A Dream Is Wish Your Heart Makes...

SO I'm not sure when it happened but 3 or 4 days ago something just struck me. I NEED to go to Disney World! Disney wasn't even an option when I was growing up, but it's something that I really want to do with my little girl before she gets to big. Now of course I want to go a few times because I know it's impossible to experience the whole park in 1 trip and i have read some blogs where people say that you should wait until your kids can remember it but fooey on that! To me, Disney is about the Magic and you lose some of that magic as you grow up. I want to see the look of wonder and awe on Lil Bug's face when she sees Cinderella's castle. And lets face it, you won't get that same awe from a 10 year old. So friends, it has been decided that next year we are going to Disney World. We haven't quite decided when we are gonna go tho, I'm thinking September. I hear that the crowds are a lil thinner then.
Now I know that this is going to be an expensive trip and I'm starting my Disney Fund from $0.00, I'm following a few great blogs to find tips and trick to save money and make every dollar count. I'll be shopping grocery sales and consigning Lil Bugs old clothes and toys and I have a few more fundraising ideas up my sleeve but I'll share those as they come. One thing I will share right away is that I'm using Swag Bucks. It's a cools site that lets you earn points for surfing the web, playing games, watching videos and even getting coupons. (double win!) you then use those points to buy rewards. I'll be saving all of my points and using thm for Amazon gift cards. I know there will be things that i need to buy before hand, this way I can get them for free.
I'll leave you with s few links to the Disney planning blogs I'm in love with right now. Check them out and let me know if you have any tips or tricks? What's your favorite park to visit?

WDW Prep School
Couponing To Disney
Cheapskate Princess

Sunny Days Pt. 2

Bailee's Party was a total success!! Everything came together like I wanted it to and all our little guests (and their parents) had a great time. In my last post I showed you some of my projects, this post I wanna show you how things came together starting with the decorations! Rather than buy everything Sesame Street I went with solid colors. This way there wasn't a character overload and it helped keep costs down because I got the plates, napkins, cups, cutlery, streamers, and balloons all from the dollar store. I set up the kids table with all their crafts and a party hat at each place setting.

 I hung the Scene Setter behind the kids table and framed the area with streamers and balloons. The pass thru in my kitchen held the goody buckets and placed 2 Elmo balloons on either side.

Elmo balloons also guarded the food table. The "Ernie's Rubber Duckie Punch" was more adorable than I had hoped and the buffet cards looked great on the table. The cupcake tower was the perfect center piece!

Even though the party was alot of work and I was beyond exhausted when it was all over, it was all worth it to see my little girl so happy at the end of the day.

Oh, see her tutu? I made it my self with a tutorial on The Busy Budgeting Mama

Sunny Days Pt 1

3 whole years! I can't believe that Bai is 3 already. Her party is in 4 days!! She has really been into Sesame Street this last year so naturally that's what she chose for her party. There is a lot of DIY going on so I'm gonna split the post into a few parts. Part 1, I'll show you how I'm creating the party elements and later I'll show everything in action. Ready? lets get to it!

First off I got a great party printable set from Etsy seller Photo Designz. Lori offers 'Instant Downloads' so as soon as payment is confirmed the printables are sent to your e-mail. The best part? She's running a 50% sale!!. There are several different Sesame Street/Elmo theme sets. This is the one I purchased.

This set has so much stuff included That I didn't even use them all. The only thing missing from this set is an invitation. So I picked that up on Etsy as well from TwoTinyLoves.

the two work well together. Same color scheme and same polka dots and stripes design. Most of the projects are from the printables.

That's the basics, now I'll show you how I used some of this stuff. I found some Sesame Street chipboard pieces at my local Michael's and I used  a roll of adhesive tape to attach a character face to it's corresponding buffet label. I named all the foods after a different character. "C is for Cookie" has Cookie Monster, "Big Bird's Eggs" (deviled eggs) has Big Birds face etc. Cute right?

For party favors I found some plastic buckets at Target on clearance for $0.33 each. They had 10 red ones left so that's the color I went with. You can find different colors for just $1 each at Party City. I got the foam letters to spell each guest's name from Michael's. You can buy them in small packs but I went for the bucket so the kids could use them for their crafts. I got the "Thank You" signs from Carley over at On One Hand for free!! What a sweetie! They are meant to be used as toppers for a favor bag, but I had other things in mind. I filled the buckets with Elmo color bath tablets, some fruit snacks, candy, a Sesame Street sing along book and CD that I found at Family Dollar and a pair of sunglasses!

For activities im all about arts and crafts so the kids will decorate picture frames and cups. The plan is to take a picture of each child in front to the Scene Setter and mail it to them with the Thank You cards. Then they can display it in their new frame. The frames come a plain tan color. I grabbed a bottle of white paint and gave them all a quick coat so their decorations will stand out better. I have a bowl of crayons, sesame Street stickers, letter stickers, the foam letters and the rest of the chip board pieces for them to use. I'll use that handy adhesive roller instead of a glue stick. Yay for no sticky messes...at least until cake time. The cups come with inserts that can be colored but I want to keep with the theme so I construction paper cut to size and they can use the same stickers and crayons to personalize their cups. This way no one will get their cup mixed up with anyone elses and we're not making as much trash.

The last  projects were easy. I just wrapped the candy bar wrappers around mini hershey bars and used double sided tape to hold it. The water bottles are just wrapped with the labels and covered in packing tape so the ink won't bleed if the bottles start to sweat. I used the mini water bottles because well, they're cuter the full size.

I wanted to make the cake myself but Bai decided that she wanted cupcakes. Since I'm doing most of the work myself I decided to let my grocery store handle the cupcakes. I'll pick them up Friday and then I'll add little toppers to them and display them on this cute cupcake stand I got on sale at the party store. I am making...well attempting to make some Elmo and Cookie Monster pinata cookies. Wish me luck. I'll be back  after the party with the food and games and decorations!


If you wanna pick up any of the products I used and can't find them locally, here are some links on amazon!

   

Family Vacations

The last time I took a vacation was back in high school with my dad, his girlfriend and her daughter. Now that I have a little one of my own I'm taking all the vacation time I can. Bailee is 2 now and she LOVES Sesame Street so in June we are taking a family trip to Sesame Place!!! If you don't know, Sesame Place is a theme park based on Sesame Street. Think Disney World but with Elmo and Big Bird. I am SO excited I don't know what to do with myself. I booked our trip through the Sesame Place Website. several of the local hotels offer package deals but NONE of them are cheaper then booking through the park it's self. Plus when u book through the park you get access to some great deals. I was able to grab the buy 2 nights get one night free deal for the hotel and got our park tickets upgraded to season passes. We probably won't go back this year but with the season passes you get 30% off food and merchandise purchases in the park, it's like having a coupon I can use over and over again. We are taking the Mega Bus to Pennsylvania. I don't do air planes and the bus tickets were SO much cheaper than train tickets ($48 for 3 round trip tickets). Ive's never ridden Mega Bus before but the offer WiFi and power outlets on board. some of the buses even have tables!! I can't wait to see Bailee's face when she sees Elmo and Abby live!!! Are you taking a vacation with your little one? Where are you headed? what are your tips for traveling with tots?

Going for a Visit

Today I would like to send everyone over to I am baker. She can do amazing things to the inside of a cake and this post is no different.
I Am Baker mini shamrock cake

My Daughter The Diva

Bailee is a sweet and loving child and usually very well behaved, but boy oh boy can she throw a mean temper tantrum. It's like she becomes a completely different child. Usually these tantrums happen because she's sleepy but the other day I ran into Rite Aid to pick up a few things and she started screaming for candy.   Now usually I just tell her no and that's the end of it but something about that day and that time, she just wasn't having it.  I guess she really wanted some candy because she got down on the floor and kicked and screamed and flailed and cried something terrible. It was one of those moments when you say "I am THAT mom, with THAT kid". She was rolling around on the floor and bumping into shelves. I was worried that she was going to hurt herself but I was not going to give her candy just because she cried for it. I don’t want her to think that this type of behavior is ok and will result in her getting her way. I tried the whole "mommy's going leave you if you are going act like that" but she called my bluff. I tried just letting her cry thinking she would just move on…nope. Finally I just picked her up paid for my things and left the store.

 She cried all the way home and once we got there I sent her straight to bed for a nap. I explained to her that the way she acted is not ok and while I love her I’m not going to tolerate it. When she woke up she was over the whole candy incident. Obviously it would be great if kids came with an instruction guide but since that is not the case what do you guys do? How do you handle the Tantrums?

Are You Ready?

Doomsday Preppers premiered on the National Geographic channel on Tuesday night. I only got to see one of the episodes but I'll catch the other later in the week. I thought now would be a good time to talk about prepping. Now i know that when most people think of preppers they think of crazy people living in underground bunkers with a bunch of guns but it's not just about that.
Our government advises that we all have a 72 hour kit for our families. Basically that kit includes food, water, fire, first aid and basic things you would need to survive on your own for 3 days because they acknowledge that it may take time for help to come.. We all saw the devastation that followed Katrina. people with out food, no clean water, no means of normal hygiene. Just think about it, after Katrina if everyone had a couple bottles of water, a few canned goods and a hand full of granola bars think of the difference it would have made and that would be bare minimums.

Even if you don't think there is going to be some huge nationwide disaster EVERYONE should have a kit. Every region in the U.S has it's own unique weather patterns. Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Forrest Fires, Floods, Wind Storms, Blizzards. All of these natural events could cause power outages. Do you have candles? flashlights? extra batteries? What about food? can you feed your family with no power? And what if you are forced to leave your house. If your area was devastated by a tornado where would you go? What if the roads are blocked?

These are the questions I asked myself and I realized I didn't even have a flashlight. Life is unpredictable and things happen that are beyond our control. all we can do is be prepared to the best of our abilities. Visit http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit to get started on your family's kit. If you wanna delve a little deeper then head over to The Survivalist Blog and look around. Tell MD Chonte' sent you.