It has happened.  While  I was on my blogging hiatus my baby turned two.  I'm not sure where the time went.  It seem like just yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the first time.  It seems like yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the first time, but today those sweet moments of holding him are few and far between.

I am so thankful for our fussbucket.  He's a tenacious, mischievous, active, yet loving little man.  His laugh is infectious.  Here's a little picture of our big two year old.  I'm going to try to do these yearly.  How cool will it be to compare what he's like at five to two and ten to two, etc.

I'm thoroughly smitten with this little man!  How could you not be?

You've Got to Be Kidding Me!

 
I know it's not my normal blog post, but Living Social has the BEST deal going right now for Starbucks!  You can purchase a $10 gift card for only $5 here!  I know you're thinking 50% off Starbucks is a total steal, but you know what's even better than that?  Share it via Facebook, email, etc and if three of your friends purchase the deal too you get it for free!  They have to purchase it through your special link.  I thought the deal was too good to pass up, because who doesn't love a 50% off chai latte, or pumpkin spice maybe?  But when I saw that I could get it for free, I thought it was even better!  Then I can take the money I would have spent on the gift card and put it in my Disney fund!  So, if you want to help a sister out, click on my link and purchase some 50% off coffee!  Better yet, share it with your friends and get it for free! 

Back on the Blog Wagon

I have fallen off the blogging band wagon once again.  Despite my best intentions this seems to happen all too frequently.  The past month has been a crazy one!  It has flown by so quickly I hardly had time to blink, and no time to blog obviously.  Our days were filled with rehearsals, family visits, birthday planning, doctors visits and more!  It was insane.  I had planned to blog a number of things, but they've all been pushed to the side.  So here is the first of many catch up posts!

The big brother participated in a School of the Arts program put on by our fabulous local, community theater Legacy Theater.  He was so excited to be a part of this program, and even more excited when he scored the lead role of Aladdin in Aladdin, Jr.  I gave up my Zumba classes to cart him to camp and it was totally worth it, even if my waistline disagrees!

Here are the top five reasons Legacy was an amazing experience for my son, in my eyes:

1.  He learned to take constructive criticism and use it to better himself.

2.  He saw first hand that working hard and preparing for something makes him better at what he does.

3.  He was schooled in the arts, an experience that many children don't get as the arts are disappearing from our schools.

4.  After years of dabbling in a bit of everything he decided, of his own free will, that he is passionate about acting, singing, dancing and wants to pursue that as a hobby.

5.  It provided us opportunities to bond as we ran lines and sang songs together.


There is nothing better than seeing your child love what they do.  However, the life lessons he learned during the four or so weeks at Legacy's School of the Arts summer camps are invaluable life skills.  Things we've tried to impart to our son, but that he of course learned better from others.  And when all was said and done, the kids put on a fabulous show!  It was so spot on.  It was funny.  They were awesome!  

A Little Magic at Home

I have seen many a cute way to keep the Disney magic going at home on Pinterest.  Just one problem, it's a little hard to do when you are planning a SURPRISE trip super far in advance.  Because of that our magic is being saved for the surprise announcement and the trip itself.  However, there is one place the magic lives on forever...in the boys bathroom.

When we moved into our house I let the big brother choose whatever theme he wanted for their bathroom.  We'd had a beachy theme in our old house because the bathroom was a hall/guest bath as well so I didn't want anything too kid-centric.  However, since this bathroom is upstairs and we have a half bath downstairs I put the beach themed items in the downstairs bath and he chose Mickey for their bathroom.  We bought some Mickey themed items at Target, but the bathroom seriously needed something more to jazz it up.

I had seen some super cute signs with reminders to "wash your hand" and "brush your teeth", etc.  However, even searching on Etsy I couldn't find any Mickey themed ones.  So I decided to make our own.  I don't own any fancy programs like Photoshop or anything so they are simple, but still came out super cute!

I started by spray painting some frames yellow.  Well, the Gunny helped with that one.  I bought black frames thinking if a  little black showed through it would look cool.  They required a few coats as a result, but they looked good when finished!

I then downloaded a free "Disney" style font called Waltograph to my computer.  I simply created three signs (because everything looks better in odd numbers, right?) in Word using the font.  I chose "wash your hands",  "flush the toilet" and "brush your teeth".

Then I cut out Mickey heads using my Silhouette Cameo in a fun red with white polka dots scrapbook paper.  I attached the Mickey heads to the bottom of the page after printing them up.  then I had to trim the 8 1/2x11 paper down to the 8x10 size of the frame.





Once the paper was fixed to the right size I simply placed them in my bright yellow frames and voila! 



After I had the frames ready to go the Gunny and I hung them up in the bathroom where they're easy for the brothers to see them, even if only one of them can read them right now!  I love that we added a quick pop of color to the room with very little effort.  I love that the whole project was about $15 even more!  (I probably could have found cheaper frames, but I was picky about the "hooks" on the back.)

When the big brother saw them he was so excited!  I told him I made them so I never had to nag him again.  He thought that was pretty cool, and a little funny, too!

Now we just need to paint the room!  Since we hate painting with a passion, this is probably a little ways off.   But for now, we've made one more room in our house look like we live there.  Bonus is that we're keeping the magic alive for our kids, without ruining the surprise!  How do you keep the magic going at home?

Disney Fund Update - July

What a fabulous month for the Disney fund!  We sure needed to make some progress and I'm happy to say we did!  Here are our deposits for this month:

$25 - Surveyhead
$30 - Opinion Outpost
$3.29 - Pam Rebate
$6 - Anheiser Busch Rebate
$6 - Pinecone Research
$1.70 - Ebates
$15 - Military Opinions
$57 - Yard Sale
$10 - Corona Rebate
$19.28 - Ebay Sales
$500 - Sold Bunk Bed

Total Deposit: $673.27
Total Savings: $851.70

There you have it folks!  I'm pretty stoked that we came so far this month.  It is and probably will be our biggest month thanks to selling the bunk bed, but we also won't have to shell out the cash for a new bed and bedding, etc in the upcoming months so I hope it continues to grow at a good rate.  I've been slacking on my surveys and such this past week with the 4th of July holiday so I need to get back into my routine so I can continue to add to our fund!  As such, I need a little less typing here and a little more survey clicking so next month's update is just as grand! 

Mail Call

This is exactly what was in my mail box the other day.  I love when everything in the mail makes or saves me money!  Samples, coupons and a $10 rebate for the Disney fund!  Woo hoo!  Wouldn't it be great if my mailbox were full of goodies like this every day!

Disney Details #4: Splurge

Sometimes I just can't help myself.  I am trying my best to save money and coupon my way to Disney.  But when you see these great OPI Minnie themed nailpolishes I just couldn't resist.

At least I only bought two colors.  Because there was at least one more I HAD to have, but resisted.  I think these will make for fun summer pedicures.  That I give myself to save money!

 I got these adorable colors at Ulta to spoil myself a little.  Maybe I'll do a fun Disney manicure before we go.  But for now I think this purchase might officially qualify me as a little obsessed with Disney.  A little being the key word!  Hey, at least I'll have cute toes!