




Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 pound white onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 or 3 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced (see Notes)
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 1/2 pounds shrimp (21 to 25 per lb.), peeled, deveined, and halved lengthwise
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt
32 corn tortillas, warmed (5 to 6 in.; see Notes)
2 limes, cut into wedges
Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add onions and chiles and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Pour vegetables into a bowl and set aside.
2. Melt butter in same frying pan over medium-high heat, add garlic, and stir until sizzling, about 1 minute. Add half of shrimp to pan. Stir often until shrimp are bright pink and no longer wet-looking in thickest part (cut to test), about 5 minutes; transfer shrimp to bowl with reserved vegetables. Add remaining shrimp to pan and cook as above, then return cooked shrimp and vegetables to pan and stir everything together until hot, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cilantro and salt to taste.
3. Serve shrimp in a large bowl with tortillas (use 2 tortillas, stacked, per taco), accompanied by lime wedges to squeeze over top.

Kroger Trip 8/16/09

Ok, I have to tell the world how well I did at Kroger! They are having the Mega Event Sale or something like that so I got all my coupons together(it took over an hour) and headed out. My OOP was $90.88 and I saved(drumroll please) $49.61!!!! That's sooo cool!

Also, frugalinvirginia.com is giving away a $30 Kroger gift card!!! Check her out! Since I'm up here now I use her site to get the local sales!

Our favorite thing from the event is the cereal! My poor kids have been having to eat store brand for a while now! While it doesn't taste any different(usually) nothing beats finding a toy in the box or having cool movie pics on the box!

Wordless Wednesday

New Pics

I haven't been posting my pictures of late, so I thought I'd put some up! Denver is working out of town this week and Alyson & I are sick! I guess Shelby will get it too! Hope yall are staying healthy!

The first two are last weekend when we took the group doing seldom worked territory up to the Roanoke Star! Very pretty at night! The last pic is a party Becky had while we were at their house last time we were down. The middle two pics were at the convention!

Girly Hair

I've been so neglectful of my blog! Must post pics! But first, I just found the coolest thing!

I'm so clueless when it comes to doing hair, so something today made me think to see what I could find on the internet. I found the best blog ever!!!

shedoeshair.blogspot.com

She's not posting anymore but check out her old posts! Especially if you're like me! SOOO cute!!

Love, us!

Cow Appreciation

What we'll do for free food! But it was so much fun!

Finally!

Well, we're finally in Disney World! It's actually not as bad as we thought it would be! The heat is terrible, but the crowds are not! Last night we stayed in Magic Kingdom until 1AM!!! I didn't think the kids would make it, but if you give them enought candy & caffeine, they can do anything!! LOL We're having a ball & having the grandparents with us makes it extra special! Here are a few pics! You can see more on my FaceBook page!

Coupon Organizer

I just noticed that some asked how I made my coupon organizer! I basically took apart my old one from Dollar Tree and copied it! I just cut some white cardstock down to 8 1/2 x 7 I think. Then I folded it to 4 1/4 x 7. I used my 4 inch piece and folded it accordian style. I attached it to both edges of my sections. Then I wrapped the red piece around all of it. I used redline tape to hold it together, which is pretty tough stuff. Still haven't put modpodge on it yet, need to do that. If I can do it, ANYONE can do it!

DC Trip

Hey everyone! It's starting to heat up, isn't it? We were in DC last week & it was pretty muggy! More so then here at home. Alyson & I mainly went to see my grandmother who was in town visiting my Aunt Patti. We were able to spend some time with them, which was fun. We also got to go through some of the museums. Mom & Dad had some business to take care of so Aly & I had an adventure on the subway. Can you believe I forgot my stroller? The first day was SOOO FUN! Poor Alyson was so tired! But my aunt brought me a stroller which was wonderful! Thanks again Patti! Here's a few pics! Aly LOVED the carousel, which I thought was pretty fast. The other 2 cuties are my cousins, Cammie & Mitch! The roses were beautiful in front of the Smithsonian! Alyson is looking worried with Dad because there were people from Sri Lanka in front of them yelling for President Obama!

Look what I made!

I was complaining to Candi that I needed a new coupon organizer & she told me that she made her own & I thought, well I can do that to! So this is what I made! It has 15 dividers, I know I'm neurotic! But I'm so proud of myself! That's that first thing I've made in forever! Now I just have to modpodge it or something to keep it from tearing up too easily!






Have you ever heard of Silpada? It's beautiful jewelry you can buy at home parties or online! If you're jewelry impaired like me & can't seem to figure it all out, this is the thing to do! I have hardly any jewelry & what I do have doesn't go together or with anything I wear. Their catalogs have everything put together for you! And at the parties the lady brings all this jewelry to play with! This isn't cheap stuff either! It's .925 Sterling Silver, the same stuff Tiffany's uses. The stones are all semi-precious or natural materials. Very cool! A sister in our hall just started selling it but has been buying it for a while, check her out:

Fun in the Sun

Hey Y'all! We are down in the Keys soaking up the rays & being unbelievably lazy! Alyson gave us the scare of the trip by falling into the MARINA!!!! Miraculously she fell halfway onto the platform of the boat & was holding on for dear life while we ran to her. All I could see was one foot sticking up on the sidewalk. It was AWFUL! I couldn't stop shaking after I got her in my arms. We are backed right up to the marina so it's a constant worry! The deer is a Key deer! They only live on this Key, Big Pine. They're small & the ones around the camp are not afraid too afraid of humans. We're not supposed to feed them but some do. They're actually a nuisance around here, getting into your trash & eating your plants. I bought my motherinlaw a hibiscus plant yesterday & this morning it was gone, eaten to little nubs. Oh well!

Circuit Assembly & Wine (hehehe)

Hey Everyone! Sorry it's been so long! But now I'm catching up! Here's a few pics from our CA!

The first one is Alyson's favorite people, Ana McRoberts. She's this crazy Puerto Rican sister :-) in our hall that Alyson talks about all the time. The last picture is Shelby with two of his friends, Tres & Jacob. Tres is in 1st grade at Shelby's school & Jacob is 11 & just joined the ASL group in our hall. The Assembly Hall is beautiful, with the small pond & greenery you see behind us. Here's a picture of the mural on the wall when you first walk in:

As for the wine, we went to a really fun wine & cheese party last weekend! I'm trying to become a wino like everyone else so I tried a bunch of wines & I think I'm starting to tolerate it. There was a peach wine the hostess had gotten at a tasting, 36 Vines or something like that, that was really good. There are several vinyards close by so we're planning to do a few tastings this year. The highlight of the night was playing the Done Been Wed Game(Newlywed Game). It took about 45 minutes for us girls to even answer all the questions while the guys waited outside. We thought that was funny but when the guys came in to answer it really got hilarious. It probably took 2 hours to play that game. Can you believe we won?!

This couple was the host of the party! They are the parents of the little boy that goes to Shelby's school. They are alot of fun!

Thanks for looking!

Another update.....and in other news!

Well, Denver got his pins out Monday! Yeah! They put him in this brace that is giving him a small amount of motion with his elbow. His arm is very weak & still gives him alot of pain but at least it's whole again. Here's a pic of what it looked like a few days ago. And here's a pic of his truck! That's the best pic I could get in the light I had. That's the worst side. The insurance company totaled it! Byebye to yet ANOTHER truck! All Denver has to do is drive the next truck into a lake & I think he will have covered all the different ways you can destroy your truck!

Now here's a cuter picture! Can you believe he's six?!

He wanted to wear his boots to school today so I let him but forgot that

today is gym! So when I brought his tennis shoes to school it was too late, gym was over! Poor baby! I hope he got to play anyway! Who knew gym was at 9:15AM!! He's bringing home books & reading them to us! It is so surreal to hear him read! I really love the age Alyson is at but Shelby is so fun to talk to & listen to. I don't want them to get any older! I wish I could keep them at this age.

Thanks again for all your support! We have such great family & friends!