Rainy Day= Soup!

Today was a rainy, gray day

I decided to make a big pot of my favorite soup (can you guess what it is?)

I picked up some french bread to have with our soup

Here is how my kitchen usually looks like while I am cooking.

The little man likes to open all the drawers and take everything out and throw all his toys over the floor.

It is minestrone soup!

YUMMY!

What do you like to eat on rainy, gloomy days?

Does your kitchen look like a tornado of toys when you are cooking?

This week in pictures...

Can you believe this week is over?? All I remember is valentines day and then being sick for the rest of this week.

Let's take a look what we did this week.

Saturday-

We didn't go to church on Saturday (We were up until 1 am in the emergency room on Friday night because the little man had a puncture wound in the mouth. BTW, thank you to all of you who have expressed concern)

Saturday night, the little man was doing so much better, we decided to head to our favorite burger joint (five guys)

Look how happy the little man is less then 24 hours later, kids sure bounce back fast. (he actually saw another baby and got so excited) You can check out last weeks post about last Friday night at the ER

Then we went to Menchies. We love our frozen yogurt!

Can you guess which one is mine?

Hubbys, little Em's and MINE!

Sunday-

Hubby cleaned the yard

While I prepped everything for our little play date/kids party

We had such a great time!

Monday-

Meh... woke up feeling terrible.

For breakfast I had a toasted english muffin with peanut butter and sliced bananas

Tuesday:

I made steak for dinner on Valentines Day

Doesn't it just look delicious?

Opening our valentines day gifts

(I love the kids expressions in this photo)

Wednesday-

Little Em's favorite food

Cupcakes are a staple in our house.

Seriously.. We have cupcakes every week!

Why not, they are so pretty and yummy.

Hubby brought me home some macrons from nuvrei

I already went through a box of tissues by Wednesday, my nose was sore and I just wanted to climb in bed. But the macrons made my day!

Thursday-

Little man has been teething this whole week.

So we have been using teething tablets. (they seem to help for an hour or so) I just don't like giving him pain killers. I have been considering getting an amber teething necklace. I keep thinking, oh he's done teething, then BAM he starts teething again. I may just go down to cotton babies and pick one up for him on Sunday. Does anyone have any advice on the Amber necklace? do you think it works or not?

I decided to try out burts bees diaper cream since little man got a rash from all the watery stools he has been having and my usual diaper cream didn't seem like it was helping.

The Burts Bees got rid of most of the rash after just two uses.

However, I don't think it is cloth diaper safe. (has anyone use this cream with cloth diapers?leave a comment please) I may just strip this whole diaper lot, just to be safe.

Friday-

Such a gloomy rainy day

That's our week!

Thanks for visiting :)

Kido's Valentine Party

Little Em has been drawing "valentines" for her friends since the beginning of January.

She wanted to know when she will get to give them to her friends (aww)

Since Little Em is not yet in school and I decided to throw a little party/play date for her friends. Plus it was a great opportunity for us moms to catch up.

Here are a few pics of the party:

The sweets table:

A little closer:

Mini water bottles and pink lemonade to drink:

Strawberries and blueberries

Cupcakes!

I used a strawberry cake mix for the cupcakes

and then frosted them with my butter cream frosting

Little store bought frosted sugar cookies

Instead of spending a lot of time on cake pops, I decided to just dip oreos into candy melts. Just as cute as cake pops in a fraction of the time

Little gift bags for the kidos to put their valentines in

For lunch we had mini cheese pizzas, salad, veggies and dip

After lunch we decorated cookies!

The kidos were so excited to open their valentines!

Aww.... look at them!

Ok, these have to be the cutest little kidos ever!!

We had such a great time at our party/play date!!

Did you have a valentines day party? If so, leave a link in the comments, I would love to check it out :)

Thanks for visiting!

This week in pictures...

So finally, after the whole month of January, no one was sick anymore.

Thank God we are all well again.

It has been a fun week for us!

Here is a few pics I snapped this week.

Sunday

Hubby needed to go to the mall, so we made a day of it

and went shopping and then out for dinner

My daughter found this cute ballerina doll to play with

The little man found a cozy place to sit at while I looked around the kids section

I found this super cute rain coat for the little man

Monday

I worked on some valentine party things

While I was crafting, my daughter was playing "mommy and baby"

Tuesday

Having breakfast and pretending to be a fireman!

My dad flew in for a visit :)

Wednesday

Package from ELF!

I love getting packages in the mail :)

Picked up some pretty cupcakes

Thursday

Went grocery shopping:

I had to snap this pic, my daughter was playing "fisherman"

It was too cute!

I took the kids to the park

It was chilly but at least it wasn't raining.

It has been a lovely week!

What have you guys been up to this week?

Healthy Eating on a Budget...

So after watching Food Inc, I can honestly say that I am sick to my stomach.

I am also mad! How can it be OK to sell meat that has been treated like that.

I guess I never thought about it before, I just saw meat in a package. Nice color, clean, no bones. Easy and convenient for me.

This has encouraged me to become more healthy.

Its not that we eat "bad", We don't drink pop, don't eat chips, don't eat at McDonalds, and we have a home cooked meal almost every day and we take our vitamins.

Is that all to it?

My first thought is to go to whole foods and buy only organic products. But we cant afford that.

I need your advice ladies

What are your tips and tricks for eating healthy on a budget?

One more thing, my kids hate vegetables (cooked or raw), how do you get your kids to eat their veggies?

Cropped Top Tutorial

I have seen so many cropped tops lately. I thought it would be so easy and fun to make one, since it is basically a square or rectangle.

I had some of this polka dot fabric which I picked up at the fabric store last year. I just never got around to making anything.

I gotta say, I am really liking it.

I want to make at least one more for myself, perhaps in a solid color.

Next time I will have to cut the fabric a little wider so I can make the sleeves a little longer.

If you want to see how I made this top, stick around

First determine how long and wide you want your top.

I cut my rectangles 29X23

Next I found a shirt where I liked the neckline

I used it to trace the neckline on my fabric

(eek... I am using a permanent marker, hubby stole my fabric marker, his excuse was he loved how smoothly it wrote )

I made sure my front and back lined up at the shoulders

My fabric was kind of silky

In order to hem it, I folded down once and sewed

I used small scissors to cut of any extra fabric

Then I folded the fabric over twice and ironed the neckline/shoulders/and back

I sewed down the edge

After sewing the neckline, I ironed everything down

Here is how the finished neckline looks like

I bought a 7 inch heavy duty jeans zipper at Walmart for under $2

I folded the back portion in half and cut down about 6 inches to fit the zipper

Here is how I finished the zipper hole.

I think it would have looked really pretty with a button to.

Then I sewed on the zipper with matching thread.

Exposed zippers are so easy!

Here is the finished zipper

This is how the inside looks like:

Then I sewed the shoulders together and ironed open the seams

Then I eyeballed how I wanted the "sleeve" to look and marked it with a pencil.

I sewed along the line and then cut off the access fabric:

To make sure both of my sides matched up, I folded the shirt in half and marked where I needed to sew the other side

Once I sewed that side together I cut off the access fabric

I used a small zig zag stitch to finish both of the sides

Then I used an old shirt of mine with a rounded bottom as a template for the hem.

For the front I just flipped the shirt upside down to get the "cropped look"

I cut the "cropped" front and longer back.

Then I just hemmed the bottom using the same method I did with neckline

That's it!

I managed to sew the top and take the pictures all during my little mans nap time.

That should tell you how fast and easy it was!

Here are a few pictures

Back:

Front:

Side:

Thanks for visiting!